Day 4885

I spent the day trying to avoid the rain and it never actually rained. I think I pay too much attention to the weather. Its going to do what its going to do anyway. Everything did get done. Dawn got walked and I stayed dry on my daily long walk. It just would have been a little easier if I wasn't constantly checking the weather radar.

I'm starting to see lots of baby ducks in the park. It's that time of year. I rarely see young squirrels although squirrels are everywhere. I sometime hear coyote cubs howling, but I've never seen them. They stay well hidden. Maybe the baby owls near us have grown old enough to fly. I never see photographers around their tree anymore. With all this activity you'd think the resident eagles would be making a nest as well. They abandoned an earlier nest and don't appear to have built another one. I'm curious about these things, but not curious enough to become a birder myself. The animals in the park are just something to occupy my mind during my daily walks.

For the past several weeks I've seen lots of birders taking pictures of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. This seems curious to me, since the birds are not rare or hard to photograph. I've taken many pictures of these birds over the years. They often perch on top of yucca flowers and look quite striking. Maybe people are interested now because the birds are migratory and are just now arriving for the summer. Of maybe the birders can't find the eagles and are just looking for something to photograph.

I didn't end up doing much today. After my long walk I was planning on practicing using the star tracker again, but never got around to it. I did do a minor update to the Dalmatian Rescue website because I got one of the dogs names wrong when I was doing updates yesterday. I got an e-mail from Southwest Airlines advertising discount flights to Florida this month. This made me rethink returning to the Space Center this Spring. I haven't heard anything yet, but I think I will end up getting credentialed for the upcoming AX-2 launch. It's always tempting to go back to Florida. Especially when I can't think of anything to do here.

There seem to be a lot of homes for sale in our neighborhood now. I wonder why? When we first moved here people would live in the same homes until they died. There are still a lot of permanent residents, but the neighborhood seems more transient now. People will stay for five or six years and then disappear. Almost all the houses on our street have changed hands since we initially moved here. Things change I guess. In the beginning we were one of the youngest people on the street. Now we're one of the oldest.

Yesterday the weather forecast looked good for next week's roof replacement. Today there's a chance of rain on the day the roofers planned to begin. I definitely don't want the roof being replaced on a rainy day, so we may need to change the schedule. I probably should have just waited until July to do this. We get very little rain in the Summer here. One way or another, this job will get done. I'm just not looking forward to it.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4884

Another slow day. It's a good thing I handle boredom well because every day is virtually the same. We get up and take Dawn on an early walk. I make the bed when we return and then I eat my breakfast. Breakfast is the only time I watch TV and I often wonder why I even bother. We have a new dishwasher but I always wash the breakfast dishes by hand. It's just a habit. I turn on the computer and check my messages after breakfast. They are mostly all spam. If it looks like it's going to be a hot day, I take my long walk right away. If it's cold, I wait for things to warm up. The long walk is completely predictable. I take the same route every day. The park is huge and I could take many different routes, but like I mentioned earlier, I'm a creature of habit.

There seems to be an unusual number of wildflowers this year. This is probably because we had a very wet Spring. I photograph these flowers and have learned to identify most of them, but this isn't really necessary. I've photographed almost every variety of native plants many times over the years. It's actually been quite a while since I've seen anything new in the park. I always look for the Muscovy Ducks and count the small gaggle of geese to see if anyone is missing. I used to see coyotes frequently but I haven't seen any this year. There are also bobcats in the park but I've only seen two in the past ten years. I'm glad these birds and animals are still abundant. When we first moved here the park was wild and largely abandoned. Now it is full of people and has a huge staff of caretakers. The place has become a destination for all forms of outdoor recreation. I can't even remember why we ended up living here, but it ended up being a good choice.

I thought about practicing using the star tracker today, but it was easy to talk myself out of it. I'm never going to spend a lot of time pursuing astrophotography unless I go out to McDonald Observatory again. I think I've already proved that the star tracker works. I just haven't proved that I'm seriously interested in astronomy. I wish the observatory was closer. It is a very peaceful place to visit. It might be a while until I get out there again though. It is much easier to fly to Florida for a launch than to drive to West Texas.

I wonder how Facebook chooses things for me to see? It makes sense that I would see a lot of posts about Dalmatians. It probably makes sense that I see lots of things about guitars and astrophotography as well. Why do I constantly get posts about WWII Battle Tanks though? And why do I need to know about the giant trees of Ohio. I used to get posts about Elvis Presley every day and then they went away. Facebook seems to think I'm real interested in ships at sea and alcoholic beverages. I think they are just grasping at straws. I delete the cookies on my computer every evening and erase my browser history as well. I don't want to make it easy for these guys, but they keep trying. 

The weather forecast says it's going to be raining when we wake up in the morning. I hope the forecast is wrong. Dawn always needs a walk in the morning and I need my long walk as well. I know we need the rain, but the rainy season is always a big nuisance. If it didn't rain so much, we wouldn't need a new roof at all.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4759

I must have done something today. There are days when it's really hard to tell. It was definitely a slow day. I still haven't heard anything about the upcoming Falcon Heavy launch. That's probably not a good sign. My friend who is selling my train collection made a minor sale today. That was a surprise. Most of the good pieces in the collection are already gone, so sales have slowed down considerably. I probably should have started selling the collection a few years earlier. Nobody is interested in model trains anymore.

We had to wear our warning lights again on our morning walk with Dawn. I'll be glad when the days start getting longer. I can't say that I'm a fan of walking in the dark. Dawn enjoyed herself though. We had a good walk. I'll have to admit that these early walks are good for me. It's hard for me to get out of bed, but I'm always wide awake by the time we return home.

I thought about going to REI today because they are having a big sale. I looked on their website and there was absolutely nothing that interested me. I used to always be able to find something at this store. I still had an itch to buy something, so I ended up ordering some more astrophotography gear. Today's purchase was a little green laser that attaches to one of my star trackers. You just point the laser toward Polaris and you are aligned. Never mind that I can't even see Polaris from my house. I probably couldn't use something like this in the city anyway. It will be useful if I ever go back to McDonald Observatory though. The attachment wasn't very expensive and I don't feel like buying things anymore. Mission accomplished.

I'm still wondering where the eagles go when they aren't near their nest. Occasionally I'll see them and then they'll disappear for two weeks. They were gone today. The new female Muscovy duck has disappeared as well. Now we are back to three ducks again. There isn't a lot going on in the animal world. I haven't seen a bobcat or coyote in months.

The construction in the park is finally finished. All the construction equipment is gone and the last piles of debris have been cleaned up. The six stone gates were the last things to be finished, but they are done now.  Yesterday, custom metal posts were installed between each of the gates to prevent cars from driving on the trails. These gates are pretty elaborate, so the park department must have had some extra money lying around. 

Dawn did well in training class tonight. She's not winning ribbons anymore, but Janet is pleased with her progress. I'm not so pleased with my own progress. I'd like to find something that interests me that doesn't involve traveling halfway across the country. I shouldn't complain though. Chasing rockets is really quite interesting even though you can't do it in Dallas.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day