Nailed it

[howeird]

I was getting ready to stay in bed with Spook by my side when a calendar reminder motivated me to hurry up and get up & dressed and point the PC at the Mars lander live feed.

And the live feed page said the landing was not for another 4 hours.

Took my meds, had breakfast, watched some streams on Twitch (including NASA) and finally watched the less than impressive alleged landing. Alleged because they had not outfitted the lander with any way to show the actual landing. All we saw was a checklist in the control room being checked off, and some animations.

A few minutes after the alleged landing,  the screen in the control room lit up with an image from one of the lander's cameras. And then another. Fuzzy monochrome images. And just the two. 12 hours later there do not seem to be any more.

Another WTF is although NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shepherded this project since 2018, his was a political appointment, a former Congressman from OK who has flown for pretty much every branch of the military and an avid space buff, and so he was out on his ear on January 20. It's a shame he was not included in the event.   Steve Jurczyk, acting administrator, also a 2018 Trump appointee, took his place. He's a long time NASA engineer, and has the accompanying lack of personality.

Time to drive to Magic Nails for an acrylic fill. Got the same excellent manicurist as last time, except she handed me off to her sister for the final UV gel process. The place is operated by 3 sisters. Some other sisters run a nail salon in the SF Bay area. Apparently there are 11 sisters in all.

My nails look great.

Next stop, Albertson's for greens, bananas and OJ.

Pigeons continue to be drawn to the repeller device, but also some new stray cats. Still windy, very brief small bird visits - hummers and goldfinches.

Last night there was a big fire in the wetlands. Neighbors thought it was on our block, which ends at the wetlands. 45 acres burned. No cause yet.

Streamed for half an hour, no one showed up so I joined the RPCV Zoom meeting and played with filters. I did not find a cat filter. That meeting ended in 7 minutes so I went back to streaming, this time at least one chatter was there.

Dinner was finally the last of the turkey stew over rice. I like the Safeway house brand of chip mint ice cream better than Tillamook.

Two episodes of Saving Hope. Now I get it. One of the surgeons sees people who are in a coma or dead. A white horse in the hallway means someone is going to die. The show is really big on people not raising their own children. And small world coincidences. And people coming into the ER with scrapes and bruises being found to be terminally ill.

And they make new residents look like incompetent children.

Did a load of shirts.

The cats had some serious negotiation sessions aka Spook is bullying Ma'am.

Plans for tomorrow:
Maybe go for a drive to the wetlands.