Day 4918

It was a busy day. We had quite a storm last night and we woke up to find some fallen branches in our yard. It turned out that these branches were from the neighbor's tree. No limbs fell from our own trees. I decided to climb up on the roof to see if there might be more branches up there. The roof was clear of debris, but there was standing water. I was so disappointed. One of the main reasons I got the new roof was so that it would drain properly. The puddles of standing water were in the same places I usually found them on the old roof. I'll call the roofers, but I doubt that there is anything they can do at this point. The roof is finished. I'm sure they'll just tell me that everything Is OK and that I've got a good warranty on the roof. "Call us is you have a leak," they'll say. The roof definitely doesn't leak now, but I'm still disappointed. Standing water is never good on a roof.

I promised Janet that I'd vacuum today and ended up spending more time cleaning the clogged Dyson than I did vacuuming. I wish I had our old Hoover back. The Hoover never needed cleaning or repairs and all I ever needed to do was change the vacuum bag when it got full. Why did I get sucked into believing the Dyson was better? It does clean reasonably well, but it's been a total nuisance the entire time we've owned it. 

I noticed that the utility room floor was wet this morning. This hasn't happened in quite a while. Did the washing machine drain overflow while doing a load of wash? Was this water condensation coming from the air conditioner? Who knows. It could have been either, or both. Both the washer and the AC use the same floor drain. I usually stuff a rag down the drain to keep water from backing up while the washer is running. This works well unless it is a very humid day and there is a lot of condensation from the AC. At any rate, I cleaned up the water and hoped that this was just a fluke. The main problem is that the old house has 2" drain lines where modern washing machines do a lot better with 3" drains.

The weather was all over the board today. It was clear when we took Dawn on her sunrise walk. I checked the weather forecast before I took my long walk and it was supposed to be cloudy for the rest of the day. As soon as I got a few miles from the house I got rained on. The weather apps on my phone are basically worthless. They are pretty accurate about what is going to happen thirty minutes from now. If you want to find out what is going to happen four hours from now, the apps just take a wild guess.

There were a ton of downed trees in the park. The storm last night didn't last long, but there must have been some really strong winds. I feel lucky that none of our own trees were damaged. It's going to be a while before the rainy season is over, so I expect more heavy rain this month. The problem is than when the rainy season is over, it is immediately replaced by hot, dry Texas summers. By July I'm usually wishing the rain would come back.

Janet wanted me out of the way when she was cleaning this afternoon, so I thought it would be a good time to install the latest software and firmware for the star tracker. As usual, the installation went smoothly, but the star tracker didn't work any more reliably than it did before. Getting it to connect to the camera is kind of like starting a car with a bad battery. The camera never connects immediately and often randomly disconnects during use. I keep turning the thing on and off again and switching cables around until I get the tracker to connect. I've had the thing for over a year and some functions still don't work. I still have problems taking a panorama shot. After several hour of monkeying around with the Polaris, I put the thing away again. I probably won't look at it again until the next software update.

I hope tomorrow is less problematic than today. My holy grail is always a day where nothing bad happens at all. I don't mind if nothing good happens either. I can always take a long nap. 

Winston is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4873

Should I stay or should I go? When I woke up this morning I immediately checked all the weather apps on my phone, trying to decide whether it was worth extending my trip to Kennedy Space Center even further. None of the forecasts came to exactly the same conclusion, but the general consensus was that there was about a 20% chance of favorable weather at launch time. Not good. When I checked with the front desk at the hotel they said they were fully booked for the weekend. Not good either. I would have to look elsewhere for a new place to stay if I wanted to watch tonight's launch attempt. Finally, airline prices were even higher this weekend and most flights to Dallas were already full. Things weren't looking good.

I reluctantly decided to call it quits and made plans to head for the airport after a final breakfast at the Cracker Barrel Restaruant down the street from my hotel. I second guessed my decision all the way home. As luck would have it, I ended up making the right decision after all. Tonight's launch was scrubbed with only 59 seconds left on the clock. That's three scrubs in a row for this rocket. Ironically, tonight's scrub had nothing to due with the weather. The weather was actually improving.

When I was only a few miles from the Orlando airport I got a message on my phone saying that my flight had been canceled. What? This was disconcerting to say the least. I briefly thought about going back to Titusville, but I was already at the airport. I turned in my rent car just as I got another text message saying that I'd been rebooked on a flight leaving at 8:30 this evening. Not good. I definitely wasn't looking forward to spending the entire day at the airport. When I looked at the departure board, my flight was the only one canceled. Why? I saw that there was another flight leaving for Dallas in ten minutes, so I quickly headed for the gate in hopes that I could get on board as a standby passenger. When I arrived at the gate the plane was already loading. I thought I was too late, but the gate agent managed to get me onboard. I was the last passenger to board the plane. I was very surprised that I got on this plane since it was supposedly full. I learned later that a lot of Southwest employees fly free on the airline and they get bumped if there is a paying customer who wants their seat. 

I must have brought the bad weather back with me to Dallas. The sky looked dark, but I thought I could still take my long walk. I never got a chance to get my steps at the airport, since my flight left almost immediately after I arrived. For better or worse,  I'm definitely hooked on getting at least 10,000 steps every day. It's a good thing I kept up the pace today. When I was about five minutes from home, I got another severe weather warning on my phone. I made it to the house with minutes to spare. The storm was pretty bad, but it was nothing compared to what I experienced out at the Space Center last night.

I'm not sure when I'll get back to Kennedy Space Center again. These launch trips are getting expensive. There are several other launches I'd like to see this Spring, but I definitely can't afford to see them all. Dawn was actually glad to see me when I returned home. I guess life is full of surprises.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4698

We got a lot of rain today, but all is well. The storm did produce tornados, but there were none in our area. No trees fell in the yard, the roof hasn't leaked, and the day wasn't totally disrupted. We were able to give Dawn her regular sunrise walk and I even had time to take a long walk in the park after breakfast before the weather got bad. The entire storm system moved through town very quickly, leaving much cooler temperatures in its wake. I was really surprised at how cold it feels now.

I walked earlier than usual this morning in an effort to beat the rain. Although I've only seen the eagles once since their return to the park, I did find their new nest today. Eagles don't appear to be that smart about picking a nest location. Once again they've built their nest at the top of a dead tree. Hopefully, the tree won't blow over in a storm and destroy the nest like it did last year. Everyone seems to assume that these are the same two eagles that made their home in the park last year. You couldn't prove it by me. Every eagle I've ever seen looks exactly the same.

My feet certainly aren't improving. I'm starting to have a lot of foot pain again. For a while I thought this might be because my walking shoes are starting to wear out. That's not it. I wore some new Hokas on my last trip to Florida and my feet felt exactly the same. The pain isn't bad enough to stop me from walking, but it is irritating. It's just another aspect of growing old I suspect.

The media logistics e-mail for the next Artemis launch attempt came out today. I now know when and where to go throughout the entire launch window. I'm glad everything meshed well with the plans I've already made, because it's way too late for me to change anything. I really hope the next launch attempt is successful. I can't afford many more trips to see launches that get scrubbed.

I'll continue to look for a better hotel, but I doubt that I'll find anything. Even if a room does open up, I'm sure that someone pushier or with a lot more clout than I have will grab it first. Oh, well. You win some and you lose some. I've usually found very nice places to stay while I'm in Titusville. I guess my luck had to run out sometime.

I'm glad we didn't get any damage from today's storms. Storms are not my friend. After years of downed trees and roof leaks, I always expect the worst. I don't know what I'd do without the weather apps on my phone. They are really pretty accurate. I know when the rain is going to start and stop, as well as how bad it is going to be. Without these apps, I probably wouldn't have had the nerve to take a long walk today. You don't want to be out alone in the woods when tornados are in the forecast.

The weather will be a lot better tomorrow. We'll have to dress warmly for Dawn's sunrise walk though. The temperature will be in the low 40's. I haven't made a grocery list yet, but that's on the agenda. It looks we're going to have a fairly normal weekend. As far as I'm concerned, normal is good.

Ginger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4534

It's a little late, but the rain has finally arrived. I spent most of the day trying to avoid getting wet but I guess you can't avoid it forever. I did manage to get my long walk finished before the storms started and Dawn got her walk as well. Now we wait for the roof to start leaking. We've got quite a downpour right now and the pumps on the roof aren't working. It's not a good combination.

Other than waiting for the rain to start, it was a pretty slow day. I discovered that the shower drain was clogged when I was taking a shower today. I wish I'd discovered this before I was actually in the shower and already wet. I had to get dressed so I could go outside and get my tools to snake out the drain before I could continue. Water is not my friend. Between running toilets, slow drains, and leaking roofs, I've had just about all the water problems I can handle.

Dawn must have know that the weather was about to change because she refused to take a sunrise walk. It wasn't raining, but the ground was wet. That's all it takes with her. Luckily, Janet was able to give her a walk in the afternoon before the next round of storms hit. I think Dawn is much better at forecasting the weather than the apps on my phone. Yesterday they said the rain would start last night and continue all day today. The forecast was only off by 12 hours.

I wasn't feeling lucky today, so I postponed updating the star tracker app on my phone. It was tempting because there wasn't much else to do today, but I kept remembering that the last time I updated this app was when all my camera connection problems started. One of these days I'm going to have to deal with this. My phone keeps wanting to update apps automatically when they become available. I've had to disable this function and update apps manually, being careful to avoid the Benro app.

I wish I could get the pumps to work without going up on the roof. Sometimes when the extension cords to the pumps are under water for too long they short out and throw a circuit breaker. Other times, leaves and dirt clog the pumps and need to be cleaned out. Unfortunately, you never know that something is wrong until after it starts raining. Oh, well. It is what is is. I'd better go get the buckets ready. It will be a miracle if we don't get a leak tonight.

My problems always seem so minor whenever I turn on the news. I guess that's why I don't like listening to the news anymore. I often feel like I am witnessing the total collapse of society. If you are even a casual student of history you realize that all civilizations come to an end at some point. We've had a good run, but we may be nearing the end of ours. I wonder what the next Middle Ages will be like? Probably a bit like BladeRunner. I may be wrong but I keep thinking that globalization is behind many of the problems we are seeing today. Just because something is too big to fail doesn't prevent failure. It almost guarantees it. The world would be a better place if there were lots of tiny little powerless civilizations, all completely independent of each other. If one fails or goes haywire, the rest just continue on. Of course this wouldn't work in a world filled with jet planes and satellite phones. It wouldn't work if two tiny civilizations decided to join forces and take over a third tiny civilization either. Hey, I've got no answers. Maybe we just need a lot fewer people.

I hope this rain stops soon. I know that rain is a lot better than drought and wildfires, but water still makes me nervous.

Ziggy 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 4485

It's déjà vu all over again. My bags are packed. I've reprinted everything in my manilla itinerary envelope with updated information. As long as there's not another last minute launch postponement I guess I'm ready. Truthfully, I'm never ready to travel. I usually second guess my decision even after I'm on my way. When the trip is over though, I'm almost always glad I went. I've really got to force myself to expand my horizons. It would be easy for me to stay home all the time and do nothing, which is never good.

We set a new high temperature record today. It got up to ninety-six degrees this afternoon. Those are Summer temperatures, so I'm hoping that Spring isn't over yet. It's too soon for Spring to be over. Most of the Spring wildflowers haven't even bloomed yet. Dawn probably wishes she had walked earlier today. She didn't want to walk this morning because the ground was wet. We got a lot of rain last night. At least the temperature was cooler though. By the time we walked after lunch, it was already too hot. We took a short walk so Dawn wouldn't get overheated and then I tried to walk a little further myself.

I didn't make it very far today. It wasn't the foot pain that bothered me, it was the heat. I'm not used to the heat yet. Last Summer when I took my long walks I would soak my clothes in water before I left the house and they would be completely dry again before I returned. It's a shame that there is so little genuinely nice weather here in Texas. It is always too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I wish our summers could be more like those I remembered when I used to live in Colorado.

I got another notice that my little mobile internet hotspot is going to cease working soon. Evidently this device still uses the phone company's 3G network which is going to be turned off in the near future. I love this little pocket sized hotspot and it has been my companion on every trip I've taken for many years. It wouldn't have been possible to continue my daily blog posts without it. I have been looking for a 5G replacement and there isn't much available. Technology has changed and now a lot of phone companies want you to use a tethered cell phone as a hotspot. The 5G hotspots I've found so far are all larger and much more expensive. It's such a shame that technology has to keep changing. I was completely happy with the technology I was using twenty years ago.

I'm amazed that we didn't have a roof leak last night. The rain was really heavy for several hours. I turned the pumps on before I went to bed, but there was no way they could keep up with this deluge. When I finished last night's post I felt that the storm would pass to the north of us. I was wrong. I think northern counties did get a lot more rain, but a few heavy cells passed directly over us. I'm really glad that thunder and lightning doesn't bother Dawn. She slept through everything. Dot and Dash would have been terrified.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow morning. I have to get up really early and am depending on Janet and several alarm clocks to get me up in time. I have a bad habit of lying in bed when I wake up, thinking that I'll get out of bed in "just a few minutes." Usually I immediately fall back to sleep again. Did I mention that I'm not a morning person. That's why I always write these blog posts late at night.

Maybe returning to Kennedy Space Center and seeing another rocket launch will invigorate me and snap me out of my current lethargy. One can always hope.

Angel is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3831

We had a lot of rain and high winds last night. I didn't sleep well because I was nervous about trees falling in the back yard and roof leaks. Luckily, the storm passed without doing any damage. I probably just got lucky. I noticed that there were a lot of downed trees in the park this morning. I also noticed that it was a lot colder. The storm did bring one good thing. Cooler weather.

Dawn loved her walk this morning. It was brisk and cool with a nice breeze. I spotted a new type of heron that I'd never seen before and we saw the green parrots again. On the way home we saw what looked like a fine mist rising from a grove of trees silhouetted in the rising sun. Very strange. I wish I had my camera with me. There seemed to be an enormous amount of frogs. You could hear them everywhere. Everything felt fresh and new. It felt like nature had pushed the reset button.

Somebody needs to press the reset button for grocery shopping. Many items are still in short supply. I had a long grocery list today, but I still couldn't find Clorox Wipes. Maybe that brief sighting last week was just an illusion. I couldn't find blueberries either, but I did find peaches. Peaches are back in season and you can find nice looking ones everywhere. It seems like that's all I think about these days. What am I going to eat for breakfast and dinner?

The Mars rover is almost ready to fly and I still haven't heard anything from NASA or the Air Force. I miss my little community of space friends. When we would gather for launch events it was always an interesting mix of people. There were active military folks and college professors. Some people came from small towns and others from big cities. Lots of space fans were young, but there were plenty of old people like me as well. Often we would get together for dinner or drinks while we were waiting for the main event. You'd think that in today's environment there would be lots of arguments in such an eclectic and diverse group. Nope. Everybody got along. There was an unwritten rule that we never talked about politics. I've been to many launches and this always seems to be the case. It works. Improbable and lasting friendships can be made when you don't talk about politics or religion.

I wonder how many people realize that things are going to get worse no matter who wins the election.   Today's problems have simply become too complex to fix. Nobody even wants to listen when you try to explain how complex and interconnected the world has become. If you try to fix one thing, you inevitably wreck something else. I've never been a big fan of politicians. Their job is to supply solutions, so they tend to oversimplify and make promises that are never kept. The globalists think they are clever enough to manage all this complexity. The isolationists just want to pretend it doesn't exist. There is a conspiracy theory going around now that Bill Gates and his Davos buddies engineered the entire pandemic and subsequent social unrest in an effort to significantly reduce the world's population, stop climate change, and install a world government. Lots of luck with that. It's far more likely that humans will simply become extinct in three hundred years. Bill Gates is right that there are too many of us, but I don't think you can stop this train.

Taking the long view on things gives you a curious perspective on current events. Pulling down statues means nothing. Look up at the stars. Our country's two hundred year history, or even humanity's 300 thousand year history isn't even measurable on a cosmic scale. We are temporary. I sometimes wonder what ants think. We are just ants in the grand scheme of things.

Alamo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3432

It doesn't seem to take much to knock out our power. Lately, every time a big storm passes through, the electricity goes out. We definitely got a lot of rain today. At least the tornadoes we were warned about never materialized. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get both the fiber optic network and the pumps on the roof running again using various backup power supplies. A small gasoline generator powered the pumps and a solar powered generator took care of the WiFi and computers. When the power eventually returned, nothing important was disrupted at all.

Even though we had quite a storm today, I was still able to take both my walks and do the Saturday grocery shopping without getting wet. Accuweather's Minute-by-Minute  weather forecasting service is pretty amazing. Type in your street and zip code and you know exactly when the rain is going to start and stop within a two hour window. I knew how long it takes to walk three miles and the forecast said I was OK, so off I went. The sky looked a little menacing and I heard thunder off in the distance but the rain didn't start until five minutes after I returned. I love when technology works.

The storm had already passed when it was time for my evening walk. There must have been some high winds. Several large trees were down in the park and smaller limbs were scattered everywhere. One of the creeks feeding the lake was a rushing torrent. Even though the rain had subsided, the water level was still rising. Several piers along the shoreline were under water and the dock for a local rowing club seemed to have floated away. None of this deterred the fishermen. After a big rain fishermen are always attracted to the lake. I saw ten this evening. Are fish more likely to bite after a rain? There must be a reason for this.

There seems to be a reason for everything. I've been noticing that the wildflowers always bloom in a very specific order. The grape hyacinths seem to bloom first followed by lots of showy and evening primrose flowers. Next I'll start to see the bluebonnets. Next a variety of different daisies arrive. I see lots of cowpen daisies, shasta daisies, engelmann daisies, and blackfoot daisies on my walks. The firewheels are blooming now and I'm starting to see milkweed, coneflowers and mexican hat. There are always lots of tiny flowers like crow poison and blue eyed grass. I like to learn to identify the plants and animals I see. Jimson weed is blooming now. I learned to identify this poisonous plant a long time ago because I didn't want the dogs eating it. I learned to identify poison ivy, oak, and sumac a long time ago too.

It's still raining, but it's just a gentle shower and both pumps are working. All is well. Janet fixed chili tonight which is the perfect antidote to a dismal day. I'm recharging all my backup batteries and looking at dog pictures on my Facebook feed. I think I am ready for tomorrow.

Skippy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3366

Our power went out before dawn this morning. I knew a storm with straight line winds was headed our way, but I wasn't expecting a citywide power outage. I think over 100,000 customers were affected. Needless to say, it took a while to get the lights back on again. The Oncor outage reporting system was overwhelmed for a while. Initially, the system didn't even recognize me when I called in our location.  When Dash started pooping in the dark, I knew it was going to be a long day.

My initial worry was the heavy rain. With no electricity, the pumps weren't working. I knew that water would accumulate quickly on the roof, but there was very little I could do. I found a portable camping light, cleaned up Dash's poop, and convinced him to come back to bed for a while. There certainly wasn't much point to getting up early this morning. There wasn't going to be a morning walk.

I thought the high winds would blow the roof off the greenhouse again, but luckily it stayed in place. Power outages are not uncommon in our part of town. Sitting in the dark wondering if Dash is going to freak out and if my phone battery is going to die is a very familiar feeling. These outages make me realize how dependent we've become on electricity. You can't do much in our house without electricity.

Eventually the power returned and I began the time consuming process of resetting clocks and timers. The washer and dryer turn on automatically after a power outage. This shouldn't be happening, but it does. Everything has a clock in it these days. The land line phones, the WiFI thermostat,  the Keurig coffee maker, and the timers on the living room lights all need to be reset. The furnace wouldn't even work until I reset its internal calendar. It didn't know whether it was supposed to be on the day or nighttime settings. It's always a pain to get the WiFi network and U-Verse TV up and running again. The router for the network is supposed to reboot automatically after an outage, but it seldom does. If you turn things on and off again enough times, they usually start to work though. By the time Janet returned from the gym, I had everything working again.

The day turned out surprisingly nice despite its rocky beginnings. After the storm blew through and headed East, the skies cleared and by early afternoon the temperature was up to 75 degrees. Dash eventually got a nice walk. It was just a little late. I hope I got the water off the roof in time. That seems to be the key to preventing a leak. I turned the pumps on as soon as the power was restored and by the time I climbed up on the roof to finish the job, the water level was actually pretty low.

I was supposed to have a meeting with my financial adviser this afternoon but I didn't feel like driving to his office. We just talked on the phone instead. I'm glad I don't own any Boeing stock. Boeing is getting hammered because of worries about the 737. I flew home in a 737 on Monday and everything seemed fine. The company says pilots just aren't reading the instruction manual, but some pilots say otherwise. The problem is that modern planes are just a giant computer. You don't fly them manually anymore. It's usually not a problem if you need to reboot your computer at the office. If you need to reboot your plane's computer during takeoff, you've got a big problem. This is why I'm not very optimistic about self-driving cars. Can you imagine millions of cars with wonky computers on the road. It's not going to end well.

I seemed really busy today, but as usual I didn't get much accomplished. Dash got his walks and took all his meds. I fixed my morning smoothie, and all the electronic gizmos in the house are working again. As power outages go, this one wasn't too bad. I didn't need to go buy bags of ice to save the food in the refrigerator and I didn't have to call AT&T to come out and fix the U-Verse. The only challenge was cleaning up poop in the dark. Hopefully, tomorrow will go smoothly.

Wyatt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2652

We got lucky. There was a horrendous storm last night with 70 mile per hour straight line winds. Our power was out for about five hours, but the electricity was restored around breakfast time so we hardly even noticed the outage. At some point during the storm I heard the heavy thump of a tree limb hitting the roof, but when I looked this morning there was no damage. The limb was small enough that I was able to remove it without much difficulty. For the most part, Dot and Dash slept through the storm, so we didn't have the usual thunder and lightning issues.

I didn't really realize how bad the storm was until we took our morning walk. There were dozens of large trees that had been blown over in the park. Some looked like a giant had pulled them out of the ground by their roots.  There were sticks and twigs everywhere. Some of the tree limbs were in fields where there were no trees, so the wind must have blown them there. Even the birdhouses for the Purple Martins had been blown over.

When I turned on the television I saw that entire houses had been demolished in some parts of town. Thousands of people were without power this morning. Often our electricity is the last to be restored after a major power outage, but this time it looked like they got to us first. As I said, we got lucky last night.

I really need to remember to always keep all my devices charged. My first thought when the power went out was that I hadn't charged my phone or laptop. When the company was busy and I had lots of deadlines, having a working computer available at all times was a top priority. Now the computers aren't as much of an issue. What I worry about these days is losing the washing machine. A day without a washing machine with Dot peeing all over the place would be a disaster.

The refrigerator was looking kind of empty, so I went back to Central Market and got another one of those bowls for dinner. These tasty one-dish meals are great. It would be difficult to make something like this myself. The shredded beef was braised in soy sauce. The kale and mushrooms were roasted and had kind of a smoky flavor. The carrots and cucumbers appeared to be marinated. Even the barley that everything was piled on top of was delicious. I'm not even going to pretend to cook things anymore. It's so much easier and fun to buy something like this.

Dot had a good day, but Dash was moody again. The first two times I tried to walk him this afternoon, he wouldn't leave the back yard. I gave up and walked Dot instead. After dinner this evening, Dash decided that he wanted to walk after all and we had a nice sunset stroll. I have no idea what goes through this dog's mind. Why would he refuse to walk at 4 PM, but be eager to walk at sunset? I have to stay flexible because Dot is not very predictable either. Some days she wants to walk first. Other days she is tired and doesn't want to walk at all.

I hope the nasty weather is over for a while. I know we'll have more storms, because Spring is all about stormy weather here in Texas. I'm glad I had the trees trimmed a few weeks ago, because I'm sure that some of the limbs they trimmed would have fallen last night. Actually, I need to get the tree guy to come back. I saw several more dead limbs when I was up on the roof this morning.

I need to get the water off the roof tomorrow. The car is dirty and the grass needs to be mowed as well. I guess it all depends on how well I sleep tonight.

Elliot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2405

Things didn't go exactly as planned today. My blood test took forever. The clinic wanted me to fill out new paperwork. Why? "I've been coming to see you guys for over fifteen years," I said. "And nothing has changed. "Oh, we're just updating our records," a nurse told me. I guess she didn't understand. As I said, nothing has changed.

I asked the guy drawing my blood what my blood type was. I've had hundreds of blood tests, and I still don't know what my blood type is.  "Oh, we don't normally do this test," he told me, "because insurance won't pay for it." You've got to be kidding me. I find it hard to believe that insurance will routinely pay for dozens of weird esoteric tests that might not have any real value, but they won't even tell you what your blood type is.

The weather looked fine when I arrived at the clinic early this morning. By the time I left, there were dark, ominous looking storm clouds to the North of me. I checked the weather radar on my phone and they were definitely headed my way. Since my storm phobic dogs were home alone, I decided not to go out for breakfast this morning and headed straight home. Five minutes after I pulled into the driveway, the wind picked up and a major downpour started. It's been a long time since we've had this much rain in July.

The refrigerator is always pretty empty at the end of the week, but I did manage to find a package of toaster waffles in the freezer. I would have preferred Eggs Benedict, but frozen waffles will have to do this week. Breakfast wasn't all that great, but the dogs were glad to have me around. Dot and Dash both stayed calm and by noon the unexpected rain was over.

It's seems like there's a new catastrophe every day. Today there was a military coup in Turkey. This is so confusing. The Turkish army wants to preserve the country's secular heritage, destroy ISIS, and restore democracy, which is something you'd think we'd approve of. The current elected president is well on his way to becoming a dictator and is doing his best to turn Turkey into an Islamic state. So, who does our president support? Well it isn't the army. It wouldn't be the first time we picked the wrong side. It's almost impossible to tell who the good guys are in the Middle East anyway. Maybe there aren't any good guys.

I'm starting to see Jimson Weed flowers in the park. This plant always makes me nervous because it is so toxic. All parts of the plant are highly poisonous and you definitely don't want your dogs to be eating them. People have died from mistakenly using Jimson Weed leaves to brew tea, or from eating the roots. It's odd that the flowers are so pretty. Nature can be deadly, but I'm still more worried about people.

Lots of poop to clean up today. I guess with everything I've been seeing on TV lately, this is a very minor problem.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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