Rambling At -2°

With Heidi telling me not to wake her until late April, I decided for the first time this winter I would put on a pair of long johns even if I was staying inside the house all day. I didn't care. I wanted to feel warm, hot. I wanted to get to the point where I'd have to pull them off because "it's too hot to wear these" ... we'll see if that happens.

The hounds decided they would continue to prepare for the time change this Sunday morning at 2am by waking me up at 5am wanting breakfast. Heidi was even awake and helping Stella wake me up with loud basset hound whining, not quite a bay. My watch told me it was 4°, the "feels like" was -7° and the storm door was frozen to its door frame.

What a way to start the day.

Even with the heat on inside and most of my room thermometers telling me it was 65°- 68°, I still felt cold that time of day. At 5:15am getting my second cup of coffee I could see the neighbor to the south of me was warming up his truck and her car as they waited inside their house. I guess they don't have heated seats like my Mini does.  :)

With the hounds fed and back to a deep sleep 30 minutes after waking me up, I did my normal routine reading the internet, replying to a few comments on the blog, answering some texts and emails. I wasn't thrilled about another day being cooped up inside. Then I remembered last winter, when It was like this for over 30 straight days ... I wondered how do people in Minnesota put up with this kind of cold, especially since they experience colder weather than I have by 20-30 degrees.

From the time Stella walked out to the field to relieve herself and was standing at the door to be let back inside, she was outside only 1 minute 46 seconds beating yesterday's time. How's that for some aerobic exercise? I didn't have to remind her before going outside that we were not taking the morning walk. She figured that out on her own and I was happy I didn't have to go out in the field to get her.

At least it is bright and sunny just like Monday. The temps will crawl to the high 20's but it will take all day and maybe into the early evening to achieve that. When I looked at the "feels like" temperature for each hour it never climbed above -2° .... my day is cancelled !!

I did get a lot of reading done yesterday. I played a lot of games of Mahjong. I sat and wondered at times. Like ... if it is dumping snow in Arizona where they normally don't get much and tornadoes sweeping through the southeast and it's even colder the further north you get ... where does someone go to miss all of this weather? California? Down where the "OFM" is in the gulf of Texas? What about the southern tip of Florida?

I decided as I was taking off my down parka and commending Stella for making it back inside in record time that it might help to warm up if I could see some photos of summer. So I went into my Apple Photos program on my computer, typed "Jul" in my search block and had over 4,000 images to choose from, all the way back to the year 2003. I label each new photo of the day with the three-letter month abbreviation. Thus finding photos in my library by using Jul as the search topic.

Listed below are 20 some photos that may make you or me feel warmer, depending where you are located. These are not listed in any specific order but a few are from 2003 with Bertha and Arthur.

I'm going to ramble a little between all of these photos. There seems to be a lot going on in the world of politics, sports and weather. The 'dingbat AOC' had her second FEC complaint filed against her in the last two weeks. She is so busy trying to get to Trumps income taxes she forgot that someone would find out about that 1 Million dollars she has moved illegally from her campaign funds. You can read about that fabulous move here -- FEC Complaint.

No one has ever accused her of being the smartest puppy in the litter. In fact the founder of GreenPeace called her a pompous twit yesterday in the news

I think it's pretty cool that SpaceX Crew Dragon test passed with flying colors. SpaceX Crew Dragon

I really feel the longer the Democrats spend time investigating Trump, which they will until he is gone whether it be in 2019 or 2024, will only seal a 2020 win for him. Have any of you seen a viable Democratic candidate yet, that has put their hat in the ring? I had friend tell me the other day that his wild ass idea is Michelle Obama will announce she is running at the last-minute, thus reminding me just how quiet her husband has been in the past few months. (Firming up plans????)

I can confirm that I am not the winner of the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot and I have not hired a lawyer to take care of that for me. Although, it would be my luck that I'd misplace if not recycle my ticket as trash if I were to win a lottery such as that.   :)

Looking through the photos yesterday of the tornado that killed 23 in Alabama, it showed me we don't have a chance surviving one that strong. Houses were pulled completely off their foundations. So the theory of taking the hounds to the 'inner room' without windows, such as my bathroom ... wouldn't mean shit with 170mph winds.

I remember that June afternoon in 2008 when the local tv weatherman said "if you are in these locations take cover NOW!!!" I was trying to gather up a bloodhound and two basset hounds trying to convince them we were headed for the bathtub. We ended up having only straight line winds of 70-80mph and those were nothing to what Alabama experienced on Sunday. Sadie never liked gettng a bath and wasn't going near any kind of bath tub ... high winds or not.

I was disappointed to hear my favorite politician of all time (NOT), Hillary is NOT going to run in 2020. Also another favorite is not going to waste my bandwidth or tv time ... Eric Holder. In my book, I'll be blunt ... they are two pieces of shit.

This next bit of information I cannot even comprehend. A 100,000 in March rushing the border ???  WTF

I am in somewhat of a quandary today. It's freezing outside and I don't want to drive anywhere. At the same time I am getting down to the lower limits of food in the house. I stopped buying two weeks worth of food because before the more food I bought the more I would eat in a short period of time. The food never last two weeks. Sound familiar? Probably not.

So most of the food I have left I am not hungry for. LOL I don't want steamed broccoli or carrots with chicken breasts or baked salmon. I am still eating low-carbs so that bag of beans will not get cooked. I have cans of black beans and refried beans left for burritos but I don't have any salsa, cilantro, or even tortillas and too many carbs. I'm tired of salads. I'm out of fruit.

Where is that Amazon grocery delivery by drone when you need them?

Here is another story about the 'dingbat AOC'. I like to read different news from different website to get their point of view. I guess you could call that bipartisan reading.

Will Hillary ever shut her "pie hole" ???? Wisconsin Voters

Over the past three and a half years, Stella has chewed and/or eaten my Cincinnati Reds ball cap and my IU Football ball cap ... worn for yard work or taking a hound walk on a hot summer day or any day warmer than 40°. Will the Sacramento State Hornets hat survive another summer? It's been a while, maybe over a year since she last destroyed something of mine.

Heidi does enjoy sunbathing but she still isn't out of bed yet today.

This explains even more why Cohen is acting the way he has ... He Wanted A Pardon From Trump

To Stella there is nothing finer than a short afternoon nap under a hot sun, right after lunch and feeling those hot stones under her. Weeds and all, makes no difference.

It's great to see the NYC mayor and governor on their knees begging Amazon to come back. Did you ever picture things being so far out of control in the world of news in the US?

Stella is not the only one that loves ... LOVES ... a hot sun.

Do you know how many professional baseball players are still good when they are 39 years old ??? Not many if any at all. Just another example of why this is such a stupid contract. Yet they will justify it by saying Harper is not being paid for what he CAN do at 39 but what he HAS DONE in the past and all the BILLIONS of dollars our team will make in the next 13 years.

I'm still cold and it's 68° in my computer room.

Over 70% of voters polled the other day said they did not like someone over 77 years old running for president nor did they like anyone socialist. ... Bernie ?? "Can you hear me now?"

I cannot believe they finally finished the Highway 99 Tunnel in Seattle. That was only a dream when I lived in the area until 1994.

I remember those days of "office food". I weighed between 25-30 pounds more than I do now. During a work week from Monday to Friday it seemed to be a nonstop supply of food brought in for all to share from the co-workers kitchens. Of course Friday's the amount of food would top out and counter space was being cleared to hold all of it. EVERY MORNING there were the best donuts, bear claw's, breads, or pastries just like the photo in the article. Wash all of that down with Pepsi's after 10am (coffee before) and it's no wonder I weighed was much as I did.

Days like today would have been a line of crock-pots full of different kinds of chili, with everyone declaring theirs was the best. How much chili could one eat in the course of the day ... A LOT !!!!  :)

Ah yes ... dreaming of mowing the yard in July and cooling off as fast as possible afterward. I can almost smell the fresh-cut grass ... until I look out my window right now. DAMN is it cold !!!!!

Just one of the photos on Heidi's (Lucy) ad on the Basset Rescue site back in June 2011. I couldn't believe a basset as nice as she, was available for adoption.

As I finish this blog post I am not sure about today. Nothing sounds good enough to eat. No book sounds good enough to read. I don't want to sleep. I don't want to go outside. Even playing Mahjong seems over, at least for a few days. Both hounds are asleep mid-morning and hours away from lunch. Oh, I also don't want to turn on my tv and fill it up with political or news crap either. Movie?? Too early.

Still ... being retired is fantastic and every day is great here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

An Amazing Afternoon

It was the surprise of all surprises today. I'm sitting here typing this around 5:30pm and it is still 55°!!!!!! outside. I heard the weekend forecast say the word snow just a few days ago. Besides being blasted by the heat wave this afternoon it was full of activity. From some computer work, a hounds siesta, Stella getting attacked, Heidi sunbathing and ending with the slowest bloodhound walk in the history of walking hounds, the day covered all kinds of activity. Plus I was able to stay on course with my eating changes.

When I let Heidi and Stella outside a few minutes after their early lunch, they were almost in shock about how warm it was. I had overdressed just by putting on a light jacket but Heidi could barely move off the carport. Stella checked out the backyard but after sniffing the air for a few minutes she decided she wasn't ready yet to stay outside.

Stella always needs an after lunch siesta before she can consider any kind of activity. That has never changed since the first day she arrived in August 2015. While the hounds slept I decided to make a couple of adjustments to the Google Chrome browser as well as my computer. I flipped back to the 'dark mode', put the picture of space on my second monitor and a black and white photo on my main monitor as desktop images.

I like the feature that Apple offers, it seems easier on my eyes. I still had to find a way to implement the 'dark mode' on Google Chrome so I did search for "google chrome dark mode". I had my answer in less than a minute and had the Google Chrome theme installed even faster.

Heidi slowly explored the front mulch area one inch at a time, going all the way to the left side and then back to the right all the way to the end of the house.

While Stella roamed in the field I decided, with my camera in one hand, I'd walk around the backyard and pick up all the small tree limbs blown down the other night. I added quite a few to my burn pile. The pile of tree limbs is now almost 6' high so the flames might be an all-time record.

I let Stella wander the field even though I thought there was a pretty good chance I'd be pulling those small burrs from the dead ragweed out of her coat. As  you can see she was heading in the direction of the all that dead ragweed when I took this picture.

After deciding the front yard was okay, Heidi headed for the backyard. Would she take a walk with Stella and I this afternoon?

It was at this point I could see Stella was being attacked by all of those small dark brown burrs. This wasn't going to be pretty by the time I finished the limb pickup exercise.

When Stella ignored my calls I started to walk her direction. I knew it was going to be bad but I didn't know just how bad she had been attacked. You would think with all the bad weather and all the wind those burrs would be gone by now.

Add twice as many to the other side and about the same amount on her neck covering her chest and only a few in her tail plus in the armpits of all four of her legs. She always stands still for me to pull each of them out and toss them in the field .. but she has never figured out why I am so excited doing it. She accuses me of mumbling to myself.

The day was so nice I couldn't resist taking an early afternoon walk. I checked with Heidi one last time to see if she wanted to go with us but she had found her spot for sunbathing. It was going to be nice and hot and when I asked if she wanted to go, she laid down. I took that as a no.

I didn't know at the time that Stella was going to set the all-time record for the slowest walk in dog history. She made the walk so slow that I don't believe that video would have been able to catch it.

She was just enjoying some nice warm sunshine, thinking that it was Spring.

Heidi thought she heard something but didn't know it was us. More and more lately I've noticed she has lost some of her hearing.  While other times just the sound of a fork toucing a plate will startle her.

Stella didn't know the plan was to sneak up on Heidi for some photos. She wasn't sure why I was walking slowly around the fence and down the short incline.

When I called her name, she looked in a different direction. Is that a sign of hearing loss?

After many attempts of calling her name she finally figured out where I was and walked slowly over to the driveway and up the hill.

After having a 10oz New York Strip steak for lunch I was not hungry the rest of the afternoon and so far I have not had the urge to eat a dinner. I'll probably have a salad and that will be it for today in the eating department. I DID make a simple spreadsheet like I mentioned this morning. It's going to work out so much better than writing a journal about it. I can see improvement just with a glance at the spreadsheet.

I went online to check out the availability of some books at my local library. One nice thing is I can have any book shipped for free from any other library in the state of Indiana and pick them up at my local library if they do not have it in their inventory. They notify me by email or text, my choice. I found 3 books I've been wanting to read but always forget them when I am at the library looking around. I finally pulled the Notes app up so I can remember what I am looking for. I'll pick those books up tomorrow.

Also while the hounds were sleeping and before our time outside, I tuned into two tv shows I always tape on Monday nights. I watch them later so I can fast forward through the commercials. I've mentioned them before but I really like the shows Bull and Hometown.

I've still stay away from the news on tv. I'll watch the IU basketball game tonight at 9pm but will do some reading up to game time. It's not a surprise how much better the days seem with bright sunshine and temperatures 30° or more, warmer. We needed a day like this.

Spring is right around the corner here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.