A Break Between Thunderstorms

Saturday morning around 4:25am Ava decided all of us should get up for some reason. Before I could swing myself around and have my legs over the side of the bed, she had all the hounds standing wagging tails to get out of the bedroom. Walter remained sound to sleep through the confusion. We sped out through the house and all of them headed outside in the dark. While they peed I took this photo.

My friend called me while I was finishing up my Saturday morning post. She was doing her beach walk in Southport NC. She found a jelly fish and the blue one below had a different name and was dangerous but for the life of me I cannot remember what she called it.

 

I always thought I would end up living on the beach in retirement. I had lived near the water in Carlsbad CA and Whidbey Island WA but then other places too such as in the Rockies and the high desert of Arizona. Like anyone else, it is pretty amazing what changes life brings, even each day is actually full of surprises. I was told once the best picture you take is the one you don't ... There is always something going on it seems. 

Speaking of those changes, the southern border has changed a lot ... in fact more than I thought it could after the election in November 2024. The word got out fast "don't come" and they stopped. 

So many photos of the tornado activity Friday night through Indiana and Kentucky. Many of them are posted on Facebook via personal accounts or those sent to their local tv station. Sorry I don't have a name to give credit to this photo but it said it was taken right before it went back up into the sky saving this neighborhood from any damage, Columbus Indiana.

That path is my old neighborhood, where the hounds I lived. I did it one time in June 2008 but I cannot imagine getting two basset hounds and two bloodhounds I had living up there, into a small bathroom to protect ourselves. I was located south of Bloomfield, 12 miles east of Linton and about 11 miles south of Worthington. I have not seen any photos of the damage along that path but a few personal videos people took with their iPhones.

From the few videos I have seen of Indy Car practice this week and this video from trying to qualify Saturday morning ... it seems more of their cars are ending up airborne, ending upside down and landing in this position by car design. I wonder what changes were made in the structure of the 2025 model cars?

After a two month break from YouTube tv with all their cable channels I had to pay for and didn't watch, I finally made the decision to cancel them. That also stopped my habit of watching too much tv news at times, unless a game was on at the same time. So it has been pretty quiet the past two months. 

I've been getting most of my tv viewing from the four major networks with a small antenna, along with some streaming services.  I am not a big tv watcher. I had to buy a few of them to see a few shows I like. Between ballgames and two or three shows I like I had to buy AppleTv, Paramount+, Peacock. That is around $23 per month right there. 

With the announcement the other day that Fox will have a new streaming channel before college football starts in August, I will not have to go back to YouTube tv to watch the college football games. Fox will carry all of their channels but I am more interested in their FS1, FS2 and BTN for college football and basketball.

I am sure it will not cost as much as YouTube tv, $82.99 per month . I don't want all of their news channels either and will be stuck with them when I buy that streaming service for ballgames. I am hoping I can adjust their service or my tv remote to block their news channels.

Over the last 25 years I have always thought and enjoyed Direct tv satellite the best. I still believe that but don't use it anymore after leaving them in 2023 sometime. The picture quality has improved a lot for the streaming services but at times will hang up or flutter depending on the internet strength. I have high speed internet with Spectrum and another year's worth of the special of $29.99 per month.

Yet I would go back to Directv in a nanosecond if it were not for their high costs and the lack to negotiate prices like they use to. I would still need Paramount+, Peacock and AppleTv anyway for the games and shows I see now, on top of a huge Directv bill. The last time I checked ~$141 per month for the package I had last time and would need to see all the different games I am interested in. 

I mentioned the other day I was going to or had bought some lemongrass and some marigolds, mainly to cut down on ticks and mosquitoes. Whether that works or not I'll see in a month or so. I know this lemongrass grows 6' tall and as wide as 4' ... but it doesn't like hard clay ... it needs a sandy mixture so most likely I will have to move this from pot to pot as it grows instead of planting it somewhere near the patio. 

I mowed the backyard this afternoon with a good chance of rain tonight after midnight and if not then I doubt we miss the rain early tomorrow morning. It is 2/3 through May and we are still getting April weather. As of May 17th we have had 24.7 inches of rain. That's good for my yard project though. I need a lot of new grass and enough water to grow deep roots.

This is slowly filling in with grass. All of those bare spots are now showing small blades of grass. I imagine this time next year I will have more grass than I had planned and very thick. 

I started some tests with topsoil a couple of weeks ago and find the Scotts topsoil that has some ingredients to turf build, is growing grass better than the Timberland topsoil that looks like hard tan clay after a few weeks. Those areas do not grow grass well. So yesterday I raked up the hard clay into dirt and planted new seed, watered it and put straw over the top. I had a very small bale of it in my shed. 

This is the Scotts topsoil and even though I saw new blades of grass I tossed down some new grass seed. 

I am anxious to see how well the grass seed does under that straw. It will protect it from the hot afternoon sunshine those area cannot hide from. In between those two areas of straw is the GrowTrax mat that was rolled out, pinned to the ground and watered. 

A month ago I was trying this. That GrowTrax mat had seed, time released fertilizer and that green biodegradable mat to act like stray ... keeping the seed out of the sun and away from the birds. 

That mat was laid on bare topsoil that was covering a low spot in the yard that floods on top of hard clay. 

I cut those hydrangeas down to ground level last fall. They will be pretty tall a month from now. I think next year I will trim them in the fall but leave most of the bush in tact. 

The two or three rose bushes last summer were attacked by something and almost killed. I cut out all the dead stems last fall and that put those rose bushes at ground level.

I don't know what this is. It never blooms into any kind of flower. I keep it there only for one reason. The first year I lived here and was clearing out what I could of that flowerbed, the neighbor told me that plant had been here since the house was built in 1956. That story was passed down to her from her mother who is in her 90's and moved into their house soon after it was built.

I am the one that took out that missing deck end piece. The darker colored ones were the original, the lighter once I bought at Menards. They are supposed to change color after a month or two. Yes ... normally I would trim along that patio deck but the theme this summer is .... grow grass as tall as possible to build its root system with hopes of stopping the flooding in the backyard.

I know that the grass is filling in. It seems like after each rain we get, the bare spots decrease in number and those big green clumps of grass spread. I don't know how grass does that. I know it germinates and I know that each new blade of grass is like its own plant, a plant that spreads. As long as it grows and spreads, that is fine by me. 

It is such a relief this summer that Ava has outgrown or had decided digging holes in my yard was not a thing that made me happy. So far so good in 2025 ... she had not dug one hole in the backyard. 

Mowing the backyard in the middle day heat was a good test for my breathing issue. The nasal spray is working fantastic. I talked on the phone to my friend the other day for an hour and didn't cough as she pointed that out to me. I think it is all about taking products to reduce not only the mucus but also decrease the inflammation in my airways. 

I am tired but the cool breeze through the windows feels great. All the hounds and dogs are sleeping while I listen to the Reds game on the radio tonight. Their game is on FS1 which I no longer get since I canceled my YouTube Tv subscription. 

I took my Subaru to the dealer for service today. I am two days short of one year of ownership and right as I arrived at the dealership on the other side of town, my odometer barely turned over 2,000 miles total. Yes ... that is the right mileage. I drive when I need to and everything I need or the hounds/dogs need are within 2 miles from the house.

Big day tomorrow afternoon as I do my echocardiogram. I will be looking for three things on the report ... at what percentage is my heart working, are there any arterial blockages and how small or large is that gap of the aortic valve. 

It might be a good time to take a nap while I lay there. I cannot remember how long those echo's are but long enough to sleep, which they would not let me do. 

There were three of us this afternoon in the neighborhood riding our John Deere's getting our yards mowed in-between rains. 

So not too exciting. Walter is alive and has a pulse but for some reason today when I would turn to take his photo, he had disappeared. 

It's a beautiful May evening here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.