With those higher temps came rainy weather. I was in somewhat of a predicament. After taking the Z4 out for a drive on dry roads the other day I did not put the car cover back on. With the rain on Monday and then a misty morning early Tuesday, the Z4 had light condensation on it, including the covertible top. I couldn't put the car cover back on with the car being wet.
The weather looked like rain about an hour away on Tuesday morning and by this morning those temps would be below freezing, in the low 20's. So if I did nothing I might have a car with frozen condensation or frozen mist covering the Z4 for the next week.
It was a good chance for the hounds to get out on their own and roam the field, while I took a chamois and dried off the Z4. It worked out and the car looked as if I had washed the car. After putting the cover on I decided to go ahead and wipe down the 'Countryman' although I don't expect to keep that car as clean on the outside due to it being my all-weather car and the black color.
It wasn't quite misting yesterday so the hounds and I did a test to see if the field was going to be too wet to walk. It had rained a lot the previous night and all through the night. I think Stella's facial expression tells that answer. We called the day off, while they slept, I read the books I got at the library.
This morning was a different story though. The ground had already frozen rock hard and Sadie was ready to go for her walk as soon as she went outside after her breakfast kibble. We know that is too soon because I have not had any coffee by that time. Plus today at 18°, we needed to wait a few hours for some warmth to hit our atmosphere.
It was still too cold at 10:42am, but Sadie was not going to let me forget what she wanted. It might just be me, but recently she seems to have become more demanding and wanting to walk much earlier.
A little after 11am we decided to take off. Sadie was thrilled and was hopping around doing 360° turns, too close for a picture ... while Stella took off for the field.
When Sadie turned and sprinted to catch up I could tell that both were high energy, which is usually common after they are shut up in the house for only a day.
I was only able to catch up with them on the way back. Only because they stopped to wait for me to catch up ... otherwise they were way out in front of me for most of the walk today. No calls for them to come on, they were on their own 'autopilot'.
About the time I walked to this point, the breeze from the NE picked up and I could feel the freezing wind. The prediction for snow tomorrow might happen. Although there is around an inch predicted that usually means half of that here in 'the tropics'.
Stella wasn't staying long in any spot today, so the scents must have been strong this morning. Even Sadie was finding it hard to keep up with Stella's pace.
Based on what I had seen so far, I thought it might be a possibility that once they hit the back edge of the field that they would take off non-stop into their 'no-fly zone'.
Stella locked into a scent and tracked it all they way down the property line.
After seeing that I was pretty sure they had found deer scents and would not stop until I yelled at them.
At about this point, I yelled "hey" ... that seems to be the new keyword that they pay attention to. They stopped immediately, both looked at me and then trotted my direction as I made the turn for home. It was colder than I could remember anytime this winter.
They flew by me sprinting, just like they started the walk ... but then stopped and waited for me to catch up.
After I moved further ahead of them, it turned out to be the perfect distance for these two pictures.
They didn't stop though ... not even at the corner ... they just kept on running, maybe they actually felt cold.
I picked up a couple of new books at the library yesterday and put one 'on hold', meaning it wasn't available at my local library but had 22 copies within the state library system. It will arrive at my library in 2-3 days. I am back in the reading mode with the holidays over, less college football and temperatures outside that are not to my liking.
I was curious enough to go back in my private blogs to read and find out what set off my urge to trade the last FJ. In fact I even went back to those few days in October when I decided to look for a replacement for the blue FJ and the reasons why. All of that information confirmed I made the right decision, I had forgot some of the reasons why.
Once I stopped scanning pictures that one Sunday a week or so ago, I guess I stopped completely. I haven't looked at the pictures since then, although they are sitting near the scanner and my keyboard. Since I have no plans for today or tonight except for a book that I can't seem to put down, I might scan a few pictures later today and come up with a new blog post about a past hound in the next few days.
I have several Arizona towns listed in my iPhone weather app where on one screen I can compare their temps/weather to mine. It's surprising to see just how cold it gets in the desert. Also it's not really hot anywhere that I can see but warmer than here.
I've gone way past the time for feeding the afternoon kibble. Sadie's face is about 2" from my right elbow as I type this and Stella is 3' away howling while Heidi has woken up and is outside the entry to this room barking.
Time to feed the hounds.
Freezing temps and sunshine here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.
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