Day 3495

There have been so many documentaries about Apollo 11 this week that I feel I know more about the space program now than I did when all this was actually happening. Looking back, it is amazing that John Kennedy's promise to send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade was actually fulfilled. Kennedy himself was starting to have second thoughts about the huge expense of the program just before he was assassinated in Dallas. I don't think we could do something like this today. Can you imagine today's politically correct politicians putting Wernher von Braun in charge of the space program? During the 60's Americans hadn't become tribal yet. Despite all the unrest surrounding the Vietnam War, most Americans still had a lot of national pride. They really wanted to beat the Russians to the moon. I can't even imagine 400,000 people working toward a common goal anymore. That's how many people the Apollo program employed at its peak. Just about everyone my age knows someone who had a connection to the Apollo program.

I'm glad we persevered and kept going despite all the initial failures. It proved that you can do just about anything if you stay focused and put your mind to it. Many of those early space pioneers genuinely believed we would be living in cities on Mars by now. It was definitely possible. They didn't realize how fickle politicians can be and how quickly dreams can fade. When I was a kid I thought we'd be living on Mars by now too. I remember reading articles about space travel in my Dad's copies of Scientific American. We were already designing atomic powered rockets in Nevada during the late 1950's. Project Orion was going to take us to Mars using a rocket powered by firing a series of nuclear bombs. What could possibly go wrong?

I didn't feel like fixing our usual Saturday breakfast. I didn't watch old Have Gun Will Travel episodes while I was eating either. I found some granola that was still sitting in a box in the kitchen that I'd bought over a year ago. It tasted fine. Apparently granola lasts forever. I went shopping for fresh fruit early today, hoping to get my morning walk in before it got too hot. Once again I failed. I think it was too hot before I woke up this morning. At least there was a breeze. It was a warm breeze but it was better than nothing.

My feeble attempts at being useful today were limited to defrosting the small refrigerator and washing the car. I don't count the long walks as being useful. I'm not even sure they are healthy in all this heat. It's something to do though. I do feel like I'm starting to get some muscle tone back. In the Winter these walks might even be enjoyable.

It's time to go to the gym again. It would make sense to use the indoor track for walks but I'm reluctant to do this. I like my rituals. I've convinced myself that memorizing all the details of my route will keep my memory sharp. I make a point to look for specific objects every several hundred yards. So far, I'm memorized a lot of signage, know where to look for Egrets and turtles, and am slowly learning the names of all the plants I see. I imagine I'll take 20,000 steps tomorrow. That's what I do on Sundays.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2479

I listened to Elon Musk give a presentation on how he planned to colonize Mars this afternoon. The guy actually plans to do this. Part of the presentation was an animation showing how the journey to the red planet would take place. "This isn't just an artist conception," Elon said. "These are the actual rockets we are getting ready to build." The animation was evidently developed from CAD drawings created by the Space X engineering department. Each space ship was designed to carry 100 people and Elon envisioned that a fleet of 1000 of them would be required to establish a permanent, self sustaining settlement on Mars. I love epic plans. The guys who built the pyramids probably thought like this. I'm convinced that when you are constrained by practicality, you really limit yourself. During the question and answer session after the presentation, someone asked how the Mars colonists would be selected. "First of all, they would need to be very comfortable with the idea of dying." "This is going to be very dangerous," Elon said. I have no idea how you would pay for a grand venture like this, but I hope Elon succeeds.

I had no grand plans today, but there were certain things that needed to be done. Dash has been having episodes that look a bit like mini-seizures, so I wanted to get his phenobarbital levels checked. I remember this test being kind of tricky, so I went to the vet to see what I needed to do before I brought him in. I scheduled the test for tomorrow morning and Dash will need to fast for at least 12 hours before they draw his blood. That's going to be fun. Dash gets real irritable when he can't eat whenever he wants. Hopefully, I can take him on a long walk while Dot eats her breakfast and then go straight to the vet.

The powdered graphite I got yesterday worked like a charm and now the sticking locks around the house are smooth as silk. I haven't gotten up my nerve to fix the leaking shower stall yet. Usually when I try this, I end up wanting to take a shower before the silicon caulk is completely dry and the seal doesn't stick. I still don't know why somebody doesn't make a product that dries in an hour and can be applied to damp surfaces.

Dot had quite a few accidents today. I've learned to minimize the mess by always placing disposable puppy training pads under her while she is sleeping. All I need to do is carefully slide the pad out after she poops and replace it with a fresh pad. When I was cleaning things up today, I noticed another kind of mess. Dot had thrown up again. This is the second time this month. I think she may have acid reflux since she spends so much time lying down on her bed. Maybe I'm wrong though. I'll ask the vet tomorrow when I take Dash in for his test.

I saw a Red Shouldered Hawk when I was walking Dash this morning. There are lots of hawks and owls in the neighborhood, but they seldom stay still long enough to photograph. I got lucky today. Tomorrow, it's back to looking for the occasional wildflower that hasn't dried up yet. Tomorrow will be busy. I hope that Dash's test goes smoothly and we don't have to increase the amount of phenobarbital he takes. Life is complicated enough as it is.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2410

Go outside and take a look at the moon. 47 years ago today Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface with less than a minutes worth of fuel left. They navigated their way from the earth to the moon using a computer that was less powerful than the one you currently have in your phone. More than half a billion people watched live as Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” For one short moment in time, the world was united and the world was proud.

I was one of those proud people.  I was still in architecture school and had my entire life ahead of me. I never would have dreamed that almost half a century later we would leave the moon behind and never return. What happened? I think we were at our best when we were explorers and adventurers. We are at our worst right now. Nothing unites us the way Apollo 11 did. No politician is bold enough to commit the nation to accomplish the impossible in less than ten years. John Kennedy was my favorite president. Sadly, I don't think his own party would elect him today. He wasn't politically correct. He was an unabashed nationalist. I think John Kennedy would be appalled that we never returned to the moon.

The dogs got a little excitement today. The electric company arrived at the house around mid-afternoon and informed me that my electric meter had gone bad. I asked the guy at the front door how they knew the meter had gone bad and they told me that the meter sent them a fault warning. There aren't any meter readers anymore. The meter sits quietly behind my house, electronically informing the power company whenever I turn on the television, or cool down the house. The meter knows too much, so I hope nobody ever gets elected who decides I'm an energy waster and rations my power. It's already happening with water. I thanked the electric company guy for installing the new meter and apologized for the barking dogs. Somehow I think that this new meter isn't going to lower my electric bill at all.

I had some website updates to complete today, but I have a feeling that the slowdown in my business is permanent. As I watch Dot's slow decline, I am simultaneously witnessing my own decline. I hope I'm not witnessing the decline of my country as well. All I know is that July 20, 1969 was a much better time than July 20, 2016. I know you can't turn back time, but maybe you can change direction.

I canceled Dot's physical therapy session again today. We did increase the length of her walk a little though. So far, she's doing well. This is the kind of progress I understand. Tomorrow, we'll repeat the process and start all over again. In 1969 I was convinced that we'd have colonies on Mars by now. What I didn't know is that 47 years later, my life would be focused around Dalmatians and that the moon would just be a soft light shining through my window.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2043

Having the cable guy in the house with a dog who can't walk and is suspicious of strangers, along with a friendly escape artist who will dart through any open gate or door and disappear, was not an experience I'd want to repeat any time soon. I'm sure the service technician would agree. Dot barked incessantly the whole time, causing Dash to race excitedly around the house. I couldn't keep the dogs safely corralled in one room because the technician needed to check the entire network. I had to keep moving the dogs from room to room. I had a hard time hearing what the technician was telling me above all the commotion, but it appeared that the router had gone bad. I really didn't want to replace this piece of equipment, because then I would have had to reconnect everything in the house with the WiFi network all over again. There's a lot of stuff on the network. I've done this before and it's a pain. The technician told me that she might be able to configure the new router from a backup copy of the old router's settings and save me the trouble of starting over, but that this procedure only worked 50% of the time. This seemed strange to me, but I told her to go for it. What did I have to lose? All I was really worried about at that point was Dot pooping in the house.

Amazingly, the backup proceedure worked. Even the WiFi thermostat and the weird WiFi Skype phone stayed connected. The technician was somehow able to trick new router into thinking it was the old router, so nothing had to be reconfigured or paired with the network. I'm a happy camper. I need to be real careful never to press the red re-set button on the back of the new router though. If I ever mistakenly restore the thing to its factory settings, it will forget everything and ask me for a different password while everything on the network becomes disconnected.

Once the technician packed up and left, the dogs calmed down and life returned to normal. Amazingly, Dot didn't poop in the house, although she was so upset that I thought she was going to have a stroke at some point. Dash didn't escape and run off, although I could tell that he was looking to see if the technician inadvertently left the front door open while she was working. It was hard to keep Dot and Dash in the same room while I was holding Dot's harness to keep her from falling while Dash was racing around, looking for opportunities to be bad. This would have been so much easier if the problem was with the outside line. I apologized to the technician about the dogs behavior, but I think she could tell that I had my hands full.

It's hard to believe that it's been 46 years since we landed on the moon. July 20 will always be etched in my memory because of what happened 46 years ago today. I thought I was an adult back then when I watched the landing on an old black and white Magnavox TV. What did I know? I was only 21. So much has changed and yet we still haven't returned to the moon. I was excited to see the first pictures of Pluto a few days ago, but I'd be even more excited if we had a colony on Mars. In 1969, most people were convinced that we'd have planted flags on several planets by now. When Stanley Kubrick made 2001, A Space Odyssey, he never would have dreamed that 2001 would actually end up being remembered for the attacks on the World Trade Center instead. I have a feeling that we'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing without ever returning to the moon.

It's Dash's turn to go to the vet tomorrow. We need to do a test to make sure he's been cured of Lyme Disease. At least I think it was Lyme Disease he was exposed to. When I called the vet to make the appointment, I couldn't remember whether he'd been treated for Lyme or West Nile. Hopefully, nothing else will break in the house for the rest of the Summer. I don't know if I could handle another day like today.

Lady Jane is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 2036

I started on my new website project today. I thought that this one would be a piece of cake, but I almost immediately ran into a couple of snags. Absolutely nothing is a piece of cake anymore. In my experience, everything from getting a prescription filled to changing a light bulb can quickly turn into an unintended learning experience. Website design is always full of surprises. It didn't take me long this morning to learn that Plan-A just wasn't going to work. That's why I always make sure there's a Plan-B.

The New Horizons spacecraft will reach Pluto tomorrow. I continue to be amazed by the audacity of this incredible journey. It takes Pluto 248 years to orbit the Sun. The last time Pluto was in it's current position in space, the United States wasn't even a country yet and nobody on Earth was aware of its existence. Pluto wasn't even discovered until 1930. A lot can change in a single orbit. The technology that sent New Horizons on its three billion mile trip is over a decade old. The iPhone wasn't even invented when the spacecraft was launched. The fact that everything still works after this nine year journey is a testament to what we can do when we really put our mind to it. Sadly, this golden age of exploration that began with Sputnik is drawing to a close. Enjoy the moment tomorrow, because you won't see anything like this again in your lifetime. We have lost the will to explore. Maybe Elon Musk will eventually figure out a way to get to Mars, but we won't get another first look at a new planet for a long, long time.

The dogs are driving me nuts at mealtimes. The barking has become a permanent part of the mealtime ritual. As soon as I start preparing breakfast or dinner, they start to bark. I'm not exactly sure when this started, but it didn't used to be this way. They don't bark when Janet eats either. It's just me. To keep them quiet, I fill a coffee cup with dry dog food and feed them one kibble at a time. I feed them slightly less at their own dinner time, so they won't get fat from this additional food. Dot and Dash are far more tenacious than I am. Maybe they would eventually quit barking if I ignored them, but I don't have time to find out. Instead of training them, they always end up training me. It all works out OK, I guess. They are still eating exactly the same amount of food as they always were; just in an irritating, unconventional way.

One of my cousins recently sent me a copy of a family history her mother had written for her before she died. I started reading the history today and was totally amazed at how richly detailed my aunt's recollections were. The history was 75 pages long and described a way of life that no longer exists. There were generations of Sealanders that I'd never even heard of. Families were closer then. I'd be lucky if a were able to write a single Tweet about each of my family members. I've just never kept up with anybody. It was fascinating to read about my Swedish and Norwegian ancestors, but it left me wondering if the story ends with me. I won't be taking this family history and passing it down to my children. There are no children, and my own family memories are fuzzy. I can tell you plenty of stories about dogs though.

Watson is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 1937 - Easter

I had a feeling that lots of egg hunts and Sunrise Services were spoiled this morning when I woke to the sound of pounding rain on the roof. We actually needed the rain to help the new grass root properly, but it would have been nice if Easter Sunday was as beautiful as it was yesterday. There was no need to get up until the rain subsided, so we all got some extra sleep. Dot and Dash didn't even need to stick their nose out the door to know it was raining. They both just curled up on their blankets and waited for the rain to stop.

It's so nice that Dot doesn't have her incontinence problems anymore. During her cancer treatment I often had to take her outside in absolutely atrocious weather. It couldn't be helped. When you've got to go, you've got to go. Today, the dogs were content to wait until 10 AM to do their business. That's when the weather radar said the rain would stop, and that's exactly when it did. We all had a leisurely breakfast and then I took Dash for a walk while Janet took Dot for a much shorter walk up and down our street. The wet weather made things a little slippery for Dot, but she still did pretty well.

Since it was such a dismal, cold day I thought it would be a perfect time to watch the Interstellar DVD on my computer. I've heard both good and bad things about the movie, so I was curious to see if it lived up to my expectations. It did. I just didn't realize that the movie was so long. Dot will rest quietly for up to two hours at a time, but after that, there's going to be a lot of barking unless I'm there to cater to her needs. I never ignore her barking because when she gets excited, she poops. Believe me, it's much better to pause a movie than to clean up dog poop in the house.

As science fiction movies go, Interstellar was pretty good. I liked the way they described wormholes. It seemed to make more sense than Farscape, Sliders and many other films that have utilized wormholes in the plot. Of course since nobody knows if wormholes even exist, I'll be the first to admit that films like Interstellar are really just Harry Potter movies for people like me. I think wizards and zombies are rubbish, but am perfectly willing to to believe that wormholes could whisk someone from one galaxy to another in a matter of seconds. You almost have to believe in wormholes if you think the human race is going to reach the stars someday. The two voyager spacecraft have been traveling for decades and they've barely reached the edge of the solar system. We need wormholes. And maybe we need wizards too.

It's hard to believe that it's going to be 85 degrees tomorrow, since it's only 50 today. The air conditioner was on yesterday, but overnight the fancy new thermostat automatically switched things back to heat mode and we woke up toasty and warm. I got an e-mail recently saying that I was eligible for an upgrade to the WiFi thermostat that would coordinate our energy use with real-time weather patterns and automatically keep the house at the perfect temperate. This sounded intriguing, but I was a bit suspicious. The whole idea felt a bit too much like driverless cars to me. I want to be the guy setting the temperature, not a computer off in the cloud somewhere. I didn't click on the "lets get started" button, even though the ad said it would save me hundreds in electricity bills.

Tomorrow is Monday. Monday's are usually pretty boring. I'll bet I'm going to wish I'd waited another day to watch that movie.

Angel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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