Changes Instead Of Quitting

 

Over the 14 years I have had this blog there have been a few times I wanted to quit. Yet two things keep me going. (1) I like to write, even ramble at times but those times have been fewer since last November. (2) Readers still enjoy seeing the hounds and dogs.

Just like the seasons here change I was needing a blogging change. You have already seen the drastic change if you are reading this. Within 4 days I went back to the design/colors I had before. Feedback in the comments are allowed, good or bad or if you need more private opinions sent, send them to my email. That email address is listed under the Contact Tab.

Once I made that design change this morning, I decided I wanted to post something, although our activity lately has not been much in the way of writing about it or taking photos.

Saturdays stay the same in the fall as I spend time from 11am until I decide to go to bed, watching college football. While I watch, the hounds and dogs do this. Walther snores a lot and sometimes will drown out those tv announcers. In some cases that is a good thing. 

With the changes in time (daylight savings), or seasons or even weather ... my mind wanders. A lot at times and with an Photo Library in my iMac (actually an external drive) I can scroll through over 90,000 photos by year or month or day or name of hounds or names of dogs or names of places I have been or lived. 

That is what brought me back to this photo that I took sometime in 2016 where Sadie, Stella and Heidi could walk the field free and no leashes attached. I have to admit I miss those walks and I miss that small house I lived in. Just like I have missed every place I have ever lived from the beach in Southern California, the skiing in Breckenridge Colorado and the Pacific Northwest on Whidbey Island. Plus, my all time favorite place, the high desert in Sierra Vista Arizona.

Probably too much living in the past mentally, but great memories and I have learned to fight them off and move on.

Otherwise I would pursue a place like this down in Hereford AZ.

Or this place west of Bisbee AZ.

Neither of those places would be good for the hounds and dogs. It wouldn't be really good for my heart healthcare either. Now I am within 18 minutes driving in heavy traffic if healthcare is needed. There, in either place it would take an ambulance forever to arrive after a 911 call, if that were ever to happen.

Another trigger point I recognize is when this happens. Snow ... believe it or not this was just last Monday on November 10th. The mind and mood swings were drastic, from one extreme to another but I am lucky enough to recognize what is happening and let it pass. Let's just say I wasn't a happy camper. 

Five days after that snow, the weather was so nice outside that Walter went out in the yard to look around on his own. The other hounds and dogs did not lead him out the patio door. He stepped out, sniffed the air and went off trotting to the corner of the yard while I sat on the patio with my face facing the warm sunshine.

It was so cold on Monday I headed out the day after to Menards and picked up a new oil filled space heater. These had worked so well years ago when I used two of them to heat my small 938sqft house up north. I gave both of those away to my friend up the street when I moved to AZ in 2019 ... he still uses them in his garage during the winter and raves how good they work. 

But this one didn't seem to work as well as the older ones I had. Same specs, different brand.

By Friday I returned the oil filled heater in exchange for this electric heater with a blower. I could feel the warmth over 3' away while I sat on the couch while it burned off the new surfaces for future use. It will work fantastic.

You might be asking why use space heaters, don't you have a furnace? I do. But with natural gas costing me over $3.27 per therm and Center Point Energy telling me that rates will increase this winter ... I have decided to try to save some money with a different option. That cost per unit includes their overhead fees they charge me. Oh, that option worked well before years ago but then I had electric baseboard (1960s) heaters. Those space heaters cut my heating bill 2/3's. 

Center Point Energy has told all their customers as a favor they are going to give us a $3 credit on our next three bills to help us get through the winter months. How generous of them.

Some of you might remember when my electrical power was out from Sunday night to Thursday night in January from the snow/ice storms. I found out then just how much I can handle with no heat source. My camping clothing/gear still works along with the body heat from the dogs while sleeping. No, I will not buy a generator.

No ... the hounds and dogs were not in bed but with a closed door to a small bedroom, the temps were 6° warmer than the rest of the house due to all the body heat from the hounds and dogs. 

So the space heater is my protest against Center Point Energy based out of Houston Texas.

That one night of cold weather, the hounds and dogs were sleeping in their warmest places. In some cases they also slept closer to each other. I had thought this week of taking down Ava's crate but she and Walter still like to use the crate for sleeping.

Every day this week got warmer. By Saturday we were near 70° as I got ready to watch college football. My grass seed project did not go as well as I had hoped but there were signs of improvement which will mean less mud this winter with bare dirt.

I had just finished the 2025 Leaf Project Phase I when I took these photos. I tried something different this year and it took me only a total of 50 minutes for cleaning the backyard of leaves. On the side yard I took my mower back and forth ... pulling it backward on the return trip, spreading the leave toward the fence.

I did the same technique for this part of the yard and the left part of the yard ... the mower blowing the leaves all towards the back fence. Then I used a leaf blower to blow the row of leaves past the fence ... the backyard inside the fence was completely clear of leaves. 

I then took the John Deere mower outside the fence on two different trips in the same direction, blowing all of the mowed leaves up onto the berm. 50 minutes to complete the job. I will do the same thing for Phase II.

I have no idea why the grass is not growing in those bare spots. The bare spots came from the times I pulled up all of the large leaf Plantin and the crabgrass. That left bare areas in the yard. After that ... top soil and even a few bags of manure compost to mix the seed with.

I watered it twice per day with a hose. We had plenty of good warm sunshine and some rain. Still there were bare spots that I have reseeded with the warm temps in the forecast.

I found this is the best grass seed I have used in the five summers I have lived here. I just found out about it a couple of months ago and kept waiting for Lowe's to get it in stock. They never did. Menards had pallets of it. It is growing in nice and thick and so far has shown no damage from Walter's urine.

That seed is nothing but Perennial Rye Grass.

College basketball has started, so I have an overlap of basketball and football to watch. As I move closer to the winter months, I will get back to reading books and doing things on the indoor to do list. 

I continue to feel healthy. In fact, things feel normal again and most of the time I forget that the surgeries even happened. The pacemaker has gotten use to the body or is it the other way around. I still monitor my blood pressure daily like I have done the past six years. My next heart follow up appointment is in December. It will be interesting to see what the cardiologist finds out from an echocardiogram and if she tries to push meds on me.

Out of all the thinking I have been doing recently, triggered by weather changes, solar blasts, and good memories ... I always come back to know I am living in the best place possible for me, the hounds and the dogs. A nice small city that does not feel like a city and has everything I need.

Whereas years ago I'd drive 25 miles from home to get things I needed. In some cases, here those needs are less than 2 miles away. The yard is still great for the hounds and dogs as is the large house. Everything works out well here ... those moving thoughts just have to come and go when they show up.

There is not many things nicer than spending time on the patio under the warm sunshine listening to the birds and at times, someone else's dogs barking in the neighborhood.

Life is good right now, in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.