Arizona Skies Are Beautiful

The skies have been amazing the past few days while a storm blew through on Saturday night. No damage, none expected but the chair and camping table blew out into the backyard while luckily the new Mexican table holding my small Weber grill stayed intact. Sunday was too windy to ride a bike, 15mph-20mph with wind gusts that made it hard for me to stand up while standing in the backyard watching the clouds.

Not Much To Report

 

As you will see from the number of photos and lack of activity, there is not much to report for these past few days that is blog worthy. Stella, Heidi and I do the daily walk without a camera. Walter and I take out the trash as he walks with me. Henry is growing faster than fast and Heidi has been camping out alone, inside or out. 

The Sun Is Back

The weather channel on Tucson news last night said we had received 1.3" of rain and wind gusts as high as 53mph on Thursday and Friday. My friend in Phoenix sent me a live video of I-40 and I-17 closed due to blizzard conditions, her snowboarding plans in Flagstaff were cancelled. The news showed photos and interviews with owners that had large 5th wheels tipped over, trees blown down on top of houses ... so maybe what I witnessed the past few days wasn't the norm. It all came from that "bomb cyclone" off the coast of California. As you can see, none of that bothered Stella.

Whereas back in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, I could always tell when then winds were high up on hill because the old house had storm windows that would rattle. I could hear the tree limbs blowing and only hoped they stayed on the trees and not on my house. Here about all I could hear was air getting into the vents leading to the roof and making noise. Thursday night while out I had my first encounter with tumbleweed blowing in front of my car ... it was almost as big as the front end of the RAV4 as I dodged it. This is a small sample that blew over the  fence and in the yard.

I didn't have any plans of riding my bike outside on Friday. I had at least one football game I wanted to watch and after that I spent time on Grand Tursimo 6. Moving from GT5 I have to start over. Although I am at the Professional Level of driving on GT5 I have to start all over from the Novice Level with slower small cars, drivers test to obtain license and experience enough to be able to enter races. I am moving through the different levels fairly quick. The graphics with each new update is amazing.

By late afternoon the wind was slowing down. The skies were breaking up all the cloud cover. The mountains that were invisible the past few days were back on the horizon with a little more dusting of snow on top. Still all mountain roads were closed. The visitor centers were closed. Hwy 92 south of me was flooded as well as Hwy 90 heading east to Tombstone or Bisbee. I have a feeling again, that this storm was not the normal winter storm or weather.

I moved the trash can from the garage black outside since it was safe and would not be blowing down the street, although it is a large container furnished by the city. The patio chair and blanket were returned to the spot on the patio. Although windy, no danger of blowing around the yard banging against the concrete block fence like I witnessed on Thursday. The hounds slowly migrated around the yard, checking on the new scent.

What they found were a few spots of standing water and Stella couldn't figure out why that small bundle of tumbleweed was in one of her favorite spots to sleep. I felt like I wanted to ride for a short time but good weather has spoiled me in my short time here and I found it really hard to change into bike clothes that would keep me warm and dry ... I'll try it today when it's back in the 50's mid afternoon.

I forgot to mention when I bought the new iPad Pro the other day, it came with one year of Apple TV for free. I don't need the box or remote as I can see all the games and movies I want to watch on any Apple device. I might have to expand my electronic knowledge and check that out. My iMac has a really good quality picture when it comes to watching college football games live when I can't get the IU games on tv.

This weekend is big for College Football. Throw out all of the won and loss records for the teams because when they are playing their rivals, many of them in-state rivals, games get exciting and come with a few surprises. My first game starts at 10am today but Stella and I will be taking our first walk since last Tuesday. Currently she is asleep in the corner of the computer room so she might not be excited about that walk until she sees me putting on a jacket and grabbing her leash ... THEN she gets excited.

By sundown last night I was feeling pretty confident of the weather forecast. It was going to be back to at least 10 straight days of dry weather, some partly cloudy and temps eventually reaching into the 60's as daily highs. I plan to have a big week of bicycling with a goal to get in over 100 miles of riding from Monday - Sunday. The hip feels cold damp weather. I wonder if that is going to be an ongoing thing for the rest of my life? Otherwise it is getting stronger by the day and I catch myself doing more movements in a normal way.

The overnight temps were dropping to the low 30's. I wasn't taking any chances and left the heater on automatic with the thermostat set in the low 60s. Even with cold temps this house made of tile floors and stucco covered walls does not get as cold as my older house did back in 'the tropics'. I never heard the heater turn on during the night. The hounds are back to sleeping through the night so I am now the only one getting up during the dark hours. Stella will let me sleep until 6:22am, about sunrise, not because she needs or wants to go outside but because she wants to eat !!!!  I have never had a hound in 32 years that loves food as much as she does.

A new day is breaking down by Bisbee and across the Mexican border on the right side of the picture. It does the mind good to see sunshine skies instead of howling winds and rain.

I took all of the photos on Thursday with my Canon 9X but compared to the new iPhone 11 Pro Max ... there isn't one. The iPhone camera blows the Canon picture quality away. You can see the differences between the two pictures below.

Well I have to get going here. After three days of being cooped up in the house I am wanting to get outside for a walk this morning almost as bad as wanting to get on a bike and just cruise around the neighborhood or town. Lots of football today so I'll see if I fit in some bike riding for an hour or so in the afternoon. There's always tomorrow if I don't ride today.

An interesting tidbit for those that blog or are computer experts ... let me know what you think. A few weeks ago I moved my old domain name from my Wordpress blog that I was no longer using, back to this blog where it originated. I tested and made sure the free Blogger domain name would still lead to the blog when clicked or typed by readers. Those urls are linked. Yet after changing the blog to the domain name dot com, my blog traffic has decreased over 50%. Some of the readers I don't see nor hear from since the change a few weeks ago. Any ideas? Maybe I'll park the domain name at GoDaddy and return to the free Blogger domain name for this blog.

Weather is back to normal here in the 'Wild West'.

An Ice Pack Is Like Magic

I spent most of Monday with the familiar feeling of a 'rock' being inside my hip about the area I would guess the real femur is trying to grow on or around the new hip. I am not sure how much is metal or how low it goes on the femur. Advil wasn't working and I did not want any more muscle relaxers since my lower back had improved. In late afternoon it hit me ... try an ice pack on the side of my hip like I have before .... it was like magic in about thirty minutes time.

I also applied that ice pack while I lay in bed a few hours later and woke up with a hip with zero pain or soreness. I was almost shocked as the hounds and I walked down the hallway around 3:30am. Heidi has a new habit now that I really like, she stops right by the bed and does a full body shake to wake me up. So far that has worked 3 out of 3 times. We came back and slept till 6am and my hip was feeling really good. A little stiff at the start but really good.

This is Stella hearing me say, "no breakfast until 7am" ... I gave in and fed them at 6:30am.

As you can see it was a sky show early this morning. I couldn't stop taking photos of the sky. Can you tell which camera I am taking these photos with? iPhone, Nikon D3200 or the Canon G7 X ??

After breakfast Stella was still on the lookout for food. Just two nights ago she remembers the smell of two thick steaks being grilled next door. She is thinking there might be some scraps tossed over the fence for her.

With the daytime temperature being much cooler, Heidi is spending more time outside exploring the yard. That does not mean the sun is cool, just the air temp. The sun felt hot enough to me that I thought it was in the 90's.

Stella jumped up out of her nap on the patio ... an unfamiliar sound. It sounded like a tractor was passing by pretty close to the fence. I missed it as it passed but I could tell looking over the fence they were mowing as much brush as they could. Too bad they didn't get right up next to my fence.

Once I am in better shape I will take my pruning shears with me and walk to the end of the block then curl around onto the path behind me where I can cut all of these down to ground level. All the dogs that bothered us walking this way the first week we moved here are no longer living in the neighborhood.

I had a feeling the brightest color of the vacant land in back was not going to last much longer.

Once Stella figured out the noise was just a tractor just like back in Indiana she resumed her afternoon siesta. That coffee spill will be cleaned up once the doctor gives me his approval to bend more then 90° ... otherwise it will remain. I guess Stella doesn't like coffee that much.

I was right, the second lap took out the yellow daisies.

Once it gets too hot, which doesn't take that long ... Stella is ready to go back inside.

With Fry's Market delivering my grocery shopping online I had to bribe the hounds with dog treats to get them outside on the patio while they moved the groceries to their car to my kitchen counter. I ordered 53 items and they didn't make any mistakes.  Well worth the fee of $9.95 plus a tip ... especially when you can't walk.  LOL The hounds were left outside for less than five minutes.

Well the answer to the camera question ... including the photo right above of Heidi ... all but one of these photos were taken with the Canon G9 X. Some of them had the dark spec from inside the camera and others were perfect with nothing to edit. I guess based on the cost of the camera and owning it for only 10 months I might as well use it and edit the black spot off of the photo as needed.

I did a 10 minute walk today around the backyard. It was slower than I normally go but I did not feel any kind of pain in my hip or groin. I do know that sitting in a chair for longer than 30 minutes put that 'rock' feeling right back inside my hip. Even if I just stand up to watch the game or take a break from the computer, that also works.

I feel much better than yesterday in the hip ... thus my attitude has changed for the better. I'm back to feeling positive about this healing process. Seven days until my next follow-up appointment with the surgeon.

Cabin fever is overbearing right now here in the Wild West.

The Vet Says Stella Is Doing Well

Not a lot has been going on since Stella needs to be confined to the house, can't go on walks and needs a plastic bag put over her bandage if the yard is wet. That has happened only one time although it has stormed the last three out of four nights. Heidi as you will see below doesn't change her routine much. I do believe though as the temperature cools during the day that she will start taking more walks.

The past few days Stella had figured out that we were not walking. She was no longer whining to go on that walk yet every time I pick up the car keys she is excited and wants to go. She did that Friday morning at 10am as we headed out for her vet appointment where they would change the bandage, check the stitches and see if things were healing.

With the recent Border Patrol bust in the middle of a high traffic area in town, the Aerostat has been in the air 24/7 and I hear a lot more helicopter traffic since that news. Reports were they were caught loading cars or vans with illegal immigrants. Strange to me that they were near a high traffic area surrounded by shopping centers. I did not see anything in the paper about it but caught the news on one of my Twitter feeds.

After a night of the best storm I had seen yet.

Stella doesn't mind the bandage and has not tried chewing it off. She does not limp when she walks and a few times when she thinks she has a chance to escape through the front door when I go out, she almost breaks into a trot. I did not realize until the photos I took this morning that both bandages matched colors in her collar. How is that for attention to detail at the vet office?

They received the lab results on the growth they removed from Stella's paw. It was benign. 

This is about all the aerobic activity Stella and Heidi get during this time for Stella's recovery.

Notice the color change of the bandage on Friday ... matching colors in her collar. From pinkish red to purple.

It looks this nice every morning but with a 20% chance of thunderstorms later this afternoon and tonight ... it seems like a 100% the past few nights. I saw it storm the other afternoon when the weather apps said there was only a 10% chance of rain. We have our own little weather system in this area.

We have not seen any snakes or spiders, since I saw the snake in the driveway a few weeks ago. Stella and now Heidi move over the backyard daily with their noses to the ground in the mornings to make sure they know what kind of traffic, if any, had been there during the night.

When I moved in the seller had new carpet runners in different areas of the house. I rolled up all of  them except the one by the front door. Since day one, that has been one of Heidi's favorite places to sleep or just sit and relax. She chooses that piece of carpet over her Mexican blanket that is in the opposite corner.

In this photo I left the spot on the door on purpose. In this post all the photos but four, were taken with the Canon G9X camera that has a black spot on the sensor. That black spot showed up after I had the camera for only 6 months. I am heading to the Canon camera forum after this to see what the solution is. I'll contact Cannon about a fix since it is still under warranty. In the other photos I erased the black spots through editing the photo.

I didn't think the four photos I posted here taken with the Nikon D3200 were that good either. I am beginning to think the best camera I have in the house is my iPhone 8+. Maybe I should start looking at and researching the new attachments they are coming out with for higher zoom capability. Currently their built in zoom is not that good.  That might be better than spending money on a different camera.

There have been times I have had the feeling that my new 2019 Toyota 4Runner TRD OffRoad is too luxurious to go off-road. It will go anywhere I want it to but it's not like the old 4Runners that felt more like a truck. This feels more like a "family suv" than an off-road vehicle. I still say that the best car Toyota ever made was the FJ Cruiser. They stopped making them.

Long time readers know what happens when my braincells start thinking about cars and analyzing. Over the past 10 years at least I have had a TON of different cars and suvs. The best combination I ever own was one FJ and one sports car. Those sports cars were either Mini Cooper S or BMW Z4's.

I might go out for a short Sunday bike ride today just to see how my finger reacts, which is in it's 7th day of healing from a very deep cut. The cut is in the way of everything I hold, from a fork, a knife or where my hands go on a pair of bicycle handlebars. I'll find out today real soon after I start riding.

College Football arrived these past three days in the Wild West.

Too Hot To Hike This Afternoon

I keep forgetting how hot it gets outside starting around 10am. By 1-2pm it's like an oven outside and any thoughts of taking an afternoon hike have to be slid to the side for another day. Those hikes I did last week and blogged about were in temperatures in the 80s, so that is the difference. I had looked in my book for more details for hiking the Lower Brown Canyon. It is about 3 miles out and another 3 miles back with some southern exposure on a sunny day like today.

Just like any other morning the hounds wake me up with their head shaking, ears flapping, metal tags making noise. I have no doubt they are on Eastern time and may never change. This morning felt different though. A clear sky, a warm breeze from the SE as I opened the door. The sun was barely rising when these photos happened.

Hard to believe that small mountain sits inside the Mexican border.

If you look closely to the right you can barely see the Aerostat was launched for the first time in weeks. Right after taking this photo I did not even bother to make coffee. Changed into clothes for the day and tied my shoes while Stella whined for her walk ... and we were out the door. She was energetic today ... trotted down the block and just about the time she crossed the street ... she stopped and turned hard enough to swing my arm around with the leash in hand ... there was a scent in the middle of the street she had to check out and it was only a scent ... I saw nothing in that area.

As we stepped into the lot she kept trotting, tail upright and a smile on her face. (mouth open) She ran out ahead of me as far as the 25' retractable leash would let her. She was in the mood to run today I guess but like I said a few posts ago ... here is no way around here she can be off the leash. She would stop and sniff the air in certain spots ... like that huge smell of bacon coming from the exhaust vents of a nearby hotel. I couldn't get her to move.  LOL

After the walk I had just sat down with my first cup of coffee when I hear a loud distinct bird call. I have no idea what it is but it was loud and sharp enough to wake Stella up. She turned to look where all the noise was coming from. She had finished her walk and she was very interested in getting back to sleep. The increase of bird calls have not bothered her like this since she moved here.

Once Stella rose to her feet I knew our visitor wouldn't be staying long. A couple of steps into the stone yard and the bird was gone.

With her walk finished, some bird watching, she decided the best place to sleep was in the shade while I changed into my bike riding gear. I wasn't wasting time today as I went from dog walking to coffee to riding. Those blocks sitting next to Stella bother me so I guess I'll do some "yard work" and carry them into the garage and stack them them in the corner. Out of sight out of mind.

It doesn't happen every day but it could later even with high temperatures and a day full of sunshine. Storm clouds will blow in and before you know it, it's raining. Not good for surprised out of town afternoon hikers or bike riders.

These were not from today but from the SD card I downloaded from the Nikon D3200 from a few weeks ago. Notice the blue skies on the other side of the mountains.

The typical afternoon for the hounds are the two photos you see right here. They might move from the computer room where these were taken, to the living room and to the bedroom as day moves into early evening. They did the same thing as you know, back in 'the tropics' so there are no changes to their afternoon routine most of the time.

Along with that download I found some photos from our Sunday drive that either did not download properly or it might have been user error, not giving the card enough time to download. If I remember right this is Hwy 90 heading east toward Tombstone/Bisbee. I love traveling through this open land.

This was on Hwy 191 north of Pearce, I think. To me it looks like some sort of power plant and on the right side of the highway a possible nuclear plant yet I found nothing online about it. Anyone that is familiar with the area know what this is?

Again, I kept my eyes on the road and one hand holding the camera up in a general direction not knowing if the camera would succeed with what photo I wanted taken. No, I don't use the monitor on the Nikon while driving and still only use the view finder when I'm not driving.

I am thinking about contacting Canon about my G9X and see if they will do anything under the 1 year warranty about the black spots that are on the sensor. I am even a little motivated to package in it's original box and put that into a bigger box to ship it to them via UPS. After checking my memory banks I bought that camera just last January, sad that it didn't work right for at least a year based on how much it cost.

I've been fooling around with different browsers again. Currently I am using Safari with no problems. With their latest updates it is easier than ever to move an icon to my address bar that I can click to unblock the "blocker" so I can open forms I need from certain websites to view them. I may pay everything automatically but I still like looking at the actual utility bills for electric, gas and water.

Google is still the #1 ranked browser but just that word leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, just like Facebook ... but I still use them. I tried Firefox again for a few weeks and it supposedly gives you privacy while on the internet, but when Facebook can figure out I've been talking to someone about cars, then floods my newsfeed with advertisements for the exact cars we have discussed ... I guess Firefox can't do anything about that.

I have been attempting to drink 100oz of water per day. I know that is between 4-5 glasses with the glass that I use. Even after bike riding in the mornings and the hot afternoons living in the high desert I find it hard to drink that much water.

No ... I don't miss the thunderstorms nor the tornado warnings I left back in Indiana.

Another laidback day here in the Wild West.