Stella Tests The Afternoon Temps

Just as predicted the temperature started increasing about the time the sunshine came out. It was almost too bright today and for a second I thought I might need to wear sunglasses on the walk based on the bright sunshine. While I was taking pictures of the snow, the ice, trees etc, Stella had snuck out to the field just behind the land of burrs. It was still pretty cold outside so I was curious to see how long she would stay out.

I could tell when I saw her doing that type of walking she was not going to be out too long because either her paw was cold or there was snow between her toes. She wasn't limping getting back to the path but I could tell her walking motion was not a smooth stride.

As I called her name she was more than willing to head back to the house, slightly limping. Of course she always has time to sniff at scent along the way.

Then she stopped to raise her rear leg. I was about to turn off the camera, slide it in my parka pocket and walk out to get her. At the same time, she started walking again toward the yard. So I waited to see if she was going to need to carried back to the house.

This is the pose of confusion. She can't figure out why she can't or doesn't want to walk. I kept calling her name to make it the rest of the way. You can see she is almost raising her rear leg again.

Back inside gave me time to do some house cleaning. The dishes were done by 9am so they were out of the way, laundry was last week, so the only thing left on the list today was trimming hound nails, cleaning hound ears and brushing them. I kept looking at my watch for the temperature outside as it creeped to 20°. I wanted to get outside today for the afternoon walk.

A little past 2pm it was 22° but a windchill of 11°. Would that be too cold for Stella to take a walk? How far would we get? Actually in the sunshine it did not feel too bad and she was already trotting away from me. She was showing a lot more energy than just a couple of hours ago.

One thing about snow is you can aways see the deer tracks, especially since we had not been out in the field since the snow on Saturday. As you see on the right side of the picture plus those I've included below ... a lot of deer traffic the past two days.

More deer tracks coming out of the woods, right of center of the picture.

Just to the left of me I noticed these deer tracks circling and then taking off diagonal across the field.

Those are not Stella's tracks nor mine.

As we made the first turn into the shade the temperature dropped at least 10° instantly. It was so much colder than where we had walk from. It was now that I wasn't sure we would complete the walk today.

More deer tracks going into the woods.

This walk is over !!!!

Notice how the right rear leg is lifted high? I knew we were going no further today and hopefully she'd make it back to the house with me having to carry her.

Once she figured out what was going on, she turned toward me, got on the path and started heading home. I didn't say a word.

Getting back into the bright sunshine really warmed things up. She stopped limping and walked a little faster than her normal afternoon pace. She must have remembered from two hours ago that a warm floor inside the house made her paws feel better.

Both pictures show new deer tracks.

As we walked into the yard with a blanket of smooth snow I could see there had not been any kind of animal traffic in the past two days.

I am not sure if Stella was thinking about sitting in the snow to scratch or what she was thinking. I turned and didn't see anything out in the field in the direction she was looking.

Slowly but surely she headed to the door.  After we were inside, she and Heidi finished the last of the bone treats ... those strange grain free with the bacon flavor. Are those "keto" for dogs??  LOL

With the really cold temperature this morning I still can't complain about this winter. The temperatures have been right at the average for this time of year with highs in the mid-30s. We've had a lot of days in the mid-40's also.

I picked up a new show to watch that is only six episodes long. It's on the National Geographic channel, called Valley of the Boom ... about the start of the internet, explosive stock gains, a little corruption and the war between Netscape and Microsoft. Netscape use to my favorite browser back in the day and I hated to see it end when it did.

It was a cold but sunny day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

Questions About Apple Watch & Canon G9 Camera

I knew after yesterday's excitement with Stella's high energy and playful mood, then the FedEx experience, that today would be anti-climatic. How could it not be? We don't want to do all the exciting stuff every day, we need to spread things out during the winter. There will be days on end of excitement once the weather warms up. Heidi has definitely moved into her 'winter hibernation' and Stella is well ... just Stella, nothing bothers her. I did check shipping status this morning on the FedEx and Chewy websites. Both say the GlucoFlex Plus is on the truck at 7:52am and those famous words ... "out for delivery." Of course FedEx is protecting themselves by adding "By The End Of The Day" ... what 5pm, 9pm, or midnight?  LOL

Stella tried getting me up at 5:05am again today but it wasn't going to happen. For some reason the house felt colder than normal, so I did get up to check that. Then I remembered it was so hot inside last night, around 68°, that I turned the old thermostat too low ... it was reading 60° this morning in the living room. They both agreed another hour and a half worth of sleep was needed. Overcast skies means it's dark and even at 8am it's almost too dark but by 8:05am Stella was at her water dish hydrating herself for aerobic exercise and that is my signal to put my boots on. This morning it was back to hiking boots instead of the snow boots.

The ground was frozen which is a good thing on these walks. No wind so the 28° felt warm and Stella was on pace similar to what she does on the afternoon walks ... slower than slow. I had to do a lot of 'verbal herding' this morning plus backtracking to get her more than I wanted. Her stubbornness was showing today. Looking back to last night and yesterday afternoon, she did not miss a meal, a snack, a dog treat, and had the same position stretched out on the couch. All was good, so what the change in her attitude?  LOL ... she is just a bloodhound, that's all.

It was interesting that she was staying on the path most of the time and kept walked slowly way out in front of me. Not a lot of 'nose to the ground' in the middle part of the walk. I had already decided that if she was way out in front of me I'd let her do her thing and I'd follow. Just as long as she was heading in the general direction of our turnaround point, towards that tower.

It's something we have not heard before, it's a small dog barking in the distance and I hope it's from inside because to me it's too cold for any small dog to be outside any length of time. Maybe that is why it's barking, it's outside? Wherever the dog is, it grabbed Stella's attention more than a few times on this walk. She stared intently in the direction of the barking throughout the walk.

She backtracks to me ... so I can catch up with her ... then turns and takes off trotting away.

Some fresh new signs that deer were running on our path this morning before we got outside.

I honestly believe that if I did not do any 'verbal herding' and let her take her time .... I'd be outside all morning until she was hungry for lunch.

As you see most of the snow is gone. A temperature range of 14/1 for Sunday and those funny little snow icons show up for Saturday ... nothing major though, probably just ground cover if anything at all. Both NFL games will be on Sunday, lots of college basketball will be on tv Saturday, so I'll be able to handle any kind of weather ... but I am ready for the college football season to start again. Luckily my Reds have made some off-season changes by adding a couple of new starting pitchers, a new manager and coaching staff so hopefully the hounds and I will not have to suffer through a 4th straight season of losing 90+ ballgames this summer.

I have been able to steer clear of any tv news. I glance at news headlines online sometimes when my curiosity wins. It looks like nothing has changed much and won't change much. All the focus seems to be on the 2020 election, so they will continue to get nothing done in Congress. It's the perpetual merry-go-round, with a great salary, and a fantastic retirement plan.

Stella thought she heard that dog barking again, in fact I did too but she is looking in the wrong direction.

Maybe it's over there, in the north woods?

It sure does sound like it's coming from the neighbor's house two doors away from us.

There it is again ... from the neighbor's house. Maybe they are petsitting?

We eventually made it home, taking the 'old' return path for a change. It's pretty amazing how bad the yard can look now and then look so nice and green in April, after I mow. All the mole damage will be repaired by the natural spring showers and I'll be mowing 3x per week to keep up with the tall grass to start another summer. That word 'summer' sure sounds nice to me right now.

I'll be doing some online reading today on various topics, questions that need answered, ranging from my Apple Watch, the new Canon G9 camera (still), the best way to eat as an older male, ... things like that. There will NOT be any blog theme changes though ... I really like this design and setup I have now. Everything is good with the Apple Watch but for some reason after the 5 minute mark on my walks, it will stop and ask me IF I want to end the walk or continue. Does the sleeve of my coat set off something on the watch face to make it think I might want to stop my walk?

The camera?  LOL ... the camera.

The pictures taken this morning looked so good after I took them, while I viewed them on the monitor on back of the camera. They look great there. Then I download them into the computer and they are not. I have to do a lot of editing, especially on these morning pictures. I know the lighting this time of day is not the best for taking pictures. I know these same pictures will look much better if I take them again later during the day. So that raises the question, is an expensive camera worth having just for situational shooting? Like it has to have the right light, it can only be so far away from Stella? I noticed today in the information for each picture there seems to be a consistent result ... when the zoom setting is more than 15mm they are not the sharp clear quality I like.  Like Sally told me the other day in a comment "Why don't you just take it back!!" ... this morning that is a possibility.

If it was a $109 camera then I could see using it as a situational camera but not one that cost more than my Nikon D3200. I could take the same amount of money I paid for the Canon G9 and buy a new lens or two lenses. Yet, the size of the Canon G9 does make it convenient to carry with me.

We will see what happens.

In the meantime I will be reading Canon G9 forums about zoom focus points, Digital Zoom, and any other issues that users are finding. As far as my eating habits I am seriously considering sticking with an emphasis on veggies like always, just certain fruits, but finding the right protein sources while reducing fat intake. All opposite of Paleo or Keto ways of eating, that stress fat and protein. I don't follow either of those but have added more beef to my menus than anytime in previous years. I am also considering eliminating chicken and only using seafood as the 'meat' in my diet.

So a lot of reading today ... maybe a trip to Best Buy maybe not ... and the anticipation of that ringing doorbell as the FedEx driver is sprinting back to his truck. Drop and run is what I call it. Yet, none it really matters ... I am still retired everyday and love it ... my hounds are great house dogs and funny ... electronics work ... car works ... no crisis to take care of ...

Another find day ahead here in 'the tropics of Southern Indiana.