A Nothing Day Today

Nothing too exciting today here in 'the tropics'. The day started slower than slow and didn't end much faster as the photos will show.

There were a few minor changes today ... some to this blog, some additions to my Feedly account, some more ideas of traveling with Stella and general day dreaming.

The biggest and most enjoyable change today was the "heat index". That dropped around 15° and made a huge difference in the comfort level inside and out. Less air conditioning was ran today and the afternoon hound walk was more enjoyable ... even at a leisure pace.

Sadie was giving me that "stare" to walk this morning but at the time I took this photo I had not had my first cup of coffee ... so we weren't walking anywhere, except back inside to pour that first cup.

I saw a lot of blue skies today but it had a feel of being overcast most of the day. The rain is unpredictable but that doesn't really matter while all of us hide out inside to escape the afternoon heat.

Not sure where he was head but he had highway traffic backed up longer than the traffic laws allow and really nowhere to pull off to the side if he passed the intersection just in front of him. He passed that turnoff and the line of traffic slowly passed by the house.

After the hounds had lunch we did the normal trip outside. Heidi wasn't out longer than 5 minutes before she headed back to the door for me to let her inside. Stella decided she would sleep there because she was sleeping right before lunch ... she likes sleeping anywhere.

Sometime a little before 4pm I decided to do the afternoon walk. The weather seemed okay temperature wise outside, I needed something to do and the hounds are willing to walk anytime I grab the camera and say "lets go".

It might be just me but it seems that since the field has been cut and baled, the hounds spend more time with their noses in the ground than anywhere else.

Stella wasn't happy that I called her before she could walk into those woods. She started my direction but took her sweet ass time doing it. She has been pretty stubborn this week for some reason.

I did one more look at this last roll of hay they had here and there is not a string to bind it with anywhere. Just a roll of hay that is slowly falling apart.

Stella made one last attempt to sneak off into her "no fly zone" but once again slowly walked in my direction when I called her. When I say slow, I mean slower than slow. I've never seen a hound that walks as slow as she does.

They brought the red trailer last night right after we finished our walk. Probably a good thing because Stella would have been real interested in meeting their springer spaniel they had in back of their truck. Something seems to be wrong with the tractor but didn't see anyone today working on it, the few times I looked in that direction.

I've been thinking today of going back to a vegetarian diet. Last year I started Paleo Diet and lost a little over 20 pounds but never felt comfortable eating as much bacon and red meat as they recommended. I've been adding brown rice back to my diet which the past 6 months has had more chicken and salmon and less red meat.

As you see I started playing with the blog template today. From the choices of Blogger templates there isn't one that gives me everything I want in design but the one I changed to gave me more things I wanted than the one I have been using since January. Let me know of the fonts are too small for you to read, since I did decrease the page font one size smaller.

I am not finding any ticks on Sadie or Stella after our walks since giving them NexGard in April. They still love me though, as I pull off 4-5 after every walk. With the record heat out west, my friend in Phoenix says the scorpions are out in full force ... I think I'd rather have the war against ticks here in Southern Indiana.

It's that same time of year where I think of making some travel plans. I always wait too late and by this time it is really hot in the majority of the western states. That puts my choices up towards Montana, the Dakotas or the Pacific Northwest. I was planning to head that direction last July but Heidi became sick a few days before our departure. The vet needed for her to stay here 30 days before she could travel.

Of course last summer I had different hounds and a different combo. I handled the one bloodhound and two basset hounds with no problems in Rest Areas or off in a grassy area when refueling. All liked the tent, they slept most of the time I was on the highway.

This year Stella makes it a little different situation. One is because she is a large hound and I've gone to two bloodhounds and one basset hound. Here at home even two bloodhounds at times are hard to handle when they were both leashed when walking last fall. Plus the few times I have taken Stella with me to buy dog food in Bloomington I've let her out on a leash before we head back home.

With that store being on a busy four lane street and new surroundings, I found Stella to be a little skittish when I had her out on a leash. The traffic noise spooked her and she had the urge to take off running if I did not have her on that leash. She couldn't wait to get back inside the FJ.

Most likely a lot of her anxiety is from the times she had moved in her first six years. So if I am serious about traveling this summer, I need to load the hounds up in the FJ, with my standard 6' leashes and drive about 70 miles to the freeway and head to the nearest Rest Area to see how Stella would handle that. I know Sadie and Heidi would do okay in a Rest Area stop.

I think I'll go study cameras and see if it would be worth buying the Nikon D3300 at a discount price since they are discontinuing that model this summer.

Overall it was slow but a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It Took A Lot Of Hours But Finished

Sorry I don't have much to blog about today and only have 3 photos of the hounds. Those were taken today ... maybe I'll go back into the photo archives and post some past photos of the hounds down below.

Anyway I found out just how much work and how many hours it takes to update things when you make the decision to change your home email address ... an address that you have used for a lot of years. I almost changed it in April 2014 when I retired, kind of a 'fresh start' kind of thing. I then realized by looking at my list of passwords and all of the different emails I receive daily because they have that email address ... that in April 2014, I decided not to change it.

For some reason this year, that email address was sold obviously by some website(s) where I had used it. The amount of junk mail coming to that account was amazing and never stopped. I did all I could to block them. I had a pretty good idea of the cause just based on the increase in junk mail after I would list something to sell on Craig's List or the times I would sign up for a new newsletter from someone. I'm not positive it is the reason, but it was a fact that junk mail increased tenfold during the times I had things for sale on Craig's List..

The junk mail seemed to happen more and more, even with the business websites where I had used the address. So I decided last night I'd start the long process of changing everywhere that old email address had been used and then delete the account.

Honestly, it took me almost 7-8 hours of solid work to get those updates done, including rechecking those sites where changes were made to make sure I could enter them again with the new email address. I also wanted to make really sure that I received email notices from my banks, credit cards, internet company, cell phone company, and electric company if nothing else.

Who knows, just by doing that I may start receive a new batch of junk email ... hope not.

So I'll not keep boring you with the details ... but just to let you know, if you ever decide to or have to change your home email address it is very time consuming to update before you pull the plug on the old account.

The hounds did their normal daily stuff inside ... a lot of sleep, the bloodhounds played, shared bones, found a new bone that was hidden somewhere and all were very interested in the lunch I fixed ... even Heidi.

For the first time Stella "whined" to me about the time I normally put their food out. I guess she has decided to start acting more like a bloodhound and has adjusted to the move.

Here are some photos from today ... while I'm off to find some older photos to post that you haven't seen yet.

Early this morning Stella didn't even want to go out into the field to snoop around. She sat there and stared at me the whole time we were outside this morning.

 Winston did his normal early morning search for any yard moles that he never tries to catch but seems to smell a lot around the yard.

Sadie decided she was going to do her normal morning routine and it didn't matter if Stella came with her or not. She didn't go too far and was back in the yard looking bored. So we all went back inside and I went back to the computer.

 I lost the first two years of photos for Sadie due to my own mistake, thinking I had my hard drive backed up. I am not sure how old Sadie was in this first photo but she was letting me know that chair was hers.

She has always been able to sleep anywhere but usually preferred no blanket of any kind. She is about 3 years old in this photo.

This is Heidi after we had spent all day driving down to Arkansas to pick up the Lil Snoozy Trailer before I changed my mind in the middle of the night. She really liked that grass lot but it wasn't a few minutes later she snuck off out of sight and a feeling of panic made me forget about the 98° and humid evening.

When I brought Winston home at 8 weeks old in 2004, he wasn't much bigger than a bottle of Pepsi.

Stella's previous owner use to dress her in a polo shirt and take her to work on Fridays. I could tell by these photos she was a laidback bloodhound. That last photo is Stella's first night here, probably really confused and shy ... it didn't take her many days to move from that spot on the floor to the couch every night.

I have a college football game to watch tonight, with my Dawgs playing down in smoggy Los Angeles starting about an hour after the Indianapolis Colts kick off for their game in Houston. That means one game will be taped on the DVR but will be looked at during the commercials of the other game. Thankfully MLB has the night off. I always say I need a few more tv's mounted on the wall.

Overcast in 'the tropics' this morning but it never rained ... then the sun popped out for another great day of retirement.