Day 3885

I saw a meteor this morning. It was just a brief streak in the pre-dawn sky, but now I can say I saw the Perseid meteor shower without having to stay up all night. Even though we started our morning walk early enough to see meteors, it was still pretty hot. There wasn't much of a breeze this morning and it makes a big difference. The Muscovy ducks startled us today. They were sitting on the railing of a bridge we cross every morning and we almost bumped into them in the dark. Dawn didn't even seem to notice the ducks. Apparently she is only interested in rabbits. Once again we had to shorten our walk because of the heat. I'm not getting 20,000 steps anymore, but I guess it doesn't matter.

When I watch the news while I'm having my breakfast smoothie, I couldn't tell you whether I was watching something live or a tape from last month. It's all the same. Surely there must be other things going on in the world than Covid and the election. Nobody is even spending much time talking about that big explosion in Lebanon. Even the business channels are mostly about Covid and the election these days. No wonder I've started watching the live feed from the Space X facility in Boca Chica.

I went out after breakfast and got a new vehicle registration sticker to put on my windshield. The computers were down at the first place I went, so I had to search for a new location that sold the stickers. At least you can get these things in grocery stores now. It's much easier than driving downtown to the county records building. Hopefully my car related chores are done for the year. I'll just fill my tank once a month and wait until there is someplace to go again.

We see lots of runners and cyclists on our early morning walks, but the park is virtually empty in the afternoon. I enjoy the solitude, but I don't enjoy the heat. It was well over one hundred degrees when I took my afternoon walk. You'd think I could find something worthwhile to do indoors where it's cool, but I continue walking. Walking is a lot like blogging. Both are a way to reflect on life while using up a lot of time. I'll be glad when it starts getting cooler. These afternoon walks are murder. We've got another month or two of Summer, but I'm almost certain that the heat will subside before the virus does.

When I was taking the week's trash out to the curb this evening I noticed that a large lizard was along for the ride. I don't know how he got in the can but I helped him get back on the ground before leaving the can on the street. I don't think I would have done the same thing for a spider. We have lots of lizards in our yard. Maybe they'll eat the spiders.

I wonder when I'll start going back to restaurants for breakfast? It seems kind of pointless now. Oh, well. I've still got enough fruit left for another smoothie.

Emma is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3621

There are two entrances to the grocery store I went to this morning. People usually enter and exit whatever door is more convenient. Today the store designated one door as "entrance only" and the other as "exit only" and insisted that customers use the proper door. This seemed to irritate people. I have apparently always been entering the store through the exit. Other people seemed to want to leave the store through the entrance. Why would the store do this? I couldn't figure it out. Would this improve store security? Did it create a more efficient traffic flow? Who knows. The only thing I saw were irritated customers.

I cleared the standing water off the roof today. There was a lot of water on the roof and there are still no leaks inside the house. Maybe my repairs worked. Keeping this roof free of water has become my own version of Sisyphus and the stone. I have a feeling that I'm going to be doing this forever. It's going to be a lot warmer tomorrow, so if the roof is completely dry I might try one more round of repairs with the remaining silicon material I have.

Although it was a clear, sunny day, it was still pretty chilly outside. I'm glad I wore a coat on my walk. There was a Christmas art fair in one of the park buildings today. There was a time when I would have stopped and taken a look around. I've bought things at this fair before. Times have changed though. I'm not trying to acquire stuff anymore. There's way too much clutter in the house already. The last thing we need are more things hanging on the walls. I hope all the artists did well, but my collecting days are over.

It was time to remove water under the shower tiles with the wet/dry vac this afternoon. I have to do this at least once a month now. When I emptied the water when I was finished I discovered that there was a lizard inside the vacuum. The lizard didn't seemed harmed, but I felt bad anyway. It must have been terrifying being inside a vacuum cleaner canister for an hour while it was running. I need to remember to check for lizards before I vacuum again.

I was wrong about our road being completely closed today. Traffic was still flowing. It just had to detour around the bridge. I had plans to avoid the bridge completely today while I was running my errands, but I forgot and ended up taking the detour myself. I'll be glad then this construction is finished. Unfortunately it is not going to happen soon. Building a bridge is complicated.

I need to start making my travel plans soon. I love attending these NASA events. I just don't like the process of getting there. I feel the same way about going to McDonald Observatory. It's too bad I was born several centuries to soon for teleportation. I'd be one of the first to say "Beam me up, Scotty."

It's time to go to the gym again. Will I ever do this more than once a week? There just doesn't seem to be enough time. I guess my five mile walks will have to suffice. Outdoor walks are more fun than a treadmill anyway.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3501

Maybe I'm getting too much sleep. I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. Since I wasn't tired, I took this as a sign that I should walk early. Not that it made any difference but it was surprisingly cool outside. The air quality was terrible though. My new watch told me so.

I had thought the water level at the lake was so low because of the Summer heat. I guess I was wrong. I saw something on the news today that said a piece of the dam that regulated water level had broken. The dam had sprung a leak. This wasn't a piece of high-tech equipment that broke. It was just a big piece of wood. That doesn't seem hard to replace. Maybe I'll see the water level rising again soon.

I didn't see much on my walk today. I took a better camera with me to photograph Egrets but they were too far away. Yesterday they were close to shore. Birds are unpredictable. Today the only thing I could find to photograph was a small lizard.

Instead of going out for breakfast this morning I stayed home and finished off the fresh fruit. I should have gone out. I think the breakfast restaurant tradition started in the first place because four smoothies in a row was all I could handle. While I was eating I tried to figure out some of the new functions of my watch. In addition to providing air quality warnings and electrocardiograms, it also did a lot of other cool stuff. Maybe it wasn't such a bad purchase after all.

I noticed that some new viewing dates have opened up at McDonald Observatory, so I started investigating a trip out there in more detail. Planning a trip was more complicated than I anticipated. Special viewing nights at the big telescopes are limited to eight people and even thought viewing dates for the Fall were just announced a few days ago, they were already filling up fast. Since astronomy trips are fairly worthless unless you have clear skies, I tried to see if there were special long range weather forecasts for astronomers. Surprise. Actually there are. I looked at several potential observing dates in September at the 82" telescope and there was a high probability of thunderstorms. Not good. It looked like there was going to be a clear day in August when there was an opportunity to visit the smaller 36" telescope, but there was only one opening left. I think Janet wants to go on this trip, so that wasn't good.

Were all these forecasts event even remotely realistic? Usually the weather forecasts for tomorrow are wrong in Dallas. How can you accurately predict the weather for September? It's a mystery to me. Every day in September had a specific prediction though. Forecasts for August were even more specific. Can I trust these forecasts? I'd hate to drive all the way out to Alpine, Texas and have it rain on my viewing night.

Planing the trip was so complicated that I decided to think about it for a while. Do I drive or take Amtrak? Oddly, you can take the train to this small Texas town. Which telescope is the best? There are three to choose from: the 102", the 82", and the 36". At first glance you'd think that the biggest one would be the best, but that isn't always the case. Viewing nights for the 102" inch telescope are only offered when there is a full moon. The smaller 36" telescope is available on a few select nights where there are dark skies. Also, tickets are not refundable if it rains at the last minute. You just go listen to an astronomer talk instead of looking through the telescope. It's all kind of a crap shoot. You just have to pick a day and hope you get lucky.

So far, I haven't been very lucky with my U-Verse service. The fiber optic line still goes down periodically throughout the day. A technician is coming over on Sunday, but I bet he isn't going to have the patience to diagnose an intermittent problem like this. I bet he just replaces all the equipment instead.

Smokey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3437

A guy stopped me on my walk this morning and wanted to show me some lizards. OK. I wasn't really looking for lizards but at least he wasn't trying to show me snakes. "Over there by that bush," the guy said. I must not have been looking in the right direction because the guy quickly added "No, not on the ground. they're walking on top of the leaves." Sure enough, there was a small, seemingly weightless lizard walking across some broad leaves. The guy told me the name of the lizard and I told him the name of the bush. It looked like the lizard was looking for small insects to eat while the bugs were just trying to eat the plants. That's how the food chain works. Everyone is trying to devour something.

The plumbers came out today and fixed my leaking shower and noisy toilet. I'm glad I didn't try to fix the shower by myself. The fixtures didn't use washers or o-rings. There were special ceramic cartridges installed in the shower faucets instead. I've seen these type of things in a kitchen faucet before, but never in a bathroom. The plumber knew what the cartridges were but didn't have any on his truck. He took the bad cartridges with him to a plumbing supply store and luckily was able to match them. The ceramic disks in the cartridges are supposed to be maintenance free, but the plumber said that grit in the supply lines can get between the disks and prevent them from closing completely. Apparently that's what happened. Our city water is notoriously full of grit and sediment. While the two plumbers were at the house I had them fix the noisy toilet too. I could have kept the plumbers at the house all day fixing small problems, but plumbers are expensive. I think I'm good for now.

I'm glad I got the plumbing problems taken care of, but I wasn't as successful with everything else. The roofer told me that he still hadn't had time to finish the estimate he started in February. My contact at the auction house must be on a trip around the world because I've been getting "out of office" auto-reply messages from him for a long time. I haven't heard from NASA yet either. I guess I've just got to be patient on that one.

It's already starting to get uncomfortably hot. I noticed that the air conditioner was running last night and the temperature has gotten over 90 degrees several times this week. It's hard to believe that it's still snowing in some parts of the country. I wish our Spring would last a little longer. It's the nicest part of the year in Texas. 90 degrees isn't so bad when you've got a little breeze. I'm not sure I'll still enjoy walking when it's 110 degrees in July. Even the dogs didn't like to go outside under those conditions.

It's been a busy day but I think I'm caught up on everything. The week's trash has been taken to the curb, I've done the laundry, and the dinner dishes have been washed. Now I need to decide where to go to breakfast tomorrow. I hope I manage to come up with something better than I did last week.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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