Since I was wanting to watch a movie at 8:30 I was not going to have time to let Stella 'wander', so I attached the 25' retractable leash and left the camera at home. She doesn't mind the leash and still gets in some running. Plus I can make sure I make it back in a reasonable time.
Probably not a lot of football fans that read the blog so I will not go into detail about the cancellation ... except those painted logos you see on football fields of grass or artificial turf caught up with them last night. That large Hall of Fame log in the center of the field became hard as limestone and slick as ice. When they tried to apply some heat to it, that started melting the tiny black rubber balls that are below the surface.
Since that field is not under NFL control, they found out that independent ground crews, caused them a 5 billion dollar business embarrassment. Could it cost the Hall of Fame their annual game? The owners will decide at their next NFL owners meeting.
This morning started like all the other mornings, even the temperatures felt the same and will be the same for the next few days before it rains again. That will give me time to mow the yard again before it rains. The hounds though only stayed out long enough to do what they needed to do.
It was funny to see Sadie trotting her normal path back to the house along the north edge but while doing that she didn't see Stella had run back to the house and was at the door waiting for us.
She stopped and looked to see if Stella was getting some free 'field time' that she wasn't. Once I told her Stella was 'in here' and pointing toward the door ... Sadie came running.
The morning was spent drinking coffee, and reading article after article on the internet. I should never turn my computer on first thing in the morning. This is part of my rambling that I'll get to later.
After lunch we always go outside. That is usually Heidi's 2nd trip outside for the day. Stella likes the sun and the tall grass since I am cutting it higher this summer.
She decided that combo was perfect for another nap.
Heidi moved to the backyard without me asking her to. That's a good sign. I hope she will eventually start taking the walks with us again. Maybe I should carry her to the field like I did in April.
Computers, computers, computers .... I'm addicted. I could say it's an internet addiction but there are a lot of things I do on the computer without being on the internet. I have a lot of Excel spreadsheets I keep and update. I have the Mahjong game that I play 99% on my laptop.
The thing is, I spend more time than I want and more time than I need to on the computer. There are many nights I tell myself that I will NOT turn it on first thing in the morning ... or even take a complete day off from any computer activity.
Never to rarely happens.
Before I reach down to pick up Sadie's food bowl next to my desk, I reach under the iMac and push the button on the back to turn it on. I then pick up the food bowls of Stella and Heidi ... pour their kibble ... while they eat I make coffee and then take the first photo on every one of my blog posts from the step inside my carport.
After the hounds come back inside, I start my 1st of 2 cups of coffee and start reading on the internet. I've noticed I can go through Facebook, Twitter and even at times my Feedly feed, plus check email all within an hour and less than 50Mb of data being used.
That is when I should get up and get on with my day. I use to do that but the past month or so that doesn't happen. Twitter is probably the main cause as that starts feeding me updated articles as they happen. Mostly sports, a couple of political opinions or news ... but that program is also a huge data grabber. While paying $80 for 15Gb per month on my satellite internet service I have to watch my data usage fairly close.
I've used a computer since they came out in the early 90's. I cannot remember getting my first home computer until 1995 or so. I remember I started with WebTv by Microsoft. That was actually a pretty cool computer with a wireless keyboard and the tv as the monitor. It was only for the internet though, because it could not save or download files.
Even then I remember that I could turn that off and enjoy my day of 'normal' activities. Those activities were things outside in good weather and reading books inside during the snow or rain days. I only had two basset hounds then, Harry and Maggie.
I believe my problem this summer has been a lack of things on my 'to do' list. Last year I had 15-16 things to get done before the end of August when football season would start. This year I haven't had anything that needs to be done. The few things for maintaining a house have not taken long and there have been only a couple of things that needed to be done.
Lately on our local drives, all three hounds no longer sit up and look out the window, they all lay down and sleep. Even the short trip to town and back, within 2-3 miles total, they will lay down. Are they bored with going for rides?
I've always wondered what I would do if I were RVing full time. I've asked that question a couple of times on this blog and the answers are always the same. "You will do what you do at home, what you enjoy". Well that might happen but if I were in spots like I was last June 2015, some of those places did not have an internet connection for me to use.
I had NO problem without that connection and even liked being away and enjoying what was outside. I still became bored though and actually liked the driving part of the trip just as much if not more than the camping part of the trip.
I'm told that Stella "will always come back" if I leave her off leash. The field in back would be so much different than out in the wild in the west. I still cannot come to terms that the hound breed is safe when camping and spending time off leash like some do with their dogs.
I do know in bad weather where I could not use the tent, there is not enough room for me and two bloodhounds in the back of my FJ, while we wait the storms out. Those storms would or will happen. That was my 'Plan B' last year when tent camping, but I only had one bloodhound then.
I know things may have been dragging a little this summer but in a little over 3 weeks college football starts their 2016 season. THAT is my #1 addiction ... college football. So I will be spending less time in my desk chair, less time on the computer and actually have a required time limit to get things done if they need to be ... because I know that every Saturday at noon time stops in my world until about 2am that night when the last west coast game is over.
I guess with 5 days during the week and only a game or two on at night, it's perfect to be retired to get those unexpected things done during the day. Now I don't have a schedule, no kind of time limit ... that turns me into being lazy and unmotivated. I can remember even as a child I would always wait until the last possible minute before I would get my school homework done. That followed me up through college.
It looks like I'm back to blogging since this will be the 3rd day in a row. It seems to me that what I blog about here would be pretty boring, routine to most people ... so I end up stopping. Then I come back when I realize there are those readers that look forward of seeing the photos of the hounds every day ... even if they are in the same area.
I even had a couple of readers tell me that they enjoy seeing the fields around my house in different times of the year. Some say they like reading what it's like living in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. It's one of those cases where you take a lot of sights for granted where you live.
So it looks like the hounds and I will make it to blog through year 5 this coming October. Looking back through some past posts searching for that stromboli photo the other day, I didn't realize how many times I blogged in the past without any photos. When I started adding photos of the hounds I didn't resize them to x-large but kept them small. They do expand if you click on them.
Stats show that very few readers read the older posts. Most of the older posts are read by spammers, luckily I control their comments before they are published. I get a lot of spam comments and then they attack my email address. I also get an email notification when I receive a comment from you or those from spammers.
I noticed Al over at The Bayfield Bunch was talking about selling his motorcycle since he does not ride it as often as he use to. I wondered if I should do that with my recently purchased Z4. I only put 32 miles on it in July. Yet, as soon as I get it out on the road, there is no way I could sell that car ... so it will be here when I need it. The FJ, I'll never get rid of. It will most likely outlast me.
I was going to add more photos to this post and post it later tonight but I have rambled too much and have made this post too long ... so I am posting it now. I'll post a shorter one tonight after the hounds and I do a walk or take a drive with the camera today. Still time to get something done, since it's only 2:30pm.
I still love retirement life just as much as my first day in April 2014. Life is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.
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