Day 4671

Shopping isn't easy anymore. I had to go to four different grocery stores to find the things on my list. There was nothing exotic or rare that I was trying to find. It was just ordinary stuff. I had trouble finding shredded wheat. I had even more trouble finding distilled water for the coffee maker. I needed dishwasher detergent. Most stores just had pods. I needed the liquid kind. Same thing with Swiffer dusters. Lots of places had the wet dusters but I wanted the dry variety. 

I think the problem is two-fold. There are still supply chain issues for many common items. The real problem is how stores restock inventory though. Increasingly stores use register receipts to determine what goes on the shelves. If not many people are buying a certain item it gets discontinued. That's why all the stores had plenty of sugar coated mini-shedded wheat, but very few still carry plain shredded wheat. Variety is disappearing from many stores. People like cheap stuff, so there is lots of cheap stuff. There are actually lots of expensive status items too. What's missing these days are the plain, practical items that were commonplace twenty years ago. 

I eventually found everything I needed but it took longer than expected. When I leave the house these days, I feel like I'm entering a dystopian world. Traffic is terrible and nobody knows how to drive anymore. There is an explosion of people making u-turns in the city. You really have to watch when making a turn at an intersection. Somebody making an unexpected, and often illegal u-turn can wind up right in your lane as you are turning. Stores rarely have exactly what you need anymore. I guess that's why Amazon is so popular. At any rate, I'm glad I do this only once a week. Traffic isn't as bad when I go to the gym because I almost always go during the day when most people are at work.

The weather was nice today. It was cloudy most of the day and there was a nice breeze. Even though I didn't get my shopping done until well after noon, it was still cool enough to take a walk in the park. The temperature was in the 70's all day. If this pleasant weather continues next week, I may mow the grass again. It's finally getting cool enough that this might be the last time I need to mow. My pace was just average today. It wasn't too fast and wasn't too slow. I did get a lot of steps though. I had a rare 22,000 step day. This is probably why my feet hurt today. It's probably time to retire my worn out Hokas and start using the new pair I bought recently. Walking a little less wouldn't be a bad idea either.

We're having more power outages now. These outages usually only last a few seconds, but sometimes they happen several times a day. The short outages knock out the Internet and cause all the networked items to reboot. Like the bad traffic and empty store shelves, these power outages are just another sign of the times.  Our power grid is no longer up to the job. A huge number of people have moved to Dallas recently and they use a lot of electricity. These newcomers also probably explain the surge in u-turns on our roads.

Today was a pretty good day. The weather was perfect. I managed to stay active without doing any household chores. Dawn was a little friendlier toward me and we has a delicious dinner of Maryland Crab Cakes and bacon wrapped asparagus. Tomorrow is Dawn's day. Hopefully we will have a nice Sunday outing.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4560 - My Birthday

Another trip around the sun. I'm 74 now. I'm definitely feeling a little worse for wear.  I'm still hanging in there though. I walked my full six mile route this morning. We'll see if I can keep this going for another year. I'm already doing better than my parents were. My Mom was dead before she turned 74 and my Dad had already been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

We went out for dinner at my favorite restaurant this evening. We hadn't been since before Covid and things had changed a bit. The place was seriously understaffed and everyone seemed a bit stressed. The food was still good though. My favorite dish wasn't even on menu anymore. That was a little disappointing. I was surprised because it was still on the online menu, it just wasn't on the actual menu that the waiter brought us. Oh, well. I found something else I liked and we had a very nice dinner. 

I wouldn't want to be in the restaurant business right now. Everyone is still trying to recover from the Covid shutdowns, the cost of ingredients has gone up, and fewer people are dining out because of out of control inflation. We arrived a little early tonight, but they wouldn't seat us until our scheduled time even though the restaurant seemed half empty. I'm sure it was company policy. I bet they thought if they could shuttle everyone to the bar for a while before they were seated, they would sell a little more. I can't really blame them. It was clear that this place was just trying to keep their doors open.

We always have Sprinkles cupcakes and a little champagne to celebrate birthdays. Dawn gets a pupcake as well. I forget how long we've been doing this, but it's been quite a while. I enjoy the celebration, but I don't look forward to birthdays anymore. I'm clearly on a downhill glide path. I'm doing the best I can to stay healthy, but you never know. People my age are dropping like flies. I know a few people who are still active in their 90's though, so maybe I'll get lucky.

I get fewer Facebook birthday greetings every year. The difference isn't dramatic, but it is consistent. I think the smaller numbers correspond pretty well to the number of friends who have died during the year. I should do a better job of keeping up with my remaining friends, but I probably won't. I'm a solitary person and if I could just get my dog to like me I'd be a happy camper.

I was a little surprised that I got 20,000 steps today. I guess I was busier than I thought. Dawn still got her Sunday outing, even though she only took a very short walk because of the heat. She did get a nice sunrise walk earlier in the day though. These early morning walks are the only times when it's still pleasant to be outside. We didn't spend a lot of time outside on Dawn's outing, but we did still go and get ice cream. Dawn even got an extra treat today when they gave her a free doggie cone.

All in all it was a good day. I tire easily and my feet hurt, but I'm still in pretty good shape. I think I've still got a few good years left. I hope I've managed to see a few more rocket launches and made at least one more trip to the observatory before I turn 75. There are no big plans anymore. Little day to day plans are all I need. I think we'll go visit the rescue Dalmatians tomorrow. I'm a year older now but it's time to get back to our regular schedule.

Jade is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4282

There were no plans for today, which kind of surprised me. Although Space X told us yesterday that our credentials were for use on Wednesday only, I thought I'd try to use mine today. What did I have to lose. The worst that could happen was that I might have to turn around and go back to the hotel. 

I sailed through the gate without any problems and wound up at the Press Site a few minutes later. There wasn't a lot going on since this wasn't a NASA launch. I asked some guys setting up a platform with lights if this was for the afternoon press briefing. Nope. The film crew was setting up to live stream tomorrow's launch. I was hoping to attend the press briefing, but the only information I got from Space X was a dial in number I could call if I wanted to ask a question over the phone. I wandered around taking a lot of pictures and eventually ran into another reporter who seemed to be doing the same thing. She was a staff writer for The Atlantic and told me that Space X had only invited 27 journalists to the briefing, which was apparently going to be held inside the Space X hanger next to Pad 39A. If the reporter from The Atlantic didn't make the cut, I imagine that my little magazine was way down near the bottom of the list.

The NASA Press Office was closed, but there was a sign on the door saying that the press could still eat at the nearby NASA cafeteria. I've eaten there before and the barbecue is quite good. Since I was getting hot from wandering around outside, I went over to the cafeteria to cool off and ended up eating a big pulled pork sandwich with a huge tumbler full of sweet tea. I shouldn't have done this because I never eat lunch anymore. I was full for the rest of the day.

When I was driving back to Titusville along Kennedy Parkway I ended up passing a gigantic transporter carrying a Falcon 9 rocket. The convoy with the rocket was going about five miles an hour, so I slowly and carefully passed the transporter in what was left of the right hand lane. The transporter was huge. It was originally built to move the space shuttle around and NASA sold it to Space X when the shuttle program ended. I really wanted to pull over and take a picture but the highway had soft shoulders and there were at least six police cars in the convoy and I didn't want to do anything wrong. It was a cool experience though. I was only about five feet away from the rocket when I was passing the convoy.

When I exited the secure area and passed the Visitor Center Complex I though I might spend the remainder of the afternoon visiting the Atlantis exhibit again. I didn't want to pay the $50 admission fee plus an additional $10 for parking, but I had an idea. Last night I found an old annual pass to the visitor center inside my passport that NASA had given me in early 2019. It had expired, but I asked the guys at the gate if they would still honor this pass since the visitor center was closed because of Covid for the entire year during 2020. It must have seemed like a strange request because the guy at the gate had to call his supervisor, who in turn had to call his supervisor. Eventually they let me in for free and I didn't have to pay for parking either.

When I got back to the hotel I watched a live feed of the press briefing on the Space X web site. It's just as well that I didn't try to ask questions. All the questions from reporters were very serious. I wanted to ask Hayley what she would have done if her Mom said no. Hayley has said several times that she asked her Mom if it would be OK before accepting the Inspiration 4 offer. I wanted to ask Jared Issacman about all the commercial tie-ins associated with this mission. Everyone is wearing a different brand name watch. Martin Guitars is sending a ukulele into orbit which Chris Sembroski will supposedly play. 66 pounds of hops are on board which Samuel Adams will use to brew a special beer when the astronauts return. A bunch of other stuff is on board that will be auctioned off to raise money for St. Jude Children's hospital. We've been hearing about Commercial Crew missions for quite a while now. This crew will probably end up making commercials.

All in all, it was a very good day. It didn't go as I expected, but in retrospect it was probably even better than I expected. 

Nicholas is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3937

Dawn had her best day since she got sick. She was alert, full of energy, and was able to walk four miles this morning. It probably helped that the weather was absolutely beautiful. There was a nice breeze and the temperature was in the 60's. We took our time and Dawn stopped to smell everything. I think she was very happy to be feeling better again.

We have started the process of gradually decreasing her meds. That probably helps as well. Steroids like Prednisone do a great job of reducing inflammation, but they have a lot of side effects. Any time that I've had to take steroids, I've been really glad when I finished my treatment.

Dawn even seems to be overcoming some of the fear she has of me at times. She comes when I call most of the time and seems much more relaxed. I've been feeding and walking her for several weeks in an effort to get her to associate me with positive events. It's a slow process, but it seems to be working. Dawn's overall mood is better than we've seen in a long time. Maybe this all has something to do with what is going on in her brain. It could be that she was feeling strange long before she got the high fever and had a seizure. Hopefully, she will remain stable when she is finished with her meds. We should know in a week or two.

Even though it was a beautiful day, my allergies were terrible. I was blowing my nose constantly on our walk this morning. I've been going through quite a few blue shop towels lately, but this is still better than taking antihistamines. After breakfast this morning, I went up on the roof and made a careful search for damaged areas in the silicon coating. I found two small spots that need to be recoated, but I didn't do the repairs today. The weather looks good for at least the next week, so I"m hoping that one of these days will be free of allergies. I still don't know what makes some days worse than others. The air quality reading on my weather app was good today, but my allergies were still terrible. Maybe I need to look for another app that is specific to allergens in the air. I looked on the weather.com website and it said that the ragweed pollen count was high in Dallas today. Maybe that was what was bothering me.

It's kind of sad that I've given up on travel. It seems like the right thing to do though. Every time I'm out and about I see convincing evidence that the virus is going to be around for a while. This isn't really about Democrats vs Republicans. It's mostly about family and friends who seems to think you can only be infected by strangers. Since today was a nice day, I saw lots of large gatherings in the park. I know several friends who have attended or are planning large weddings. What are these people thinking? Statistics show that this is exactly how the virus spreads. I take precautions and feel like I would be safe enough out at McDonald Observatory or Kennedy Space Center. It's getting there that is the problem. I have no faith at all in the people I might be sitting next to on Southwest Airlines.

This weekend has really gone quickly. I'm not really looking forward to another week of walks with a runny nose or watching more dismal news on the television while I drink my morning smoothie. It is what is is though. I probably should just go ahead and fix the roof. There isn't much else to do.

Jersey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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