We Have Survived Single Digit Temps

The temps dropped fast Saturday night heading for a low of 5° by the next morning when I slid the patio door open for the hounds and dogs. Just as it was forecasted, it arrived. The only saving grace was my weather app that comes with the iPhone, was showing me it would not last long. As I write this Monday night at 5:30pm CT, the temps are up to 33° and it feels like a heatwave outside.

It has been a month of normal activity around here. As usual nothing exciting to blog about so this is mostly just an update with a lot of photos of the hounds. Same stuff different day as they say. With five dogs/hounds they each know that seating is at a premium if we all want to be in the family room. Most of the time everyone knows which seat is their's but they are flexible when someone else is taking their seat. 

Most of the time the seat on the far right of the couch is reserved for me, their professional door man. 

Hard to believe we had some rain a few weeks ago. I was getting flood warnings on my phone but that never pertains to me, just those around 6-8 miles away and closer to the Ohio River. I will say though, it rained enough a few times to test my backyard for large amounts of standing water like last year. So far that flooding has not happened.

You can see what zoysia grass does in the winter ... it turns brown/tan.

My long time friend of 55 years and my ex wife sent me a couple of small loaves of homemade sourdough bread. Luckily I didn't have a full tray of butter otherwise those loaves would have been gone fast. One was a cinnamon/raisin swirl ... good stuff. Needless to say once I bought more butter those loafs of bread didn't last long.

A few weeks ago I took off the Bush Guard Bumper from the FJ. At first I thought it would be nice for any potential deer running out in front of me or driving through any store parking lot during this holiday season. After a few weeks I decided I would rather sell it.  It was too heavy to ship so I decided to list it for sale, local pickup, on Facebook Marketplace because that is free, unlike eBay. I needed to get it out of the way to minimize any possible drool from Cletus. He is in the garage eating his two meals per day. Little did I know I had a good rack for the snow shovel and brooms.

I didn't expect it to sell and I have only seen a few FJ's in the local area so I decided to let it sit for sale as long it was here. Maybe I would get lucky and sell it months from now. I also had it listed on an FJ Forum but nobody that I know of lives in the same area as I do.

I don't go to Facebook a lot. I don't have the app on my phone, so unless I sit at my iMac and log into Facebook I do not get any email notifications ... not really good when you are trying to sell something.

Sure enough I see I have a message from two days before I log in ... someone is not only wanting to see it, they are wanting to buy it. This man drove over 5 hours to get here last night, pick it up and drive back home.

Before this polar blast Sunday, the weather overall had been pretty good yet they were telling us we were about 17° below our normal temperature. It was still warm enough for me to take care of the leaves in my backyard and my neighbors yard. The wind last week took care of what little leaves I had left.

Yes ... it looks like Cletus had been eating something in the dirt. For some reason he THINKS something below the dirt is good enough to eat, yet he will always come to the door when I scream "Cletus get your ass inside" while I catch him in the act of eating dirt in my yard. 

How can you get mad at a hound like this.

Don't let Henry fool you. He is not as innocent as he looks. I caught him with Cletus yesterday at 7° outside doing what ???? .... chewing the top of the dirt patch that was frozen hard as a rock. Trying to scape it up with their front teeth. Cletus came when I called but Henry as usual, turned, looked at me and sat where he was.

Temperatures do bother Ava until she barks one time to be let back inside. She loves it outside day or night. 

This is a rare sight but with great weather a few weeks ago I caught Walter drinking water from the outside bowl ... he hardly ever does that. 

My friend Ara, an old blogger some of you may know, thought I might like Home Chef. This photo might help you remember who he is. He no longer blogs but has a great story for those that do not know of him. 

You can see his blog here and be sure to click the link to buy his book that was written ten years ago. An amazing story. He spent 14 years on the road with his dog Spirit and that motorcycle. 

We had been talking about ways to save money on groceries. I was looking for something, meals that would be put together and all I had to do was pop them in the oven ... I ordered what I thought I needed but I found out when they arrived, I had to put them together, cut veggies etc .... With the first month discount I was looking about $5 per meal and high quality food. 

I went with their four meal plan per week, each meal having two servings. It was going to take about 20 minutes from starting to my plate, which was okay. The main thing was I was getting a meal not a snack. For some reason lately my days were all snacking and no dinners. Was it the cold weather ?? Don't know.

Some of you may remember over the years I have tried different online deliveries. Mostly for beef and chicken. So this was a little different. Just enough ingredients for four meals.

I knew when it came with recipes this was not what I was wanting. I was wanting this much food but I just wanted to unwrap it and put it in the oven. Ara and I found out later when he tried those meals, different than what I ordered, they were too small of quantity and didn't taste nearly as good as these meals where you put together.

Not much different than I can buy at the store and in fact very similar to what I had fixed in the past and cheaper than the cost of this meal ... but one big difference. That sauce was really good and made the meal very tasty.

Day Two I open the bag of veggies that go with the meal and immediately see what I consider a red flag. Old looking broccoli on the ends. I cut that off then inspected the rest of the batch and more red flags.

Would you eat this even if the bad was cut off? 

What about this? I tossed it and fixed the broccoli I already had in the fridge that I had bought at the store. The meal was tasty but after two meals I realized all I had to do was buy the same stuff at the store and spend time at home putting a dinner together like I always have and to get away from snacking.

Meals three and four were not eaten. I wasn't in the mood on those days for ground pork and more chicken. The hangup was they let you know with each meal that I had to cook the meal within 4 days after receiving the box of food, one meal I had a 5 day limit.

After discussion and comparing notes, both Ara and I decided Home Chef was not the way to go. 

Barely hanging in there, blurry photo and all. Next spring I will replant them into one pot. You cannot see it clearly but each one has new sprouts. 

Walter's a champ ... that is his corner in the computer room and he likes it so much he spends most of his days there. Lately he will jump up on the couch next to me while I watch a game or movie. The past week he has fallen in love with the great blanket I bought at Costco a few months ago for $19. So much that he sleeps out there all night. 

Cletus has gained a lot of weight this past year. He wasn't skin and bones when I got him but the handler was hoping I could add some weight on him. He loves food, so gaining weight has not been hard to do.

I cannot think of anything better than this. Warm, sleeping, team is winning on tv and Walter is snoring so loud I can barely hear the tv announcers. LOL

There is the blanket I was talking about. I am going to buy another on Thursday after my Cardiologist appointment. She scheduled this last May and it lines right up with a 6 month followup. Costco is just a mile or so away from the VA Medical Center so that gives me an excuse to stop by ... I have plenty of time on my hands so I don't care how big the crowd is. 

Ava continues to show me her level of intelligence. She is not growing as fast as I expected. Anyone know how many years it takes a German Shepherd to be full grown?

I came back from getting a glass of water and found Henry had taken my seat. Luckily to the right of the now infamous blanket there was a seat open for me. 

Hard to believe that Watson will be five years old this summer. Won't let me cut his nails without a wresting match and flat out refuses to get into any kind of vehicle. He is too big for me to handle now. 

Every time that Cletus finds a spot, then walks on it in a circle for at least five times before laying in that spot ... I wonder what it was like for him when he was running loose in a small town for two weeks before they could catch him. Where did he sleep? Where did he get his food and water? It was in the middle of summer so it had to be really hot. Is that two weeks why he drinks water non stop once he finds it in his water bowl now? Best guess he is a few months older than Watson. 

Those three photos are the day after our light snow on December 11th and before the polar blast on Sunday. Will January be brutal weather like last year since this December has been pretty mild this year?

You can count on Cletus being here every morning after his breakfast, a trip outside, more water inside ... he will sleep there until Ava wakes all of them up with her "chirping" to get them up and outside a couple of hours later.

This is the baseball field in Indianapolis, home of the AAA Indianapolis Indians the farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The story behind this in interesting. First that IU symbol was for them playing the Big Ten Championship game a few weeks ago in Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts. 

The second part of that story is, the man that made this works for the Indianapolis Indians as the manger of their ground crew. He is a graduate of the hated rival Purdue. Indiana beat them this year at their stadium 56-3 ... yet he was professional enough to make this symbol of the opposing team and in the snow. 

How do they do things like that and get them straight?

This is an amazing sight in so many ways. #1 Ohio State with a history of great football for a hundred years and #2 Indiana the losingest team in the history of college football until mid season ... as they were wining games they moved up to 2nd losingist in the history of college football with Northwestern taking that lower spot.

I am old to give you some idea of my view, excitement and disbelief ... my dad was a '53 graduate of IU so I grew up hearing about IU and going to a lot of basketball and football games as a young kid. The first game I can remember is 1961 as a 9 year old. 

Since that time I have sat through a lot of games watching bad teams, teams that would lose the last quarter or even the last minutes. I have sat in pouring rain, some snow, sober after my college days and when it was in the 90° ... I have watched more games on tv yet have traveled to Baton Rouge, Tucson, Seattle, Champaign, Lafeyette and the 1968 Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

To give you some idea just how long ago that was ... OJ Simpson was a sophomore running back for USC in that game. I still have my ticket stub, program, a small transistor radio they were selling and the Indianapolis Star Newspaper souvenir  issue.

NEVER in my wildest dreams did I ever think that was possible. They are ranked #1 now and play January 1st in that old Rose Bowl in the College Football Playoffs. The winner between Oklahoma and Alabama.

Paradigm makes you think "Indians Football" cannot be as good as their record. It is hard to imagine they are good enough to win the College Football Playoffs. IMO they will win because in the eyes of this old high school QB I can see they are a great team and they have a fantastic coach.

They have lost two games in two years, both last year at Columbus Ohio vs Ohio State and at South Bend vs Notre Dame in last year's playoff. They are 13-0 this year and are still doubted nationally that they are good enough to win. 

Like I have told fans from Ohio State, even if they beat us in a rematch it will still not take away what this team and coaching staff has accomplished. They cannot take away the joy, excitement for the IU students, the town, the alumni and fans all over the USA ... nothing can erase that. 

Honestly I think they win it all, no doubts. If I am wrong then so be it.

Money is ruining college football and also the transfer portal where players can leave for a new team every year. For those that don't know, they can be paid now legally. For instance, 60 Minutes had this IU story on tv last night and mentioned on the whole program, which would be players, coaches, building upkeep, support staff etc ... they had spent $90 million dollars this year.  

Believe it or not hat is much lower than most of the "Blue Bloods" of college football. 

TV Contracts pay each school of the Big Ten around $70 million per year, which is used at Indiana for all their 27 teams, men and women's. 

I saw this the other day ... this is money spent just on players, shall we say "salaries" ???

Fans of other teams suspect Indiana's success is due to Mark Cuban, an IU alum, buying a roster. Well he just started to help in NIL this past summer but notice, Indiana isn't listed in Top 10 of roster payroll.

Another report where I did not copy the screen shot or image .... In 2023 Indiana spent a little over $61million on its football program and won only 3 games and fired their coach at the end of the 2023 season ... $61 million and still lost.

The college football that I have loved my whole life is gone ... it's so close to pro ball now some of the "love of the game" is smeared in my head.

Yet even with that "smear" internally ... these last two years have been the best of my life as far as sports go. I was a student at IU when they went undefeated 33-0 and won their 5th National Championship in basketball ... but this ... is simply mind boggling.

This was just sitting on a table today while the QB that won the Heisman Trophy was answering questions from the press at Indiana's facility. It will be moved into the trophy case and instead of going home with Fernando Mendoza like most do with past winners .. He says this trophy is the teams not his, it's the school's not his, it's the town of Bloomington's not his ... so it will be in with the other trophies as the very first Heisman Trophy winner in Indiana Football History.

Back to that Rose Bowl my dad took me to in 1968 ... I was 15 years old at the time ... the stewardess were all women back then and for that flight from Indianapolis to Pasadena, they wore buttons "Kiss Me I Am A Hoosier" ... needless to say as a 15 year old I had died and gone to heaven. LOL

John Pont was the head coach of that Rose Bowl Team.

The radio still works. My program and ticket stub are packed away with sports memorabilia somewhere in the closet.

So that is my update for the past month. BTW I have told Walter every game for the last two years "Walter your ****** Hoosiers have won again. His eyes move towards mine with that stare of his, letting me know he understands. That really is a true story. 

Blood thinners makes me feel cold most of the time, no matter the temperature or how many clothes I have on or how much the heater is on.

Still things are great here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana. Merry Christmas everyone!!