Day 4004

It was a slow day. The big event today was gving Dawn a bath. I didn't really think Dawn was dirty, but Janet likes a clean dog. We took her to the self bathe place in my car this time to see if a different vehicle made any difference. Nope. She still doesn't like to ride in a car. Considering all the whining and shivering during the car ride, she was surprisingly good about the bath itself. At any rate we have a clean dog. She smells good. And she got her nails trimmed as well.

The warranty replacement dehumidifier arrived today. Now I have more dehumidifiers than I know what to do with. There are two brand new dehumidifiers and two broken ones. I need to get rid of the damaged machines. My HVAC guy said it would cost me more to repair each of them than it would to buy a new dehumidifier. I wish I didn't have this strong desire to fix everything. Some things just aren't worth fixing. I wish I knew about the warranty program when the first dehumidifier broke. It's out of warranty now, but I probably could have gotten that one replaced as well.

I watched the Delta IV Heavy launch I really wanted to go to a few months ago on a ULA live stream this evening. The launch has been delayed over and over again, but this time everything went perfectly. I wish I could have been there. It looked like a beautiful evening and I started seeing some spectacular pictures from my photographer friends a few hours later on Facebook. I'm never going to be able to attend as many launches as I'd like. It's just too expensive.

The resurgence of Covid cases has gotten me nervous about traveling again. I don't want to push my luck. I made it safely to West Texas in October just before there was a huge surge in cases out in that remote region. My trip to Florida to attend the Crew-1 launch went well too. I'm not so sure about going to Mississippi for the Artemis 1 static fire or to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory out in California for the Mars rover landing in February. Maybe I should just wait. I hate to turn down a magazine assignment though. We'll see what happens. I'm overly cautious about almost everything, so I'll probably do the right thing.

I made an appointment to see the foot doctor today, so all my medical visits should be complete before the end of the year. Hopefully there won't be any more doctor's appointments for a long time. My face looks terrible today after yesterday's liquid nitrogen treatment at the dermatologist. This will pass though. I've done this before. 

Janet and I were going to go to the Dallas Arboretum this afternoon because it was such a nice day. Not so fast. Apparently in a post-Covid environment you can't do anything spontaneous anymore. Now you have to make a reservation online at least 48 hours in advance. Good grief. This is Texas. You never know what the weather is going to look like 48 hours in advance. I don't even know what the weather is going to look like tomorrow. It is supposed to rain, but we won't know whether we'll be able to walk Dawn until we wake up in the morning.

Princess is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3991

The new dehumidifier arrived today. Amazon Prime is still kind of amazing to me. Things really arrive fast. This new machine looks and feels basically just like the old one. It's the same size. There's an air intake vent, an exhaust vent, and a bucket that fills with water that the compressor extracts from the air. The controls on the top let you control the fan speed and set a target humidity level you'd like to reach. For some reason the instructions said to leave the machine in an upright position for two hours before turning it on. I'd never turn a dehumidifier on its side anyway, but I followed the instructions. The new dehumidifier was pretty noisy when I finally turned it on, but so was the old one. You get used to the noise. Hopefully this new dehumidifier will remove a lot more water from the house than the old machine. I'm hoping to get the old dehumidifier replaced under the warranty program as well. The house is big enough that two dehumidifiers would be useful.

Yesterday was cold. Today was much warmer. Texas weather makes no sense to me. It all seems so random. I always go out in the backyard after I wake up to see what type of jacket I need on our walk. There are days in November when I need two warm coats. There are other days when I can wear a t-shirt. Occasionally, our air conditioner still comes on in November. Some of the Spring flowers seem to re-bloom in the Fall when everything else is dying. That's a little confusing too. When we got the weather and the clothing sorted out, we had a nice walk. Dawn still has lots of energy and seems to feel a lot better than she did in the weeks before her seizure.

I didn't accomplish much today. I did get the new dehumidifier running, but that was about it. I tried to call my HVAC guy to see if he could do the diagnostic report that the manufacturer wanted before they would replace my old dehumidifier. No luck there. The place was closed for the holidays. I watched a couple of YouTube videos about how to set up the menus on my new camera. This camera offer a a lot of flexibility, but that means there are a lot of buttons and menu items to remember. I should probably watch some YouTube videos on my old cameras as well. I still haven't completely mastered any of them.

I'm wondering when I'll hear whether I've been accepted to attend that Artemis-1 static fire test at Stennis Space Center in late December. If I'm going to go I need to start planning. It seems kind of weird to want to go all the way to Mississippi to watch four rocket engines fire for eight minutes when the rocket isn't even going anywhere. This test is important though. The next stop for the rocket after the static fire is the moon. Hopefully Covid outbreaks won't continue to get worse. I think Southwest Airlines is going to start filling center seats again in December.

We had Thanksgiving dinner all over again tonight. Probably everybody else did too. There are always so many leftovers after a big meal like this. The meal was just as good the second time. I imagine there is enough left for a third time as well. I do love a really good smoked ham. I see lots of ham and cheese sandwiches in my future.

It looks like it is going to rain tomorrow. I'm hoping that we can get Dawn walked and I can take care of the grocery shopping before the rain begins. I'm never fond of rain. When it rains the roof may leak. A sudden storm may knock over one of the Oak trees in the back yard. Roads become slippery when it rains and Dallas drivers never slow down. Dawn refuses to go outside and pee when it rains as well. If it absolutely has to rain, I prefer that it happens at night when I can sleep through the whole thing. 

Spots is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day