The Hounds & Dog Know It's Colder

Yes it use to get cold over night in Sierra Vista, AZ but when those same daytime highs were in the 50's the sun was much more intense than here, ~4,500 higher in elevation, it was warmer. Here you have to wear a coat during the day. It is interesting to see the hounds and the dog change their sleeping habits as the temps drop outside with a warm house inside.

The Bloodhounds Supervise My Saturday Morning

Stella did not run off during the 4 hours she was outside while I worked. She started by sleeping in the sunshine on the backside of the house, moved to laying in front of the Z4 to nap while I pulled weeds in the flowerbeds, then moved to the deep corner of the shaded carport while I washed the car. By the time I took this photo she was ready to move back inside for her afternoon nap, laying right in front of a floor fan.

By 1pm I was finished with a few things I wanted to get done. I washed the Z4 in the shade but pulled it into the sunshine after I dried it off so the top could be completely dry before I lowered it on my next drive. Since it's washed it will go under the car cover when it's not on the road. Actually all three hounds were outside for most of the morning. Right after the morning walk I pulled both vehicles outside so I could get the ladder out of the shed, for me to use to get on the roof.

If you remember Sadie cannot just lay down outside and relax like Stella. Her nose keeps her active but even she did not wander out into the field after our morning walk. While I was on the roof she inspected the burn pile. While I pulled weeds, she went back inside to see if there might be some bits of kibble that may have been missed for lunch. While washing the car she stood in the shaded carport watching my every move and finally gave final approval of my sweeping the Z4 parking spot. She never laid down once in the 4 hours were were outside.

We had an early walk this morning for the first time in a long time. I was up early because I went to bed early (11pm is early). At no time during the day did the AC ever turn on with the thermostat set at 74°. All the windows were open to pull in the cool temps.

I knew as soon as the morning walk was over I was going to get on the roof to check the gutters since I had some rain overflowing the side of the front gutter. The downspout was plugged with wet leaves on each side of the house so that was an easy fix. I also like to inspect the roof at times since my shingles are getting near their shelf life. I think they can make a couple of more years before I need to have a new roof put on.

From the way it looks, from 9am to 1pm looks to be a great time to finally get some things marked off on my 'to do' list. If the weather continues to be as good as it has been and as good as predicted I might get everything finished on that 'to do' list before my first college football game on September 1st. My world basically stops once college football starts and will start spinning again normally after the Final 4 game in college basketball next April. So things have to get done between April 7th an September 1st every year.

Stella was pretty active this morning with her nose. She didn't run anywhere nor trot but a few spots during the walk grabbed her attention. Of course verbal herding was needed to get her to move to get Sadie and I back to the house.

Sadie was of course herself just like every walk she takes. A million scents to check out and only one nose within our half mile walk.

Stella was positive there was something she just had to eat buried under a clump of mowed hay (June) and possibly at dirt level. She pawed at the spot first then moved her nose to get as deep as possible. I am not sure what it was because I saw nothing below her nose on the ground and when she raised her head she had nothing in her mouth.

Getting back to those weeds in the flowerbed. I never sprayed them with the weed killer I had because I had planned to always pull them out by the roots. With the base of cedar mulch and the black landscaping ground cover below the mulch ... pulling all the weeds out was pretty easy. I have changed to watering the Azaleas and the other flowers I planted last year (can't remember their names) in the mornings now instead of late afternoon/early evening. They are so far under the overhang they don't get a lot of the rain water when it rains.

As you can tell, Stella was in no hurry this morning. The temperature was cool, in the 60's, so she was going to take her time getting back to the house.

By late afternoon I had watched the last real race of the Tour de France that was taped early this morning. Tomorrow is the last day but is more of a ceremonial trip in Paris. Then I took the Z4 out for about an hour drive through the hills and curves on the highways in my local area. I have a lot of different routes I can pick from and a couple are fantastic sports car roads. The car ran as smooth as it ever has. Not bad for 15 years old car.

Early game tonight in Cincinnati, so it might be another night of getting to bed early, at least for me. I am thinking that tomorrow morning after the hound walk, I will finish a job I started in May 2017 but didn't finish due to hot weather last summer, then college football season on tv, the the frozen winter ... that is scraping the trim where needed all around the house, apply primer after that and then paint the trim color on Monday morning. Most of that work will be inside the carport.

The days continue to be fantastic weather for this time of year in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Make History

I cannot remember the last time the hounds and I completed our morning walk before 8am but I know for a fact it has never happened in the months between November to March. Therefore I am declaring history was made today as we stepped into the field at 7:26am with the temps at 49°. Sadie was going wild tracking scent and moving faster than my camera could catch. I ended up with not one clear picture of her until we got to the first corner.

As usual, Stella stayed behind and did her own thing but Sadie made up for her being away. Her nose was to the ground almost immediately, moving in and out of the brush along the edge of the field. I thought the chances were good to see some early morning deer but it never happened.

 

I was the reason for the early morning start. It's what happens when you go to bed early, you wake up early. What a concept that must be but it will not become a habit with me. I am a late night person by nature so evidently it was time to catch up on some sleep. I tried to get back to sleep at 5am and finally gave up at 5:27am ... then headed to the coffee machine.

That did not bother the hounds though. The house was still dark as I tried to turn on the least amount of lights as possible. They slept for the next hour before they realized I was up and the day had already started. Heidi was in such shock that she had to be talked into having breakfast an hour early because she didn't want to get out of her sleeping bag.

I am enjoying this 'heat wave' we are getting here in the Midwest. I did a road trip yesterday in the Z4 and may have been able to do the trip down to my friends house with the top down but kept it up. While driving my car thermometer was saying something like 66° with the sunshine beating down on us.

I took the same freeway (interstate) that I took in September where I had plastic parts under the car destroyed. After 300 miles of driving since I repaired everything, nothing has moved and the grille that is a few inches above the ground is still attached to the bumper extremely tight.

The trip wasn't planned but after changing the oil filter yesterday combined with the warm weather I was feeling a long road trip was due. I was going to make the same trip on Friday but was sick that day. By the time I left just after noon, the hounds had been fed their two meals for the day and had two walks completed by then.

They slept most of the 7 hours I was gone. Again, Stella did not destroy anything so her separation anxiety may gone for good. She came with that issue and I was warned about it when I picked her up in August 2015.

There is one good thing about Sadie that is different than Stella ... when she falls behind during the walk I never have to call her. She will eventually come running as fast as she can to catch up with me.

That doesn't mean there isn't a scent that she has to check out, where she stops abruptly and turns around while running full speed.

I caught myself playing around with different browsers yesterday morning. Just in the past few days it has been taking a little longer to load pages. I don't know if Safari has added something new behind the scenes that protects against fake/spam websites but my download speed has decreased from 47Mbps to 33-35Mbps on a consistent basis. It did have those new features with their updated macOS a month or so ago.

When I looked at Firefox for updates, they had released their new and faster browser called Firefox Quantum. I had to try it. I looked at the same websites I normally look at so I could compare it to Safari. Safari had improved their download speed when they released the new macOS but this new Firefox browser was much faster than I currently was using ... I made it my default browser to see how the new system works.

Firefox has always seemed to use more data than Safari so I'll be able to compare data usage over the next week to see if that is the case.

Looking toward the north after Sadie had ran a large loop out in the middle of the field. Stella is nowhere in sight up ahead.

By this time I thought Stella had disappeared. I couldn't see her anywhere but Sadie led me right to her. She is hard to see when she is in the middle of the dormant hay.

With the hottest day yet predicted this afternoon I plan on washing the car by hand. I never take the Z4 through the car wash and since it's in a carport I always cover it with a car cover. It only takes a few minutes to take off and on but keeps all of the dust off the car that is carried in the air by the traffic 100' away and the fields.

I am hearing from a few friends that they have bought the new iPhone 8. One blogger has bought the iPhone X and has blogged a lot about it. If you can live with smaller screens, the iPhone 8 and the new iPhone X would be a great computer replacement. I tried downsizing one time years ago when I went from a desktop to a laptop. The Gateway laptop that was being advertised as a desktop replacement. That was over ten years ago when I was using a PC.

Still I will never downsize because I am addicted to my two 27" monitors that sit side by side. I still use my laptop, and the mini tablet plus the phone all in different ways. I had the iPhone 8 in my hands yesterday while visiting my friend and I must admit, it's an amazing piece of technology.

I have no plans to upgrade my iPhone to the new model.

Stella may take her own time or go her own way during the morning walk but by the time she hits the backyard she always seems to look satisfied that she had a great walk in her view. It's on to some inside play with Sadie and her feature this morning as been her Nylabone.

She will still fit in a nap before lunch is served.

Yesterday at noon we did our 2nd walk of the day. At that time I wasn't sure I was making the 100 mile trip south because my friend had not called me back yet to tell me if he was going to be available. So with Stella on the leash, I took the iPhone 6s with me and took some photos with that while we walked. Here are a few of them from Monday afternoon.

After downloading these photos from the phone to the computer I realized I did not have to edit any of them and in fact they looked sharper than the pictures I take with my Nikon. Tell me what you think and if you can see the difference in the 11 photos shown below.

I had to put the retractable leash down so I could hold the camera with two hands on this one. All the rest were taking with one hand while my other hand held Stella's leash.

Stella is dying to go for a ride with the top down on the Z4 but there has never been a hound inside the Z4 to ride. She was about halfway in the drivers side door when I first bought the car, thinking she would climb over into the passenger seat. How can you refuse a face like that?

I know it's a different time of day so the colors are better due to better light ... but the sharpness and clarity is much better than my larger camera. Remember I did not edit any of the last 11 photos.

I can feel a busy day is in store here today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.