Day 4037

I tried to catch up on some correspondence today. I doubt that I accomplished much, but at least I tried. I wrote my editor at SpaceFlight Magazine and told him that I won't be attending any space related events this Spring because of Covid. I'm sure he'll understand because he lives near London and people in the UK are under even more severe restrictions than we are. 

I wrote the dehumidifier manufacturer and describled the problems I'm having with the replacement they sent in great detail. I sent pictures as well. I don't know what this will accomplish but it's frustrating that I'm having just as many problems with the replacement unit as I was with the dehumidifier they replaced. I took care of a few other odds and ends as well, but mostly I was just avoiding starting anything new.

We experimented with Dawn today. Since Dawn is sometimes scared of me, Janet walked her by herself to see if that made a difference. Nope. Dawn walked about a mile, which is exactly the same distance she's been walking when we all walk together. Dawn just doesn't want to walk anymore. This is baffling to us, since she used to love her walks. We still don't know if the issue is physical or mental. All our other dogs loved their walks. Dot and Dash loved to walk even when they got old and could barely move. We didn't learn anything during Dawn's recent vet exam. Other than having too much protein in her urine, she seems to be quite healthy.

Maybe I'm trying to read too much into this. I didn't really enjoy my walk today either. It was a beautiful day, but I felt like I was on a forced march. The park is quite large, but I've practically memorized all the paths by now. There isn't much point in going somewhere else to walk. This is the largest, most interesting area for walking within fifty miles. Driving to go walking seems counterproductive too. One of the main reasons I started doing this was to avoid using the car.

I wonder why I've been spending so much time looking at telescopes lately. If I got a better telescope, there's nothing to see. I went outside last night and could barely see Orion. The light pollution in Dallas is really that bad. I still like gadgets and gear though, so I guess this telescope quest is a good way to daydream. There are a lot of interesting dark sky sites within driving distance, but there is little point in making travel plans until Covid is over. One of the main reasons that infections got so bad in rural West Texas was the surge of bored city people visiting Big Bend National Park. Staying put and doing nothing is really the best plan until I get vaccinated. I've abandoned my plans to go out to JPL in February for the Mars Perseverance landing. It just isn't worth the risk.

Maybe there will be a new episode of The Expanse to watch tomorrow. The Season 5 isn't over yet, but I'm not sure how frequently new episodes are released. One a week seems reasonable, but that's probably because I'm used to watching old fashioned episodic television. There are thousands to movies to stream these days but very few things capture my interest. I'm really surprised that I'm even watching this show.

I wish Dawn could talk and would tell us why she has lost interest in walking. There's got to be a simple answer for this. I lose interest in things all the time for no real reason. Who knows. Maybe dogs do the same thing.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3955

I learned something new today. I downloaded the compositing software I needed, watched a few YouTube tutorials, and started stacking a sequence of Milky Way photos I'd taken out at the observatory. The whole idea of stacking is to take a series of identical images and then layer them on top of each other to eliminate artifacts and electronic noise. The software actually works and really does clean up night sky images while leaving everything looking natural. The process takes a lot of time though and I'm not sure if it's that much better than the internal noise reduction that's already built into my camera. I took some pictures using the camera's internal noise reduction and they were almost as good as the time consuming stacking procedure.

Actually, I was more pleased to discover that my pictures look pretty good right out of that camera than I was to learn how to stack images. It's always nice to learn something new though. Even thought I'm too lazy to stack my night sky images all the time, I'm sure I'll use the stacking software in the future. It's always good to be knowledgable about this stuff when you're talking with other photographers.

It's a good thing I had something new to learn today, because there wasn't much else going on. The weather is still nice and Dawn continues to do well on her morning walks. We have no idea if her seizures will return at some point, but for now everything seems fine. Dawn is definitely back to her old ways, taking long walks in the morning and then sleeping on the bed for the rest of the day.

I kind of felt like sleeping on the bed for the rest of the day myself. I'm still having a hard time catching up on my sleep. I go to bed too late and get up too early. I thought I'd sleep a lot less while I was out at the observatory, but I got almost the same amount of sleep out at the Prude Ranch that I get here. I stayed up a lot later, but I also slept in a lot later every morning. It appears that I get about five hours of sleep each night wherever I am.

When I took the trash out to the curb tonight I was amazed at how few stars I could see. It felt like Dallas was on a different planet than Fort Davis. It's clear out tonight, but basically all I could see was the moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. It's a shame that I now know how to take good star pictures, but there are no stars to photograph. Oh, well. I guess I could drive out in the country to find darker skies, but I don't like driving at night and there's nowhere close where I'd even feel safe.

The Boca Chica live feed was interesting today. The Space X folks added the nose cone and forward wings to the SN8 booster that was already sitting on the launch pad. This thing is huge and really looks like a rocket now. It is quite impressive. It's amazing how different Space X is than NASA. They basically drive the rocket parts down a state highway and assemble them in a field. The activity never stops. There are three shifts that operate 24 hours a day. I still think these guys are going to get to Mars first.

They say Covid cases are spiking in Dallas again. It's a shame that nobody can seem to get a handle on this. I don't think the Europeans are doing any better than we are at this point. I don't even know anyone who is sick now, but we continue to be bombarded with dire statistics every day. This is not good. I'm always wondering when my luck is going to run out. 

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Dayu 3897

Every once in a while I make an effort to get motivated. It usually doesn't get very far. I haven't had much luck sending e-mail to my Air Force contact, so today I thought I'd call instead. I tried five different numbers at Patrick Air Force Base and each of them gave me a "mailbox full" message. I couldn't reach a real person at all. I couldn't even leave a message. Why did I think getting media credentials through the Air Force would be easier than getting credentialed by NASA? I'm beginning to realize that I just might be out of luck until the pandemic is over. I know a few people who are still getting launch access at Kennedy Space Center, but they are all well-known Florida locals. It's kind of a shame to realize that I am one of the "non-essential" people. I might still want to do certain things, but nothing grinds to a halt when I'm not there. I guess this is the essence of being retired. Nobody is depending on you. My interest in space and astronomy is just an indulgence. I'm reluctant to call it a hobby, but that's probably what most people think.

We got an early start this morning. Sometimes Dawn gets spooked by things we can't see in the dark. She is very alert. It's weird that I can identify all the stars in the pre-dawn sky. It isn't hard when there are only a dozen of them. Light pollution is really this bad in Dallas. I know there are thousands of stars up there. I just can't see them. Despite the city lights, dawn is still a magical time. I love seeing the sky lighten as daylight arrives. Birds start to sing as sunrise approaches. I've learned to identify many of them. We often hear owls and hawks. Lately, we've been hearing Egrets and Herons. The ducks and geese are always noisy, but we haven't heard the Monk parrots in a while. I wonder where they went?

Facebook looked different today. I hate the new layout. I immediately switched back to the 'legacy" view which I guess will disappear forever on September 1st. Why do people feel compelled to change things? Everybody does it. I'm still mad at Apple for taking the DVD drive out of all their computers. I like the old Land Rover Defender a lot better than the new one. Truthfully, I still like film cameras better than digital cameras, but that ship sailed a long time ago. There's not much you can do about change. You certainly can't stop it. I try to go with the flow and accept change gracefully. It's sad though when you realize that certain aspects of the past were measurably better and you're never going to be able to convince anyone to turn around and go back.

I "drove" around Boca Chica today using Google street view. It's weird to think that the Google camera car has even been here. The landscape is pretty bleak down here. There are very few trees and  a lot of dirt. It makes me wonder why those people in Boca Chica Village decided to live there. There are no shops, no restaurants, and no gas stations. The place is certainly no luxury resort. The houses are very modest. Space X moved here because Boca Chica is the southern most point in the United States and this helps when you are launching things into orbit. I'm still not sure why the other residents moved there though.

I think that Hurricane Laura is going to bring some rain to our area tomorrow and Wednesday. The heavy rain is expected to be East of us, but we'll probably still get wet. I should have gone up on the roof today and made a few repairs while things were still dry. There's a lot of things I should have done today. I guess that's why there's always tomorrow.

Pinky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3658

We introduced ourselves to the new Dalmatians today. They are a good looking, friendly group of dogs with ages ranging from nine months to six years. Two of the newcomers are already in the process of being adopted. I'm glad that most of the new dogs are finding homes quickly. They all deserve a chance for a normal life. We spent quite a while playing with the dogs this afternoon, but it was time well spent. Ginny went to her forever home over the Christmas holidays. Hopefully, when we return next week, a few more will have found homes as well.

Before going to the kennel, I went up on the roof. It must have gotten really cold last night because there was ice on the roof this morning. Removing standing water in the Winter is depressing because it never evaporates. If I ignore the water after a rain, it just sits there forever. Eventually, it will find a way inside. So far, all the patches I've made are holding up well, but I keep finding new areas that need attention. My five gallon bucket of silicon is almost empty now. Hopefully, my recent repairs will take me through the rest of the Winter. The silicon material seems to do better when you apply it in the Summer.

I got off to a slow start this morning. I felt tired, but Fitbit said that I got a good night's sleep. Sometimes I wonder what Fitbit and the Apple Watch actually measure. The readings don't always correspond to the way I actually feel. I dream a lot. I have a feeling that my dreams are more stressful than my day-to-day life. I'm always lost in my dreams. I seldom feel this way when I'm awake.

We got home from the kennel fairly late and I ended up taking my walk in the dark again. It was such a clear day that I thought I might be able to do a little stargazing while I was in the park. No such luck. It certainly got dark enough, but the light pollution in Dallas is so bad that it's hard to see much of anything. An hour after sunset, all I could see was Venus, the Moon and two stars.

I wonder whether Janet and I will be able to stay awake until midnight tomorrow. For the past several years it's been difficult. Midnight is well past our bedtime these days. I can't imagine going out for New Year's Eve anymore. It seems like an eternity ago when my old band used to routinely play New Year's Eve parties. I usually wouldn't get home until 2 or 3 AM. How did I do this? Staying up late is the one misgiving I have about getting more involved with astronomy again. Unfortunately you can't see stars in the daytime.

Tomorrow I'll add the new dogs to the Dalmatian Rescue website. Maybe I'll use this picture of Larry.  He looks pretty handsome here.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3589

I got up early this morning to watch the Orionid meteor shower. I sat in a lawn chair in the back yard for about thirty minutes looking in the direction of the constellation Orion. I didn't see any meteors. The sky was clear, but the moon was bright and there was the usually Dallas light pollution. The meteors were probably there, but the sky just wasn't dark enough to see them.

I almost didn't go outside at all because I knew this would happen. Then I thought if I'm too lazy to even attempt to see one of the best meteor showers of the year, why am I even thinking of going back to the Davis Mountains? At some point, I went back into the house to get my binoculars so I could see a few more stars. Even though the night sky was nothing like the vivid tapestry I saw in Fort Davis, I still enjoyed sitting in my lawn chair looking up at the Orion Nebula and the waning moon. I kept imagining how much better the experience would be without a washed out city sky and the ever present Dallas traffic noise. The majestic solitude of the Davis Mountain skies was calling to me.

Janet returned from her trip today. She was pleased that the yard looked better but said the house still smelled musty. As she described her visit to Mount Hood and the Oregon Coast it brought back distant memories of a time when I lived out there. I wouldn't want to live in Seattle or Portland anymore, but it's hard to beat the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

Temperatures were in the fifties when I woke up this morning. They weren't a lot warmer when I finished breakfast and went on my walk. This is the kind of weather I like. I put on a light jacket and a hat and started walking a bit more briskly than usual. I guess Fall is my favorite season. It just doesn't last long enough here in Texas.

By early afternoon it has warmed up enough that I decided that it was now or never with the roof. I knew I had at least 48 hours before the next cold front arrived and that was enough time for the silicon coating to dry. A few of the damaged areas were still a little damp, but if I keep waiting for everything to dry completely, it's just going to rain again and the roof will continue to get worse.

Applying the coating was just as messy as I anticipated. I transferred a gallon of the silicon material from the large container to a paint can and lifted it to the roof using a rope. I apply the coating using a cheap paint roller that I just throw away after use. I wear old clothes I can throw away too. I try my best to be careful and not make a mess, but I always manage to spill some of the sticky liquid. I didn't get any silicon on my clothes today, but I did manage to step in a patch I'd just finished coating. Oops. It was a good thing I was wearing some old rubber boots that I've saved just for going up on the roof.

Hopefully, I've sealed any potential areas where water might leak into the house. You never know though. Water is relentless. I'll find out how successful I was the next time it rains.

The cancer center where we used to take Dot and Dash got damaged by the tornado. The clinic is closed for repairs now. I kept thinking how horrible it would be if your dog is right in the middle of chemo treatment now. Where are you going to go? I hope I don't have car problems any time soon. I think the Land Rover dealership was damaged as well. Weather is humbling. I like to think I can plan for everything, but you can't plan for weather.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2788

Dash threw up again last night. It's always the same. He has a completely normal, uneventful day. He goes to bed at the usual time and then wakes up again an hour or two later with an upset stomach. Usually he goes outside and throws up and then goes back to sleep again. You'd think that if he was having digestive problems, they would show up after his morning meal as well. He eats exactly the same thing for breakfast as he does for dinner. Nothing really makes sense. Sometimes we think this periodic vomiting is related to his vestibular disease. Other times we thing he ate a June Bug. Since Dot vomited occasionally before we discovered that she had intestinal cancer, we worry about that too. Today we gave him his evening meds early, so that at least he won't throw up his phenobarbital if he vomits again tonight.

Today was busy. I decided that I really couldn't postpone fixing the leaking shower stall any longer. I got out the wet/dry vacuum and adapted an attachment so that I could suck out all the water that has seeped between the shower pan and the underside of the tile floor. It took several hours to extract about a quart of water through a crack in the tile. While the vacuum was running, I went to Home Depot and looked for some sanded silicon caulk that would match the tile grout. This won't last as long as completely re-grouting the shower, but it is much easier and if I can remove enough water from under the tiles, the repair should last at least a year. Hopefully, Janet and I will remember to not take a shower tomorrow morning, or then I will have to vacuum the water out all over again.

I woke up last night around 3 AM and though I'd go outside and look for meteors. This was supposed to be the ideal time to view the Perseid meteor shower. Surprisingly, the sky was mostly clear, but I didn't see any meteor trails. When I looked to the East where the meteors were supposed to be, all I saw were two very bright security lights on a house across the street. The combination of an almost full moon, the headlights from a stream of cars returning home after the bars had closed, and the glare from the security lights made seeing a meteor trail virtually impossible. After ten minutes of futile looking, I went back to bed.

We finally got that rain today. There was a pretty good downpour around mid-afternoon and It looks like we are going to get even more rain tonight. The last time I looked at the weather radar, it looked pretty ominous. I hope we don't lose power. It's always a pain to get this posted when there's a power outage. I hear thunder now, but at least Dash is sleeping soundly. The last thing I wasn't is to have him needing to go outside and throw up during a major thunderstorm.

Assuming that the roof doesn't leak and that we still have power in the morning, I'll probably go to the gym. Oh, wait. I need to finish caulking the shower stall before I go anywhere. Removing the water is only step one. The most important thing is making sure that the water doesn't seem back under the tiles again.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2653 - Vernal Equinox

Dot threw up today right after the took her afternoon pain medication. Dogs throw up for hundreds of different reasons, but it always makes me uneasy when a dog with cancer starts vomiting. Sometimes Dot throws up simply because she drinks too much water. I didn't want to accidentally overdose her, so I didn't give her any additional Gabapentin. I watched her for the rest of the afternoon and by dinnertime she seemed back to normal. When Dot threw up on her bed, I'd just finished washing all the rugs she peed on this morning. The washing machine got a lot of use today.

I'm such a creature of habit. Even though I've almost convinced myself that it would be smart to start using electronic payments, I took another batch of bills to the post office this afternoon, just like I always do. Old habits die hard. I guess I just like going to the post office. On the way home I stopped by the vet and picked up some more phenobarbital for Dash. The dogs take so many meds now that it's going to take a spreadsheet to keep track of them soon.

I'm trying to spend a little time every clear night looking at the stars. It's a bit of an uphill battle. I found a little meadow in the park with a clear view of the sky. It's near the house and there aren't a lot of streetlamps or car headlights to spoil the view. The only problem is that all the neighborhood dogs sense me standing in the meadow and start barking at me. When one dog starts barking, pretty soon they all start barking. I looked for the Andromeda Galaxy tonight. I should have started looking last winter when it was higher in the sky. This thing is big enough and bright enough that it should have been easy to see with binoculars. I couldn't find it though. Like many other things, it was lost in the haze and glow of city lights that obscures everything near the horizon.

It actually did seem like the first day of Spring today. The weather was beautiful. I waited until sunset to walk Dot and she seemed to enjoy herself, even though she had thrown up earlier in the day. I wish Dot wasn't so frail, but we do the best we can. Even though Dot's appetite is still good, she is having trouble chewing certain things. She won't eat rice cakes anymore, even though she used to love them. Slices of banana sometimes fall out of her mouth. I don't know why she has trouble chewing a banana. Luckily, she's still fine with the Hills ID that has become her regular diet. Slowly all her favorite things are becoming more difficult. The dog that used to run like the wind now moves at a snail's pace. She's becoming finicky about what she eats and can no longer control her bladder. The scary thing is this is my future too. It's hell growing old.

I still haven't called the landscaper. I'm not even sure it's worth replacing all the Asian Jasmin and Liriope I've trampled taking Dot out to pee. As long as I'm walking behind Dot, holding up her rear legs, I'm going to continue to trample the ground cover. The yard looks terrible though. I need to do something.

I thought today was going to be uneventful. I guess it was. Dot gave me a little scare, but she's fine now. I cleaned four large rugs today, although it was far from a record. I think I've cleaned seven in one day once. The house shoes I use to take Dot outside tore apart at the seams, so I glued them back together to avoid the hassle of looking for another pair at a shoe store. Tomorrow I'll get up early and try to get Dot outside before she pees all over the place. I'll make my morning smoothie and put it in the freezer for a while so it's nice and cold. Eventually, I'll open my e-mail and hope to find an exciting new project to work on. There won't be any work, but there will be lots of spam. If I'm lucky, Dot won't throw up.

Baxter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2635

I picked up a better pair of binoculars today. I'd like to spend some more time stargazing, but I hate the idea of dragging a telescope down to the park at night. Binoculars seemed like a good compromise. Our yard is worthless for observing anything. There are streetlights and lots of car headlights that spoil the view in the front yard and a bright security light in the backyard. The large oak trees almost totally block the sky anyway. Tonight wasn't ideal for viewing since there were a lot of high clouds, but the Moon and Venus looked spectacular.

Today was a busy day. I took Dash to the vet in the morning to get his anal glands expressed and drove over to the UPS customer service center to get the binoculars as soon as I got him home again. Dash seems to need to get his anal glands expressed every two weeks. They get full and make him uncomfortable and then he wakes us up during the night licking his butt. Oddly, Dot never needs to get her anal glands expressed, even though they both eat the same food. Since Dash was much calmer than normal during his exam, I had the nurse take his blood pressure again. This time it was normal. I need to remember to send these results to the cancer center, so they won't waste a lot of time trying to get a blood pressure reading when he's stressed out.

I'm getting better at planning my trips away from the house. Since I ran all my errands in the morning, Dot was still sleeping when I returned. Dot is usually restless in the afternoon, so I try to let her sleep as long as she can. Since her morning nap is a little longer than she can typically hold her bladder, it's always a little dicey when I wake her up for lunch. Sometimes we make it outside to pee and other times we don't.

Considering the amount of time I spent running errands, I still managed to get quite a few website updates completed. There is a new article I need to write tomorrow as well, so maybe things are looking up. I wish my work was more interesting, but at least it's a change of pace from holding up Dot's rear legs all afternoon. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get a challenging project again, but I'm not  complaining. Even mindless work allows me to pretend that I'm not really retired.

When I took the trash out to the curb this evening, it seemed like I've been following the same routines forever. Every day I find myself doing things that I've been doing for decades. I take a picture for the blog. I walk the dogs. I try to do something that is billable. Pick a year. It's all basically the same. Maybe I'll look for a brand new restaurant tomorrow. There's bound to be some place nearby that I've never tried at all. The food might not be good, but I'm not sure it even matters. I need to do something different. I have a feeling that even a small symbolic gesture would be beneficial at this point.

Tucker is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2455

It's weird. Last year on September 3rd, I took a picture of a dragonfly. I haven't been able to capture one since. These critters are hard to photograph, since they move so fast and seldom perch on anything for very long. Imagine my surprise when I got my second picture of a dragonfly on September 3rd again. This must be a good day for dragonflies. I was waiting for the sun to set down by the lake and a dragonfly landed right in front of me. It's pretty safe to say that I won't photograph another one until next year at this time. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at this strange coincidence. I've been blogging long enough to realize that a lot of things happen the same way year after year.

If I go back and read a post from exactly one year earlier, I'll often find that I ate the same thing for breakfast, dealt with exactly the same dog problems, and worked on virtually identical projects.  Often when it rains, I'll discover that it rained on the same day one or two years earlier as well. Am I living some sort of real life version of Ground Hog Day? It's hard to tell sometimes.

Today was one of those day where it seemed like I was busy all day long, and yet at the end of the day I had trouble thinking of anything I actually did. Weekends are like this a lot. There are so many mindless little chores to do that a whole day can go by and you don't think you've accomplished much of anything. Hey, the toilets are clean again. There are clean sheets on the bed. We have a fresh supply of groceries. There were other chores as well, but you get the idea.

The reason I was down at the lake at sunset was that today provided a good opportunity to see a thin crescent moon and three planets grouped together low in the Western sky right after sunset. I did manage to find the moon, but there was far too much ground haze to see Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury. Finding a day with really clear skies all the way to the horizon is even rarer than photographing a dragonfly. I read somewhere recently that one third of the entire world can no longer see the milky way at night because of urban light pollution. I can believe it. I haven't been able to see the milky way or any of the fainter viable stars for decades. If you like astronomy, it's probably a good idea not to live in a large city.

Dot seemed tired today. Maybe it was just me who was tired. Dash kept waking me up last night when he started squirming around during a dog dream and ended up pushing me off the bed with his feet. I sleep a lot better when both dogs sleep well. I didn't do so well getting Dot outside to pee in the morning either. She ended up peeing on her blankets before I could get the harness on her. No harm done though. The blankets needed to be washed anyway and now everything is clean again.

I haven't looked at my stock portfolio in a long time, because it was just too discouraging. I looked today for some reason and was pleasantly surprised to discover that things are actually looking up again. The past three months have been great. We haven't completely erased last year's carnage, but some of the decisions made earlier this year turned out to be good ones. If this proves anything it is that I should quit fretting about everything on a day-to-day basis. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen anyway.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day