Day 4051

I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I did get the new lens. There was actually some method to my madness. A 24-200 zoom is perfect for travel and will allow me to get the shots I need with less gear. I always like to travel light. Of course there are no trips planned. Covid is still raging and there is no place to go. Hey, you've got to start somewhere. I imagine by this summer Janet and I will both have been vaccinated and there will be plenty of safe places to go. Who knows, the observatory might even be needing volunteers again later this year.

If Facebook posts are any indication, everyone I know has already been vaccinated. How can this be? I keep reading that the vaccine is still in short supply and that it is hard to get an appointment. I know that my own pharmacy and doctors haven't gotten their supply yet. Maybe your chances of getting vaccinated depend on how badly you want the shot. Most of my friends who have gotten vaccinated are much more social than I am. They were probably willing to stand in line for hours. I imagine that many of them really, really want to return to their former lives. I'm still walking alone in the woods and happy enough to stay isolated. If I could go back to the observatory and Kennedy Space Center whenever I wanted, I could stay socially distanced forever. Masks are no problem. I'm starting to like masks.

Dawn took another afternoon walk today. Two short walks seem just fine to her. It's still a mystery why she lost interest in taking long walks in the morning, but many things are a mystery to me. If two shorter walks work for her, it's fine by me. My ongoing foot pain is equally mysterious. Yesterday, I could barely move. Today I was fine. I wore the same shoes, walked the same route, and enjoyed the same pleasant weather as I did yesterday, but what a difference. I had very little pain in my left foot today.

I finally heard from the dehumidifier folks. They said that they didn't receive my earlier messages and that the pictures I sent did indicate that there was a missing part. They suggested that I take the machine to a repair shop. I had to write them again and tell them that these pictures were of the supposedly brand new dehumidifier that they sent me just a few weeks ago. This machine should not have had missing parts in the first place. This situation is still not resolved, but I've got plenty of time. That's one good thing about being retired. I can keep writing these guys forever until I get results.

While I was at the camera store I got a new Lithium Ion battery for my audio recorder. Hopefully, this battery will hold a charge a little longer. I'm getting tired of reentering the time and date every time I turn the machine on. I've been faithfully keeping this machine ready to go for years but have only used it twice. I think the last time I used it was on a corporate video I was shooting in Las Vegas quite a few years ago. I'm always all dressed up with no place to go. Maybe I'll take this machine with me on my next rocket launch. The sound of a launch is really pretty awesome.

I need to get started on my Sky & Telescope idea again. I guess I was shocked when I started doing research and discovered that so many people were already writing about this stuff. The article I was planning has already been written dozens of times. Jeez. Amateur astrophotography is a much more popular hobby than I ever imagined. Some of these people are really excellent photographers. It's a bit intimidating. I need to remember that I have a secret weapon. My pictures of distant galaxies may not be that great, but I'm a pretty decent writer. I can describe my lousy pictures well and maybe even make you laugh.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3957

Dawn loves cold weather. She was eager to walk this morning and we ended up completing our full five miles for the first time in quite a while. If she continues to act this way, I'm going to really need to find some better shoes. My feet were killing me by the time we returned home. Even though I have my share of aches and pains, it was a very nice walk this morning. We're having an exceptionally nice Fall this year. 

My grocery list was small this week and I had no problems finding everything. I saw disinfecting wipes on the shelves for the first time in quite a while, but they weren't the brand I like so I didn't get any. Even though the infection rate is going up again, I refuse to succumb to panic buying. Been there, done that. We've still got some of the stuff we bought last April.

Dawn is acting weird again. Janet was gone this afternoon, and when it came time to fix Dawn's dinner, she refused to leave the bedroom. I could tell she was hungry and she knew I was fixing her dinner, but she wouldn't get off the bed. I tried staying in the office for a while, but that didn't work. When I went outside to check the mail, Dawn finally ventured into the kitchen. As soon as I came back inside the house though, she ran back into the bedroom and abandoned her food. I had to go pick up take-out for dinner anyway, so I left the house again. I guess she ate as soon as I was gone. Janet said her bowl was empty when she returned. Clearly, the breeders who owned Dawn previously punished her for doing things that Janet and I consider normal. It's sad. We hope she will eventually forget her past life.

I'd like to forget this entire year. It's pretty clear to me that we are going to be just as divided after the election as we are now. The virus isn't going away any time soon. When a vaccine finally does appear, a sizable percentage of the population will refuse to take it. That's how we are. A lot of jobs that were lost in the pandemic will never come back. Business has discovered that they can operate even more efficiently without a bunch of pesky workers. It has become a very weird world. Many companies are making record profits at the same time most of us have discovered we are non-essential. Everyone is upset about the wrong things and nobody is looking at the big picture.

Every Saturday I think about going back to the gym. I wonder why I am still reluctant to go when I have just completed a 1500 mile trip to and from West Texas. I'm still planning to attend the Crew-1 launch in Florida next month as well. Clearly I am not thinking rationally. A workout at a gym owned by a major hospital is probably a lot safer than a Southwest Airlines flight to Orlando. Maybe going to the gym was never really a high priority of mine. I'm sure that's why the virus is still with us. We all have our own priorities. For me it might be rocket launches. For you it might be weddings and family gatherings. Thanksgiving is going to cause a big spike in infections, but it won't stop Thanksgiving dinners. Human nature is what it is.

Today was a bad allergy day. It's too bad distancing and masks don't work for allergies. Staying away from other people is a pieces of cake. Staying away from ragweed pollen in another matter entirely.

Ellis is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3926

I've been going back and forth all day about going to Florida. The indulgent side of my brain would like to go, but the practical side thinks the trip is a stupid idea. The weather doesn't look good on launch day, there are still pretty severe Covid restrictions in place at Cape Canaveral, and I don't think the magazine is interested in a story about this particular rocket anyway. On the other side of the coin, I'm eager to try out my newly acquired press credentials. We'll see. I'd better decide soon though. The launch is Saturday. I have a feeling that my practical side is going to win this battle. It almost always does.

We had to delay our walk again because of the weather. The weather is cool enough now that there is no need to start early anymore. We left the house around 11 AM this morning and the temperature was still only 70 degrees. These few weeks of Fall weather are really nice. I wish this pleasant season would last a little longer. We couldn't find the ducklings this morning. The mother Muscovy duck really hides them well. No rabbits today either. It was just a pleasant walk in an empty park. One good thing about rainy days is that it really limits the number of cyclists on the trails.

I got a lot done today. I went to the storage warehouse and retrieved a few things that Janet wanted me to get. I went up on the roof and removed all the standing water as well. Cooler weather makes removing the water more difficult. Nothing evaporates when the temperatures start to fall. There was no need for an afternoon walk today. I got all the exercise I needed pushing the water off the roof. It's disappointing to see that parts of the silicon coating are starting to deteriorate. It's a never ending task to keep the roof sealed properly, but making these repairs is a lot cheaper than a new roof. I'm not even sure a new roof would end my problems because nobody will give me a bid on adding a pitch to the roof without changing the house's appearance. I know this can be done, but it must be more complicated than I imagine.

Even though chores kept me busy today, I still wasted a lot of time checking out airfares, hotel rates, and rental cars. There are a lot fewer flights to Orlando than the last time I went to Kennedy Space Center. I understand why the airlines are doing this, but it's not a good way to build confidence in flying. I wouldn't have any problem flying on an empty plane in a pandemic. A full plane might be a problem. I can't recall flying anywhere where I didn't hear someone on the plane coughing every five minutes. Even if the airline doesn't sell the middle row of seats, you're still not six feet apart. Basically an airliner is just a sardine can filled with people.

I hate that I'm even thinking this way, but that's the world we live in. You shouldn't have to worry about catching a deadly disease just by hopping on a plane. You shouldn't have to worry about getting trapped in a downtown riot when you are driving home late at night. I don't have kids, but you shouldn't have to worry about school shootings either. We've let our world fall apart. I don't know how to fix things. I don't think the politicians do either. 

Sage is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3911

The days are getting noticeably shorter now. We start our morning walks at the same time, but it's much darker now when we leave the house. The sky doesn't noticeably lighten until we're almost at our halfway point. This morning we completed our walk and had returned home before the sun rose above the horizon. Daylight Saving Time doesn't end until November, so we've got more dark walks ahead of us. I think Janet and I will both be glad when the temperature cools enough so that we can walk at any time of day.

I wrote another letter to my sister today and took it to the post office. These are the only physical letters I write to anybody. Everyone else switched to e-mail a long time ago. Sadly, even e-mail is becoming too much of a bother for a lot of people. Texting is gradually replacing e-mail as the preferred way to communicate. I find all this kind of sad. Communication has become so rudimentary now. I still like a nice long letter and will never resort to using Emojis.

This afternoon we took Dawn to another park to get her used to riding in the car. Janet often does this by herself, but sometimes I go along to see whether having both of us in the car makes things better or worse. Helping Dawn overcome her many fears is a long slow process. She seems eager to go on a car ride now until the car starts moving. It's weird. She's always excited when we get ready to go and eagerly hops right in the back seat. As soon as we start backing out of the driveway, she starts shivering, shaking, and panting excessively. Usually she quickly reverts to acting normally again as soon as we arrive at our destination.

I actually found Clorox wipes today. These weren't genuine Clorox wipes. They were just a poorly packaged imitation that was probably quickly rushed to market by someone who wanted to take advantage of the pandemic shortages. I bought the imitation wipes anyway. These things can be useful in a world where you are constantly wiping down surfaces and cleaning your hands away from home. I still think the pandemic will be officially be over when the real Clorox wipes return to the shelves. That hasn't happened yet.

Janet asked me if I had Zoom on my computer. I guess she wants to learn how to use it. You're on your own there buddy. I have no interest in learning about Zoom or installing it on any of my devices. There is a certain freedom in being a Luddite. To me, Zoom just seems like an irritating way to bring the stress of pre-Covid days into your own home. Zoom is incredibly popular and the company is one of the hottest stocks on Wall Street now, but I have no desire whatsoever to talk to twelve people at once.

There was nothing happening on the Boca Chica cam today, but tomorrow something might explode. Since tomorrow will probably be as boring as today, I'm sure I'll tune in to watch the pressure test. I kind of wish there were live streaming cams everywhere. It would be nice to be able to check and see if there were crowds or lines before I went anywhere. I've become obsessive about avoiding crowds these days. They weren't quite finished filling my prescription when I went to the pharmacy this afternoon, and I had to wait at the store for fifteen minutes. Jeez. I couldn't wait to get out of that place.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3891 - Janet's Birthday

Janet is two months younger than me. Neither of us can believe that the world considers us senior citizens now. It doesn't seem possible that the years have gone by so quickly. We went back to our favorite restaurant for dinner. It was the same place we went to dinner for my birthday two months ago. The place still seemed safe and the food was still delicious. I don't know how the restaurant can make money now with so few tables though. I hope the restaurant is still around when our birthday's roll around next year.

A lot of places we like just haven't been able to make it. The pandemic hasn't been kind to bars and restaurants. We wondered what we were going to do for Thanksgiving this year. For at least five years we've been going to a hotel that has an amazing Thanksgiving buffet. Buffets were one of the first casualties of the pandemic unfortunately. Nobody wants you serving your own food anymore. That was the very first thing they eliminated at the Astronomer's Lodge last March.

We keep hoping for normalcy to return, but the opposite seems to be happening. All the weirdness is just starting to seem normal. When we were walking this morning we saw an older lady and her dog that we haven't seen for quite a while. Evidently she lives in a nearby senior center and she told us that they had all been quarantined for several weeks. Today was the first day the residents could go outside again. Probably someone had gotten sick in the building. All this is going on right around us and yet on the surface everything still seems pretty normal.

I heard today that McDonald Observatory is going to start opening up again at the end of the month. They are not inviting visitors indoors yet, but they are going to have their first star party a few weeks from now. You have to make reservations well ahead of time and they will be operating at 25% of normal capacity. I doubt that the place will need any volunteers for quite a while with so few people visiting. I'm a little surprised that the observatory is opening up at all since the place is very remote and none of the staff can afford to get sick. I hope it all works out well for them. I'm still looking forward to returning to the Davis Mountains sometime in the foreseeable future.

Truthfully, I'm looking forward to doing anything in the foreseeable future. In the beginning I thought the pandemic wouldn't affect me at all since I'm a bit of a loner. You realize quickly though that everything is connected to everything else and when one thing starts to crumble, it doesn't take long for other things to fall. So many things I used to take for granted just aren't working properly anymore.

When we started on our walk this morning the temperature was in the low seventies. Dawn loved it. She had a spring in her step and we were able to complete our full five miles. It warmed up quickly later in the day, but for a while early this morning it was easy to imagine that it was already Fall. Fall is going to seem a little weird without the State Fair of Texas or the Dalmatian Rescue Golf Tournament. I'm still looking forward to the cooler weather though.

We got a late start this morning but we're going to try to do better tomorrow. I really enjoy these pre-dawn walks. I'm not so sure about the rest of the day though. Basically, the pandemic still sucks.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3886

By my somewhat low standards, it was a busy day. The sky was pretty when we started our early morning walk, so we thought we'd try the "Dawn at dawn" picture we'd been thinking about. We found a location that provided a good view of the sunrise clouds and tried to get Dawn to pose. I had to lighten the foreground a bit and wished that Dawn would have closed her mouth, but all-in-all the concept worked. Maybe I can fine tune the idea a bit the next time we see a pretty runrise.

After breakfast I put the new registration sticker on my windshield. It seems easier to remove the old stickers now, but it is still difficult for me to position these things properly. When you get these stickers anywhere near the windshield, they stick to the glass and usually they are crooked. I had to carefully peel the sticker away several times before I could achieve anything resembling a ninety degree angle. I like to place the sticker as low as I can so it doesn't obstruct my vision, but it still has to be parallel to the bottom ow the glass. This is surprisingly difficult to achieve.

I've known for several weeks that it was time to defrost the little refrigerator again. Today seemed like a good day to get this messy chore over with. I moved everything to the big refrigerator, unplugged the little fridge, opened the door, and let the thawing begin. I usually fill the interior with a couple of towels to soak up the water and just wait until all the ice has melted. After I mop the interior with a dry towel, I'm usually good to go for another three or four months.

When I was looking for my keys this morning I accidentally knocked over a huge pile of old mail on top of a dresser. Maybe it was finally time to get rid of this mail. In many ways my whole life is like a big cardboard box filled with things I plan to deal with later. I postpone as much as I can, including reading and dealing with my mail. A lot of the envelopes already had little notes saying that the letter needed to be shredded or that it needed to go in the safe deposit box. These piles of mail can sit for years.

I went through the pile of letters one by one and saved a few and shredded the rest. I should have done this a long time ago. There are other piles scattered around the office, but at least I've made a start. I think I'm going to finally contact my bank and several utilities and agree to go paperless. There is no reason for me to hang on to all this paper. I think there is a free shredding event at a local church a few weeks from now. Maybe if I put my mind to it, I can finally clean out this office. If I succeed at this, there is a much bigger pile of outdated and useless documents waiting for me at the storage warehouse.

I finally resolved a billing issue with my web hosting company before I took my afternoon walk. I really need to rethink these afternoon walks. It got up to 103 degrees today. My long walks still provide a peaceful opportunity to daydream and think, but Fall can't come soon enough. I seriously considered going back to the gym today and walking around their air conditioned track.

Tomorrow will probably be busy as well. It's time for the dreaded grocery run again. I wonder how long it is going to be before I can go to a store without a wearing mask and following a bunch of one way arrows and distancing stickers on the floor? Sadly, this aspect of the new normal is probably going to be around for a long time.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3879

I look presentable again. It's hard to believe I haven't had a haircut since early March. My stylist's new salon was a bit of a drive. I kept thinking that I'd been on this road before, but I couldn't remember why. Somewhere out here was a store where I bought my kayak. I think I passed a machine shop where I had some parts fabricated once. I know I used to pull dogs from a small community dog pound in the area. The details are all kind of fuzzy. I think I've lived in Dallas too long.

The salon was surprisingly busy for a place out in the middle of nowhere. I guess I wasn't the only one who needed a haircut. It seemed like everyone was playing it safe. Customers and employees all wore masks. A few people wore those clear face shields as well. There was a long list of rules on the front door but a lot of them appeared to have been forgotten. Nobody took my temperature or asked me to wash my hands when I entered the building. Hopefully, the next time I need a haircut the world will seem a little more normal.

We got started on our walk a little later this morning. A half hour makes a big difference around sunrise. I wish it were easier to get up early enough to start walking a full hour before sunrise. The air is much cooler at this time of day and the trails are mostly empty. Mornings are pleasant, but afternoons feel like I'm walking on a different planet. Sometimes there is a thirty degree temperature difference between sunrise and sunset.

I didn't stay up late enough to watch the Space X launch last night, but I watched the replay after breakfast this morning. I'm amazed at the dedication of my Florida photographer friends. They are always out there. Whenever there is a launch, they will post pictures of it on Facebook within a matter of hours. Even though last night's launch was in the middle of the night, there were still plenty of pictures. I'm still a little jealous. These local guys still seem to be the only ones getting access to the Space Center.

I'm seeing a lot of Egrets lately. These birds migrate, but I think ours hang around all year. I see lots of Great Egrets on our morning walks, along with the occasional Great Blue Heron, Cattle Egret, and Black-Crowned Night Heron. I'll never be a birder, but I'm slowly learning to identify all the local wildlife. We've got quite a variety down at the lake.

It's been a year since we had Hank over to the house for a few days following a medical emergency. It doesn't seem that long ago. I thought he would have found a home by now, but he's still up at the kennel. Dogs with special needs often take longer to place, but hopefully Hank will find his forever home soon. We also went to the Dior show at the Dallas Museum of Art about a year ago and I was starting to plan my first trip out to McDonald Observatory. What a weird year it's been. One year ago I would never have predicted that we'd have a new dog now and that I'd be wearing a mask to get my hair cut.

Tomorrow it's time to get groceries and fill the car with gas again. The precautions are all starting to feel normal now. I hope we don't get used to this. The old normal was a lot better than the new normal.

Lou is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3878

I got asked to join a Zoom reunion with some old classmates today. Hmm. I've never used Zoom. I've heard about Zoom meetings on the news, but I don't even have the application on my computer. I have no desire to install it either. I guess I'm officially a Luddite. I have no interest whatsoever in this sort of thing. I'm glad I retired well before Zoom meetings became mandatory in a post-pandemic world. Jeez. I didn't even like conference calls years ago. Why would you want to add a camera to a conference call?

We got started on our morning walk in the dark again. It's weird walking this early. There aren't many people out, but we certainly aren't alone in the park. Cyclists seem to get an earlier start than joggers. The main reason we take a flashlight is so these guys won't mow us down in the dark. Cyclists are relentless and don't slow down for anything. Before the sky started to lighten, we saw what looked like an odd, very slow bicycle moving in the distance. As we got closer, we realized that what looked like bicycle wheels were actually two dogs with red lights on their collars and the third light we thought was a rider was a lighted bracelet on the wrist of the woman walking the dogs. When joggers started to appear on the trails, many of them had little LED lights on their arms and legs as well. Some of the lights were red and green as if the joggers were trying to emulate the port and starboard lights on boats. Maybe Janet and I are even Luddites about walking in the dark. All we had was a flashlight.

My days continue to be slow and uneventful. Maybe this is why blog readership has gone down. Nothing to see here. Very few people read blogs anyway. They're all out doing podcasts and having Zoom meetings. Even some of my space and astronomy friends have their own podcasts now. When did things change? I remember when blogs were very popular. Lots of people used to write blogs. Of course I remember when everything on the Internet was just text because it took too much bandwidth to send a picture. I wonder if Usenet news groups still exist? There were thousands of groups and not a single picture among them. Those were the days. Luddites tend to be nostalgic. We long for manual typewriters, film cameras, and those old brick cell phones.

When we walk really early, we've noticed that the ducks and geese are typically on the water. Later, when the sun comes up they return to the shore. This makes me wonder what the ducks do at night. Do they swim around all night? Are they nocturnal like the coyotes? I guess this will always be a mystery. I'm certainly not going down to the park at midnight to investigate.

Tomorrow I get a haircut. It's about time. I haven't had a haircut since last March. If this goes well I might start going to the gym again. I'm still very careful and tend to avoid people altogether, but this virus is going to be with us for a long time. We've all got to figure out what kind of risk we can tolerate. I'll take one of the good masks with me tomorrow. The masks I wear to the grocery store and get gas are basically worthless.

I've taken the trash out to the curb and am ready for another early morning walk. There are no Friday morning breakfast restaurant outings anymore. Such is life in the new normal.

Margo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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