Day 4889 - Mother's Day

Today was mostly a dreary, very wet day. We got lucky and were able to walk Dawn this morning before the rain started. We were even able to give her a very short Sunday outing walk during a short break in the rain later in the day. For the most part, it rained all day though. As you know, I'm not a big fan of rainy days. So far the roof hasn't leaked, but the pumps on the roof have been running all day.

Very little can deter us from our regular schedule, so we had a big family breakfast after we took Dawn on her early walk and then I got ready to go mall walking. It was raining on my way to the mall, but that was a good thing. It washed all the dust and tree pollen off my car. I wouldn't think of mall walking as a Mother's Day event, but there were a surprising number of moms with kids at the mall this morning. There were also quite a few dads taking their kids to the mall alone, presumably to give mom the day off. Maybe I'm imagining things, but the families walking with their kids together all seemed happier than the dads minding the kids by themselves.

Nothing changed at the mall this week. No new stores opened and no existing stores closed. One or two window displays changed, but most of them were exactly the same as well. It seems curious to me that some stores change their window displays every single week, while others haven't changed since I started mall walking. There is nothing new in fashion anymore. Everything in the windows is something I've seen two, ten, or even twenty years ago. I could pick almost any moth eaten old item of clothing out of my closet and I'd be right in style. Maybe I'm being too harsh though. One thing has changed. Shoes. There are a lot of really ugly looking shoes in store windows these days.

When I was driving home there was a show on NPR radio about an explosion of fake scientific papers in the academic world. Up to 20% of scientific papers published these days appear to be fake. Apparently there is great pressure to publish in the academic world and jobs and promotions depend on your publishing history. The people who have nothing to say purchase fake papers. It makes you wonder how much bogus information is floating around out there.

We were planning to skip the Sunday outing walk today and just go for ice cream cones, but Dawn seemed eager to walk. We waited for a break in the rain and took her to a section of the park where there were sidewalks so we wouldn't get muddy. We got lucky with the weather because it didn't start raining again until we were finished walking and back in the car. Dawn seemed happy with her short walk and was even happier when we arrived at the ice cream store. Ice cream cones on Sunday is a nice little ritual that we all seem to like.

I was going to call the roofing company tomorrow morning to postpone next week's roof installation, but the last time I looked at the weather forecast everything has changed and it now looks like the weather will be good next week. I'll check again tomorrow morning and see how things look. I'm beginning to think that the weather forecasts I get on my phone are basically worthless. There are pretty good for telling you what is going to happen five minutes from now, but almost useless for telling you what will happen five days from now. Every time I look at one of these weather apps, the forecast seems to change.

It appears like Axiom is going to wait until the last minute to provide credentialing information for next Sunday's AX-2 launch. I still don't know if I'm going to go. This is frustrating, but almost expected by now. Nobody seems to care that I might have trouble making travel arrangements. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens. Maybe I'll go to next Sunday's launch. Maybe we'll get a new roof next week. At this point your guess is as good as mine.

Lady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4868

It was a dreary, rainy day. It never rained hard, but there was a constant drizzle for most of the day. It was too wet to take Dawn on a sunrise walk this morning, but we did take her down into the park to poop and pee when we woke up this morning. She still doesn't like to do her business in the yard.

After we dried off, we had a nice weekend breakfast and then I got ready to go mall walking. It might have been raining outside, but it was still dry at the mall. Mall walking provides me with my weekly glimpse at the state of the world. Judging from what I see every week, I don't think we are in good shape. Maybe I'm being too harsh though. People are still having families. I saw lots of young Moms and Dads with little children today. At least the walkers are still making an effort to stay active and healthy. I see people of all ages, from the very young to the very old. 

It's hard to generalize, but I do notice things. Women generally dress much better than men. It doesn't matter if the men are young or very old, they all seem to look like they pulled their clothes out of a pile of dirty laundry. Young people seem to love to wear torn and ripped denim. I never understood this trend at all. People are actually paying more for artificially distressed clothing that looks like it is almost worn out. The young and the old seem to like mall walking. You don't see many middle aged people walking. Young couples usually seem happy, while old couples are usually arguing about something. There are a lot more old gay men than I would have suspected. Quite a few walkers still wear masks. Why? Finally, little children are quite loud. They all seem to love to run and yell.

Overall, the walkers seem to be a wholesome lot. The stores themselves, not so much. A lot of the clothes on display seem purposefully ugly. The shoes are the worst. Who wears these clunky, awkward looking things? The more expensive the clothes are, the smaller the sizes on display. I think you'd need to be a size 0 to even be allowed inside some of the upscale little European boutiques. Most of the mannequins in the windows look like android robots with no faces. Only Neiman Marcus still uses realistic mannequins these days. The mannequins in Victoria's Secret windows are fat. Seems odd to me, but maybe they know their audience. The odd thing about fashion is that there is nothing new under the sun. Today's latest styles are all recycled from earlier eras. Judging from what I see in the windows, I could pull something from thirty years ago out of my closet and still be in style.

I like to listen to Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics Radio while I'm driving home. I always learn something from this show. I also like to listen to Guy Raz's How I Build This and the TED Radio Hour, but these shows seem to be on Saturday now and I only hear bits and pieces when I'm returning from grocery shopping.

Dawn didn't get her Sunday outing walk today, but we still took her for ice cream cones. She is such a weird dog in the car. She's always super excited when she gets to go somewhere, but immediately starts acting scared when the car starts moving. She would be a terrible dog to take a road trip with. Ice cream calms her down though. We eat our cones in a parking lot near the ice cream store and on the way home Sawn seems almost normal.

I started preparing for my trip this afternoon. I didn't get a lot done, but my manilla folder full of vital information is finished. I make one of these for every trip, just in case my phone or computer breaks. I have no faith in my memory. I need to have my NASA badging instructions, airline and hotel reservations, rental car contracts, and travel maps on paper as well. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish packing tomorrow.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4826

It seemed strange that it was still dark when I woke up this morning. I looked at my watch and it was after 7 AM. Were we about to get another thunderstorm? Nope. I forgot that the time changed last night. Now we are living under Daylight Savings Time again. Some people actually prefer Daylight Savings Time, but I'd rather have sunlight early in the morning and dark skies at night. I see no benefit in having the sun still up at 9 PM. Oh, well. We're stuck with this until next Fall.

Dawn was a handful today. She's feeling better and if I let her out of my sight for one minute she'll try to jump off the bed. I could tell Dawn was mad because whenever I come home from mall walking she knows that it's time for her Sunday outing. Dawn has a good sense of time and Sunday is her day. She became very restless when we didn't go anywhere this afternoon. There was no ice cream either. I took her out in the back yard numerous times but that wasn't good enough. Maybe next week, girl. We're going to try a short walk in the park tomorrow.

Mall walking does nothing to restore my faith in humanity. The mall walkers seem strange compared to the people I see walking in the park. The store displays seem even stranger. Fashion these days seems to be a celebration of ugliness. The winter coats are gone from the windows now and have been replaced by colorful Spring styles. Some stores seem to cater to older people getting ready to go on a cruise ship, while others seem to be trying to attract the impossibly thin. The high end European boutiques all have unrealistically thin mannequins in their windows, while a few stores actually feature fat mannequins. Lifelike mannequins have apparently gone out of style. They all look like stylized android robots now. It's a strange world out there and it appears to be getting stranger every week.

Since Dawn was restless today and I couldn't trust her, I tried to update the Polaris star tracker in the bedroom with her. That didn't work. I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing and Dawn managed to jump off the bed while I was actually sitting on it. I spent so much time taking Dawn outside that the star tracker shut itself off and I had trouble restarting it. Maybe I just don't multitask well, but I won't be trying this again. 

Since we still aren't taking Dawn on a sunrise walk, I didn't get my steps at the mall and needed to take a walk in the park later in the afternoon to meet my goal. It was an exceptionally nice day today and that meant the park was even more crowded than usual. I need to remember to avoid the park on weekends. I think I prefer cool overcast days when there is a light mist. On days like these I have the park to myself.

Maybe I do wobble when I walk. When I was at the mall this morning I tried several times to walk in a straight line. There are many places where you can follow a straight line scored on the concrete floor. I could follow this line when I concentrated, but whenever I started to daydream or look in store windows I started to drift away. I'd look up and I was two or three feet away from the line. I'm never conscious of doing this, but maybe it looks weird to others. Truthfully, I think Dawn is steadier on her feet than I am these days.

I'll be glad when Dawn has finished with her meds. I shouldn't be critical since I take meds for blood pressure, cholesterol and a variety of other ailments myself. I think Dawn's meds have changed her personality though. It bothers me that there is no way to ask her how she really feels. I guess the vet is probably right. Without a lot of bed rest and inactivity Dawn might never get better. We'll see how tomorrow goes. As always, I hope there are no surprises.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day