Some Friday Morning Rambling

As you know I am a night person, if you are a long time reader. So it wasn't a surprise to me last night when I had the urge to go grocery shopping 12 miles away at 11:45pm.

That meant the hounds had to be woke up from their deep sleep and 'ask' them to move to the bedroom, where they stay when I leave the house. All three hounds reluctantly agreed but it sure did look like Stella was still in a dream state as she slowly walked toward the bedroom.

Of course whenever food is involved they are always wide awake and that didn't change at 12:30am while I unloaded the groceries. I could feel as I opened the door for the first time this morning that those predicted warm temps had arrived. The hounds loved it too, as they moved into a new area for them while I was inside making coffee.

Once the brush grows back this spring, that pathway will be closed and solid green with wild berry bushes, thorns and tall weeds. They will not venture in that direction until next winter. Still it is a 'no fly zone' for them.

Stella finally walked out on her own but it took me many times calling her name before she would move. She always comes but she will take her own time doing it. Her DNA has a heavy dose of 'bloodhound stubbornness' listed in her AKC description.

Like everyday, after a couple of cups of coffee and morning internet reading, we took off for our first of two daily hound walks. Stella was pretty excited this morning, showing more emotion than usual. Sadie had already sprinted to the back of the field directly behind the house. You can see from the brown grass just how busy the moles have been in this warmer than normal winter.

It felt good this morning, around 50° with no wind. A ski cap and light gloves were needed with the GoLite 800 jacket. To think it's going to be in the 60's later and stay that way for the next 10 days is fantastic. Is it too early to do some spring yard stuff in February?

I've tried a few times to show how steep the wooded area is just off the field. I walked into that small area of woods today to get a better picture, different angles. Yet after downloading them into my computer and looking at the large size version I still have not captured just how steep it is to the bottom of the wet wooded area.

A lot of trees have been blown over in the past years. I didn't hear all of them fall but I was surprised just how many large trees had been blown over. All due to high winds and a very very saturated base.

This is the limb where the unidentified animal feasted on the tree bark and some of the wood. One reader suspects it's the action of a porquepine.

I took this next picture standing right next to the limb instead of a zoom shot from the field. That's a lot of eating.

While I was inside the wooded area the hounds did not follow me but stayed out on the edge continuing their morning of gathering intel. Between their noses and mouth, everything will be identified and stored for their future reference. They can't let just anyone or anything in "their" field.

It's good once again to see Stella continue walking in our general direction instead of just all out ignoring Sadie and I.

She always looks like she is disappointed whenever she walks but that is just her look naturally as a bloodhound.

They didn't waste time this morning and rarely stopped. It was like the field was full of new scents even though we had just walked the field late yesterday afternoon. They were in constant motion.

With the sunshine giving off a little warmth at 10am, I could see from the sky it would probably be the first time I take the Z4 out with the top down in 2017. That will be later this afternoon when the temps hit the max high for today. I'll probably do my 42 mile loop out through the country. The return trip is on a highway that is smooth, you can see forever and increase the speeds to the point of giving the I6 engine a workout and blow out some of the winter cobwebs.

I followed Sadie and Stella up to through the far right corner. Stella followed us without me calling her name. It will be nice to see all of this green again. I've never been a fan of the winter dormant colors.

The past few days I have been driving the Mini Countryman in the 'sport' mode. With a push of a button, the steering gets tighter, the gearbox gets smaller, the acceleration faster and a slight feel of a sports car from the All4 Mini SUV. It feels great when driving in that mode but the real sports car was sitting back at the house and once again confirmed why I will not sell the Z4.

I say that because I did think at the time in early December when I traded for the Countryman that I would move to a one car garage for the first time in so long that I can't remember. It seems like I have always had more than one car since ... let me guess ... 1995. Yet every time that I drive that Z4 I know there is no way I can sell it.

I saw last night where Al over at the The Bayfield Bunch is getting use to Blogger's format in posting and uploading his pictures. He has been having trouble with Live Writer and Picasa. I started this blog in 2011, deleted it a couple of times but rescued it within the 60-day window to not lose everything. I've tried Wordpress and like that platform a lot but there are advantages of using Blogger ... once you get a template designed the way you like it.

Another blogger I read had his Apple computer crash the other day. He is not sure if he has lost everything or not. I have around 22,000 pictures on my hard drive and backed up on an external drive for those 'just in case' moments. But he has thousands more pictures than I do and many more posts in his blog history. He will find out today what happened.

I think for us Apple users, something happened in their last OS update. Since that time my iMac has been shutting down and restarting on its own while it is in the sleep mode. That is usually a sure sign of either a virus or someone has control of your computer. Running BitDefender showed me there were no viruses or malware anywhere on my computer.

Then this morning I clicked on my 'Contacts' folder to add a new email address and my address book was blank. I checked all of the setting and every block that needed checked was checked. A good sign was the Contacts folder in my iCloud still had all of my addresses.

So I took a wild ass guess and rebooted my computer right before the hounds and I took of for our morning walk ... the Contacts in the folder were back ... all was good.

Many of you know I am a Excel spreadsheet addict. I'll not list everything I track here at home on a spreadsheet but one thing I have done for the past 18 years is track every penny that I spend, down to the cent. I have different categories, even separating dog food, vet trips and dog treats to give you some idea how detailed it is.

I take a monthly average of each category and then link to the previous year's spreadsheet. With a column of the monthly cost right next to the current one I can see if the cost are more or less than the previous year.

Even after 47 days of the new year I see my cost for groceries are increasing at a rapid rate. It's somewhat alarming because every 7-10 days I buy basically the same stuff. All of my meals are the same with an occasional 'treat' at times. It will be interesting to see how those cost adjust as we move through the year or is food costs increasing without letting us know.

Two big highlights from last night's shopping, was a large bag of Animal cookies Crackers on sale ... low or no fat ... even the hounds approved them. The other was a small bag of Blue Diamond Almonds ... HABANERO BBQ flavor. I was anxious to feel the habanero flame but it's much milder than I expected.

Has anyone ever had habanero pie? Great stuff.

With the feeling of winter being over, still it's way too soon to call it officially over, I am going back through my mental list of stuff that I didn't get done this winter. There is plenty of time to make a comeback and all things can be done in warm weather also.

My recycling center likes me since they do make a little money off of what I turn in. My trips are becoming more frequent because as I get closer to that magic age of 65 my paper junk mail delivered daily is increasing exponentially. How long will it take before "they" leave me alone???? I need some help here.

I may have mentioned recently I was either changing diets or looking at diet programs again. An old book off my self called The Blood Type Diet was an eye opener. About everything they mentioned to avoid are foods that still give me indigestion, even if it's healthy food.

Of course after little thought ... it was time for a new spreadsheet!!! LOL

The first thing I did was list all foods that I eat, even the condiments. I highlighted foods that give me problems. Then I added to that list of foods from the book The Blood Type Diet, which broke them down to (1) highly beneficial (2) neutral and (3) avoid. Those foods to avoid I changed their font to a light gray color.

Again, seeing the foods from my original list that gave me problems, matched up a lot with the ones I had grayed out from the book. My shopping list was getting more defined.

I have decided to take a little from all diets ... Mediterranean, Paleo, Vegan, Lacto-Vegitarian. Although my blood type, Type O, has a meat eating recommendation, what I have normally eaten for years is more along he lines of Mediterranean or LactoVeggie. With fish and chicken added but mostly fish. I think I will stick to that.

Basically the trips to 5-Guys Burgers will continue to be in 'moderation'. I can't remember the last trip I made there anyway so I assume I am way below the limit. No processed foods, except those Animal Cookies LOL, sugar with coffee but restrict as much as possible after that. A lot of fruits and veggies and make sure I keep the bowl of fruit on top of the refrigerator so Stella doesn't steal my bananas, mangos and apples.

This past month I added a few pounds, 2mm of fat around the waist when I added more beef like the book suggested but cut back on carbs. I had better decreases in weight and body fat on the Vegan diet ... but that made me feel tired a lot.

Enough about diets ... I need one of those old fashion Pepsi's made with sugar that they sell at the local Dollar Store.  (joking).

Well I have to stop this rambling, it's 12:03 pm and both bloodhounds are standing right next to my chair staring me down for lunch. We are just seconds away from Stella staring her last ditch effort for me to feed her by howling.

A beautiful morning here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

A Quiet Enjoyable Friday

Not much was planned today. The temps were going to climb from the 20's to the 50's by late afternoon. I knew the hounds would needed a couple of walks. Plus I was back in the mood for reading, after taking a day off from books.

The highlight of the week I guess was taking the car cover off of the Z4 and taking it for a spin yesterday. It had been almost a month since the last trip. It's all based on weather, when I take it out. Even in freezing temps it started right up, and the heater will blast you out of the car when turned on. I thought about putting the top down but still would have been too cold with a down parka and ski gloves.

I took it out again today after the hounds had been fed lunch. I have a few very nice country roads or highways I can take, all different directions. During the drive yesterday I decided to flip the car's positions in the carport. I had always parked my other Mini Cooper in the smaller outboard space.

Since I no longer had the FJ, I moved the Z4 to the 'inside' space and that keeps it away from the weather a little more. I'll still keep the car cover on it during bad weather and during the times the fields are being plowed or harvested due to the large amount of dust in the air.

Stella was out in front on this mornings walk. While Sadie was doing her normal hopping up and down, grabbing my hand, thrilled we were walking ... Stella trotted out in front of us.

Does it look like this chewed tree limb is getting smaller?

The hounds were a little slow in their searches this morning, not really energized and even I was walking at a slower pace. It was Friday I guess, after surviving another week of retirement.

While Sadie checked out some of the brush area, Stella was behind us and had disappeared. Instead of leaving her there, I backtracked to find her barely inside the wooded area. She came when I called and trotted along the edge of field for a while, then got distracted by something she smelled.

She didn't seem really thrilled that she had to move from her point of interest but didn't hesitate in trotting toward Sadie. Then she stopped again for the second time so it was time for the infamous standard leash. I connected it and let it drop to the ground.

It's funny how she reacts to having the leash ... she will move and stay on the path, walks slower, head lowered to the ground. I guess it's a way for her to show me her displeasure.

While she was walking along with us I moved up to unhook her from the leash and she still followed the path until we got to the far right hand corner.

She was about to take off right, until I called her name. She then ran to catch up with Sadie. She has been pretty cooperative this week.

Like I said before, Sadie wasn't as energized has she has been in recent weeks. Maybe they were tracking older deer scent that they had already identified and nothing exciting was crossing their noses.

I made the turn without looking back, calling Stella's name ... when I turned to take a picture she was already on her way to run in front of me.

It was sunny this morning but still very very cold and windy, from the SW.

I needed to make a trip to the local Walmart to pick up a new pair of sunglasses, the kind that clip on to my eyeglass. I only wear glasses to drive and watch tv. They are not needed when I am on the computer nor when reading books. But once again, I lost the clip on sunglasses yesterday in the most mysterious way. I still cannot figure out how I lost them nor where.

I parked the Z4 by the air pump, got out of the car and took off the sunglass slipping them into my jacket pocket (I thought), walked across the parking lot to the mini mart to get some change for the machine, came back to the car and couldn't find my sunglasses when I started to leave.

I went back to the mini mart to double check the counter, asked the cashier if they had found them and also checked by the ATM machine ... while walking back to the car I kept my eyes to the ground just in case they dropped out of my pocket. It was a true 'senior moment' ... they were gone!

After lunch I always let the hounds out, including Heidi, for a short trip but today I saw Sadie in an area that is not allowed. There is a small ditch behind the burn pile for her to cross to get to where she is in this photo. With all of that being overgrown with wild bushes in the summer she doesn't go in there.

For some reason when I got back from the short Z4 drive this afternoon I thought it was somewhere around 4pm. Maybe because we did so much today. So I grabbed the camera, the leash and headed out for our afternoon walk. The leash was not needed this afternoon. I only had to tell Stella "come on" and she would move and catch up with us.

It was warming up but the winds were stronger this afternoon and still blowing cold air. It's going to be great with 7 days of warmer weather and much warmer than the past February averages.

I let the hounds go where they wanted this afternoon. They were moving much faster than they were this morning. Stella and Sadie were getting in some good exercise. Heidi? She was in a deep sleep snoring when I left the house.

For some reason lately Stella has been itching a lot. No fleas were found when I checked and she will take time even during the walk to scratch herself.

Sadie was pretty happy with a walk so soon in the afternoon. I found out why as I was way off on the time, by almost two hours.

While Sadie and Stella joined Heidi for an afternoon siesta, I sat in a sunlit living room reading.

With college and pro football officially over now, I am kinda in a lull for my sports addiction. I get a daily email reminder of how many days until MLB starts but that is still a couple of months away. Maybe Heidi has the right idea and taking daily siesta isn't a bad idea.

It's sunny and nice today in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

The Hounds Daily Trek

The hounds and I hope everyone survived bring in the new year last night. Compared to many years ago, ours is not too eventful.

I'll not turn the tv on until 1 minute before midnight to watch the ball drop in NYC and then we head outside to take a look at the sky, the stars and wonder what's in store for the next 12 months.

I like to go back to this time last year on the blog to see what was going on. It was a sad time of year last year with Winston's health issue but there were some other things to read that were nice to compare to this year.

Sadie was giving me the stare early this morning, telling me she wanted to walk but I had not even finished my first cup of coffee and she had been outside just a few minutes earlier. She had to wait until the 2 cups of Seattle's Best coffee were finished. The temps said mid 40's but felt freezing to me. I was hoping to overdress with the heavy duty down jacket and ski gloves, since I have been freezing for the past few days even with the higher temps.

As I turned on my camera I noticed the low battery warning was showing up on the menu. I decided I would try to drag out the last few minutes of battery life by turning the camera on and off between pictures being hopeful the camera would work for the walk. Who knows, that might take even more battery life turn the camera on and off between pictures rather than just leaving the camera on during the walk.

Stella was just as interested as Sadie in today's 'trek' ... they investigated a few new spots and kept up a pretty fast pace.

Another nice crisp day with the sun shining. I can't complain about the weather this time of year. We may have a couple of days of rain starting later tonight but weather predictions are always pretty flexible in this area.

Earlier this morning I took off the car cover off of the Z4. I was going to leave the top up with the heater on and take a drive after the walk. It was nice to see it start right up after sitting for almost a month and through some single digit temps.

Stella was about to head to the right corner but when I yelled 'come on' she made a quick left hand turn and headed for the back of the field. Sadie came up behind us and followed Stella ... she didn't have any interest in the far corner like yesterday's walk.

Like I said earlier, both hounds were keeping a pretty quick pace today. They spent a lot of time in front of me instead of lagging behind me.

Both hounds seemed pretty content with the normal path taken. No urges and no looks towards the 'no-fly' zone and headed down the path.

 I was thinking of the 3-4 college football games I was going to watch today and tonight, then remembered it was Sunday and it would only be NFL games today. There is only one I am kind of interested in. The Green Bay - Detroit game will not be on until tonight ... so the day will be totally free.

I stopped by the library yesterday to pick up a couple of books I was interested in reading. I knew something was up when there were no cars in the parking lot, nor any lights on inside the library. They will re-open Tuesday.

I've noticed all three hounds have been spending more time than normal, licking and chewing themselves. There hasn't been any recent changes in dog food. Based on my allergies the air does not seem dried out from the electric heat and all the blankets they sleep on are washed on a regular basis. So I am not sure what the cause is.

While closing out my 'Monthly Mileage' spreadsheet, I wondered again why do I have two cars after seeing the total number of miles driven in 2016. I'd tell you that figure but you wouldn't believe me ... LOL.

My body measurements for the month remained the same, although I ate smaller portions of food, spent less on groceries and only fell off the diet wagon once for a large pizza spread out over two days. I started to do that to monitor any progress when I made some diet changes in May 2015.

In 2016 I blogged more than any other year since staring in October 2011.

I lost all my momentum on the detailed house cleaning. I still have the walls to do but at least everything is back in their places and I have made the annual drop off to Goodwill. I can't see anything else I can get rid of, it's down to my bare minimum.

I had a friend tormenting me yesterday via text ... she grew up in Indiana and knows about cold weather but she has lived in California for many years. She and her husband are vacationing in Barbados this week, meeting their son's future in-laws. Just looking at the pictures she was sending me of the beach, the sailing etc ... warmed me up.

I see where one of the blogs I follow, JD Finley has sold his Class A, and Jeep ... to live on a sailboat in the area of the islands. I look forward to reading about his transition from RV to sailboat living.

Well, I think I am headed out to the nearest car wash to get the 'Coachman' back to being clean before the rains tomorrow. Get some of the mud off of it. Sadie is wanting her 2nd walk of the day since lunch is over while Heidi has moved her afternoon napping spot out to the couch.

It should be a pretty active afternoon.

Another successful year of retirement is in the books, with my annual date in the month of April. The book I read years ago was right "You don't need a million dollars to retire" ... that changed my retirement plans to choosing an earlier date.

The hounds seem to love the new year 2017 here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.