Stella's A Diet Assistant

While Heidi got plenty of rest this morning for a possible walk this afternoon, Stella and I duplicated the start of the morning only she decided this morning I deserved an extra hour of sleep and didn't start her whining to wake me until 6am. She seems to forget at times that I am retired and do not need to get up before the crack of dawn.

It was cold again, below 30°, but really nice this morning as we walked in the field. We had a pretty steady walk, with few stops in between as the photos will show. So, what's the post title about? Well it happened again last night around 9:30pm. I was not the first time it has happened but good old Stella prevented me of making a quick drive to the Dollar Store for some candy, cookies and anything else I could get my hands on. I had a HUGE CRAVING for junk food.

With her on again off again, never knowing when she will have a separation anxiety attack when I leave, I have been keeping her and Heidi in the bedroom as always BUT I continue to use the baby gate outside of the closed door. That door is always tied in a way that she cannot open it.

It takes probably less than two minutes to set up "the wall" but the effort to do that while waking her up from a deep sleep is a huge roadblock for my junk food runs late at night. I really don't like waking her up on the couch just to move her into her 'jail cell' while I am only gone 5-7 minutes, 10 at the most.

Doesn't seem like a lot of time does it? Besides I just told you she is in a deep sleep on the couch. Based on past experiences when I trusted her and was sure I could make it back before she woke up ... NOT ONE TIME did that work out as planned.

She must wake up as she hears my car drive away. Then she will counter surf for any possible food, fruit in bowls, maybe some left over pasta sauce stains on a plate that is waiting to be washed. She has even tried opening the refrigerator. The hanging bloodhound drool on the handle was a dead giveaway last summer.

So ... 7-10 minutes is too long for Stella to stay out of trouble. With it being too much of a hassel to set up "the wall", she slept on the couch and I changed my mind about going. I killed my junk food urge with a raw banana.

You may have noticed I did change the blog design. This was quick and easy since I did not have to do hardly any cusomization after I implemented the change. It still has a sidebar but it has the posts listed one by one instead of a grid. I was getting tired of the grid look on the home page. I did change the font and for the blog posts title, that change automatically reduced the size enough to make all the post titles just one line.

I know I've said it at least four times before but "I like this design"

When Stella heard the word "go" she stopped in her tracks and looked at me is if she would be making the trip when we returned home. All I said was "I have to go to the store" as I was trying to get her to work more and sniff less

I usually don't like shooting directly into the sun but I kind of liked this photo the more I looked at it.

Starting Thursday night I will be back to living on the couch watching "March Madness" through the weekend. Combine that with the start of the MLB season, there will be a lot of games going on at the same time. The split screen will definitely be used. It's a feature I did NOT have with DirecTV but do with DishNetwork. Unless my internet service changes from satellite to through my phone service I don't see many options on how I get my tv signal.

I have 11 months left on my contract with DishNetwork and at the rate things are changing I am sure my options will increase from now until February 2020. Being a sports addict and my locaction most of all, makes it hard for me to become a "Cord Cutter".

One of the problems of getting up at 6am, is that Heidi and Stella now want to have lunch at 10am. They have both given up their barking and howling knowing that I will not feed them until at least 11am, maybe a little later.

Since the release of the Mueller Investigation Report and the announcement by the Attorney General, tv news has been very very interesting. If it wasn't so sad it would be hilarious. I do glance at those channels that are far left and it is just amazing the amount of DENIAL that is going on by current and past members of Congress, the FBI and the CIA.

Just like the Democrats loved Comey in the summer of 2016, they hated him by October 2016. They (the far left media and pundits) have pulled that same whining feature with Mueller. They were positive that Trump would be nailed to the cross by that investigation and when he wasn't Meuller was the bad guy. Some think they can get the truth easier than it took Mueller. Clowns.

Needless to say any comments I make about the political scene from now on will be based on what I read online. I'm done with TV news ... again.

I reset my targets or limits for calories, carbs, protein and fat on the Cronometer app to what the Mediterranean Diet suggested. Calories 1,527 - Carbs 190g - Protein 110g - Fat 30g.

I am back to following "My Diet" which is a little bit from all the top diets. My emphasis is tyring to stay away from fast food, junk food, processed food and sugar. Some of those that I am focused on, I have stayed away from most of the time the past four years. So I am really trying to eliminate those late night junk food runs I have had in the past and combatting against those fast food urges I have.

When I have fallen off the whole food wagon, I have fallen hard and make up for all the ice cream, pizza, cheeseburgers that I have missed. Although the last time I had a Pepsi (months ago) it did not taste good.

I am slowly breaking my sugar habit by cutting the quantities in half. That means only 1tsp per cup of coffee or cup of oatmeal. It has seemed to have worked the past two mornings.

Why is it every time I take a photo where my house is in the background or as we end our walk, that I always have to edit it and level the top of the roof to where it is straight???? Anywhere from an angle of 2°-4°. It's the same way whether I use the smaller Canon G9 or the larger Nikon D3200. I am positive I am holding the camera level when I take the photo.

Is my house sinking 2°-4° on the north end of the house?   (that's a joke ... I think)

The camera didn't catch her but Stella ran a couple of times today. Once she was so fast that she ran into the back of me as I was about to turn take her picture. Oh, one thing I do not want her to find out about, is the "dietitian assistant" job, because she will expect more kibble with each meal.

No matter what the temperatures are, it is always nice when the sun is out and it's not raining.

Stella getting in a little hamstring stretching.

With the library books returned I am back to reading the small font, 600 page book about Steve Jobs. It's a very very slow read. It's not him that I want to read about it's about Apple that I want read about. His partner was the computer whiz, Steve was the salesman. In the few pages I have read they made quite a pair. They are just starting their first computer as a company, when I put the book down and went to bed last night. They combined what money they had and started Apple with $1,300.

My car is a year older but the great state of Indiana let me know I needed to pay more than last year for license plates. They also hit me for a little more income taxes to pay this year. I still see a lot of bridges that need repaired, highways that need repaired ... so where does the money go? This state use to have a huge surplus of funds just a few years ago.

Well I need to go. The hounds are trying a different strategy to get me to serve lunch earlier than normal. No sounds but they are both sitting next to my desk chair staring at me with just a little bloodhound drool on the left jowl of Stella.

It's another beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Were A Little Off Schedule Today

The day started out normal time for Heidi and Stella but they were off schedule today. It might have all started Sunday night while they slept soundly on the couch I couldn't make up my mind what movie to watch or what book to read. I flipped through tv channels and saw nothing to catch my interest and out of all the DVD's I have on the shelf, same result. I probably threw off their schedule today because I went back to sleep after feeding them breakfast. Each hound had about as much energy or lack of, as I did.

It rained Sunday and the wind blew a little but nothing like the forecast. As you can see a lot of leaves are still on the trees. I might have to go back through my blog archives to see the latest date in November where I was raking and burning leaves. I can't remember something like that.

Since we started really late with the first walk of the day, Stella was well on her own walking path. I had to do a little verbal herding to get her back in the general direction I was taking. It has been months since she has taken off for the neighbor's yard while I walked away on our path. She does like to veer back and follow our return path about 10' away.

That is the return path you see just a few feet in front of her back towards the camera.

I could already tell soon after the walk started I had lost my momentum to get anything done today. That didn't mean I might have some idea later in the afternoon and end up doing something, but this morning I felt like I was in the deepest of ruts. I didn't expect any sudden energy leading me to cleaning or painting the walls. I have all the materials to use but can't seem to get started on interior painting.

Stella likes to run a few feet to catch the path I am on and head right over to the edge of the field and woods.

After a few weeks of great sleep, last night was a disaster and a night of total restlessness. Of course during all of that middle of the night chaos (accurately recorded by my Garmin) both Heidi and Stella were in a very deep sleep. The past 7-10 days, Stella has decided the leather couch is her spot to sleep all night. The dog bed in the corner of the bedroom remains vacant as does the big leather chair with the ottoman. Neither hound uses them. I take that back, sometimes Heidi will take a morning nap on the dog bed after breakfast, but no other time.

A friend of mind that has been writing and taking photos of his travels for many years, has been talking about the sharpness of his photos and how they just don't look crystal clear like they use to. I had those same type of discussions here with my photos. With the help of trying different settings and an answer from Barney over at OFM Adventures I found out why my photos are not as clear as I thought they use to be.

My friend is still trying to put the pieces of his puzzle together. It all deals with 'compression', whether a blog does it automatically when photos are uploaded or by a 3rd party photo editing service. Through all of this emailing back and forth about the photos issue it reminded me of my tv picture on Dish Network after moving from Directv last February.

That little 'not as sharp' drives me insane sometimes. I knew I was seeing it on some of the ballgames I watched or the movies, yet on different channels the tv picture was crystal clear and sharp. Of course none of the Dish Network tech reps on the phone would admit what I was seeing was correct. Nowhere online did either tv service website tell me about potential picture issues in their troubleshooting section.

That is where a good forum comes into play whether it be about computers, smart phones, cars, dogs, dog food, blogs, or even tv satellite service. I found my answer and regained my sanity on a Directv forum where customers were discussing the same things I was seeing on my screen after switching to Dish Network. On some shows, games or movies THERE IS A DIFFERENCE between companies because Dish Network will 'compress' their signal.

Other users had noticed the same thing I did in picture quality when they switched to either competitor. The bottom line, neither company has the best of everything so you have to decide what is the most important ... picture quality, equipment, lower cost, program selection and even customer service. I decided the small difference in picture sharpness was not that big after I computed what my fee would be for breaking my 2-year contract 15 months early. Plus, only Dish Network lets me watch 4 ballgames at one time.

I have no idea what she is looking at or smelling off in the distance.

In fact I was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to move.

This is pretty to some but I prefer the bright sunny skies. It was warm at 49°, I had overdressed today but the thought warm weather has been scrambling my brain cells recently.

As you can tell this walk was not on a record breaking pace. One thing Stella has always done since she arrived ... she has taught me and Sadie how to relax and take things as they come. "We" are retired and are on "our" own schedule. No need to rush things.

Somewhere through the tall grass is a path we follow.

The finish line.

As you can see the yard as a few leaves back in the yard and close to the house but not that bad. Those along the house are easy to blow down the side into the driveway and either over the bank or down near the highway where traffic will blow them away.

How did I miss not putting that on the list ???  Cleaning the outside of the gutters.

There was no barking for lunch today by Heidi. In fact I had to ask Stella "where's Heidi" when it was past their lunch time. Within seconds of hearing Stella howl, Heidi was sprinting from the bedroom wide awake and ready for lunch.

I was taking a picture of Heidi's tail and the top of her forehead looking in my direction but after downloading the photo I see where I need to add more of the concrete paste to fill those cracks after the first application settled. The paste dries as hard as cement. Since it was 55° I could apply a second layer.

No lap around the house today either. Once she was finished she turned and came right back to the house.

Once inside she did a couple of sprints around the coffee table back to the carport door in the kitchen and back around the tables. Then she hopped up on the couch, scratched her blanket into the perfect position for an afternoon of sleep.

Stella was more interested getting back inside for her after lunch nap than getting off the carport floor. Her first walk of the day had only been an hour before. I decided early in the summer that I would not power wash my steps or concrete floor this year. I wanted to do that before I apply some new concrete to the low spots and then paint the floor and steps with a textured gray concrete paint next spring.

Here is some evidence we did not get the high winds that were predicted. The is the only branch in the driveway that needed to be picked up. Looks like another item for the 2019 'to do' list unless I have a hot day this fall I don't know about. I didn't pressure wash the fence this year because at the time it did not need it. Things change fast around here.

With the house quiet with two sleeping hounds and no energy to do any kind of interior work, I grabbed John Grisham's new novel and continued reading it.  The pace was just too fast today. That happens sometimes when you are retired, you just go with it.

Slightly warm and overcast today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.