Day 4164

I saw the sun again today. This might not be the only reason I managed to get more done but it helped. After breakfast I went and got some new windshield wipers for my car. Instead of going to the Land Rover dealer like I normally do, I just went to the neighborhood Auto Zone store. This saved me a ton of money. I think I paid less than half of what the wiper blades would have cost me at the Land Rover parts department. I should do this more often. I'm tired of paying Land Rover's exorbident prices. I also only bought one wiper blade, since only one was broken. When the other blade goes bad, I'll replace it as well.

I think Dawn had the same response to the sun as I did. She was eager to walk this morning. There was no balking or hesitancy at all. She acted like a normal dog and we had a nice normal walk. I wish we could depend on this type of behavior every day, but I doubt that it's going to happen. Dawn is not a normal dog. Something strange is going on in her head. The vet who suggested that she probably had a traumatic head injury earlier in life was probably right. Dawn does the best she can and that's good enough for us. She's a strange, but very sweet dog.

I got Riggs, the new dog, added to the Dalmatian Rescue website and tried to catch up with a bunch of correspondence with my contacts at NASA and the Space Force. I was pleased that I  received a reply from my Space Force contact so quickly. I am good to go for any military launch and they may be able to help me gain access to some NASA launches as well. I am even pre-approved to set remote cameras at the launch pad. I'm not sure I'm ready to lose a camera yet, but it's nice to know that I have that option. There's a Falcon Heavy launch I'd like to cover sometime in June. Hopefully gasoline and rental cars will be available in Florida by then.

It really turned out to be a nice day today, even though there is still rain in the forecast for the rest of the week. We'll see how it goes. When I wake up tomorrow morning the forecast could be completely different. Even though it's been a very wet week, I've still managed to take my long walk every day. You'd never know that rain was forecast for today as well. It was beautiful outside and I had an enjoyable walk. My foot didn't bother me at all. Maybe my foot pain has something to do with the humidity. I really have no idea, but I'm always thankful for a pain free day.

I need to call the appliance repairman and get the ice maker fixed on our refrigerator. I'm not wild about spending the money though. The repair will probably cost several hundred dollars and party ice is cheap. I still have part of the bag I got before I left for the observatory. Ice is ice and the party ice works just fine for my morning smoothies. 

I didn't really accomplish that much today, but it felt like a productive day. Hopefully, I can keep this trend going a few more days. Sunlight makes a huge difference in my mood. On dark, rainy days all I do is worry about roof leaks. It probably helped that I didn't even try to process any astrophotography today. I'll eventually master this, but the learning curve is steep. Maybe processing my star photos is something I should save for a rainy day. I may not succeed, but at least failure won't make me feel any worse.

If the weather is still nice tomorrow I may do a little yard work. The grass is growing rapidly with all this rain. It's definitely time to mow again.

Holly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1575

I changed my cable bundle to a package with fewer TV channels today. So far, I can't tell any difference. I'm certainly not missing anything. There are so many worthless cable channels anyway that I'll probably never really know what I eliminated. I did save a little money though. I made the changes online, and I did notice when I was checking out that the cable company tried to sneak a new movie package into my cart, adding $20 and then subtracting it again, saying the first month was free. They didn't think I'd notice. I wasn't falling for that. I figured out how how to remove the unwanted movie package and scaled back my land line phone service as well. I should have eliminated the land line entirely. It is used exclusively by telemarketers now. I haven't received a call that actually mattered on the land line in months.

I took my April invoices to the post office this afternoon. Billings are starting to decline again. I'm not sure what to do about it though. I'm pretty busy writing, but I hesitate to go after any more writing work. Editorial writing just doesn't pay very well. I still do the occasional advertising job, but these high budget jobs are becoming a rarity. Most of the young agency creatives just don't want to hire someone the same age as their grandfather. I can't really complain though. I certainly had my own moment in the sun. When I was a young hot shot agency creative, I wouldn't dream of hiring some old fart twice my age. I hired the friends I went drinking with, and I'm sure today's kids do the same.

Dash can't go in for radiation therapy tomorrow. The cancer center called me today and said that the radiation machine was broken and that it would probably take a full day to repair. I certainly hope the machine didn't go haywire with a dog in it. That has always been one of my fears. You'd hate for some technician to calibrate the machine improperly and come home with a radioactive dog. In fairness, the entire team at the cancer center seems very professional and always pays attention to details. Dash will probably be upset when he discovers that he isn't going anywhere tomorrow. He looks forward to these visits to the cancer center now.

Work was kind of light today. I updated one website, did my invoices, and that was about it. Tomorrow looks busy though. I return to writing again tomorrow. I'm going to take Dot for her acupuncture session tomorrow as well. I changed her appointment back to Wednesday after Dash's radiation therapy was canceled. Dot's vet is probably getting sick of me constantly changing her schedule because of Dash's changing transportation needs. There not much I can do about the situation now though. If I happen to have a free day, I'm going to try to use it. When the radiation machine is fixed, Dash may need to go for therapy on Thursday and Friday this week.

I'm starting to see wild irises blooming in the park this week. From now through June, there will be a new variety of wildflower coming into bloom every few days. The dogs are stubborn now, and I can't always get near the flowers like I used to. If I get close to a wildflower now, it usually means there is something stinky nearby that the dogs want to smell.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day