Day 4404

Dawn got a bath today. I hate to say that this was the big event of the day, but it probably was. None of our dogs have liked getting a bath. They seem so disappointed when we arrive at the self bathing place instead of a park or the ice cream store. Dawn acted like we were torturing her but seemed happy enough as soon as she was dry again. I guess if a bath is the worst thing Dawn has to look forward to, she's doing pretty well.

My long walks keep getting slower and slower. On a good day it takes me about nineteen minutes to walk a mile. Today it took thirty. My feet were terrible today, but I kept plodding along. I just can't bring myself to stop walking. It has become an integral part of my day. If I went to the gym and did other exercises, my shoulders would hurt instead. I'm not even sure these slow walks do me any good. It still beats staying in the house or driving somewhere though.

I think I was wrong about the Fitbit draining my phone's battery. I've disconnected both Fitbit trackers and the battery still doesn't last very long. It's probably time for a new phone, but I like my small iPhone SE. There used to be several nearby stores where I could get the battery replaced, but they have either gone out of business or quit offering the service. I liked it when the local Interstate Battery store used to change phone batteries while you wait. It was quick and much less expensive than the Apple Store. It's too bad I can't change the battery myself but you need special tools to remove the glass. Fixing a computer is much easier. I'm clumsy with small things.

I watched the last episode of The Expanse this afternoon. I never would have guessed that this was the end of the series if I hadn't already read about it online. I'm pretty sure that Amazon is finished with this series, but the final episode was certainly inconclusive. I want to know more about those strange dog like creatures on one of the ring worlds that can bring people back from the dead.

I continued my efforts to fix small things around the house. Today I took apart the shower nozzle and cleaned out all the scale and calcium deposits. Maybe now I can adjust the shower spray again. Our city water leaves a lot to be desired. I wish we could just get distilled water from the tap. I always use distilled water for the coffee maker and I've never had to clean it.

I was going to practice using the star tracker again today but the day got away from me. I really didn't anticipate my walk taking such a long time. Today's walk should have been enjoyable because the weather was so nice. Tomorrow it's supposed to get much colder again. I need to order the Hoka boots even though I suspect they won't make any difference. I suspect that a new battery won't really improve my phone's performance either. Apple doesn't support their old products anymore. Actually nobody supports old products. They just want you to buy new stuff.

I got an invitation to attend an upcoming Space Force launch at Kennedy Space Center at the end of the month. I'm not going though. Covid restrictions have kind of ruined travel for me. I don't feel like going anywhere until this whole mess is over with. If I can't get a handle on my foot pain, I might not feel like going anywhere period. The whole idea of volunteering for a week out at the observatory seems a lot less appealing than it did this time last year.

At least I've got my routine. Tomorrow is grocery day again. Maybe I can finally find my favorite ginger ale. Sunday is Dawn's outing and Monday we visit the rescue Dalmatians. One little event each day is plenty. I just need to stay busy enough to avoid raking leaves.

Kasey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4403

Today I tried to solve small problems. I fixed the problematic French toilet in one of the bathrooms. This is always a bigger job than you might expect because this toilet doesn't use any of the parts you would normally find inside a standard toilet. Some of these parts are impossible to find, so I have to take everything apart and carefully clean it. I was actually able to salvage the expensive plastic valve, so I didn't have to make a trip to the plumbing supply store. The toilet is still on its last legs, but it doesn't run anymore.

With one loathsome task out of the way, I embarked on an even more loathsome task. I cleaned out the atrium. The atrium is almost impossible to access because the huge sliding glass door that provides entry to this space had been jammed for several years. The original idea was to have a pleasant indoor/outdoor space where the atrium actually becomes part of the living room on nice days. I don't know what the architect was thinking. There aren't many nice days here in Texas.

I'm always apprehensive about trying to pry the jammed door open enough for me to squeeze through a small 12 inch opening. What if the door becomes even more jammed and I can't get it closed again. That would be really bad news. Today I had to open the sliding glass door a little wider than usual because I had to squeeze a ladder through the opening so I could knock down some mud dauber nests. The wasps had made the nests right on the glass during the Summer and they've been an eyesore ever since.

The atrium looks great now. I removed all the wasp nests. Swept the flagstone floor. And attached some string hanging from the roof beams to the Japanese Black Bamboo growing in the garden area to train the plants to grow vertical again. I even cleaned the glass windows and removed all the leaves that had gotten inside. I still don't know how leaves get inside this space. There is a roof and all the sides are enclosed.

I unpaired my new Fitbit from my phone to see if that was what was draining the phone's battery. So far, so good. The battery seems to be lasting a lot longer. I'm using the old Fitbit again and starting to wonder why I even bought the new fancier model. The phone's battery had been going dead overnight with the new Fitbit, so we'll see what happens tonight. If the problem has been solved, I may take the new Fitbit back to the store tomorrow and try to get a refund. It seems pretty clear to me that it is defective.

The weather was beautiful today but it was hard to enjoy my walks because of the foot pain. I don't know why I'm even attempting to get steps anymore. My Fitbit doesn't even work. I took my time today and somehow still managed to get 20,000 steps. I didn't see the eagle today, but the park did look pretty. The sky was so clear that I momentarily thought about getting a telescope out and watching the stars tonight. That never materialized. Here I am writing the blog instead. It's a shame the skies aren't darker here. Winter skies are fabulous and there is a wealth of interesting stuff to see just in the constellation Orion. 

The trash has been taken to the curb and I actually feel like I accomplished something today. If I had the energy to do this ten days in a row, the house might actually start looking a little better. 

Taylor is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4402

I saw the bald eagle again today. I'm always surprised at how large these birds are. Hey, I may become a birder yet. I enjoy watching birds on my walk. I don't see the eagle very often, but looking for it helps to pass the time. I probably shouldn't have walked as far as I did today. My feet were really bothering me. I'd hate to give up walking, but I may have to for a while. The foot pain keeps getting worse.

The weather was really nice today, but I had no desire to rake leaves or clean up the yard. I really had no desire to do anything. I sent out another query letter with vague hopes of getting a writing job. I read some of the new comments about the Polaris star tracker on the user group, but didn't get mine out of the box. My project for today was trying to figure out why my new Fitbit was draining my phone's battery so quickly. Lots of people seem to be having this problem, but it didn't appear that the company has a fix. Maybe I'll just go back to using my old Fitbit. I think it still works.

The problematic French toilet is starting to run again. There is a little plastic valve that I have to replace a lot and I suspect that this is the problem again. Why does this tiny piece of flexible plastic cost over $20 at a plumbing supply store? I should probably just replace the entire toilet with a Toto, which all the plumbers seem to like. I really get tired of fixing things, but stuff always breaks. I would be willing to pay much more for something if it was guaranteed to last forever.

Even on days with nothing to do, there is always vacuuming. I vacuumed the carpets this afternoon and kept wondering why we got the Dyson. These things are so hard to clean properly. I liked our old Hoover better. All the dust just went into a paper bag that you threw away when it got full. I think seeing all the dust spinning around in the Dyson's clear plastic cylinder is just a marketing gimmick to convince you that your house is filthy and needs frequent vacuuming.

I've had a runny nose for so long that I occasionally wonder if I've got Covid. It's easy to forget that I always have seasonal allergies at this time of year with all the hype about Covid. Pretty soon, everything will just turn into Covid. Broken arm? Nope, you've got Covid. Indigestion? That's got to be a new Covid variant. I'm getting tired of the whole thing. 

Janet said that Dawn did well at training class tonight. I don't go to these classes anymore, but I'm glad that Dawn is starting to enjoy them. Inch by inch she is slowly becoming less fearful and starting to act like a normal dog. Give her another year or so and she might even start to like me. Actually, Dawn has warmed up to me quite a bit, but she still doesn't completely trust me. Dawn is a smart dog. Maybe I'm just not trustworthy.

Hopefully, I'll find something interesting to write about tomorrow. Today's post was just a bunch of blather.

Suzie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4401

The days just blur together lately. Is it Sunday or Tuesday? Often it's hard to tell. I get up at the same time and do the same things day after day. I'm not complaining, because nothing is preventing me from doing something different. What would I do differently though? That is the big question.

Today I wrote a letter to my sister and sent a couple of query letters off to editors. I kind of wish my sister would get on the Internet. This is the only physical letter I write anymore and the only reason I have to go to the post office. It does save on stamps though. A roll of stamps lasts me a really long time now.

Now that I've figured out how to use the star tracker, it just sits in the box. I really should take this thing outside and put it to the test. Too bad that West Texas is so far away. I miss my time at the observatory. Astrophotography in Dallas certainly has its limitations. Our back yard is way too bright with streetlights in the alley plus our own bright security lights. Exposures in the front yard would be ruined by the headlights of passing cars on our busy street. 

I always worry that a drunk driver will come crashing through our front yard as well. It has happened before. Would you believe it has happened three times before. If the world was a nicer place the obvious solution would be to just drive to a nice dark area and set everything up. I've lost my nerve for that sort of activity though. The local news provides plenty of valid reasons to just stay home at night.

Luckily, I still feel safe when the sun is up. Long walks give a nice structure to my life. It's hard to fault walking. It's great exercise and provides plenty of time for reflective thinking. I often do my best thinking on my daily walks. Only a small percentage of my ideas ever turn into anything tangible, but I can tell that my mind is still working. It's hard to tell if your mind is working when you're home and the television is on.

I'm thinking that my experiences with the star tracker would make a nice, humorous article for Sky and Telescope. There aren't many humorous articles in the magazine though and anything I'd write would probably just make me look stupid. All I'm saying is that some of the other Kickstarter backers figured this thing out a lot faster than I did. Hey, I gave the idea a try though. We'll see what my editor thinks.

I really need to order the Hoka boots. They might not cure my foot pain, but they probably won't make it any worse. I've pretty much concluded that these boots aren't going to be available in local stores. I probably haven't done anything yet because I'm irritated at the Hoka company. Now that I've visited their website and looked at shoes they send me mail every day trying to get me to buy something else. Why won't companies just leave you alone?  They are never satisfied and are relentless about trying to sell you more. I get mail from Samsung now after we bought the new TV. Hey guys, I'm never going to buy an Android phone. Every new purchase adds to the continual barrage of promotional mail you get every day. How did we get here? I've spent most of my working life in advertising and I was never this relentless.

I used to look forward to the future, but now I'm nostalgic about the past. I'm convinced that we are headed in the wrong direction. Maybe I should write a book about how civilization is going to end in 300 years. It would never get published though. I'm not a historian. I'm not an economist. I'm not even a pundit. You've got to have credentials these days.

Pepper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4400

Every 100 days I feel a little closer to my goal. Only 600 days left. As daily blog entries go, today was a good one. We met Jack this afternoon at the Dalmatian kennel. What a wonderful dog. Jack is good looking, has a great personality, and is smart as a whip. Janet and I had fun trying out different commands with him. He knew everything. Jack can sit, stay, lie down, and give you a high five with his paw. He comes to his name when he is called and even heels on a leash remarkably well. We couldn't think of anything he didn't already know. I would have loved to take Jack home myself, but we don't have the energy or the money for more than one dog anymore. Jack is definitely a keeper though. I'm sure he will find a fabulous forever home.

Today was pretty busy. In addition to visiting with Jack, Charlie, and Oliver, I finally took the Christmas stuff back to the storage warehouse and picked up a few things I forgot on Saturday at the grocery store. Dawn got a nice sunrise walk and it wasn't even terribly cold this morning. I should have quit while I was ahead on the walking front, but I stubbornly took my long walk anyway after we returned from the kennel. My feet weren't being cooperative today and it was pretty windy as well. Not a very enjoyable walk, but I did manage to get 20,000 steps.

I did absolutely nothing with the star tracker today. I need a rest. If I was really ambitious I could have taken it outside tonight and tried to actually track something. It was a clear night so it might have worked. I find it difficult to do more than one thing in an evening though, and usually that thing is writing the blog. When I'm out at the observatory it's worth staying up really late to write the blog after my stargazing is finished. Not here in Dallas. The light pollution makes the viewing experience so miserable that it's not even worth the trouble to go outside. I'm sure I'll use the star tracker and eventually take many more pictures of the night sky. There is no hurry though. One thing at a time is my motto.

A guy wrote me out of the blue today and said he'd like to buy our house if we ever decided to sell. Strangely, this happens every five or six years. These people aren't your normal real estate investors. They are architecture buffs who already seem to know a lot about the house and its semi-famous architect. Janet and I have no interest in selling, but it's nice to know that there are people out there who are actually interested in preserving the house instead of scraping it so they could build another ugly McMansion. Dallas as a city had no respect for architecture at all. A lot of really nice examples of mid-fifties houses and commercial buildings have already been torn down.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. If I hadn't already been to the orthopedic surgeon twice about my feet, I'd make an appointment. There really isn't a lot I can do about the foot pain. Bone on bone contact is always going to hurt. I could take steroid shots which a terrible thing to do long term, or I could try a wide variety of pain killers. I'm not a fan of pain killers. Some pills are fine. Taking Benicar to lower your blood pressure is fine. Taking Metformin to lower your A1C is fine. I'm not to sure about pills that just mask a condition rather than actually changing anything. A little pain is useful to show you your limits.

Dawn is back to normal now. We may never know what she ate that gave her diarrhea, but we're going to be watching her more closely now. There's way too much poop from a wide variety of animals to tempt her in the park.

Dolly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4399

Another cold Winter day. If I could have slept all day, I would have. No rest for the weary though. We got up early, took Dawn on a sunrise walk and were relieved to see that her poop has almost returned to normal. The pills the vet gave her definitely helped. It was very foggy this morning and there was a light mist in the air. Dawn always enjoys smelling things, but I think she was glad to return to a warm house.

On weekends we have a real breakfast. Today we had bacon and eggs with toast. It's a nice change from the shredded wheat I've been eating the rest of the week. After breakfast, I checked my e-mail and read all the new entries on the Polaris forum. I'm glad the other Kickstarter backers seem willing to share what they've learned. I don't think I'd have a clue about how to operate the star tracker if I were on my own. 

Since the weather was dismal and we knew the ground would be wet, we decided to take Dawn to a different park today where we wouldn't get muddy. We walked on paved sidewalks today. Dawn was initially excited at all the new things to smell, but she quickly became worried when she realized that she didn't know where she was. It doesn't take much to get Dawn in a panic. Being lost isn't one of her favorite things. She started to freeze in place like she used to do months ago. The only way we could get her back to the car was for Janet to walk out ahead of Dawn and me. Dawn didn't want to let Janet out of her sight, so she followed her back to the car. Everything ended well though. We still went to Andy's for ice cream and by the time we returned to the house, Dawn was a happy camper again.

I still took my long walk today, but this was not an easy one. The temperature was actually colder than when we walked Dawn at sunrise and the wind had picked up a lot. My feet hurt more today as well. Not surprisingly, there weren't a lot of people out on the trails. Even the ducks looked cold today. I've noticed something new in the park recently. The city has installed placards with a QR code on a lot of the park signage. If you scan this code with your phone it will bring up a map that shows you exactly where you are. I have so many questions. Who gets lost in a city park anyway? I can't imagine anyone really getting lost in this park. Even the wooded areas are fairly close to major roads. Even if you did manage to get lost, why would you need a QR code on a stop sign to give you directions? All you have to do is open Google Maps on your phone and it will tell you exactly where you are anyway. There are a ton of these new QR code signs scattered all over the park. Another example of our tax dollars at work, I guess.

Since I didn't really have any plans for today, I watched the latest episode of The Expanse this afternoon. This series certainly doesn't appear to be coming to any conclusion. Maybe they want to keep their options open in case someone wants to continue the series with a Season 7. Everyone says this will be the last season though. We'll see.

I wonder if I'll be able to put the star tracker to good use after I figure it out? There are so many streetlights in our neighborhood that the sky never gets very dark. Our yard has a bright security light as well that is very difficult to shut off since there is no light switch. A sensor on the light automatically turns it on at sunset and off again the next morning. There are a few darker places down in the park, but crime has gotten so bad in the city that I'm definitely not venturing out to a dark and lonely place after sunset with a lot of expensive equipment. I hate reading the local news because it seems like someone gets shot every single day. It almost always happens at night and often involves an unlucky random stranger. No wonder I miss the solitude of the Davis Mountains so much.

Depending on the weather, we'll probably visit the rescue Dalmatians tomorrow. I hear there's a new dog in the program now, so I'd better take my camera. I wish astrophotography was as easy as taking pictures of dogs. I've gotten pretty good at taking pictures of dogs.

Mack is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4398

Success. I finally got the star tracker to work. The problem wasn't really buggy software or bad cables. The problem was me. After all these years I still haven't learned to use my iPhone. I was expecting buttons to control the software app. The developers chose to use gestures instead. Who uses gestures? Apparently everyone except me. I still haven't taken the Polaris outside at night to attempt star pictures, but I think it's going to work. This is an incredible little piece of machinery. That's more than I can say for my own brain at the moment.

We took a fecal sample to the vet this morning and were happy to learn that Dawn doesn't have giardia. The vet gave us some pills to control diarrhea and hopefully Dawn will be back to normal soon. Her poop is still very soft, but she's definitely getting better. Last night she slept through the night, so neither of us had to sleep with one eye open in case Dawn needed to make a quick trip outside at 3 AM. We're going to have to rake leaves soon. There was probably something nasty under the leaves that she ate. I don't think she ate anything on her walks. We watch her too carefully.

I doubt that we'll be raking leaves tomorrow or even the next day. It's still too wet. It rained again last night and was misty and foggy all day today. It was really kind of a dismal day. It never got warm and it never got dry. I still took my long walk though. It's got to be pretty bad before I stop walking.

I forgot to take the Christmas stuff back to the storage warehouse while I was out grocery shopping this morning. I seem to forget something almost every day now. Usually the memory lapses are minor, but occasionally they are major. I've started leaving notes around the house for myself now with messages like "remember to feed the dog."

Prices are still going up at the grocery store. The weekly changes are small, but they add up over time. If this continues I may have to start looking for bargains. Janet is a savvy shopper, but I just buy the same things over and over again. I typically don't even look at the price. It's really only recently that I've become aware that something has changed. Some items have gotten expensive a lot more quickly than others. It probably has something to do with transportation and the current lack of truckers. I'm glad I'm not looking for a car right now. Car prices are even worse than food prices. Even used car prices are out of sight.

It's hard to say whether Dawn is going to get a Sunday outing tomorrow. The weather still looks marginal and Dawn hates to get wet. We'll see what happens. I really don't trust the weather apps on my phone anymore. They've been wrong more than they've been right lately. I need to find a new project now that my month long Odyssey with the star tracker is coming to a close. Learning to use the Polaris was actually kind of interesting. Now it's on to more mundane things like fixing a running toilet.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4397

Another day, another problem. This Polaris star tracker is driving me nuts. I don't think I'm cut out to be a Beta tester. The Polaris unit itself seems very well made. It's the software app on my phone that controls the thing that's full of bugs. I think I may have defective connecting cables as well. Everything works well for a little while and then the app freezes and I have to restart everything and try again. I really got nowhere today. The app kept saying that I didn't have a memory card inserted in my camera. The card was there however and it actually was recording pictures for a while. 

It's very hard to communicate with the Chinese manufacturer and the other Kickstarter backers in the Facebook support group are just as lost as I am. A few seem to be able to track stars and are getting some amazing pictures. I suspect that they are all using the one camera that magically seems to work. I imagine that it is very hard, or almost impossible for the Polaris unit to support hundreds of different cameras.

Dawn seems better today. Her poop is still soft, but it is not a runny liquid anymore. Hopefully, this will clear up soon. Dawn definitely doesn't seem sick and her appetite is still good. She is mad at us now because we are feeding her less until her GI tract seems stable again. She had to go outside several times last night and it was very cold. Luckily, Janet is a light sleeper so she was able to let Dawn outside when she appeared restless. We think Dawn is getting better, but if the diarrhea persists we'll take a fecal sample to the vet to be tested. There's always a chance that she might have giardia.

I stubbornly continue to walk, although I'm beginning to question my own sanity. It just isn't very pleasant to walk on a cold windy day. The wind is worse than the temperature for me. A lot of my route is along the shoreline of the lake and on days like today, the lake effect wind can be pretty bad. It's really hard to dress properly. When the wind stops and the sun comes out, I am hot. When the sun goes behind a cloud and the wind start blowing, I'm freezing. The foot pain is always lurking in the background as well. The pain wasn't bad today. Maybe it was just so cold that my feet went numb.

Janet does her grocery shopping on Friday and she said the store shelves are starting to get empty again. I hope we're not headed back to the dark days of 2020. It seems that way sometimes. I'm tired of panic buying. I'm tired of mandates that create more problems than they solve. If the past two years have proved anything it is that the government is fairly inept at solving these type of problems and that everything in today's society gets so politicized that we lose focus of the real problem. Hey, at least we aren't Australia. Those poor Australians are fucked. What ever happened to Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max? I'm amazed that the Australians don't rebel against their repressive government. Maybe they've looked around at other countries and realize what will happen if they do. Sadly, we've living in an increasingly totalitarian world.

We took the Christmas tree down today. I'll take some of the decorations back to the storage warehouse tomorrow and that will be the end of the holiday season. I kind of liked looking at the Christmas tree in the evenings. The lights were pretty and strangely optimistic. I'm not really a very festive person, but holidays are certainly better than nothing. It's fun to watch dogs open their Christmas gifts too.

I'm making my grocery list for tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't run into the same empty shelves that Janet encountered today. I'm almost certain that prices will be higher. Inflation is not only real, it can be quite dramatic. Janet and I have different items on our respective grocery lists, but the things I buy have gone up in price every single week for several months now. The price of gas keeps getting higher as well. You really have to wonder where this is all going to end?

Misty is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4396

I now have a camera that connects to the star tracker. It's almost identical to a camera I already have, but for some reason this one works. I'm not home free yet, but I'm getting closer. The software for the phone app that controls the camera and tracker is still a little wonky. I don't think this will be a problem. I'm sure the app will have been updated at least five times before I get a chance to use this combo under dark skies. 

I went down to a local camera store after breakfast this morning and tried cameras until I found one that worked. I went through a period when I ordered almost everything online. That's over. Real stores have their advantages. If I ordered online, there's a good chance I would have bought the wrong camera and would have had to send it back. Seeing and touching things before you buy definitely beats reading a bunch of bullet points on a web page. More importantly, after my recent experiences with Fedex I'm not sure I ever want to deal with delivery services again.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can conquer some of the software issues that still remain with the iPhone app. There is already new firmware to install. Maybe that will fix some of the problems I had today. This is still a work in progress, but it definitely gives me something to do. Luckily, I was able to find the camera I needed used. It looks new and has seen very little use, but I was able to get it for basically half price. Hey, it doesn't hurt anything to have one more camera.

I wasn't very surprised that it was cold this morning. The surprising thing was that it never warmed up. I waited until almost noon to take my long walk and it was still only a few degrees above freezing. I worry that Dawn is getting cold. Some dogs love the cold weather but Dawn isn't one of them. I'm with her. I don't like cold weather either. At least I have plenty of warm coats. I still need to order some waterproof Hoka boots. The boots should have really been a higher priority than the camera, but it's always been hard for me to make clothing a priority.

My foot pain was worse today. The humidity was still low, so there goes my humidity theory. It still baffles me why my feet feel different from one day to the next. Logically, things should be a lot more constant. I wear the same shoes and basically walk the same distance every day. My comfort level varies wildly though. I guess I should just be glad for the good days. I'm well aware that this could be a lot worse.

Dawn had diarrhea today. She must have eaten something bad in the yard because she doesn't seem sick and still has a good appetite. We always watch carefully to make sure she doesn't get into anything in the park. Dogs are sneaky though. You think they are just smelling something and then all of the sudden they snarf something down. All of our dogs have had diarrhea at one time of another. Mostly it was because they ate something bad. We'll keep an eye on Dawn. I have a feeling that we might need to take her outside in the middle of the night as well. Brrr. It's going to be very cold tonight.

I'm glad I did a good job of fixing the furnace the other day. This is no time to have a cold house. No time for a cold car either. It was nice to have heated seats and a heated steering wheel while I was driving down to the camera store this morning. I don't think I'll ever really get used to Winter. At least the days are starting to get longer though.

Nellie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4395

I didn't accomplish much today. The weather was warmer, but it still felt really cold on our morning walk with Dawn. Without a plan for the day, I just followed my regular routine. I make the bed. Get dressed. Walk Dawn. Eat breakfast. Check my e-mail. Take my long walk. And then try to find some project to eat up the rest of the day.

This week my project has been trying to get the star tracker to work. Still trying. The new cable I bought at the Apple Store yesterday did nothing. I guess the cable did work, but the camera it was attached to still refused to connect to the tracker. The tracker itself works fine. I just can't attach any of my cameras to it. It's looking like I might have to buy a new camera body that's on the approved list. Lots of cameras are on this list. Just not mine. Maybe I can find a used camera that's on the list. I just want to get this thing working. It's not like I'll be using it all the time. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the approved list before I bought this thing. 

My feet didn't hurt as much today on my long walk. Maybe the discomfort does have something to do with the weather. Today was a low humidity day. It seems like things are worse on high humidity days, but I haven't really been keeping track. I don't know if keeping track of the weather would make much of a difference. I still need to keep walking and I think I'm already wearing the best shoes I can find. Maybe I just complain too much. The fact that I'm able to keep walking probably indicates that the pain isn't quite as bad as I think.

When my efforts to get the star tracker working proved futile, I watched the latest episode of The Expanse. Basically the show is just a Western in space. Now that I think of it, most science fiction series are just Westerns in space. I still like the show, even though I've forgotten how it all began. I guess all the loose ends will be pulled together soon. After a few more episodes, the series will be over for good.

I'm starting to have second thoughts about going back to the observatory. I almost fell the last time I was out there and my sense of balance seems to be getting worse. I'd really hate to take a bad fall out there. There are no good medical facilities in the area. I should probably take one of those balance classes for seniors at my gym. Balance is definitely something you can work on. I've always been reluctant to take a seniors class. At least when I'm walking alone in the park I can still feel young in my own mind.

Maybe I'll take the star tracker down to a local camera store tomorrow and try it out with some different cameras. Something is bound to work. Some of the cameras on the approved list are older, so maybe I could find a used approved camera fairly cheap.  I don't know why I've become so obsessed with this thing. I've already got another star tracker. The Polaris is completely automated though and is supposed to be able to find celestial objects on its own and automatically track them using an app on your phone. You can also us it to create panoramas, time-lapse shots, and many other things. I think you can also set it to automatically follow a person in the frame while you are making movies. This would be a pretty cool gizmo if it worked.

I haven't heard much about Artemis 1 lately. I kind of hope the launch keeps getting postponed until Covid is over. Covid restrictions have really taken the fun out of travel. There is a big star party in West Texas later this Spring, but after reading the multi-page list of new Covid rules I immediately said never mind. Maybe next year. I think people overestimate their ability to stop a virus. It's a virus. We haven't even figured out how to stop the common cold yet. 

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4394

I'm getting used to changing several times a day because of the rapidly changing temperatures. Our early morning walks with Dawn are very cold and I really have to bundle up. The later in the day it gets, the more clothes I can shed. I'm sure that Dawn would prefer to sleep in a little longer, but these early walks are the only times that Janet and I can walk Dawn together. It's too bad that Dawn is still afraid to walk alone with me. If she realized that I am really her friend, we could walk a lot later when it was warmer. She'd be more than welcome to come with me on my long walks as well, but I'm not sure she could walk that far anymore. Truthfully, I'm not sure I can walk that far anymore either. Some of these walks have been brutal on my feet lately.

I decided that I would go looking for some cable adapters so I could experiment with my star tracker some more. Target and Best Buy didn't have what I needed, so that led me to the Apple Store. What a bunch of woke idiots. The mall had just opened, so it was almost empty. That didn't deter Apple in the least. They had the most elaborate and nonsensical Covid protection scheme I've ever seen. Before you could enter the store, an employee standing outside in a red shirt would ask you what you wanted to buy. People looking for a phone were directed to one line. People looking for a computer were sent to a second line. I was directed to a third line because all I wanted were some cable adapters. I think that if you just wanted to look around you were told to go away. There were very few people in each line, because the mall had just opened. Each line had another employee in a red shirt acting as a gatekeeper. The short lines didn't move fast because Apple would only allow ten people in the store at a time. When someone left, a new person could enter. There were a lot more employees in red shirts than there were customers. The store was almost empty. 

When I finally entered the store I was greeted by another employee who asked me again what I wanted to buy. He would look up the item on his phone and then tell a different employee to go look for it. Customers couldn't browse or go look for the item themselves. We had to stay quarantined at the front of the store. It was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. If you entered the store in the computer line, you couldn't change your mind and go see the guy who was showing people phones. Each section has a pair of people. One would look up your item on his phone and then the second guy would act as a runner to go back in the store and find it. Needless to say, this guy would usually bring back the wrong item and he'd have to make four or five trips to find what the customer actually wanted.

The tag team of inept red shirted employees eventually found what I wanted after bringing me several things that weren't even close. The oddest thing about the whole experience was that the employee trying to help me appeared to be wearing a mask that was crocheted. This mask wouldn't keep a mosquito away. It would do absolutely nothing to ward off a virus. This is what we've become: people wearing masks as fashion statements, blindly following a set of rules that make no sense whatsoever. I'm sure someone in Cupertino had good intentions, but this plan made the folks controlling traffic in grocery stores look like geniuses.

I'm learning a lot more about how cameras can be controlled by computers, or in my case little star trackers. When the computer industry had to deal with connecting their products to printers and external hard drives, they came up with an industry set of standards that made connecting things easy. The camera industry hasn't done this. Each company has it's own proprietary way of connecting to a computer. My cameras just don't want to talk with the star tracker. I'll figure this out eventually, but unfortunately it may involve buying another camera body.

I managed to get 20,000 steps today, but they were slow painful steps. I probably look really awkward when I walk. I've found that a flatfooted walk where my heel touches the ground first and I never walk on my toes is the most comfortable. Bending the toes is what hurts the most. I think I'll keep walking though. I've seen the x-rays. Quitting walking won't bring the cartilage back. All a sedentary life will do is make me fat.

Hunter is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4393

Thankfully it was a little warmer today. The day still started below freezing, but it warmed up quickly. I don't think Dawn likes the cold. She isn't quite as eager to take her walks on cold mornings, even though we got her a nice warm sweater. I guess I feel the same way. I've never been a big fan of Winter.

After breakfast I thought I'd go to Target and the Apple Store to get some additional cables that would allow me to test several more cameras with my new start tracker. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a mask with me. This wouldn't have been a problem last week, but the Omicron variant has thrown everyone into a panic again. When I entered the Target store, there were big "mask required" signs at the entrance and the PA system was even broadcasting that if you didn't feel like wearing a mask inside the store, you should try online shopping instead. I went home. I figured that if Target was being this strict, the Apple Store would be even worse. Maybe I'll just buy the cables I need on Amazon. That would be easier.

By the time I took my long walk, the weather was actually quite nice. It was still chilly, but it wasn't freezing like yesterday. My only problem today was my feet. It's hard to tell if my feet are actually getting worse or I just need new shoes. Maybe I'm just walking further. It's quite common for me to get 20,000 steps these days. For me, that's about 10 miles. It seems like I used to walk a lot less. At any rate, my feet were quite painful today. I hate to use the Voltaren cream, because of the internal bleeding risk side effects listed on the tube. I've tried Biofreeze too, but that doesn't seems to do anything. I guess I should just go ahead and order some new Hoka shoes while I'm ordering camera connection cables.  Finding the stuff I need locally is proving to be an exercise in frustration.

Getting the Polaris star tracker to work is an even bigger exercise in frustration. Some of the other Kickstarter backers are already out in the field taking pictures and I can't even get my cameras to connect to the tracker. I suspect that I just have the wrong cameras. I've always been a fan of Olympus and Panasonic cameras even though the rest of the photographers are always using Nikon and Canon. Most of the people who are having success with their star trackers appear to be using Canon cameras. When I'm photographing launches down at Kennedy Space Center, I'm almost always the only one not shooting with a Nikon or Canon. Oh, well. I've never followed the crowd.

We didn't visit Charlie and Oliver today because the kennel is still on a holiday schedule. Maybe next week. I guess it's about time to take down the Christmas tree. The Christmas holidays seemed to go by awfully fast this year. Wasn't it just Thanksgiving a few days ago? I still don't have any trips planned for the coming year. Last year I was a lot more industrious. Maybe I just don't care as much about writing articles anymore. It's hard for me to do anything for the pure pleasure of it. Writing for magazines gave me a reason to travel. 

Maybe I'll watch another episode of The Expanse tomorrow. It's time to write another letter to my sister as well. I need to do some touch up painting on the trim around the house, but I hate to paint. I always manage to spill something and make a mess. I'll probably just continue to monkey around with the star tracker and try to get it to work with a camera it wasn't designed for. If I have a choice between a useful activity and a useless one, I'll always choose the most useless activity I can find.

Petey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4392

It was 18 degrees when we woke up this morning. There was a strong wind as well. Needless to say, we didn't take a sunrise walk. We ate breakfast and waited for it to warm up a little. I was just glad the house was warm. Right after I posted my worries about the furnace going out yesterday evening, the furnace actually did go out. The temperature was dropping rapidly, so it was important to get it fixed before I went to bed. I suspected a dirty flame sensor, since that's usually the problem when the pilot light won't ignite the burners. Luckily, fixing a dirty flame sensor is fairly easy. You unplug the furnace, unscrew a few metal panels, and then sand the flame sensor with fine grit sandpaper. I used to take the flame sensor out of the furnace to do this, but I've learned that I can contort my hand and reach through a little hole to sand the sensor in place. I can't see what I'm doing, but I've learned to do the cleaning operation by feel. It took about an hour to get the furnace running again, but it sure beats freezing.

It warmed up a little, but it was still below freezing when we took Dawn on her Sunday outing. She wore her sweater this morning, but I think she was still a little cold. I was pretty warm because I was wearing two down jackets and long underwear. The double layer of jackets works great and keeps me much warmer than the heavy winter parka I used to wear on colds day like this. We still got ice cream after our walk today, but we were sitting in a warm car. Dawn would have been really disappointed if we didn't get ice cream.

I made some progress with the star tracker today, but I'm still unable to connect a camera to it. The cables that came with the tracker don't fit any of my current cameras. I did find an older camera that could use one of the supplied connection cables, but it saved pictures in the wrong format. At least the star tracker itself seems to work. I updated the firmware and formatted the internal SD card. I can control the tracker from my phone now. I just can't take pictures yet. I suspect that I will have to go to the Apple Store and buy a few more cable adapters.

I don't know why I bothered to take a long walk today. It was really cold. I should have learned my lesson after our short walk with Dawn, but I was determined to get my steps in. The wind was strong and my feet hurt, but I did complete my route. I still don't understand how northerners put up with the cold. There were joggers passing me today wearing only light jackets. I looked like I was headed for the South Pole.

I hope I can get the star tracker to work with one of my cameras. As usual, I don't have one of the popular cameras this system was apparently designed for. I tend to obsess over things and this whole process of figuring things out with very little documentation will probably just lead to frustration. I'm sure I'll end up buying a bunch of cables that don't work and just end up wasting money. The weird thing is that even if I can get the tracker to work, it will probably just sit in a box for months. Dallas just isn't a good place for astrophotography.

I don't have much of a plan for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a little warmer. It's hard for me to get motivated on warm days. On cold days it's almost impossible. If I can get at least one camera to recognize the star tracker tomorrow, the day will be a win.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4391 - New Years Day

Happy New Year. So far, the year seems to be off to a good start. We got up late, took Dawn on a pleasant walk, had a nice breakfast, and got started on a brand new year. I got an automated call saying that a prescription was ready, but when I went to the pharmacy, it was closed. Since the roads were practically empty, I thought I'd finish some of the errands that seemed like too much trouble yesterday when everything was a madhouse. I got gas and then went back to Central Market to pick up something for a New Years dinner. What a difference a day makes. I should have just stayed home yesterday and done all my shopping today. The store had been completely restocked overnight and everything looked fresh. There weren't many shoppers either. I got some fresh Maryland Crabcakes, Garlic Shrimp, Bacon Wrapped Asparagus, and Potato Salad. I also found a new brand of spicy ginger ale that I thought I'd try.

When I returned home, Janet and I took Dawn on another walk and then I continued walking. The temperature was in the mid seventies, so I just wore a t-shirt and shorts. This was a huge mistake. About halfway through my walk, the cold front everyone has been talking about finally blew through town and the temperature almost instantly dropped twenty degrees. I've never experienced such a sudden temperature change. The wind picked up as well. I was freezing for the remainder of my walk. It felt like a long three miles.

Luckily the most interesting part of the walk occurred before the cold front arrived. I saw the Bald Eagle again. I'm pretty sure you only see the male eagle during these rare sightings. The female eagle is still sitting on her nest, hidden away in the forest somewhere. I don't know if the eggs have hatched yet. I think this makes five times I've seen the eagle since the pair arrived in Dallas. I also saw both Muscovy Ducks. Today there were about a mile apart. I always thought this pair was inseparable, but they haven't been getting along lately. 

I usually have a cold drink when I return from my long walk. Not today. I was freezing. I asked Janet if we had any hot chocolate and it turns out we do. I fixed a big mug of hot chocolate and gradually warmed up. When I saw how cold it is going to get tonight I went outside and set all the faucets on drip. The greenhouse is in such dilapidated shape that when I went inside to adjust the greenhouse faucet, the door fell apart. I had to hammer the thing back together so I could close it again. Janet and I would both like to just tear the greenhouse down and put up a carport there. Our street has gotten so busy in recent years that it's almost impossible to get out of the driveway on a busy day. Moving the cars to the back would be a good idea.

I finally worked up my nerve to begin experimenting with the new star tracker. I read the instructions several times, inserted the Micro SD card in the proper slot, and charged the battery with my new USB-C charger. That's as far as I got. The next step would be to format the SD card and update the firmware. Since it was almost time for dinner at this point, I decided to wait until tomorrow to do anything further. A lot can go wrong when you try to update the firmware on a new device.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. It's supposed to be 22 degrees at sunrise. We've got plenty of warm coats, but I'm not sure Dawn will want to walk with these type of temperatures. Every winter I cross my fingers and hope that the furnace doesn't go out. It's happened before and it can be pretty miserable. A power outage during freezing weather isn't fun either. One Winter we had a four day power outage after an ice storm and it got so cold in the house that we had to go stay in a hotel. Sure hope that never happens again.

Anything could happen in 2022, but I'm going to try and remain optimistic. Everyone seems to be in a panic about the Omicron variant, but few people seem to be getting very sick. A lot of people didn't even know they were infected until they had to take a mandatory Covid test to travel. Maybe if everyone catches Omicron, we will finally reach the herd immunity everyone's been waiting for. I hope so. I'm not sure if we'll be taking Dawn on her Sunday outing tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

Jasper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4390

I'm going to have trouble staying awake until midnight. The older I get, the less of a night owl I become. It's hard to believe that I once played in a band where New Year's Eve always meant loading the bass amp and the PA system back in the car at 2 AM after our gig was over at some hotel. It's hard to understand the desire to party anymore. Why do all those people stand out in the cold in Times Square every year just to watch a big glass ball drop? A glass of champagne while watching the fireworks on TV is festive enough for me.

I did my grocery shopping today because I thought a lot of the stores would be closed tomorrow. I think everyone else must have had the same idea. The stores were packed this morning and the shelves were kind of empty. I think the crowds were worse than just before Christmas. I didn't even bother to get gas because there were long lines at the pumps. Luckily, my shopping list was short, so I didn't have to fight the crowds for long.

It was overcast and foggy again this morning but still quite warm. I don't think the colder weather is going to arrive until Sunday. I need to remember to set the outdoor faucets to drip so they won't freeze. I was going to do this today, but I forgot. Usually after our first hard freeze the faucets continue dripping for the rest of the Winter. The water bill goes up a bit, but it's hard to remember to turn the faucets off again.

I was going to get my star tracker operating today, but I decided to wait. What's the hurry. The beta software for the iPhone app is still going through almost daily changes. Hopefully each version gets a little better. I still read the support group for the Kickstarter backers. Nobody has really gotten their Polaris to work yet. I think I'll let the brave ones monkey around with this thing and potentially break it. I'll wait. I'm confident that everything will be operating reliably by Spring. Maybe I'll take the sophisticated little tracker with me on my next trip to McDonald Observatory.

2021 has definitely been a weird year. I made one trip out to the observatory in May and another trip to Kennedy Space Center in September, but it still felt like I spent the entire year waiting for something to happen. Basically 2020 and 2021 just blur together in my mind. It just seems like we have been arguing about Covid and what it all means forever. I'm hoping that we can move beyond this in 2022, but then I was hoping exactly the same thing this time last year. We'll see what happens. All I know is that dystopian science fiction is getting closer to reality every day.

I stopped making New Year's resolutions years ago. I'm not even interested in becoming a better person. Good enough is fine. I eat healthy food. I exercise. I stay out of trouble. I try my best to stay curious. What more do you need? I have no big plans for the year ahead. It would be nice if Dawn learned to trust me. I'd like to go see the Artemis 1 launch this Spring. Maybe I'll volunteer at the Dark Sky Festival  next year. The world's not going to end if none of these things happen though. I'll continue writing articles but getting published isn't as much of a priority as it was several years ago. Hey, I can always take a long walk.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year. At my age, a Happy New Year just means not getting cancer or having your dog die. Maybe something exciting will happen next year. We can hope. I do have a project now. It's going to take me at least a month to figure out how to use this new star tracker.

Dot is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4389

I'm struggling with this new piece of machinery I've got. I finally located an English language version of the instruction manual. At least I know what the various buttons and knobs do now. The star tracker operates by using a Bluetooth enabled iPhone app. The app isn't available on the Apple App Store yet, but other people seem to have it. I keep asking dumb questions but I haven't been able to find the download location for the Beta version yet. Until I can get the app running on my phone, the motorized tripod head/star tracker is basically useless. 

I did go buy a Micro SD Card and a charger that uses USB C cables which are both required. The tiny Micro SD cards are more expensive than the cards I use in my cameras. Of course I can't even format these cards until I figure out how to install the Beta version of the Polaris app on my phone. Maybe I ought to just wait until the final version of this app is available on the App Store. I always thought I was good with technical things but I'm way behind some of the other Kickstarter backers. Maybe I'm just getting old. While I was out looking for Micro SD cards, I also looked for my favorite Reed's Extra Ginger Ale. My supply is getting low. The last store I know of that regularly carried this stuff dropped the product. What am I going to do now? Story of my life, I guess. Everything I like is almost impossible to find.

I did find the missing Muscovy Duck on my walk this morning. I don't know where it has been this week, but it definitely isn't dead. It was good to see this odd pair of ducks reunited again. Some of the Pelicans and most of the Double-crested Cormorants are back as well. I don't know where these birds went either. Maybe I should become a birder. Birds are plentiful at the lake and they are a lot easier to photograph than the Milky Way.

I used to always buy something for the business on the last day of the year so I could expense it and reduce my taxes a bit. That seems kind of pointless now. The business hardly even exists anymore and I don't need new gear anyway. I hope my computer doesn't break because I like it a lot better than the new stuff that is available now. I feel the same about cameras. My old cameras work fine. Basically I've really gotten tired of change. I don't view change as progress anymore. Change has just become a nuisance. My Dad was the same way. He was a scientist, but he refused to get a computer. He kept using an old manual typewriter his entire life.

I've taken this week's trash to the curb. I wish I could just take 2021 to the curb as well. This was supposed to be the year we returned to normal but it didn't turn out that way. It would be nice to start fresh next year, but from my vantage point it looks like 2022 will just be more of the same. Can I keep this tired old blog going for another year? We'll see. I guess anything is possible.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4388

We've basically had all four seasons in the span of a week. Today was warm, but it was rainy. I'm not accustomed to these huge day-to-day changes, so I didn't even check the weather before we left on our sunrise walk with Dawn. Big mistake. I thought it was just going to be another cloudy, foggy morning, but as soon as we entered the park, the skies opened up. We all got soaked and Dawn was indignant. She hates getting wet. We turned around and headed for home as soon as the rain started but it didn't help much. All our clothes went in the dryer as soon as we got home and it took several towels to get Dawn dried off.

It only rained hard for about an hour, but I was in no hurry to take my long walk. I didn't want to get caught in the rain again. I vacuumed the house and did a load of laundry while I was waiting for the skies to clear. I thought I'd read the manual for my new star tracker, but when I clicked on the PDF file, it was blank. The short quick start guide that came with the tracker is basically useless. I did a quick Internet search for the Benro Polaris manual, but I kept getting instruction manuals for Polaris ATV's instead. 

We could tell that Dawn felt cheated out of her morning walk, so we regrouped and tried again as soon as the skies cleared. This time Dawn was able to complete her one mile loop with no problems. It was time for my long walk anyway, so I continued walking. I walked a long way today, but I probably shouldn't have. This was a terrible day for foot pain. I was limping home by the time I finished my six miles for the day. I need to see if there is a correlation between humidity and foot pain. I kind of think that my feet hurt more on wet or high humidity days, but I haven't been keeping records. I might just be imagining things.

I only saw one of the Muscovy Ducks today. There might have been only one yesterday as well. When I saw the pair the other day, one of the ducks just seemed like a flat lump. It didn't seem to be sleeping normally. Now I'm thinking that this duck might have been dead. It was gone today, but the other duck hasn't moved. I don't know if a duck can be depressed, but this duck certainly seemed that way. I hope his companion is just off exploring somewhere else. These two Muscovy Ducks have been inseparable for well over five years. There were a bonded pair that did everything together.

I have tons of SD cards lying around the house. All my cameras use them. As luck would have it, my new start tracker requires a Micro SD card to operate. I don't have any of those. It's a shame that Fry's went out of business. There was a large Fry's store near my house and it was always easy to run down there whenever I needed a computer cable, printer ink, a memory card, or a spare battery. Now I have to venture farther away to find these things and there isn't a single store that has everything anymore. Fry's is the latest in a long line of my favorite stores a that seem to disappear as soon as I grow to depend on them. Stores that I hate like Walmart flourish. Stores that I like always go bankrupt and disappear.

My Fall allergies have returned with a vengeance. If these seasonal allergies weren't so predictable, it would be easy to convince myself that I had Covid. I've certainly got the runny nose. My nose runs so bad when I'm out in the park that I have to stuff a bunch of those Scott blue shop towels in my pocket. Regular Kleenex just doesn't do the job anymore. I've lost track of when the Fall allergies end and the Spring allergies begin. There only seems to be about three months out of the year where there isn't a problem. At least the allergies aren't bad indoors. HEPA furnace filters work wonders.

I don't have any plans for tomorrow, but it's supposed to be clear and warm. I ought to try and take advantage of the nice weather while it's here because a cold wave is on the way. They say freezing weather will arrive this weekend. Freezing temperatures aren't the way I'd like to start the new year, but I don't think I've got a choice.

Petey & Greta are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day