Day 4481

It's getting harder to get up in the morning. I'm getting plenty of sleep. I'm just not eager to start a new day. Dawn's early walks actually help make the transition from night to day. After 45 minutes outside, everything starts to seem normal again. It's hard to be in a bad mood when you are following behind a happy dog. Dawn loves her morning walks. I've learned to like them as well.

As expected, I didn't go out for breakfast this morning. I thought about it, but I wasn't that hungry. The thought of driving across town to eat more than I was hungry for made a bowl of shredded wheat sound pretty good. 

After I finished breakfast and completed a few morning chores, I called the hotel where I'm supposed to pick up my press credentials and asked if they really had a Starfish Room. They did. It was a small meeting room so they didn't bother to put it on their website. One more needless worry averted. Now I'm going to have to find something else to fret about.

I had to upgrade all the Apple stuff today. Apparently there was another hacker exploit that needed to be patched. This never used to happen. Back in the day, Apple systems seemed totally immune to hackers and malware. I could go years without worrying about my system becoming compromised. I guess that's the price you pay for becoming popular. I dutifully upgraded my phone, watch, and tablet knowing that I'll probably have to do it again in a few weeks.

Janet does her grocery shopping on Friday and grocery day has become Dawn's favorite day of the week. She gets so excited when bags of food arrive at the house and immediately starts barking for me to open the dog gate. The gate stays closed until all the food is in the house and the front door is closed. Then Dawn runs to the kitchen to supervise while everything is put away. A dog's life is pretty simple. It revolves around food and sleep. Throw in a few walks during the day and you've usually got a happy dog.

The older I get, the more I've started to live like a dog. I get lots of sleep, take naps during the day, and spend more time than I should wondering about what to eat for dinner. I also spend a huge chunk of my day walking. I walk a lot more than Dawn, but otherwise our lives are similar. Maybe this is why I react to traveling the same way Dawn does to riding in the car. Traveling gets me outside my comfort zone. It would be so easy for me to do nothing at all, but I'm convinced that new experiences are important.

My upcoming trip to Kennedy Space Center won't be a completely new experience, but every launch is different. I worry more about plane crashes that I used to and traveling seems excessively expensive now. On the other hand, I enjoy feeling part of the little community of rocket photographers and writers at KSC. Even though I don't go to the space center that often, there are still people who remember me. It's a real job too. I have a story to write and a deadline to meet. Is all this important? It's really hard to say.

Tomorrow is my own grocery day. Dawn doesn't get very excited when I return. That's probably because I usually buy things like paper towels, laundry detergent, toilet paper, and bottled water. Fresh meat and produce probably smells much more exciting to a dog. Maybe I'll look for some Hoka shoes when I'm out and about tomorrow. I"ve been thinking about new shoes for way too long.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4306

I discovered more dead ants this morning. It's not strange to see ants, but I can't recall seeing large piles of dead ones before. Luckily, most of the ants are outside, but they do seem to be coming from inside the roof. Is the one foot space between the surface of the roof and the sheetrock ceiling full of ants? Who knows. I need to crawl up on the roof and see if there is an entry point for these critters, but it's always too hot by the time I've completed my long walk. I know ants stay together in colonies in the ground. Maybe they do the same thing if they find themselves inside a roof. I don't know why they are all dying now, but I wish they'd stop. It's a disgusting mess to clean up.

We were hoping that Dawn would be adventurous on her walk again this morning, but she reverted to her old ways and just wanted to do the short one mile loop. She loves to smell things on these morning walks, so maybe when she leads us on a new path, she is just following a particularly attractive scent.

We didn't get an early start this morning, but it didn't really matter. It was still nice and cool for Dawn's sunrise walk and my own long walk that came later. It's been so nice for the past week or so that it's hard to believe there are severe weather warnings for this weekend. Forecasts change frequently around here, so I'm hoping that the severe weather threat doesn't amount to anything. I hate worrying about roof leaks, power outages, and downed trees.

I wish I hadn't upgrade my phone to IOS 15. Now the battery life is terrible. It won't even last an entire day anymore. I kind of knew this would happen, but the geek in me wanted to know what was so special about this new operating system. Curiosity killed the cat, I guess. I should have known better. New systems with lots of bells and whistles generally don't perform well on old phones.

I did better on my long walk this morning, but I'm still moving slower than I should be. The weather is beautiful and I'm feeling pretty good. Why am I so slow and what gave me that little burst of energy last week? I may be wrong, but I think my seasonal allergies are causing all this. When you are constantly sneezing and blowing your nose, it can be tiring. I guess I could take antihistamines, but I usually have a bad reaction to them. Who knows. Maybe if a storm rolls in this weekend, it will blow all the allergies away.

The dietary changes I made after my hospitalization appear to be permanent. I wasn't really expecting this and certainly haven't made much of an effort to change my lifestyle. Nevertheless, I'm drinking less coffee, have no desire to make my smoothies anymore, and am eating less for dinner. I'm having a small green salad with dinner now, but I started doing this before I went to the hospital. The salad was just an effort to eat more like Janet because she seems really healthy. It will be interesting to see if I actually am any healthier when I go in for my annual physical at the end of the month. Maybe I am, but this all might just be in my mind.

Dawn certainly seems healthier now. Getting rid of her bladder stones seems to have made a world of difference. She's on a special diet that is supposed to prevent new stones from forming. Janet and I have never liked those Hills Prescription Diets though. Finding the right food for your dog is a long, slow process. Everybody has strong opinions and if you ask ten people you'll get ten different answers. Too bad you can't ask the dog. I'm sure that Dawn has an opinion on this. She actually seems to love the food we're feeding her now, so maybe we'll stick with this for a while.

Time to make a grocery list again. I'm going to try to go early again tomorrow. It worked last week. If you can get your shopping done before 10 AM the stores are almost empty.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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