Minor Ice Storm Arrives

I have been receiving a few texts asking if I am buried in snow like the tv news shows. They have no idea what part of the US I live. I am in the midwest at the southern warmest tip of the state. What happens 15 miles north of me is much different than what I live in. I knew about the "ice storm" that was headed our way so it's no big deal. Actually I prefer what I have today, shown after this photo, compared to the non-stop rain and a flooded backyard I had yesterday.

Tuesday afternoon I am out driving the Z4 through the countryside in 66° weather. It stayed in the 50's yesterday until 1pm when the temp started to drop like a lead balloon. By early evening it was in the 20's and the ice storm was getting closer. The hounds, dog and I woke up to this today. Not bad but they predict 1/4" to 1/2" of ice by tonight. I have heard the ice rain every time I open the door to let the dogs out or back inside. 

I spend more time begging the two hounds to come back inside during cold weather. Walter will sprint to the door on his own once he is finished doing his job. Henry and Watson like to eat the ice. Today they can get that right off the yard where the past two days they have had to get it from their outdoor water bowl. That is what Watson is doing, trying to get the ice off the grass.

Looking this way I can hear the ice drops hit the trees. It is suppose to do this all day today and tonight so I am hoping those trees stay where they are and no power lines go down from the ice tonight. Camping gear is at the ready just in case we lose power later.

It was just last week the tree in front was removed. When I asked the neighbor how she liked my treeless front yard, she replied from her driveway that she couldn't wait for me to plant the dogwood tree in it's place. I might plant another tree but it will be away from the house if I do. I am thinking about a Japanese Maple away from the house and a little off center in the yard.

The light snow a few days ago caught me by surprise, leaving the FJ out in bad weather. Today it is clean and in the garage. I don't mind driving on icy or snowy roads like some do. I am thinking today might be the time to go out for lunch and beat the normal crowds.

It is not as cold as it looks. 27° feels like a heatwave. 

These photos were taken last weekend. They run from one end of the yard to the other non-stop and wrestle in between.

Henry has always gone for the back of the rear legs when wrestling. He still does that today.

After all that time outside last weekend, it was time to rest.

They sleep while I watched the early NFL Playoff game last Saturday.

Henry's breeder has a Facebook page that I follow. The other day she had a video of her latest litter of basset hounds playing. When the puppies in the video started whining, all three of mine woke up and took off running for the front door. They came back and as I played the video a second time, Henry and Walter figured out it was coming from my monitor. Watson was still at the living room windows howling at the invisible puppies.

A friend from Arizona asked how I handle the current weather. It's not bad really. I knew what to expect before I moved back and knew it could be worse than their average snow and temps. So far it has been a pretty mild winter here. I am doing the same thing I did in SV during the winters. People forget that out there it would drop on the 20s overnight, warm up to the 40's in the morning. It was still almost too cold to go bike riding. Then after 12 noon the winds would pick up to where it would be too windy and gusty to ride a bike, so in that case nothing is different.

I wear flannel lined jeans a lot more here along with doufold shirts with flannel shirts. While it gets up in the 40s here, out there is gets into the 60's sometimes 70's but the big difference ... the sun is hot out there even in the cooler temps.

Nothing new to report on the home front. Not a lot of blogging news. Out in Sierra Vista, the illegal traffic is the big elephant in the room. Nothing is reported in the papers that cover Benson, Douglas and Sierra Vista. Nothing reported on tv. Facebook groups report what is really going on in that area. Private citizens with photos and videos as proof or border patrol Facebook pages with the same. Cochise County is basically for drug transport. Everybody they capture are wearing camouflage clothing, carrying large backpacks. The others are busted inside trunks of cars, moving trucks etc. A lot going on down there that is not reported.

Watson continues to be a bloodhound puppy providing some days of pulling my hair out, what's left of it. He gets into so much stuff when I am not looking. I knew the breed before I got the puppy, knew what he could do and would do but he still drives me crazy sometimes. Walter is still the house guard and will let me know when Watson is doing something he shouldn't be doing.

So that is the latest update from "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.