January 02, 2019

Retirement Life Is Easy !!!

I can get use to this great weather very easily. Just like retirement, it's another great day not to jump in that line of traffic 'flying' by the driveway and join them for another day at work. That is probably one thing I have never gotten tired of as I approach my 5th year ... FREEDOM !!! It is so much different to wake and start your day not having to follow a schedule. I can do what I want like the hounds do. Heidi and Stella basically dictate most of my schedule.
Even though the weather was great this morning for Stella and I on the walk, Heidi needed some extra sleep time. She did get up like we all do, had her breakfast kibble and then went back to bed. She likes to scratch the sleeping bag and blankets into the perfect spot before circling three times and laying down. She slept late today because I was up too late last night (2:36am) changing and fine tuning the blog.
I also found out this morning that the actual time on the clock isn't what dictates what Stella wants, such as her walk ... it is based on when she wakes up, and has her breakfast. For example, this morning we didn't start the day until 7:52am, much later than normal. So with her walk set to take place eight minutes after she woke up .... instead she went in the dark bedroom to sleep on the floor right after her breakfast (normal routine) ... an hour later she woke up, drank water to let me know to prepare for our walk.
Starting with this photo here I clicked on the screen in back of the camera to take the photos instead of using my view finder. Three reasons for that. One, I wanted to find out if my hands were really shaking during these morning photos that seem just a tad blurry to me. I wanted to see how hard it might be, since I have rarely taking photos like that. I will discuss the 3rd reason Friday or Saturday. :)
I was surprised actually how well the photos turned out with me not using the view finder. I also found out my hands are not shaking when taking the photos BUT when I pushed the shutter I noticed a few times that I was pushing in a way that my camera would tilt just a little to the lower left. It made me also wonder if my head against the view finder was a factor in moving the camera ever so slightly.
I have also been wondering if Stella's supplement, the VetriScience GlycoFlex Plus, was working or not. She is into her second bag. This morning I found out that the supplement really was working. She was running fast enough that at times I couldn't raise my camera fast enough to catch her running. By the end of the walk as she stepped into the yard, she ran and jumped into me wanting to play like she use to do with Sadie. We wrestled for a short time but there was no way I could take a photo of her with any kind of camera.
Stella was in what I call her tracking mood this morning. She spent a lot of time on the move with her nose to the ground. I let her go on her own and followed her after we made that turn at the corner of the woods.
I soon found out that she was going to lead me diagonally across the field. I had a hard time keeping up with her and for a few seconds I thought she might take off on me and head to the woods to the north. She did that a few years ago and I eventually found her in the woods. Sadie would always find her before I would.
With the 200mm zoom I was able to find her in the tall grass.
You can barely make out the worn path ahead of her made by deer traffic.
As she lagged behind me on the return path home, as I turned to get my camera ready to hopefully take a photo of her running ... she was already passing me on a full-speed run.
It was up to her whether we take the path that ends up at the north property pole by the yard, or take a left and follow the old path used for 20 years back to the house. This morning she headed left ... the scent was just too strong for her to pass up.
Verbal herding was needed here. Then some louder tone to let her know I wasn't a happy camper when she ignored me. She lifted her head to stare at me as if I was crazy, then slowly walked home.
Tuesday afternoon I decided to use only my iPhone 8+ camera. It does well with low light, close-ups and the 2x zoom ... but nothing more than that. I thought I took more photos than these two but college football must have shaded my memory from yesterday. Neither of these photos were edited in any way, straight from the iPhone.
I will be fine tuning the look of the blog today. Barney was nice enough to give me some feedback about the font color, something I wasn't keen on either. I fixed that but there are a few other things I want to fix that will require me to read to find my answer or use the free WordPress chat where their techie will give me the correct answer within minutes.

My priority is finding a way that all of the thumbnail photos on the home page are all the same size. When I inspected the element of the home page it shows the correct size is 200x200. So I have to find a way that any photo I add as a feature photo will be that size. In writing that I just figured out what I need to do, to make that happen.

My brain is on fire today with correct answers ... maybe it's the new year eh?

I signed up for and get the notices from USPS telling me the mail they are delivering that day or within the next few days. It makes a world of difference because in past years I knew I was losing some mail because I was getting too much mail in my mailbox belonging to my neighbors.

Today USPS is reminding me that society thinks I am old. I see the four pieces of mail I am getting today are for hearing aids, life insurance, funeral insurance and joint supplements. All will be thrown into the recycling bin after I take my name and mailing address off.

Since synchronizing my Garmin Connect app with the food MyFitnessPal app ... the food app is now adjusting how many calories I am allowed to eat, plus or minus my 1500 that I manually entered ... if I am not getting the amount of exercise that it believes I should be getting, based on previous activity ... it subtracts a certain number of calories from the 1500 for that day.

Some are reading this and saying "I don't count calories" or "That is not needed" ... but in my case it is. When I don't track the food that I am eating and counting calories I GAIN WEIGHT FASTER THAN EVER !! Plus it's like playing with spreadsheets I guess, in a sick way.

I still have the big urge for pizza and ice cream ... will I "fall off the wagon today?"

I just remembered since the font is now 'bone white' ... I will need to figure out how to change the color of a 'link' so when I do add links into my post you will be able to see them BEFORE you hover your cursor over them.

Well we are a little behind in our normal routine today ... the hounds are still sleeping and not howling or barking for lunch. Based on what I have seen so far, they will not want lunch until around 12:30pm local time, about an hour or so after their normal request.

I TRIED WATCHING SOME TV NEWS THIS MORNING ... 'tried' is the keyword there. By the time it took me to walk from my computer in a different room to the tv remote in the living room I turned it off mumbling to myself "I'm not going to waste my time with that shit."  (noticed how I tucked that period inside the quotation mark)  LOL

Well busy day ahead today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

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