Day 4836

What a weird Spring we've had. It's been hot, it's been cold, it's been all over the place. Today the temperature got up to 81 degrees. If that wasn't enough, the humidity was almost 100% this morning. It was so damp that all the bricks on the back porch were soaking wet. That didn't stop us though. We got up, dressed in summer clothes and took Dawn on her morning walk. Dawn is still taking shorter walks, but she seems to be doing fine.

This was another one of those days where the furnace was on when we first woke up and then the air conditioner kicked in later in the day. Eventually the heavy dew everywhere evaporated, but it was a very muggy day. A quick look at the yard confirmed that my annual Spring chores need to start soon. It's almost time to start mowing the grass again. I need to cut back the dead growth in the Asian Jasmine at the back of the yard as well. It will be time to battle the ants and wasps soon. I'll need to go and get some insecticide for ants and something stronger to kill the wasps. The wasps build their nests everywhere and they are very aggressive. I've been stung many times. I don't want Dawn to get stung by these things.

If I was a sensible person I'd start getting rid of things in the office and storage warehouse. Instead, I keeping wanting to repair things I seldom use. I'd like to repair the big production printer so I could make a few large prints of my best astrophotography. Never mind that I have no place to display the pictures. There's a big Sony TV in the storage warehouse I'd like to get fixed as well. I need to retrieve some of the equipment I still have on consignment at a local music store. If it hasn't sold in two years, it will probably never sell. Where will I put this stuff? The storage warehouse of course.

That's all for another day. Today I just followed my familiar routine. I ate breakfast, checked my messages which were mostly just spam, and then got ready to take my long walk. It was so warm today that I just wore shorts and a t-shirt. Wasn't it just a few days ago that I was decked out in all my winter gear? I can't keep up with this constantly changing weather at all.

I left Dawn alone in the house while I took my walk. As I expected, she didn't move an inch. She was asleep on the bed when I left and still asleep when I returned. She wasn't at all interested in getting up until Janet returned from the gym. Dawn gets excited when Janet comes home but hardly even looks up when I enter the house. She's fine though. As soon as Janet returned, Dawn's tail was wagging and she was ready for lunch.

I vacuumed the carpets this afternoon. The carpets in the bedroom and office need to be replaced, but that will come later after the new roof is installed and the damaged sheetrock in the ceiling has been replaced. For now I just continue to vacuum the old worn out carpet and am still amazed at how much dirt is collected. The carpets don't look any better when I'm finished, but the Dyson canister is filled with dirt and dog hair.

Tomorrow is going to be another unseasonably hot day and Friday it's going to start raining again.  Probably as soon as this weird Spring is over I'll be complaining about the hot Texas summers again. This is supposed to be our nice season, but I think we got cheated this year. 

Brooke is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4478

We had a short power outage last night. The beeping noise one of the battery backups for the computer made when the power went out got Dawn upset and she wouldn't go back to sleep. I turned the noise off but it seemed like Dawn was on high alert for the rest of the night. I had trouble getting back to sleep because she wouldn't sleep and woke up tired this morning. I probably would have woke up tired anyway. That's been happening a lot lately.

The weather changed again overnight. It was still warm, but extremely windy. The wind didn't seem to bother Dawn. She was eager to walk this morning. The walk woke me up, but I was eager to go back to bed when we returned. I made myself stay up, made the bed, and finished my breakfast, but my heart wasn't in it today. I really shouldn't be feeling this tired.

I made my travel arrangements for the Axiom-1 launch after breakfast. I was surprised and a bit disheartened at how much more expensive everything was than when I planned a similar trip about a year ago. Airfare, hotel rates, and rental cars were all significantly more expensive. Why? Are company costs that much higher, or do these guys just think they can get away with it? At any rate, I don't think I can just travel on a whim anymore. Making too many of these trips to Florida could put a serious dent in my budget.

I was determined to do something useful today, so I got the vacuum out and cleaned the carpets. The carpets are worn and need to be replaced. Somehow this seems impossibly hard to me, since so much stuff would need to be moved. The office is full of heavy stuff that would need to be moved out of the way.  It took over twenty years to fill this room up, so clearing it out in a day for the carpet installers wouldn't be easy. The master bedroom isn't as cluttered, but that seems daunting as well. There is a large, heavy king sized bed and I would have to hook up the television and all the home network stuff all over again. I'm beginning to understand why every room in my Dad's house was piled to the ceiling with stuff when he passed away. It's easy to accumulate stuff. A lot harder to make sense of it later.

I tried to walk a little further this afternoon, but was only able to add one additional mile to yesterday's pitiful total. I think the wind did me in today. The wind was so strong when I was down near the lake that it almost blew me off the trail. There was a news story recently that a body had been discovered in the lake on Friday. Yesterday someone discovered a dead dog in the lake. It's sad that this idyllic place is really just a part of a very big city with all of the problems that big cities typically have. Police patrol the park a lot more frequently now. I guess that's a good thing, but this is definitely not West Texas. I miss the empty, wide open spaces but I do worry about falling more than I used to. At least Dallas has good hospitals.

It's supposed to rain later tonight. I dread the thought of rain these days. I don't like to go up on the roof anymore and the longer standing water sits up there, the greater the chance of a leak. I really need to call a roofer and get started on a new roof. I'm just procrastinating now. I guess I know I'm going to be disappointed whoever I choose. I'll be even more disappointed if I do nothing though. 

Now that I've take care of my Florida trip, it's time to decide whether I'm going back to the observatory at the end of April. I probably will, but I dread that long drive. I seem to dread everything these days.

Elliott is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day