4° To Start The Day

If I thought Sunday morning was bad I must have forgot what last year was like. Everyday for a month it was below 32° and most days within that month period were below 15° and many in single digits as the high temperature of the day. I glanced at my watch at 5am and it was 3°. By 6am it was up to 4°, needless to say both hounds were at the door wagging their tails when I finished pouring their morning kibble.

It was not a surprise because I had seen the weather hourly forecast. On another note, I hope that you were able to step outside late last night and see the moon and lunar eclipse from where you live. It was fabulous, although I did not know I needed to wait an hour longer.

While I watched the last NFL game last night, Stella might have changed positions while sleeping during the games, but that was the only time she moved.

It was the same for Heidi. In fact she never moved from that corner of the couch except for switching which side she would sleep on. She stayed tucked into that corner for almost four hours of solid sleep. Luckily I still had a seat after getting up during the commercials.

Stella decided early in the first game at 3pm that my leg was going to be a pretty good pillow for her. These were all taken with my iPhone 8+ camera. Each time I would come back from the refrigerator or bathroom, during commercials, Stella was still asleep. I'd lift her head to slide back into my seat and she never woke up.

Just as I planned I spent most of the afternoon and last night watching both NFL Playoff games. Both were great games but both had major official blunders that decided the New Orleans outcome for sure. The other game showed why the NFL needs to change their Overtime Rules, especially in a playoff game where the winner goes to the Super Bowl.

Why should any team be penalized by not having a chance in overtime just because they lost the coin toss. A coin toss that decided New England would get to choose to take the ball first? The rule is either a TD by the offense or defense ends the game immediately with no chance for the team that lost the coin toss to tie the game.

The game was not quite over when Stella sat up. I thought she was going to get off the couch to do her stretching but she was only trying to figure out a way to move from her right side to her left side and go back to sleep. Once she did that switch without getting off the couch, then moving into this position, I knew she was out for the night.

For the first time in many years I am not sure I'll be watching the Super Bowl this year. It's happened in prior games over the years for various reasons, some of them were out of my control. I had two other friends text me last night right as the game ended, telling me they had no plans to watch the Super Bowl either.

I never watch the media buildup during the two weeks before the game. I never watch their halftime shows either. It will be a pretty quiet Sunday unless I change my mind and watch the game. Then, it will still be a pretty quiet Sunday like all the others, as I watch the games and the hounds sleep.

It was too cold to set up a tripod with camera exposure set long enough to capture the moon, but at 10:10pm the yard and field were lit up like it was daytime. I took some snapshots with and without a flash. I could literally see the crater formations from where I stood on "Winston's Patio", the 6 rusty color stepping stones at the corner of the house. It might have been the wrong time of night but I did not see any redness on the moon. {I found out this morning what times that would occur.}

I know this isn't a great picture but I wasn't going to sit outside in 8° weather with a tripod and a long exposure setting on my camera to get a perfect picture of the moon. I remember what I saw.

I did nothing to edit this picture. It looks just like the backyard, the next picture, with the moon so bright. Yes, it really was close to 10:30pm here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. In fact based on the picture file, it was 10:16pm when I took this.

Those are Stella's prints from Sunday afternoon under the moon's bright light. She did step outside with me after I took these pictures for her last pee of the night. It is really strange to see her go to the same spot every night on her last trip outside ... because it is the same spot that Winston and later Sadie would go to during this time of year. It's barely in the yard next to that cable that goes from my utility pole to the ground.

The hounds and I will be back later this afternoon with a lot more pictures. It was bright and sunny yesterday afternoon and it will be the same way today. By 2pm it will be warm enough to bring Stella out into the field for the first time since Saturday for an afternoon walk and taking pictures.

I guess I should have done more research on what this moon was going to do Sunday night. Here is what I found this morning ... looks like I should have waited an hour longer but even by that time I was in dreamland ... that's what happens when you become a morning person instead of a night owl.

"It begins with the partial phase around 10:34 p.m. EST Sunday. That’s when Earth’s shadow will begin to nip at the moon. Totality — when Earth’s shadow completely blankets the moon — will last 62 minutes, beginning at 11:41 p.m. EST Sunday."

I just looked at the temperature, it has DROPPED to 2° at 7:35am.

Another fine day planned in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Snow Arrives Early

With the light rain continuing off and on today, while the temperatures that started at 36° this morning were dropping faster than I thought they would ... we didn't do much but stay inside. As you see, Stella and Heidi knew what was about to happen outside and were not interested in doing anything more than sleeping.

Heidi got her exercise in moving each time she woke up, from the couch to her chair and back again. I can't tell you how many times she did that in a five hour period.

Late in the afternoon I could hear the wind howling outside and the slight rattling noise from the storm windows. I knew something was going on but nothing was suppose to happen until after midnight tonight. What a surprise it was to see it snowing 30 minutes after I had checked the weather outside. It will hit a low of 15° tonight and we might wake up to 5" of new snow by tomorrow morning.

I went to check my favorite weather radar online, Intellicast. For some reason it kept going to a Wunderground website which is one of the bookmarks I have on my bar at the top of my screen. It took me three or four tries before I got the message from Wunderground that they had merged with Intellicast.

It told me I would enjoy those same radar maps I did with Intellicast, that nothing would change ... but ... after multiple attempts to bring my local radar back and seeing nothing like I had with Intellicast, I quit trying  ... I looked at WeatherBug and will probably use their weather radar from now on.

I tried using the flash to capture the blowing snow with the dark background of the woods but that didn't work, the flash never turned itself on.

This is what I found without the flash.

Stella spent a few minutes looking for that perfect spot to dump her tanks. It was getting much colder with the wind blowing as I stood at the corner of the house waiting for her to finish.

She finished and then trotted toward the house again. I wonder how long that routine will last before she chooses another path home?

I might watch another basketball game tonight or I will turn this into an official movie night. It doesn't look like the hounds are going to move much more than they did all afternoon. We might see some great potential early morning pictures tomorrow on our walk unless Stella decides it's too cold for her. I'm not sure I can carry a 83 pound bloodhound home from the middle of the field.  :)

Snowing harder right now in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Pace Is Fast & Furious

A warning that you will not see until after you load the blog, but there are 44 photos today and the reason for the blog taking a long time to load onto your phone, tablet or computer. Not all of them were taken today but some spread out over the past week, a few from yesterday afternoon and then this morning. Needless to say, as you will see, the pace has been fast and furious here as we adjust to cooler temps and that terrible Daylight Savings Time change.

Last week when I had taken all of these photos of the hounds sleeping during the day while I read a book on the couch or at night while I watch a game or movie ... I thought of just one blog post titled something like "A Night With The Hounds" ... then I thought of making a page at the top with the others and showing all of these sleeping photos in sequence. Then I decided to do neither and to add them to the post this morning. That's what happens when the mind is too active.

Yes it might be a little cold inside the house for some, 60° ... but I like a cooler house and so do my sinuses. Electric heat as always irritated my sinuses.

They trade couch positions at times. Basically Stella decides who sits where, including me.

Nothing like an afternoon siesta ... life is rough with those two walks per day.

All of those photos of the hounds sleeping were taken with my iPhone 8+ camera and most of them were at night in low light, with a no flash setting. None of them were edited.

By noon the temps have been pretty nice in the range of the mid to high 50's. I wouldn't mind staying outside but the hounds would rather get back inside to sleep after a short trip after their lunch to relieve themselves.

Heidi will always concede and let Stella enter the house first. Before it would be a 3 hound race all standing on the step and Sadie would always enter first no matter what. I should have painted my steps concrete gray THIS YEAR like I had planned. The word "distraction" is a terrible thing to say.

This morning's walk started no different than yesterday, only this time I was expecting Stella to do the same thing as she did yesterday, when I had forgotten about those crazy burrs that dead ragweed produces. Yesterday she was covered in them before I saw her. This morning I caught her only a few steps in the large area of burrs and dead ragweed ... luckily when I yelled NO ... she turned around and came walking toward me.

The ragweed will be easier to cut down with my weed eater using the nylon string since their stems are dead. I would have used the gas power weed eater with the steel blade last summer but I have yet to get it started. The local hardware store quoted me a $100 repair bill if it was the carburetor, or around $70 if anything else minor. I passed.

Most of them are not embedded in her coat so they are easy to pull out.

When I saw her turn and then start chewing something (a burr) I decided I would not wait to get back to the house to pull them out of her coat, I'd do it now. She was happy with that decision as she jumped and trotted off when I was finished.

Fall was short lived this year. A chance of snow predicted for Thursday has now been moved out to Monday. Snow ??? Really ??? Hey, it's the Midwest in November and winter is right around the corner, no reason to complain. I told myself if you don't like it that much then move, don't complain.

A lot of leaves were blown off trees the other night but there is still plenty left to extend my leaf removal project out to late November. Maybe I can mow them while it's snowing for the first time ever.

As you can tell, Stella was not in any hurry this morning. It's just another day in retirement for her.

Believe it or not, she wasn't eating deer scat this morning ... only collecting and identifying different scents.

It's going to be another nice day today. As long as the sunshine is out I rarely mind how cold it is.

After a lot of verbal herding this morning, she finally is steps away from the backyard.

She must be waiting for a compliment for finishing the walk ... but that isn't really finished yet. In a way she is just starting a new one, at her pace.

Those photos look much faster than the time she took to go just a few feet in distance.

The Sycamore tree to the south of me, right by the driveway, will keep me mowing leaves for weeks to come.

The Mahogany trees in back will be doing the same ... unless ... I get a couple of days or nights with high winds and the yard is cleared of any leaf left behind. It's happened before so I can only hope.

The routine doesn't change here much once summer is over. If fact it doesn't change much in the summer either does it? The hounds and I are fine with that. It fits in our schedules since we have no schedules. All of us are retired and can do what we want when we want. I fiddle around on the computer a lot, I may read a lot but lately that urge has decreased. No closets to clean out and reorganize, house is clean, dishes down ... so it's pretty slow.

Channel surfing the other night I saw that the Hallmark Channels are showing their movies about Christmas already in the first week of November. Plus the Walmart Garden Center is now full of Christmas decorations and not even a bottle of weed killer is on the shelves. I am not a fan of extremely early marketing for Christmas but I do understand how it happened.

Of course these slow times makes it hard to find something to blog about, unless I do only a paragraph of content and list 40 photos. For me that is hard to do. "Every picture tells a story" (Rod Stewart sing 1970???) and I find it hard not to say something about the photos or at least have them in some sort of sequence. I have said it before, it's hard for me to list a few highlighted photos to decrease the number listed. Plus whenever I take a day or two away from blogging I always seem to come back with too many photos.

The best decision I have made in a while occurred yesterday. After a few days of wearing my new pair of fleece lined jeans,  I decided they were too big. Another wash with hot water and the hottest setting on the dryer did not shrink them. They just didn't feel like they were the right fit. So I exchanged them yesterday for a size smaller. This morning I can tell I made the right decision and they are now working as they were designed too. I didn't have to inhale too much to button the waist.

I guess it's the small things that make a difference when the pace of life is fast and furious.

College basketball has started officially in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana and that's never a bad thing.