Day 4182

Dawn is a smart dog. She knows we sleep in late on Sunday and stays in bed with us at least an hour longer than her usual breakfast time. I don't know if she is being patient or lazy. Maybe she would sleep in late every day if Janet didn't get up early on weekdays. Dawn also seems to know that she gets a special outing on Sundays. As the time for our departure approaches she starts pacing around, whining and barking. I think we've overcome her fear of the car. Dawn is eager to hop in the car on Sunday morning. Maybe she never was fearful of the car; just fearful of where the car might be going. Dawn still doesn't like to get in the car if we are going to the vet or to get a bath. I think she knows.

We had a nice walk this morning. We had a lot of rain last night, but it was over by morning. The ground was still wet but the grass is thick everywhere now and it is easy to avoid getting muddy. Dawn seems to listen to me outside when I am holding her leash. She never listens to me inside the house. This is a very strange dog. I think I am slowly beginning to understand her. After our regular walk, Janet worked on a few training exercises. Dawn wasn't very interested. I think she knew it was time for ice cream cones. We always get ice cream at Andy's on the way home They call their ice cream frozen custard, but it tastes like Dairy Queen to me. I"m not particular about ice cream. I like all ice cream.

I wasn't that eager to go on my long walk today because I knew it would get hot quickly as soon as the sun came out. I decided to walk earlier than usual in hopes that the skies would stay cloudy. I almost got my wish. It stayed overcast with a little breeze until I was almost home. I was slow today but I wasn't in a hurry. I'm trying to not be such a slave to my Fitbit. I really ought to stop wearing the Fitbit on walks and start carrying a small camera again. I used to take better pictures in the park. Now I mostly just depend on my phone. Sometimes I'll just use an old picture for the blog. I've photographed everything there is to photograph in the park by now. If I see something interesting on my walks, I can almost always find an old photograph of exactly the same thing.

I'm beginning to hate taking a shower after I walk. The shower drains slowly if any hair gets in the drain and water alway seems to get under the tile floor through various small cracks in the tile grout. I usually end up having to snake out the drain and use the wet/dry vac to extract the water that has gotten under the ceramic tiles. This is a huge pain and it almost make staying hot and sweaty a viable option. Old houses are an endless problem and so is finding knowledgable and dependable repair people. You learn to live with the problems. I've already learned that a small bag of party ice will last almost three weeks in the freezer. I could buy party ice forever for a lot less than the cost of having an appliance repairman install a new ice maker.

I thought about watching some more tutorials about PixInsight this afternoon but my heart wasn't in it. I have to admit that I'm just not very interested in the technical aspects of astrophotography processing. I can get fairly decent looking photographs just using Photoshop. Maybe I'll just stick with what I know. I read an article today where various amateur astronomers were recounting stories about being stalked by mountain lions, bears, and coyotes while observing in remote wooded locations. These stories were a little sobering and took some of the fun out of staying at the Astronomer's Lodge. I can't be fearful of everything though or I'd never leave the house.

We'll probably go see the rescue Dalmatians tomorrow. I'm curious to see who's still there. Charlie is a safe bet, but the others might all be adopted by now.

Wendy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4181

Today was busy. Shopping is interesting now that Texas has rescinded the mask mandate. At Home Depot, half the people were wearing a mask and the other half weren't. At Sam's Club, everyone was still wearing a mask. Later at Tom Thumb, nobody was wearing a mask. Clearly the mask has outlived it's original purpose and just become another symbol. Some people can't wait to get rid of these things while others will continue to wear them forever. I was never a fan of the mask, but I'll probably keep one in my back pocket for quite a while. If I go into a store full of masked people, I'll put it on. Whatever it takes to stay invisible. I don't think there ever was a problem with shoppers. Other shoppers don't want to interact with you. I'll continue to avoid weddings, family gatherings and sporting events, just like I did before the pandemic.

Now that I've had time to inspect the Redcat 51 that arrived yesterday, I think I made a good purchase. It may be a while before I have an opportunity to attach this to the star tracker and try my hand at photographing nebulas and galaxies, but I'll definitely use it. The little telescope is extremely well made, small enough to travel with, and will last a lifetime. 

There was a spot of blood on the bedspread this morning, so the cortisone shot Dawn got the other day wasn't a magic bullet. The shot helped, but Dawn is still licking her paws excessively. Janet and I think this is a nervous habit, but this is probably because Dawn already has so many other nervous habits. We're just guessing here. If she is allergic to something, it's not going to be easy to determine what it is. She'll probably need to have an allergy skin test, but that's not an exact science either. Hopefully we can find an answer without a huge amount of trial and error. Nervous habits are OK, but self harm isn't.

I'm not looking forward to Summer. Today was hot and muggy, but it is going to be so much worse in July. I could tell that Dawn was getting hot on her walk today. We might have to start taking sunrise walks again like we did with our other dogs. I was OK on my long walk today, but if it gets much warmer I'm going to have to return to the gym. I'm not really worried about Covid anymore, it's just inconvenient to drive to the gym. At a certain point air conditioning trumps convenience though. That indoor track at the gym is looking better all the time.

I can't believe that it's already time to mow the grass again. Everything grows quickly when the ground is wet. Luckily, it's still a little too wet outside to mow. My electric mower just isn't strong enough to cut through wet grass. The grass is going to be even taller next week, but I don't feel like mowing anyway. I don't feel like cutting down any more dead Photinia trees either, even though I got a new blade for my saw with carbide teeth that are supposed to be ten times better than an ordinary blade. The grass and the trees can wait until next week.

It's hard to say whether Dawn will get her Sunday outing tomorrow. There is rain in the forecast again, but  it never seems to rain all day. With any luck we'll be able to find a little dry time for a Sunday walk. Janet wants to work on Dawn's training exercises a bit. Dawn and I just want the ice cream cone on the way home.

Scooby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4180

Another rainy day. I split my walk today into several shorter walks to avoid getting wet. I should do this more often. I stayed dry and still managed to get the same number of steps. Dawn's walks have gotten interesting. She's exploring new areas now, but still seems to know exactly how long a mile is. No matter what direction we travel, we always cover the same distance.

Today was probably the most uneventful day this week. I didn't attempt any outdoor projects because it always looked like it was just about to rain. I was expecting a UPS delivery today, but I'm still waiting for the truck. I'm the very last street on the driver's route and if it's been a busy day the driver sometimes doesn't bother to stop. The website can say 'out for delivery" all day long and then eventually I'll get some sort of delivery exception e-mail saying I wasn't home or something. Hey, I've been home all day except for a few short walks. Not that it matters. I have absolutely no control over these things.

Accepting things you can't control is difficult. I'm learning though. I can't control the weather, the state of the world, the stock market, or even Dawn's opinion of me. It's all good though. I learned a long time ago that trying to swim upstream was a wasted effort. Go with the flow. Make the best of things. If life gets you down, take a nap.

The park was pretty empty today. Maybe everyone else thought it was going to rain too. I can't believe how green everything is this year. This is the wettest Spring I can remember and the plants seem to love it.   The park looks great this year. Even our yard is looking pretty good. The grass seed that Janet sprinkled over some bare areas in the back yard is actually starting to grow. This almost never happens. I hope this doesn't mean we are going to have a hot, dry Summer but it probably does. We never get rain in the Summer.

There have been so many launches at Kennedy Space Center this year that it's making me crazy to see all the other launch photographers photos on an almost daily basis. I should be down there with them. I don't think it's going to happen though. NASA seems to have forgotten about me and I'm beginning to think SpaceFlight Magazine has too. It's been oddly silent on both fronts. Oh, well. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. I have made an effort to stay in the loop. That's all I can do.

The mosquitos are terrible this year. We have tried several remedies, but none of them seem to work. I usually spray the ground cover with a mosquito repellent, but it has been so wet lately that the rain would just wash the repellent away. Our latest effort is a little burner that look a bit like an incense burner. The pellets that make the smoke that is supposed to drive the mosquitos away won't stay lit though. I got bit by mosquitos trying to fix the thing this morning.

I need to go to Home Depot tomorrow and look for a saw blade that will actually cut through the dead Photinia trees. I also need to buy some more duct tape. Duct tape is my solution for everything these days. I need to get groceries tomorrow as well. Hopefully I can run these errands without getting caught in the rain

The UPS driver actually did deliver my package a few minutes ago. He was very late and probably very tired as well. I don't think this would be a job I would like at all.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4179

At least I made an effort today. I've been promising forever to cut down the dead Photinia trees in the back yard. I don't know what happened to them. They looked nice for over twenty years and then one Spring, two thirds of them abruptly died. The dead trees are an eyesore now, but they are large enough that they are difficult for me to remove.

Years ago I decided that I was never going to use a chain saw. Several friends of mine have gotten seriously injured using chain saws and they are not the best tool for a clumsy person. I use a reciprocating saw instead. I don't like battery powered tools, so I have a heavy duty 15 amp corded model. The saw weighs ten pounds and will cut through anything. It's not really meant to cut through trees though. These saws are mostly used in the construction industry for demolition work. A small chain saw would be ten times faster and probably weigh a lot less. It's what I got though, and I did promise to remove those trees.

I eventually removed four of the dead Photinia trees, plus as couple of small scrub trees that had grown up next to our back fence. This was all I could handle for one day. The saw was heavy and hard to hold parallel to the ground so I could saw the trees down at the base. The dry dead wood was like sawing through Oak. It took a long time. Sometimes the small blade would get stuck in the tree and it would take me forever to free it. No wonder I waited so long to do this. I've still got four more trees to remove, but I'll save them for another day. Maybe sometime next year.

I had to rest for a bit before I was ready to walk Dawn with Janet. Dawn was ready, but she'd been resting all morning. I felt like taking a shower and a long nap, but I knew I'd just get hot and sweaty all over again on my walk. I was kind of mad that my Fitbit didn't really register the effort it took to remove those trees.

This was another day where it was supposed to rain, but didn't. It was overcast, but there wasn't much of a breeze. I wish there was a little wind because it would have kept me cooler. Dawn is still surprisingly adventurous on her walks. She goes somewhere different almost every day now. Her walks are still short and sometimes the new path she takes is very close to the old path, but it's still good to see her becoming more curious and less afraid.

I continued walking after Dawn and Janet returned to the house. Might as well get it over with, I thought. I knew I was going to be slow today and I was. I did complete my six miles though. The park isn't as full on weekdays anymore. I think this is a sign that people are slowly returning to work. Two of our local gaggle of geese have gone missing. I haven't seen them for almost two weeks now. It's hard to know if birds have died or just flown away. Sometimes they just disappear and I never see them again. I did see the Muscovy ducks though. These large ducks cover a lot of ground on the Eastern side of the lake and I never know where they will turn up. Sometimes I won't see then for weeks at a time, but they are always around somewhere.

I watched the CRS-22 resupply mission launch on the Space X live stream while I was eating lunch. Every time I see one of these launches I'm torn between wanting to return to Florida and wanting to avoid the state entirely until everyone gets their post-covid vacations out of their systems. Flights between Orlando and Dallas are packed right now. Rental cars are hard to find in Florida and everything is expensive. I'm thinking that it's probably a bad time to even think about attending launches. Communication has been poor with the magazine I write for as well. I'm not even sure if they are interested in me anymore.

With no travel plans on the horizon, I just took the trash out to the curb and am anticipating another uneventful Friday. I'm going to try my best to avoid yard work tomorrow. I'm still feeling tired and a bit sore.

Freckles is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4178

Janet took Dawn to her first training class this evening. I didn't go, because there isn't much point in going to a dog training class without a dog. Hopefully, Dawn will do well and enjoy the class. Some of our dogs loved the training classes and others didn't. Dash did very well at first and then grew bored with the class and became a poor student. Some of the exercises are done off leash and I was always nervous that Dash would run away. He was unpredictible that way. Dawn likes being around other dogs, so hopefully she will have a lot of fun.

Today might have been eventful for Dawn, but it was uneventful for me. Not a lot happened. It didn't rain today, but I didn't take advantage of the dry weather to do anything special. I fixed my smoothie while I watched the morning news. I checked my e-mail, hoping that there might be a message from NASA or the magazine I write for in London. Janet and I walked Dawn after she returned from the gym. And then I took my longer walk later in the day. I do these things every day. I really need to add a little variety to my routine.

One thing I didn't do today was practice using PixInsight or any of the other astrophotography processing software I'm trying to learn. I don't want to get burned out before I even get started on this somewhat difficult hobby. When I was working, I was reluctant to call things like writing, photography, and graphic design hobbies because I made money doing these things. Astronomy is clearly a hobby. I will never be an astronomer. I don't even understand what a lot of them do.

I think the cortisone shot the vet gave Dawn yesterday is working. She didn't lick or bite at her paws nearly as much today. I wish the cortisone shot would solve the problem, but it will only point us in the right direction. If allergies are the problem, we need to find out what Dawn is allergic to. We had Spot, our first Dalmatian, tested for allergies and it was a long, complicated process. It turned out he was allergic to almost everything.

I made good time on my long walk today. I can't figure out why I feel so different from one day to the next. Yesterday I could barely make it home. Today I actually had a spring in my step. Inconsistency bothers me. I would like everything to be consistent and predictable even though it never is. In an inconsistent world, I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I have a feeling that Dawn feels the same way. We should be best buddies. We share many of the same fears and are alike in many ways.

The little telescope I ordered has shipped and is on its way. When it arrives I will probably spend the day testing and learning how to use it. Then it will go back in a box until my next trip out to McDonald Observatory. I still haven't really mastered the star tracker I got for my last trip to the observatory. That's sitting in a box too. One problem is that you have to align the tracker with Polaris before it will track anything and you can't see the North Star from our house because there are too many trees in the way. This is just an excuse, but it's good enough for me. I'm definitely not dragging my equipment out into the park at night. 

This week has gone quickly. Pretty soon it will be my birthday again. Last year on my birthday we were right in the middle of a global pandemic. I guess we still are.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4177

We had to take Dawn to the vet today. She's been licking her paws so bad at night that we often see blood on the bedspread in the mornings. This behavior is relitively new and we're trying to figure out whether she has a medical problem or a behavior issue. The vet gave her a cortisone shot tonight. If this stops the licking, he says that there's a good chance the problem is allergies. If the cortisone shot works, we then need to figure out what she is allergic to. Is is a food allergy, an environmental allergy, or something else? Of course, the problem might have nothing to do with allergies. She might have a yeast infection under her nails. She might have severe anxiety problems. Too bad that dogs can't talk. This is going to be a long process to figure this out.

It didn't rain today, but that doesn't mean it was a nice day. It was overcast and cold for most of the day. There were ominous dark clouds that made it look like it could rain at any time. The grey day actually made it more pleasant to walk. I'll take a windy, overcast day over a hot, sweaty day anytime. Dawn seemed to like the weather. She's been much more adventurous lately. We went off in an entirely new direction today. Dawn seems to know her way around the neighborhood. Even thought the route we took today was new to her, she seemed to know the way home. It's good to see her confidence grow. It's too bad she wasn't as confident at the vet.

I ordered the little telescope I've had my eye on. Redcat 51 if you're interested. I'm determined to become a better astrophotographer. I've definitely got a long way to go. The main problem I'm facing is a lack of dark skies. The light pollution in Dallas is terrible and I don't feel safe out at night in the city anyway. This means I will probably continue making the long trip out to McDonald Observatory several times a year. Mount Locke is hard to beat. The skies are some of the darkest in the entire country and the Astronomer's Lodge is essentially a great little invitation only hotel with a fabulous chef right at the top of the mountain.

My walks are starting to get boring. I do them purely for exercise now. I guess I could add a little variety by walking on the other side of the lake, but it's hardly worth the trouble. The other side of the lake is familiar territory too. There must be a lot of people who do the same thing I do. I recognize a lot of dogs now and I've noticed that certain cars seem to be parked along the side of the road every single day. The ducks and geese always hang out together in small little groups. The Muscovy Ducks never mingle with the other ducks. The geese stick to themselves as well. The domesticated geese don't even mingle with the Canada Geese.

Dawn certainly seems calm now. I think she wore herself out at the vet. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.  I hope the cortisone shot works. I think allergies would be a little easier to deal with than anxiety. Hard to believe it is June already. Where has this year gone? I'll fix another smoothie tomorrow morning and take another long walk. I'm trying to think of another writing project, but I'm not having a lot of luck with the magazines right now. There's always bills to pay I guess. I paid a few more today.

Charlie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4176 - Memorial Day

Will this ever end? We had more rain today. This is the wettest Spring I can remember. The plants love it, but I don't think anyone else does. We got a lot of rain today, but still managed to find time to walk. Dawn's walk was completely dry, but I ended up cutting it pretty close on my own walk a little later. As soon as I completed my full six miles and returned to the house, the skies opened up and it started pouring. If I'd been walking just a little slower, I would have got soaked.

The park is a popular place for picnics and barbecues on Memorial Day. I was surprised at how many people stubbornly refused to give up in spite of the bad weather. There were makeshift tents and tarps erected over picnic tables. I saw one huge tarp that roofers often use to cover damaged roofs strung between several trees. The tarp not only covered a picnic table and a barbecue pit, it covered the owner's car as well. Nothing seemed to bother these people. The ground was wet and I could hear thunder in the distance, but the barbecues continued all over the park.

I think I've lost my mojo when it comes to fixing things. I have a waterproof iPhone case with a Gorilla Glass screen protector. One of the corners was loose, so I thought I'd fix it this morning. I carefully took the case apart and cleaned it. I found the problem. There was a broken post on the back of the case, so the corner screw on the front couldn't be tightened. I tried to super glue the broken part back together, but in the process a lot of other small parts started breaking or falling off. I tried to super glue these parts back together as well, but ended up losing one of them. I didn't align the post with the brass nut perfectly, so when I finally did attempt to reassemble the case, the screws on the front wouldn't align with the nuts inside the small posts in the back. I can't believe that I used to be able to fix watches. I was so clumsy that I ended up making a mess of the case. I thought the case company had gone out of business, but I managed to find a replacement on the Internet and ordered it. It must be coming from China, because the shipping charges were almost as much as the case.

The pumps on the roof aren't working very well, but I really don't want to climb up there and inspect them.  The weather is nasty and the roof gets slippery when it's wet. If I can't even fix an iPhone case, I don't want to risk fixing a pump on a slippery roof. Luckily, when I was just a little younger I made some pretty decent repairs to the roof. Even after all this rain, there have been no leaks.

We didn't get to visit the Dalmatians today. The kennel was closed for Memorial Day. The dogs were fine because kennel attendants still check on them several times a day to feed them and take them out to poop. The place just wasn't open to the public. Maybe when we visit next time the two dogs that have already been adopted will have gone to their forever homes.

Dawn has started licking her paws a lot. We don't know if this is a nervous habit or whether she is allergic to something outside. I thought she might have been bitten by fire ants, but there are no welts or sign of a bite on her paws. We found some socks that Dash used to wear when he had an injured paw, but they wouldn't fit on Dawn. Dash had really tiny feet for a Dalmatian. There is a big box of dog stuff at my storage warehouse. Dash had so many types of socks, shoes, and booties when his rear legs began to get weak and I may be able to find something for Dawn that might work. She needs to quit licking because her paws are already starting to get red and irritated.

According to the weather forecast, it is supposed to rain every day for the rest of the week. Not good. I hope the forecast is wrong. Enough is enough. I'm really getting sick of this rain.

Amy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4175

Another busy day. It's rare that I get two 20,000 step days in a row, but today was one of those days. The weather was pretty decent, so Dawn got her Sunday outing. She really likes the park we take her to on Sundays, but other places we've tried have been dismal failures. Dawn is a hard dog to figure out. I'm just glad when something works. We always get ice cream cones on Sunday. This time we remembered to bring towels so Dawn wouldn't get ice cream all over the car.

We finally got rid of all the dead Asian Jasmine in the back yard. We spent hours pulling the dead vines off our back fence, which looks pretty bare right now. Surprisingly, the Asian Jasmine that survived the big freeze is coming back strong. In a few years the yard will look just like it did before. This doesn't necessarily mean that the yard will look all that great. There are still several dead photinia trees, bare patches where the grass has died, and a half destroyed greenhouse that was damaged in one of our periodic windstorms.

I was tired after Dawn's Sunday outing and all the yard work, but I still took my long walk anyway. The park was surprisingly crowded today. It was probably the holiday weekend. Usually people stay away when the weather is cool and overcast. Now that crowds are returning everywhere, I'm starting to miss the lockdown. It was nice to fly on empty planes and drive on uncrowded roads. That's all over now. Everyone who has been waiting for an opportunity to gather together is making up for lost time.

I made another effort to understand PixInsight this afternoon. I watched the first four videos in a twelve part series called PixInsight for Total Beginners. The complex astrophotography processing software was still hard for me to understand. Photoshop was designed for and by visual people. PixInsight seems to have been designed by mathematicians. It's clear that the software can do some amazing things, but it's not intuitive at all. I still think that maybe I picked the wrong hobby.

It's difficult to learn things on your own. It's easy to go down a rabbit hole and become hopelessly lost. No wonder classes and clubs are popular. I seldom take classes. I'm too much of a loner. I flounder around and eventually figure out what I need to know on my own. I'm probably doing a lot of things backwards, but does it even matter? People sometimes ask why I use such an old version of Photoshop. My answer is always the same. I'm still discovering new things that CS5 will do.

I'm not sure whether we'll visit the Dalmatians tomorrow or not. The kennel might be closed for Memorial Day. It's hard for me to relate to this day. I've lived a long time and it still seems odd that I don't know a single person who died while in the military. All the people I knew from my parent's generation came back from World War II and Korea. Several people I knew in high school got sent to Vietnam and they all came back. I don't even know anyone who got sent to the Middle East during all the various Gulf Wars. A lot of people did die though. Were any of these wars even necessary? Maybe World War II, but the others accomplished nothing. I'm not a globalist. I guess I'm basically an isolationist at heart. We ought to make all our own stuff in our own factories and stay out of other people's business. 

Ollie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4174

It was a busy day for a lazy guy like me. I got my grocery shopping done right after breakfast and then I came home and mowed the grass. The grass was pretty thick, but I managed to get the job done before the mower's battery ran out. Everything looks surprisingly green this year. All this rain probably helps. After I finished mowing, I treated all the fire ant mounds that have started to appear in the yard. Hopefully, the Amdro powder does the trick. I think these ants are biting Dawn when she's outside. The yard actually looks pretty good now. It probably won't last long.

While I was grocery shopping, I noticed that there are no longer any mask mandates. Everyone still wears a mask though. I didn't see anyone in the two grocery stores I went to this morning without a mask, even though they weren't required. I go with the flow. If everyone else is wearing a mask, I'll wear one too. If people aren't wearing a mask, I won't wear one either. I never wear a mask outside though. That seemed silly even at the height of the pandemic. By the looks of things today, it's going to take a long, long time to return to normal. I think we've all forgotten what normal is.

Dawn is getting more adventurous. She went off in a different direction again on her walk today. She seems to know the way home, which is a good thing. I hope her new found curiosity continues. Exploring is a good thing for a dog. It probably isn't bad for people either. 

I waited a while today before taking my long walk. Mowing the lawn tired me out. When we first bought the house, I mowed the lawn with an old fashioned push mower. It seemed easy back then. Now, mowing is quite a chore. The electric mower isn't self propelled and I have to push it up and down hills. I used to have a self-propelled Yazoo gas mower, but it broke years ago. The gas mower was hard to start and broke frequently. The only problem I've had with the electric mower is dead batteries. It's much easier to buy a new battery than to haul the entire mower to a repair shop. I wonder if I'll feel the same way about electric cars someday. I hear they are pretty low maintenance too.

I walked the full six miles today, but I was very slow. I think my days of doing manual labor are numbered. On days where I have a lot of chores to do, I don't really feel like walking. I keep going though, because I know that if I ever quit, it will be very difficult to get started again. I watched my Dad become sedentary and I don't want it to happen to me. My plan for staying healthy is pretty simple. You've just got to keep moving.

The weather was a lot better today. There were clouds early in the day, but a lot of sunshine later. It was almost the opposite of the way it was yesterday. Tomorrow looks good as well. We'll probably take Dawn on a little outing again. She seems to like visiting a different park on Sundays. Maybe she just likes the ice cream.

Emmitt is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4173

Our weird weather continues. I saw the sun for a while this morning, but by mid-afternoon the sky was dark and I was hearing a lot of thunder. My schedule revolves around finding a time to walk these days. I usually manage to stay dry, but sometimes I end up cutting it pretty close.

While I was waiting for a good time to walk, I wrote a bunch of letters. I wrote the tree trimmer, thanking him for his estimate and told him that Janet and I still couldn't decide whether to remove the big Oak in the back yard or just trim it. I wrote SpaceFlight Magazine, asking them if there were any upcoming launches they particularly wanted to cover. I listed the launches I was interested in attending and am hoping that at least one of them will be something the magazine is interested in. I also wrote the observatory asking whether they were planning to continue their new photography night program. I heard back from the observatory in just a few hours with an affirmative answer. I think I'll probably be going back sometime this Fall. Maybe I'll get that little telescope I've had my eye on and take it with me.

Dawn seems to be getting more relaxed around me. We spend time in the back yard together every day when weather permits. She is very relaxed in the back yard with me and reasonably relaxed when we are napping on the bed together. The kitchen is still a problem though. I have a feeling that this is not going to change. 

The training class that we used to take Dot and Dash to has opened up again. It's another sign that Covid restrictions are over. Janet has decided that training will be good for Dawn and has enrolled her in a beginner's class. I'm not sure whether I'll go along or not. I used to train Dash while Janet trained Dot. There's not much point in going to the class without a dog. Dawn might do better in class without me around anyway, since I tend to make her nervous. I'm real curious to see how Dawn will do in this class. She really seems to want to be around other dogs.

The sky was already starting to look dark by the time we got around to walking this afternoon. Dawn was adventurous today and ventured off on a new route she hadn't tried before. She enjoyed smelling things and ended up walking much further than her normal one mile loop. It's encouraging to see her try new things.

We stayed dry on Dawn's walk but I had a feeling that I might get wet on my own longer walk. I continued walking anyway, checking the weather radar on my phone from time to time. For a while I thought I might be able to complete my regular six mile route until I started hearing thunder. I never saw any lightning, but the thunder was very loud. There must have been cloud to cloud lightning high overhead. I headed home expecting to get wet, but only experienced a few light sprinkles. I kept seeing heavy rain falling off in the distance and somehow managed to make it home before it arrived. It wasn't a great walk, but I managed to get enough steps to keep Mr. Fitbit happy.

I thought about mowing the grass today but it was still too wet. Some of my neighbors were mowing their grass, but they had gas mowers. My electric mower just isn't powerful enough to cut through wet grass. I hope we get some dry weather soon. The grass is growing fast and pretty soon it will be too tall to mow. 

It's time to make a grocery list again. I'm glad I got new windshield wipers because it looks like I'll be doing my shopping in the rain. This has been an unusually wet Spring. It probably means that we will have an unusually dry Summer.

Sam is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4172

Some days I just stare at the screen and wonder what to write about. I don't like to write about politics or current events and there is only so much you can say about the weather. My routine is fairly predictable and often boring. You already know about my morning smoothie and my long daily walks. I spend hours at the computer every day, but I don't work anymore so it is unclear what I am actually doing. The blog doesn't really have an audience anymore, although it still seems important to reach my 5000 day goal. 

Lately, I've been waiting until I hear Dawn eating her breakfast to get out of bed. She's a noisy eater, so this kind of serves as my alarm clock. I don't want to spook Dawn by coming out to the kitchen while she is eating. She's such a nervous dog that this will often make her quit eating entirely. Every dog we've had has caused me to make changes in my routine. With Dawn the changes have been much more frequent.

I always make the bed when Janet takes Dawn outside to pee after her breakfast. I have to work fast because I know that she will come running back to the bedroom and hop on the bed whether I've finished making it or not. This is where she stays for most of the morning. I'll take her outside on a leash from time to time because I know that she likes being outdoors. She won't take the initiative to go outside on her own though. I've even left the back door open, but all this accomplishes is letting more mosquitos inside.

I waste a lot of time researching my next equipment purchase. Sometimes it's cars I'm interesting in. Other times it's camera gear. Lately, I've gotten interested in small, very portable telescopes. I learn a lot while I'm doing this. It's mostly useless knowledge, but the quest does keep me busy. I'm wondering why Sky & Telescope didn't like my proposal about an article on the trend toward alt-azimuth imaging and tracking. I've learned a lot about the subject while researching telescopes and find it interesting.

I'm not looking forward to summer. I got hot on my walk today and the temperature wasn't even that bad. I"m trying to remember what I used to do in the summer. I walked Dot and Dash around sunset a lot. I used to walk Spot after dark, but Dallas was a lot safer then. I'd never do that now. One way or another, I'm going to have to deal with summer. It's getting hotter every day.

One of these days I'm going to need to finish unpacking from my trip to the observatory. The camera gear still needs to be unpacked and returned to it's usual place. A little voice in my head keeps asking why it is necessary to do this. If I go on another trip, I will have to gather all the gear together again and put it back in the travel case.

I've taken this week's trash to the curb and am ready to start a new week. It's hard to believe it's almost June. I'll celebrate another birthday soon and will find myself even older. I've only recently started thinking of myself as old. My mind still feels young, but my body tells me otherwise.

Libby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4171

Today seemed like the first day of summer. It was hot, but not too hot. The sky was blue with a few puffy white clouds. It was still too wet to do yardwork, but it was a nice day for walking. We walked Dawn early today because Janet has a volunteer job on Wednesdays. Dawn didn't mind the change in schedule. She's walking pretty normal now. After we finished our one mile loop, I came back to the house with Dawn and Janet. It was way too early for my long walk.

I spent the rest of the morning practicing processing another image I took out at the observatory earlier this month. What I'm discovering is that  my in-camera noise reduction is actually better than the complicated procedures for reducing noise in my astrophotography software. I have a feeling that I'm doing something wrong, but maybe the easy way is better after all.

I noticed today that McDonald Observatory has started having a photography night once a month. That's all I need is another excuse to go back to the mountain. I haven't even paid my bills for this month's trip yet. I don't think I'll be going back in June. It's a nice idea though. There are no workshops or classes associated with these photography nights. You just get access to the mountain at a reasonable price. If the observatory continues having these monthly photography nights, maybe I'll go back in the Fall

If I go back to Mount Locke in the Fall it will give me an excuse to get the little telescope I've had my eye on. Somehow a return to West Texas seems more appealing than going to Florida right now. I just wish that the drive wasn't so long and that there was a guarantee of good weather when I got there. My batting average for good weather is not so good.

By the time I took my long walk the temperature was in the high 80's. It wasn't too bad, but I was definitely sweating by the time I returned home. This was just a taste of what's to come. I'm not sure how well I'll handle the heat this summer. It seems worse every year. Maybe the summer heat will provide the incentive I need to finally return to the gym. My gym has a nice indoor track and the place is air conditioned. Walking around an indoor track is boring, but so is my walk. I've been following the same route for far too long.

I keep hoping that Dawn will bond with me on afternoons when Janet is away. I almost got her to follow me to the kitchen this afternoon for some cheese, but she lost her nerve in the hallway and ran back to the bedroom. She likes to go out in the back yard on nice days, but she won't go on her own. I have to lead her outside on a leash. I take the leash off at the back door and she's fine outside. I sit on a bench while she lies on the grass. She'll frequently come over to me on the bench and let me pet her. Everything seems normal when we're outside. As soon as we go back inside, she runs back to the bedroom. It's all a giant mystery to me.

I was going to program my new camera with some custom settings today, but I never got around to it. There are four custom menus that allow you to preload settings you commonly use for different situations. I could have a dog picture menu, a night sky menu, a portrait menu, and a nature photography menu. This might actually be useful. I'll probably never do it though. I've never learned the full capabilities of any of my digital cameras. I just pretend that they are an old Nikon F2 and stick to the basics.

I missed the eclipse of the moon early this morning. I got up early and went outside to look, but the skies were completely cloudy. Our nice summer day didn't begin until much later in the morning. 

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4170

We've had every type of weather imaginable today. Pounding rain, high humidity, pleasant breezes, a little sunshine: take your pick. The heavy rain came early and it was relentless. It overwhelmed the pumps on the roof, but luckily the roof still didn't leak. In my younger days I would have climbed up on the roof during a dry spell and unclogged the pumps, but I'm just not up to it anymore. The roof will have to wait.

I'm going to have to come up with an alternative to watching television while I eat breakfast. Not only is the news unrelentingly depressing, the commercials are even worse. I seem to see the same seven mindless commercials over and over again. Most of them are for pharmaceutical products that will probably end up killing you in the long run. Even the business channels have gotten weird. I'm tired of hearing about bitcoin and non-fungible tokens. Nobody really understands these things, but everyone has a story about someone who got wealthy by buying or selling them. Young people seem to love bitcoin, but today's blockchain millionaires seem a lot like the Dutch tulip moguls of the 1600's. I'm old, so gold, boring blue chip stocks, and old Perry Mason movies make more sense to me.

I had to change the sheets today, which is always difficult with Dawn. It takes me a long time to make the bed now with a bad shoulder and weak knees. I usually try to make the bed while Dawn is eating breakfast, but when I'm changing the sheets I can never get finished in time. When Dawn finishes her breakfast she runs back to the bedroom and hops on the bed again. It doesn't matter to her whether the bed is made of not. I could shoo her away easy enough, but I don't want to make her even more fearful of me. I usually just let Dawn sleep on the bed until Janet returns from the gym for lunch and then Dawn goes out to the kitchen again. I eventually got the job done today, but it never used to take this long.

The more I hear about the post-pandemic surge in travel, the more hesitant I become to even try to return to Kennedy Space Center. There are plenty of launches this year, but hotel prices are rising rapidly, rental cars are scarce, flights are full, and everyone is encouraged to plan ahead. You can't really plan ahead with rocket launches. The dates are always changing. Maybe I'm just making excuses, but this doesn't seem like as much fun as it used to be. I'll be glad when everyone has taken their post-pandemic vacation and life returns to normal.

My long walk was certainly normal today. The skies had cleared, my foot wasn't bothering me, and I managed to complete my full six miles. It was still humid outside, but there was a nice breeze and I felt comfortable. There weren't a lot of people out today because of the recent rain and I pretty much had the park to myself. I like days like this. Even all the ducks were in their regular places, so they were easy to count.

I stopped taking famotidine last week because I thought I was taking too much of the heartburn medication. Bad move. Now, everything seems to give me heartburn. Even my breakfast smoothie gave me problems this morning. I always expect that my doctor will provide a solution to problems like this when I go in for a physical exam. He never does. I complain about feeling tired and having heartburn and he checks my vital signs and tells me how healthy I am. My blood work and EKG were perfect this time. So why do I feel so tired? If I made an effort to be vegan, I probably wouldn't have heartburn at all. Unfortunately, I love spicy food and have very little willpower about eating.

There's going to be an eclipse of the moon early tomorrow morning but I suspect that I will miss it. The forecast predicts cloudy weather with a chance of rain. The moon will be near the horizon anyway, which makes viewing difficult even on a good day. I"ll probably have to wait until I get back to West Texas to enjoy the night sky again.

Ranger is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4169

There are still four Dalmatians up at the kennel. Aries name has been changed to Millie, which is probably a better name for her anyway. Two of the four have adoptions pending, but I don't think they'll be going to their new homes until June. This is a great group of dogs. They are healthy, happy, and have great personalities. Janet and I have enjoyed getting to know them this Spring. Hopefully all four will find their forever homes very soon.

When is this rain ever going to end? It didn't rain all day today, but it certainly was another wet and dismal day. I'm getting tired of this. We don't have a set schedule for walking anymore. We just try to go out when the weather radar says it's going to be dry for a little while. Dawn got her walk before we left for the kennel and I split my own walk into two shorter walks after we returned home. There wasn't enough time between storm cells to walk very far today, but I did manage to get at least 10,000 steps. There is rain in the forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday as well. It's enough to make me want to forget about exercising for a while and just take a very long nap.

Sky & Telescope isn't interested in the new article I proposed. The letter I got from my editor was nice enough, but it was clear that the magazine just wasn't interested. I'm having trouble coming up with an interesting astronomy article. When I went out to the observatory last October, I thought an article about astrophotography was a sure bet. Unfortunately, it's becoming increasingly clear that I don't really know that much about the subject. There are thousands of amateur astronomers who know much more than I do. and could probably write a better article or tutorial. I am learning a lot though. It just takes time. Maybe I just got ahead of myself.

I hope my budding career as a space and astronomy journalist isn't short lived. It's beginning to seem that way. Spaceflight Magazine doesn't seem as interested in further launch stories either.  I can't really blame them. Unless I can find a way to get interviews and establish an interesting back story for some of these launches, any article I write is going to be more or less the same. I go to Florida, follow an Air Force liaison to the designated viewing location, and watch a rocket disappear into the sky. Five minutes after the launch, it's all over. From four miles away, all these rockets look the same. Where is the story here? It was a lot more interesting when NASA put on special events for social media influencers. We got to go behind the scenes and see some amazing things that people seldom get access to. Covid put an end to all that. Even if NASA resumes the program at some point, I'm not really an influencer anymore. I think I'm basically writing a blog for twelve people these days.

Why am I still interested in astrophotography? Processing the pictures to bring out hidden details has been much more difficult than I anticipated. I don't feel safe going out after dark in Dallas either. There are too many stories about people getting robbed in the park. It's kind of weird that I have to drive 500 miles to a remote mountain in West Texas before I feel safe being alone outside at night. There are Mountain Lions out in West Texas, but these animals don't seem nearly as threatening as people. All that being said, I still might buy a small telescope this year. I do like learning how to use new gear.

It's going to be a long week if this rain doesn't clear up. At least the roof isn't leaking. I actually must have done a pretty good job of patching things up earlier in the year.

Ziggy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4168

Dawn got her special outing today. It wasn't a clear day, but it wasn't raining either. We thought we'd take her someplace new, but the strange surroundings scared her and we got back in the car and went back to her usual Sunday park. What a dfifference. Dawn would hardly move at the new location, but she bounded out of the car and immediately began smelling things when we returned to our regular Sunday park. This park was new to Dawn at one point too, but I don't know how much new Dawn can handle. Of course we got ice cream cones on the way home. Even though it was a gray and somewhat dismal day, I think Dawn really enjoyed herself.

I took a short nap when we returned home and then I went walking again. I could be doing other things, but walking still seems the best way to fill an otherwise uneventful day. I daydream a lot when I walk. I seldom think about serious things. I plan future trips. I think about what kind of car I'd like to buy next. I count ducks, And I wonder what the neighbors are doing. Sometimes these walks are tiring. Other times they are boring. They always beat mowing the lawn though.

I had to do some website updates today and I couldn't figure out why my changes weren't showing up in my browser. I uploaded the new pages several times and still kept seeing the old site. It finally occurred to me that I needed to clear my cache files. When I refreshed my browser, it was just reloading the old site that was already in the browser cache. Problem solved. I vaguely wondered why I don't always have to do this. I probably used to know the answer, but my web development skills are fading fast.

I watched a YouTube tutorial titled "Getting started with PixInsight" this afternoon. I thought if I understood the basics of this complex program, I might actually get some use out of it. This video was supposed to be for beginners, but it still seemed very complex to me. It was hard for me to stay interested. Things that were easy and intuitive in Photoshop required ten mysterious steps here. I still don't even understand the PixInsight menu. It baffles me that a lot of people love this program. Maybe I picked the wrong hobby. I've been taking photographs for the better part of my life. You'd thing this would be easy, but astrophotography has been a struggle for me.

I'm getting bitten by mosquitos inside the house. Where did these things come from? Mosquitos seem unusually bad this year. It must be all the moisture. I'm starting to see lots of ants too. I guess it's that time of year. Where can you go where the weather is pleasant and there are no bugs? Bugs are everywhere. There were moths inside the Astronomer's Lodge. When I go to rocket launches in Florida I always get bitten by bugs. I always get the most powerful insect repellent I can find and the bugs don't even care.

I still haven't finished unpacking from my trip. The clothing has all been washed and put away, but there's still a lot of equipment I need to deal with. I took the star tracker apart and put it back in it's box today. That's a start. Now I've got a case I can use for pet photography again. Maybe I'll deal with the rest of the camera equipment next weekend. I doubt that I'm going to be using it any time soon.

Tomorrow we visit the rescue Dalmatians again. It only seems like a few days have passed since we saw them last week. Where has the time gone? We are almost halfway through 2021 and it still seems like the year is just getting started. Covid has changed everything. I'm so used to doing nothing that it's starting to seem normal.

Willie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4167

I'm a terrible shopper. When I went to the grocery store, Janet wanted me to get her some cream cheese and showed me the tub it came in. All I remembered was the tub and came home with a tub of sour cream instead. I actually saw cream cheese on the shelf next to the sour cream, but it came in a little foil wrapped brick. That couldn't possibly be right. I was looking for something in a little plastic tub.

Our rainy weather continues. There were plenty of dry periods between the showers today. I had no trouble finding time to walk, but it's still pretty wet outside. It's actually raining right now. We had been planning on doing some yard work last week so we could throw away the debris on bulky trash day. The trash pickup got delayed, but we never found a dry enough day to trim the bushes and get rid of the rest of the dead Asian Jasmine. Oh, well. There's always next month.

I updated my company website today and then decided that the update didn't make any sense and didn't bother to upload it. Somehow this wasted effort still seemed more productive than editing more Milky Way pictures. I think I'm burned out on astrophotography for a while. Maybe there's gold hidden away in the images I took out at the observatory last week, but it's been very hard mining it. I'll wait a while before  I resume this activity. I should have learned from last time. After my first astrophotography workshop I didn't even look at the pictures for almost a month. I think the wait allowed what I'd learned to slowly seep into my brain, because when I finally opened the files, everything clicked together fairly quickly.

I thought I'd get wet on my long walk today, but the occasional drizzle kept me cool instead. It's been really humid lately and if the sun was out I would have been miserable. It was a nice day for a walk, but there was no spring in my step today. I was really slow. My feet bothered me a little, but that wasn't the real problem. I was just tired. I shouldn't have been tired. I actually got more sleep than usual. I guess I'm just getting old. For every good day there are usually three bad days. 

I still think I need to stay active. Without ongoing activity and a certain amount of effort I probably wouldn't even be able to get out of bed. I hate to think what the aches and pains are going to be like five years from now. We'll see. I wonder how long I can keep walking six miles a day?

Dawn had a good day. Even though the ground is still soggy, she seems to have overcome her fear of getting her paws wet and is walking well. She was very enthusiastic about her little one mile loop this afternoon. Her appetite has definitely returned. For a while we were worried about a hesitancy to eat, but she devours her meals now. Dawn is fine. I think we just worry too much.

I went out and got a pizza for dinner. Even though pizza is absolutely the worst offender in the heartburn department, I still enjoy a slice now and then. All my favorite foods like spaghetti and chili give me heartburn. It's a shame. I try to eat sensibly, but I'd hate to be limited to a bland diet for the rest of my life. Spice is nice. For now, there's always Pepcid, but it's probably not a good idea to take too much famotidine either. 

I hope it's not raining tomorrow. Dawn missed her ice cream outing last Sunday because of rain. It would be a shame to miss this again. Hard to believe that it's been raining almost continually for an entire week, but that's the way it is in May. Pretty soon I'll be complaining about how hot and dry it is.

Rosco is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4166

There were scattered showers today, but not enough rain to change any plans. Not that I had any plans, mind you. It was such an uneventful day that it's hard to remember if I did anything at all. It's still too wet to do yard work, which is kind of a blessing. I'm not in the mood to do yard work at all. Mostly I just puttered around the house until it was time for my long walk.

You know the routine by now. I made the bed, fixed my morning smoothie, and watched the world fall apart on cable news. After breakfast I checked my messages and practiced processing some more astrophotography images. Today's efforts were a little more successful. I've been working with the same image for several days now and each day it comes out looking a little different. I still did one thing wrong today, so I might have to try this one more time before I move on to the next image.

Dawn was eager to walk today. She even branched off in a new direction, which kind of startled Janet and I. Instead of sticking to her normal path, she ventured down to the shoreline and had a great time smelling things. I thought she might be lost for a while, but at the appropriate time she turned away from the lake and headed back up the hill toward home. If this wasn't Dawn, you wouldn't give this kind of behavior a second thought. Seeing Dawn happy and curious was a big deal to us. She just seemed like a normal dog out for a walk on a Spring day.

As always, I continued walking after Dawn and Janet returned to the house. There was a nice breeze and it was mostly overcast, so I didn't get too hot. My feet didn't bother me too much today, so all was well. If I weren't so lazy, I'd take the car and go somewhere different to walk. It's a nice big park though and I don't mind seeing the same things day after day. At this time of year there are always new wildflowers to identify and lots and lots of ducks. Just about all the wildflowers have appeared by now and the fields and meadows are filled with color. This would be the perfect time of year in Dallas if it didn't rain so much.

The little sensor that monitors our electric lines sent a message to my watch saying that our Internet had gone out while I was out on my walk. Hmm. I didn't know that this thing monitored the Internet too. I called Janet to see if we'd had a power outage and she said everything was fine. It turned out that the only thing that was faulty was the sensor itself. Maybe I'll quit using this thing. It's supposed to help prevent electrical fires, but I'm still not sure if it does anything at all.

I got an invitation to apply for media credentials to attend the Boeing Starliner launch in late July. Do I try to go to this one, or the Falcon Heavy STP-3 launch at the end of June? There's also the Space X Inspiration 4 private mission later this Fall along with the first Starship orbital flight and hopefully Artemis-1 as well. That's a lot of activity and I can probably only afford to attend one of these launches. I'm not even sure I'll get approved to attend any. I've got to remain optimistic though. I've managed to get four articles about launch activities at Kennedy Space Center published, so at least in my own mind I'm a legitimate journalist.

I got a bag of ice from the grocery store, so I can postpone calling the appliance repairman for a while. I don't think I can postpone mowing the grass though. It's really been growing fast with all this wet weather. We'll see how the weekend goes. One way or another, I"m sure I'll be doing a lot of chores.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day