Day 4963

I'm glad I didn't go to the Falcon Heavy launch. Last night's launch got scrubbed with one minute left on the countdown clock. The launch was rescheduled for tonight and then subsequently postponed again until tomorrow night. It happens. This would have turned a quick one day trip into a three or four day trip. I'm sure I'll get a chance to be surprised like this again. Quite a few launches I've attended have gotten delayed.

There were no delays or surprises in today's schedule. Basically today was just like yesterday. We had a nice walk with Dawn before the sun came up. I made the bed, ate breakfast, and went to the gym. It's weird how every day seems the same. We see the same people every morning on our sunrise walks. The same people are at the gym too. Usually they are even using the same machines. Today I even got the same parking space that I got yesterday.

I visited Twitter today to see if there were any differences now that the blue bird is gone. I was surprised that I had lots of messages and post comments that I had never answered. The blog gets posted automatically to Twitter, but I never go there anymore. I never go to Instagram anymore either. The only place I visit these days is Facebook and I'm losing interest in that as well. When I reach my 5000 day blogging goal it might finally give me the incentive I need to leave social media entirely. We'll see. I wonder whether I can really quit blogging. I've been doing this so long that it just seems like an integral part of my day.

I'm beginning to wonder whether this oppressive weather is ever going to end. Never ending triple digit temperatures gets old quickly. The air conditioner is running constantly now and I keep hoping that nothing breaks. The electric company probably loves this. When we walk down the street returning from our sunrise walk, all you hear is the sound of everyone's air conditioner compressors. I dread next month's electric bill, but I'm still unwilling to spend the day in a hot house.

I have no plans for tomorrow. I imagine that I'll do the same things I did today. I keep looking at the ceiling and wondering if I can do the sheetrock repairs myself. I haven't gone to Home Depot and gotten supplies yet though. I'll probably just keep thinking about this for another month or so. I did take this week's trash out to the curb. It was probably the only useful thing I did all day. Dawn is probably already thinking about grocery day tomorrow. Waiting for Janet to return with the week's groceries is her big excitement for the week.

Deuce is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4949

It's been a long day. Two plumbers have been here all day installing the new water heater. I never dreamed that putting a water heater in a confined space was such a complicated procedure. Due to new code requirements, the plumbers couldn't simply duplicate the old arrangement. New water heaters have to be installed on a raised base with an overflow pan that drains to the floor drain. Too many things use the floor drain in the utility room already. Now I've got one more. 

The plumbers told me that I could no longer use the copper pipes at the top on the water heater to support a shelf. I have no shelf in the utility room now and no place to store the things that were sitting on it. The new water heater is slightly larger than the old one and takes up more space, but the good news is that we have hot water again.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but the price of water heaters has more than doubled since the last time I replaced one. The plumbers were amazed at how old the leaking water heater was. "Your new one won't last that long," the lead plumber told me. I wonder what else can go wrong in this house? Probably more things than I can even imagine.

Dawn is still frightened of almost everything, but she is eating her meals and going outside to pee and poop. That's all I can ask for at this point. She was actually very good today with all the commotion going on in the house. She just stayed in the bedroom all day until the plumbers left. I was a little worried last night that Dawn wasn't coming back to the bedroom to go to sleep. We had a very brief power outage and when the lights and TV went out, it scared her and she ran to the kitchen. Basically everything seems to scare Dawn except plumbers. She seemed fine with the plumbers today.

Since I was home with the plumbers all day, I didn't get to go to the gym. It wasn't a good day to take a long walk since the temperature got up to 104 degrees. I'm hooked on getting my steps though. After dinner I took this week's trash out to the curb and then took a short walk. I walked just long enough to get 10,000 steps and returned home. No sense in being stupid. I thought it would be cooler if I waited until evening to walk. It was still 95 degrees though.

Somebody has spoofed my e-mail address and I'm seeing spam that appears to come from me in my spam folder almost every day. It's irritating. I did a little research and discovered that this type of spoofing is extremely common and very hard to stop. I'll call my hosting company again and ask them to put a stop to this. I did this once before and the spoofing stopped for about two weeks and then started all over again. I'm beginning to think that my Luddite sister who isn't on the Internet at all might have the right idea. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be uneventful. Having plumbers banging around all day in one room with a scared dog in another room was a bit stressful. I'll be glad when Janet returns home.

Watson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4945

Dawn is still nervous because Janet is away, but we're doing OK. She's eating her meals and has had her evening meds. I think taking a walk is a lost cause, but we'll give it a try tomorrow morning. I hate seeing Dawn sad like this, but I think she knows Janet will return. We've been through this routine before.

The day started normally enough. We took a nice sunrise walk and then had our big weekend breakfast. The temperature was a little cooler this morning, but it's still obvious that this is July in Texas. I've been hoping that it would cool down enough for me to start walking in the park again, but this wasn't going to be the day.

After Janet left for the airport this morning, I made sure Dawn was OK and then went mall walking like I normally do every Sunday. The mall was a little more crowded this morning because it was closer to opening time when I arrived. No new stores this week and very few changes in the store windows. I made my five loops around the mall perimeter and then came home again. There was a long line waiting to get in the new Tecovas store. It was either their Grand Opening or they were giving away something. I didn't join the line. I haven't worn cowboy boots in years.

When I returned home I filled out an application for credentials to attend the Echostar Jupiter 3 launch. This is another Falcon Heavy launch. I've seen quite a few of these already, but they are always interesting and it is often easier to get credentials directly through Space X than it is with NASA. We'll see what happens. The upcoming launches I really want to see don't take place until later in the year or early 2024. Until then, I might as well do something to pass the time.

I hope Dawn calms down soon. When she's nervous it makes me nervous as well. I always worry that she might get stung by a bee or need to go to the vet for some reason. She's never ridden in my car without Janet nearby. She rarely rides in my car at all, since we usually take Janet's car when Dawn is with us. At any rate, getting her in the car would not be fun. It probably won't be a problem. I suspect that Dawn will just sit on the bed for most of the week.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing next week. I have a feeling that it's going to be a slow week. I've got my list of things I need to do with Dawn every day, but almost everything else has been taken care of. I got my new drivers license and have TSA Pre now. My passport doesn't expire for several more years. There are no doctor or dental appointments for quite a while either. It's a shame I'm no longer in demand as a writer or web designer. Having a deadline to meet every day sure made the days go faster.

It's pretty quiet around the house now. I'll go to bed earlier and get up a bit later, but the days will be more or less the same. There will be shredded wheat and fruit for breakfast and a trip to the gym. If I'm lucky, maybe Dawn will take a short walk tomorrow.

Greta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4944

It was quite pleasant on our sunrise walk with Dawn this morning. It was overcast, the temperature was in the low 80's and there was a nice breeze. I was seriously considering taking my long walk in the park today because the weather seemed better than it has been for several weeks. Then the sun came out. By the time we finished breakfast this morning it seemed like a completely different day. I would be returning to the gym again.

First things first though. I had grocery shopping to do. As luck would have it, a lot of things on my list weren't available today. Sam's Club didn't have strawberries. Central Market didn't have any orange juice and their strawberries didn't look fresh. Their juicer must have been broken because there were very few fresh squeezed juices at all. My favorite beer has totally disappeared from the market as well. I had trouble finding the brand last week and this week it had disappeared from all the stores. I have this problem a lot. Frequently things I like aren't terribly popular. Store routinely drop items that don't sell well now. They look at register data and only restock the items that are selling best. That's why a lot of stores are full of unhealthy food.

Since I had to scrap my plans for a walk in the park, I headed back to the gym after I put the groceries away. I tried to get Dawn to go outside an pee before I left, but she had no interest. Dawn doesn't like the heat. She's a smart dog. I don't like the heat either.

The gym is always pretty empty on weekends. It's a very large space, but their were only about half a dozen people on the floor today. My workout was the same as it's been all week. I walked briskly around the indoor track for three miles and then spent fifteen minutes on the basketball court. One of these days I'm going to have to start working with weights again, but that can wait. When I get my Fitbit steps and close all three rings on my Apple Watch activities app, I'm ready to go home.

I stopped at another grocery store on the way home because I started thinking that hot dogs would be good to have for dinner while Janet was away. I got uncured Wagyu beef hot dogs with no Nitrites or preservatives. They were still hot dogs though. Definitely not the healthiest meat, but very tasty. I don't understand grocery stores anymore. The checkout clerk asked if I brought my bag with me. What? I was confused and told the clerk to just put my items in one of their bags like they usually do. Janet told me later that this store charges for plastic bags now and had added ten cents to my bill. It seems weird that they are trying to cut down on pollution by eliminating plastic grocery bags, while literally everything in the store comes packaged in plastic.

When I returned home I did a load of laundry, paid some online bills, and took a nap. Dawn actually stayed with me on the bed which was a surprise. I've got a lot to remember while Janet is away. She takes care of giving Dawn her meds, filling water bowls several times a day, and fixing Dawn's breakfast. I feed Dawn dinner and her late night snack. Janet packages all Dawn meds in little baggies labeled for morning and evening on each day she is away on vacation. When I give the pills, I put a check mark on the calendar. With Dawn you have to do everything in the right order. I need to remember that she goes down to the park to poop after breakfast, never before. I do the same thing after dinner. Hopefully she will come out to the kitchen to eat her breakfast this time. The last time Janet went on vacation I had to bring her breakfast back to the bedroom and then stay out of sight while she ate. Dawn is a picky, stubborn dog who is set in her ways, but I still think she's great. We'll do OK next week.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4880

I finished my SpaceFlight Magazine article today. I won't send it in until Monday though. Maybe I can think of some improvements over the weekend. This wasn't the best article I've ever written, but it wasn't the best trip to Kennedy Space Center either. I think the story would have been a little more interesting if I had actually seen the launch.

It seemed unusually hot today for early May. By mid-afternoon the temperature was over 90 degrees. It was still nice outside when we took Dawn on her early morning walk, but even then I could tell that I wouldn't be needing a coat. Dawn didn't seem particularly eager to walk this morning. There was nothing wrong. She just seemed lazy. I could certainly relate. I haven't been all that eager to go on my long walks lately either.

After finishing breakfast I worked on my article for a while before getting ready for my long walk. It's hard to believe now that I used to write copiously every single day. Although I was trained as an architect, I spent most of my career as an advertising copywriter. Writing is actually a fairly pleasant way to spend the day. It certainly seemed less stressful than the time I spent as a commercial photographer.

Today felt more like Summer than Spring. I was hot on my walk, even though I only wore a t-shirt and shorts. If anything drives me back to the gym, it will be the temperature. The small indoor track at the gym looks a lot more appealing when it is 100 degrees outside. Today I passed a group of photographers with their cameras all pointed at an apparently empty field. I think they were birders looking for Scissor Tailed Flycatchers. I often see these birds in this particular field and have photographed them many times. It seems strange to photograph something as a group, but I guess that's exactly what I do when I go down to Kennedy Space Center. Are rocket photographers any different than bird photographers? Probably not.

I'm surprised that the roofers haven't called to schedule a start date for the roof replacement. I haven't called them because I'm still not sure when I'd like to start. I've looked at the long range weather and there seems to be rain in the forecast every single week. I'm convinced that once the work begins, it will start raining and the only thing protecting us will be a big blue tarp over the roof. The roof replacement is supposed to take three days, but that means it will probably take a week. I'm dreading this. Loud noises scare Dawn and I know the roofers trucks will end up blocking the driveway when I need to get out. We do need a new roof though. Maybe by mid-Summer this whole experience will be in the rear view mirror.

This week really went quickly. It's already time to make a grocery list again. I think I'll get the lawnmower batteries replaced tomorrow. Replacing the 24 volt batteries is certainly cheaper than buying a new mower.   I've replaced these batteries several times already, but I still prefer an electric mower to a gas powered one. Strangely, I don't feel the same way about electric cars. I have very little interest in buying an electric car. Taking a road trip in an electric car still seems like a giant hassle.

I wonder how many stores I will have to visit tomorrow? Grocery shopping seems more complicated than it used to be. Truthfully, everything seems more complicated than it used to be.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4557

The dog days of summer are definitely here. It's hot. I feel lethargic. And there is a dearth of good news. When I turn on the TV during breakfast looking for something encouraging it's slim pickings these days. I lost interest in cable news quite a while ago. It doesn't matter which side of the political fence you're on, everyone is just pushing a narritive. I used to like watching the business channels, but that's turned very dismal lately. We're headed toward another recession. I can remember quite a few recessions in my past, but I'd been hoping to avoid another one at my age. It just takes too long to recover from these things. I don't have a long time to recover from another recession. Today I tried the weather channel. How can you go wrong with the weather channel? Never mind. This mornings coverage was all about the flooding in Yellowstone. One of my favorite areas is under water. Somehow it seems like everything in the world is under water these days.

I didn't feel like going to the gym today, so I tried another long walk right after breakfast. There was a nice breeze for a while, but it didn't last long enough. I can tell things are starting to dry out in the park. The meadows don't look as green and lush as they did a month ago. A lot of the wildflowers are starting to disappear as well.  It's a shame that we get all our rain at once in Texas. If the weather would spread things out and give us a little rain every month everything would look a lot greener in July and August. Our yard looks great now, but I'm going to have to start watering the lawn soon. That's a quick way to double the water bill. We don't have a sprinkler system, so even when I water I only use a small fraction of the water the sprinkler systems in the neighborhood use. When I see all the wet streets on our early walks with Dawn I quickly realize what an enormous amount of water these systems waste.

I managed to complete my six mile route today, but I was hot and tired by the time I returned home. I took a shower and then wanted to take a nap for a while. Dawn quickly left the room and sat outside the bedroom door, watching me and occasionally whining. I hate to see this, so I got up and took my nap on the couch in the living room. I keep telling Dawn that she's running out of time to be buddies with me. Janet will be going on vacation soon. Things will go a lot smoother if Dawn would realize that I mean no harm and would really like to be friends with her. The two guys that ran the puppy mill must have been terrible. A lot of the dogs that came from that place are suspicious of men.

Our air conditioner is having trouble keeping up with this heat. My HVAC guy told me once that air conditioning systems are basically designed to keep the air in your home up to twenty degrees colder than the outside air. This works pretty well when the temperatures are in the 80's and low 90's. Not so much when the temperature is over a 100 degrees every day. The best we are able to do on days like these is about 78 degrees. Coincidentally, this is the temperature the power company wants you to use to save energy. I don't know how much energy we're saving though, since the AC seems to be running all the time.

There are still a lot of things on my to-do list, but I'm not really in the mood to do any of them. Sometimes I fantasize about living in a nice new house in a safe little town. I'm sure there are people who thought the same thing when they moved to those little towns north of Yellowstone that are getting flooded now. There's really no escape anymore. Life is a roll of the dice these days, but I still think it helps to avoid all the drama. On that note, I've taken this weeks trash to the curb and am ready to start another uneventful week.

Hershey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4554

Yay. We have a new dishwasher. I don't know how to use it yet, but I'll worry about that later. I'm glad I had a good plumber install this thing. Nothing is as easy as it seems and there were some complications on the installation that the Home Depot delivery crew would have probably just given up on. I wish modern electronics weren't so complicated. Old major appliances were simple and lasted forever. Everything nowadays basically has a computer inside and tends to break quickly. Our old dishwasher had a single round dial on the front. This new one looks like the control panel on the space shuttle. 

The big difference on this new machine is that there is no heater coil at the bottom of the tub to dry the dishes. This new dishwasher uses super hot water on the final rinse and then somehow vents away the moisture inside. It sounds like the dishes just air dry to me, but what do I know. I need to get some of that rinse-aid liquid that prevents streaks on glasses tomorrow. The instructions say that you need to use this stuff to ensure effective drying. Why so complicated? I would have much rather had the old fashioned electric heating coil on the bottom of the tub. Oh, well. It is what is is. Maybe I made the wrong choice but I really didn't have many options. Most dishwashers are 24" wide. The space available in my cabinet was slightly smaller than this. The LG model I bought was 23.75" wide and barely fit. The reviews on this machine were very good, although some people were frustrated about the strange drying system. I may be one of those people.

It turned out to be a very busy day. While the plumbers were here I had them fix a few other things around the house as well. There was an outdoor faucet in the back yard that had been leaking for years and a rubber cap on a drain access line that leaked even worse. Too bad they couldn't fix my strange French toilet. Parts just aren't available for that thing anymore. The plumbers were on time and everything went relatively smoothly, so we were still able to visit the rescue Dalmatians this afternoon. This whole dishwasher episode ended up costing more than I expected, but what else is new. Everything costs more than you expect these days.

The Dalmatians are all doing well. We didn't play with Rocket today because he is still recovering from his heartworm treatment. Charlie, Willie, Oliver, and JoJo were all in fine form though. I don't know why JoJo still wanted to go outside on a day like this. It was way too hot, but JoJo insists on playing outside. The other dogs were smart enough to stay in the air conditioned indoor play area. 

By the time we returned from the kennel it was way too hot to even consider walking in the park. It even seemed too hot early this morning when we were taking Dawn on her sunrise walk. I went to the gym instead. I was surprised at how many people were at the gym this afternoon. It was probably the weather. Something was wrong with the air conditioning system on the main floor today, but it was still much cooler than it was outside. I didn't stay long today. I just shot some hoops on the basketball court, walked a mile or so on the indoor track, and used the rowing and the abdominal crunch machines. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow, but I hope it is cool enough in the morning so I can walk in the park instead.

They say it's going to be a very hot summer. It certainly looks like we are headed in that direction. I just hope we don't have blackouts or major power outages this summer. With everything else that is going wrong in the world, a lack of electricity might just be enough to push me over the edge. 

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4525

The weather was still hot, but it didn't affect our plans. We still had a nice early walk with Dawn and were able to take our Sunday outing a little later in the day after the ice cream store opened. It was getting a little hot by the time we took our second walk, but there was a nice breeze and Dawn did OK. We may have to stop these daytime walks later this summer though. Dawn doesn't do well in the heat.

I tried to be industrious today with mixed results. I really felt my age when I tried to fix the greenhouse door this morning. The door was heavy and I had trouble holding the pieces together without breaking the glass window in the center. I've repaired this door before, but it seemed much easier ten years ago. I thought I might need to go to Home Depot for parts, but I found everything I needed in the tool shed. The amount of stuff in the shed would indicate that I used to spend a lot more time fixing things than I do now. I didn't do a great job, but the old door is back together again. I don't know what the two hours I spent prove. The greenhouse still doesn't have a roof.

Since bulky trash day is this week, I tried to clean out the yard a bit. I noticed a lot of brush and fallen tree branches in the side yard where the air conditioner is the other day. I had to cut a path through the brush so the repairman could get to the compressor. I cleared the mess away today and hauled the brush to the curb. I cut down some giant weeds in the other side yard and hauled them to the curb as well. The yard looks a little better, but most of the time I forget the side yards even exist. Most of what I cleaned up today never gets seen by anybody.

I didn't take a long walk today. It was just too hot. I figured that between Dawn's two walks and my carpentry and clean up tasks that I already had all the exercise I needed. The worst part about being outside today wasn't the heat. It was the bugs. While I was fixing the greenhouse door, I must have been bitten twenty times. I think they were mosquitos, although I never saw any. Chiggers and other tiny critters bite as well, so it could have been anything.

There's an eclipse of the moon later this evening. I can't decide whether it's worth the effort to stay up late and try to watch it. The weather isn't cooperating. It was clear around sunset, but it is partly cloudy now and the weather radar shows a line of thunderstorms headed south toward us from Oklahoma. I'll take a look outside and see how things look after we take Dawn out to pee for the night. No great loss if I can't see the moon. I've seen lunar eclipses many times before. They all look pretty much the same.

It's been a nice weekend even though it is way too hot. I think we are setting record temperatures for May. Hopefully it will be cooler tomorrow when we go visit the rescue Dalmatians. I've never met a Dalmatian that enjoys the heat. 

Sadie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4524

It's nice to have a livable house again. It's hot outside, but the air conditioner is working fine and keeping it nice and cool inside. Hopefully, nothing else will go wrong this summer. I'm sure we've got a lot more hot days to come. 

If I didn't get to bed so late, I'd probably enjoy getting up early. Now that the weather has gotten warmer, it's definitely the nicest part of the day. We all enjoy our early walks with Dawn. The temperature is still in the low seventies before sunrise and there is usually a nice breeze when we get near the lake. Dawn has been very enthusiastic about these early walks lately. I can't blame her. Later in the day it is fairly miserable outside.

Today was grocery shopping day. I found everything on my list fairly quickly, but I don't enjoy this activity any more. I think a ton of new people have moved to Dallas recently. The stores are always crowded and the traffic is terrible. There really isn't a good time to avoid the traffic anymore. It is always bad.

I was finally able to download the new firmware that the Benro folks wanted me to install in the star tracker. I didn't have high expectations, but I did have a lot of time this morning. I gave it a try. I installed everything exactly as instructed and absolutely nothing changed. The firmware seemed exactly the same as the previous firmware I installed. The star tracker still won't connect to my camera.  I wish I'd never bothered to upgrade things after I returned from the observatory. When I was testing the Polaris on Mount Locke at the end of last month, it was the last time it worked.

I really can't handle the heat anymore. I took a walk after lunch today, but I wouldn't call it long. Two miles and I was done. I even wet down my hat and shirt, but it didn't help much. Why was this so much easier in previous years? I guess I'm just getting older. I hate to think what the weather is going to be like in July. Who knows. The weather has been so strange lately that it might actually be cooler in July. I doubt this will happen, but I can always hope.

There's a ton of stuff I need to do around the house, but this heat has taken away my motivation. It's just not supposed to be this hot in May. If I'm going to do anything in the yard, I need to do it early. Afternoons are way too hot. I don't know why I feel like I need to fix the greenhouse door. The greenhouse doesn't even have a roof anymore. A bad storm blew most of the roof off last year. We really need to tear the greenhouse down, build a carport and move our cars to the back. Traffic has gotten so bad that it's hard to get out of the driveway now.

Hopefully it won't be too hot for Dawn's Sunday outing tomorrow. She enjoys exploring a different park on Sunday. If it is too hot, we'll still go get ice cream though. Ice cream is good in any type of weather.

Lady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4521

Good grief. It's the hottest day of the year so far and our air conditioner broke. It got uncomfortably hot inside very quickly. Hopefully things will cool off tonight. I called our HVAC guy, but the soonest they can get over here is tomorow afternoon. It's easy to forget how much we depend on air conditioning in the South. A day without a working AC serves as a pretty good reminder. I'm not sure what is wrong, but I hope it's an easy fix. An entirely new system could be pretty expensive.

At least the day started out nice. We didn't notice that the air conditioner wasn't working until around noon. It was still nice outside when we took our sunrise walk with Dawn. I should have just kept walking after Dawn finished her one mile loop. As soon as the sun got higher in the sky, the temperature warmed up quickly. Instead of walking when it was cooler, I started monkeying around with the star tracker again right after I finished breakfast. I think I'm obsessed with getting this thing to work. I installed the custom firmware the company provided a second time in hopes that it would work properly this time. Nope. I got exactly the same results as I did yesterday. I realize that the star tracker is still under development, but it's frustrating to go backwards. This thing was working fine when I was out at the observatory and now it isn't. The only thing that has changed is an app and firmware upgrade.

By the time I was ready to take my long walk, it was already too hot. I didn't do well at all and was only able to complete half my normal distance. This isn't good. We've got a long summer ahead of us. It's always hot in the summer, but I don't think I can handle the heat as well as I used to. I know we're having record temperatures for early May, but this is nothing compared to what it's going to be like in July and August. I need to get used to this.

I wonder what is going to break next? Broken toilets. Broken air conditioner. Fire ants in the back yard. I'm really tired of dealing with bugs and broken stuff. Living in a hotel room while I'm watching rocket launches seems really appealing at this point. Even the simplest task always seems to turn into something more difficult. I went into the greenhouse this afternoon to turn off a faucet that had been on drip all winter. The door to the greenhouse fell apart when I tried to open it. Now I've got to find some special fasteners to put the door back together when I go to Home Depot to get fire ant killer. Yes, I was supposed to do that today, but I got sidetracked by the star tracker again.

Growing old is weird. When I had the money to travel, I didn't have the time. Now that I have the time, I don't have the money. Rampant inflation is especially irritating when you're living on a fixed income. Everything seems so much more expensive than it did two years ago. The cost of my recent trips to Kennedy Space Center and McDonald Observatory were almost double what they were several years ago. I don't really notice the price of gas because I don't drive much, but airfares have gotten ridiculous. Hopefully the price of air conditioner repairs hasn't gone up that much. This is another expense I wasn't expecting.

Sometimes I envy Dawn. All she does is eat and sleep. I'd be OK with just eating and sleeping as long as nothing went wrong. I hate it when things go wrong. That's life, I guess. Things always go wrong.

Dodger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4520

Not a lot on the agenda today. We got up early because of the unseasonably warm weather. It's still nice outside before the sun comes up. Dawn has decided that she likes walking again. She's really enthusiastic on her early walks now. She hasn't balked or frozen in place for a long time now. This is all good. I hate to get up myself, but the walks are good for me too. After walking a mile or two with Dawn, I'm usually ready to start the day.

My contact at Benro told me to go ahead and apply the patch they sent me to fix my star tracker. Somewhat cryptically he said that it wouldn't hurt anything. Against my better judgement, I carefully followed the instructions exactly and installed the custom firmware the company provided. The tracker worked, but the camera still wouldn't connect. Actually, nothing seemed different at all. The last step in the instructions said to remove the SD card from the tracker and erase the custom patch file when I was done. Oddly, the file I had installed an hour earlier was already gone. Did the Polaris erase the file itself after the upgrade? Did anything happen at all? I'm sure this saga will continue. At some point they'll probably just tell me to use a different camera. My camera is on the approved list, but it never seemed to work well with the tracker. 

I only waste time with things like this because I've got plenty of time. Actually, I've got way too much time on my hands. There are no work deadlines anymore and thankfully Dawn is still pretty healthy. I write several articles a year for obscure magazines and halfheartedly try to fix things around the house. That's about it. I'd probably travel more if it weren't so expensive. I think I actually enjoy living in hotel rooms.

I was able to complete my full six mile route today. When the sun was behind a cloud it was actually fairly pleasant. Summer is coming though. I can feel it. I usually have to change clothes when I return home because I am hot and sweaty. My pace isn't what it used to be either. Even on a good day I'm slower. I distinctly remember walking a lot faster last year. Oh, well. This is one of the downsides of wearing a Fitbit all the time. You get a detailed record of your decline.

I'm seeing fire ant mounds in the yard again. They are all over the place in the park. Fire ants are nasty and I guess I'll have to go get some Amdro granules to kill them. I always worry about this kind of stuff with dogs though. Dogs get into everything. One of the reasons our yard doesn't look great is that I never use fertilizer. Our dogs have always liked to roll around in the grass. There is no sense in using something that could irritate their skin or even poison them if they ate it. At least fire ant mounds are small. I can block them off after I treat them.

There's a pretty moon out tonight. I should go out and photograph it with one of my telescopes. Why though? It's the same moon I've seen all my life. I've photographed the moon plenty of times before. That's my dilemma. I'm bored with things I've done before and apprehensive about trying new things. It kind of leaves me with writing a blog every night.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4477

We met Dorothy today. She was a little bundle of energy and loved to play. It was hard to believe Dorothy was an owner surrender because she seemed just about perfect. How can people get rid of a dog like this? On our way home we took her to the vet to be spayed. She was a little nervous riding in the car but that was understandable. This week was full of changes and it was probably all pretty new to her. Like all of our rescue Dalmatians, I think she will make a great pet for some lucky family.

We spent a lot longer at the kennel today because there were so many dogs. For a long time it was just Charlie and Oliver. Now we've added Sammy and her eleven puppies, Dorothy, Willie, Jo Jo, Rocket, Candy, and Julip. Each of these dogs has their own distinct personality. Some are shy and others are wild. It's been fun getting to know all of them. Janet and I need to learn how to do some basic training. Some of the younger dogs could definitely use a little training.

I'm still feeling tired. It wasn't a strenuous day but all I really wanted to do was take a long nap. Actually, my allergies weren't bad today and my feet weren't bothering me a lot. I just felt tired. I've been walking less this week. My long walk has been getting shorter lately. I only walked two miles today. Dawn actually took a longer walk this morning which surprised us. She seems to be getting a lot more confident. This morning she added an extra half mile to her regular one mile loop and was full of energy the entire way. Of course she spent the rest of the day lying on the bed, but it is good to see her more active.

I've been approved to attend the Axiom-1 launch. I just found out today. I'll need to start making travel arrangements tomorrow because the launch is actually pretty soon. Hopefully, the weather will be nice and there won't be any problems. I'm always simultaneously excited and apprehensive about these launch events. I enjoy being back at Kennedy Space Center, but I don't really like traveling. I've already agreed to do a story about this launch for SpaceFlight Magazine, so I guess I'm on the road to becoming a working space journalist again.

April is going to be a busy month because I'm probably going back to McDonald Observatory for their Dark Sky Festival at the end of the month. Flying to Florida is a lot easier than driving to West Texas. It's a very long drive and the roads are filled with heavy trucks. I always dread the stretch through Midland and Odessa on I-30. It's very peaceful once I get to the observatory though. I guess I've got one more road trip in me. 

Today was even hotter than yesterday. It really felt like Summer on my afternoon walk. I'm sure the heat had something to do with why I felt so lethargic today. Maybe I just need to get more sleep. Janet and Dawn like to get up early. Not me. I could sleep till noon.

Doc is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4190

Riggs has left the building and gone to his new forever home, but we got a chance to meet Penny today. This sweet young girl is a bundle of energy and is even more of a puppy than Riggs was. We suspect that she is less than a year old. I had trouble getting a good picture of Penny because she wouldn't stay still. She loved her toys and would leap high in the air to catch a ball. I hope whoever adopts Penny understands how energetic a young Dalmatian can be. She is friendly with everyone and like any young dog could use a little training. I suspect that this happy pup is going to be adopted very soon. She's a wild child, but it's impossible not to love her.

None of the dogs wanted to play in the outdoor yard today. I can't blame them. It was not only very hot today, we were also under an air quality advisory. Cooper and Charlie did their business very quickly and ran back indoors. Penny just peed indoors. Hey, she's a puppy.

The heat won today. After reading the heat advisory on my phone, I decided that I wouldn't even attempt to walk in the park. For the first time in over a year, I returned to the gym. It was a wise choice. The air conditioning kept the place nice and cold. There was also a nice running track. It can get boring walking or running on an indoor track. At my gym there are 14 laps to a mile. After a while you get tired of going around in a circle. I thought I would be faster on the indoor track, but actually I was slower. I also burned fewer calories. I guess it makes a big difference when I am walking up and down hills outdoors. Maybe sweating burns energy too.

I was surprised that the gym seemed exactly the same after a year. A lot of the same people were still there doing the same exercises they were last year. I'm almost sure that the same music was playing on the sound system. I miss the water cooler though. You have to bring your own water now. You also have to bring your own basketball if you want to use the basketball court. You have to wear a mask when you check in, but you can immediately take it off again when you get on the gym floor. These remaining Covid restrictions are beginning to look silly, although I suspect they will be around for a while. They probably made the three or four people who were still wearing masks while exercising happier. 

It looks like this heat wave isn't over yet, so I will definitely be back. The next time I go to the gym, I'll probably resume my old exercise routine. It was a good routine and I have to admit I felt stronger than I do now. Today I just walked around the track. I did carry hand weights while I walked though. I thought this would give me a little bit of an upper body workout, but I don't think I accomplished much. The weights were light and my arms aren't even sore. Well, actually they are a little sore, but it had nothing to do with my workout. Penny scratched me pretty bad with her sharp little puppy claws when she gave me an exuberant greeting this afternoon.

The power company sent out a notice urging people to conserve energy this week. This sounded a little ominous after all the problems the power company had last winter. I'd hate to have a power outage with these kind of temperatures. We have a small house and aren't big energy users anyway, but our air conditioner is already having trouble dealing with the heat. Basically the best most HVAC systems can do is keep the indoor temperature twenty degrees colder than the outdoor temperature. This works fine most of the time. When the outdoor temperature gets over one hundred degrees you might have a problem. During a heat wave you have to cool your house down a night and hope it doesn't warm up too quickly during the day. 

We're going to have to start walking Dawn early in the morning again. We'll give this a try tomorrow. If we walk before breakfast, it should still be cool outside. At least I don't have to worry about water on the roof for a while. If there was any standing water left from our early June rains, I'm sure it evaporated several days ago.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day