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

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Day 2589

I love fog. We've had foggy mornings for the past several days and I like the way it allows me to look at the ordinary things I see every day from a completely different perspective. Fog has a way of separating the foreground from the background, forcing you to look at one thing at a time. The effect is very similar to the out of focus bokeh you get when when you take a photograph with a very shallow depth of field. Almost everything looks prettier when it is the only object in sharp focus. I try to look at life this way, always concentrating on one thing at a time. One a clear day, my eye is always multitasking, trying to interpret too many things at once. A foggy day seems much more natural to me.

On my way to the gym this afternoon, I stopped at the REI store and got a cool winter coat with a Christmas gift card that Janet had given me. I've certainly changed the way I dress over the past five years. There was a time when I had a menswear client and chose to get paid in clothes. I dressed fabulously for a while, but it was all kind of pointless. Who was I trying to impress anyway?  Nobody needs big dry cleaning bills and I prefer clothes that look good covered with dog hair anyway. I just wonder why it took me so long to discover camping clothes.

I'm beginning to realize that I don't get any more sleep on weekends. Sure, we get up later on weekends, but we tend to go to bed later too. The net result is about the same. Maybe I'm destined to get 5 to 6 hours sleep, no matter what happens. One thing I've learned by wearing a fitness tracker is that I go to sleep very quickly. Apparent insomnia is not a problem with me. Even when I wake up several times a night to take care of Dot, I'm back asleep again five minutes later. When I eventually got up for breakfast this morning, I'd almost forgotten that I'd already taken Dot outside to pee at 4:30 AM and then re-made her bed for her before we both went back to sleep.

It's raining cats and dogs right now. I took Dash outside to pee right after dinner and he was just getting ready to go when a giant thunderclap scared him and he went racing for the back door. He must not have had to go very bad, because he's sleeping under my desk right now. I'm glad we don't live in Fort Worth, because they're under a tornado watch right now. I think we're in the clear though. The storm is headed in a northerly direction. If it were headed east, I'd be under the desk with Dash.

I've often wondered why I'm not building any muscle mass as the gym. Now I know the answer. I read an article recently that said almost everybody will eventually lose up to 30% of their muscle fiber as they age. The muscle atrophy begins when you reach 50 and becomes much more dramatic when you reach 60. This muscle tissue won't come back, no matter what you do, so if you want to remain strong you have to work extra hard to build up the muscle fiber you still have left. Normal cardio exercises like cycling or walking on a treadmill won't build muscle mass at all. You need to start lifting free weights and push yourself to your limits. This explains why I'm not making much progress. It's too bad that I hate lifting weights. Oh well, at least my heart is in pretty good shape.

Tomorrow is a holiday. I'm sure this makes a difference to Janet and everyone else to goes off to work every morning. It's going to just seem like a Monday to me though.

Betty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1482

There were a lot of people at the gym today. Most of them were walking or running around the large, oval indoor track. It certainly made sense to me. Dallas has a lot of joggers and it was very cold today. If I were a runner, I'd certainly rather run indoors on a day like this. I still saw a few outdoor runners when I walked the dogs, but these were the masochists. There are those who think they aren't getting a good workout unless they are putting their body through some kind of hell. I'm not one of those people. There will be no Ironman marathons for me.

There were some rather large people working out near me today. Sometimes I'm amazed at how strong fat people can be. They may have a heart attack at any minute, but they can certainly bench press more than me. Lifting weights isn't one of my strong points. I've got good core strength though. I can do a plank forever.

As might be expected, the dogs weren't all that excited about going outside today. Who could blame them? Did I mention it was cold? We didn't bother to go to the dog park today and Dot and Dash were content to nap on their dog beds, conveniently located near a warm heater vent. I don't like the cold much more than I like the rain. I'd like a climate like Hawaii where it was mild all year long with no obvious seasons. In my Hawaii there'd be no hurricanes though, and nobody would have discovered the place yet, so property values would be low. A lot of things I like only exist in my mind.

Janet got a crock pot for Christmas and she decided to try it out today. I don't think either of us realized just how slow a slow cooker actually is. Five hours wasn't nearly enough. Tonight's dinner will end up being tomorrow's dinner instead. That's OK. While we're waiting, the house sure smells good. I've always liked the idea of one pot meals. Make something good in a big pot and then eat the leftovers for the rest of the week. It's tasty, it's easy, and there aren't many dishes to wash.

My workload has been pretty light for the past several weeks, but I'm afraid things will be returning to normal tomorrow. By tomorrow, just about all the holiday travelers will have returned to their cubicles. Maybe some of my clients in the Northern states will still be snowed in though. No hurry guys. You can wait till Summer to start sending me stuff if you'd like.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1230

I got up this morning and then all of the sudden it was dinner time. It wasn't a particularly busy or stressful day. It just all went by in a blur. The dogs got their long awaited visit to the dog park. There was no need to dress as warmly as I did, because when we arrived at the park, it was already hot. Dot is well aware of the rising temperatures. She tires much more easily in the heat. As a result, we didn't stay at the park as long as we usually do. Dash could have stayed longer, but Dot gets to call the shots these days. It just isn't fair to push an older dog too hard.

Dot didn't get to choose whether to get a bath today however. I'm pretty forgiving about dirty, smelly dogs and even I had to admit that Dot and Dash were filthy. They both clean up well though. After a bath at Vhea's LaundroMutt, their coats shine and they smell wonderful.

Janet had to run some errands after we returned from our dog excursions and I used the afternoon to finish an overdue writing assignment. Ordinarily, I would do something outside on such a nice day, but the outdoor alternative was mowing the grass, so writing seemed the lesser of two evils.

It's hard to believe that April is almost over. We've probably got one more month of decent weather before another Texas summer rears its ugly head. I don't like the heat any more than Dot does. When the thermometer starts to hover around 100 degrees for months at a time, I start to questions my sanity for ever moving down here in the first place.

Some of my new exercise routines are starting to become habits. I find myself using the small hand weights around the house during the day. I continue to do planks on a daily basis too. Making something a habit is the key to success with me. I really can't depend on desire or passion to get me anywhere.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1213

It was another day of small discoveries. One of my doctors has been telling me for months now that I need start lifting free weights to rebuild the muscle mass I had lost to statin drugs. I never really felt that I had the time, and definitely wasn't looking forward to joining a gym. Much to my surprise, I discovered that I have all the time I need. I now have a set of small hand weights on my desk that I use whenever Photoshop or Final Cut Pro gets bogged down rendering something. With the nature of what I do most days, this provides me with a more than adequate upper body workout. I don't know if lifting weights while editing qualifies as multi-tasking, but it sure beats staring at a progress bar on the screen as my complicated video transitions slowly render.

While we're on the subject of video editing, I discovered an amazing app that turns your iPad into a sophisticated touch sensitive control surface for professional audio and video software like Pro Tools, Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, and Logic. Every time I get a big editing job, I toy with the idea of buying a dedicated hardware control surface. You can save a huge amount of time during an edit session if you don't have to use your mouse for everything. Unfortunately, the time-saving control surfaces can be quite expensive. The iPad app solves all that. For a small fraction of what you might pay for a dedicated controller, the clever app gives you full control of your editing software via WiFi.  It's all pretty amazing to me. Of course I downloaded the app. Now I've got a phone that can control my DSLR and a tablet that can control my editing software. Who would have thought?

I've been toying with the idea of trying some sort of vegetarian breakfast. I'm not sure what this would consist of, but I'll bet it involves Tofu. When you try to eliminate meat, dairy products, and wheat, your options become rather limited. Maybe eggs aren't so bad. Maybe a little meat isn't so bad either. I think the real problem for me had turned out to be wheat products. My body seems to convert wheat products straight into sugar. My love for pancakes and french toast is probably what put me right on the verge of diabetes. Now that I avoid bread, biscuits, pancakes and other things made with processed flour, my blood sugar levels are back in the normal range. I carry little packets of Stevia around with me when I go to Starbucks now. My somewhat impossible goal is to eliminate sugar from my diet entirely.

The weather is looking quite nice again. I'm not going to be able to put off mowing the lawn much longer. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to take the dead lawn mower batteries to the battery store and have them replaced. I should get the batteries for the cordless electric drill and the travel shaver replaced at the same time. Everything seems to depend on batteries these days.

Tyson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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