Sadie Excited Stella Isn't

I think you will be able to tell the difference between the photos that were taken in the mid-afternoon compared to those late morning. We had no plans of walking anytime anywhere before mid-afternoon. By that time the temperature had climbed to 15° and with bright sunshine it felt warmer. Stella did not agree.

It was still 6° and a wind chill below zero when Sadie and Stella went out a little after 10am to dump their tanks. Their trip was a little longer trip than yesterday but only by a minute ... but the time I took that picture of Sadie running they were back inside the house within 2 minutes and 18 seconds.

I never had to call either one because it was just that cold.

I needed to go to town for a new bag of dog food if I was going to have enough kibble for their lunch. Since I did not want to shovel my driveway outside the carport, I drove the FJ back and forth mashing down snow deeper than suspected. With that nice ice base at the bottom, I was stuck .. until I went into low 4wheel drive.

So with Sadie's constant begging to go out for a walk by staring me down, I spent my time looking  at houses for sale in Arizona and New Mexico on a different site that listed more houses than the two websites I was using in the past. I found that Trulia's listings to be much more accurate and was showing more houses with the same search parameters.

By 2:30pm I was just as excited as Sadie to get outside and attempt a walk. Our tracks from a couple of day ago were still there but almost buried by either new snow or the wind had blown snow to the point of drifting along our path.

I could tell that Stella may not be up for a walk but Sadie was 100% wired for a half miler.

She pulled stuff out of the snow, she chased birds, ran and chased more birds. She obviously did not agree with the wind chill factor readings.

We weren't 5 minutes into the walk when I saw this. That infamous raised rear paw of Stella's. I never try to force her to walk any further when I see this ... except returning home.

Let's just say her pace was faster walking toward the house than it was away from the house.

Sadie in the mean time was unaware we had called off the walk.

While Stella was barely able to make it through the yard. Once her paws hit that concrete floor, she trotted for the door, nudging at the door nob with her nose. She was very very happy to be back inside with a short howl and a tail wagging.

So I think it is safe to say the arctic conditions are over here in 'the tropics. All inside heat has been turned off and it's still warm inside. All the mini blinds have been opened to let that bright sunshine in and tomorrow we will start the day 20 some degrees warmer than the past 4-5 days.

I'll continue to look at property out west, analyze, think too much, go back and forth on my options and may even fit in a game or two of Mahjong before dinner.

Life is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Brutal Cold Temperatures

Yes, there are other places where it is much more colder than here, their snow is deeper than here but as we stepped outside at 10am I could tell the temperature was brutal. WeatherBug was telling me it was -2° and a wind chill of -15° and we had no plans of staying outside long ... we were outside for 1 minute and 18 seconds.

Within that time Sadie never moved off of 'Winston's Patio' and Stella had peed but was standing still not moving. By the time she started walking toward the house not 20' away she lifted her rear paw and stopped walking because she was freezing. I had my down parka on with a hood, gloves and was warm ... my face was freezing in less than 2 minutes outside.

Notice the small bird tracks.

I had nor have any plans of taking a walk today. Scanning different weather sites it is not going to get higher than 6° but the wind chill will be below zero all day today. Yet, even in weather like this the hounds have to dump their tanks, even Heidi. So the trips outside will be few and far between but within their limits of 'holding it'. In no instance will we be staying outside longer than we did this morning.

Consequently there is not a lot going to happen around here today. But ... the sunshine is brighter than ever, the house is warm inside and that slow drip of water in the bathroom faucet helps keeping the water pipes from freezing. In the 43 years the house has been here, in winters worse than this year there is no history of the water pipes busting. I hope I have not jinxed myself typing that.

I glanced in the direction that Stella was looking and didn't see any kind of human life outside anywhere. I saw no birds, deer, cats or dogs. She must have heard something.

A few seconds later she started the slow walk to the house. You can see her lifting that rear paw.

Then she stopped walking and I was sure that I was going to have to carry her into the house. Sadie didn't care and was more interested in something below the snow. Once I said "lets go" she was more than happy to get back inside.

Late yesterday afternoon we had a visitor ... a cardinal ... the state bird and the nickname of the local high school athletics.

To stay warm I have been looking at real estate and rentals in Arizona and New Mexico. Plus I am counting the days until Saturday when the temps are in the 30's and mid 50's by Sunday. Today's routine will more of the same inside .. reading, 2048 game, more Mahjong, and internet surfing.

The sun is out and bright today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana at 0°.

The Hounds Lasted 3 Minutes Outside

Sadie started her "stare down" at me right after her breakfast. It's her way of 'begging' to go for a walk. It happens various times during the day if I am not on her schedule. I kept telling her "we are not going outside today, it's too cold" and she kept staring. At 9:30am it was up to 1° but with the bright sunshine the temps would creep up near 20° later this afternoon. She didn't know that would NOT change my mind about taking our half mile walk.

With Stella joining her later at the entry way into my computer room, it was confirmation that both bloodhounds had to go outside to dump their tanks. I glanced at WeatherBug at 11:50am and it was up to 12° with a wind chill of 5°. I decided that was warm enough for no longer than 5 minutes ... that should give them enough time to do what they had to do ... and give me enough time to take some photos to blog about.

As you can see both of my vehicles have remained parked since Friday at noon. That is not deep snow by any means but I haven't had any place I really needed to drive to. This sunshine is suppose to disappear while I am inside this afternoon, watching the NFL Playoff game and an IU basketball game at 4:30pm. With that change we are suppose to see snow start falling and give us another 2" by tomorrow at noon. The deepest snow I have ever had here is 26" around 15 years ago.

When Sadie saw me putting on the Mountain Wear down parka, she was positive we were going to walk the half mile. That is an example of her "stare down". Based on the temperatures and our experience yesterday in similar temps, we were not taking any walk anywhere this morning. I had a gut feeling that neither hound would be out very long in wether like this. There was no wind but the arctic temps cut you to the bone outside of the down parka I was wearing.

So while they wandered in the field slowly looking for that magic spot they always need to find before dumping their tanks, I stood at the back corner of the house watching them. All I could really think about was getting back inside and fixing two more cups of coffee, doubling my daily consumption.

What a shock !!!

As soon as Sadie was finished fertilizing the frozen field ... she came sprinting to the house. She had enough of the arctic feeling. That is very rare for her. She is the hound that never wants to come inside.

I never called her name, didn't even whisper under my breath but she came to the house on a full run.

She was lucky that her tongue did not stick to her nose in the freezing temps. I am not sure she would have liked having hot water poured on her nose to get her tongue back inside her mouth.

Stella took a little longer trying to find that special spot that all dogs have to find before they relieve themselves. I kept watching for her to lift any of her paws from being too cold. She didn't run as fast as Sadie when she was finished ... but she ever stopped until she nosed the door to go inside.

Although snow is forecasted for later today and tonight ... I have hope ... it is suppose to be 50° next Sunday.

Like in the past winters, the hounds can only be pinned up inside for so long before that cabin fever sets in. While I made more coffee and downloaded these photos, Sadie and Stella started some hard wrestling along with some playful growling and barking. It was only total silence when they stood like statues staring at each other while they thought of their next move.

How did I know we were outside for only 3 minutes?

The time stamp on the image file in Apple Photos, told me my first picture of the field across the highway was at 11:54am and the last picture here of Stella trotting through the yard was taken at 11:57am.

It's pretty amazing they were both satisfied with their time outside with it being one of their shortest trips outside in their lifetime. Heidi in the mean time is where you saw her yesterday ... just substitute the photo of her in yesterday's post to this one. Nothing has changed with her and won't until the temps are back in the 40's at least.

I have 7 different towns in AZ and NM listed on my iPhone Apple Weather so I can see all the temps/weather of each town including where I live ... makes me wonder if a move is not in my future.

Another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

That Arctic Weather Is Gone !!

Not only was I thrilled but so were the bloodhounds, waking up to temperatures in double digits for the first time in a week. Heidi is still hibernating but when I saw the temperature at 17° I knew we had to take our first morning walk in 5 days. Sadie was beside herself with excitement when she realized I was getting ready to go outside. She has had cabin fever to the max these past 5 days.

I know we did not get the high winds and all that snow you may have seen on the national news in the upper NE of the country, but we shared their temperatures. Most days were spent with high temps in the 5°-7° range with a wind chill below 0°. The hounds were limited outside to just long enough to dump their tanks. I never had to call for them because all three were back at the door to be let in as soon as possible.

For the first time that I can ever remember, a few mornings ago just after Sadie finished relieving herself in the field, she started to walk ... stopped ... then lifted her paw. It was that cold. She never gets that cold. She along with Stella staggered to the door but ran inside once I opened the door for them.

We spent a lot more time inside than I can remember. The bloodhounds played, slept and ate. While Heidi slept, slept and slept ... only getting up to eat. I transferred movies and ballgames from my Directv DVR to DVD's. I watched college and NFL games and spent time on the computer researching different things I had on my mind.

So this morning it was nice to get back to the normal routine. It felt warm with a wind chill up to 7°. The temperatures alone will climb to the high 30's today and believe it or not, there is a good chance to see Wednesday and Thursday in the 50's and Thursday being just a few degrees below 60°.

I was very happy to hear my local tv weather man tell his viewing audience that after January 15 we are headed for a "warmer than normal" winter. My electric heat bill will welcome that news or is it my checking account will like that? The utility company and I don't settle up until the end of April since I am on their 'budget plan'. In my case my annual date is April 30 before my new monthly rate is adjusted for the following 12 months.

I could tell very early in the walk that Stella had no interest in joining Sadie and I this morning. As I walked away I only hoped we would meet her back in the field on our way home and would not have to send out the search team to find her somewhere in that wooded area.

Sadie was back in true form after a 5 days layoff. I cannot describe how much she begged to go outside these past few days. She did not understand how cold it was nor how dangerous it was to be outside for longer than 5 minutes. Let's just say she wasn't a happy bloodhound and spent a lot of time just sitting, starring at me, then moving with excitement every time I got up out of my chair.

So today's walk was a big relief to her and to me also.

Whenever I would check the temperatures online I could see that unless you lived in the SW near Arizona and San Diego ... everywhere else in the USA was just cold. My Facebook friends in Florida were in shock and couldn't get over how their change in weather had rocked their world.

These are Christopher's ATV tracks down into the gully from the opposite side. This gully is all part of the field, owned by the neighbor a couple of houses north of me. When he stopped to talk and see the hounds last fall while we were walking ... I told him the deer moved from the far right corner, over the hill and into the gully ... he must have decided to check it out.

With the severe weather, the argument of climate change pops up on the news, on social media and forums. Everyone has their own feelings on the subject and at times those discussions become pretty 'heated'. I stay away from any kind of discussions like that.

Yet I found in this article in Apple News that is delivered to my inbox ... some scientist agree with me. "It's just winter". You can read the article here.

I did start the Z4 every couple of days in the afternoons during the freezing weather. I wanted to see if the battery was okay and I wanted to idle the engine for a short time as a workout. The FJ did go on a few trips in the extreme cold temps but we didn't go far and only a couple of times. Food needed to be replenished.

Standing in back of the field there were very little signs that it had snowed. Just a few patches of frozen ice laying around ... but the ground felt like we were walking on solid rock.

My friend in Phoenix enjoyed reminding me it was 75° yesterday.

With that cold weather also slowed blogging down. I wrote a little in my private journal just to document what was taking place. As for finding anything to write about for the blog, without any hound photos, it was pretty hard ... thus a blogging vacation so to speak.

I still like my decision to upgrade to the iPhone 8plus last month. I no longer notice the larger screen. I do not find it inconvenient and the photos taken inside are sharp and clear as ever even in low light situations. I cannot say it will be my last iPhone because I know history shows that I upgrade every 16-24 months. I have done that since I bought my first iPhone 3s.

As Sadie and I were finishing the back half of the walk or really the last third of the walk, I noticed Stella walking at a pretty fast pace across the field near the house. That was much better than the option of not seeing her anywhere and having to spend time trying to find her. In the last minute I changed my mind about taking the regular path to the alternate path so we would meet.

She had her nose to the ground and was semi-trotting. You can see how close she is to the path we are taking, just straight out from that property line pole with the red tip.

Sadie ran to catch us once she saw Stella.

At first Stella thought she could continue doing the whole walk when I called her name. She was walking toward me, then walked right past me like she was going to do the walk on her own. That wasn't going to happen ... LOL

When I told her "we're going home" she seemed happy about that while doing an immediate turn and trotted toward the yard.  With both hounds trotting out in front of me did that mean they were a little cold in the 17° weather and wanted to get inside?  Neither lifted their paw and acted normal during the 12 minutes outside.

With days off from walking there were a lot of scents to catch up on in the yard. The followed the property line along the backyard all the way to the burn pile before I called them inside.

After watching some very good college and pro football games recently, I have two more NFL playoff games today. I am not really excited about the match ups today but will at least have the games on in the background, along with check college basketball. Monday night will be a great game between Alabama and Georgia. I am happy to to have the 'reminder' helping me from forgetting there is one more college game to watch.

I have tried to read books on my coffee table but can't seem to focus long enough to keep reading. I've have improved my times on a few Mahjong games finishing more of them under 3 minutes. The other app game I play is '2048' and finally have high scores on all my devices in the 35,000 point range.

The Garmin VivoSmart3 still does not want to connect to my iPhone 8+ so I have been downloading all the data into the Connect App on my iMac. That is NOT nearly as convenient as just tapping an icon on my phones home screen to see my data.

The transferring of movies and ballgames to DVD is working out well. The reproduced picture is not HD quality but it's very close. This work will clear out my DVR so I can do one of two things ... either threaten to move to DishNetwork for a lower monthly fee and a 3 year lock on cost or stay with Directv, which I like much better, and upgrade to their newest model of DVR.

That idea I had LAST winter of scanning old photos into digital form is just too slow of a process ... do I have enough trust to let a business do that for me?

The hounds are glad to be back walking and blogging from 'the tropics'of Southern Indiana.