Day 3778

20,000 step days are normal now. What else is there to do? I just keep walking. My plans to clean out the office are on hold for a while, since there is no place to donate the stuff. I can't even throw the stuff away. There's not another bulky trash day until next month. It's not a problem though. It's amazingly easy to talk myself out of doing things I don't like to do anyway. I've waited a long time to clean out this room. I can certainly wait a little longer.

Since my computer repair went so smoothly, I did a little research on converting all my computers to solid state drives. It turns out I did the hardest computer first. Upgrading the laptops looks relatively easy. There's no hurry to do this either. I mostly use the laptop when I travel and it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon.

There's one other use for the laptop of course. It comes in handy when the power goes out. I hope that doesn't happen later tonight. We've had severe weather warnings all day now and I can see the storm system on the weather radar now. We still haven't gotten everything cleaned up from the last bad storm last June. We certainly don't need another tree to fall. I'm hoping that the storm will dissipate a bit before it rolls through town.

Janet is trying to get Dawn used to riding in the car. Every afternoon they take a short ride to another nearby park and have a little picnic with cheese. We've got so much time on our hands now that Dawn is going to be totally spoiled by the time this pandemic is over. That's OK I guess. Spoiling a dog seems a lot better way to spend the day than watching the news.

I still haven't heard anything from NASA. I'm growing less confident of getting press credentials for the Crew Dragon launch. Florida friends tell me that NASA plans to grant access to a bare minimum of journalists this time. I'm still hopeful though. The new normal seems to change from day to day.

You'd think I could continue writing about astronomy and space from my office here in Dallas, but it doesn't seem to work that sway. You really have to be there. I have no real desire to research things on Google and then repackage the information with my own personal slant. Been there, done that.  Advertising and technical writing is a lot like this. I spent years writing about watches that were never on my wrist and even longer writing about oil drilling equipment that was located at the bottom of the sea. I know I can throw words together. The fun thing about writing about rocket launches and astronomical observatories is the experience of actually being there. The trips I take are basically a big adventure for a very non-adventurous person.

They say we're going to run out of bacon soon because the food supply is being disrupted. This is getting to look more like a Steven King novel every day.

Lucky is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 3764

I'm seeing more and more pictures of people baking bread, fixing elaborate meals, and even sewing from friends who used to spend most of their time in meetings. I guess we are part of this trend. Janet baked a pineapple upside-down cake in a large cast iron skillet today and it was delicious. It was much better than the pineapple upside-down cakes we used to get at Central Market. Actually everything we've been eating lately is much better that the take out meals that used to be our standard fare. I wonder how long we all need to remain quarantined before these newly acquired habits become permanent? Healthy, home-cooked meals are actually a good thing. Having the time to cook them is even better.

My life still hasn't changed much. Janet never used to spend much time at home, but it's been enjoyable having her around. We do more things together now. I have a feeling she'll be running marathons soon. She runs three miles every morning before coming home to take a long walk with Dawn and I. I'm still spending a lot of time puttering around on the computer, but I think I need a project. I enjoy writing, but don't really enjoy chronicling the spread of the coronavirus. I'm tired of talking about it. I'd much rather be writing about astronomy and space. I feel like I submitted my story to Sky and Telescope at the worst possible time. Boston, the home of the magazine is becoming a hotspot and I doubt that my story is the first thing on the editors minds these days. There's still a story in the works at SpaceFlight Magazine too, but I don't even want to ask about that one. London is in a world of hurt these days.

Dawn really enjoys her long daily walks, especially on cold mornings like we've had for the past several days. She enjoys the outdoors and often suns herself on a big rug we've placed in the back yard for her. She'd probably enjoy lying in the grass too if we actually had any grass in the back yard. Now there's a big project. I could re-sod the back yard without the help of the landscape guys. I've done it before when I was younger and had more energy. If I got the tree guy to come over and cut down the remaining damaged Oak tree, our grass would probably get enough sun to finally grow on its own. When I talk about mowing the grass, I'm only talking about the front yard. Until the trees started falling, the back yard was always covered by a thick tree canopy and the grass never got enough sun to grow.

I'm surprised that nobody noticed that my picture of a Buttonbush flower on Sunday's Easter post looked exactly like a coronavirus. I thought it was kind of clever. I have no idea what all the black moths were doing on the Queen Anne's Lace plants today, but they looked ominous. There were hundreds of them and they reminded me of tiny little vultures.

I not only forgot to mention the resemblance of Buttonbush plants to coronavirus illustrations, I also forgot to mention that the watch of the day on Saturday's post used to belong to Alice Cooper. Actually, every watch has a story but I can't be bothered to explain it. I've completely forgotten the backstory to many of the watches I used to collect. It seems so long ago. Collecting things was a waste of time and money. Of course if I had put that money in the stock market, it would all be gone by now anyway. Who knew the apocalypse was coming.

What day is it? Time has lost all meaning. We go to bed later and get up a lot later. When you turn on the television it feels a lot like Ground Hog Day. It's the same news over and over again. There are still chores to do, but it's easy to put them off until tomorrow. What's the rush.

Flash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day