Day 3710

Things are looking up. When I woke up this morning the rain had stopped and I was seeing patches of blue sky. The first thing I did after breakfast was go up on the roof and clear the water away. This stopped the leak. Hopefully the weather will stay dry enough for me to figure out where the leak originates before the next storm arrives. The source of the leak certainly isn't obvious. I looked again today and couldn't find anything suspicious.

It looks like the magazine is going to publish my article about the Solar Orbiter. This was a pleasant surprise. When I was in Florida I thought the only thing they wanted were photos. I have no idea when the article will be published. My previous article about Artemis Day in New Orleans hasn't even been published yet. I'm three for three though. My last three NASA trips have all resulted in published articles.

Early voting has started in Texas so I stopped by a local library and voted on my way home from the post office. Dallas has changed all its voting machines. Now you are handed a blank paper ballot which you insert into a machine. You make your choices using a touch screen and then when you are finished the machine prints a paper ballot with your selections. You place this ballot into another machine on your way out of the building. It all seems pretty complicated to me, but I guess there's a paper trail now if the machines go haywire.

Janet and I took Dawn on another walk today. We walk her a little longer each day and she is doing very well. She doesn't know how to heal yet, but does pretty well on a leash. I have to keep my eye on her because she can't decide whether she wants to be on my right or my left and often has a tendency to walk directly in front of me. I have to stay alert because I don't want to trip over her. There's no daydreaming with this dog.

I've paid my credit card bills and now I don't have the Florida trip hanging over my head. I wish I could figure a way to lower the cost of these NASA trips. The fixed costs are always the airline, hotel and rental car. You really can't save any money on these things if you have to change your reservations frequently. I think I had to change my reservations four times on the Solar Orbiter trip.

Now that my trip to Kennedy Space Center has concluded, It's time to get ready for my next big adventure. I wrote the observatory today and asked if I could change my arrival time. I was going to arrive on a weekday, but it occurred to me that there would be much less traffic if I drove to West Texas on a Sunday. Since the Astronomer's Lodge isn't a regular hotel, I need to find out whether I need to bring things like towels and bedding. I wonder if they have laundry facilities? I'm going to be there a while.

Tomorrow morning we take Dawn to the vet to get her stitches out. She'll probably have a few scars for the rest of her life, but her wounds are healing nicely. She's almost finished will all her meds too. Hopefully, her memories of the attack will fade. I want her to have a happy, normal life.

Odie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3598 - Halloween

The only thing spooky about today was listening to the roofer this morning remind me of all the things that were wrong with my roof. I was impressed with this roofer's knowledge and experience, but I didn't hear much that I didn't already know. My roof is almost impossible to keep repairing at this point and it is going to be very expensive to replace. Due to the odd shape of the house, adding a slight pitch to the roof so it will drain properly will be complex. Putting on a new roof without eliminating the low spots won't eliminate the standing water problem.

I got the impression that if I wanted the roof to look and function the way it did in 1955, I might as well just build a new house. The large open atrium in the center of the house, a gas line on the roof, and multiple areas where settling has caused rain water to accumulate all add up to a complicated and expensive problem. This roofer, like many of the others who have given me bids, concluded that it would be prohibitively expensive to remove all the plywood decking and add a taper to the beams. He didn't think an engineered roof with foam panels creating a slope would work well either. He did say he could put on a roof that he would warranty for fifteen years whether it was under water or not. That should be enough. Fifteen years from now they'll be carting me off to assisted living anyway. One of the most interesting solutions would be to cover the entire roof with spray on truck bed liner. This would be too expensive, but it would make a tough, durable roof.

I didn't get any good news about the sliding glass door either. Nobody makes doors this large anymore. Nobody has parts for old style doors either. I could have a custom door manufactured, but it probably wouldn't look the same. It's too bad that the only guy in town who could fix my door died.

It was below freezing when I woke up this morning and it was still very cold when I took my morning walk. It was a clear sunny day which made it difficult to dress properly. When the wind wasn't blowing, I was too hot. Down by the shoreline where it was still quite windy, I was too cold. For some reason, my feet hurt more than usual today. By the time I returned home, I was ready to go back to bed.

I did go vote today. The only thing on the ballot were propositions and constitutional amendments. The lack of candidates running for office made this a very low turnout election. It was a good thing there wasn't a line, because there were brand new voting machines and voting was more complex than usual. You were given a blank paper ballot which was inserted into the voting machine. You made your selections electronically on the screen and then the machine spit out a printed ballot with your voting choices. You took this printed ballot to another machine which scanned the results and then saved the paper ballot as a backup. I guess all this complexity is to prevent someone from hacking the system, but you'd think they would have come up with an easier way to accomplish this.

I just realized that I have a dental appointment on Monday when we visit the Dalmatians. I was going to reschedule tomorrow and then I learned that dentists have a four day work week. Most of them are closed on Friday. Why did I not know this before? Janet told me it has always been this way. Restaurants are always open on Friday, but I can't decide whether I want to go our for breakfast tomorrow. I'm losing interest in my breakfast outings.

Roxy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1046

I passed a polling station when I was running errands today, so I decided to take advantage of early voting. As usual, my first thought when voting was, "Whoa, if all these people ahead of me in line can actually vote, we're screwed." My next thought is often "Hmm, I wonder if these electronic voting machines are actually hooked up to anything?" Voting using a touch screen is still a bit disconcerting to me. Where does your vote go?  Once you are finished voting electronically, there is no proof that you did anything at all. At least when you buy something in a store, you get a receipt. I've never gotten a receipt for casting my vote in my life. It is all an act of faith.

While I was waiting in line, I saw at least five large red signs that clearly said No cell phones or digital cameras allowed within 100 yards of the polls. I also saw at least fifteen people checking their Facebook accounts with their phones within a few feet of the door that led to the voting booths. So much for that rule. There were also signs warning people not to engage in campaigning in front of the polling station. This sign seemed to be ignored as well. There was a guy holding a huge placard standing right by the front door, asking everyone to vote for his candidate.  It took me about 45 minutes to go through the line and press all the buttons on the touch screen voting machine. I'm done now, although I will continue to wonder if my vote will actually be counted.

I hope my guy wins, but I'm not expecting any miracles whatever happens. I've never seen the country as divided as it is right now. Whichever presidential candidate happens to win will still have to deal with the other half of the country who thinks he's the devil incarnate. Polarization leads to Paralyzation. I am increasingly convinced that we have lost the ability to reach a consensus on anything at all and are headed for permanent gridlock. It's kind of sad. The unified spirit that won World War II and took us to the moon has dissolved into petty bickering. Instead of unity, we have become tribal, with no loyalties beyond our own little tribes.

Hey, at least my new furnace works. It was forty degrees outside this morning and the house was toasty warm. The air doesn't seem to flow through the vents quite as fast with this new furnace, but the thermostat works better, so the net result is about the same. I think the cold weather is going to continue through the weekend. At least we don't have to deal with the "Frankenstorm" that is headed toward the East Coast. I'd hate to have a new furnace and no electricity.

For the second week in a row, I forgot to take the trash out to the street on Thursday evening. The only reason I managed to get my trash picked up today was that I heard the garbage truck banging and rattling down the street and rushed out to greet it with my can. I can take comfort that I've resolved one memory loss moment, but I still have another one to deal with tomorrow. The local health food store is giving cholesterol screening blood tests in the morning and I need to remember not to eat breakfast before I go in for my test. Sometimes I remember these things. Sometimes I don't.

Pearl is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day