Smoke From Canadian Fires

The smoke from the Canadian fires have reached all the way to Evansville Indiana today. My friend about a 100 miles north of me was describing this yesterday and if we get tomorrow what she is describing today, it will not be good. There is some rain in the forecast tonight so maybe that will change what is possible tomorrow. The photos do not really show just how hazy the sky is even with some editing.

I guess no matter how much I want to go bike riding this morning, this index number will keep me inside riding the bike on my indoor trainer. I rode a week or so ago when it was 96 and I felt no signs of bad air. Of course the particles are so fine that I am not going to see or feel them. With the 10 out of 10 pollen count added to this ... I'll be like the hounds and dog ... enjoying my air conditioned rooms inside today.

The past few days after the tornados blowing through the central part of Indiana on Sunday we had two days of high winds but they were blowing in from the WSW ... today, very little wind from the NE. It is so dry here that I pulled out my water sprinkler yesterday and watered the backyard. I can do it in three different sections and each section got over an hour of water. The grass felt much different this morning under my bare feet than it did yesterday. I will wait to see how much it rains tonight before I water again tomorrow. Clover is overtaking the Zoysia grass in the front yard as well in the backyard. That's good with me.

This is facing the NE ... no clear blue skies today.

Facing across the street ... towards the east.

The hounds could not figure out why I was outside with my camera so early in the morning. They had not see the camera in weeks.

Not sure what Watson's pose means.

My neighbor had her barn/shed painted last week. Her father built that decades ago. Supposedly there is a piano on the 2nd floor.

I took this for the hazy sky to the south of us but it also shows the white trim that was painted on the barn/shed just yesterday. She has been doing some major landscaping cleanup the past few days. To show you the type of neighbors I live with, she waved for me to stop as I was driving away. She wanted to ask me if the color of the paint she chose was okay with me. I told her it was perfect for a barn and looked great. 

She also apologized for all the stacks of tree limbs, brush, bushes in various spots of her yard and assured me a friend of hers was coming to haul it all away. Last fall when she was trimming that tall oak try she stood in the side yard asking me which limbs I wanted cut that were heading for the roof of my house. Who does that?

The neighbor on my other said asked me a few weeks ago or gave me a warning that she was going to be gone for a long weekend and would not be able to mow her yard until she returned, so she would mow it Monday instead of her normal Thursday. It was as if she was asking for my permission. I've never lived around friendly people like this until I moved here.

Walter and Henry still prefer to sleep during the Cincinnati Reds games I watch every night. 

Last week my friends asked me if I would be interested in a dog bed and tug ropes. They used these when they would dog sit their son's dog, who had to be put down last month. I told them I can always use tug ropes and I would also take the dog bed. I had not bought one for Watson yet because in the past he would dig and move his blankets so he could sleep on a bare floor/carpet. And ... I was concerned he would chew the corners of the dog bed although it has been a long time since he has destroyed anything by chewing.

I tossed the bed in the area it would be and let the three of them smell, mash, drag for their own inspection. Remember that for Walter to smell anything he presses his face into what he is smelling since his nose is so flat and takes a breath so deep you can hear it. Sorry those two photos are so blurry ... not sure what I was doing while holding the iPhone.

After moving his nose around literally every inch of that bed, snorting all the way with each inhale, he decided it was approved for him to lay on it and sleep. I went back to watching the game when I saw he was about to sleep on it.

By the time I was ready for bed he was back in his nightly corner waiting for me to throw his old sleeping bag in the corner. Every night he will walk around snorting, mashing and digging the bag into the perfect form for sleeping. This is the identical set up I had in Arizona ... next to the chest, in the corner of a bedroom doorway, across from the bed. When Walter arrived in April 2020, Stella was curled up on that same sleeping bag ... it didn't take long for Walter to sleeping right next to her.

The reason Walter was standing in the corner waiting for his sleeping bag is, Henry decided while I was watching the game that he wanted the bed and he wanted the bed flipped over. He had dove under the bed to flip it, and I moved it into position.

After a week or so when I get up in the middle of the night I see all three rotate their sleeping spots from the dog bed to the sleeping bag or Watson sleeping on the floor next to the bed that is under the ceiling fan. Last night around 4:25am, Walter was on the dog bed which I turned over last week to the sheep skin side, with Henry and Watson curled up in the corner on the sleeping bag.

It's good they get along.

So that is it for this morning. No riding outside. Nothing to do inside except to read books, search the internet or play Mahjong. As I glance out the window, the sun is trying awfully hard to break through the smoky haze without much success. 

Oh I will leave you with this. A friend of mine emailed this next picture to me. He was pretty sure I would like it. Well I laughed out loud and so have all the friends I have forwarded it to. It is perfect for any English Bulldog.

A hazy day in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana. Never take for granted when you have beautiful weather.