An Amazing Afternoon

It was the surprise of all surprises today. I'm sitting here typing this around 5:30pm and it is still 55°!!!!!! outside. I heard the weekend forecast say the word snow just a few days ago. Besides being blasted by the heat wave this afternoon it was full of activity. From some computer work, a hounds siesta, Stella getting attacked, Heidi sunbathing and ending with the slowest bloodhound walk in the history of walking hounds, the day covered all kinds of activity. Plus I was able to stay on course with my eating changes.

When I let Heidi and Stella outside a few minutes after their early lunch, they were almost in shock about how warm it was. I had overdressed just by putting on a light jacket but Heidi could barely move off the carport. Stella checked out the backyard but after sniffing the air for a few minutes she decided she wasn't ready yet to stay outside.

Stella always needs an after lunch siesta before she can consider any kind of activity. That has never changed since the first day she arrived in August 2015. While the hounds slept I decided to make a couple of adjustments to the Google Chrome browser as well as my computer. I flipped back to the 'dark mode', put the picture of space on my second monitor and a black and white photo on my main monitor as desktop images.

I like the feature that Apple offers, it seems easier on my eyes. I still had to find a way to implement the 'dark mode' on Google Chrome so I did search for "google chrome dark mode". I had my answer in less than a minute and had the Google Chrome theme installed even faster.

Heidi slowly explored the front mulch area one inch at a time, going all the way to the left side and then back to the right all the way to the end of the house.

While Stella roamed in the field I decided, with my camera in one hand, I'd walk around the backyard and pick up all the small tree limbs blown down the other night. I added quite a few to my burn pile. The pile of tree limbs is now almost 6' high so the flames might be an all-time record.

I let Stella wander the field even though I thought there was a pretty good chance I'd be pulling those small burrs from the dead ragweed out of her coat. As  you can see she was heading in the direction of the all that dead ragweed when I took this picture.

After deciding the front yard was okay, Heidi headed for the backyard. Would she take a walk with Stella and I this afternoon?

It was at this point I could see Stella was being attacked by all of those small dark brown burrs. This wasn't going to be pretty by the time I finished the limb pickup exercise.

When Stella ignored my calls I started to walk her direction. I knew it was going to be bad but I didn't know just how bad she had been attacked. You would think with all the bad weather and all the wind those burrs would be gone by now.

Add twice as many to the other side and about the same amount on her neck covering her chest and only a few in her tail plus in the armpits of all four of her legs. She always stands still for me to pull each of them out and toss them in the field .. but she has never figured out why I am so excited doing it. She accuses me of mumbling to myself.

The day was so nice I couldn't resist taking an early afternoon walk. I checked with Heidi one last time to see if she wanted to go with us but she had found her spot for sunbathing. It was going to be nice and hot and when I asked if she wanted to go, she laid down. I took that as a no.

I didn't know at the time that Stella was going to set the all-time record for the slowest walk in dog history. She made the walk so slow that I don't believe that video would have been able to catch it.

She was just enjoying some nice warm sunshine, thinking that it was Spring.

Heidi thought she heard something but didn't know it was us. More and more lately I've noticed she has lost some of her hearing.  While other times just the sound of a fork toucing a plate will startle her.

Stella didn't know the plan was to sneak up on Heidi for some photos. She wasn't sure why I was walking slowly around the fence and down the short incline.

When I called her name, she looked in a different direction. Is that a sign of hearing loss?

After many attempts of calling her name she finally figured out where I was and walked slowly over to the driveway and up the hill.

After having a 10oz New York Strip steak for lunch I was not hungry the rest of the afternoon and so far I have not had the urge to eat a dinner. I'll probably have a salad and that will be it for today in the eating department. I DID make a simple spreadsheet like I mentioned this morning. It's going to work out so much better than writing a journal about it. I can see improvement just with a glance at the spreadsheet.

I went online to check out the availability of some books at my local library. One nice thing is I can have any book shipped for free from any other library in the state of Indiana and pick them up at my local library if they do not have it in their inventory. They notify me by email or text, my choice. I found 3 books I've been wanting to read but always forget them when I am at the library looking around. I finally pulled the Notes app up so I can remember what I am looking for. I'll pick those books up tomorrow.

Also while the hounds were sleeping and before our time outside, I tuned into two tv shows I always tape on Monday nights. I watch them later so I can fast forward through the commercials. I've mentioned them before but I really like the shows Bull and Hometown.

I've still stay away from the news on tv. I'll watch the IU basketball game tonight at 9pm but will do some reading up to game time. It's not a surprise how much better the days seem with bright sunshine and temperatures 30° or more, warmer. We needed a day like this.

Spring is right around the corner here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.