Day 4120

I got a call from my doctor asking whether I'd been vaccinated yet? Good grief. The place where I got vaccinated is part of the same medical group that my doctor belongs to. When I filled out all the vaccination forms, I checked the box that asked whether it was OK to share the information with my primary care physician. Obviously, nothing has been shared. Doctors seem inable to share information with each other. I've filled out the same information over and over again whenever I see a doctor. Nobody shares information and nobody corrrects incorrect information in your files. It makes you wonder why doctors even want all this information. Nobody reads it.

When we visited the rescue Dalmatians this afternoon the football the dogs liked so much last week was gone. We asked about the football and were told that the kennel dogs had destroyed it. I'm not surprised. A popular toy doesn't last long in a busy kennel. We'll have to look for a new toy football. Charlie and Cooper loved that thing. The dogs were playful today, but that wasn't much of a surprise. They are always playful. I hope both of them end up getting adopted by a young, active person.

My allergies seem to have cleared up. I can't remember if this the time of year when they disappear for a while, but it seems about right. Nothing is happening on schedule this year. Most of the Irises in the park haven't even bloomed yet. The ducks seem to be nesting later than usual as well. I haven't seen any baby ducks at all. I have no idea whether school is in or out anymore. I still see lots of kids in the park during the week who ought to be in school. Just about the only thing that hasn't seemed to change this year is Dallas traffic. The traffic is still terrible.

Dawn had a nice walk before we went to visit the rescue Dalmatians and then I had a not so nice walk after we returned. Today wasn't a great day for my feet. There still seems to be no rhyme or reason as to whether I'm going to experience foot pain on any given day. I'd ask my doctor except I've already done that. He sent me to a specialist who didn't have an answer either. I should probably just quit complaining. The pain obviously isn't bad enough to keep me from walking. I completed six miles today.

I think I felt more comfortable traveling during the height of the pandemic than I do now when everyone is returning to hotels and airports. I've always enjoyed doing things when other people were doing something else. I loved when the airlines blocked the center seats and the planes were half empty. My favorite time to walk is on overcast, dismal days when the park is empty. Even when I was younger and went out more, I would typically get tickets to see unpopular bands because I knew there wouldn't be big crowds. There are some interesting launches at Kennedy Space Center later this Spring, but I'm dreading flying into Orlando now that everyone wants to go to Disneyland again. 

I finally figured out why I'm probably stuck running Sierra on my computers forever. Sierra is the last OS that will run 32 bit software flawlessly. Apple began the transition to 64 bit software with High Sierra and when Catalina appeared, they completely pulled the plug on 32 bit software. It just won't run on newer machines or newer operating systems. This kind of sucks since I still have a ton of perfectly good 32 bit software that I bought back when my business was busy. Why should I subscribe to Office 365 when I have a perfectly good working copy of Office 2011? Why should I subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud when I've been using CS-5 for years without any problems? I hate the subscription model that most software companies have adopted. It's just a way for rich companies to get even richer. Can I keep ignoring the future? Maybe. My Dad never used computers at all and he did OK.

Janet wants me to go out and look for a cell phone booster tomorrow. Do such things exist? Our iPhones barely work in the house anymore. We have to go outside when we get a call. I keep the old landline because it's much easier to make outgoing calls on it. All the phone companies are talking about 5G now when they never even got 4G to work reliably. It's a a good thing I'm retired. I'd really be frustrated if I had to depend on today's technology.

Angel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3798

Visiting the rescue dogs on Monday has become part of our regular schedule again. We missed seeing these guys when everything was shut down. Hank, Charlie, and Cinder are the only Dalmatians currently staying at the kennel, but we don't want to forget about them. Each of these dogs has their own distinct personality and it's fun spending time with each of them. They certainly love the attention.

Dawn is content to stay home when we visit the other dogs. I don't think she has any desire to return to the kennel. When we return from our long morning walks, she immediately hops on the bed and takes a long nap. She's found what she wanted. Dawn still loves her walks, but I think we're going to have to shorten them as the weather grows warmer. Dawn is not a young dog and Texas summers can be pretty intense. So far, it's still really nice early in the morning but I don't know how long this is going to last. Today's high temperature was over 90 degrees and it's not even June yet.

I finished filling out all the paperwork and sent my application for media accreditation to the Air Force. Hopefully, my request will be approved. There are several important launches taking place this year and I'm uncertain if NASA will return to normal operations in the immediate future. Getting military clearance might be my only chance to return to Kennedy Space Center this Summer or Fall. The magazine I write for has been very helpful. We'll see what happens. Now I've just got to sit back and wait. I'm still looking forward to covering the Mars 2020 launch in July.

I'm not looking forward to seeing the dermatologist later this week. I've known that I probably needed to have the blemishes on my face looked at for quite some time, but I've been avoiding making an appointment. My doctor finally made the appointment for me and gave me no choice. Maybe it won't be that bad, but I've seen what dermatologists do. I don't want anyone cutting on my face.

Stores are open again in Dallas, but I have no desire to go shopping. I wonder how many of my new habits will become permanent. I wash my hands obsessively now. Whenever someone approaches on a path in the park, I move well out of the way. I've always been somewhat suspicious of strangers and now I look at them like hand grenades waiting to explode. I'm not really fearful about the disease, but my natural suspicions about people have been amplified. This is probably not a good thing. Especially if millions of other people feel the same way.

I'm not sure when I'll return to a restaurant. I believe the information I'm hearing that confined indoor spaces where you linger a while are the most dangerous. Grocery stores are actually pretty safe because you are moving around and are not in one place for very long. Walking in the park is not dangerous at all. I'm glad I have no desire to go bar hopping. A crowded bar is probably the worst place you could be right now.

I know where I'll be tomorrow. We'll be walking Dawn early in the morning to avoid the heat and then I'll make my morning smoothie. Sounds pretty much like what I did today.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3760

I saw something interesting today. Google and Apple are teaming up to create a new app that can monitor up to three billion people and warn them if someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus is nearby. This is the death of privacy as we know it. Three billion people is one third of the entire world's population. The app is real and will very likely be available on your phone quite soon. I predict that this app will be very popular. I'll probably use it myself. Safety, or even the illusion of safety, almost always trumps civil liberties. Privacy actually disappeared quite a while ago. Google and Facebook know everything about us already. This new app just lets us eagerly opt in to a surveillance state that is already up and running in China.

It won't be long before people realize that others can easily be added to the master database. Sex offenders will be added first. Then will come a long list of people that everyone will argue about for years. Should people with a history of domestic violence be on the list? How about anyone who has committed a felony. There will be all sorts of lawsuits but nobody will be able to put the genie back in the bottle. Eventually commercial interests will want to get in on the action. If bad things can be tracked, why not good things. Match.com will introduce an app where your phone beeps when a suitable match walks nearby. Parents will be able to monitor their children and see if they are hanging around with the wrong crowd.

I'm convinced that the deaths from the coronavirus are only the tip of the iceberg. The big experiment we are undertaking now will fundamentally change society. We won't know for years whether we actually did the right thing. When you begin to suspect that anybody walking past you on the street could kill you just by breathing, I doubt that we will go back to trusting people very soon. Are you going to flinch when the first person who isn't a trusted friend tries to give you a hug? Our own country might fare worse than other countries because we are so politically divided. Jeez. We already don't trust anyone who doesn't agree with us. This virus will only make things worse.

I'm so glad I grew up when the world was comparatively normal. The duck and cover drills and backyard fallout shelters that were common when I was in grade school were nothing compared to this. I don't think that there had been a time in human history when we collectively decided to shut the entire world down. Even during the worst of both World Wars, society was still moving full speed ahead. This is new. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I can't wait to return to McDonald Observatory or get another chance to walk around on the pad at Launch Complex 41. Neither of these activities involve interacting with a lot of other people. Astronomy has always been a lonely profession and launch access at Kennedy Space Center is extremely restricted. I'm not looking forward to Happy Hour drinks or a night of clubbing, but I would like life to return to normal. Everyone has their own version of normal. A functioning society wasn't meant to live like this and at some point the cure will be worse than the disease.

I hope that all of you are staying safe. I'm enjoying getting to know Dawn better and am glad that she is completely unaware of how much the world has changed. I don't do much, but I'm going to continue as many of my normal habits and routines as I possible can. A sense of normalcy is important in uncertain times. I hope my phone doesn't start beeping the next time I see some of you.

Apollo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2687

Dot didn't want to be hand fed today. She wanted to stand up and eat dry food out of her bowl. She was still slow as molasses, but she carefully chewed and swallowed each piece of kibble and then drank some water. It was like old times.

We still had our moments this morning, but the crisis appears to be over for now. Today's problems weren't life threatening and mostly involved Dot's ongoing incontinence problems. I wasn't prepared for her renewed energy this morning. When I woke up, Dot was already awake. I raced to open the back door, but by the time I returned to pick her up using the harness, Dot had already tried to get up on her own, started peeing, and then slipped and fell in the puddle of pee. I took her outside and then placed her on a protective mat so I could clean up the mess. While I was cleaning up the pee, Dot tried to get up again and this time she pooped on one of the living room rugs.

By the time I got Dot and the house cleaned up again, it was already pretty late. It looked like it was going to rain, so I decided to walk Dot before fixing my own breakfast. This was a good plan because it did rain shortly after I returned. Luckily, I didn't have to walk Dash this morning, because Janet had already walked him very early before I woke up. By the time I finished breakfast, washed all the soiled rugs, and did the dishes, it was noon.

Giving Dot her pain pills is still a problem. She hates having me put the pills down her throat. To make the process as smooth as possible, I sit on the living room floor with her, surrounded by little plates of her favorite food of the day. I make sure she's relaxed and still eating and then I hide each pill in a small ball of cheese and place them down her throat one at a time. Between each pill I make sure she eats something, to insure that the pill has been swallowed. If I can get the pills down her throat quickly, she hardly even notices. If I'm slow, or don't place the pill properly, there's always a chance that Dot will bite me. So far, she's only bitten me once. She wasn't trying to bite me. She just closed her mouth while my hand was still in it.

Dash has noticed the huge variety of food we've assembled to keep Dot eating and decided to become a picky eater himself. There's nothing wrong with Dash. He's just being a little shit. I've given up trying to make him eat his regular food. I just place a few kibbles of each variety we have on a large dinner plate and see which one he goes for. It changes from day to day. I fill his bowl with whatever brand he picks and usually we're good for the day. I've probably created a monster, but I can't think of anything else at the moment. My day is complicated enough as it is.

There is no consistency to Dot's eating and sleeping habits anymore. Sometimes she'll be hungry when she wakes up. Other times she won't have any interest in food until much later in the day. I feed her whenever she wants to eat and by the end of the day we're usually pretty close to our quota. She's still not eating enough, but I don't think we need to worry about Dot starving anymore.

I wish I could tell you that being a full time dog nurse was causing me to miss deadlines, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. Work is so slow that I have plenty of time to get everything done anyway. It's probably good that business is slow. I'm not sure how much stress I can handle. At this point, I definitely don't need to add website problems and writing deadlines to my day.

I continue to be amazed that Dot is still with us. I guess miracles do happen from time to time.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2179

I'm glad I didn't go to Florida now. The Orbital ATK Cygnus launch got scrubbed a few minutes before the scheduled launch due to weather problems. This is the same thing that happened when I went to Vandenberg Air Force Base. Sometimes I think that the only people who actually see these things are people who live nearby. There are so many factors that can cause a launch to be postponed that it's almost impossible to plan a trip around a date that was arbitrarily set months in advance. If you're on a tight schedule or can't afford to extend your trip, you're just out of luck.

I thought that the new dehumidifier was broken today when I moved it to another room and I couldn't get it to turn on again. It seemed like a circuit breaker had been tripped, but I couldn't find any breakers to reset. I was stumped. After spending over an hour on the phone with two different customer service representatives in two different states, I think I finally figured out what the problem was. Evidently the unit turns itself off and powers down when the desired humidity level has been met. The humidity target you set isn't stored in memory though and is lost whenever you unplug the unit. When I unplugged the machine, the humidity settings reverted to the factory default, which turned out to be higher than the humidity in the house. Since the machine wasn't being asked to lower the humidity any more, it wouldn't turn on at all. Odd design, if you ask me. It would have been nice if somebody put all this in the instruction manual. When I re-set the desired humidity to something lower than the actual humidity, the machine started working again. It's been working fine ever since.

I've really been having trouble getting Dot to her physical therapy session lately.When she sits up and turns to look out a side window, one of her rear paws stays in place and gets twisted. This is uncomfortable and Dot starts whining. I find a place to pull off the road and straighten her out again. She has very little nerve sensation in her left rear leg, so I don't even think she initially notices that one of her legs isn't moving with the rest of her body. By the time she does notice, it is usually too late. If Dot would just lie down in her bed during our journey, everything would be fine. She feels compelled to bark at people out the window every time we pull up to a stop light unfortunately. She got twisted around twice today and not surprisingly, we were late to our appointment. I'm perpetually late everywhere now.

When did dry cleaning get so expensive? I took two suits to the dry cleaners the other day and the bill was $31. This seems almost double what I used to pay. I'm glad I don't have to dress up for work and go out for lunch with co-workers anymore. I'd be broke. It puzzles me that economists continue to say that inflation is under control. Most of the things I buy regularly seem to have gone way up in price.

Work continues to be busy and somewhat frustrating. I hate it when someone I'm familiar with leaves a company and a new person is assigned to deal with me. Usually these new people don't realize that they'll get the best results if they just leave me alone. Team building exercises just make me mad, or in some cases very sad. They are so unnecessary. Chill. I'm going to do a good job. I just don't want to be part of your team.

Maybe things will return to normal tomorrow. The weather is still nice. I think I've got time for breakfast at my favorite restaurant. I may even get a haircut.

Spot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1744

When I was walking the dogs this morning I noticed a bulldozer ripping up the trail we normally use. Now there is just a lot of loose dirt that will immediately turn into a mud pit as soon as it rains. I think the city is planning to replace the trail with a much wider concrete bicycle highway to accommodate all the cyclists who like to ride in the park. I'm not looking forward to this. The trail has been a nice, peaceful place to walk the dogs for many years and as soon as the cyclists arrive, it will just be another place to avoid. Bicycles and dogs on a leash don't mix. The dogs and I have almost been run over by Type-A cyclists too many times to count. When you're on the same trail together, these guys, and they're almost always guys, don't want to slow down or move over for anybody.

I probably won't have to worry about the bicycles for quite a while. City projects move exceedingly slow. It will take at least a month for them to rip out the old trail. Then it will take another month to construct the wooden forms and place the steel rebar reinforcement before actually pouring the concrete. Sooner or later though, this bicycle highway will be finished and I'll have to find a quieter place to walk the dogs.

Life is gradually returning to normal. The dogs are healthy again and Dot's incontinence problems seem to be over. My workload has returned to a predictable mix of writing and website design. I'm busy, but not too busy. There seems to be plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and long dog walks while still meeting deadlines. The familiar routines aren't all that exciting, but they're comfortable. As long as the dogs stay healthy, I'm OK with this.

Dot was stronger today and participated in many of the exercises at our training class this evening. Both dogs seemed to enjoy the cool, pleasant weather. Since the autumnal equinox was yesterday, the days will start to get noticeably shorter now. It's already dark by the time training class is over and pretty soon it will be dark before we even begin. The sky was clear and I recognized a few constellations overhead as Dash and I did our training exercises tonight. It made me wish I'd bought something when I went to the telescope store the other day.

Tomorrow is Dot's physical therapy day. She's still not quite as strong as she was before her illness, but she's getting close. Her progress reminds me that physical therapy actually works. I really need to get one of my doctors to refer me for physical therapy myself. It would sure be nice to have a functional shoulder again.

Scout is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1542

What a difference a day makes. Against all odds, it was actually a very nice day. I figured out how to do something I didn't think I could do for a web client. Jawbone wrote me and said they were sending me a new UP fitness band to replace my defective one. I had a visit with my hepatology team and they has some very encouraging news. For the first time in ten years my blood chemistry was completely normal. They will have to do much more extensive testing to determine if the Hepatitis-C virus is actually gone, but normal liver enzyme levels is definitely a sign that the treatment I'm receiving is working.

Although anyone who saw me walking the dogs today probably thought I was nuts, I think I have solved the problem of Dash escaping from his harness. I just use his normal collar as a backup and walk him with two leashes. The harness still carries his weight and the leash around his neck is slack most of the time, so it wouldn't irritate his incision. I tried several Rube Goldberg contraptions I made out of old harnesses, but none of them worked well. The problems was always the same. If he pulled one harness off, he pulled everything off. Two separate leashes seems like a more secure solution. It is a bit more difficult walking two dogs with three leashes, but I'm getting the hang of it. Hopefully, Dash will have healed sufficiently to start walking him normally again soon.

I think may have resolved my Medicare problems too. At least the billing lady didn't give me a dirty look when I went to the doctor today. I like days when nothing goes wrong. I don't need anything spectacular to keep me happy. An absense of problems is usually enough. Did I mention that it was warmer today as well. That usually helps.

Things are calm enough now that I may resume going out to breakfast on Fridays again. I've missed that little break in my day. It may be a while before we start going to the dog park again and I'm still too busy to go to the gym on a regular basis, but things are finally starting to move in the right direction. Even the stock market was up today. For the moment, life is good.

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day