Day 4346

I think I've caught up on my to-do list. I've made my remaining medical appointments, paid my mid-month bills, and did some small chores around the house. There is a much longer list of things I'm trying to avoid. I don't think I'll ever complete that list because I'm better at avoiding things than I am at actually doing them.

Today's big event was taking Dawn to the vet. It was a short visit but it didn't feel that way. Dawn hates riding in the car. She's not wild about being at the vet either. All we had to do today was check her urine to see if she was developing crystals or bladder stones again. 

We don't have the test results yet, but hopefully the results will be good. Dawn certainly looks and feels healthier than she was before the stones were removed. The vet said that Dawn needed to lose some weight and he and Janet discussed meds to control her anxiety. I'm not a big fan of these type of meds, but you can't tell a dog to "just get over it," so I'll go along with what the vet recommends. Dawn definitely is a very anxious dog.

I'm getting tired of walking six miles every day. I'm actually getting tired of writing the blog too, but I've got to do something to keep the body and mind active. Most people would probably take a class at the gym, do some volunteer work, or join a group of like-minded people. Not for me. Walking in the woods and writing late at night when the house is quiet are perfect activities for a loner like me.

I have thought about walking on the other side of the lake for a little variety. There are different types of trees and different species of ducks over there. I've actually tried this several times and always return to my tried and true paths. My side of the lake is better. I think the eagles probably agree. I don't know exactly where their nest is, but it's definitely on this side of the lake. The White Pelicans always return to this side of the lake too. It's those obnoxious green Monk Parakeets who make their home on the other side of the lake.

I got a notice today that NASA is inviting journalists to apply to attend the Artemis 1 roll out in December. Should I do this? The rocket isn't actually going to launch in December, but seeing it moved out to the launch pad for final tests should be pretty spectacular. The Artemis rocket and mobile launcher are huge. I think the media is going to be allowed to get pretty close as Artemis is slowly moved to Pad 39B by the same giant crawlers that moved the Saturn V moon rockets to the pad. I have a feeling that I'll apply, now that I've convinced SpaceFlight that I'm their launch reporter for the Artemis program. Too bad these trips are so expensive. If I were rich, I'd be down there every month.

When I was channel surfing while eating breakfast this morning I noticed that there were two different trials being broadcast live on two different channels. I don't think trials should be broadcast at all. It just turns the whole thing into a circus. A lot of people love a circus though, so the practice will probably continue. I'm sure the broadcast networks have focus grouped live trials and realized that they get much better ratings than most daytime fare. Wouldn't you rather watch a murder trial than The Price Is Right? To me live trials are just one more reason to quit watching TV.

It's hard to believe that it's going to be Thanksgiving next week. Where has this year gone? It's kind of like 2021 never happened and 2020 was just an extra long year. Hopefully Covid won't still be a hot topic in 2022. I don't think the virus will ever go away, but maybe as hospitalizations continue to decline and the virus starts competing for attention with heart attacks, strokes, and Fentanyl deaths, people will just forget about it. 

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4214

Everyone must be back from their vacation. The traffic is terrible again. It's weird that so many people do evereything at the same time. One day the streets are empty and the next day it's back to traffic jams. I think I'm going to look back at 2020 as a very peaceful year. I liked the slower pace of life under Covid restrictions. Now that life is getting back to normal, it's just the usual chaos of life in a big city.

Dawn had to go back to the vet today for another urine test. The first sample was contaminated and bacteria was found in the urine. The vet wanted to get a clean sample and do another urinalysis before he put Dawn on antibiotics. This was probably a good idea. Now that Dawn is eating again, a strong antibiotic could upset her stomach and make her lose her appetite again. We should find out the results soon and hope that everything is OK.

It's getting harder and harder for me to get up early for our morning walk. All I want to do is sleep these days. Luckily I can get dressed in a few minutes. Dawn and Janet are usually ready to go by the time I get out of bed. It's still really nice outside just before sunrise. It's a shame that the temperature rises so quickly.  The day starts in the 70's and usually ends up near 100 degrees.

It was too hot for me to take my walk in the park again today. It was too hot to go up on the roof or mow the grass as well. I wonder if it's going to be this way all summer? Except for that one week where everything was frozen, we had a pretty mild winter. Now it just looks like a typical hot Texas summer.

I went to the gym again this afternoon. I'm putting a few more miles on the car since I'm going to the gym almost every day. I guess I really do need to make a service appointment. The car runs fine, but that 'service required' light is going to win in the end. I always end up doing what my mechanical masters want.

I don't walk as far at the gym as I do outdoors, but I always feel like I've had a good workout. The place is so cold that I often feel like wearing a jacket. If you stay active you warm up quickly though. I guess that is the whole idea. I mostly just use the treadmill to get my steps for the day and then do a little work with free weights to improve my upper body strength. I think I did a lot more before Covid, but who's counting.  My plan to stay healthy is simple. Keep moving and eat healthy meals. That should be enough. I probably should add getting enough sleep to the mix, but that isn't as easy as it sounds.

I ordered some replacement foam inserts for a camera case last week and got a notice today that the post office had destroyed my package accidentally in transit. I got a refund from the company, but now what do I do? Should I try again and see if I have better luck next time. It really shouldn't be that hard to ship open cell foam. 

Dawn still likes her new food. Just our luck that she has taken a liking to something that is twice as expensive as her old food. Oh, well. Life goes on. I've taken this week's trash out to the curb and am waiting for another uneventful week to begin.

Trevor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3751

Well this sucks. Our washing machine broke. I called my favorite repair shop and they're gone out of business. Damn. Their phone has been disconnected and their website has vanished. This was sudden and unexpected. The repairman I liked gave me his name once, but he doesn't seem to exist either. The only person I could find with that name lives in London. Obviously the world is facing much larger problems, but this isn't the best time to be dealing with a broken washing machine full of dirty clothes.

Dirty laundry wasn't today's only problem. The city closed our park. Why? Police with bullhorns were driving around telling people to go home this morning. I wonder what caused this? I doubt that it was a safety issue. The park was virtually empty on Monday and Tuesday. Just blocking the entrances to motorized vehicles on Sunday evening seemed to accomplish everything the city had been wanting. I can only guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were people who complained that anyone in our neighborhood could still walk to the park while they couldn't drive there. It's all or nothing for some people these days. Even on the busiest days a walk in the park is still ten times safer that going to the pharmacy or grocery store. People always stayed six feet apart when they passed on trails and if you were going the same direction you were usually several hundred yards apart. I don't know what this closure proves. The joggers and cyclists aren't going to stay inside all day. They will just start using city streets which is actually much less safe. A police officer told me that they didn't want to close the park, but had to because of a few knuckleheads. I didn't ask who he was referring to. I know it wasn't me.

Even Dawn had a bad day. We got the results of her urinalysis and she has urate crystals. The vet suspects that she may have a few small bladder stones as well. We're going to start by putting her on Allopurinol for a month and then do another urinalysis. Dalmatians are prone to having urate crystals and Allopurinol often helps cure the problem. Dash took the drug for years and it really helped. We may have to switch Dawn to a low purine diet as well. The food she eats now is fairly low in purines, but there are options with an even lower purine content. Unfortunately, most of them don't taste as good. We'll see what happens. We've definitely been through this before.

My temporary computer solution is far from perfect. If I were busy with work it would be driving me crazy. Apparently, some of the files that were lost when my hard drove crashed were those secret hidden files that record a successful software installation. I've had to reinstall several things today, including Microsoft Office. My version of Office is so old that you can't register it over the Internet. You have to call a special telephone number. You can imagine how long that took.

I eventually found an appliance repair company that is still making service calls. I was a little surprised that they agreed to come out tomorrow, but I'm glad things aren't shut down completely. Will the repairman arrive wearing a hazmat suit, or will he be oblivious to the pandemic and sneezing all over the place? Either way, I'll stay out of his way. I've learned that repairs go much faster when I leave the repairman alone.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3746

I finally heard from Sky and Telescope today. As I suspected, my manuscript wound up in the editor's spam folder again. I don't know why this happens so frequently, but it does make it difficult to communicate. At least the manuscript is in the right hands now and will be reviewed shortly. I really hope the editors like my article. I'll feel a lot more like an astronomy writer after I get a few things published.

Life still consists mostly of meals and long walks. It's easy for me to forget that it's been that way for a very long time. All I have to do is turn on the television and I'm easily convinced that I'm under a very restrictive quarantine. Maybe I'd go out to eat a little more often or wander around local shops when I'm bored, but basically I'll be living exactly the same way when the world returns to normal.

The pandemic has made me wonder about a few things. Why aren't they fixing the roads now? Traffic may never be this light again. I can't imaging that the construction workers would be in much danger. Most of them would be working alone inside their own excavators and bulldozers. This seems like a perfect opportunity to get some much needed work done without disrupting anything.

I also wonder whether we've gotten everything wrong about the virus. What if it was actually spreading around the globe much earlier than we currently believe. Maybe it spreads incredibly easily, but takes much longer than we think to register positive on current tests. Maybe all of us already have the virus but just don't know it. We really need to develop a reliable test to measure whether some of us already have antibodies to the virus. Right now we don't have a clue who actually is infected until they show up at the hospital. It's all about statistics. If a lot more people actually have the virus than we think, the mortality figures start to look less alarming.

I felt more comfortable walking Dawn in a harness today. She's actually learning to heal and walks very well on a leash, but she has a smaller head than our previous Dalmatians. In retrospect, it was pretty easy for her to slip out of her collar. Maybe we should investigate those wide collars that Greyhound owners often use.

Most of the people I see in the park are doing an excellent job of social distancing. The one exception seems to be young people who are still hanging out with their friends. I still see them walking in fairly large groups that are clearly not family members. It's still hard for me to understand people who don't enjoy being alone. It's peaceful being alone. I'm not going to judge, but I don't need a hug.

I will concede that petting a dog might be good for you. I'm enjoying having Dawn around. She is a difficult dog to get a urine sample from though. We've been following her around with a ladle every morning and haven't succeeded yet. Dawn squats very quickly and we haven't been quick enough to capture a sample. It's much easier to get a sample from a male dog. We do need another urinalysis though to figure out whether she has crystals.

I'm not looking forward to going to the grocery store tomorrow, but it's time to look for more fresh fruit. All I really need are strawberries and blueberries. I'll try to be quick.

Chloe is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2250

While I was eating breakfast this morning, I watched a dad teaching his kid math by counting things in the restaurant and pointing out the corresponding numbers on the menu board. The kid was really little but he seemed quite interested. Instead of looking at Facebook like all the other people, the man was using some sort of drawing app on his phone to show the kid how to make the shapes for each number. As I was leaving, I saw him demonstrating how to add two numbers together. I think this kid will do well.

I wish I could teach the dogs a little math. Maybe if they could count, they wouldn't constantly return to their bowls looking for dinner ten minutes after I just finished feeding them. Maybe if they could put two and two together, they would realize that barking while I am trying to write is not the best way to get additional treats. Sometimes I wonder how I get anything done at all with these two underfoot.

I didn't feel like cooking today so I picked up some chicken salad, potato salad, walnut grape and blue cheese salad, and Caesar salad for dinner. I wouldn't recommend an all salad meal every day, but sometimes it is exactly what is needed. I added a little sushi for variety, but didn't go near anything that required me to turn on the stove.

More of Dot's lab results came back today. The results weren't perfect, but they were a lot better than I expected. We'll have to monitor her every week for a while to make sure the new blood pressure medication is working and take her back in a month for new blood work. We still haven't decided whether to resume Dot's chemotherapy again. I guess it depends on how fast the tumor is growing. She had a bad reaction to chemotherapy the first time we tried, but maybe a much smaller dose would be OK. The good news is that she can continue eating her current food. The oncologist thought that Dot's current diet was just fine.

I made sure my cameras were functioning properly today and charged all the batteries. I'm not really looking forward to working on Saturday, but sometimes weekend jobs are unavoidable. Hopefully, I can get everything finished in time to give the dogs their evening walk. Janet has an office function in the evening, but the photoshoot couldn't possible take that long. If it were just me, I'd be done in an hour, but since there are lots of people involved, it will probably take all afternoon. Lets hope that everything goes smoothly.

Dot almost caught me by surprise several times today. I managed to get her outside both times before she pooped, but it was a close call. I've learned that you've got to watch Dot's tail. When the tail starts to twitch, you've got to get her outside in a hurry. It's a weird life when your main activities are cleaning up dog poop and watching the humidity levels. Janet went back to work because she said the isolation she felt just hanging around the house was driving her crazy. By those standards, I probably went crazy ten years ago.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 2246

I got the results from a routine urinalysis this morning and discovered that Dot has abnormally low protein levels, along with a couple of other abnormalities. Since these readings could indicate a possible loss of kidney function, I was worried. Dot's cancer is still growing very slowly, but there are no guaranties that it won't spread to other organs. She already had a re-check scheduled for March 1, but I called the cancer center and moved her appointment to tomorrow. Petey, one of our earlier Dalmatians, died of kidney failure. We didn't get much warning and this time I'd like to know what's going on as soon as I can.

There are many subtle signs that Dot is slowly going downhill. She tires easily. She is losing control of her bowel movements. She pants frequently and is more sensitive to touch than she used to be. Even though her heart and lungs remain strong, the cancer has taken its toll. I am not ready to say goodbye. Dot isn't either. Despite all her problems, she remains remarkably alert and engaged. If you've been reading for a while, you know how much Dot means to me. Hopefully, the tests we will do tomorrow are only a precaution. I wish there was more I could do, but there really isn't. Old age catches up with all of us in the end.

Janet had a breakfast meeting at work this morning, so we began our morning walk even earlier than usual. The sky was clear and provided me with what might be one of my last opportunities to see all five visible planets. It's interesting how quickly the planetary configuration changes. Mercury  appears to have already reached it's high point in the sky and is starting to sink back toward the horizon. Venus has been getting lower in the sky for quite some time now. Jupiter, which was very close to Venus only a few months ago, has already moved far to the West. I used to see Orion ahead of me as we walked toward the park each morning. Now Orion has moved to the evening sky and I see it when I take Dot out to pee before bed time. These changes are oddly comforting because they are so predictable. I could tell you exactly where Jupiter and Venus are going to be five years from now. I wish the rest of life were as predictable as this planetary dance. I'd like to know what lies ahead for Dot. I'd probably like to know what lies ahead for me as well. Financial planning would sure be a lot easier if I knew how long I was going to be around.

I've become intrigued with the new iPad Pro and may get one as soon as I have a little extra money. The large retina screen is fabulous and the fast processor and large internal memory make it a handy substitute for a laptop. One of these things would make a perfect teleprompter for video productions. Needless to say, I haven't produced any videos lately that required a teleprompter, but one can always hope. I probably don't need any new tech toys at all, but I think learning new things keeps me going. The day I finally realize there is no longer a reason to even turn the computer on in the morning will not be a good day.

I got my February invoices prepared and in the mail this afternoon. March invoices are going to have to be a lot better than this if I'm going to get that iPad Pro. Declining income. A declining stock market. Declining health. None of this is good. I know a small handful of people who have retired to beautiful golf course homes and seem to be living an idyllic life, but most are like me. We are confused with a world that has gone topsy-turvy on us. It wasn't supposed to be this way. No wonder Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are so popular. I think each in our own way, we are all looking for something better.

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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