Day 4849

Another slow day. A few things got done, but not very much. I had a telephone meeting with my financial advisor this afternoon. These meetings used to happen more frequently, but I don't have much to say anymore. The market goes up and the market goes down. You really can't outsmart it indefinitely. I basically just wished the guy luck. I certainly don't think I could make better financial decisions on my own.

I got a message from my accountant that he'd finished doing my taxes and they've been filed. I think I lead a simple life, but my tax return always looks complicated to me. At least taxes are done for another year. Now the only thing on my to-do list is renewing my driver's license. It's kind of depressing that I'm not making money anymore, but I had some good years. Things could be a lot worse. I need to remember that I'm not in debt or losing a lot.

The weather continues to baffle me. I was surprised at how cold it was this morning since the temperature was over 90 degrees yesterday. It warmed up later, but I had to wear a jacket on our early walk with Dawn. The day was kind of dismal. It looked like it was going to rain all day, although it never did. There is more rain in the forecast late tonight. Luckily there are no severe weather warnings.

I tried again to find out whether I've been credentialed to cover the upcoming Viasat 3 Americas launch. No luck so far. The friends I wrote in Florida haven't heard anything yet either. I guess I'm just going to have to live with last minute notices and higher airfares. I did receive a notice from the National Reconnaissance Office asking me if I'd like to attend a pre-launch Media Day for the NROL-68 mission. Sure. I'd like to go to all these things. It's just a shame that travel is becoming so expensive.

At least walks in the park are still free. I hope these walks are doing me some good, because they are becoming boring. I could always walk somewhere else, but that would involve getting in the car and driving somewhere. It's so much easier to just head out the back door. I walk the same route every day and usually see the same ducks and geese. A lot of times I see the same people too, although I don't know who they are. I guess a lot of people like to exercise in the park.

I think Dawn is back to normal. She hasn't fallen or appeared to be in any discomfort for over a week. We're going to discontinue her remaining medication in a few days an see if that makes any difference. We're trying real hard to keep her from jumping, but that's hard to do with a Dalmatian. At least she's getting better at using her step to get on and off the bed. We all continue to take things one day at a time. Luckily, most of the days are good.

Dottie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4835

What happened? Today was supposed to be nice and I was going to go up on the roof and look for leaks. It wasn't warm and nice at all. It was very chilly outside and there was an all day drizzle. It never rained very hard, but it never stopped either. I waited and waited to take my long walk and I finally gave up, put a raincoat on and walked in the rain.

Dawn had a minor setback this morning. When we took her out to pee in the yard, she saw the neighbor's dog in the back alley and started barking and running toward the fence. She always barks at anything in the alley, but this was an unfortunate time. She was running too fast and must have strained a muscle in her weak leg. She didn't fall, but she was limping a bit. 

We helped her back on the bed and she didn't want to get off again for quite a while. We had to feed her breakfast in bed again. Eventually today's Rimadyl pill kicked in and she started walking normally again. We don't want Dawn to be in pain, but we definitely would like her to take things easy for a while. We're making progress, but it's going to take a while for her to heal. We would have been fine this morning if Dawn hadn't seen the neighbors walking down the alley with their dog. You win some. You lose some. Dawn is a very protective dog. I can't seem to explain to her that it's not our alley.

I was the only one walking in the park today. I saw one man walking his dog but that was it. There were no bicycles and no joggers today. I did see a group of park employees laying new sod in a bare area. I guess they don't get the day off when it rains. My raincoat kept me surprisingly dry and I was able to complete my entire route. My shoes and socks got wet though. Why didn't I think to wear my waterproof Hoka boots? Days like today were exactly why I bought those boots. 

I got a form letter from my accountant today saying that since my tax materials arrived later than their self imposed in-house deadline, they might not have time to finish my return by April 15. They could need to file an extension on my behalf. First in, first out the letter said. What? I delivered the materials the same time I always do every year. It's never been a problem before. I don't want to file an extended return. I'll have to give the guy a call. My return is always pretty simple. I can't believe it would take them that much time to prepare it this year.

I'm so sick of all this rain. It just seems to go on and on. We're going to miss bulky trash pick up this month because the remaining leaves in the back yard are too wet to rake. The roof still isn't leaking, but I have very little faith in my repairs. It never gets dry enough for me to find and seal the remaining leak. Dawn doesn't like the rain either. It's really hard to get her to poop when the ground is wet. If we do managed to get her down to the park, the ground is slippery and that increases the danger of falling. The rain isn't over either. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry, but there will be new storms arriving on Thursday and Friday.

Hopefully there will be no surprises tomorrow. Is a predictable life, a healthy dog, and a dry house too much to ask?

Big Boy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4830

Yesterday was such a nice day and today was exactly the opposite. It turns out that it was the drugs that were keeping Dawn happy. After 24 hours without pain meds she woke up stiff and painful again. There were no falls, but there was one stumble where she almost fell. We've had to go back to having her wear a harness with a handle all the time so we can help her on and off the bed and make sure she doesn't fall when going out to pee. After giving her another Rimadyl she is much calmer this evening. We'll have to check with the vet and see how long it is safe to continue this medication.

Today was a dismal rainy day, but I did manage to get a few things done. I finished gathering and preparing my 2022 tax information to take to the accountant. During a break in the rain I took a fat folder with my tax materials and another with Janet's information to the accountant and then dropped off the old printer at an animal rescue donation site. When I returned home it looked like there was still enough time to take my long walk before the next round of storms arrived.

I completed my entire route today but I was pretty slow. My feet weren't having a good day. We didn't give Dawn a morning walk today and probably won't tomorrow either. Since she seems to feel good when taking pain medication it's hard to know what to do. We don't want to aggravate the situation, but it isn't good to be completely inactive either. Dawn is much happier when she can follow her regular routine. She and I are pretty similar in that regard.

The dreaded severe storms we've been hearing about for several days finally arrived late this afternoon. Usually bad storms go either to the north or south of us, but today they appeared to be headed directly in our direction. It all looked pretty serious for a while. We started getting warnings on our phones and then the tornado sirens started going off in the neighborhood. The local weather said the entire area was under a tornado warning and sure enough when I looked at the weather radar our house was inside the tornado warned zone. This hasn't happened for a long time. We gathered up Dawn, her dog bed, several blankets and our phones and headed for our safe spot. Truthfully, we don't have a safe spot in our house since it is an open plan design with no interior rooms. There is a ton of single pane glass that would break easily in a bad storm. We ended up huddling next to the refrigerator in a little alcove in the kitchen that was as far from windows as we could find. This still wasn't a great location because we were near the utility room with a gas furnace and water heater.

Dawn was good in her inaugural safety drill. She was nervous for a few minutes and then settled down and was pretty relaxed. I think she felt comfortable that both of us were right there next to her. Dawn didn't want us on the dog bed with her though, so she ended up having more room than Janet and I. The storm blew over pretty quick and everything is quiet again. A cold front has arrived though and it is almost thirty degrees colder than it was a few hours ago. When I took the trash out to the curb about an hour ago it felt like a completely different day than it did this morning.

There are no roof leaks yet, but I expect we'll start to see some soon. The pumps are running now and it's clear that there's a lot of water on the roof. I wish I knew where to place the buckets before I go to bed tonight, but the leaks never seem to appear in the same place. I actually hope the dripping noises wake me up tonight or there might be a big mess in the morning. The good news is that there is no more rain in the forecast for a while. The bad news is that Dawn isn't out of the woods yet. Whatever's wrong is still bothering her.

Ruthie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4457

Today was busy. Well, it was busy for me anyway. I finished working on my taxes and took the files down to my accountant. For many years I've burned a CD of my Quickbooks files to support all the paper documents. Nobody's computers except for mine seem to have a CD drive anymore, so I took them a zip drive this year. I have no real idea what I owe these days. It's too complicated. Hopefully, the damage won't be too bad this year. There are already plenty of other bills I need to pay.

On the way home I stopped to get some printer ink. All I needed was the Cyan cartridge, but I had to buy a three pack with a Magenta and Yellow cartridge as well. Since the Magenta and Yellow cartridges currently in the printer are pretty full, I will probably lose this new ink long before I need it. It's weird that the colored ink gets used at all since all I print are black and white documents. Computer printers are probably going the way of CD drives pretty soon. There is very little use for them anymore. I could have probably sent all my tax files to the accountant's Dropbox as PDF files, but old habits die hard. Tax season to me still means a big manilla envelope full of paper documents. 

When I returned home I added the three new dogs to the Dalmatian Rescue website. The site is up to date now, even though my Dreamweaver software barely works anymore. It's a good thing I know HTML fairly well. I haven't upgraded any Adobe software since they went to a subscription model, so the copy of Dreamweaver I use is ancient. It probably wouldn't work at all if I had the latest OS running on my Mac. I stopped upgrading the computer quite a while ago too. I hate the relentless desire of companies to monetize everything and turn owners into renters. I still think you should be able to buy software in a pretty box with a CD inside and be able to use it forever. The box should include a decent instruction manual too. Why does everything have to be a cumbersome PDF file that takes forever to read on your computer?

This weather is driving me nuts. The temperature fluctuates wildly from day to day. I never know what to wear anymore. I was cold when we took Dawn on her morning walk, so I dressed warmly when I took my long walk later in the day. I didn't think it had warmed up much, but I was hot before I had gone two miles. I never should have worn two coats, because the outer coat was too bulky to tie around my waist. My feet hurt a lot today as well. Foot pain seems just as unpredictable as the weather. 

The weather is going to get a lot colder by Friday. We may even get snow. Why does this happen every year? We have an early Spring. Things start to turn green and then we get a late hard freeze that kills all the early growth. We've frequently had terrible weather in March, so I wouldn't be surprised if we did get some snow this weekend. At least April is always nice. April isn't that far away is it?

I've been trying to get Dawn used to having me do the things that Janet usually does in preparation for her upcoming trip. So far, it isn't going so well. Dawn is still very nervous around me when I am alone with her. She will come and eat her dinner after I fix it for her, but I have to go back in the office while she eats. She won't eat if I am in the kitchen. She finally comes to the backdoor when I call her to go outside and pee. There is a whole breakfast routine she still needs to learn though. Janet always feeds her breakfast and gets her to take her pills while I am making the bed. Often Janet will take her down in the park to poop as well. She won't even leave the backyard with me unless Janet is nearby. It's going to be an interesting week. Dawn is a very smart dog and Janet has been able to do amazing things with her at training class. Hopefully it won't take her long to realize that I mean no harm and am actually her friend. Dawn needs to understand that Janet needs vacations too. I've had the opportunity to go to Kennedy Space Center and McDonald Observatory last year, but Janet hasn't gone anywhere since Covid started. 

Val is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4455

I didn't pay enough attention to the weather this morning. I decided to take my long walk early and didn't even get to the end of the street before it suddenly started pouring rain. I quickly turned around and headed home, but it was too late. I was soaking wet. This was a strange little downpour. It didn't last long and it seemed to have been timed specifically to get me wet. It wasn't raining earlier when we took Dawn on her morning walk. And it wasn't raining later when we took her on her Sunday outing.

While my clothes were drying, I thought I might as well make use of my time, so I reluctantly started working on my taxes. While I was preparing my Quickbooks files for my accountant I noticed that my expenses had gone up in almost every category. Even though I drove less in 2021 I paid more for gas. Annual utility bills were considerably higher. Company expenses were about the only thing that went down. Makes sense I guess. I didn't have any business.

I've heard that our unseasonably warm weather is about to end. It got up to 80 degrees again today but tomorrow's high is supposed to only be in the mid-fifties. Later in the week we will be taking our morning walks in freezing weather again. This is basically par for the course. Almost every year we have a late freeze that kills all the early blooming flowers. Despite the odd weather, Spring is definitely getting closer. Things are starting to turn green in the park. It won't be too long before I start seeing baby ducks.

Dawn enjoyed her Sunday outing today. Maybe I was imagining things but she even seemed calmer in the car. I must have been feeling better too, because for the first time in over a month I was able to keep up with Dawn and Janet. My feet didn't bother me much today and I was able to make another attempt at my long walk later in the day after we returned home. We all enjoyed our ice cream cones today. A walk with Dawn followed by ice cream has become a Sunday tradition.

Basically all I did today was walk and do a little work on my taxes. I've had three 20,000 step days in a row now. That's not too shabby for a guy who can barely move when he gets up in the morning. I'm still not sure why my foot pain varies so much from day to day. Based on what is actually going on with my bones, you'd think the discomfort would be more or less constant. Maybe there is something to the old adage of mind over matter. I do tend to feel a little better on days when I'm in a good mood.

I'm about as anti-war as you can get, but it still bothers me that we aren't doing more to help the Ukrainians. At the very least, these guys should have iron dome defense shields around their cities like the Israelis do and  A-10 fighters to take care of the columns of Russian tanks and armored vehicles. Why was it OK for the United States to go into Iraq when virtually none of the locals wanted us there, but it is not OK to get involved with the Ukrainians when they are begging for our help? Yeah, I know the answer is Putin's nukes, but he still needs to be stopped.

Three of the four puppy mill Dalmatians will be at the kennel when we go to visit tomorrow. I can't wait to meet them. None of the dogs are ready for adoption yet, but I will take their pictures for the website anyway. I saw a few pictures of the dogs that were taken while they were at the vet. One of them looks a lot like Dawn. There certainly seems to be a family resemblance. I wonder if she could have been one of Dawn's puppies?

Anne is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4454

My grocery list was long this morning. Prices are still going up. It's not just a few cents anymore either. Most of the items I got today were at least a dollar higher than the last time I bought them. I don't really know who to blame here. Companies are facing a host of problems they never had to deal with before. There is a shortage of workers. Supply chain problems make it harder to get components to the factories and finished goods to the consumer. It's pretty clear that Covid has messed up everything. On the other hand, I think a lot of companies are taking advantage of the situation and raising prices just because they've got a good excuse now. I want prices to stay reasonable but I also want a healthy stock market because I depend on it for a retirement income. Why do I have a feeling that I'm not going to be able to have both.

It was quite warm today. We didn't even have to wear jackets on our morning walk with Dawn. I don't call this a sunrise walk anymore because the sun is rising earlier now. Lately, it's almost always been up by the time we get started on our walk. Unfortunately, this is going to change in a few weeks. Daylight Savings Time begins again on March 13. I don't think anyone likes the time change but like everything else in modern life we are divided on whether to make Standard Time permanent or Daylight Savings Time permanent. My vote would be to make Standard Time permanent. I've never liked Daylight Savings Time and am not looking forward to walking in the dark again.

For some reason my pace was a lot better on my long walk today. I completed my walk at least five minutes faster than I usually do. Not a lot has changed. I still wake up tired and I have foot pain, although it wasn't all that bad today. Maybe I walked faster because it was so warm that I wore shorts today. I don't see a lot of cold weather in the long range forecast so maybe we really will get an early Spring this year. I hope we do. I'm tired of freezing weather and wearing multiple coats in the morning.

I wonder when my seasonal allergies are going to stop. My nose feels red and raw now, but the drip is relentless. Years ago my allergies didn't start until everything started turning green in the Spring. That hasn't happened yet, so maybe the worst is yet to come. There's got to be a solution to this that doesn't involve taking Allegra-D or other powerful decongestants. I don't handle decongestants well, but lately I think I'd prefer the buzzing in the head they give me to a constantly dripping nose.

I had the best intentions to start working on my taxes today, but one thing led to another and I ended up doing nothing. I'll get this finished before the deadline, but I have no desire to deal with taxes this year. I know I'm procrastinating but procrastinating is one of the things I do best. It's almost a superpower. I tend to wait until the last possible minute on everything and somehow still manage to get things done just in the nick of time.

I think I'm making a little progress with Dawn. She comes to me in the mornings now to get her harness on for her walk. About half the time, she'll stay with me on the bed if I take a nap during the day. She's more likely to stay if I don't look at her though. If I turn away and sleep on my side, she usually stays. She's getting a lot bolder in the kitchen too. I don't think that has a lot to do with me. Dawn just loves food.

It looks like we'll have a nice Sunday outing tomorrow as long as it doesn't rain. There's a slight chance of rain but the temperature will certainly be nice. Here's hoping for sunshine and ice cream for all.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4452

I started working on my taxes today. I didn't get very far but at least I've got a folder to put my information in. I haven't done my own taxes for many years but there is still a lot of information to pull together for my accountant. Why do retired people even have to pay taxes? It's called an income tax and I don't have an income anymore. It wouldn't be so bad if people could choose what their taxes were used for. If I had a choice I would send mine to help the people in Ukraine this year. I'm fairly certain that the money will be wasted or spent on some government program I hate. At least I live in Texas. We don't have a state income tax.

I've finally seen pictures of the four new Dalmatians that the rescue program is picking up. They all come from a puppy mill in Marshal, Texas that hopefully is finally shut down for good. The dogs are all in bad shape, but they are at our vet now and will receive the care they've been needing for a long time. One of the females is pregnant and will have puppies soon. Dawn was rescued from this same puppy mill so I know how bad the conditions are there. All of Dawn's fear and nervousness came from this place. If you would like to help these dogs, a fundraiser has been created to provide for their care. If you are reading the real blog on my blogspot page, you can click on this link to donate. If you are looking at my JPEG images on Facebook, just look for the Dalmatian Rescue of North Texas page. 

I wonder how long this warm weather is going to last? The temperature topped 80 degrees today. It felt more like Summer than Spring. I'm happy for the warmer temperatures. They certainly beat the snow we had in March a few years ago. It's weird to have your furnace and your air conditioner both working on the same day. When we wake up in the morning the furnace is running. By mid afternoon, the air conditioner kicks in. I think that Dawn likes this warmer weather. There's a sunny spot in the bedroom that's become her new favorite place.

My allergies are worse than ever this year. I wonder why? Are pollen levels higher or is my resistance lower? It's hard to tell. It is irritating to blow you nose all day long though. It's definitely not as much fun to walk when your nose is dripping and you are constantly sneezing. I've had seasonal allergies for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately antihistamines make the problem even worse for me. I can't remember exactly when this is over for the year, but I hope it's soon.

I can't believe that Russia just bombed Europe's largest nuclear power plant. The place is on fire now. This is insane. Didn't these guys learn anything from Chernobyl? The fact that the rest of the world seems paralyzed by the fact that Putin has nuclear weapons seems as good a case for banning all nuclear weapons worldwide as I've ever seen. Who would enforce this though? It would probably be impossible unless space aliens stepped in. Humans have been fighting each other since the dawn of time. I don't have a lot of faith that this sad episode is going to bring us to our senses.

This week has sure gone quickly. I've already taken this week's trash to the curb and am ready to start all over again. Every Friday I toy with the idea of resuming my Friday morning restaurant breakfasts. I doubt that I'll go out for breakfast tomorrow, but one of these days I will. It's long past time to start having fun again.

Maggie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4092

I took my tax files over to the accountant today. It's weird walking around in a large office building these days. This building seemed empty as a tomb. A lot of people must still be working from home, because only about one in four offices even seemed open. My accountant's office was open though. This is his busiest time of the year. I'm glad that tax preparation is behind me now. It's never a pleasant task.

It was a nice day, so we resumed raking leaves. I wish I could convince Janet that the leaves will eventually just blow away, but she likes a nice looking yard. Dawn probably does too. We made good progress today, but there is probably another day of work ahead before the leaves are all gone. The freeze killed more plants than I initially thought. I'm going to have to cut back all of our Asian Jasmine and hope that it starts to grow again in the Spring. For the first time ever, the Live Oak trees in the back yard have lost all their leaves. I'm pretty sure these trees are fine, but it's odd to see a Live Oak without any leaves.

My feet weren't kind to me today. I still can't figure out why some days are worse than others. I started out pretty well, but after the fourth mile I was practically limping. Maybe I should give it a rest, but I don't think it would make any difference. I walk slowly anyway and if I didn't spend so much time walking, I would just be faced with more household chores.

I received a residual value refund for my dehumidifier from the manufacturer today. This was basically a nice way of saying "please don't bother us any more about this thing." The dehumidifier still works. It just doesn't have an automatic shut-off switch. As long as I use it in a small room and remember to turn it off before I go to bed at night, it works fine. It's hard to tell if I came out ahead on this deal or not. I got a refund on a machine that I didn't buy in the first place. The free dehumidifier was a warranty replacement for a dehumidifier that I actually did buy however. I won't purchase this brand again. I've had three identical dehumidifiers now, and two out of three were faulty.

I'm trying to decide whether to apply to attend the Crew-2 launch in late April. This one will probably exactly the same as the Crew-1 launch which I did attend, but I'd like to be doing something. Applying for press credentials for these launches is kind of like buying a lottery ticket. A lot of applications doesn't really improve your chances that much, but you can fool yourself into thinking it does. I'm beginning to wonder why I like watching these launches so much. It takes a lot of planning and then you end up standing in a field and getting eaten alive by mosquitos while the rocket you've been chasing quickly disappears overhead. It's all over in less than five minutes.

We missed seeing Charlie and Cooper today, but I'm sure they are fine. We'll be back as soon as Spring Break is over. The fact that Spring Break trips are still happening at the same time we continue to receive daily warnings about Covid seems very strange to me. There won't be any Spring Break activities out at the observatory this year, so my services might not be needed again until 2022. I don't think cancellations are going to stop people from traveling this Summer though. Everyone seems to have a bad case of cabin fever and there is a lot of pent up demand. This might be a good time to invest in airlines and cruise lines.

I have no idea what I'm going to be doing tomorrow. I hope it isn't raking leaves though.

Bacardi is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4091

I'm still fighting these allergies. The Flonase works pretty well at clearing my nasal passages, but I've still got the runny nose. I did sleep better last night because I didn't wake up several times completely congested and breathing through my mouth. I guess this is progress, but I still feel like I've got pepper up my nose.

I vacuumed and did some small chores around the house, but it was hard to get motivated. I successfully repaired Dawn's collar although I still don't know how it became damaged. When a dog gets used to wearing a collar, they become very nervous when you take it off. All our dogs have been this way. Dawn didn't look pleased when I took the collar off to glue it back together and seemed quite relieved when I put it back around her neck a few hours later.

Janet joined me on my long walk today. I've noticed that I walk a little faster when we walk together. Usually each mile I walk is little slower than the last, but we kept a pretty steady pace today. Neither of us is setting the world on fire, but I think we're doing pretty well for 72. We're both in better shape than a lot of 40 year olds.

I never did have any reaction to the Covid shots. Even the minor soreness at the injection site is gone now. It still seems strange that people react so differently to this disease. Some people get infected and die. Other people get infected and aren't even aware they have the disease. So far, I've only known two people who have gotten sick and both recovered quickly. Nobody in my immediate circle of friends has gotten sick. It pays to be careful though. Our house has never been struck by a tornado either, but I know it could happen at any time.

The Starliner launch I've been hoping to go to in Florida has been postponed again. This is probably a good thing. I'm hoping that the closer we get to Summer, the more relaxed that current Covid restrictions are going to get. It's going to be a lot easier for me to get press accreditation for my small, obscure magazine when the world returns to normal. I'm pretty confident that I'll be going somewhere this year. I just don't know when or where.

Maybe by the time I start traveling again my seasonal allergies will be over for the year. That alone would make any trip a lot more enjoyable. Last March when I went out to McDonald Observatory I thought I would leave my allergies behind. Nope. They followed me out there and I ran through two rolls of blue Scott shop towels blowing my nose. Every single year this happens. You can look back through the blog archives and see for yourself.

This weekend really went quickly. We had a wonderful dinner tonight, but tomorrow it's back to fruit smoothies and leftovers. I guess I'll take my tax files over to the accountant tomorrow. You never get a refund when nothing has been withheld, but hopefully I won't get hit too bad this year. I wouldn't mind paying taxes if I could choose where the money went. As it stands now, I'm convinced that anything I give to the government will just be wasted.

We won't be going up to visit the Dalmatians tomorrow because the kennel is too busy with Spring Break boarders. Spring Break is still a mystery to me. I don't ever remember getting off for Spring Break when I was in school.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4088

Dawn got a bath today. The fact that this was the big event of the day will tell you how exciting today was. None of our dogs have enjoyed getting a bath, but they put up with it. We abandoned bathing dogs at home years ago and always take them to one of those do it yourself dog bath places that have sprung up all over town. We all got wet. Dawn got clean. And she did very well with the other dogs at the facility.

Today was tax preparation day. I think I've got everything ready to send to the accountant, but I'm never sure. Taxes seem to get more complicated every year. My big problem this year was that I keep accidentally putting things in the wrong category in Quickbooks. It took quite a while to look for missing items and move them to the proper class files. At least I'm pretty good about entering transactions in Quickbooks now. Doing a search in a software program is a lot easier than sifting through mountains of receipts in an accordion folder. I was pleased that I actually made money writing for magazines this year. It wasn't a lot of money, but it was a start.

I never did take the Allegra-D that I bought yesterday. I guess all the dire warnings on the box scared me away. Now I've got to go find something else. I should quit reading the fine print on pill bottles. I shouldn't even watch the TV commercials. Just about every pharmaceutical product on the market warns of some sort of horrible side effect. I seldom have an adverse reaction to medication. My problem is that I often have no reaction at all. A lot of pills just don't seem to work on me. It's just as well. I hate to depend on pills and still think that staying active and eating healthy food is the best way to avoid getting sick.

It was so warm today that I not only washed the car, I cleaned the dirty wheels as well. Land Rover wheels seem to get coated with oil and dirt unusually quickly. I hate cleaning them because I have to get down on my knees and scrub all the gunk away. The older I get, the harder it is to get back up off the ground. I'm going to need a cane one of these days. I guess the effort was worth it. The car looks great now. I don't drive much, so I probably won't have to do this again for a month or so. Dawn probably hopes she won't need a bath again for another month or so as well.

I talked to my editor at SpaceFlight Magazine today. He said he'd leave it up to me what to cover next. This is good and bad. I'm not really sure what I want to do next. It will probably just depend on how hard it is to get clearance and the proper credentials. I think that Kennedy Space Center has discovered that severely restricting access makes life a lot easier. Life will probably never go back to the pre-covid days when NASA created special events for social media influencers and it was easy to get a press pass.

Last year at this time I was getting ready to spend several weeks out at McDonald Observatory. Every March they hosted a special series of Spring Break star parties that would often attract up to 500 people a night. When I became an on-site volunteer I kind of thought that I'd be going back to the observatory every March. Not this year. I have no idea when the observatory is going to open up again, but I don't think it is going to be soon. Hard to believe that it's been a full year since the Covid madness started.

I've learned a lot this year. I'm not a people person and do pretty well on my own. I've discovered that it is very hard to do anything in isolation however. Getting invited to view launches at Kennedy Space Center involves a lot of interaction with other people. So does looking through big telescopes out at the observatory. I'd like to resume these activities but I'm not sure that life will ever go back to the way it was before. I'm just sitting her like everyone else, waiting to see what happens next.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4084

My allergies are driving me crazy this year. Every Spring my seasonal allergies seem to get worse and there doesn't seem to be much I can do. Antihistamines seem to be what most people recommend for allergies and they do nothing to stop my continual runny nose and itching eyes. Even so called modern antihistamines like Allegra don't deliver any relief. I'm sick of this. My nose is red and raw and I rub my eyes so often that Dr. Fauci would be appalled. This eventually goes away, but if experience is any guide, I  think I've got another month of misery.

I've been getting unexplained bug bites and I think I now know the cause. Ants. Little sweet ants invade the house every Spring and I think they're getting into my clothes. I was watching TV this afternoon and I watches an ant crawl out of my pants pocket and continue walking down my pants leg. The ants are just as hard to get rid of as the seasonal allergies. You can spray, but they always seem to find a new way to get inside. The ants disappear after a while too, but right now they're everywhere.

The temperature continues to fluctuate wildly. Yesterday it got up to 80 degrees, but today was much cooler. Yesterday I wore shorts and a t-shirt. Today, I had to wear a jacket again. I was actually glad to see the cooler weather. 80 degrees in February is a bit much. It's hard to believe that the temperature two weeks ago was near zero. To say the weather has been strange this year would be an understatement.

The rain was always nearby today, but we never got wet. Actually I hear thunder right now, but I think the rain is to the north of us. Janet and I must have been confident that it was going to stay dry for a while because we both washed our cars today.

I managed to get a lot of walking in today. I was lucky that my foot didn't hurt much. It's rare that I can have a 20,000 step day without a lot of foot pain. I wish I could pin down the cause for all these things that are bothering me. I've done everything my doctors have recommended for allergies and foot pain and nothing fundamentally seems to change. Things just seem to ebb and flow. I haven't even asked my doctor about the ants. He would just laugh.

When I wasn't walking today, I watched several videos about my new camera. There are some advanced features I'd like to use, but they aren't intuitive at all. It's much easier to watch someone explain them in a video than to read the instruction manual. YouTube videos have changed the whole world of do-it-yourself. I've learned how to repair appliances and upgrade computers watching YouTube videos. It looks like this will be how I master this complicated new camera as well.

We visit the rescue Dalmatians again tomorrow. It seems like a long drive to see two dogs, but Charlie and Cooper enjoy the visit and so do we. I really need to start working on my taxes tomorrow.  That's not something I enjoy, but I'm running out of time. I think there are all kinds of extensions available this year because of Covid, but I'm still going to file at the regular time. Why change now? I always file on April 15. What I'm really wondering is whether I'll be attending the Boeing Starliner launch on April 2.

Connor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4077

I hate getting old. It was a lot warmer today, so I thought I'd inflate my tires and get rid of the annoying warning light on my dash. I struggled to get the heavy air compressor out of the storage shed next to the carport. I'd put the compressor up on a shelf when I was younger and much stronger. Why didn't I put this thing on the floor like a sensible person? When I got the machine going and sat on the pavement to inflate the first tire, I realized that it was very hard to get up again. I went to the kitchen and brought out a chair to sit in while I was checking the tire pressure and inflating it to to proper specifications. I don't know why I never thought of this before. It's much easier to inflate tires sitting in a chair. These tires are supposed to be inflated with nitrogen, but who cares anymore. I'm tired of going to the Land Rover dealer and waiting around for an hour just to get my tires checked. All is well now. The tires were pretty low and they never would have inflated themselves.

The temperature got up to 70 degrees today which just shows you how weird Texas weather is. I thought for a while this afternoon that the air conditioner was going to come on in the house. I'm glad to have the warmer weather back. No more worries about frozen pipes and setting all the faucets to drip before I go to bed at night. I was expecting a lot of mud after the snow melted, but it seems to have just evaporated. The ground was surprisingly dry today.

The roads and trails were dry too, which allowed me to wear my good shoes on my walk today. The shoes made a big difference. My feet still began to hurt after about four miles, but I felt so much better than yesterday. Janet joined me today as well, which helped me to pick up my pace. She tends to walk a lot faster than I do. I'm sure this is because she is in better shape than I am.

I saw a huge possum on the back porch before I went to bed last night. This explains why Dawn has been so interested in smelling things in the yard lately.  We had to watch her carefully when she went out to pee this morning. Possums are beneficial animals, but I don't want our dogs to tangle with one. I have a feeling that the possum is probably living in our damaged greenhouse. There are probably a lot of critters living in that greenhouse.

Dawn is back to taking two walks a day again. She seems happy taking these two short walks. Maybe that all she ever wanted to do. She enjoys smelling things in the park and occasionally gets to greet another dog. She is very particular about other dogs. Some she clearly likes and others she tends to avoid. I'm always careful when we approach another dog, because it's hard to predict how she's going to react.

I wonder if we're ever going to get mail again? We haven't had any deliveries in over a week. Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, but I'm waiting for some copies of SpaceFlight Magazine to arrive from England. These copies with my articles in the October and February issues were mailed just before the big storm hit. I know there are sitting in a bin at the post office somewhere, or maybe in a mail carrier's trunk. I hope they arrive eventually because I know the magazine is getting tired of me asking about the October issue. At least I don't worry about bills getting lost anymore. It's so much easier to just pay everything online.

I'm running out of time to get my tax material prepared for the accountant. I have no interest in doing this anymore. You know what they say about death and taxes though. I'd better get busy. I was always very meticulous about keeping accurate records when I was working. With each passing year I care less and less. I know there have been a lot of tax law changes because of Covid. I hope my accountant knows what they are, because I certainly don't. I still think old people should be exempt from all this stuff. It's hard enough to remember to take my pills every day.

It looks like everything will be back to normal tomorrow. I've got fresh fruit ready for my morning smoothie. The only thing on my calendar is my second Covid shot.

Lizzy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3737

It's going to be a very long Spring. They say that new cases of the coronavirus won't begin to peak for another 45 days. Even if infections begin to decrease after that point, it's going to be mid-Summer before life returns to normal. I hope the experts are wrong. I'm not really prepared for toilet paper riots at the grocery store.

So far, nothing has changed for me. The only time I left the house was for my long walk. Janet and I walk Dawn three miles every day and then I continue walking another two miles by myself. Janet has started jogging, since she can't go to the gym anymore. We may be bored, but we're going to be in good shape.

I started writing my Sky and Telescope article today. The first draft is almost done, but the article will need considerable editing before I'm ready to submit it to the magazine. So far, so good. I've got some human interest stories about life at the observatory. There are descriptions of the astronomical targets I viewed through the 36-inch Dall-Kirkham telescope. There are side trips to the Tull Spectrograph and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. I think this will be interesting to other amateur astronomers, but what do I know. I hope the article gets published. Sky and Telescope actually pays for articles.

The house continues to deteriorate. A light fixture in Janet's bathroom quit working today. I can't decide whether to problem is in the wiring or in the switch that controls the light. I just finished paying the electrician for his last visit to the house, but it looks like I'm going to have to call him again. The problem isn't a bad bulb and I'm not all that good with wiring. I took the fixture apart and couldn't find any loose or burned wiring. Anything beyond that and I'm likely to electrocute myself.

My taxes are done. Once again I owe money. It doesn't seem fair that I'm paying more now than I was when I was working. It makes a big difference when you have nothing to deduct. I sure wish I had converted my IRA to a Roth IRA a long time ago. The mandatory distributions all count as earned income. It would have made a lot more sense to pay the taxes upfront when I was making a good income rather than now when I am living on a fixed income.

Dawn becomes more relaxed with every passing day. It is clear that she calls our place home now. Sudden movements still spook her, but that's understandable. After the way she was attacked, I don't think she will ever be completely comfortable approaching strange dogs again. She's certainly got a personality. I've never seen a Dalmatian smile quite as often as Dawn does.

I certainly hope the medical experts are right. Shutting down the entire country is pretty drastic. I've been around a long time and have never seen anything like this. Our collective reaction to 9/11 wasn't nearly this severe. I guess this is a perfect storm. What we have is a fear of financial ruin combined with a fear of dying. That pretty much covers all the bases. A lot of senior citizens are going to lose their savings. A lot of younger people are going to lose their jobs. Some people are going to lose their lives. Any way you look at it, this pandemic is not good.

Luckily, we're not running out of toilet paper and there's enough food in the freezer to last for quite a while. I'm going to take things one day at a time.  What else can you do.

Nick is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3724

I managed to fix the furnace by myself and didn't need the HVAC guys after all. I did need an electrician though. I bought a new security light yesterday, but didn't have the nerve to install it myself. The light is on a pole where the electricity comes into the house. I'm clumsy enough that I don't want to get anywhere near a high voltage electric line. It's worth the money to have an electrician do the foolish, risky stuff. Luckily, the electrician was able to come out this morning and when he finished installing the new security light, I asked if he had time to do a little more electrical work. I had him rewire a few things so I can now turn on the roof pumps from inside the house. This will be a huge improvement. I've grown to hate going out in the rain just to turn the pumps on and off.

I got a haircut today and now feel ready for my trip to West Texas. I asked the folks at the observatory if they were considering canceling their Spring Break activities because of the coronavirus. Nope. The show will go on, but they did say they bought some extra hand sanitizer. It looks like I will be very busy, conducting tours during the day and helping with star parties at night. I hope I enjoy this unique experience. As a rule, I don't enjoy driving long distances. Jeez. I don't even enjoy working. The people at the observatory are extremely nice though and the dark night skies on Mount Locke are hard to beat. Hey, I may even learn a little about astronomy.

I finally assembled all my tax records and took them to the accountant. I always burn a copy of my Quickbooks Pro files to a CD and give this to the accountant as well. It turns out that they had just updated their office computers and none of the new workstations had a CD drive. It made me feel old.  Apparently nobody uses CD's and DVD's anymore. "Why don't you just e-mail us the files," the office manager told me. Duh. Why didn't I think of that?

It doesn't look like this blog is coming back to Facebook any time soon. They have never responded to my inquiries.  It remains a mystery why I have been banished from their platform. How can a blog about rescuing dogs and attending rocket launches be considered offensive by anyone? And why did it take them ten years to decide I was violating their community standards? What are these community standards anyway? I see absolute crap on Facebook every day. I'm kind of the Mr. Rogers of the blog world. Why pick on me? Not that is really matters. I survived the collapse of Klout, Google+, and MySpace. People are still reading the blog. Surprisingly, blog traffic hasn't diminished all that much. A year from now, I'll still be writing and probably won't be thinking about Facebook at all.

When I went up on the roof this afternoon to clear away the water, everything looked pretty good. My patches were solid and so far there have been no leaks, even though we got a lot of rain. It's too early to do a victory lap, but I'm feeling pretty good. Hopefully, the repairs I've made will prevent further leaks until the weather gets warmer and I can power wash the roof and apply the rest of the silicon coating.

The April issue of Spaceflight magazine is out and my article looks good. This is a good reminder that I don't really need Facebook. There are lots of places to share my story. The important thing is just to keep writing.

Rory is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3723

Talk about irony. The last sentence of last night's blog post read "Life is full of surprises." Two minutes after I added that post to my Facebook timeline, all my Facebook posts disappeared. This was a huge surprise. Facebook had nuked my entire blog, telling me that it was violating their community standards. WTF? I was stunned. With all the crap on Facebook, they picked my simple little blog about rescuing dogs and repairing my roof to ban.

The blog still exists and I still make a new entry every single day. Facebook readers may have to try a little harder to find it though. Some readers have always had the blog sent to their e-mail account every evening. Others find it on Twitter. I'm going to try to get Facebook to reinstate the blog because banning me has got to be a mistake. There is nothing offensive about this blog. I miss the old days when tons of people used to follow the blog directly on Blogger. Blog hopping has fallen out of fashion though. Today you've got to have a podcast.

Losing my Facebook blog readers wasn't the only disaster I had to deal with today. The furnace broke too. The furnace repair guys were out at the house less than a month ago, so the furnace should be working fine. Obviously these guys missed something. I called them to come out again. Hopefully they can quickly find what's wrong with the furnace  quickly. We've still got some cold nights ahead. I didn't even try to fix things myself tonight. I'm tired.

The security light in the back yard has quit working too. I've decide to quit trying to repair this thing and just buy a new fixture. I wanted to buy a sodium vapor lamp like I used to have, but all the stores have quit selling them. Is it against the law to sell incandescent lights anymore? You don't see any in Lowes or Home Depot these days. I ended up up buying another LED light because that was all that was available. These LED fixtures aren't as bright as sodium vapor or metal halide bulbs, but what are you going to do? You can't buy if nobody is selling.

About the only good thing that happened today was that I finally figured out how to enable WiFi Calling on my phone. The reason the feature wasn't working was that the phone company still thought I had an iPhone 5. Older iPhones aren't cmpatible with WiFi calling. As soon as they reconfigured my service for an iPhone SE, everything worked as it should. I wonder why nobody at the AT&T retail stores knew about this? I've spent hours following false leads and blind alleys.

I tried to fill out the accountant's tax questionnaire so I could get my materials to him. I ended up with more questions than answers. I couldn't even figure out my return from last year. I guess I'll do what I always do: dump everything in a big manilla envelope and hand it to the accountant.

I hope my Facebook readers are able to find this post. If you do wind up reading this somehow, leave a comment on the blog and let me know you're still here. The blog isn't going away. I hope you aren't either.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3381

The vet called me back and said that the warnings I'd read about Clindamycin were mainly intended for people and that dogs tolerated the drug well. That's good to know. Dash is still going to need some sort of an antibiotic for his mouth. A friend suggested feeding Dash a cod and sweet potato recipe her vet recommended to cure his diarrhea problem. That's good to know too. She even gave us a sample for Dash to try. The meal she fixed looked delicious. We'll see how our picky eater responds.

There were no accidents in the house last night. I had to take Dash outside around 2 AM to pee, but he slept pretty good for the rest of the night. I actually got some sleep as well. I wish I could count on nights like these, but I've learned you really can't. Every day is different. If there was a formula that worked, I'd have it memorized by now. I'm happy when Dash has a good walk and eats his food. I'm worried when he stumbles a lot and wakes up during the night with a bad cough. Often I'm pleased and worried at the same time.

One of Dash's vets called to ask if we had any recommendations for dog boots. I guess we've inadvertently become the dog boot experts. I was kind of amazed at the detailed knowledge I had about just about every brand of dog boot and sock. I recommended a few brands and told him about the benefits of multiple layers and how to repair boots when they became worn. I hope the information was useful. I think we've done a pretty good job of protecting Dash's feet. He definitely wouldn't be able to walk far without the boots.

My taxes are done. I signed an amended return today and shifted some money around so I'll be able to pay the IRS. I'm curious what makes electronic signatures official. They certainly don't look very official, but that's what everyone is using these days. I haven't signed a paper document in a long time. Forms for just about everything are completed online now. If you didn't have a computer in today's world, you would be at a serious disadvantage.

Just about everyone on Google+ is saying goodbye now. In less than a week the platform will be gone. It's remarkable how many things I like disappear. It doesn't matter if it is a furniture store, a brand of clothing, or an Internet platform; if I'm fond of something, it's a pretty good bet that the general public won't be. Maybe I'll go back to Usenet. Amazingly, Usenet is still around after all these years. For a writer, text based forums are just fine. I never missed not being able to share pictures anyway. Usenet worked just fine on a 300 baud dial up connection. Try that with Facebook.

I'm going to have to go out this weekend and take pictures of wildflowers. They're starting to bloom. It's become just about impossible to take pictures while I'm walking Dash. I've got a leash in each hand. There's one for the front part of the Help 'Em Up Harness, and another for the rear. It's a full time job to keep Dash upright. I couldn't even get my phone out of my pocket today. When worse comes to worse, there are always houseplants. There are definitely no orchids growing in the park.

The trash has been taken to the curb, Dash has taken his evening meds, and I'm ready for bed. I've got to think about what I want for breakfast tomorrow.

Doc is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3379

I learn something new everyday. I've been getting letters from my insurance provider urging me to switch to one of their 'preferred pharmacies' so I could save more on my prescription co-pays. I've been reluctant to switch, since I've been going to this pharmacy forever and I like the people there. Today I decided to see how much I would save if I switched. Would you believe nothing. Absolutely nothing. Insurance hasn't even been paying for my prescriptions since the retail price for these generic drugs is less than the co-pay. Evidently, if the retail price is less than the co-pay, you just pay the retail price and insurance pays nothing. All this time I've been thinking that my prescriptions were a lot more expensive than they actually were. I thought I was getting a bargain, but I was just paying retail.

So why do I even have Part-D coverage if the insurance is paying nothing? I guess the answer is pretty simple. It's insurance. When I was being treated for Hepatitis C, one of the drugs I was taking was horrendously expensive. A lot of cancer drugs are extremely expensive as well. As I was told today, you don't have Part-D coverage to pay for common Tier-1 medications. You have it so you don't get wiped out if your doctor prescribes some life saving but hugely expensive drug. Fair enough. I just never realized that I'd been paying retail for my pills. I guess I could save a little by switching to a mail order pharmacy, but it isn't worth the trouble. I'll just leave things alone.

My taxes are ready to submit. I was still confused why I owed more than I did during my peak earning years, so I called my accountant again. I'd glad he's a patient guy. To make a long story short, social security payments, plus required IRA distributions, plus the art sales and the fact that I had nothing withheld this year put me in a higher bracket than I was before. "You're doing OK," the accountant told me. "Then why do I feel so poor," I asked?

Dash continues to seem a little stronger on his walks while simultaneously appearing a little weaker around the house. I would think he'd be stronger around the house but tire quickly on walks, but the opposite is happening. I'm just glad that he's still interested in something. Dash still seems to love his daily walks. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to love the special food we've been cooking for him anymore. Why? This special stew is so good that I could eat it myself. Dash has gone back to preferring dog food though. Go figure.

My dentist called today to remind me of an upcoming appointment. I need to remember to ask him if I need a new Essix retainer. My old retainer broke in half a few months ago, so it is basically worthless. I'm hoping that the dentist will say I don't need the retainer anymore, but I imagine he'll recommend fitting me for a new one. Dentists never recommend less dental care. Maybe I do need the retainer. My teeth seem to be shifting a little. I wonder if old people ever need orthodontia? I'd feel weird wearing braces at my age.

I'm hoping that Dash will let me sleep tonight. We didn't do so well last night. I'm probably doomed to feeling perpetually tired.

Bubba is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day