As I pulled the cargo area rubber mat out, my fears were confirmed. Combine the amount of hound hair, dried drool in places you could not imagine, spilled coffee and one spilled vanilla milk shake from a long time ago ... with my "everything has to be clean" mentality ... it was a long long day.
Before I get started with that story I have to add a great sunset from our walk on Monday night. Even Sadie and Stella were impressed enough to stop and look when I took the photo.
After a late night of MLB playoff games, we were still up pretty early Tuesday morning. Sadie thought at first we could fit a walk in before anything but she came trotting to the house when I called her. Stella was already waiting at the door so she could go back inside and finish her morning nap.
While pulling the FJ out into the drive, getting the electrical 100' extension cord plugged into my vacuum, I let the hounds roam the field. I knew that would not last long but I had a plan B for Stella so she could stay outside without roaming off while I worked on the FJ.
With that look at me, plus taking her sweet time getting back to the yard when I called her ... I pulled out the 80' tether that I anchor in the field and connected it to Stella's collar. It had been a long time since she was tethered but she didn't mind it. Plus she could stay outside on a beautiful day while I cleaned and washed the FJ.
I decided to clean the inside before washing it. I figured it would be a good way to get the hard part done first. I started in the back with a vacuum, a rubber dog hair tool that was suppose to collect the dog hair and get it off the felt material the hair had attached to. Along with that I had a pail of warm water and detergent so I could clean the hard rubber windows sills, dashboard, and inside of the windows where the dried drool was along with nose smudges on the windows.
It was a slow process because once that hair from the hounds attaches to any kind of surface it's hard to get off. The attachment on my Oreck vacuum worked great but there were a few times that dog hair removal tool I had bought a long time ago, worked like magic in removing the dog hair from the surface so it would be vacuum.
I spent 3 HOURS just doing the inside !!!!
It took me longer than I thought it would to wash and dry the outside, along with cleaning the windows inside and out plus all of the door jams. By the time I got through it had taken a total of 5 hours to clean the inside and outside of the FJ.
The more I cleaned the more I started wondering if the hounds would ever be allowed to ride again. Granted it had been 14 months since I last cleaned it with detail and I know I could clean it more frequently but even when I did that years ago ... it still took just as long and there was just as much hound hair, drool, and nose smudges on the windows.
It was as clean as any car or truck you would see on a car lot for sale. Later that night I felt all of that bending, wiping, reaching under the seats, under the dash on the floor along with going up and down a step ladder so I could wash and dry the top.
I was sore and tired but the hounds did not have their walk yet for the day so off we went, with me having the retractable leash on Stella.
Today was a different story, even after staying up past 3am to watch the Cubs/Giants game in San Francisco which went 13 innings. We got up fairly early and had that walk in before lunch. We went at the hounds pace, no leashes just roaming.
Stella started to sprint toward me and Sadie but stopped immediately when she found something of interest. She gets distracted easily.
I hope this shows how nice the day was. It's been this way for weeks and about the time I think it's amazing ... my local tv weather shows me it's suppose to be nice this time of year and all the temperatures are close to the high and low averages.
Heidi has been feeling a little more active lately. She goes out by herself a lot and sits in the sunshine and then comes to the door when she has had enough. She is barking again when she wants something or when we get back from the walk.
Yesterday while on a tether, which this photo does not show, Stella walked out in the middle of the field, laid down and slept most of the afternoon in the sunshine. This afternoon without the tether she found another spot to lay in while I moved some of the cut giant ragweed into our burn pile.
While I continued to get as much of the cut ragweed picked up and put onto the pile, both bloodhounds were slowly sneaking further and further away. Sadie saw me. Stella ignored me. Once everything was put back into the shed, I walked out toward them expecting to go all the way to them to get them to come back with me but Sadie started running toward me and then Stella followed her, so I only had to walk about halfway to them.
For a change of pace I opened up Firefox as a browser late last night and downloaded the latest updates since last April. It has improved so much I have made it my default browser for the time being. I am always going back and forth between Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox. I am finding Firefox is much faster than before, it is loading some websites where I have a user name and password where last spring the sites would not open and it will work with LastPass, my password protection program, where in the past they didn't get along.
I think it might use more data than Google Chrome does and that will be a factor if I continue to use Firefox. Data is key to me.
Speaking of data, being a long time DirecTv customer who was bought out by AT&T I have been getting bombarded with mail offers, email offers to come back to AT&T for my wireless service along with bundling with Directv for some pretty big discounts. They advertise $650 credit which I assumed they would also pay my penalty fee for breaking a Verizon contract.
But that $650 was only a tease ... it is spread out over 30 months of credits for the new phone I would have to buy because Verizon iPhones can't be used on AT&T service. Besides all the money it would cost me to switch from Verizon and Exede to AT&T for UNLIMITED DATA on my phones and computers ... the speed is a factor. With Exede my download speeds are usually 12-19Mbps and most of the time above 15Mbps. AT&T says they will give me "up to 6Mbps" depending on strength of signal.
After googling "AT&T Wireless Reviews" .... I find unhappy customers all over the place and a lot of the complaints are the same ones I had with AT&T over 2 years ago when I made the switch to Verizon after 15 years with AT&T.
It might cost more but I'll stick with Directv, Excede Satellite Internet and Verizon for my phone. It will be interesting these next few years as AT&T gets rid of Directv DISHES and all their tv will be streamed over the internet with unlimited data. Of course it will start with cities and urban areas before it ever reaches us out here in 'the tropics' .... By that time I will probably have other tv options where I can still see all my sports without using Directv satellite dish and not be forced to switch to AT&T.
That's all for today. The hounds are in a deep sleep but will probably be able to wake up when I ask them if they want to go for a walk between the two baseball games tonight.
Fall weather is beautiful here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.
One last note about that "will the hounds ride again"??? As usual, today Heidi was in the passenger front seat as she and I took our trip to the local recycling center while Sadie and Stella stay home to watch the house. That's the normal routine for the recycling trip, so I will guess they probably will ride in the FJ again.
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