Day 4513

It was surprisingly cold this morning. The temperature stayed in the 50's all day. I hope this is a sign of things to come. I'd like to see a mild Summer for a change. I overslept this morning and Dawn and Janet took their morning walk without me. I was surprised that Dawn walked at all since it rained again last night and the ground was still wet.

I really didn't do much of anything today. I eventually got up, made the bed and fixed my breakfast. I paid some bills and updated the Dalmatian Rescue website. Quite a few dogs have been adopted recently and it's important to keep the site up to date. When I finished I realized that I had forgotten to mark Willie as adopted. I marked Willie as adopted and then realized that Sammy had been adopted as well. Oops. I opened Dreamweaver again and added her too. Lets just say I'm not as sharp as I used to be.

I didn't think I'd be wearing a winter coat this late in the year, but it was chilly outside so I took a coat with me on my daily walk. The skies were grey, but it was pleasant outside. I like this kind of weather. Cloudy bright skies are best for photography and 50 degree temperatures are certainly a lot better than 90 degree temperatures. There weren't a lot of animals to look at today, but the construction in the park was interesting. I'm surprised at how much progress has been made on the new trail going through the park. The city ought to hire these guys to fix the roads in Dallas. The are much more efficient than your average road crew. Personally, I'd rather have fewer of these concrete superhighway trails, but I'll have to admit that the new trail looks pretty nice.

After spending a considerable amount of time testing the Polaris star tracker out at McDonald Observatory, I come home to discover that there are already new software and firmware updates to install. What this means is that some things that have finally started for feel familiar to me will probably change. This has happened before and I feel like I've had to learn how to use this thing all over again several times already. The software does keep getting better though, so that's a good sign. Maybe by the next time I get out to the observatory, the tracker will finally have been perfected.

I have no idea what I'll be doing tomorrow. I should start reading more books. I should start lining up contractors to fix the house. I should be doing a lot of things. If the economy gets any worse, I should probably start looking for a few paying jobs. I probably won't do any of these things and will just start planning my next trip to Kennedy Space Center instead. 

Milo is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4459

It's hard to believe it might snow tomorrow. Today was beautiful. It's difficult to beat 70 degree temperatures, blue skies, and very little wind. Dawn must have agreed because she seemed eager to take her walk this morning. I'm seeing signs of Spring everywhere. I guess tomorrow we'll see what Winter still has to offer.

I haven't completely given up on doing website design using an old system on an external hard drive. I copied the rest of the files I need from the server this morning and I'll give this a try and see how it goes. It's certainly not very critical how I update websites these days. I only work on two: my own and the one for Dalmatian Rescue.

It must have been a really slow day because I got out the star tracker again and began experimenting with it. I upgraded the firmware for the third time and installed the latest app on my phone. It's counterintuitive how this thing works and I usually end up with the camera pointing backwards when I'm trying to track something. Since I've only been using the unit during the day so far the only targets I practice with are the sun and the moon. The sun is too bright to be pointing a camera at on a day like this, but the moon worked perfectly. I really need to try this at night sometime, but I'm going to wait until it's a little warmer. I actually think the Polaris tracker works quite well. The software continues to improve with each new version. Most of the many errors I've encountered have been caused by me and the lack of an instruction manual. I still think this saga would make an interesting story for Sky & Telescope, but the editors don't appear to be interested.

I've really got to think of a better way to spend my day than taking long walks and complaining about my feet. The foot pain was quite noticeable today, but I was able to complete my entire route. Walking seems so much better than sitting around the house or watching television. It's worth the discomfort. Walking is a pretty mindless activity, but there are lots of things to see and looking at my surrounding always gets me thinking. No deep thoughts, but I do like to daydream.

I'm still doing my best to win Dawn's trust. I don't want her to be scared or depressed when Janet goes on vacation. So far we're still working on the basics. She'll come when I call sometimes now, but not always. When she's real hungry she'll watch me fix her dinner, but usually she waits in the bedroom until I'm finished fixing things and go back to the office. Then she'll come out to the kitchen and eat.  She'll share the bed with me now when Janet is away from the house. That's an improvement. A month ago she would always go out to the kitchen when I came in the bedroom. We've never had a dog that didn't like men before. You have to be very patient.

I'm a lazy person but I miss working. Working gave my day the structure it needed. It would be nice to have some interesting writing or website projects again. Not very likely though. All my old clients have either retired or died. I can't relate to the young people who replaced them at all. For the most part, young people just irritate me. If this sounds like the definition of a grumpy old man, it probably is. I'm hanging in there though. The week's trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm ready for whatever Friday brings.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4096

The washing machine is working again. The repair technician arrived right on time with a brown box containing the expensive new circuit board. The board must have been located in an inaccessible place because he had to practically disassemble the entire machine to install it. I wonder where appliance repairmen get their training? This guy seemed very familiar with my machine even though it was never a popular brand and hasn't been manufactured for quite some time. I was pleased when the technician put the washing machine back together and turned it on to test it. It worked. There was always a chance that the new motor controller board wouldn't solve the problem. The motor itself might have been faulty. All is good now until the next thing breaks on this machine. Replacing the aging machine piece by piece is still easier than trying to squeeze a new machine into our tiny utility room.

The washing machine wasn't the only thing that I got working again today. Part of my new company website has been non-functional ever since I redesigned it several months ago. It always looked nice on my desktop computer, but never really worked when I looked at it on my phone. I finally found a tech support person who could help me this afternoon and was able to repair the broken code. The solution was fairly obvious in retrospect. I felt a bit foolish for not being able to figure this out myself. Apparently, one of the many hazards of growing older is the inability to understand complex problems on your own. I used to be a lot better at website design when I did this stuff every day.

I got my reservations confirmed at the Prude Ranch for my trip out to McDonald Observatory, so it appears that I'm good to go. The astrophotography workshop isn't being held until mid-May, but it never hurts to plan ahead. Oddly, there is a big regional star party out at the ranch a few weeks before my arrival. If the two events had been closer together it might have been fun to attend both. Never mind. I just read the Covid rules for the WesTex Star Party. They are pretty restrictive. Since only ten people will be attending the astrophotography workshop, dealing with Covid restrictions at the observatory will be a lot easier. I'm already familiar with McDonald observatory rules anyway. I was out there last October.

I think I've figured out why my Apple Watch activity stats have been so dismal this month. It all has to do with how the watch measures things. Really the only things it is able to measure are the speed you are walking and your heart rate. Everything else is extrapolated using some sort of algorithm. Today, I was feeling pretty good so I thought I'd see what would happen if I just walked a little faster. Speed is apparently a lot more important to the algorithm than heart rate. I managed to cut four minutes per mile off my recent times and it made a huge difference. My activity scores look just like they used to. Oddly, my feet didn't hurt any more walking fast than walking slow. I was a lot more tired when I returned home though. I think I'll go back to walking slow tomorrow.

I wish Dawn didn't frighten so easily. Predictably, the repair technician scared her again, even though he was working in the other end of the house. The guy was only here about an hour, but it took Dawn the rest of the day to chill out again. She still enjoyed her walk, but ate more grass than usual. She always eats grass when she's nervous.

I keep reading that we might have hazardous weather this weekend. There are two storms headed our way. The first one is supposed to bring massive amounts of snow to Colorado. The second one might bring tornados to Texas. I hope the forecasts are wrong. We've already had enough bad weather for one year. I'm ready for a nice warm Spring.

Lance is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4028

Dawn only walked a mile today. Janet walked all the way around the lake. I kind of split the difference and I walked about eight miles. I don't know why Dawn didn't want to walk further. It was a really nice day. There is still no rhyme or reason to when Dawn will freeze and refuse to continue walking. Today she was having fun walking along the shoreline, wagging her tail and smelling everything. All of the sudden she just stopped and let us know she was done for the day. As soon as we turned around, she started walking normally again. It would make sense if she was tired, but she sure doesn't appear to be tired when we start heading home.

Janet and I have been wondering for a long time if we could make it all the way around the lake. For some reason she had always thought the distance was 26 miles and I thought it was 16 miles. We've lived here for ages, but neither of us had ever looked up the actual distance. A few days ago I did a Google search and discovered that it was only slightly more than 9.5 miles around the lake. That was a surprise. Janet thought she could do that distance easy and she did. I could probably do it as well as long as my new shoes keep the foot pain at bay. Maybe I'll give it a try one of these days. The park was really crowded today. I guess it makes sense. The holidays are almost over and it was a really nice day. I continue to be surprised that so many people like to gather together in large groups. People like to walk together, jog together, have picnics together, and even string their hammocks together. I'm convinced that this is why the pandemic still persists. This thing would have disappeared months ago if people just kept to themselves like I do. Is it really that hard to be alone? I find it peaceful.

It bothers me that Dawn doesn't really like me. Dogs always seem to like me. Dawn lets me feed and walk her, but she treats me more like a kennel attendant than a friend. Janet is her best buddy though. She follows Janet around from the moment we wake up until we go to bed again. Janet really wants Dawn to bond with me so she can feel free to travel again. We don't know what it's going to take though. The only thing we can think of is that I somehow remind her of the old men who mistreated her. 
 

While Janet was walking around the lake, I continued to tweak my new website. I keep finding mistakes and fixing them, only to find a new mistake a few minutes later. I must have uploaded the site ten times this afternoon. I'll probably find some more mistakes and omissions tomorrow, but the site is getting better.   I'm not striving for perfection here. I just don't want to embarrass myself. It's probably a good thing that I've decided to reinvent myself as a space and astronomy journalist. Writing is easy for me. Coding websites is hard.

It's getting harder and harder for me to post the blog every day. I have to convert each days post to a JPEG image for it to even show up on Facebook. Now Blogger has changed their interface again, making it much more difficult to insert pictures in a post. It took me forever to get today's three small pictures looking the way they usually do. Add this to the frustrations I'm having with updating my company website and I'm just about ready to chuck online media entirely. Give me a real magazine with a real flesh and blood editor any day. It's so much easier dealing with a real person and so much more satisfying to be able to hold the end result in your hand. I'm not quite as much of a Luddite as my sister, but I'm getting there.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4025

Today was a fitting end to 2020. The weather was absolutely miserable. There was a heavy all day rain and the temparature was in the mid thirties. It felt even colder with a wind chill in the twenties. Needless to say, Dawn didn't get a walk today. She wouldn't have wanted one anyway. It was hard enought to get her to go out in the back yard and pee. Yesterday and today have broken my Fitbit streak. The only steps I got today were walking back and forth between the office and the kitchen to get more snacks.

It's too bad I don't like watching television. Today was tailor-made for watching movies on Netflix or binge watching a new series on Amazon Prime. Without our long morning walk, the day seemed impossibly long. I looked at Facebook for a while, watched some astronomy videos on YouTube, and kept checking on the pumps to make sure that they weren't clogged. I can turn on the pumps from indoors now, but unfortunately I can't see if water is coming out the hoses. To do that I have to go out in the back yard and look around the side of the house. It still beats climbing up on the roof though.

Eventually I got bored enough to start building the new company website I've been postponing forever.  I deconstructed a few websites I like and examined their code to see how they accomplished all their fancy tricks. Once I figured out how these things worked, I started building something similar myself. I didn't really think I'd make much progress, but I had all day. By dinnertime, I had the outline of a pretty nice site. I'm pretty sure I can finish this over the weekend. I don't really expect the new site to bring me any business.  It's just a way to keep my hand in the game.

I'm not really sure who visits my existing website anymore. There was a time when it was considered somewhat innovative and I remember that it used to bring me business. That's ancient history now. It's literally been decades since one of my sites was nominated for Website of the Year and even longer since another site I designed was included in a Ryder Publications book called The World Wide Web Top 1000. I was a very early adopter and did pretty well designing very simple static sites. When Google decided that websites needed to be mobile friendly to be included in their search results, it was time for me to pack it in and pass the torch to a younger generation. To this day I have never looked at a website on my phone.

New Year's Eve is one more thing that never changed for us during the pandemic. Many years ago my band used to routinely play New Year's Eve parties, but it has been a long, long time since Janet and I have left the house to celebrate. We struggle to stay awake until midnight. We'll have a glass of champagne and eat some cheese and crackers as we watch the ball drop on TV. That's what we'll do tonight if we don't fall asleep watching Perry Mason. 

I hope that 2021 ushers in a return to normalcy, but I have my doubts. Realistically, things will probably get worse for a while. Many people are starting to say that Covid will become like the flu and never really go away. Society has already changed so dramatically that there isn't going to be a return to normal. Whatever was normal a few years ago is gone. Have you seen that Boston Dynamics video with the dancing robots? When robots can dance better than you can, you can probably kiss your jobs goodbye. Companies have already learned to operate with a lot fewer people during the Covid lockdowns. I'm convinced that this trend will continue. All things considered, this is a good time to be retired.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4021

Houston, we have a problem. We found a new route for Dawn this morning and after several miles we found ourselves on the other side of the lake. Dawn was doing great. She was walking without any hesitation and was enjoying herself. When we decided it was time to go home, Dawn had other ideas. She wanted to keep going. It was way too far to circle the entire lake and come home the long way. We had to turn around. Dawn refused to budge. We tried everything. The cheese didn't work. Getting her over to a road that ran parallel to the trail we took didn't work. She wanted to keep going, but we could tell she was getting tired. We went a little further, hoping that we could convince her to turn around but that didn't work either. The dog was way too heavy to carry home.

This certainly wasn't what we expected today. We found a good place to rest and I walked back home to get the car to come and retrieve Dawn and Janet. I told her that this might take a while. If Janet managed to get Dawn turned around and headed in the right directions again, I told her to text me. When I got back home again, there was no message. I put Dawn's blanket in the car and went back to the other side of the lake to find them. When I arrived where I had left them, they weren't there. I drove to the next place the road intersected the trail and they weren't there either. Eventually, I reached Janet on the phone and she said they were almost home. Evidently Dawn refused to move for about twenty minutes and then she decided she wanted to follow two Vizslas who were heading in the right direction. 

Did Dawn have a seizure or was she just being very stubborn? We'll probably never know. Janet did say that Dawn's eyes looked very strange while they were waiting for me at the rest area. Once Dawn began moving again, she and Janet made it home without incident. She didn't hesitate at all. We've been walking together in the park for ages and Dawn never used to act like this. It's a shame that we probably won't be able to take this route again. We kind of need a shortcut home now in case of emergencies.

Once we were all back home the day was uneventful. My feet hurt because I tried to make the return trip to get the car as quickly as I could. After a short nap, I started thinking about updating my company website. I've been wanting to do this for a while because the site is sadly out of date. I'm apparently sadly out of date as well. I used to be fairly adept at coding, but I couldn't figure out how to duplicate some of the fancy new things I've been seeing on other modern sites. Before I got too discouraged, I decided to watch a video on how to edit deep sky photographs instead. I got about halfway through the video before I became bored with the very technical steps that were outlined and decided to call it a day.

I went up on the roof this afternoon and was pleased to discover that all the water had completely evaporated. Most of the leaves had blown away as well. This was good because we have more rain in the forecast next week. There is even a chance of snow on Thursday. I'm definitely not looking forward to snow. We'll see what happens. I just take things one day at a time now.

I finally figured out whey I have been unable to syndicate the blog to Facebook. Facebook algorithms still find the blog offensive. Any of you who have been reading the blog for a while know that this is ridiculous, but it is impossible to talk to Facebook about anything. Facebook is a one way street. I'm kind of disgusted with social media in general. If it all disappeared tomorrow it would be fine by me. I'd just go back to keeping my journal in a little leather book and life would go on. 

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3855

We got up early enough this morning to see the comet if it hadn't been cloudy again. Cloudy was good though. It kept our morning walk nice and cool. We keep leaving earlier and earlier in an attempt to avoid the heat. I used to think 7 AM was early. Now our goal is to be out of the house before 6 AM. The extra hour makes a big difference. There are fewer people on the trails and the weather is noticeably cooler.

Dawn did well today, but it is still the middle of July. It's going to be a long march to September. Dawn has the right idea about surviving summer. She went back to sleep on the bed while I had my breakfast. I usually watch TV while I'm eating breakfast. The news is still dismal, but the stock market was having a good day. It's kind of a mystery to me why the stock market has made such a dramatic recovery in recent weeks. What do other investors know that I don't. People are even starting to buy cruise line stocks again. I wouldn't feel comfortable taking a cruise for a long, long time.

I got Luckie up on the Dalmatian Rescue website after breakfast. I'm glad the rescue websites I work on are fairly simple. I've lost some of my skills. I haven't created a complex website in quite a while now and it shows. Use it or lose it has been my motto for many years. When it comes to web design, I think I've lost it.

I mowed the grass in the front yard this afternoon. It was too hot to be outside, but if I keep waiting for cooler weather, the yard is going to look like a jungle. Since I survived this task, I decided to go ahead and take my afternoon walk to get my 20,000 steps. It's a simple and at times mindless life, but I do have goals.

I went out and looked for the comet again a few minutes ago, but there were thick clouds on the horizon to the Northwest. I'm still not sure how the comet can be visible in both the morning and evening skies for the next several days, but that's what I keep hearing. Pretty soon it will be evening skies only. I think the best viewing opportunities will last for about a week. I'm hoping that we'll get clear skies on at least one of these days. I keep seeing cool pictures of the comet all over the Internet and I haven't been able to see it at all.

It looks like the new Ford Bronco is going to be incredibly popular. They are taking reservations online like Elon Musk now, and one model sold out in a single day. They say dealers are going to be charging a premium for the Bronco for at least a year. I don't know why I'm even interested. My car is running fine. It still looks almost new. I guess planning to buy a new car is just so much easier than planning to move to a new state.

I've already decided that it would be stupid to travel to Florida right now but I'm still wondering why I haven't heard anything about media accreditation for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover launch. Usually when a launch is only several weeks away, all these details have been worked out. You'd think I would have at least received a rejection notice by now. Who knows. Maybe I'll hear something tomorrow. Otherwise, the big event of the day might be looking for blueberries.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3806

The weather was much better today. There was a slight chance of rain as we headed out on our morning walk, but we chose to ignore it. The park was surprisingly quiet this morning. People must be returning to work. It's amazing how quickly traffic has returned to normal levels. I don't know where everybody is going, but they're certainly going somewhere. It appears that Texas has decided the pandemic is over.

Those companies that make vinyl signs and banners bust be doing a booming business these days. Almost every store and restaurant in the neighborhood has a brand new banner saying that they're open again. I was kind of hoping that the empty highways and quiet skies would last a little longer. I understand the urgency of getting back to business though. So many small businesses are on the verge of going under. I'm sure that if I wasn't retired I would feel a lot more urgency about getting back to business myself. It takes an enormous about of work to make a small business successful. It still seems so unfair that the only winners in this whole situation appear to be huge companies like Walmart, Home Depot, and Amazon.

We took Dawn to look for a new collar today. Hey, even a dog can help support small business. Janet is convinced that short excursions will help Dawn overcome her fear of the car. Dawn seems excited to be going somewhere now, but she still doesn't like the car itself. We didn't find the perfect collar at the pet store, but the short trip gave us all something to do. I think Dawn would have preferred to go for ice cream again.

I took some letters to the post office this afternoon and was planning to get stamps while I was there. There was such a line at the counter that I quickly decided that I didn't need stamps after all. Ever since the pandemic started there have been lines at the post office. I don't get it. The grocery stores have all figured out how to make this work. Somehow the simple process of buying something at the post office has gotten way more complicated. I'm sure once the government gets involved everything becomes more complicated. I dread the day when I need to fly again. I have a feeling that going through the TSA line will be like getting a medical exam.

I keep wondering who got selected to cover the Demo-2 launch at Kennedy Space Center. Somebody is out there taking photos and making videos. I'm seeing lots of activity as the launch approaches, but I don't recognize many of the people making videos. I think NASA staff is doing a lot of the coverage themselves. At any rate, tomorrow is the big day. There seems to be a good chance that the launch will get rained out, but I'll be watching tomorrow afternoon anyway. I'm still disappointed that I couldn't be there in person.

I got Murphy up on the Dalmatian Rescue website today. At least I did something constructive. I'll probably be up on the roof again tomorrow. I'd much rather be at an observatory.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3787

Oops. My second computer upgrade didn't go as smoothly as the first. I had to remove the battery to exchange the hard drive in my laptop with a new solid state drive that arrived this morning. When I reassembled everything and put the computer back together, the battery appeared to be dead. The computer wouldn't start at all. I plugged it into an AC power source and got a message saying "replace battery now." WTF? I know the battery is good. After doing some research on Apple forums, I discovered that the battery management system needs to be recalibrated whenever a new battery is installed. I didn't install a new battery, but I did unplug it, so the computer probably thought the battery was new when I plugged the cable into the logic board again. The calibration process seems way more complex than it should be and for all I know, the battery might be bad anyway. What a pain. I wish they had mentioned this little wrinkle when I watched the installation video yesterday.

I thought I might actually have a new website job today, but it wasn't meant to be. A friend of mine recently bought a company which included an existing website and he needed to modify it to reflect new ownership. I gave the guy a call to see if I could help, but didn't have the heart to charge him for something I knew he could do himself. I guided him through the process of transferring domains and making simple website edits over the phone and in less than an hour the problem had been solved. Maybe I have mellowed with age, but I hate it when people try to make something easy appear difficult. This type of thing happens all the time with everything from appliance repairs to high priced consultants. Life is too short to inflate your own worth. I'm lazy. If something is easy, I'll tell you in hopes that you'll leave me alone and do the job yourself. I always hope that others will treat me the same way.

We went back to walking Dawn before breakfast this morning. I like these early morning walks but I'm not as hungry as I usually am when we return. I thought I would have a bigger appetite after a long walk, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I'm going to have to figure out how to make a smaller smoothie without changing the taste. It took me a long time to get exactly the right mix of ingredients. It's weird that I'm actually thinking about this. I guess it shows that I'm adverse to changes of any kind. The early walks will probably get even earlier in the months ahead. It's the only way we can give Dawn the exercise she needs without overheating her. The heat isn't kind to Janet and I either. We're still having beautiful Spring weather, but around mid-afternoon I can tell that Summer is on the way.

I just heard thunder off in the distance. I looked at the weather radar and a line of storms are headed our way. We've certainly had a lot of rain this Spring. Every time I manage to get the roof dried out, it rains again. You'd think that with all this rain we'd have lots of lush grass in the back yard. Nope. There are still huge bare spots. I hate to re-sod the yard before the tree guy comes to remove the damaged Oak tree. On the other hand, I hate to call the tree guy because I know he'll knock what remains of the greenhouse over and probably break my new security light as well. It's all a complicated mess. It's easier to do nothing, but that's not a good solution either. Every time I hear thunder I worry that the tree may fall on its own.

It's hard to believe the week is almost over again. The trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm getting ready for another day of pandemic induced boredom. Hopefully, I won't break any more computers. I need to learn to leave things alone.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3583

I've got to go back to the dentist. They broke the impression of my teeth while they were making my new retainer, so I need to go back and get another set of impressions made. They're going to make two sets of impressions this time, in case they break something again. No wonder I hate to go to the dentist. Now, I've got to have that yucky putty like substance put in my mouth twice.

Ever since I lost my last website account, it's been bothering me that the client told me his website wasn't working correctly. The thing that bothered me most was that the client was right. I finally figured out why his site wouldn't scroll properly on some devices. I fixed the problem and uploaded the site for a final time. This little gesture wont get me the account back, but at least now I won't have to think about the whole thing any longer.

I guess a new cold front rolled through town last night because it was chilly when I woke up this morning. I had to turn on the furnace while I was eating breakfast. It was actually a nice day, but I wish it was a little warmer. I need the roof to dry out before the next rain arrives. I'm not sure my repairs will even work because the silicon coating doesn't tend to adhere to the roof very well. That's the main reason I've been having problems for several years. There aren't many alternatives unfortunately. Conventional patching materials won't stick to the silicon coating at all and the bids I've been getting to completely replace the roof are horrendously high.

As I continue to research conversion vans, the whole idea of living off the grid exploring observatories, launch sites, and dark sky areas is starting to seem a little less appealing. From what I've been reading, RV toilets are notoriously messy and prone to leaks. Cargo area air conditioners typically use too much electricity to to be powered by roof mounted solar cells. Fresh water tanks tend to develop a bad taste after a while. Grey and black water tanks can only be emptied at designated disposal stations. I could go on and on. It's all very complicated for a guy who prefers luxury hotels. A lot of van conversions just seem messy and poorly designed to me. I do like Airstream vans and trailers. Of course they would have to be the most expensive. I always seem to be attracted to the most expensive things. Too bad I can't afford them.

If I get approved to stay at McDonald Observatory for an extended length of time, I think I'll just rent a van for my first visit. Renting an RV is actually more expensive than staying in a nice hotel, but it is a lot less expensive than actually buying an RV. Renting a vehicle for several weeks is probably a good way of seeing if I actually like the whole experience. I already know that I like astronomy and looking at stars. I'm not so sure about living on a remote mountain in somewhat primitive conditions however.

I'm sure I've got plenty of time to think about all this. Opportunities to view rocket launches up close are few and far between. The whole process of getting clearance to stay at the observatory is fairly complicated too. It's hard to be patient when things take place slowly like this. At least it gives me the time to save for future adventures. I couldn't afford to go anywhere tomorrow anyway.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3545

I see the same people at the gym every Sunday. Each of them has a completely different routine and just like me, their routine never changes. I occasionally wonder if I should copy someone else's routine. Maybe theirs would produce better results. I never change though. Nobody ever changes. I'm comfortable with my exercise routine. I know exactly how long it takes and how I'll feel afterwards. I guess this just proves that habits can be powerful.

My walks are always the same as well. Part of this is determined by where I live, but there are alternate paths available. Again, I like following the same path. It provides a frame of reference. I can easily tell if I'm going slower or faster. I know, almost to the minute, when I'll return home. Familiar things are relaxing, even when you're doing something strenuous.

Unfamiliar things drive me nuts. I had to update a website this afternoon, and the software I use had gone through a major update. Nothing was where it was supposed to be. It took me forever to add some slides to a simple slideshow, all because the familiar navigation controls I knew by heart were gone. This is one reason I hate software subscriptions. I don't care about the latest updates. Old versions where I am familiar with everything are so much easier to work with. I use extremely old versions of Microsoft Word and Photoshop all the time. I used to use an equally old copy of Dreamweaver too, until the need to produce mobile ready websites made this familiar friend obsolete. Now I use a suite of powerful online software tools that keeps changing every week. Maybe I could keep up with the changes if I used this software everyday. Once a month is clearly asking for trouble. I practically had to relearn the entire program this afternoon. Why do people keep changing things? This is probably my own personal version of "get off my lawn." I'm tired of change. It's a huge nuisance.

I've got a lot of people to contact next week. I need to find our why the pharmacist is saying a prescription is ready that I never ordered. I need to get the tree guy to remove the tree that fell in my back yard. I need to find out when the carpenter is going to start repairing the greenhouse. Is the roofer ever going to bring me a can of silicon material? What happened to the Sequential Circuits synthesizers I was trying to sell?  There are a lot of loose ends.

I never did get around to making final edits on my article for Sky and Telescope. Deciphering the changes in Webflow used up all my time. Actually, taking long walks in the hot sun used up all my time, but that's another story. I still think I'll be able to wrap things up and submit the article tomorrow. Then we'll wait.

I've almost finished my Sunday routine. Tomorrow I begin the Monday routine. I was always fascinated by Andy Warhol's desire to be a machine. There is a comfort in repetition. The odd thing is that even though I make no effort whatsoever to change things up, every day is different anyway.

Camp is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3472

I finished my new article this morning and sent it off to several publications that I thought might be interested. I think the chances of getting this article published are close to zero. Don't get me wrong. It's not a bad article at all, but the response time for unsolicited submissions at many publications can be as long as three months. Since I am basically writing about the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing which takes place next month, the event will be over before they even get around to reading my story. I guess I can always put the story up on my website. My writing always gets accepted there.

Researching and writing this story was actually kind of fun. I've been doing this sort of thing for most of my adult life. I've been writing ads and marketing materials since the mid 1970's. Until recently I frequently wrote about the watch industry. This is one reason why you see so many watches on my blog. The whole concept of writing for free is foreign to me though. I firmly believe that writers and photographers should get paid.

As I was sending off my submissions this morning, it became apparent that this was somewhat of a quixotic quest. There just aren't that many printed magazines left. If I want to write about space, the smart thing to do would be to make myself known to existing space related websites and try to become a regular contributor. That's how I ended up doing a lot of writing about dogs and watches. Can I muster up enough energy to do this sort of thing all over again? Only time will tell.

Since there's a good chance that my initial effort to become a space journalist will just wind up gathering dust on my website, I spent the afternoon experimenting with a few ideas for creating my own space related site. In theory, this should be pretty easy. Just buy a interesting sounding domain, do a little coding, and put a few pages together that you can upload to the same webserver where all your other stuff resides.

There's one little fly in the ointment. I can't actually remember how to do what I was envisioning on my walk this morning. How frustrating. I know I've done this before. I'm going to have to do some research tomorrow since I apparently can't count on my memory anymore. Use it or lose it they say. I guess I've lost it.

I finally got my last piece of art re-scheduled for a new auction. I had to agree to lower the reserve and estimated hammer price, but it's not a big deal. The whole idea is to get this stuff sold. Inch by inch I am making progress toward my downsizing goals. I got a message from my train dealer recently that he had an offer on one of my better trains. Good news. If the sale goes through, it just might pay for my trip to Florida.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's very hot outside. I live in Texas and it's almost July. What am I doing walking outside in the sun? It's insane.  If I want exercise, I should be swimming at an indoor pool.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3458

Janet and I temperament tested a dog this afternoon. I think I've already told you about Xander. He's got a good home if he gets along with other dogs. With the help of the kennel staff we introduced him to a variety of different dogs and he passed his test with flying colors. Some dogs tolerate other animals. Xander really seems to like them. He was curious, playful, and gentle with everyone we introduced him to. Now we just need to see if his potential companion is equally friendly. Xander is not dog aggressive. He doesn't appear to be food aggressive either. Somebody is going to get a wonderful companion and friend.

I went ahead and ordered tires today. The good news is that they will be here tomorrow. The bad news is that since they were a special order, I had to pay for them in advance. At least these tires weren't as expensive as the OEM tires that came with the car. I was glad to hear that they'd been discontinued and replaced with a more reasonably priced tire. Keep in mind that 'reasonably priced' is a relative term when it comes to Land Rover parts. In my experience absolutely nothing has been reasonably priced.

It was weird to be working again. I finished my client's website updates this morning and uploaded the changes to the server. Amazingly, I remembered the client's old passwords and remembered most of the HTML code I needed. It takes a little longer to do this stuff if you don't do it every day, but I guess I passed my temperament test as well. Could it be that coding is like riding a bicycle? I might remember some of what I know forever. At any rate, I think I did a good job. Hopefully, the client will agree.

I took the money I made selling the guitars to the bank. It won't stay there long. My homeowner's insurance is due, I just had a large tree removed, and then there are those pesky Land Rover tires. Everything is so expensive now. I still have prices in my head from the 1970's. Unfortunately those days are gone. I think my favorite year was 1969. It definitely isn't 2019.

I saw a Purple Passionflower today. I haven't seen one of these bloom in years because they grow in a section of the park that wasn't accessible to Dot and Dash after they became sick. As the dogs became older and less mobile, we had to limit our walks to safe, relatively flat areas where they wouldn't fall. Walking was more difficult for me as well, since I was holding up their rear legs using the Help 'Em Up Harness. I've started walking the old trails again. They bring back memories. We'll see how long this lasts. My feet are telling me that I'm going to need a Help 'Em Up Harness myself some day.

This week went amazingly fast, considering that we spent most of it without electricity. Janet and I stayed surprisingly busy during the power outage. Even though we both seem to have good survival skills, I'm glad the power is back. I'm certainly sleeping better now. Everything is more or less back on schedule. I just finished taking the week's trash out to the curb. I hope the trash truck can find everybody's cans. They look insignificant next to the huge piles of tree branches and logs stacked along the street.

Marcie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3457

Life is good. We finally got power restored early this afternoon. Most of the traffic lights are functioning again and people have stopped driving like maniacs. The gas company even fixed a gas leak in the neighborhood that nobody even knew existed. There's nothing like a four day power outage to make you appreciate the little things. Janet and I actually did pretty well without electricity, but there are so many things we take for granted.

Before the power was restored today, I took a walk through the neighborhood to see how everybody else fared. I was amazed at the devastation. We lost a tree, but it didn't wreck our house. Some people had serious roof damage. A few people still had trees on top of their cars. I was sad to see that Erykah Badu's Porsche had been demolished. It was one of the prettiest cars in the neighborhood. The sound of chain saws was everywhere. Almost everyone had a big pile of logs and tree limbs in their front yard. It's going to take months for the city to clear all the debris away. Who knows. Maybe the city won't need to clean up all that much. I've already started seeing people scavenging the log piles for Winter firewood. One guy I talked to today said he had a wood burning stove and he was specifically looking for pecan logs because he liked the smell when they burned. I think this guy might have hit the jackpot. The park is full of old growth pecan trees and these trees seemed particularly vulnerable to being uprooted by the high winds. Mesquite trees seemed to survive pretty well but a lot of pecan trees bit the dust. Our two large Oak trees survived the storm intact. It was our Elm tree that got toppled.

It took a while to reset the clocks, put all the food in the ice chests back in the refrigerator again, and reconnect everything on the network. During the outage I kept wishing I had a larger generator. As soon as the power returned the urge for a huge generator quickly faded. Big generators are heavy, noisy, expensive, and I've really got no place to keep one. My little generator actually did just fine. We just had to learn to do stuff one thing at a time. You could use the hair dryer and brew coffee. You just couldn't use two high wattage gizmos at the same time. I discovered that everything ran smoother if I plugged the big UPS backup battery I use for the computers into the generator and then plugged all the other things into the back up battery. This seemed to filter out the power spikes that gave the generator problems. Starting an electric motor takes a lot more power than keeping the same motor running. I could always tell when the compressor kicked in on the little refrigerator. That was the only thing that temporarily overloaded the generator.

I was shocked that I actually have some website work to do tomorrow. One of my few remaining clients wants to update his site. I'm usually very responsive, but I told him he'd have to wait until the power returned. Tomorrow would have been a busy day even without the website work, but I'm always happy to have the work. There's still tons of laundry to do. I need to get new tires for the car before the trip to Kennedy Space Center. It's been a while since we've seen the rescue Dalmatians too. No problem. It will all get done now that we have electricity again.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3436

I need to call the plumber. The leaking shower head is getting worse. I put a bucket under the drip after I took a shower today and it only took a couple of hours for the bucket to become full. I was surprised. It just seems like a little drip, but it is relentless. I don't think I can fix the faucets myself. I took the handles off today to look at the mechanism and it looked unfamiliar. I'd better leave this alone.

Since I couldn't fix the leak, I defrosted the little refrigerator instead. Melting ice is more my speed. I don't know why we even use the little refrigerator anymore. There's plenty of space in the big refrigerator. I guess I just like to be prepared. The little refrigerator can run off a generator. We may need it someday.

I keep wondering about the White Pelican I see on my walks. It is apparently never going to migrate. The bird seems content to live by itself on a quiet little bay at the lake. There are probably no other Pelicans within 1000 miles right now but the bird seems happy enough. It catches fish in the lake, sits on logs for hours at a time observing things and occasionally flaps its wings and flies. Maybe this is my spirit animal.

I tried out some different shoes today with thinner socks. Maybe this combination is better. I had very little foot pain on today's walks. The Vibram soles get caked with mud easily, but that's a small problem. Muddy boots clean up easily with a garden hose. I'll wear these for a while and see if they encourage me to walk longer.

I wrote a letter to my sister this afternoon and paid a credit card bill. Credit card bills are frustrating because they are always larger than I expect. It's amazing what you can forget during a month. My Webflow account auto renewed this month. I forgot about that one. I wonder if I even still need this? I subscribed to this advanced web development tool so I could build mobile ready websites for my clients. They all got really nice sites, but eventually left anyway. I haven't built a new website in almost a year.

I wish my plumbing problem would magically go away overnight. I hate dealing with plumbers. Somehow, little problems always end up turning into big problems. In theory, fixing some leaky faucets shouldn't be a big deal, but I've been wrong before. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I have a feeling that it's going to be a lot like today.

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3357

It was 23 degrees and very windy when we woke up this morning. That added up to a wind chill of 9 degrees. Brr. Dash thought he wanted a walk, but I don't think he realized what he was up against. We dressed him up as warmly as we could this morning, but he didn't even make to the back gate. When he felt how cold it really was, he wisely turned around and returned quickly to the house.

We spent the rest of the day indoors. Dash ventured outside to pee occasionally and I made one brief trip to the post office to pay some bills, but that was it. Today's goal was to stay warm. Even Dash understood that it wasn't a day for walking.

I'm glad I got the water off the roof yesterday. Ice on the roof causes some peculiar problems. When the ice starts to melt, the heat from the house causes it to melt from the bottom up. This creates a layer of water covered by a layer of ice, making it impossible to remove the standing water under under the ice. These conditions are a recipe for leaks because if the weather is cold enough, the ice on top can last for weeks.

I canceled today's plumbing appointment because it seemed like a terrible day to dig a big hole in the ground. The ground looked frozen anyway and I had trouble seeing where the leak was. I have a feeling that the cold, hard ground partially sealed the leak. I certainly wasn't seeing any evidence of it anyway. I hope the plumber appreciated what I did. I definitely wouldn't want to be a plumber working outside today.

I sold a few trains in February. I'm glad the collection is getting some interest again. I thought there would be a lot of sales over the Christmas holidays, but I was wrong. Nobody bought any trains for Christmas. Zero holiday sales. Did somebody get a model train for Valentine's Day? Who knows. Stranger things have happened.

I updated the Dalmatian Rescue website today. It seemed like a good thing to do on a cold, housebound day. I do so little website design these days that I'm slowly losing my skills. I occasionally have to look up things that I used to know by heart. It's only going to get worse. Use it or lose it, they always say. I guess I could revamp my own websites to keep my chops up, but I just don't have the interest anymore. Hard to believe that I used to have dozens of active clients that required hours of work every single day. How did I ever find the time? Of course the dogs were young and healthy then. So was I.

I hope that tomorrow is warmer. Two days like this and Dash and I will both have some serious cabin fever. There's nothing all that exciting about a walk in the park, but it's good to get outside. These walks are physical therapy for Dash and mental therapy for me. I hope all the early wildflowers don't die. I'm starting to see Grape Hyacinth all over the place. Based on today's weather, I think these flowers may have jumped the gun.

Orion is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3177

It was hard to avoid congressional hearings today. As I flipped between channels while I was eating breakfast, I came to the conclusion that the Internet was going to get regulated and Judge Kavanaugh was going to get confirmed. It's a shame that the Internet became monetized. Money ruined it. I wish we could go back to the early 1990's when going online was about as popular as amateur radio. Who needs Facebook and Twitter? When I first discovered the Internet, it was a sparsely populated wilderness. There were no hackers and no fake news. The only people I ever ran into were a few like minded geeks. I would gladly ditch my fiber optic connection and go back to a 2800 baud dial up modem if we could return to those days.

Going back to the past has become a recurring theme with me. After a while I tired of the congressional hearings and flipped over to an oldies channel so I could watch ancient TV Westerns. Did you know that Gene Roddenberry and Sam Peckinpah started their careers writing for shows like Have Gun, Will Travel and The Rifleman? Some of these old shows are surprisingly good. They are all simple morality plays, but so was The Twilight Zone. Maybe that's what I miss in today's world. There is no morality at all.

I cashed the check from the Federal Trade Commission today. Usually I deposit even very small checks, but I just took the cash on this one. I was still a bit suspicious about the whole thing. I didn't see any sense in giving another government agency my bank account number. Rationally, I realized that this kind of thinking was pure silliness. If the government knows that I bought three light bulbs over five years ago, they probably know everything. Let's face it. Privacy doesn't exist anymore.

Dash didn't need to go outside last night, but that doesn't mean that I got a good night's sleep. Dash had some pretty serious dog dreams and kept trying to push me off the bed. I'm glad he can still run in his dreams. He certainly can't run in real life. All the thrashing around woke me up three times. I've just about given up on ever getting a good night's sleep. I don't think I'm seriously sleep deprived though because I've started napping during the day.

When I wasn't napping, I made some changes to an animal rescue website. This was the first time I'd done any website work in almost a month. I didn't make any money, but it was nice to know that I hadn't forgotten everything. I still maintain a few sites, but I doubt that I'll ever develop a new one again. Who wants to hire a seventy year old Luddite? Jeez. I've even lost interest in keeping my own website up to date.

Hey, I'm still interested in astronomy and photography. Maybe it's just reading a quick article on Google, but I still try to learn something new almost every day. I'd like to try and combine these avocations if we ever live someplace with dark skies. Until then, I'll continue drinking fruit smoothies and cleaning up dog poop.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day