Day 4033

Dawn seems to be responding well to rest and Rimadyl. She isn't limping anymore and isn't having the problems getting up and down that she was a few days ago. We took her in a field behind the house for a few minutes, but didn't attempt to walk her. If one day of rest is good, two or three days is probably even better.

I continued walking by myself. The skies were clear, but it was still pretty chilly. I follow the same paths that we walk with Dawn, but the distance seem longer and a bit more tiring without a dog. This doesn't really make sense, but it's how my body feels. Maybe I'm walking a bit faster without Dawn. Just like yesterday, there were lots of interesting birds I could have photographed, but I didn't have a camera with me. When I got home I discovered that you can't watch Amazon Prime movies using Safari. You have to use Firefox instead. You'd think that Apple and Amazon would be more compatible, but maybe not. Apple probably wants you to watch their movies instead. Facebook doesn't work very well with Safari either. It's kind of a nuisance. All these companies are optimizing their applications and systems for use on phones. They seem to have forgotten that a few old geezers like me still like to use older computers and never bother to upgrade their operating system.

I eventually did figure out how to watch Amazon Prime movies on Firefox, but by then I'd lost interest in watching Season 5 of The Expanse. I've forgotten what the first four seasons were about anyway. I guess I'll wait until I'm really, really bored to watch this show. I'm not quite there yet.

I'm still finding mistakes in my company website update. It's embarrassing. I made a few more tweaks today when I discovered that the site didn't look like I expected when I looked at it on a laptop. Life was so much easier when everyone looked at websites on CRT screens that were all more or less the same size.   Now you've got to design sites that look good on a huge variety of different smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. I don't know why I'm concerned. Even fewer people visit my company website than read this blog.

I didn't sent my outline to Sky & Telescope today after all. When I looked at the outline this morning, I realized that I forgot a few important elements. I'll rework things and send it to my editor sometime next week. The magazine has already told me that there is no hurry on this. This probably means that it will take me another year to get something published again.

I wonder if the world will ever feel normal again? I'm tired of feeling like I'm living in a Steven King novel. I still watch the business channels, but I've pretty much abandoned watching the news. We watched an old black and white rerun of the Andy Griffith Show during dinner this evening and the world seemed so much more peaceful back then. I'm glad that this world was my childhood instead of the world we live in now.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4032

We had a scare today. Dawn was limping and was having a lot of trouble lying down on the bed. She kept circling and circling but wouldn't put weight on her right rear leg. When I tried to gently move the leg, she flinched. All this made me think that Dawn had a torn cruciate ligament. Other dogs of ours have had a torn ACL and it's pretty serious. There is a surgical treatment called Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy which is as complicated as it sounds. The TPLO surgery is usually very effective on younger dogs, but it takes a long time to recover. It's pretty expensive too. We took Dawn to the vet for an examination and waited nervously for the results. Later this evening we got some good news. Dawn's ACL is fine and she seems to have a soft tissue injury that might have been caused by a pulled muscle. The remedy is lots of rest and some Rimadyl for a while. Dawn is probably happy with this diagnosis. She'd rather just nap on the bed anyway.

We didn't attempt to walk Dawn at all today for obvious reasons. She was actually at the vet for quite a while. I took one long walk by myself and completed a little more than five miles. It seemed pretty cold outside but their was no rain. I really need to start taking a camera with me again but I hate the extra weight. I've always got the phone, but this isn't good for close ups of birds and animals. The phone is good for flowers, but there aren't many flowers in January.

I took down the Christmas tree today and put the decorations away. I also went to the storage warehouse and got one of the steps we've used in the past to help our older dogs get on the bed. Dawn doesn't know how to use the step yet, but she'll learn when it becomes necessary. I hope her problems are temporary and can be cured by rest. A pulled muscle or sprain might explain her recent reluctance to walk as well. We'll see how she responds in the next few days.

I didn't get approved to attend the Artemis-1 static fire later this month at Stennis Space Center. It's just as well because I wasn't planning to go anyway because of Covid worries. Nevertheless, I was still disappointed that my application for press accreditation for this event wasn't accepted. It's an uphill battle to get press accreditation for NASA events. The magazine I write for isn't large and it's easy to get overlooked. I guess I shouldn't fret about this. I'm not going anywhere this Spring anyway. Maybe when I get vaccinated I'll feel better about traveling. With this new, more contagious strain of the virus popping up everywhere, it just seems foolish to get on a plane. I need to be patient. Eventually this pandemic will be over and there'll be plenty of opportunities to cover launch events later.

I finished the outline for my next Sky & Telescope article this afternoon. It seems like it would be an interesting article to me, but what do I know. I'll send the outline to my editor tomorrow and hope that he tells me to proceed with a finished draft. I'd really like to get the go-ahead on this, because who knows when I'll get a launch opportunity again. Covid restrictions have really put a damper on my writing plans. I'm not even going to attempt to go out to JPL next month. I'd much rather stay healthy.

I almost forgot it was Thursday today, but Janet reminded me to take the trash out to the curb. All these days seem the same to me now. There are no big plans for tomorrow. I'll drink my smoothie, take my walk, and maybe start watching Season 5 of The Expanse. The new dehumidifier is running quieter now. Maybe it just needed a break in period. Hopefully, Dawn will be feeling better tomorrow. I don't know what she needs, but we'll try lots of rest for starters.

Misty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4031

Today was dismal. It was supposed to rain all day, but for the most part it was just dark and overcast. When we tried to walk Dawn, she wanted to turn around before we even finished our first mile. She always starts out very enthusiastic, but as soon as she spots a way home, she's done. We keep wondering if she has arthritis or if something else is wrong, but she always makes the journey home just fine. All she seems to want to do these days is lie on the bed.

After we returned home with Dawn, I continued walking. I was pretty sure I would get wet, but there was nothing to lose. Wet or dry, I had very little to do today. Although I got a little damp, the rain never really amounted to much today. I ended up walking about six miles.

I had trouble getting motivated today. I didn't take down the Christmas tree and I didn't start my next astronomy article either. I certainly didn't begin raking the leaves. You never want to rake leaves when they are wet. I ended up watching the Space X Starship static fire test in Boca Chica, but I couldn't bring myself to watch any of the news channels. It was just too discouraging. 

I think there's a new season of The Expanse available now on Amazon Prime. I think this would be season five. Maybe I'll watch that tomorrow. I always liked this show and the previous seasons seemed to get me through dismal days before. Unless I'm really motivated to start my astronomy article tomorrow, a little science fiction seems to be in order.

Janet was gone this afternoon and I had a hard time getting Dawn off the bed. I had to take her outside to go pee on a leash. She does fine on a leash, but she won't come when I call whenever Janet is gone. Sometimes she won't even leave the bedroom to eat her dinner. When I fixed her dinner this evening, she wouldn't leave the bedroom to eat until I went back to the office and ignored her. I heard her eating, but I didn't leave my desk because I didn't want to scare her. As soon as she finished her meal, I heard her go to the front door and wait for Janet to return. As soon as Janet came home, everything was fine again. It's kind of sad. I'm always here and Janet is gone a lot. I'm sure Dawn would prefer the opposite.

I'm going to have to disable some more things on my Apple Watch. After I upgraded the system, it's become way too intrusive. The watch is reminding me to go to bed now and asking me if I want a wake up alarm. I disabled the feature that calls 911 if you fall, but there are apparently more things I need to disable as well. A watch that tells the time, tracks my walks, and provides a decent weather forecast is all I need. Actually, I don't need any of this. I'm pretty content not wearing a watch at all.

I hope I'm more motivated tomorrow. It really is time for the Christmas tree to come down. I'm sure there's water on the roof as well. I should be getting to know my new camera and sending queries and proposals to magazines. I'm doing nothing instead. January is never a great time for me, but I should be able to do better than this.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4030

I don't think anyone is going back to work after the holidays. Things are usually quiet on a Tuesday, but the roads were crowded, the stores seemed full, and the park looked like it was Sunday afternoon. Granted, it was a nice day, but I've never seen so many people in the park on a Tuesday. 

We're still trying to figure out why Dawn has lost interest in walking. Today we drove her to a new section of the park and started walking on unfamiliar trails. Dawn seemed very excited for a while. She was walking briskly and smelling everything. Then we inadvertently crossed a trail she knew and everything changed. She didn't want to explore anymore. She let us know in no uncertain terms that she wanted to follow the old trail back home.

Oh, well. We tried. We walked back to the house along the familiar trail and Dawn was happy again sitting on the bed. Unfortunately, we then had to walk back to the park to get the car. So much for this new plan. At least the car was only several miles away. Janet got in the car to run some errands and I continued walking. I got plenty of exercise today. This is one good thing about being retired. You don't really need a plan for anything. The goal is usually just to get from sunrise to sunset.

The Christmas tree comes down tomorrow. We left it up a little longer than usual this year, but why not. The tree looks nice and there is nothing else festive on the horizon. With Christmas in the rear view mirror, all we've got to look forward to in January is raking the leaves. We used to hire a lawn service to do this, but they've become very expensive. I think everyone becomes more frugal when they retire. My parents were and so were my grandparents. Living in retirement is like having a full tank of gas, but no gas stations. You really don't want to run out of gas.

I got a letter from my accountant saying that it was time to start gathering my tax materials together. How did this happen? It seems like I just finished last year's taxes. At least I made a little money writing for magazines last year so I can deduct my travel expenses. I thought I'd be traveling a lot this year writing about astronomy and space, but Covid has thrown a wet blanket over my plans. Basically, I'm superstitious. I've managed to stay healthy so far, but I don't want to push my luck. I wanted to go out to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Perseverance landing in February and I've been thinking about visiting Mount Wilson as well. That's not going to happen. California has become a Covid disaster area. You'd have to be crazy to want to travel to Los Angeles right now.

I guess I should start writing my next astronomy article before I forget everything I learned at the astrophotography workshop. My editor at Sky & Telescope said to send an outline first. I can do that. Actually, writing an outline is a good way to procrastinate. Usually, I just start writing and make a lot of revisions, but outlines are OK too. Occasionally, advertising clients would want an outline first. I definitely know how to do them. I just don't know how to follow them.

I still haven't heard from my contact at the dehumidifier company. Maybe they fired him for giving away too many dehumidifiers. I'd really like to know how to stop the rattling noise. I've got the unit placed in a bathroom next to the office and the noise is driving me nuts. It's too bad I threw away the the old dehumidifier on last month's bulky trash day. It didn't work well, but it was very quiet.

Will Dawn walk tomorrow? That seems to be the question of the day lately. We've been trying to build Dawn's confidence ever since she joined our family. I think she's finally confident enough now to let us know she's a very lazy dog.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4029

Good grief. My watch dialed 911 in my sleep last night. That was a surprise. I woke up to this voice saying "This is Dallas 911, can we help you." What? It took me a moment to realize what was going on, but when I noticed that the voice was coming from my watch, I knew. I spoke into the watch and told the lady that I was sorry, but the call was a mistake. "That's OK," the dispatcher said and hung up. How did this happen? I didn't even know that my watch had this capability. I definitely didn't want this to happen again, so I took the watch off and put it in the office before I went back to bed.

This morning I opened up the Apple Watch app on my phone and looked carefully at all the settings. Sure enough, there was an SOS setting that would summon an emergency response if you fell and didn't immediately press the "I'm OK" button on the watch face. You could also place an emergency call if you held down the flat side button on the side of the watch for a certain length of time. Maybe this button got pressed in my sleep. I certainly didn't fall, although this watch has done strange things before. I disabled the SOS function because I didn't want to wake up later this week with an ambulance in the driveway and EMT technicians knocking on my door. I guess it's a good thing that your watch can call 911 in an emergency, but I wouldn't call having a dream much of an emergency. It wouldn't take long to get classified as a nuisance caller if your watch did this very often. Nice idea Apple, but I don't think this feature is quite ready for prime time.

The watch incident reminded me that I still had a free offer to upgrade to Fitbit Premium. My health insurance provider recently added Fitbit integration to it's gym membership program. The letter that explained the offer had been sitting on my desk for weeks, but I'd never bothered to follow the instructions for the Fitbit upgrade. Fitbit Premium seems harmless enough. I like tracking fitness stats and I don't think there is any way that my Fitbit will call 911 in my sleep. The Fitbit upgrade is probably like that sensor that monitors our electric wiring. A year from now I'll probably regret signing up for both services.

I tried to call the dehumidifier manufacturer and ask some questions about the strange behavior of the replacement unit I received. The company still seems to be closed for the holidays. Nobody answered my call or the e-mail I subsequently sent. Something is clearly wrong with the replacement dehumidifier. I still think they sent me a refurbished unit instead of a new machine.

Since it's Monday, Janet and I went up to visit the kennel Dalmatians this afternoon. The kennel was quiet and most of the holiday boarding dogs were gone. There are currently three Dalmatians at the kennel and I think a fourth might be coming next week. I still need to take pictures of Cooper, but since he is still dealing with a few health issues, he is not ready for adoption yet. I'll take my camera when we visit next week. There might be two dogs to photograph.

When we walked Dawn this morning, she only walked one mile, just like yesterday. We wondered if she'd like to try another walk when we returned from the Dalmatian kennel. She seemed enthusiastic, but froze again after she had traveled one mile. One mile seems to be her limit these days. Nothing is wrong with Dawn. As soon as she sees that we have turned around and are headed home, she resumes walking briskly toward the house. Instead of training Dawn, I think she is training us.

I'm curious when Janet and I will get the vaccine. Several people I know have already been vaccinated. Since we are older and in a high priority group, I don't imagine that the wait will be all that long. I'll take the vaccine, but I'm in no hurry. I'd like to see if the people ahead of me in line have any serious side effects. Will life return to normal when Janet and I have been vaccinated? Somehow, I doubt it.

Hunter 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 4027

They had Clorox wipes at the grocery store this morning. I guess that's a good sign. The clouds cleared and there were blue skies this afternoon. That was an even better sign. We're still waiting until later in the day to walk Dawn. What's the hurry. Neither of us have a lot to do these days.

I actually got quite a bit done today. I made a few more tweaks to my new website, wrote a letter to my sister, went to the bank, and finished all my grocery shopping before noon. By the time we got ready to walk Dawn, it had warmed up quite a bit and we were feeling optimistic. Dawn actually did well today. She walked three miles, which was much better than yesterday. When she refused to walk further, we just turned around and let her lead the way home. There is no sense to push her too hard. Dawn is not a young dog and there are probably dozens of good reasons why she doesn't want to walk as far as she used to. She's been to the vet recently and there don't seem to be any serious medical issues. Hopefully, we'll eventually figure out what is going on.

I finally installed the sensor that is supposed to monitor our electric wiring. I've been reluctant to do this because our house is old and I was afraid that the sensor would find a problem immediately. So far, so good. The sensor has been running most of the day and it says everything is normal. We'll see what happens the next time one of the pumps on the roof shorts out.

Yesterday the replacement dehumidifier that the manufacturer sent me was making a loud rattling noise. It sounded like something was coming loose internally. I was convinced that the manufacturer had sent me a factory second, but today the sound disappeared. The machine has been running quietly all day. Did the part that was rattling fall off, or are these dehumidifiers just noisy when you are breaking them in? Who knows? I think I'll call these guys on Monday. I have a lot of questions.

I'm already losing interest in my website revisions. There really isn't much sense in having a company website anymore, since I am more or less retired. I wouldn't turn down a job, but I'm not actively looking for work either. I'd probably be irritated if I got a big website development project. Creating a website that works flawlessly across a wide variety of different platforms has become quite complex. I've got the new website working fine on my desktop computer, but it doesn't look right on my iPad. This means that it probably won't look right on most phones either. What a pain. Once I get this mess figured out, I probably won't look at this site again for several years. As I said, you don't really need a business website when you don't have a business.

I haven't taken the Christmas tree down yet. I guess it's time, but I don't see any need to hurry. The tree is pretty and I am lazy. I imagine that I'll take the tree down sometime next week. I've noticed when we are out walking that most of the neighbors trees are gone already. The Christmas tree is only a diversion. I really need to focus on clearing out the storage warehouse and my office next year. I'm sure this is a year long project. There is so much to do.

Why did I have a pizza tonight? Janet and both I love pizza, but pizza doesn't love me. I can already tell that I am going to have a bad case of heartburn this evening. 

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4026 - New Year's Day

It didn't really feel like a holiday. I've completely lost track of the days. All the familiar reference points seems to have disappeared. There was no Friday morning trash pickup today. The Rose Bowl is being played at Texas Stadium instead of in California. Were there other bowl games today? I'm not sure. Most of these games are named after corporate sponsors now. Janet's gym was open today, but Walmart and Costco are closed. Dawn doesn't even like to walk in the mornings anymore. It's all very disorientating.

I slept in late and had my usual smoothie for breakfast. I was surprised that I slept well. We stayed up late last night and drank Bellinis and nibbled on a cheese tray while we watched a surprisingly elaborate fireworks show on TV. Why did Dallas even have a fireworks show this year? It was cold and raining outside and crowds weren't allowed to attend anyway. 

At least it wasn't raining today. We were hoping that delaying our walk until about 1 PM would keep Dawn interested. She hates damp weather though and we were out of luck. We walked about a third of a mile and then Dawn froze and refused to walk further. I couldn't really blame her for wanting to go home. It was very cold and damp outside. As soon as we returned home, Dawn jumped on the bed and went to sleep. Janet and I should have done the same, but we have both become addicted to movement. We continued walking.

Yesterday I hardly walked at all because it was raining all day. Even though it was cold and dismal, we walked our usual five miles. It's too bad that Dawn wouldn't join us. We started doing all this walking for her. Maybe Dawn knew that the open meadows she enjoys were all muddy today. Some were covered with water and even had ducks swimming in them. We got a lot of rain yesterday.

When we returned home I was determined to figure out what had gone wrong with my website update yesterday. I basically screwed everything up and ruined my site. Why did everything work on the development site I use, but not on my own server. Eventually, I discovered that some of the server side code I used wasn't supported by my hosting company and didn't do anything at all. So much for all the fancy stuff. I could either abandon my update and upload my old site again, or figure out how to make the new site a little less complex. None of this was my idea of fun, but what else did I have to do today.

I made incremental small changes and uploaded them to see if they worked. I did this over and over again. It took a long time because I really didn't know what I was doing. The more fancy animation I discarded, the better the site seemed to work. After uploading a half a dozen different versions, I finally came up with something that wasn't totally embarrassing. I should accept my limitations. I still like old fashioned static sites and hate all the extra steps you have to take to make a modern website mobile and tablet friendly. I guess what I came up with today will have to do for a while. The website doesn't have many visitors. Very few people will even notice that anything has changed.

I don't know how we're going to get Dawn excited about life again. She seems depressed. I'm certainly no motivation expert. On most mornings I have a hard time getting out of bed myself. Maybe there is nothing wrong with Dawn at all. I tend to overthink things. We'll see how things go in the new year. Janet would like to take Dawn to the training class that Dot and Dash seemed to enjoy. Of course that class has been canceled because of Covid. Can we move beyond Covid this year? I certainly hope so.

Jasper 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 4024

It was cold and wet today. Dawn was smart. She quickly went outside and did her business after we woke up and then didn't want to leave the house for the rest of the day. I foolishly thought I could take advantage of a break in the weather and get some steps in. It didn't take long for the rain to start again and I ended up getting wet after I finished my first mile. Janet was smarter. She went to the gym to get her exercise.

Nothing gives you cabin fever like a cold all day rain. I made sure the pumps on the roof were working, but there were very few projects I felt like starting today. After drying my wet clothes, finishing my morning smoothie and wasting as much time as I could on the computer, I eventually became so bored that I decided to go to the grocery store in the rain. I would have waited until tomorrow, but it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow too.

I was surprised at how much traffic there was on this cold dismal day. Were all these other people bored like me or did they actually have important things to do? I got the things I needed and came home again. Of course I had to wash the car because I can't stand a muddy car.

I think the dehumidifier company sent me a factory second. The unit seems to work fine, but it makes a strange rattling noise that sounds like something is loose inside. The other dehumidifiers never made this noise. There is something strange about the mechanism that shuts the unit off when the tank is full as well. It doesn't seem to be connected to anything electrically, so I don't know how it can turn the unit off after the water bucket becomes full. How do I test this thing without flooding the house? For now, I'm just turning it off at night. Better safe than sorry. I hate to complain to the manufacturer because they did give me this thing for free.

I hate the fact that the virus appears to be getting worse even though many states are completely shut down. When is this thing going to end? I'm really hesitant to travel now. It would probably be foolish to go anywhere. So much for following rocket launches for a while. I keep reading that hospitals in Dallas are filling up again, but I still don't know anyone in town who had become sick. It's all very strange. It's easy to become paranoid when you turn on the news. There's always a story about some young, healthy athlete who got the virus and died a few days later. I try to stay safe, but part of me thinks that everyone is going to get this virus eventually.

I've started following a few astrophotography groups on the Internet. It's become pretty apparent that this is all about accumulating as much gear as you can and then trying to figure out how to hook it all together. There is a lot more talk about gadgets on these groups than about objects in the sky. It was pretty much the same when I collected watches or even model trains. Time will tell whether I have the patience to take hundreds of pictures of the same object, call the resulting photographs "data," and then meticulously stack them all together along with dark, flat, and bias frames to produce an image that would be impossible to see with your eye. I love looking at the night sky, but I also like getting a good night's sleep and am not a terribly patient person.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. Every forecast I've looked at says there's a 100% chance of rain for most of the day. The best thing about tomorrow is that 2020 will be over. Let's hope that 2021 turns out a little better.

Penny is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4023

I tried my best to be productive today. I started by defrosting the little refrigerator. This doesn't sound like much, but it's kind of a pain. I need to wait until the big refrigerator is empty enough that I can transfer everything temporarily while I unplug the unit, open the door, and let all the ice melt. This little dorm room size refrigerator was never meant to be permanent, but somehow we need it now. It is very basic and doesn't even have automatic defrost. Every few months I take out the glass shelves, fill the interior with old towels and let the ice melt. All is good now. I probably won't have to do this again until March.

Since I needed to take out the trash today anyway, I thought I'd try to shred a bunch of old mail and useless documents in the office. I managed to fill a large black leaf bag with paper confetti and almost overheated the shredder. Shredding these documents took a long time because I needed to read everything to make sure I wasn't destroying anything important. I think it's pretty safe to say that nothing important was lost today. Some of the envelopes even had hand written notes on the outside saying "must be shredded." The contents were usually a credit card that had expired in 2016, or an insurance claim that had been settled decades ago. I even found all the paperwork for a JC Penny lifetime battery for a car I hadn't owned in ages. I think these lifetime batteries almost put JC Penny out of business because they were good for as long as you owned the car. I tend to keep cars for a very long time.

When I saw the full bag of shredded confetti, I thought I'd made some real progress. Why did the office not look any different? This is what is so discouraging about decluttering. It's really hard to make a dent in  a room full of stuff that took thirty years to accumulate. I could continue to do this day after day and month after month until I went stark raving mad.

Dawn continues to be a work in progress. She's more enthusiastic about walking when we wait until later in the day. She prefers open fields to trails. Maybe this is why we've started seeing ticks on her. I even found a tick on me this morning which is very rare. She's due for another Frontline pill very soon, so maybe the coverage is starting to wear out. At any rate, we had a good walk today, although I wish we had stayed on the trails. My new shoes aren't nearly as effective at preventing foot pain when walking on uneven ground. We might have walked Dawn a little too far today. She was really tired when we returned home. She'll have plenty of time to rest tomorrow. It's supposed to rain all day.

I started using the second dehumidifier in one of the bathrooms today. The house may actually be too dry now because I've been waking up with nosebleeds in the morning lately. It's still amazing to me that large buckets of water can be extracted from the air every single day. The house is much drier since we started using dehumidifiers. There is no dampness in the closets anymore and the air feels better. The machines are noisy though. You can't have everything I guess.

I still have a few errands I need to run before the end of the year. I should have done my errands today, because the forecast says there is a 100% chance of rain on Wednesday and Thursday. You know how I feel about driving in the rain. Forecasts are frequently wrong though. We'll try to get Dawn walked first and then see what happens.

Allie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4022

We found a couple of ticks on Dawn while she was sitting on the bed this morning. Since the last thing you want is ticks in your bed, we washed all the bedding. It takes quite a few loads to wash the sheets, the blankets, the comforter, and whatever else was on the bed at the time. We did take Dawn outside and brushed her too but didn't find any additional ticks. When I remade the bed later in the day, I realized that it was a lot harder to put on a fitted sheet than it used to be. My shoulder has really gotten worse. It's not so easy to lift up the mattress and tuck everything in anymore.

We've quit taking a walk before breakfast. With very little evidence to back up our decision, we decided that it's going to be easier to walk Dawn later in the day when it is warmer. It didn't actually get warmer today, but that wasn't our fault. Dawn did well today. We took an old familiar route and she only froze once for a very short amount of time. For the most part, she was back to her old self today. Maybe Dawn knows what happened yesterday, but she sure isn't talking.

It's still hard to remember what day it is. We started getting mail again today and I fixed a smoothie for breakfast. It must be Monday. It was a good thing we walked Dawn when we did, because the sky kept getting darker as the day progressed. It wasn't supposed to rain until tomorrow, but I should have known better than to trust the forecast. It started raining right about when I was getting ready to take my afternoon walk.

Since I couldn't walk and I'd already finished cleaning all the bedding, I decided up upgrade the firmware on my new camera. I'm always a bit apprehensive about upgrading firmware on electronic equipment. There were all sorts of warnings in the camera's instruction book that if you didn't follow the instructions for firmware upgrades exactly, there was a good chance that you could brick your camera. Hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. The entire procedure took about fifteen minutes and I kept thinking that something might go wrong the entire time. If the Internet went out during the procedure you bricked the camera. If the power went out, same thing. Japanese camera companies don't always do a great job of translating their manuals into English either. The instructions I was supposed to follow to the letter weren't entirely clear. The upgrade went smoothly though, even if it did take a long time. I now have a camera that will do even more things that I will probably never find a use for.

I've decided that it wouldn't be smart to go out to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Perseverance landing in February. The situation in California keeps getting worse and worse. To get to JPL, I'd have to fly into Los Angeles which seems to be leading the nation in new virus cases. Hospitals are full. The city seems to be in full lockdown. Oh, well. Space adventures can wait. I"m sure there will be something else the magazine might be interested in later. With the way things are going, I doubt that I'd be welcome at JPL anyway.

I really need to remember to take out the trash tomorrow evening. The trucks come by on Wednesday morning during the holidays. I forgot about the holiday schedule last week and the trash is stacking up. Maybe this is why Facebook finds my blog offensive. I'm always talking trash.

Petey and Dot are Dalmatians 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 4020

I thought I'd go grocery shopping early this morning to let the weather warm up before our second attempt to take Dawn on a normal walk. The store was only open to Plus Card members between 8 and 9 AM. I don't even know what a Plus Card is, but they let me in anyway. It actually was a pretty good time to shop. The store was virtually empty.

After I returned, we had breakfast and then we took Dawn for a walk. Janet and I were both curious to see if Dawn would freeze again. We let her lead the way and things went pretty well for a while. We accidentally crossed one of our old familiar paths and Dawn froze again. She just doesn't want to walk on this road anymore. Luckily, Janet brought some cheese with her and we were able to lure Dawn down to the shoreline where we continued walking. We had to use the cheese again to get Dawn to cross two familiar bridges, but we ended up having a pretty decent walk. We walked through a lot of big open fields and along the edges of wooded areas. As long as there were new and different things to smell, Dawn was fine. At one point Janet got too far ahead and Dawn started walking faster to catch up with her. I can't run anymore. She tried to jump a small ravine and I couldn't keep up with her and fell. I skinned my knee but I didn't let go of the leash. I'm not sure where Dawn would have gone if I did. When we reached the halfway point and turned to return home, I was pretty sure there would be no further problems. Dawn walked on a lot of familiar trails on the return trip and never hesitated at all. Her goal was to get back to the house where she could sit on the bed again.

I was going to clean up the broken glass in the greenhouse today and take it out to the curb for bulky trash day. As luck would have it, the trash trucks came while I was at the grocery store. Why did I think they were going to come on Monday? Oh, well. I cleaned up the glass anyway and put it in a box. Now I just need to remember to set the box out at the curb next month.

It was hard to get motivated today. I didn't feel like starting any new projects or cleaning up the office. I vacuumed the bedrooms, did a load of wash, and that was about it. Maybe yesterday's huge meal made me feel sluggish. All I really wanted to do today was sleep.

We've noticed that there are way more police and fire sirens than there used to be. We hear these sirens every time we walk Dawn. They wake us up when we are sleeping. We hear sirens every few hours now at all times of day and night. I guess this is just part of living in a city these days. It definitely wasn't like this when I first moved to Dallas. It would be nice to live in a place with no sirens and nothing to worry about at night. Lots of luck with that. Such places probably don't exist anymore.

I thought I figured out a way to syndicate the blog to Facebook again, but it didn't work. It's probably not worth the effort to spend much time on this. I've gotten pretty fast at making the JPEG image of my post every night anyway. Syndication services that automatically post the blog to various places used to save me a lot of time. I still syndicate the blog to Twitter, so I never have to visit Twitter myself. I used to do the same thing with Facebook until they banned a lot of the syndication services. I guess I'll continue visiting Facebook for the time being. I like seeing all the dog pictures.

I don't know if Dawn's reluctance to travel down a familiar path is temporary or permanent. It makes life a little difficult though. When we leave the house in the morning we've only got two choices. We can either go left or we can go right.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4019 - Christmas

It turns out it wasn't Dawn, it was us. We tried an experiment this morning. Instead of having Dawn follow us on a walk, we followed her. She led us over the hills and through the woods on a wild walk to parts of the park we had never even visited before. Luckily, it was a beautiful, dry winter day with no poison ivy, no bugs, and most importantly, no snakes. Dawn had a great time. She was happy, energetic, and didn't freeze in place at all. We ended up walking over five miles and probably could have walked longer. If there is a lesson in all this, it might be that Dawn thinks we are boring people and wishes we would do more interesting things with her.

Dawn's triumphant Christmas walk was the beginning of a very pleasant day. The house was filled with the smells of delicious things in the oven. Janet talked with her family on the phone while I finally figured out how to use my new camera. I've barely scratched the surface of what the camera can do, but I did take some pictures and was pleased with the results. I figured out how to install and pair the phone app that lets me operate the camera remotely and I tried out a couple of lenses that I already own. This camera is going to be very good for astrophotography and future Dalmatian Rescue photo shoots.

Even Facebook was better today. Instead of people arguing about politics, there were just lots of happy pictures of dogs dressed up in Christmas outfits. It's too bad we can't act like it's Christmas all year long. For one day a year, humanity doesn't seem so bad after all.

I took another walk later in the day and some of the larger paved trails were filled with children playing with their Christmas toys. The gifts kids get now are much larger and more expensive than what I used to find under the tree. Janet and I were talking recently about how happy we were to get a ViewMaster for Christmas when we were little. Everything runs on batteries now and will probably break fairly quickly. I saw a parade of children riding on fancy motorized toy cars and scooters. There were motorized skateboards as well. A lot of the older kids on motorized scooters were going way too fast. Luckily, I didn't encounter any serious accidents today. It would have spoiled my Christmas mood.

Our Christmas dinner was delicious. Janet baked a Crown Roast surrounded by root vegetables, all covered by a fabulous spicy glaze. When it came out of the oven it looked like something you'd see in a food magazine. Our side dishes were candied sweet potatoes, Italian sausage dressing, fresh cranberry sauce, and a Brussels Sprout salad. We made Mimosas, got out our best champagne glasses and ate way too much.

Dawn got her first taste of Devon's Doggie Delights for Christmas and she loves the Cheese Chompers. I forget when we first discovered Devon's treats, but Dot and Dash loved them. I'm really happy that Dawn had a good day. It was so nice to see her acting normally again. We'll see how long this lasts. Realistically, it will be impossible to let her drag us through the woods every day. The park isn't that big either. There are only so many undiscovered routes left. Maybe we just have a very stubborn dog instead of a dog with mental problems. We forget sometimes that Dawn is a mama dog who has raised many, many puppies. I think this might explain a lot of her behavior.

A very Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope your day was as nice as ours was. For a short moment in time, I'm feeling fairly optimistic.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4018

Dawn is still acting weird. We didn't even try to walk early this morning because it was so cold. Later in the day, Dawn seemed eager to go outside. We walked normally for a while. She smelled things and seemed active and engaged. Then after we had gone about a mile, she froze, just like she did the other day. Janet walked ahead to see if she would eventually follow her. Nope. She wouldn't turn around and go back home either. I had a hard time getting her out of the middle of the road where she was in the way of cars and bicycles. As soon as Dawn saw that Janet was turning around and coming back to us, Dawn turned around and headed home. She kept looking back to make sure that Janet was following us, but she seemed active and happy again. When Janet caught up with us, Dawn was wagging her tail and had a "mission accomplished" look on her face. I have no idea what is going on. Taking long walks used to be one of her favorite activities. I could be easily convinced myself that Dawn is having a seizure when she freezes like this, if it weren't for the fact that she instantly returns to normal as soon as Janet and I turn around and head home again. This evening she ate a small round hole in her favorite blanket. What's that all about? We were right next to her having dinner and we never saw or heard anything.

Dawn may have tired of walking, but I'm still moving. It's disappointing that Dawn doesn't want to accompany me anymore, but I still need to get my steps. I took a long walk by myself and thought about the complexities of understand a dog's behavior. It would be so much easier if they could talk and tell us how they were feeling. Dawn's vital sighs and her recent blood work look excellent. Physically, she seems to be in good health. We're guessing that she might have had a traumatic brain injury earlier in her life. This would at least explain the signs of atrophy we see on the top of her head. It might explain her erratic behavior too. It's all just a guess though. 

I did some accounting this afternoon and couldn't get things to balance again. This never used to happen. I went over my entries in Quickbooks three times and couldn't find any mistakes. Why was I $50 off then?  Somewhere there has to be an easy answer to all of this. Why does a healthy, active dog suddenly refuse to walk? Why can't I balance my books anymore? I have a feeling that if I were younger and more on top of my game, things would start to make sense.

I installed Stellarium on my computer this afternoon and played around with it for an hour or two. There is so much I will never see in the night sky. It's hard to even learn the basics, like where all the constellations are, when you can't see anything due to city light pollution. Even if I found a dark spot in the park with a clear view of the sky, the light pollution would still be there. It's a shame. When I'm out in the Davis Mountains, I can tell that my interest in astronomy is real. It's an uphill battle to maintain that interest though when you live in a city where it's almost impossible to see anything.

I need to read my e-mail more carefully. I was getting ready to take the trash out to the curb tonight and started wondering whether anything would be picked up on Christmas Day. Probably not. Maybe the city sent us a message. Sure enough, I found a message from the sanitation department that was sent last week. It said that trash would be picked up on Wednesday this week. Oops. That was yesterday.

It's hard to believe it's Christmas tomorrow. Where has this year gone? I hope that all of you enjoy the holidays. Christmas is still a hopeful time, even for someone like me. Hey, maybe 2021 will be better.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4017

Dawn is still acting weird on her morning walks. She always appears eager to leave the house. We'll walk a little ways and she'll do her business. We'll continue walking and then for no reason, she'll stop and refuse to go any further. She doesn't appear to be in any pain or having a seizure. As soon as we agree to turn around and retrace our steps to the house, she's back to her old self, walking briskly and full of purpose. Is she just being stubborn or is there something wrong? It's hard to tell.

At any rate, Dawn missed out on a nice walk this morning. It was really pretty outside and the weather was just about perfect. Dawn certainly doesn't have any separation anxiety. She could care less if Janet and I go off walking by ourselves. As long as Dawn has our big bed to sleep on, she's a happy camper.

Since it was such a nice day today, Janet and I decided to go to the Dallas Arboretum this afternoon. The arboretum is well endowed and beautifully maintained. We often go during the Christmas season because they have special Christmas displays. I wonder how many gardeners it takes to keep this place looking so nice. This is how probably everyone would want their yard to look if they had an unlimited budget. You can get all sorts of ideas wandering through the acres of perfectly trimmed trees, colorful vegetation, and sparkling water attractions. If we tried to duplicate anything we saw this afternoon it would all probably all die within six months. A garden like this requires constant attention.

At Christmas there are twelve glass gazeboes scattered throughout the park, representing the twelve days of Christmas. There is also a full size Christmas village with little German style buildings, each filled with different types of food or Christmas ornaments you can buy. In a normal year, Christmas at the Arboretum is a very popular attraction. I guess Dallas is back to normal, because the place was packed today. It is very odd to see so many people acting completely normally all over town and then turn on the television and hear that our hospitals are full. Everyone except the small children were wearing masks today, but that was probably just because there were large signs all over the place saying that masks were mandatory. 

When we got home from the arboretum we tried to take Dawn on a walk again. She did much better this time and seemed to be enjoying herself until she abruptly froze and refused to go any further. We had probably gone about a mile when this happened. I would think that she might be having a small seizure if it weren't for the fact that as soon as we turn around, she starts wagging her tail again and begins walking briskly toward the house. 

Janet picked up the Crown Roast we are going to have for Christmas dinner at the butcher today. It looks amazing. We are going to have a quiet little Christmas, but we will eat well. We got some gifts for Dawn, but we don't need anything for ourselves. There is not much point in decluttering if you keep buying more.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day