I have to remind myself that these really are "the dogs days of summer", it's normal for this time of year. I also have to remind myself that during last winter and all winters before ... I begged and prayed for days like this, wanting to trade 5° with a windchill below 0° for 90°+ "and I don't care how humid it is." So with that in mind, it wasn't surprising to feel a little 'heat' this morning around 8:30am as we took off for the first walk of the day. No, that isn't the same photo as yesterday but pretty close, of Sadie sprinting to the field.
Stella confirmed to me this morning that she definitely has a new routine as I predicted would happen last week. This morning was 'total ignoring' ... not even a response that she even heard me calling her as she walked next to the house heading north, then a sharp right turn up to the northern part of the yard. There was no way I was going to let her walk to the neighbors house.
I could tell though that as she made a opposite turn she was looking for a spot and luckily she did a complete 360° turn back into the field to relieve herself. I still had to walk her direction because as soon as she finished she walked right by the property pole heading north ... I had to jog across the field to make her change her mind. I never got all the way to her before she turned around ...
She walked along the edge of the yard and field as slow as possible. I may have gotten her to change direction but she was still going to show me who was in control as she walked in 'ultra' slow-motion all the way to the start of the path and then acted as if there was never a problem of her potentially escaping.
Sadie didn't care what Stella and I were doing ... she had her own plans and was into tracking scent.
How nice it is to let Sadie be on her own. When I let Heidi or Winston on their own during the walk, they might veer off a few feet from the path to check out something but would always keep walking without me saying a word. Stella just flat out refuses to move when she finds something. Not until I walk within a foot of her or touch her collar does she move in our direction.
Sadie showing that bloodhound speed she has as a ten year old.
It was harder than yesterday but I finally got Stella to move around the first turn. By this point in the walk I am almost exhausted ... not my legs or lungs ... my voice. Way too much verbal herding this morning.
I guess she was trying to prove a point as she walked right on the path by herself and slow as possible.
It was too hot yesterday afternoon to wash the Z4 and the same this morning. I like washing it in the shade with a cool breeze. I have about four more days to get that done before it rains. This time I WILL put the car cover back on it when I am not driving it.
The wind was not blowing but I found the leaves at the top of the ~100' Sycamore tree looking a little different. They were all facing SW, the same direction that our normal winds come from.
This was at the edge of the yard next to the field. I hate seeing this because it tells me the yard moles have returned ... I WILL buy and apply more grub worm killer to save my yard. I didn't do it last summer and it was a swamp as we tried mowing it.
Stella strolled in from the morning walk, very casual and not a care in the world. She would do her normal after walk 'cool down' ... some water, lick her legs and feet to get the morning dew off, then walk in and lean into my desk chair as she lowers herself to the floor to sleep, so I can hardly move if I need to get up. Later she will move her nap right up next to the kitchen island until it's time for her lunch. Rough life.
By 11am I knew I was going to have to do something today otherwise it was going to be a long slow day. I sensed a trip to the library might be in the plans. I also thought of taking the FJ out to check out some of the local area and see if I could pull over and takes some blog worthy photos. I seem to do most of my outdoor activity by 1pm ... unless I have cooler temps like I did on Saturday morning.
None of those possible plans happened.
After view today's Stage 4 of the Tour de France that I had taped from early this morning but fast forwarding through commercials and some of the race, I was about to leave for the library when I thought a short siesta might be nice. Three hours later all of us woke up and barley moved. It was like we had been hit with some sort of sleep chemical. Thinking the hounds would all run for the door to go outside, they got up from the cool wood floor in the bedroom and moved to their other sleeping spots in the living room and went right back to sleep.
Can the humidity sneak into the house and infiltrate the air conditioned room for them to act that way? Or just lazy like their slave? (me)
My recycling center told me of the changes in their industry when I stopped by yesterday. I am no longer allowed to drop off clean glass or even dirty glass ... no glass is allowed to be recycled. He told me China is paying a lot less money this year for paper, cardboard and nothing for plastic. In fact they have stop buying plastic from the USA. I have a bag of audio cords, electric wiring and plugs from past electronics that I use to recycle for fee but this time I was going to have to pay to have them recycled. I have a feeling within the next year I will be back to paying for garbage pickup and fewer things will be recyclable.
This morning after our walk while I was on the computer, I thought I felt a tick crawling on my leg which is normal after our walks but it was a flea !!!!! Hard to get rid of once they are inside the house. Not happy at all about that. I have found very few ticks on the dogs this year, even without their annual dose of Nexgard.
As usual I ran out of my data yesterday, one day before my billing period ends. I'll get a new 20Gb supply tonight at midnight. I used so much more date this month as I was downloading or uploading my CDs into iTunes. It wasn't that that caused the data increase but having to search for that album cover in Images so I could download that photo to iTunes to match the album. Most of the music had their 'album art' just a click away.
So although I have had free data from yesterday morning until midnight tonight ... photos load much slower, some websites load much slow because the download speeds are a little better than the 'old dial-up' speed, clicking a little over 1Mbps instead of my normal 45-48Mbps. So there are advantages and disadvantages to going over my data limit. Of course if I woke up earlier or stayed up much much later, HughGen 5 gives me an additional free 50Gb of data per month ... but only between 2am-8am.
We will take our 'pre-game' walk at 6:30pm, first pitch of the Reds game at 7:10apm followed up by watching the Cubs in San Francisco starting at 10pm local time. Maybe staying up late last night to watch the Cubs game is why I was tired today?
Asleep or awake, retirement is always good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.
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