Day 3888

The last thing I expected was a thunderstorm today, but here we are. The rain is pouring down and the wind is picking up. As always, I'm worried about a power outage. Thunderstorms and power outages go hand-in-hand in our neighborhood. It hasn't rained for so long that I'm not really prepared. The laptop isn't fully charged and the backup batteries aren't either. Oh, well. It is what it is. Actually, we do need the rain.

It certainly wasn't raining when we took our early walk this morning. The skies were clear with a nice view of Venus and a waning crescent moon to the east. The Muscovy ducks were waiting for us at the bridge and we were kind of mad to see a passing skateboarder try to scare them away. Dawn seemed more tired than usual this morning, but was was very humid. Maybe that should have been our first warning that the weather was about to change.

I noticed that I was about out of collagen powder, so I went to get some more after breakfast. I'm not a huge fan of nutritional supplements, but I've been taking this stuff to help with arthritis and aching joints and it seems to work. Too bad that collagen has become popular recently. It sure seems expensive to me. I also looked for rubbing alcohol again. This is another one of those things that has inexplicably disappeared from grocery and drugstore shelves. Who knows. Maybe all the alcohol is being used to make hand sanitizer now. I finally found a small bottle of the stuff but the store said there was a limit of one to a customer. Jeez. It was just a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

I watched the Boca Chica live feed for a while this afternoon. Space X was doing a cryo test of the next Starship prototype. Basically, watching these pressurization tests is like watching nothing at all. Occasionally you will see some white smoke or a little ice forming on the surface of the rocket, but nothing moves. Probably the most interesting thing is reading all the YouTube comments from other people watching. Everyone is speculating about what is going on, but it is clear that nobody knows for sure. These live feeds are just Boca Chica neighbors pointing their cameras over the Space X fence. Nothing is authorized by Space X at all. This is the exact opposite of how NASA would handle something like this. I like it that a small group of South Texas amateurs is providing the most accurate and up to date information about what Space X is doing.

We're getting lots of thunder and lightning now. Dawn doesn't seem to be bothered at all. She is the first dog we've had that isn't scared of storms. Of course, she is scared of everything else, but she's fine in a thunderstorm. I worry a lot more about storms than she does. A tree may fall. The roof may start leaking again. The power may go out. A lot of things can go wrong. Look what happened in Iowa recently. I can't believe there isn't more on the news about this derecho storm. It was devastating. They say over one third of the state's corn crop is gone. Lots of farms have been destroyed. This is all going to show up in grocery stores later. One more legacy of 2020.

I hope the weather improves tomorrow. There are walks to take and so much more. Just kidding. It's just the walks.

Pogo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 3736

I'm still getting used to the new normal. Lots of people were walking their dogs in the park today. There were more people without dogs as well. Hey, exercise and fresh air are good things. There was a lot less traffic as well. In Dallas that's a great thing. It's ironic that now that the roads are finally clear, there is no place to go. I feel bad for all the restaurants and small businesses in our neighborhood. Nobody is going anywhere. I wonder if some of these restaurants will survive.

The grocery stores are still doing well. If you're going to get the coronavirus, it will probably happen in a grocery store. This is the only place left where people tend to congregate. Everyone is still looking for water and toilet paper. I saw several people waiting for the bus carrying big packages of toilet paper and nothing else.

I don't think I need to worry about a lack of fruit and fresh vegetables. The produce aisles in most stores are still well stocked. Apparently, people can go without food, but not without toilet paper. I'm having trouble finding distilled water for my coffeemaker. Is there anything special about distilled water? I initially thought it would be easier to find than regular bottled water. I can't find rubbing alcohol either. I guess people started buying that when the stores ran out of hand sanitizer.

My life hasn't changed much. I've been living in a semi isolated state for decades. Even when my business was busy, I rarely saw clients face to face. Most of my business was conducted over the Internet. It's amazing how much you can get done when you aren't distracted by meetings and office politics. I have a feeling that when this pandemic has run its course, a lot of people aren't going to want to go back to work. Working from home isn't so bad.

I'm really glad I got to attend the Solar Orbiter launch and spend a week out at McDonald Observatory before the world changed. Those were the only trips I had planned this Spring anyway. Lots of people's vacations are being rescheduled as we speak. This is definitely not the time to be visiting Italy or taking a cruise. This won't last forever though. I have a feeling that there are going to be some tremendous travel bargains later in the year.

I hope that large companies and our own government are finally starting to realize that it's not a good idea to outsource production to countries that can make the stuff cheaper. Wouldn't you rather pay a little more for your medicine in return for the security that it was always going to be there when you need it. We could solve so many problems if we made our own stuff again. I can remember when every little town had a factory. It was these thousands of factories that kept people employed and helped our parents and grandparents win World War II.

Mistakes have been made, but hopefully we can learn from them. Personally, I hope that things don't return to normal when all this is over. I like the fact that there is dramatically less traffic on the roads. Maybe we'll all discover that we don't need to drive as much. They say air quality has improved as well. There are already dramatic air quality improvement in China because their factories aren't churning out an endless supply of things we don't really need. Could we solve the global warming problem just by consuming less? It's worth a try.

I hope I don't get the virus. I hope you don't either. Until the panic subsides, I'll just continue doing what I've always done. I'll make my smoothie in the morning. I'll take long walks by myself. I'll get to know Dawn a little better. And I'll write my blog in the evening. As far as I'm concerned, life is good.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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