Day 4757

I took down the Christmas tree today. If memory serves, it will be a long time until the next major holiday. It's usually warm around Christmas here in Dallas. It's easy to get lulled into thinking Winter is over. Then comes February and you realize that you've still got a long way to go until Spring. I'm not a big fan of Winter, but I do like the holiday season. I turn on the Christmas lights every evening and they add a festive tone to our otherwise austere house. 

Food at the grocery store is a lot more interesting during the holidays. I frequently pick up something to eat at the Central Market deli counter and the selections are always much better around Christmas. As I put the tree away, I was glad that Janet, Dawn and I had survived another year. At our age you can't take anything for granted. Hopefully, when it's time to unpack the Christmas decorations again, life will still be treating us well.

We were under a severe weather watch today, but the storms never materialized. It rained for about five minutes right after breakfast and that was it. Maybe people living to the East of us got some bad weather, but I doubt that it was too bad because I've heard nothing on the news. Once I was sure that I wasn't going to get wet, I took my long walk. It was so warm today that I didn't even need a jacket. This is Texas weather at its finest. One week we are freezing and making sure that all our outside faucets are set to drip. The next week I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt on my daily walks.

I saw both eagles on my walk today. It would have made a great picture, since they were sitting close together on a tree limb near their nest. Later, I saw one of he eagles flying low over the lake. It was probably looking for fish. I didn't see many white pelicans today. I still think they don't like it when the eagles are nearby.

I made pretty good time today, but I didn't set any records. I usually keep a steady pace during my first two miles. I start to slow down a little on the third mile and by the fourth and fifth miles I've slowed down considerably. The last mile is always the hardest because I'm tired and a lot of it is uphill. You'd think I'd be in great shape doing this day after day, but I'm just hanging in there. These long walks are great for my heart and maintaining bone density, but I'm not building any muscle mass. If I want that I'm going to have to work a lot harder and start going to the gym every day.

I seldom watch television, but Janet was cleaning and wanted me out of the way so I started watching a Las Vegas marathon that was already on the bedroom television. I'd never heard of this show even though it starred James Caan, ran for five seasons on NBC, and was apparently fairly popular. I watched two episodes before I became bored and went back to the computer. The show was mildly entertaining, but I just can't watch TV for very long. It still seems strange that I was totally unaware of this big budget show, even though I used to like to go to Las Vegas myself. There are probably a ton of things that I'm totally unaware of.

Tomorrow the holidays are officially over. I need to run some errands and take a few things back to the storage warehouse. I'm sure I'll find time to take another long walk and then start complaining about my feet hurting. Somehow I feel like 2023 is going to look a lot like 2022.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4492

We've been under severe storm warnings for most of the day, but once again nothing materialized. When the front passed through our part of town, we hardly even got any rain. For some unknown reason these bad storms usually pass either to the north or the south of us. We seem to be in an odd sweet spot right in the middle. There definitely was some bad weather in the area with multiple reports of tornados on the ground. I hope we can keep avoiding these things. We've been lucky for a long time.

I made rental car reservations for my trip to the observatory. It's a little early, but with rental car shortages everywhere it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm still a little apprehensive about this trip. I don't have the stamina I once had. I'm sure everything will be fine though. I'm definitely not the only old guy out there.

I completed my full six mile route today. Once again, I wasn't terribly fast, but I made it. I got rained on a bit, but luckily I was very near a shelter. This shower only lasted five minutes, so I was quickly on my way again. I've mentioned several times that there weren't any wildflowers this year. I was wrong. The same flowers are blooming that bloom every Spring. They're just later this year. The frequent rain we've been having lately has caused everything to turn green in a hurry. It's too bad we don't get a little rain every month. We seem to get our yearly rainfall all at once. By July the park will be dry and brown again.

I got the star tracker out again this afternoon. There have been several software and firmware updates since I last used this thing and I didn't want to get too far behind. I made the firmware updates successfully, although I never like to update firmware. There are too many tales of people bricking their cameras or computers by inadvertently doing something wrong. My main worry is a power outage during an update. I still haven't mastered the Polaris tracker, but I definitely don't want to brick it before I get a few decent pictures.

I feel sorry for the star tracker employees. I think they live in one of the cities that the Chinese have locked down. I certainly haven't heard much from them lately. I'm really glad they managed to get my tracker in the mail before everything started heading south. Deliveries are months behind schedule now and many people in certain countries still haven't received their orders. Dealing with Chinese companies directly is definitely different. There is a custom camera cage I'd like to order from another Chinese company, but I can't figure out how to use their website. I've seen a lot of websites, but this is definitely something new. Maybe I should ask the star tracker guys how it works.

I wish I had more energy. When Janet was ready to take Dawn on her afternoon walk, I had just returned from my six mile walk and was too tired to come along. If I had joined them, I would have gotten 20,000 steps again. Oh, well. I probably needed a nap more than 20,000 steps. Hopefully, our bad weather is over now. I'm really tired of rain.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4308

Sunday is all about walking and eating. Janet fixes a big dinner and I spend most of the day walking. I should be fixing things around the house but almost everything that needs attention is way out of my league. I like walking because it's easy to convince myself that I'm doing something healthful and beneficial while I'm really just killing time.

Dawn went back to taking the short way home on her sunrise walk this morning. Maybe she was just saving her energy for the Sunday outing that came later. Dawn seems to love walking in this other park, although she whines in the car the entire way there. She's never been big on riding in the car.

There was a light mist when I took my long walk after breakfast. It cleared up a bit later in the morning and I was hoping that the forecast had changed. Nope. Severe weather is still headed our way and probably should arrive within an hour or so. Most of the really bad weather is to the North of us, but we are still under a tornado warning. I'm always apprehensive about bad weather. Power outages are common and too many things can go wrong. I keep wondering if there is a place where the weather is always perfect, but nothing comes to mind. We have the occasional tornado, but other places have floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and terrible winters. I shouldn't complain. Actually, Dallas weather has been better than most of the country this year.

Dawn is getting really bold. She even comes out in the kitchen when I'm fixing her dinner now. We're not best buddies yet, but we are making progress. She's real friendly early in the morning, but as the day progresses she remembers that I'm a man and not to be trusted. I wonder what those two guys who used her for breeding did to her. She clearly has some bad memories.

I should hurry up and finish this post because the storm keeps getting closer. I can hear thunder off in the distance now. If the power does go out, I can usually keep writing using the laptop. I've had to do that a few times before. I've even got an alternate way to get on the Internet using my little mobile hotspot. I still don't like storms though. We've got too many big trees in our yard that could come crashing down on the roof.

Tomorrow we'll visit the Dalmatian Rescue kennel again. There's a new girl entering the program, but I think she might still be at the vet getting her initial checkup. I'll take my camera anyway, just in case. We always enjoy meeting the new dogs, but we enjoy seeing Charlie too. He's been at the kennel so long that I'm sure he thinks it is his home.

Dawn enjoyed her ice cream cone today. I enjoyed our dinner tonight. It was a very nice day, even though very little happened. I guess I should say that very little has happened yet. The big storm is still not arrived.

Neo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day