Day 4927 - Summer Solstice

Not a lot happened today. We're still dealing with a heat wave that destroys your will to do anything. At least our air conditioner is still working though. Our sunrise walks with Dawn are the only tolerable part of the day. The temperature was already in the mid-80's on our early walk this morning, but there was a nice breeze. The sky looked like it was going to rain and sure enough it did later in the day. Unfortunately, the  rain didn't cool things down much. It still feels like a sauna outside.

I didn't even think about walking in the park today. I went to the gym after breakfast this morning and walked three miles around the indoor track. I didn't really feel like doing anything else. When I got home there was a message from the gym saying my membership had expired. What? This seemed odd since the app on my phone still let me check in today. I've been thinking that my gym has changed ownership lately. A lot of things seems different. I hope they haven't dropped the annual membership provided by my supplemental health insurance. I don't know if this gym means enough to me to pay a monthly fee. I guess I'll find out what is going on the next time I go.

My editor at SpaceFlight wrote today with questions about some of the facts in my latest article. I know I didn't just make things up, but I couldn't find the source of the information I was writing about. The information probably came from one of the interviews I had with Axiom executives down at Kennedy Space Center. Unfortunately I erased the interviews as soon as I finished the article because they used up all the space on my phone. I actually think I was wrong because I couldn't find the dates I mentioned in the article anywhere. Oh, well. So it goes.

I've been thinking about getting a new phone but I'm having second thoughts now after seeing the problems Janet is having getting some of her favorite apps to work on her new phone. Electronics are getting to be such a hassle. Everything keeps changing and not always for the better. I was happier with my phone and computers ten years ago than I am now. Twenty years ago everything was perfect. I made my living designing websites for many years, but I don't even enjoy visiting them now. All the news sites have paywalls and most of the others use widgets and special coding that is not supported by my aging browsers. It's irritating. Every day things crash or freeze and I have no idea why. I was a good designer too. I just don't deal with change very well.

I was originally planning on attending an upcoming Delta IV Heavy launch down at Kennedy Space Center. I'm glad I didn't go though because the launch keeps getting delayed by bad weather and mechanical problems. The launch is now supposed to take place early tomorrow morning at 3:25 AM. Why do I still want to see these things? I'd really rather be asleep in my own bed at 3:25 AM.

We got a lot of rain this evening and the roof still isn't leaking. That's good. It's not draining well though. That's not so good. I looked early this morning and there was still standing water from an earlier rain three days ago. I hope this company stands behind their warranty because I'm afraid this roof is going to spend a lot of time under water.

Barley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4918

It was a busy day. We had quite a storm last night and we woke up to find some fallen branches in our yard. It turned out that these branches were from the neighbor's tree. No limbs fell from our own trees. I decided to climb up on the roof to see if there might be more branches up there. The roof was clear of debris, but there was standing water. I was so disappointed. One of the main reasons I got the new roof was so that it would drain properly. The puddles of standing water were in the same places I usually found them on the old roof. I'll call the roofers, but I doubt that there is anything they can do at this point. The roof is finished. I'm sure they'll just tell me that everything Is OK and that I've got a good warranty on the roof. "Call us is you have a leak," they'll say. The roof definitely doesn't leak now, but I'm still disappointed. Standing water is never good on a roof.

I promised Janet that I'd vacuum today and ended up spending more time cleaning the clogged Dyson than I did vacuuming. I wish I had our old Hoover back. The Hoover never needed cleaning or repairs and all I ever needed to do was change the vacuum bag when it got full. Why did I get sucked into believing the Dyson was better? It does clean reasonably well, but it's been a total nuisance the entire time we've owned it. 

I noticed that the utility room floor was wet this morning. This hasn't happened in quite a while. Did the washing machine drain overflow while doing a load of wash? Was this water condensation coming from the air conditioner? Who knows. It could have been either, or both. Both the washer and the AC use the same floor drain. I usually stuff a rag down the drain to keep water from backing up while the washer is running. This works well unless it is a very humid day and there is a lot of condensation from the AC. At any rate, I cleaned up the water and hoped that this was just a fluke. The main problem is that the old house has 2" drain lines where modern washing machines do a lot better with 3" drains.

The weather was all over the board today. It was clear when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. I checked the weather forecast before I took my long walk and it was supposed to be cloudy for the rest of the day. As soon as I got a few miles from the house I got rained on. The weather apps on my phone are basically worthless. They are pretty accurate about what is going to happen thirty minutes from now. If you want to find out what is going to happen four hours from now, the apps just take a wild guess.

There were a ton of downed trees in the park. The storm last night didn't last long, but there must have been some really strong winds. I feel lucky that none of our own trees were damaged. It's going to be a while before the rainy season is over, so I expect more heavy rain this month. The problem is than when the rainy season is over, it is immediately replaced by hot, dry Texas summers. By July I'm usually wishing the rain would come back.

Janet wanted me out of the way when she was cleaning this afternoon, so I thought it would be a good time to install the latest software and firmware for the star tracker. As usual, the installation went smoothly, but the star tracker didn't work any more reliably than it did before. Getting it to connect to the camera is kind of like starting a car with a bad battery. The camera never connects immediately and often randomly disconnects during use. I keep turning the thing on and off again and switching cables around until I get the tracker to connect. I've had the thing for over a year and some functions still don't work. I still have problems taking a panorama shot. After several hour of monkeying around with the Polaris, I put the thing away again. I probably won't look at it again until the next software update.

I hope tomorrow is less problematic than today. My holy grail is always a day where nothing bad happens at all. I don't mind if nothing good happens either. I can always take a long nap. 

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4886

I finally got out the star tracker and began testing it again. This thing is so frustrating. It works perfectly ocassionally, but mostly it randomly crashes in unpredicctable ways. I've spend hours and hours trying to identify and isolate the problem. I always come up with nothing. Is it a bad cable that causes the camera to disconnect? Why does the app often fail to stitch together panorama shots? I can't tell whether it's the camera, the iPhone app, the Polaris itself, or the connecting cables that are causing all the problems. It doesn't help that there never was an instruction manual for this thing. There is an online user group, but almost evereyone is using a different type of camera to connect to the tracker, so useful advice is limited. I gave up trying to communicate with the Chinese manufacturer a long time ago. The marketing people speak English but most of the engineers don't. When this thing works it produces spectacular results, but it only works for me about 20% of the time. I certainly didn't accomplish much today, so the Polaris will go back in the box for another month or so.

The rest of the day was about what you'd expect. Dawn got a nice early morning walk. I ate my breakfast of shredded wheat and fruit while watching the world disintegrate on cable news. I checked my messages and once again found nothing but spam. Then I got ready for my long walk.

My feet haven't been bothering me as much lately. I have no idea why. I can't be bothered to walk in a different direction, so I keep following the same path over and over again. I've walked this route so many times that I notice the smallest details. A piece of gum on the pavement becomes a mileage marker. A missing duck becomes a cause for concern. I'm surprised at how many people follow the same predictable routines as I do. I pass some of the same people walking in the opposite direction every single day. There are a lot of dog walkers I recognize now. There is even one guy who walks his cat on a leash. The park department spent a lot of money putting up fancy barriers to prevent vehicular traffic on the wider trails. Less than three months later most of the barriers are down. I suspect  the park maintenance people complained that they couldn't get their mowers, trash trucks, and other equipment through the barriers. One more example of a bureaucracy at work. Often the left hand isn't talking to the right hand.

My long walk took most of the morning and my experiments with the star tracker took most of the afternoon. There are lots of chores I could do around the house, but chores were the last thing I wanted to do today. I also wasn't interested in mowing the grass, even though it has been growing very quickly with all the rain we've been having. I guess I'd rather just go back to Florida and watch another launch. There is an opportunity to get press credentials at the end of the month for the AX-2 launch, but they'll probably wait until the last minute to notify me again. Who knows if I'll end up going. A lot depends on when the roofers decide to replace the roof.

It looks like tomorrow will be a nice day and then there is rain in the forecast for a solid week. This has been such a rainy Spring. It's has been hard to plan for anything. One way or another I'm sure we'll have a new roof by Summer. I'll probably see another launch or two as well. By July I'm sure I'll regret complaining about the rain. We get all our rain at once and it can be extremely dry later in the Summer. At least some things are predictable. I took this week's trash to the curb like I always do on Thursday evening. The trash truck always arrives while we are walking Dawn on Friday morning. The garbage man is very predictable.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4815

This weather is driving me nuts. As soon as the leaks stop the rain starts again. Once water gets under the Armor Flex coating on the roof there is a time delay before it reaches the inside of the house. What this means is that it can be sunny outside while the roof is leaking inside. The leaks aren't nearly as bad after my attempt to patch the roof, but even a small leak is still annoying. It's not raining right now, but we have tornado warnings starting tomorrow evening. I'm wondering if this will ever end.

There was nothing important on the agenda today. I ate my breakfast and tried to time my long walk so I wouldn't get wet. We were lucky again on Dawn's sunrise walk, making it home a few minutes before a heavy shower began. My luck ran out later this morning. Everything looked good on the weather radar, so I headed out. The weather was fine for the first mile or so and then a sudden shower appeared out of nowhere. I got wet, but it was quite warm so it wasn't a big deal. The shower didn't last long and I was almost dry again by the time I returned home.

I am so hooked on getting my steps these days that very little stops me. It's been a long time since I failed to get at least 10,000 steps. When I make the drive to West Texas it's almost impossible to reach my goal since I'm spending all day in the car. I missed my goal when I had gall bladder surgery too. There's not much you can do when you are hooked up to IV tubes in the hospital.

My feet were in bad shape today. I could barely walk when I got out of bed this morning. The odd thing is that the pain is worse when I first wake up. After I put on shoes and start walking around it usually gets a lot better. Aches and pains are the story of my life these days. Between bad knees, a bad shoulder and the persistent foot pain, something always seems to hurt. Most of this can just be attributed to growing older. Like many people my age I probably have a moderate case of osteoarthritis.

It's hard to believe that it is already March. Where does the time go? I did make it down to Florida in January for a Falcon Heavy launch, but most of this year has just been dealing with rain and roof leaks. It would be a nice break from this frustration to make another trip out to the observatory in April for their annual Dark Sky Festival, but I'm not sure that I'm up for the long drive anymore. When I made the trip last year it was really tiring. I definitely don't want to fall asleep at the wheel and my left hand tends to go numb if I grip the steering wheel for too long. Unfortunately there is no way to fly to this destination. It's a long drive to West Texas or nothing.

We're on the edge of the tornado warned area, so hopefully we won't get any severe weather tomorrow. I actually worry more about high winds than tornados. High winds have already brought down several large trees in our yard and there are several more that are just waiting for the right storm to take them out. These old mature Oak trees really don't hold up that well to high winds. I wonder if there are still places where the weather is nice all the time. Florida has frequent hurricanes and my favorite place in West Texas is dealing with a huge range fire right now. I wouldn't even consider living up North. How do people deal with all that snow? Who knows? Maybe it will be nice tomorrow. Our weather forecast is often wrong.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4793

I've been waiting for rain all day. For most of the day there have only been a few sprinkles. That's changing quickly though. Is the roof going to leak again? Probably. I just hate the suspense. I'll probably go to sleep tonight thinking that everything's fine and then wake up in the middle of the night hearing the dreaded dripping sounds I've grown to hate.

Most of my problems today weren't related to water. They were with my computer. The hardware is too old to upgrade to a modern operating system and that means most of my software is not supported anymore. A lot of things still work fine, but if something crashes it's very hard to reinstall it again. I've tried to upgrade my antivirus software, but current versions require a newer system. I've had to quit using Safari because it is considered system software and I'm still running Sierra. I guess I could upgrade to High Sierra which is the last OS that my computer will recognize. High Sierra wouldn't make any difference though. It is still ancient. Basically, when I fire up the computer every morning I'm taken back to 2010. Hey, there's nothing wrong with 2010. It was a good year. A lot has changed though. Especially when it comes to Internet security, WiFi, and how websites function. A lot of websites just won't work with my antique browser and hardware.

Will I give in any buy a new computer and upgrade all my software, or will I just abandon the Internet altogether? It's an open question. Computers were a vital and very essential tool when I was working, but I'm retired now. Basically just about the only thing I use a computer for these days is writing this blog. With my blogging goal less than a year away, we'll just have to see what happens. I still spend a lot of time online, but it is just force of habit. I have a feeling that I could make better use of my time.

Even though it's been a dreary day, Dawn and I both got our walks. It was surprisingly warm today. I only needed a light jacket on my long walk and probably could have gotten away with wearing shorts. I got a little wet on my walk, but the heavy rain is just starting now. I can hear thunder outside so I'd better get the buckets ready. 

I haven't heard anything yet from the flat roof specialist who was supposed to call me. I'm going to remain optimistic for a while, but I have my doubts that this story has a happy ending. When roofing companies take a good look at my problems, most just walk away. I'm so tired of dealing with leaks I could scream. This has to be dealt with though. Will I weather these storms or will I go batshit crazy? Only time will tell.

I've got a dentist appointment tomorrow. That's actually where my computer problems started today. The program I've used for years to remind me of upcoming events crashed and I had trouble reinstalling it. The program has completely disappeared on the app store and I think the company has gone out of business. I'm sure there are similar programs out there, but I liked this one. This isn't the first software that has bit the dust on my computer. It probably won't be the last either. For the moment I just wrote all my appointment information on a piece of paper and put it on the kitchen table where I will see it when I eat breakfast tomorrow.

No wonder I like to go to launches in Florida. It's an imaginary world where none of these problems exist. Reality is an old house, an old car, and an aging body that are all falling apart. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of staying healthy, but long walks won't fix an old house. It's a shame that my carefully curated list of craftsmen have all died or retired. These guys could have fixed anything in this house, but they're all gone now. There's no use crying over spilt milk. I'm already starting to hear dripping water. I'd better get the buckets out.

Stortz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4774

Sometimes I wonder whether taking business online has solved anything. I spent a huge amount of time this morning paying bills, renewing credit card information, updating passwords, and making appointments. I remember the days where you just could call someone on the phone and they would answer immediately and resolve your problem. I also liked working on a big desk where you could spread lots of paper all over the place and look at everything at once. Screen real estate is awkward for me when I am doing my accounting. I have a large screen on my desktop computer, but it is almost impossible to keep all the windows I need open at the same time. Lets face it. I have become a Luddite, just like my sister. I'm not sure I want to go all the way back to the 1950's, but the 60's and 70's would be fine.

Since I have received several reminders to renew my driver's license, I went on the DPS website this morning to make an appointment. When did appointments start being required? I've been renewing by mail for quite a while, but this year I have to renew in person. When I used to renew my license in person I would just go down to the nearest renewal office a few days before my birthday and get a new license on the spot. When I went to the website this morning, the earliest appointment they had was late in May. Jeez. No wonder everyone was urging me to renew now. This is just one more example of a world that is slowly crumbling to dust. Almost nothing works smoothly anymore.

My editor as SpaceFlight likes my article and pictures and says it will run in the March issue. He wants me to go down to Johnson Space Center in April and cover the Mars CHAPEA experiment. CHAPEA is a long, awkward acronym standing for Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, whatever that means. NASA is building a full scale 3D printed Mars surface habitat to simulate what astronauts might experience on a long duration mission. They are giving the press a tour of this habitat sometime in April, and I'm invited if I can stand going to Houston again. I can't remember a single time that I've had a good experience on a trip to Houston. It's one of my least favorite cities. I think I'd much rather go back to McDonald Observatory in April.

I wrote my monthly letter to my sister today and took it to the post office. Sending letters through the mail is definitely old school, but it makes sense to me. The time lag involved in sending a letter slows things down to a reasonable pace. My e-mail correspondence is getting ridiculous. Everyone expects a reply the same day. Those folks who insist on texting are even worse. You are expected to reply to text messages immediately.

When all my unpleasant computer business was finished, I took a long walk in the park. It was a little chilly when we walked Dawn early this morning, but by this afternoon it had warmed up quite a bit and was quite pleasant outside. I had an enjoyable walk and managed to complete another 20,000 step day. Almost every day I have plans to go to the gym because I really need to work on my upper body strength. When the time comes, it is always easier to just take a walk. I probably should just start doing some work with free weights here at home. Actually, I see a few five pound weights sitting over in the corner of the office. I guess that would be a good place to start.

It's been a busy week full of small problems. Sunday's Falcon Heavy launch seems like ancient history now. It's funny. Whenever I'm traveling I'd usually rather be home. When I actually am at home though, I'd always rather be traveling. 

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4772

I hate Bluehost. I practically spent all day trying to get my e-mail account to work and each time I called customer service their suggestions made the problem even worse. In the beginning only the laptop e-mail didn't work. All I wanted to do was enter the desktop settings in the laptop, but when I tried to sync the two computers, the bad laptop passwords got transferred into my desktop computer instead. Now both computers couldn't send or receive e-mail. Bluehost customer service wouldn't tell me what my good passwords were, so they advised me to delete my account and start over. When I tried this I had even more Bluehost passwords stored in my Apple Internet settings and none of them seemed to work. After a while nothing associated with Bluehost would work. I couldn't access sealander.com or even the Dalmatian Rescue website.

Customer service kept telling me that it wasn't their problem and to call AT&T instead. I knew this wasn't the issue, but I did call and AT&T ran some tests and said everything looked good on their end. Offshore customer service reps are frustrating to begin with. They are off in India or Malaysia and it is very hard to understand what they are saying. They must all be in a big room somewhere because you can hear lots of other service representatives talking in the background. The phone connection always seems very poor as well. I talked to three different Bluehost customer service reps today and none of them were able to help. They didn't even seem to want to help. These guys kept saying that I had configured my computer wrong. Nope. The computer was configured correctly. It could connect to everything else in the world, except the Bluehost servers.

I shut everything down, took my long walk, and ate dinner. This evening I tried to configure Apple Mail again using the same setting I'd been using all day and everything worked. I hadn't changed anything. Why couldn't Bluehost just admit to me that the problem was on their end? They kept trying to pass the buck and blame someone else. I'd switch my account but almost everyone is using offshore customer service these days. Most of these people are just reading from a script. I miss the days when you could call a real software engineer who actually understood your problems and could come up with a solution on the spot. Apple certainly isn't helping things either. There are settings stored in System Preferences, in your Browser Preferences, and in Apple Mail that all have to match. Sometime there are iCloud settings as well.

Needless to say, I didn't get my article about the Falcon Heavy launch to my editor today. I'll try again tomorrow, assuming that I don't lose all my setting again overnight. I can't believe how much time I wasted on this today. Dawn got a nice walk in the morning, but I took a much shorter walk about 3 PM because I was tired and more than a bit frustrated.

We're going to move the rescue Dalmatians to a new kennel tomorrow. They've been in  a temporary kennel for months now and Janet and I haven't been able to visit them. Now that the dogs have a permanent home again, we should be able to go play with them on a regular basis. We have some new dogs now and Janet and I should have a chance to meet them tomorrow. Visiting the dogs will be a nice change of pace from today's Internet woes. Today wasn't a total loss though. I did get everything from my trip unpacked and put away and did a load of laundry.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4717

It was a dismal day with a silver lining. We finallly managed to get a reservation for the Thanksgiving Brunch at our favorite restaurant. We'll be eating a little later than we had planned, but it is all good. An early Thanksgiving dinner is just as tasty as a midday meal.

Luckily, we were able to get Dawn walked this morning before the rain started. We just got a little wet as we returned to the house. This rain shower didn't last long. After I finished breakfast the rain stopped and I was able to take my long walk without getting wet. I don't know why I continue to walk outside when my feet are bothering me. It's definitely easier to walk on the indoor track at the gym. I guess I just didn't feel like driving.

The park was fairly empty today. Cyclists don't like to ride on wet, slick roads and most of the joggers probably have better sense than to be out on a day like this. I suspect that most of the people I saw today were addicted to getting their steps just like me. I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. My gym is closed on Thanksgiving and it is supposed to rain all day.

The pumps on the roof aren't working today. That's unfortunate because it probably means I will start hearing the ominous drip, drip, drip of a roof leak in the middle of the night. I wish the pumps were more reliable. Sometimes they get clogged with leaves and other times during a heavy rain one of the pumps shorts out when the end of the extension cord that connects to the pump is under water. I'm tired of dealing with these problems but they're not going away. I'm always going to have a flat roof that holds standing water.

The websites and apps I use seem to have developed a life of their own. Sometimes they work and other times they don't. Part of the problem is probably my older computer and phone. I have no desire to upgrade just because developers are constantly making changes to their products. I'm sure these folks are just trying to stay ahead of the latest malware and hacking attempts, but it's frustrating. Couldn't everyone just leave things alone for a while.

Sometimes I feel like I live in a world that is crumbling around me. There seems to be a new mass shooting on the news every single day. The country is hopelessly divided and we can't seem to agree on anything. It doesn't feel safe to be out after dark anymore. Homeless encampments are everywhere. People are stealing catalytic converters from underneath your car and you risk a road rage incident every time you go to the grocery store. You can't even escape the madness if you stay home and do nothing. I must get twenty-five spam and telemarketing calls on my phone every single day. I don't even answer my land line anymore. It didn't used to be this way. I don't think young people believe me though. It was always this way for them.

I hope we have a relaxing, enjoyable Thanksgiving tomorrow and don't get caught in a bad thunderstorm. The weather forecast doesn't look good. I"m going to try to stay positive though. Thanksgiving should be a happy time.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4688

It's always something. We had a huge wind storm last night and a big branch from one of our Oak trees fell on the roof. The branch is way too big for me to deal with myself, so I called the last tree trimmer I used. He never called me back. I thought I might as well try to deal with a few other issues as well, so I called the last carpenter I used to come repair some rotted fascia on the house. Oops. No longer a working number. I contacted another carpenter who had good reviews on the Internet and he said he was completely booked for the next four months. He advised me to contact a different carpenter but didn't recommend any. Oh, well. I am getting our dryer fixed though. I guess in today's world, one out of three isn't bad.

It was really windy on our sunrise walk with Dawn. I thought she wouldn't want to walk on a day like this, but she was fine with the wind. Actually it seemed to invigorate her. Janet was fine too. I was the only one worried that a tree was going to fall on us. At least the air felt clear and clean. The wind must have blown away all the pollen that has been aggravating my allergies.

The wind died down as I was eating breakfast and it was calm outside by the time I was ready to take my long walk. I didn't feel like going to the gym today. It was a bit chilly when I started walking but it warmed up quickly. I maintained a pretty good pace today and my feet didn't hurt much. I thought I'd see a lot of downed trees in the park during my six mile walk, especially since one fell on our roof during the night. Surprisingly, most of the trees looked exactly the same as they did last week. I only saw a single downed tree and the park department guys were already removing it. I wish I could get these guys to help with my trees. They are very efficient. 

My experiences with finding service people today has made me realize that I'm not ready for what the world has become. Over the years I've built up a carefully curated list of repair people I knew I could depend on. I had the best plumbers, electricians, carpenters, glaizers, HVAC repairmen, and much more on this list. The entire list is useless now. Everyone has retired, died, or simply disappeared. So far, using the Internet to find suppliers has not been a satisfactory replacement for the recommendations I used to get from friends. I refuse to use Angie's list. 

I'm having second thoughts about even going to the next Artemis launch attempt. It's disappointing that this next attempt is at midnight, so there won't be good photo opportunities. I'm not wild about the hotel I was able to book and the entire trip seems expensive and somewhat pointless. Since SpaceFlight Magazine has already published my article about the launch that got scrubbed, I'm not even sure they'd be interested in another article about the same rocket. I'm not canceling anything yet though. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood today.

Tomorrow I've got to clean out the utility room again and wait for the appliance repairman. They always give you a four hour window and then end up coming at the end of the day. The repair needs to be done though. A washer without a dryer isn't of much use. I wonder when I'm going to be able to get my steps tomorrow? I've always got to get my steps.

Patch is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4683

I got up early to take my car in for service this morning. They told me that if I was the first customer, I could wait while they did the work and I wouldn't have to leave the car for the day. The service appointment didn't take long because one of their machines broke and they couldn't do everything they'd planned. I did get an oil and filter change though and they turned off the annoying "service required" light on the dash. I was back home again before 9 AM.

I got an unpleasant surprise this morning when my hotel in Titusville called and told me that they had to cancel my reservation. What? Apparently they had a severe plumbing problem and an entire floor of the hotel had flooded. This left me in a bad situation. I'd made my reservations early to make sure I had a room for the next Artemis launch attempt. Now it was several weeks later and I had to scramble to find anything that wasn't already completely booked. All the convenient Airbnb's in the area were gone. I eventually found a hotel in Cocoa Beach, but it was a lot further away than I would have liked. Even worse, I will have to leave Dallas on launch day just to get a room. This won't really be a problem since the launch is at midnight but it is cutting things a little close. I kept looking and finally found another hotel that was closer to the space center but it was kind of run down. I booked this one too. I'll think about it for a few days and cancel one of the reservations. Since I'm leaving a day later now, I had to change my airline and rental car reservations as well. All this kind of makes me wonder why I do this. Attending a popular launch is so much trouble to arrange and it's all over in just a few minutes. It's amazing how quickly these rockets disappear in the sky.

Janet took Dawn on her sunrise walk while I was getting my car serviced, but I did get to take a walk in the park later in the day. I didn't do well today at all. My feet hurt for the entire walk and I was pretty slow. At least the weather was nice. It was a lot warmer than yesterday, but it was still a very pleasant Fall day. The walk itself was fairly boring, but not as boring as going to the gym.

It took me so long to find another hotel and reschedule everything that I didn't have much time for anything else today. I liked my original plan a lot better, but I guess this will have to do. I've always hated surprises and this was a big one. I'll still get to see the launch though, assuming that it doesn't get canceled or postponed again. I still can't decide whether to try to attend the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch as well. I haven't heard anything about my credentials yet, but this launch is happening pretty soon. Why are they waiting until the last minute to approve credentials? Oh, well. It is what it is. Realistically, it's too expensive for me to go to two launches so close together anyway, but I'll wait to make a final decision until I hear whether I've been accepted. 

Since my service appointment wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be, I can probably go ahead and get the dryer fixed this month. The machine still dries clothes just fine, but it's started making an ominous noise. I can't realistically ignore this much longer because the belt that turns the drum is starting to fail. The last time the appliance repairman was at the house I asked him how long the belt would last. "Maybe you've got a week. Maybe you've got a year," he told me. That wasn't much help at all.

It seems like it should be Saturday tomorrow, but we've still got another day to go. I've taken this weeks trash out to the curb and am still fretting about my change in travel plans. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Emily is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4662

Today was disappointing. The rent has gone up again on my storage unit and the washing machine broke. The storage warehouse increases rates every year. All storage warehouses do this. This is why I moved several years ago. Now my rent is even more than it was at the last storage warehouse when it became too expensive. I hate to move again because it is a giant pain. Janet says I ought to just throw everything in the storage unit away. That's not easy for me either.

The irritating thing about the washing machine is that I may have caused the problem myself. I decided to wash the hat I always wear when I walk in the park. The old hat was filthy. I was going to put the hat inside a lingerie bag but I couldn't find one, so I just threw it in with the rest of the laundry. I was kind of worried that the bill of the ball cap might get bent by throwing it in the washer, but I never thought the whole hat would fall apart. When the washer stopped in mid-cycle with an error code that indicated a clogged filter, I unloaded the soggy wash and discovered that parts of the hat had completely disappeared. Who knows how this happened but I bet those missing pieces are stuck in the machine's filter. I'd clean the filter myself if it were accessible. It's buried away inside the machine somewhere. I called the appliance repair shop but my favorite technician doesn't work there anymore. Hopefully whoever replaced him knows what they are doing. It's always something. I was dreading the annual maintenance costs for my car and now I've got an appliance repair bill on top of that.

The web worms in the park keep getting worse. Janet and I have to check each others clothing after our sunrise walk to make sure we aren't bringing any of the little green worms inside with us. Typically a few worms escape our scrutiny and I'll see them crawling on my shirt while I'm eating breakfast. They say the infestation should be over in two or three weeks. It won't come a minute too soon.

I don't know how the people in Florida can handle all the devastation they are currently facing. I think the worst that has ever happened at our house was a broken water pipe under our concrete slab that flooded the AC vents under the floor. A tree fell on our house once, but it didn't do any real damage. It's a good thing we've been lucky because I don't handle major problems well. I get the problems fixed, but they put me in a bad mood for weeks. Even something as minor as a broken washing machine can ruin my day.

At least the weather was nice today. It's easy to avoid the web worms when I'm taking my long walk in the park, but it's dark when we take Dawn on her sunrise walk and she often leads us right through them. Dawn is a creature of habit and it's easier to walk through the web worms than it is to get her to take a new route. I wasn't very fast on my walk this morning. My feet are slowing me down again. I think the recurring foot pain is going to be around forever. It's not bad enough to stop walking, but it sure is irritating. 

For some reason Southwest Airlines has only refunded half my airfare from the canceled Florida flights. I did change my reservation from September 27 to October 2, but I didn't think that would complicate a refund. I suspect that the rest of the money will turn up in a few days, but today the missing funds were just one more source of irritation.

I finally tested the remote shutter app for the Olympus camera. It works, but is not nearly as convenient as the remote shutter app for the Panasonic camera. Both of these apps connect to the camera using WiFi, but it's not easy to get the Olympus camera to connect. I guess I'll keep using the Panasonic camera for rocket launches.

I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and I've got an appointment for a haircut tomorrow. Getting a haircut usually puts me in a good mood for a while. I could have used a haircut today.

Sweet Pea is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4552

Nothing is easy these days. The appliance installers arrived this morning, carried a huge box containing the new dishwasher inside the house and then told me that they couldn't install it. What? Why not? This is an easy job. You pull the old dishwasher out, attach the supply and drain lines to the new dishwasher, push it back under the counter and you're done. 

No can do, they told me. "You have copper supply lines," one of the guys said, "and we're not allowed to touch copper." I couldn't believe it. "You'll have to get a plumber to install this," the other guy told me. The installers left and I now have a very large box sitting in my living room. I called the two plumbing companies I normally use and they both told me that they charged emergency or after hours rates on weekends. Since these exorbitant rates were double what they normally charge, I decided to just wait until Monday to deal with this. I kind of wish I'd just called an appliance repairman to fix the old dishwasher now.

When I called to get my installation fee refunded I was told that I would have to go back to the store because I used two different credit cards on the transaction. I did use an old gift card I had for part of the purchase, but never realized that it would cause complications later. When I went back to the store I ended up talking to the same salesperson who sold me the dishwasher. "I warned you about copper pipes," she said. Nope. I don't think so. This thing will eventually get installed, but it has become a major nuisance.

I think we set a new high temperature record today. The thermometer on the back porch reached 106 degrees. How did the weather go from wet and cool to impossibly hot so quickly? It wasn't that long ago that the furnace was coming on in the morning. It was good that we got Dawn walked very early this morning. We weren't really trying to avoid the heat at that point. We were just trying to get everything done before the dishwasher installers arrived. At least I managed to get my grocery shopping done before everything started to unravel.

By the time I finished dealing with all the installation problems it was way too hot to walk in the park. I decided to go to the gym after I got my installation refund from the appliance store. The gym was almost empty by the time I arrived because it was getting close to closing time. I still had time to shoot some hoops on the basketball court, use the rowing machine, and walk a mile on the indoor track. It wasn't my best workout, but it will have to do.

I'm so tired of dealing with broken things I could scream. The dishwasher problems will be resolved sooner or later, and then it will be on to the next thing. It would be tempting to just tell a contractor to fix everything all at once, but we still live here. There's nothing worse than trying to go about your life in the middle of a bunch of construction. I hate all the surprises that contractors and repair people throw at you too. Few people these days are really familiar with old houses and they either don't know how to do the job right or are in too much of a hurry to do the job right. Most of these people prefer to work on new construction when the homeowner isn't even around.

We might not be able to take Dawn on her regular Sunday outing tomorrow. If we wait until the ice cream store opens, it will be too hot. Dawn will get her sunrise walk, but maybe we'll skip the later walk at our Sunday park and just go directly to the ice cream store. I don't think Dawn will have any complaints. It was almost too hot for her last week and tomorrow will be much warmer. So far, it looks like it's going to be a long, hot summer.

Willa is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4437

I had to scramble to get all the bagged leaves out to the curb for bulky trash day. For weeks I'd been thinking that big trash day was next week, but it turns out it is tomorrow. How is it already the third week in February? It seems like February just started. I guess I could have looked at a calendar. Depending on memory doesn't work so well these days. 

After I moved all the bags of leaves out to the street, I thought I'd start cleaning up the sticks and twigs left behind in the yard by the power company tree trimmers. These guys should have done a much better job of cleaning up. There were twigs and small branches everywhere. I picked up as much as I could before it started to rain and added the growing brush pile to the leaf bags piled on the curb. All this activity was harder than I thought it would be. Old bones aren't meant for bending over and picking up hundreds of twigs and branches. My back hurts now.

Maybe I was just tired because I took my long walk before attempting to clean up the yard. It wasn't as windy as yesterday, but there was still a strong breeze. There was a light mist as well. It didn't really feel like it was raining, but by the time I returned home my jacket was wet. Dawn has done better than I have on walks lately. The weather was fine on her sunrise walk this morning. If I remember, it was pretty good yesterday morning as well. Yesterday the temperature dropped as the day progressed. Today it got wetter as the day progressed. My feet weren't my friends today. Lots of foot pain, but by the time I finished hauling trash out to the curb, I still managed to get 20,000 steps.

We got more rain than I expected this afternoon. I really hope we don't have another roof leak. I have the pumps working and there appears to already be a lot of water on the roof. Hopefully, the pumps will remove enough so a leak doesn't develop. I probably should have waited to start making repairs, but the stains on the ceiling were driving me crazy. Winter just isn't a good time to deal with roof problems. As soon as you start making a little progress, it starts raining again. Needless to say, it's frustrating.

Basically, everything is frustrating these days. I don't get angry, but I'm in a continual state of mild irritation. Do I really need dozens of robocalls and spam messages every single day? Why am I paying AT&T to irritate me using my own phone? Why do all publications have paywalls on the Internet now? I'm never going to subscribe to your online whatever. I know if I wait a few days I'll be able to find the same information for free somewhere else. A pox on your paywalls. Why is every ad on television for some kind of prescription medicine with announcer copy describing side effects that will probably kill you. Can't we just go back to ads about tv-dinners and refrigerators. Social media is insanely irritating. I'm convinced that you can trace back most of today's problems to social media. Society doesn't function well when every problem is instantly broadcast to the entire world. Someone lights a match and all the sudden it's a forest fire. We don't need to know what everyone else is doing in real time. It's not good. We would all be better off if we all just minded our own business.

I need to remember that I have a teleconference with my gastro-intestinal specialist tomorrow. I've never done one of these virtual visits before, but it sure beats driving down to Baylor hospital. When I was given the option of an office visit or a virtual call, it didn't take me long to decide. One of the biggest changes that Covid has made is that you basically don't have to leave your house anymore. There is a virtual option for just about everything.

Dawn didn't get to go to training class tonight. It's raining outside now. I keep hearing about severe weather warnings, but it's hard to tell what's headed our way. It's pretty calm right now. There are some severe storms out in West Texas this evening that are headed to the Northeast. Hopefully they will pass to the North of us by the time they arrive here tomorrow morning.

Joshua is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4397

Another day, another problem. This Polaris star tracker is driving me nuts. I don't think I'm cut out to be a Beta tester. The Polaris unit itself seems very well made. It's the software app on my phone that controls the thing that's full of bugs. I think I may have defective connecting cables as well. Everything works well for a little while and then the app freezes and I have to restart everything and try again. I really got nowhere today. The app kept saying that I didn't have a memory card inserted in my camera. The card was there however and it actually was recording pictures for a while. 

It's very hard to communicate with the Chinese manufacturer and the other Kickstarter backers in the Facebook support group are just as lost as I am. A few seem to be able to track stars and are getting some amazing pictures. I suspect that they are all using the one camera that magically seems to work. I imagine that it is very hard, or almost impossible for the Polaris unit to support hundreds of different cameras.

Dawn seems better today. Her poop is still soft, but it is not a runny liquid anymore. Hopefully, this will clear up soon. Dawn definitely doesn't seem sick and her appetite is still good. She is mad at us now because we are feeding her less until her GI tract seems stable again. She had to go outside several times last night and it was very cold. Luckily, Janet is a light sleeper so she was able to let Dawn outside when she appeared restless. We think Dawn is getting better, but if the diarrhea persists we'll take a fecal sample to the vet to be tested. There's always a chance that she might have giardia.

I stubbornly continue to walk, although I'm beginning to question my own sanity. It just isn't very pleasant to walk on a cold windy day. The wind is worse than the temperature for me. A lot of my route is along the shoreline of the lake and on days like today, the lake effect wind can be pretty bad. It's really hard to dress properly. When the wind stops and the sun comes out, I am hot. When the sun goes behind a cloud and the wind start blowing, I'm freezing. The foot pain is always lurking in the background as well. The pain wasn't bad today. Maybe it was just so cold that my feet went numb.

Janet does her grocery shopping on Friday and she said the store shelves are starting to get empty again. I hope we're not headed back to the dark days of 2020. It seems that way sometimes. I'm tired of panic buying. I'm tired of mandates that create more problems than they solve. If the past two years have proved anything it is that the government is fairly inept at solving these type of problems and that everything in today's society gets so politicized that we lose focus of the real problem. Hey, at least we aren't Australia. Those poor Australians are fucked. What ever happened to Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max? I'm amazed that the Australians don't rebel against their repressive government. Maybe they've looked around at other countries and realize what will happen if they do. Sadly, we've living in an increasingly totalitarian world.

We took the Christmas tree down today. I'll take some of the decorations back to the storage warehouse tomorrow and that will be the end of the holiday season. I kind of liked looking at the Christmas tree in the evenings. The lights were pretty and strangely optimistic. I'm not really a very festive person, but holidays are certainly better than nothing. It's fun to watch dogs open their Christmas gifts too.

I'm making my grocery list for tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't run into the same empty shelves that Janet encountered today. I'm almost certain that prices will be higher. Inflation is not only real, it can be quite dramatic. Janet and I have different items on our respective grocery lists, but the things I buy have gone up in price every single week for several months now. The price of gas keeps getting higher as well. You really have to wonder where this is all going to end?

Misty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4393

Thankfully it was a little warmer today. The day still started below freezing, but it warmed up quickly. I don't think Dawn likes the cold. She isn't quite as eager to take her walks on cold mornings, even though we got her a nice warm sweater. I guess I feel the same way. I've never been a big fan of Winter.

After breakfast I thought I'd go to Target and the Apple Store to get some additional cables that would allow me to test several more cameras with my new start tracker. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a mask with me. This wouldn't have been a problem last week, but the Omicron variant has thrown everyone into a panic again. When I entered the Target store, there were big "mask required" signs at the entrance and the PA system was even broadcasting that if you didn't feel like wearing a mask inside the store, you should try online shopping instead. I went home. I figured that if Target was being this strict, the Apple Store would be even worse. Maybe I'll just buy the cables I need on Amazon. That would be easier.

By the time I took my long walk, the weather was actually quite nice. It was still chilly, but it wasn't freezing like yesterday. My only problem today was my feet. It's hard to tell if my feet are actually getting worse or I just need new shoes. Maybe I'm just walking further. It's quite common for me to get 20,000 steps these days. For me, that's about 10 miles. It seems like I used to walk a lot less. At any rate, my feet were quite painful today. I hate to use the Voltaren cream, because of the internal bleeding risk side effects listed on the tube. I've tried Biofreeze too, but that doesn't seems to do anything. I guess I should just go ahead and order some new Hoka shoes while I'm ordering camera connection cables.  Finding the stuff I need locally is proving to be an exercise in frustration.

Getting the Polaris star tracker to work is an even bigger exercise in frustration. Some of the other Kickstarter backers are already out in the field taking pictures and I can't even get my cameras to connect to the tracker. I suspect that I just have the wrong cameras. I've always been a fan of Olympus and Panasonic cameras even though the rest of the photographers are always using Nikon and Canon. Most of the people who are having success with their star trackers appear to be using Canon cameras. When I'm photographing launches down at Kennedy Space Center, I'm almost always the only one not shooting with a Nikon or Canon. Oh, well. I've never followed the crowd.

We didn't visit Charlie and Oliver today because the kennel is still on a holiday schedule. Maybe next week. I guess it's about time to take down the Christmas tree. The Christmas holidays seemed to go by awfully fast this year. Wasn't it just Thanksgiving a few days ago? I still don't have any trips planned for the coming year. Last year I was a lot more industrious. Maybe I just don't care as much about writing articles anymore. It's hard for me to do anything for the pure pleasure of it. Writing for magazines gave me a reason to travel. 

Maybe I'll watch another episode of The Expanse tomorrow. It's time to write another letter to my sister as well. I need to do some touch up painting on the trim around the house, but I hate to paint. I always manage to spill something and make a mess. I'll probably just continue to monkey around with the star tracker and try to get it to work with a camera it wasn't designed for. If I have a choice between a useful activity and a useless one, I'll always choose the most useless activity I can find.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4382

Thanks for nothing Fedex. My package still hasn't been delivered. When I didn't receive a message this morning saying that the package was on the truck for delivery, I called Fedex again to see what was going on. Jeez. Just yesterday the Fedex guy who called me promised that the lost package had been found and that it would be delivered to me today. The representative I talked to today told me that yes, the package had been found, but that it was still in Oklahoma City. The agent I talked with yesterday had been overly optimistic about getting it the rest of the way to Dallas. 

What? How could this even be possible? Contrary to what every other Fedex customer service representative has been telling me for the past two weeks, my package apparently never even reached Dallas. This seemed hard to believe, especially since I've been hearing stories about exactly where the package was for over a week. Apparently, everything I've been seeing on my Fedex account was a lie. The lady I talked with today said that Fedex doesn't even bother with scanning individual packages while they are in route. All packages headed to the same destination are put in a large container together and only the container is scanned. If your package wound up in the wrong container for some reason, all the subsequent information generated by the system would be wrong.

This far fetched story may be true or it may be one more in a long list of fabrications created by people who know nothing more than what they are seeing on their computer screen. All I know is that the last time I looked at my Fedex account all references to the delivery date had been erased and it just said "Delayed, no delivery scheduled." This is beyond frustrating. It is madness. I'm beginning to think that the only people who work for Fedex are drivers, people with bar code scanners, and offshore customer service agents who just make up answers to customer questions. Absolutely nobody seems to know what is really going on.

I didn't get my package today, but I did get my tooth filled. I knew I was in for trouble when I overheard the dentist tell his assistant, "Hmm, this cavity is interesting. It's not what I expected." Thats when I knew my bill was going to be higher than expected as well. I sat in the chair for a long time and although I couldn't see what the dentist was doing, it felt like I was getting three fillings instead of one. When the dentist was finished, he told me that the cavity was much deeper than it looked on the x-ray. The cavity traveled all the way down the root almost to the bone. "So, I guess if you hadn't caught this now, I would have had to have a root canal," I said to the dentist. "No," he replied, "you would have had to have an implant." The dentist assured me that the tooth was stable now, but my mouth still hurts for some reason. I've had enough dental problems for one year. 

Even though my trip to the dentist and an extended conversation with the Fedex agent took a lot of time, I still managed to get a lot of walking in. Dawn got her sunrise walk. I took another short walk after breakfast, and then two more walks after I returned from the dentist. It wasn't my best day, but I did get 20,000 steps. The temperature was pretty warm today. I was able to wear shorts on both of my afternoon walks.

The traffic was terrible today. I thought everyone would be on their way to grandma's house by now but apparently not. My drive to the dentist's office took almost twice as long as it usually does. Hopefully things will be a little calmer tomorrow. I'm going to do my grocery shopping on Friday, since Saturday is Christmas Day. I don't expect to see my package tomorrow and I can't imagine that it will arrive on Christmas Day. Was today's Fedex customer service story true or just another fabrication? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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