I Guess I'm Back

After a couple of weeks on 'blog vacation' it looks and feels like I might be back to blogging. I read all the comments and emails I received after announcing I was retiring from blogging. A newsletter was suggested to keep in touch but I finally decided, if I had time to do one of those I have time to do a blog post on occasion. 

I have always come back to blogging after a few times of trying to quit. The thing is I like to talk which leads to writing and I have always liked taking photos of my hounds and now dogs. 

One thing that really got me thinking about the readers that really enjoy just the photos of the hounds and dogs came to me last Saturday. 

I noticed in my Apple Photo Library, after years they returned the file names under each photo. Was it an update or did I click something that made them show up? I don't know.

When I went back before the year 2000 to see if the file names I manually changed at the time I took photos and saw they were still there, I grabbed another cup of coffee and started scrolling. By late Saturday afternoon I had scrolled through 82,000 + photos. It was like reading a book. Good and bad memories came back to me with the photos that I would click to enlarge and look at. 

It occurred to me then, how much I enjoyed looking through all those old photos and how I had received comments and emails over the years how much readers enjoyed looking at them too. 

Why would I yank something like that away from someone else's enjoyment?

So here I am writing again on a Saturday morning that is already hot and muggy before 9:30am. You will see the hounds and dogs have been enjoying their air conditioning these past few weeks and so have I.

I have a couple of news items and photos about them will be down below this list of dogs and hounds photos.

Crate training for Ava has been going good. This photo shows the day the test was about a closed door and how would she react. She didn't fight to get out, walked right in and never barked or cried once she was in there. In fact I think Walter was more upset that she was inside 'his' crate.

Like he has done in the past with other crates, Walter chewed at the two connections that keeps the door shut, trying to break Ava out of jail.

With that AC register nearby and a cold tile floor, this has been one of their favorite sleeping spots during the hot days.

Yes, they do share the crate at times. In this case I had to get to the store and Walter refused to come out of the crate when I had planned to leave Ava in the crate while I was gone. There is room for two as both of them sleep in the crate sometimes during the day with the door open.

That is a sign from Watson that he would like the thermostat temps turned down to a cooler temp.

That register blows out ice cold air in the summer and hot air in the winter. Needless to say it is a prime spot they argue over sometimes.

I will now write ABOVE the photo I am talking about for the "news" I am about to show. June 20th I'm walking down the hallway toward the bathroom when Walter has freaked out and is sprinting full speed from his sleeping position in the computer room. English Bulldogs are strong and with speed they are like a brick wall. (I can only assume the large horsefly that had bothered Watson outside a few days prior made his way into the house and either bit Walter or landed on him. The following morning I found that large horsefly on my computer desk as I sat down with a cup of coffee.)

The front of his face hit my shin and within less than a minute I had this lump on my leg. This photo was sent to two friends with medical backgrounds and both said I had a busted blood vessel. A day later I hear and read that I have a "Bone Contusion" and it takes 1-2 months to heal. I can walked. I have mowed the backyard inside the fence with the push mower and I have pulled weeds, probably not recommended that I do either of those activities after the way the leg and ankle felt and swelled up that night.

The last two mornings when I get up the leg and ankle feel almost normal but will eventually start swelling up again as I am in a sitting position.

I ice it and elevate it 2-3 times per day. The pain has finally disappeared these past few days. Since it is hot and I might not be drinking enough water, when I initially wake up can I see the 'real' swelling from the injury and not the big swelling from being dehydrated.

I will mow the back on the riding mower today if it doesn't rain. I will NOT get back on my knees to pull weeds and in fact I am going to try to stay off my foot as much as possible.

I have never heard of a Bone Contusion but I know what one is now.

Walter was concerned but after examining him I did not see a busted lip, if his face hit my leg, which I think it did.  I had a small drip of blood right after he ran into me, I believe from his front tooth. 1-2 months to heal is a long time for me. I have too many things to do besides just sitting around.

The storm recovery had been slow. My fence repair will NOT be done until mid to late July due to their work load. Another AT&T guy was here a few days ago holding his iPad up above his shoulders to take photos of those three large cables that are hanging too low. He also asked about the spliced fiber internet wire laying on my bushes and in my neighbor's yard.

He said a new work order would be submitted but no idea when they will make it out. AT&T cables are still laying across a neighbor's work shop's roof a couple of houses down.

The contractors for Center Point Energy finally showed up after I called the Operations Manager again to check on why they had not called like he said they would. When he asked for my address again I wondered it they were ever contacted the first time we talked. Then they get here and I find out they were given the wrong street address and couldn't find the yard damage they were supposed to fix!!!  

"Hey over here" ... luckily I caught one of the drivers and was able to show them what they came for.

Oil from the fallen utility transformer had leaked into the yard and was actually spreading and killing the grass. The other marks are from truck tires driving through fully saturated ground as they got back to the damaged pole.

He dug all the area out right below the roots of the "gold" grass and hauled it away and then returned with river bottom dirt to fill the area he had dug out and the damaged ruts in the yard.

Walter inspected their work on a late Friday afternoon. They were to return on Monday to till the dirt, plant seed and hide it with straw.

We had just enough rain over that weekend to settle the dirt a little before they showed up bright and early on Monday. They were finished with the job by 8am.

I watered it that Monday evening to get the grass seed started. Watson was not allowed outside until they were gone because he just goes crazy when someone he doesn't know is near his fence/yard.

A good rain showed up on Tuesday night but before that rain was some high winds that blew some of the straw next door. The following morning I raked all the straw back on the dirt, finished before it started getting really hot and called it a day. 

I cannot seem to convince my neighbor to take down his last tree in his backyard. They cut their berm down a few years ago but now I hear "it's not my tree to cut down" ... so once that rotten tree falls in a different storm in the future we most likely will be playing this same game again. Not happy about that especially when he does agree with me that the tree is rotting/rotten and will eventually fall across the power lines again.

When people have an attitude of entitlement because "we grew up here" ... not much I can do to change their minds. I have a few other things on the back burner I am analyzing with spreadsheets and their attitudes on trees and property boundaries might make that decision pretty easy.

So in summary ... it is hot and humid ... as it always has been in the month in July in Indiana as far back as I can remember in the 1960's. We lived in a brand new house during that time but without air conditioning, so I remember those hot muggy days/nights quite well.

The hounds and the dogs are all good.

The look of rain is teasing me today here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.