Day 4002

Today was full of pleasant little surprises. The weather was much warmer. I was even able to wear shorts on my afternoon walk. My warranty replacement dehumidifier is already on its way. The machine may not have preformed as promised, but the company definitely provides great service. I'm not sure that Janet will want two dehumidifiers running constantly in the house, but having a second machine will definitely keep the place dry.

The best surprise was a preview of my Sky & Telescope article. I was sternly admonished not to share this pre-publication preview with anyone, so even my astronomy friends will have to wait until the magazine appears on newsstands to see it. This is "for your eyes only" my editor said. The article really looked good. There were lots of pictures and it appears like the article will be a major feature. I'm really starting to feel like a journalist now. I've managed to get five articles published in a little over a year. If Covid doesn't spoil all my upcoming trips, I may be able to do even better next year.

Dawn's birthday is tomorrow. I wonder if she's ever had a birthday celebration before? I'll have to go out tomorrow morning any get some dog cupcakes for her. I'll pick up a few cupcakes for Janet and I as well. We used to bake special cakes for our dogs birthdays. I even took a cake decorating class a long time ago. I don't think either of us have the patience for that sort of thing anymore, but we still try to celebrate.

I watched the high altitude test of the Space X Starship this afternoon on YouTube. The launch was scrubbed with one second left on the count. Nobody seems to know what went wrong yet. They may try to launch again tomorrow, or it could takes weeks to resolve the problem. It's amazing how complicated it can be to get a new rocket off the ground. I'm glad I didn't try to go down to Boca Chica for this launch. It has already been postponed several times and I would probably have needed to return home without seeing anything. Maybe I should wait until they have worked some of the bugs out of the Starship before attempting a visit.  I'm not really sure where I'd stay anyway. There aren't that many hotels on South Padre Island. 

Sadly, Covid appears to be getting worse everywhere. SpaceFlight Magazine is interested in having me do an article about the Perseverance landing next February, but I'm not sure a trip out to JPL would be wise. I'm not sure I can get myself invited either. Hey, it's something to think about. I've always wanted to visit the Jet Propulsion Lab. I'm just not sure I want to visit California right now. Maybe life will be better in February. Who am I kidding. It will probably be worse.

I've got another doctor's appointment tomorrow. This is a follow up visit with my dermatologist. I had some small seborrheic keratosis growths removed earlier in the year and now the dermatologist will probably want to see me forever. Doctors never seem to forget about you. If you see them once, you will definitely see them again. I guess this is a good thing. The older you get, the more important it is to be proactive about your health.

I still haven't taken any pictures with my new camera. I'm thinking about it though. I'm terribly slow about everything these days. I guess there's no need to hurry. Sooner or later the camera will get used.

Willow is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3996

I received the press proofs of my article about the Crew 1 launch today. The article will appear in the February 2021 issue of SpaceFlight Magazine and it looks pretty good. I got six full pages in the magazine this time and they used quite a few of my photos. I'm pleased with how everything turned out. February is looking good for me. That's when my Sky & telescope article will appear as well. My editor wondered if I'd be interested in covering the upcoming Perseverance landing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in February. Sure. Why not. I'll have to get credentials approved though. I kind of wanted to go out to JPL when the Curiosity rover landed, but I wasn't able to get approved. Maybe it will be easier now that I've gotten a few more articles published. Who knows. I may become a legit space and astronomy journalist yet.

An HVAC technician came over to the house this morning to diagnose what was wrong with my old dehumidifier so I could submit a warranty claim. I thought the guy would just do a quick write up saying that the unit wasn't working anymore. Nope. He tore the unit apart and was determined to find the problem. It turned out that the compressor wasn't leaking after all. Something inside the sealed system was restricting the flow of refrigerant to the evaporator coil and causing it to freeze almost instantly as soon as you turned the dehumidifier on. The good news is that this is something that definitely would be covered by the warranty. I have to send all my paperwork to the manufacturer and they'll open a claim. Hopefully, sometime in the foreseeable future I will get a free replacement for this defective unit. I've already got another dehumidifier running that seems to be working well, but you can't have too many dehumidifiers in this house. 

I was completely wrong about the weather yesterday. The two forecasting services I use both predicted an almost 100% chance of rain, but it stayed dry all day. We took our morning walk at the regular time and then I took another walk later in the day. It's weird how often the weather forecasts on my phone are wrong. They are pretty good about telling you what is going to happen thirty minutes from now. Not so good about telling you what is going to happen thirty hours from now. Right now it looks like we won't have any rain for the next ten days. The forecast could be completely different tomorrow morning though. We'll have to see what happens.

I penned Dawn in the back of the house while the repair technician was here. She slept through most of the service call, but finally noticed what was going on and started barking like crazy. Luckily, the repairman was just finishing up and taking his tools back to the truck. Dawn sounded like a good watchdog, but I think she was scared. She doesn't like new situations. Janet was home at the time, so Dawn calmed down quickly. Later in the day when Janet was gone, Dawn became fearful again. I think she might have gotten me mixed up with the repairman. At any rate, I knew to leave her alone and I went on my afternoon walk. She was back to normal when I returned.

The radiology department at Baylor called to schedule me for a swallow test. I'm not looking forward to drinking the Barium liquid they use during the test, but the whole thing is painless and doesn't take long. I'll be glad when all my medical appointments are over with. They all seem to happen in November and December. I've still got a follow-up visit with the dermatologist, this swallow test x-ray, and maybe a visit to see a foot doctor. Then I probably won't see anyone else for another year. 

I need to start gathering my gear together for this weekend's Santa Paws photo shoot. It would probably be a good idea to test my strobe lights and wash the backdrop as well. Most of this studio gear I only use one a year. It's all getting pretty old by now and I'm never certain whether everything will work. Fingers crossed. I'm not even certain that I'm working properly anymore.

Gretta is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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