Day 4920

No rain today, but the humidity was so high that it felt like it was raining. At least it was overcast and relatively cool outside. The humidity would have seemed even worse if the sun was shining. I had plenty of time to contemplate the weather today. I don't think I did anything except walk and eat. 

Our sunrise walk with Dawn was enjoyable. Dawn is always eager to go on these early walks. I'm always sleepy, but this is how I wake up. I wish the entire day was like these mornings. It warms up quickly though. By the time I'm ready for my long walk, I usually think it would have been smarter to go to the gym. Today wasn't that bad. I only questioned my sanity a few times during the walk.

The loose dog I saw animal control trying to capture yesterday was still there this morning. I guess they didn't catch it. There's a story here but I don't know what it is. The dog seemed friendly and I thought it would be easy to capture. The dog probably knew what it's fate would be if it wound up at Dallas Animal Services. Maybe a local rescue group will take an interest in this dog. There seems to be an epidemic of people dumping dogs around town and most of the rescues are full. It's all kind of sad.

I'm impressed at how quickly the park department removed all the downed trees from Sunday's big storm. I saw crews working with chain saws yesterday and today almost all of the trees were gone. There were lots of downed trees in the park, so this was a big effort. The park department seems like a model of efficiency compared to other parts of city government. Maybe I just notice things since I'm walking every day, but I'll have to admit that I'm impressed.

As soon as the ground dries out I'm going to have to mow again. We've had so much rain this Spring that the grass is doing really well. Grass has overrun several gravel pathways in the yard, but I don't really care. It's green and everything looks pretty nice. I keep thinking that I should hire a lawn service to take care of the yard, but I need to stay active and it isn't that hard to keep doing things myself. What else would I do anyway? I'm not that busy.

I've got an appointment soon to sign up for TSA Pre. In theory this will make it easier to travel. It will certainly save me time at the Orlando airport. I won't be going anywhere soon though. The roof was expensive and there are other big bills this month as well. I miss my time in Titusville though. I'm already looking at upcoming launches and trying to decide which ones I really need to see. I'm sure I'll be back at Kennedy Space Center later this year however. It's important to still have something interesting to do.

Dawn did well at her training class tonight. She's not been winning ribbons lately, but Janet says she still enjoys the class and knows all the commands. I probably need some sort of training class myself. I've forgotten just about everything.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2432

Today was quiet. I spent most of the day finishing my remaining writing assignments. In theory, I could make a good living this way, but the assignments aren't consistent enough. I miss the days when reading was considered mandatory. Back in the day, I used to write lots of annual reports for large corporations. These jobs always paid well and weren't much harder than the lower paying online work I do today. Everything is visual these days. I was curious when I heard about Instagram Stories recently. Finally, an Instagram feature designed for people like me. Not really. I was very disappointed when I discovered that these "stories" were just meant to be collections of short videos. In a world where people increasingly communicate using emojis, I'm lucky to have any writing jobs at all.

Since Dot keeps me housebound most of the time, I watch way more TV than I should. I never actually watch entire shows, but the TV in the kitchen is always on and I'll glance at it as I'm doing my daily chores. Donald Trump is increasingly portrayed as an unbalanced Dr. Strangelove. Hillary Clinton is portrayed as an evil mafia boss who is above the law. Since there is a basis for both of these portrayals, why are we being asked to vote for either of these people? The main message of both campaigns is that the other guy is even worse than they are. It's pathetic. You'd think the third party candidates would get a little more traction in this toxic environment, but nobody even bothers to interview Gary Johnson. The media treats him like someone who was born with six toes. He's just a curiosity. I'm pretty burned out on political news, but it's still more interesting than cooking shows or The View. Why do the networks even bother with daytime programming? I think the only people watching are me and a bunch of people sitting in doctor's waiting rooms.

I'm still trying to figure out how to reconfigure my network router so I can use my pet cam again. I guess I could just go buy a different pet cam, but I am determined to get the existing one working. I've given up on AT&T and have started talking with the people who make the software that the camera uses. So far, they're just asking me a lot of questions, but the questions are very specific, so I think we might be getting somewhere.

Janet and I found a lost dog while we were walking Dot and Dash this evening. The little dog was friendly, but was hard to catch since we couldn't move very fast with Dot. Luckily, a neighbor driving down the street saw us and stopped to help. We found a phone number on the dog's collar and he said he would try to reunite the dog with its owner. Hopefully, they are back together now.

Tomorrow I have an appointment for my annual safety inspection. I've tried to schedule this excursion so that Dot will be asleep while I'm gone, but I have little control over what Dot actually does. Just because she's usually asleep at 10 AM, doesn't mean that she's going to be sleeping tomorrow. Whenever I go out these days, I tend to come home to find a dog who has pooped all over the place.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. This has been a long, very hot week. The trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm almost ready for bed. I'm hoping that the safety inspection doesn't take very long, so I still have time to go out for breakfast. I'd definitely like to end the week with a good breakfast.

Hannah is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day