Hounds Test Winds From The NW

With yesterday afternoon having light rain off and on, we didn't do much. The hounds slept, I played Mahjong and started a new book. You'd be surprised how much faster a day like that goes compared to the days I worked. The hounds and I were in for a shock this morning and it was coming from the Northwest.

I could see by the way the hounds were sleeping last night, it was getting quite cold outside. How do they know that? Their sleeping positions change from being stretched out in the summer to curled in tight balls during the winter. Heidi is the only one that demands a blanket.

So when we glanced at Intellicast weather radar this morning, I saw that 'light blue' of snow had moved across the northern part of the state 150-200 miles north of us. We dressed accordingly and started our first walk of the day a little past 10am.

For some strange reason it felt warm, no wind as we started. In fact it felt too warm for the light gloves I was wearing. With Sadie taking off on her own and Stella veering off on her own to the left of me ... I continued to walk under skies that looked like snow was on the way. (not in the forecast)

I decided while putting my coat and hiking boots on that Stella would have free reign this morning. She took a path that was totally unexpected ... she followed Sadie and I for most of the time.

I could tell by their nose activity this morning, there was a lot of deer traffic while we slept. Both hounds stopped at numerous places to smell and identify what was in the area.

It was about right here that I felt just how cold it was. Even though the cold freezing winds were coming from the NW or left side of picture ... I had not felt anything until I got to the first turn. Had the neighbor's woods blocked the wind?

The wind a was mid-January freezing type wind. Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago I was making this same walk at the same time of day in cargo shorts and a t-shirt??? How many days until Spring??

Sadie charges past me at a high rate of speed ... she loves this field. I've been letting her out on her own in the afternoons for close to an hour. She can explore and roam as she wishes. I do check on her by looking through my binoculars just to make sure she is within view behind the house and not in the field to the north of our house. (too close to the highway)

She never cares if Stella is with her not ... she will explore the field in detail.

Just as I made the final turn home, I could barely see Stella walking across the field heading north while we were going in a southwest direction. I just assumed I'd find her over by the neighbor's woods and kept walking.

Out of nowhere, Sadie bolted in front of me and started running to the right of me while I was looking for Stella up ahead of me. There were no birds launching from ground level. I didn't see any deer. What made her do that?

It wasn't until my camera lens focused on Sadie that I saw Stella. She was not up ahead of me by the woods but way off to the right side of me past the main "ATV Racetrack" ... I cannot remember a time she had been in that part of the field ... except the deer chase she was on last year.

Of course neither one was going to leave that spot with me just calling their names. I walked all the way over to them and about the time I reached them ... they both headed back toward our path without me saying a word.

We took the normal path home all because Stella had decided that was the way we should go today. She likes to make her own decisions.

I was not quite to the yard when I turned to see where the hounds were, possibly getting a picture of both of them from the front of them instead of the back or side of them.

Here is Sadie rolling in something but was fast enough the camera didn't catch the full roll. She jumped back up and looked at me to see if there was a chance of another roll ... luckily I saw nothing nor smelled anything that she might have rolled in. She ran up to me very proud after her gymnastics exercise and let me know she did not stink nor was there anything to wash off her soft coat.

So another successful Saturday morning walk ... freezing temps ... and a full day of college football along with another World Series game tonight. Luckily a lot of the sports channels will replay some of these games this week so I will not need to tape them while watching another game.

Here is a 'highlight' from this past week. I took this with my iPhone camera and forgot I had the 'live' setting turned on. I don't know if that feature will show up on the blog but from my computer I could not only see a 3-4 seconds of her but HEARD her licking the bottom of the ice cream container.

Sometimes when you can't get to that last drop of ice cream, you just have to dig a little deeper.

I have a cluster of good games on at 3:30pm and maybe a clear schedule for the MLB game at 7:30pm before my late night Pac12 games that start at 10:45pm. It's a typical Saturday for a 'sports addict'.

Firefox took a call third strike for me this morning and has  been put back on the self in my apps folder. Their icon is no longer on my 'dock'. It's a consistent problem I've had with them over the years and one of the reasons I always stop using them.

• Some websites do not have correct format, while those same websites show up correctly in Safari and Google Chrome. 
• Sometimes the sentences on websites run together. 
• Columns were incorrect on the football tv schedule I printed this morning. The website did not have the proper format and single lines were wrapped into three and for lines inside columns.
• This website looked correct on Google Chrome and Safari. 
• The schedule printed perfect from Google Chrome.

So I have made the full circle this morning and have gone back to Google Chrome. 

I have an insurance appraiser coming to my house next week to tell me what it will cost to fix the Z4 grill and shields underneath the car. I have a good body shop a mile away from me, one that I know does good work. Of course the insurance company tells me they recommend body shop that is 30 miles from me which will guarantee their work plus they will pay to tow the car. 

I have priced out what I think needs replaced with BMW OEM parts and the total cost is not quite what my deductible is. One way or another the Z4 will be fixed but I am interested in what cost the appraiser comes up with.

The way TV is viewed in today's world is changing rapidly. I will not list all the companies that you and I know are getting into streaming tv shows. That is all good, except when you live in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, in a rural area, all of those that offer unlimited data to do this 'streaming' is not available in my area.

I wonder what changes will be made in the next 1-2 years because in the past 3-6 months the number of companies advertising their tv services is increasing rapidly. Like "YouTube TV" ????

That is about all I have for today. I have to wonder if it is just a coincidence that after I posted pictures of my burn pile burning last week, then was reminded about the California Wildfires by someone making a comment on that post ... that my blog traffic dropped around 50% this past week, starting the day after those fire pictures.

Interesting.

Still ... blog traffic does not determine how exciting days are here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Cold Lazy Afternoon

Obviously from these photos you will see that none of us did much this afternoon. All of these were taken right after the lunch kibble was finished and all three hounds go outside. Stella and Sadie did not even make it off the driveway, then headed toward the door. Heidi got some of her aerobic work in and a little hill climbing at the end of her exercise.

It never got about 48° this afternoon. A second hound walk was taken late afternoon without a camera. I'm already thinking back to those great days in the 80's just a couple of weeks ago.

Time for a short siesta before the baseball game, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Another Walk In Windy Conditions

While Heidi ignored my request for her to join us on the afternoon walk, Stella, Sadie and I walked in colder temps and windier conditions this afternoon. I use to like posting just a paragraph of content and all photos on my older Wordpress blog ... so I'll do that since this is our 2nd post of the day.

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

Cold Weather Has Arrived

With the storm windows locked down tight for winter weather and all the windows closed, the hounds and I had a solid night of sleep and I could tell my mood was much better this morning than when I heard the salesman knocking on my door yesterday afternoon. It was the coldest morning so far this year as we stepped outside for our first walk of the day.

It might have looked like rain was near but we are not suppose to get anymore until later this afternoon. We should be able to squeeze in a couple of more walks before then, more photos and possibly another blog post tonight.

Hard to say what Sadie was hearing or smelling. She is facing away from the woods towards the neighbors and nowhere in the direction of Stella.

As you can see, Stella was on her own this morning. I had a feeling she wasn't going to go far by the time Sadie and I returned.

With it 46° and windy, I had a chance to try out a new Carhartt jacket a friend gave me. I can always use a different jacket but have always stuck to my down parkas and other down vests I have. This jacket will save some wear and tear on my other jackets and from the looks of it, it will do well as a hound hair collector and catching flying drool.

Those skies are to the north of us ... looks almost like a snow storm is up there. I still have not done any weather research on what the winter predictions are for this area. I have a gut feeling we will not be having a mild winter this year.

Sadie found out today as well as me ... what happens when you are eating dirt but due to all the rain it was really mud. I noticed once on the walk she placed her mouth on the ground and scratched with her paw. When she did that frantically back inside the house I decided to take a look.

All of that mud was caked up in her upper gums ... I cleaned that out in one step with a rag then brushed her teeth with some dog toothpaste and a toothbrush. I was shocked she let me do that ... but she seemed to like the result.

She never lets me get too far ahead of her, so once she saw I was not stopping my walk this morning she knew she had to run to catch up. After all she can't give Stella the chance to drink her water when we get back inside the house.

Poor camera work by the photographer but I think you can still see her ears flapping through the blurriness.

As usual as we approached the lower part of the field near the house, Sadie stood and surveyed the area with her nose and ears trying to find where Stella was.

When I told her to "go get Stella" off she went. You can barely see Stella off to the left up toward the house.

But bloodhounds get distracted easy when there is a strong scent picked up. I ended up getting to Stella before Sadie did, since she was no longer interested in finding her.

I guess the leaves are going to start showing their colors this year ... the trees seem to change every 24 hours and there are a lot of leaves left for a colorful fall season.

That is the most skin I have ever seen fall over Stella's eyes.

You might think from the wrinkles on Stella's forehead she is either in deep thought or stressed out. I just think that gravity is stronger this morning when it comes to her extra skin.

Well will be tuned into the first World Series game tonight. For some reason Los Angeles is having higher than normal temperatures. By game time they are expecting it to be in the high 90's, no retractable roof and no air conditioning like they have at Houston stadium. The starting time is great for baseball fans east of the Mississippi River but right at the start of rush hour traffic in LA.

I came back to Google Chrome this morning. For some reason while looking through my updated blog list and reading different ones, I glanced over at my Activity Monitor when I was shutting down Safari and saw in the short time I had been online, 248Mb of data was used. That is way too much for what I was doing.

I'll compare that to what I do here in the next hour or two. It might be the new update to macOS, but for some reason my Google Data Saver is no longer working. I deleted the app and reinstalled it but so far nothing is showing up. With the computer's Activity Monitor I will still be able to see how much data Chrome is using after I visit the same websites as this morning.

Heidi made it outside about 4pm yesterday. She didn't stay out too long, just long enough for what she needed. Then she trotted fast back from the front yard to the door. With temperatures even colder today it will be hard to get her to do much outside. She might move from her bed to the couch but not much else besides eating lunch. I hope to get some photos of her at our lunch break.

I am not ready for winter here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.