Day 3541

I got an e-mail from the electric company today encouraging us to use less electricity because we are under an extreme heat advisory for the next few days. I wonder what makes Thursday and Friday special? As far as I'm concerned, we've been under an extreme heat advisory all Summer. I don't think we're big offenders anyway. Our house is small and I usually keep the temperature around 78 degrees. Anything colder and I feel like I need a sweater.

I sometimes feel a little chilly while I'm having my morning smoothie, but the feeling seldom lasts long. As soon as I take my morning walk, I'm complaining about the heat for the rest of the day. My body must be adjusting to the high temperature. I no longer feel exhausted after my first three miles and have been continuing to keep moving for an additional two miles. So far, a five mile walk is plenty.

Most of the people I see walking are wearing earphones. I prefer visual stimulus. This is why I continue to walk outside despite the unpleasant weather. There are animals to watch and plants to identify. To me, this is much better than listening to music.

Considering that I used to play in a band, I rarely listen to music. Silence is my friend. Today I saw a Great Blue Heron and several Red Eared Slider turtles. Of course, the lone White Pelican remaining in the park was there as well. It will be months before his companions return to join him for the Winter.

We saw our first pictures of the new Dalmatians that recently entered the rescue program. I believe the dogs were obtained by the Texas humane society from an elderly breeder who could no longer care for them. Most of the dogs were underweight and several had bad skin infections. I'm sure a few have heartworms as well. Dalmatian Rescue will return these dogs to good health and find them great homes. Janet and I are looking forward to meeting the newcomers when they finish their initial treatment at our vet. It's sad that these dogs arrived in such bad shape, but it's good that they now have a second chance. By the time I photograph them for the website, they will be looking great.

One of the benefits of taking a single long walk instead of several shorter ones is that I have more time to write. I'm almost halfway finished with my Sky and Telescope article now. I learned a lot from the observatory staff while I was at Mount Locke, but I'm also doing some necessary research to make sure I have my facts straight. Astronomers read this magazine. I doubt that the editors will accept the finished article if I am vague or confusing about how the telescopes work. I'm determined that if I ever return to McDonald Observatory, I will be an expert on the place.

There will be more writing tomorrow and I'm sure there will be more walking as well. It's amazing how quickly the day goes by with these two simple activities. I'm not making money writing ads anymore, but writing is still a useful skill. Each new experience I have can generate a new story. Looking ahead, it's not really a bad way to spend my remaining years.

Domino is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3439

Today seemed like a prelude to Summer. The temperature was over 90 again. I've noticed that some of the sticking doors in the house are starting to shift back to their warm weather positions. The air conditioner runs quite a bit now. It still seems a little early to be sweating on my morning walks, but the weather is weird these days. Janet just got back from Las Vegas and she said the temperatures were just in the 60's out there.

Today was quiet. I got up early and had a bagel and some fresh peaches while I watched old episodes of Have Gun Will Travel as I ate. I did my weekend grocery shopping as soon as the stores opened so I could take my morning walk before it got too hot. This didn't help much. I still got too hot. I can't tolerate the heat as well as I used to. This might be a long summer.

I saw the baby ducks again today. They were twice as big as when I saw them last time, but I only counted seven. I wonder what happened to the other three? Maybe coyotes or hawks got them. I've seen some very large hawks in the area. It probably isn't easy being a duckling when you're a tasty meal for predators. It's possible that I was looking at a completely different family of ducks, but I don't think so. They were swimming in the same place where I initially saw them and the mother looked the same.

I've started exploring options for traveling to Florida. It's a sixteen hour drive, so I'll probably fly. Do I fly nonstop to Orlando or one-stop to Melborne? What about rental cars? Are there hotels near the space center that don't tend to fill up in advance? Planning for rocket launches can be tricky since they frequently get postponed on short notice. NASA warns you to buy refundable tickets and make sure your travel plans can be changed if needed. There are seldom any bargains on these trips. Maybe it would be better to drive.

I wonder if I'll hit the 20,000 step threshold tomorrow. This seems to be my new Sunday goal. If it gets much warmer I'm going to need to think about spending more time in the gym and less time in the park. I enjoy observing plants and animals in the park. I don't really enjoy being drenched in sweat after a one hour walk. The allergies have been pretty bad this Spring as well. I always make sure to take plenty of Kleenex and a bottle of Visine with me before I leave.

There was a turtle in the yard as I was leaving the house this morning. I couldn't find it when I returned. I don't know how turtles get through the fence or how they get out. It doesn't seem to be a problem though. Most of the turtles we see are just passing through. Once we had a turtle that would drink water from a saucer in the yard and would return every morning to eat strawberries we left for it. The turtles stopped lingering when they discovered we had Dalmatians.

So far, so good with the plumbing repairs. The shower head doesn't leak and the toilet is quiet. Next on deck for repairs is the sliding glass door. It stopped sliding ages ago. We just think of it as a large window now.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3417

Today was mostly about food. I went back to the hotel for breakfast this morning. This is the place I always go when I'm in the mood for French Toast. At the table next to me were two guys wearing expensive suits. They seemed to be bankers or hedge fund managers. They were mad because they couldn't do business in Iran. They were also mad because of the high taxes in New York. It was hard to tell whether they were Democrats or Republicans. Their conversation pretty much confirmed my opinion that business doesn't really care who is in power. They just want to know what the rules are so they can learn how to exploit them.

I took my walk after I returned from breakfast. So far the weather forecast has been wrong all week. I was worried about rain when I woke up, but the skies were actually starting to clear by the time I started walking. I'm seeing lots of nesting ducks now. They must have gotten a late start this year. I'm also seeing a lot of turtles. Every submerged log in the lake seems to have a turtle sitting on it. I frequently see Red Eared Sliders, Yellow Mud Turtles, and Missouri River Cooters. Occasionally I see large snapping turtles, but I keep my distance from these guys. Water turtles are surprisingly difficult to photography. As you approach, they almost always slide off their log and go back in the water.

Three miles doesn't seem quite so far anymore. When the dogs were healthy I used to take longer walks. Maybe I will again. I'm not really trying to walk fast, but I've already managed to take five minutes off my elapsed time. I can see a time where I increase the distance to five miles. I can also see a time where I get bored with all this and quit walking entirely. Right now it just seems like a good way to spend my time.

Janet and I went out for dinner this evening. We used to do this frequently, but it's been a while. Once cooking special meals for the dogs and getting them to eat became a complicated ritual, we quit going out entirely. Our dinner tonight was delicious but neither of us eat this much anymore. I'm stuffed. We're going to have to start ordering one meal and splitting it. One dinner would have been plenty tonight. Especially since both of us like seared scallops.

I'm glad I didn't stay up late to watch the Space X launch last night. It got canceled again. The CRS-17 Mission was one of those events I could have applied to watch in person as a guest of NASA. I'm glad I didn't. This launch has been postponed again and again. It was originally scheduled for October of 2018. The people who got accepted to blog about this event have probably had to reschedule their flights and hotel accommodations quite a few times by now. If NASA continues their outreach program for bloggers and social media influencers, I'm definitely going to send in my application when opportunities arise in the future. Why not? I certainly don't have anything better to do.

This week has gone quickly. I've spent an inordinate amount of time looking at the weather radar lately, but the rainy season should be over soon. By June I won't be complaining about the rain anymore, I'll be complaining about the heat.

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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