Handing The Reins Over

I've decided to hand the reins of the blog over to the hounds. That means a lot less commentary with the same amount of photos, having an intro paragraph. To capture photos of Heidi in the afternoon, I will plan to schedule the post for a 6pm-7pm timeframe. With better weather things are getting busy and busier, so this is the best way to continue to post photos of the hounds and let everyone know that all of us still have a pulse.

They didn't do much today. Stella got a couple of walks in, Heidi roamed a little outside but that was about it. Neither of them showed any negative response to their dose of NexGuard for fleas and ticks.

It was a cool day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Roams Her Own Route

At first it looked like rain was just a few minutes away when we woke up but I wasn't doing anything before I had my daily two cups of coffee. Especially since it was a brand new bag of Seattle's Best Coffee Portside Blend. It really is better than Starbuck's Coffee. So where did the sun come from?

About the time that Stella and I stepped outside, the sun started breaking through the clouds. I could see some blue and the gray skies were disappearing. That's good because it is Opening Day in Cincinnati today and I need to see some regular season baseball. We will top tonight off with some college basketball in the next round of the NCAA "March Madness" and tomorrow it will be a repeat under a forecast of rain.

I wasn't sure what I had planned for today up to 1pm, when I'll tune into the first baseball game on ESPN. That will lead into 'my' Cincinnati Reds game at 4:15pm. No worries, the hounds will still have their lunch at their regular time as well as an afternoon walk. Although ... we will start that afternoon walk around 3pm, an hour before the Reds game, just in case Heidi decides she needs to tip toe every step of the way. In a half mile that is a LOT of short basset hound steps.  :)

The birds were happy with the warmer weather, their talking filled the air this morning. I loved not wearing gloves, the down parka and sock hat. I think it's getting closer to spring with each passing hour. I just pulled an article off of my Flipboard account that will tell me the 20 Landscaping things I should NOT do this spring. Maybe I can get out of some yard work.

I really don't want to turn this into a diet blog but I would like to give some updated thoughts just in case someone else is curious about making changes to their eating habits or wonder what's happening with me since I have opened the door to my plan.

I wanted to see if the word "go" had Stella responding the same way as yesterday. What do you think?

While I let her walk on her own, with very little verbal herding, I couldn't help but think how the last few days have been since I made some slight changes to my food and the way I am eating. I have found out from reading that I have always eaten pretty good food these past 5 years of retirement. What has not been good have been those times when I don't fight off the urges for junk food and ... the size of portions of good food I eat.

Two things have been discovered just in the last 48 hours. It was nothing new really but things I didn't keep doing in the past because I would cave into those battles for a junk food run or eating a meal from the fast food drive-thru.

(1) Following the serving size on the label I found out yesterday that just a 1/2c dry pasta and a 1/2c of pasta sauce was filling. It was a shock how long that filled feeling lasted after having that for lunch. The norm has always been 1/2 JAR of the sauce and 1/2 BOX of pasta !!!! That would give me about one and half plates of pasta and rarely did I keep some for the next day. I'd eat all of it. Now a 1/2c of dry pasta ??? Interesting.

(2) All of us have cravings for sweets, some more than others. I've read in the past that chocolate cravings are a sign that I need more Vitamin B. My dad use to tell me I got that craving from his family who were always chocolate fans the for the past 100 years. Since I am trying to escape the sugar addiction I forced myself to grab a small apple instead, anytime I had the urge for sweets.

Portion size has always been a problem with me and I have no doubt that just by reducing the portion size of my food will have major benefits in my quest to drop about 20 pounds. I also caught a glimpse on my small white board where last May 22nd I wrote down my weight, fat measurements with calipers and stomach size. IF I did nothing right now and continued that large portion of pasta, chips with salsa, sandwiches, french fries etc .... I have had some great reduction in all of those measurement since last May, but I need more decreases.

I also reduced my breakfast from 3 eggs to 1 egg and I don't eat eggs every day. I rotate between oatmeal with fruit, nothing but fruit and an egg. Yes, those tv commercials during "March Madness" with a stack of pancakes  (IHOP??) are killers ... I quickly change the channel.

So that is it for the food discussion.

The book about Apple and Steve Jobs still seems very interesting but it is really a slow read. I remember the first computer I worked with was in 1977 when La Costa Hotel & Spa in Carlsbad California did their nightly audit on a brand new computer system. I remember the programmers were using a cassette tape that was inserted in the top of their monitor. The disc drives were at least 3' tall. Little did I know that 42 years later my Apple Watch would do more than that computer would.

As we walked I thought about my plan of attack on my 'to do' list this year. A lot of it is annual repeats, a couple of things are required with no excuses this year and some are brand new with hopes of changing the look around the house. Stella will not be able to roam free outside while I work this summer. Sadie use to keep her in the local area but the two times I let Stella outside by herself as a test recently ... I ended up walking to the neighbor's backyard to convince her to get home.

I'll use the 80' tether that is centered out in the field and she can roam the field right behind the house or sleep in the backyard under the sunshine.

I'll leave you with the photos to show the rest of the walk. I am somewhere between finding it hard to write more, losing my train of thought and/or needing to step away from the computer to get some things done.

As you can see Stella took her own way home but a familiar one, as I took the 'old' return path back to the house. She always ends up entering the north backyard upon her return.

What is happening in D.C. today is fantastic.  :)

With baseball, sunshine and March Madness all in one day ... that is a great day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Illness Returned

I thought things were back to normal early this morning, so much that we started our day by 6:30am. Within 10 minutes I felt like I'd been hit by a ton of bricks. I went back to bed before the hounds even finished their morning kibble. I was knocked out until 11:20am, woke up feeling fantastic ... enough to take a walk.

I wasn't so sure when I let them outside after their lunch. So I walked around the yard picking up more stray tree limbs. I noticed Stella was acting like she was going take off so I ran inside to grab a coat and gloves. It felt and looked like a spring day ... only a very cold one.

By the time I got back outside she was already heading next door.

Finally she figured out who was calling her name and while I was starting the walk, she was heading back to the house on her own, not knowing I was outside. That is the yard just in front of her.

Long story short. After I returned I didn't feel hungry at all, read a little internet but once again ....  a feeling of total exhaustion overran me. I was back in bed soon after our return and was knocked out once again until 6pm.

Below are photos of our walk at noon, when I was feeling normal. Or at least I thought I did.

That spring day feeling will change tonight around midnight as we have "winter warning" for weather. Which means we will have a little snow but wet enough and cold enough to make the highways slick. It really did feel nice today for the short time I was outside.

I will see what happens tonight, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.