Stella And I Tip Toe On The Walk

I keep reminding myself this is just a normal winter, that winter weather is NOT the same every year. From the history of my photos, sorted by day or a blog post written in the past, I can see consistent changes taking place about ever three years. Although I cannot remember off the top of my head the last time we had a major snow storm where schools were closed, highways were closed and the bread plus milk aisles at the grocery store looked like the last day on earth ... empty. I remember those types of storms happening a few times since I moved in this house in March 1998 but unless my memory is really in the failure mode, that type of snow has not happened in the past ten years.

But it wasn't snow that Stella and I were concerned with this morning ... it was the extremely saturated ground with standing water on the field path in spots, after some rain, temps near 40 melting the snow from Friday night and as we started our walk, little balls of sleet were hitting my dark blue down parka sleeve.

Here you can see how the light overnight rain depeleted a lot of the snow, only to have its evidence frozen with low overnight temps. As my North Face boots took each step through the yard you could hear a loud crunching of ice only to met by 'mud' ... not really mud but ground so soft I thought I was stepping in mud.

You can see here each step we took yesterday at the end of the walk has melted. Also it's interesting to me to see that up in the north yard, the bare grass is the exact spot that the underground water flows, even making that right turn ... I've only seen that path after I cut and cleared all the natural overgrown brush in that area a few years ago.

I took this picture of Stella not knowing  my camera was still on "landscape" mode, after I was checking some things out yesterday. I did intend for the flash to be on because it was that dark outside, even at 8:05am.

When I saw the flash show up on the image on the camera monitor, I turned if off ... this is the exact time I caught the camera in "landscape" mode instead of "auto no flash" mode.

As you can see, with bad weather yesterday and about 4 hours until kickoff for the first NFL Playoff game, I had time to 'play' with the blog template. If you checked the blog between 12:30pm and 3:30pm Saturday you may have seen 3 or 4 different designs I had published. I was close to what I wanted but was still looking and using up my internet data like a water faucet left on. Yes, I thought I loved the dark background, making my pictures stand out but there was just something about a white background I really like. I even caught myself seeing every sports website now moved to white backgrounds along with the news websites I saw a few weeks ago. I found my own eyes preferred the white background with black fonts better than my dark and light tan color font. Still at 3:27pm ... I was still looking through the long list of WordPress themes I could choose from.

Then there it was!! Had I seen this theme before? If so, why didn't I choose it. I had used some search terms I had not used before such as "clean", "one column" (I did use this prior) "grids" (I did use that prior) ... but this theme looked great before making any adjustments plus it had a feature I had never seen before. I could choose for the home page to be skinny, standard or wide. I could choose my blog post content to be skinny, standard, wide and wider. If I made the home page wider I'd have less columns and if I made my post pages extremely wide I had huge pictures for us that read the blog on large monitors. For those of use that use laptops, those pictures would fill the screen ... for the tablet and phone readers, it did not make any difference. I checked the new blog design on my laptop, iPad Mini and iPhone so I had some idea what the readers on those devices would see.

Unlike yesterday I saw a ton of deer tracks in the melting snow this morning and so did Stella. They had followed the edge of the woods up to the first turn. Then around the corner where Stella is always checking out their entrance to or from the woods, there were tracks coming out of the woods and following the edge of the gully heading east across the field to the back.

It's funny to see when Stella picks up her pace. It reminds me that she really does have a bloodhound nose and she isn't a 100% 'couch potato' ... a term a bloodhound breeder told me once. She separated her puppies with a test at 45 days old and could tell who the 'trackers' were and who the 'couch potatoes' were. I have never bought a puppy from her but at the time I was talking to her about some issues Sadie was having as a puppy. I did not get Stella until she was 6 years old

If that isn't an overcast day I don't know what is. The temp is hovering around the 40° mark so most of the white stuff will be gone by tomorrow. I must admit I like the pictures I take in the spring, summer and fall from this vantage point. There is just something about bare trees I don't care for. At least when I lived in Washington, it might rain a lot in the winter and get dark by 4pm or earlier but those pine trees are always green.  :)

While I walked softly along the wet path, Stella had been tip toeing most of the way as if she didn't want to get her feet wet. She will walk around puddles of water near the house or on the carport floor, here I have her in 7 acres of puddles this morning.

Here you are looking at 4 stages of weather .... snow from Friday night ... residue of ice from last night ... tiny holes of rain drops from last night and then frozen overnight ... and standing water from the warmer temps Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

Although in recent months, she has never taken off north toward those woods or even tried to escape on the worn ATV path made in the summer of 2017 ... she glances that way at times wondering either "what if ... " or "I remember when ..."

Stella is walking in the exact same steps she took yesterday ... she even veered left to walk parallel ... can you see where veered turned left?

With that left paw held up, that just shows you how slow she was walking with each step as the path got wetter. Super slow-motion. Tip toe through 'the tulips' ... wasn't that a song many years ago??

I've been feeling lighter this week. How can I tell? Two ways ... by what I bought and snack on since Thursday plus how much easier it is to fasten my jeans. I always find out that I can no longer eat breads in any form. It doesn't matter if it is wheat, sourdough, rye ... it's bread and my body craves it like candy when it's in the house. I also know that a 1/2c of pasta sauce isn't enough, nor is the 1c of 'dry' pasta ... even fact the word pasta can only be eaten about once per month and only in the recommended serving size on the jar or bag. I was looking through the list of diets by USNews the other day for their 2019 ratings. At #4 was something called the Flexitarian Diet ... I found out I'd had been following that for the past 5 years more or less. That is mostly veggies and fruits, eggs, seafood, chicken and then an OCCASIONAL burger at 5Guy's or that Stromboli at Nick's.

Yet that doesn't help me lose weight. And .... I'm not really dieting but just finding the best way to eat for the rest of my life ... of course open to changes as I get older.

I keep thinking about writing and posting my review of the Apple Watch I bought a little over a week ago or has it been two weeks already .. not sure. I still love it as much as I mentioned the last week. I still consider it one of my best if not the best electronic purchases I've ever made. I did a lot of research before I bought it. I also talked to an online friend who bought hers last year for health reasons. She emailed me a couple of days ago with an update about the watch, with some news you could almost consider negative as far as the watch goes but very positive that she is okay.

She has atrial fibrillation (A-fib) and that can be picked up by the Apple Watch Series 4. This newer model is supposed to detect when you fall, then automatically call 911 if that person whom has fallen does not respond in a certain amount of time by pressing a button on the watch. She fell, and passed out but that was not detected by the Apple Watch plus it did not call 911 as it was designed to do. Test reports stated it was very accurate in detecting a fall and if you had A-fib. Luckily her husband was at the house and found her soon enough to call for medical help. She did say the watch DID detect that she had a A-fib episode.

Fall Detection is one of the reasons I decided to buy the watch since I live alone. As I said when I wrote about it a few Fridays ago .. I don't think I will ever be in that situation, but you never know. If I would fall and the watch did NOT detect it, I guess I would be in the same situation as if I had not bought it. So nothing lost really ... I still love the additional information the watch gives me and the different ways it provides that information.

I have two more NFL Playoff games to watch today. I did not finish watching the second game last night. It was not that late but the urge to sleep was greater than wanting to watch the game. I guess that is what I get when Stella thinks I should get up every day at 5am. Only today, she let me sleep late. In fact I had to wake her and Heidi up to go outside a little past 7am.

I know you have heard me say this many times over the 7+ years of blogging on this blog, either here on WordPress or over on Blogger. I really like this current theme and am pretty sure this is the final design. I DO have one more option to check out. It is on this same theme.
I can add a sidebar either on the home page, the post page or bothI can only add to the footer, a sidebar is not an option I found out I had two options, in the footer but only two columns wide or on the single post page BUT only after the post BEFORE the comments section So I chose in the footer so the comments section is just below the post ... a sidebar would let me list those other blogs or websites I like to follow, the most visited posts or pages for those first time blog visitors, maybe a few favorite pictures, or the link to my new Flickr account that I keep forgetting I set up a few weeks ago.

That will be the only change that MIGHT HAPPEN ... a sidebar added ... IF I decide I want that information within a click away.

The Question of the Day ... why does Stella always whine or howl when I sneeze or when I am trying to break the record for the most consecutive sneezes in a row?

It's Sunday, the snow is melting, the hounds are laid-back like always, my coffee was good and my Apple Watch battery has lasted longer active than the 18 hours they told me it would. NFL games on today with some college basketball, good food available, a fairly clean house for a single hermit and a 'toy' list that is once again blank.

It's all good today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It Feels Normal Again

It is starting to feel normal again. Yesterday had little research about the new watch and camera. I have just a couple of things to look up today. This will be our last day of high's in the 50s as we drop back to normal winter weather by tomorrow, into the 30's. You may be wondering what is Stella doing there, what has she found, is she eating anything? Well when I finish the dog food that is stored in the same container that you see in the 2015 Utah Trip, I turn that container upside down and lightly tap it on the concrete to get the rest of the "kibble dust" out of the container. Just like the kitchen floor, Stella likes to keep the carport concrete as clean as possible. She also likes dog food kibble in any shape or form.

While Heidi explored the front yard yesterday I headed down to the mailbox. Last Friday was the last time I checked the mail and found the camera in a box that barely fit in the mailbox. If it had not fit, my mail carrier would have taken the time to drive up the driveway and leave the box on the step in the carport. If I remember correctly, I made it home from Best Buy in time for delivery. This picture of Heidi was taken at the bottom of the driveway with the zoom staying at the far end of the status bar. Today I am going to find out what that yellow and light blue color is on the status bar ... I am guessing it's a way to tell me that a focused zoom is not possible at that range.

Our walk this morning started out a little different. I wondered if these were signs of things to come. We left a few minutes before 8am and it was really dark and overcast, to the point that I considered waiting an hour. Waiting would have better lighting for taking pictures but it was a good test to see what would be captured in low light. While I was checking some settings and taking pictures of the landscape, Stella had moved right after stepping into the field and collected as many burrs as she could ... unintentionally of course. They don't happen because the ragweed had died, they will also show up with the new growth next spring. I had Stella braced between my leg and arm so I could pull them off before they would get tangled in her coat. This was the best picture I could take with one hand and trying to hold her in place.

Once she felt I was finished, she trotted off one happy bloodhound ... on to more important things.

Last night was the last night for college football games, that are not all-star games. (I never watch those). Somewhat of a surprise win for Clemson but maybe not since they have won two of the last three national championship games. Of course I will move into college basketball now until the Final 4 the first week of April. One thing that is different, I eat less during those games, even on Saturdays where there might be a full day of basketball games being played. There are also many more games shown on tv at the same time than college football. Yes .... some of the pictures are out of focus this morning ... I'll be reading today about that problem.

I have tried my best to stay away from online and tv news again. I've been pretty successful too. I 'glanced' at the news the day the Democrats took their oath for their new positions gained in the last election. After less than 30 minutes of tv viewing and glancing at the online headlines ... I have moved back into "no news". That brings up a question or questions ... I have two websites I follow through my Feedly account. I manually added the sites so I can see their latest updates. So I can also delete them if I want to.

One of these dealt the refugee resettlement, then a few weeks ago the author moved to a new blog where she is now writing about fraud, criminal activity, politics ... things you never see or hear about in the news. I added something the other day I did not really want to but it's always been a subject that I have been concerned about. The attempt and at times success in spreading Sharia Law in the USA. That is a subject that would take multiple blog posts to cover. What is going in in the USA and NEVER covered by the mainstream media is amazing. If you want some idea ... do a search about "Sharia Law in Dearborn Michigan" ...

I just started to write more on that topic, but deleted it. I might do a post about it in the future and the concerns I have ... so is it important to be "aware" of what is going on in the news or is it better to "totally ignore" whats going on in the news, reported or not?

With all of the college football bowl games, playoff games and then adding all those NFL playoff games the past week ... my diet flew out the window and I paid for it in just a few short days. Breads, pasta, waffles etc are never a good thing for keeping weight off. In fact in five short days I gained two pounds.  Since changing my eating habits for the better three or four weeks ago, I have gain four pounds. Yet there were a couple of weeks where I had lost two pounds during that week. With college football over, there will be no more 12 hours spent watching games on tv and eating out of control. I've also gone back to really watching carbs intake or should I say wheat, and grains intake ... focusing more on veggies and salmon. This weight gain over took the daily large salad I eat for lunch. I have no doubts though that the weight will drop as soon as next Monday's 'weigh-in', based on my new 'focus.'

When I was in a car accident in March 2010, stopped on a highway 3-way stop and rear-ended by a high-speed truck pulling a horse trailer, I knew I'd eventually have problems with numbness of some sort. I have been to LMT's and PT's for treatment over these last 9 years. A couple of years ago my little finger on the right hand went numb, then a little numbness the ring finger. Chiropractors and Massage Therapists have not help as the numbness always returns. Each of those therapists gave me exercises I could do at home when that nerve problem flared up. Basically the finger numbness has never gone away.

Something new started a few months ago. It's not constant and I assume I aggravate it by the amount of time I sit in front of a computer. On my left shoulder, in front along the collarbone, it will go numb for short periods of time (minutes) where it feels the same way as hitting your 'funny bone' on your elbow. I probably need treatment 3x per week to really get rid of those two issues. Payment is not covered by Medicare nor my supplement insurance and to me it's not worth the $180-$200 per week out of my pocket for those three treatments. Compared to what other people go through at my age, it's really not that big of an issue for me. I am really lucky to have good health.

When I was at Best Buy on Friday picking up my new Apple Watch, an older lady asked me about the new Apple iPad she was looking at. I was waiting for the sales rep to come back with my watch. She told me her Apple MacBook Pro had died after 10 years of use and she was seriously considering replacing it with the new Apple iPad Pro they announced a month or so ago. I won't go into details but I probably spent almost an hour talking to her and the sales rep about the new updates to computer, smartphones, watches etc. We all agreed it was impossible to keep up with every new electronics development and/or release. As we talked about how Apple had gone with the bigger screen for their phones in 2017, this year's 2018 models were going to a smaller screen but the clarity was phenomenal.

About that time the sale rep reached into her pocket and pulled out "look what I am trying out for Verizon?" ... a SMALL smartphone probably not much bigger than the palm of my hand. I doubt it was 2" wide, not longer than 3-1/2" ... a screen that was just as clear and sharp as any retina display! In that small computer she had everything her Samsung 9 smartphone had. It was amazing!!!!

Yet as much as new electronics attract me I wouldn't buy one. It was small enough I'd probably lose it, or I'd have it in my back jeans or cargo shorts pocket then sit on it. It would also be too small to see the GPS map while I am driving lost going in circles or trying to find that turn I missed. Still for what it was ... it was nice to see, hold, tap extremely small icons to make it come alive. She said it was still in the 'testing phase' and that was the reason Verizon had not emailed me. I told her I had not seen any advertisements on tv or online. It was just another new electronic 'toy' that people will buy because it's different. I usually don't buy new unless my computer breaks, or my iPhone needs upgraded. I didn't think I would ever move from my 8+ iPhone but after seeing those screens on the new XR model, I'll probably upgrade in a year or two.

Speaking of electronics, as I become more familiar with the Apple Watch ... it is still impressive. It is 'connected' to my iPhone by bluetooth and the phone doesn't have to be that close for everything to work on the watch. For example I had the phone inside charging while I stood ~80' away at the mailbox down by the highway. I was still getting everything I would get standing right next to the phone. If it were not for the good iPhone 8+ camera I would trade this watch in within the 15-day limit and exchange it for the GPS/Cellular model because it is just that good. I had a phone conversation for almost two hours yesterday, ON MY WATCH !!! ... we both agreed our reception was much clearer than the smartphones we use for that long distance call. The verbal commands or the questions I ask Siri on my watch are just as fast responding as my iPhone. Once again ... amazing things inside a very very small piece of electronics.

I checked again for fleas on Stella ... there isn't any. I checked for any kind of skin irritations, redness or even a bare spot from her chewing more than I think she should ... there isn't any. She stops to scratch herself in the same places in the field and yard ... does that make it more of a habit? Inside she scratches herself as part of her self-grooming process ... does that make it a habit? Is it her food? Could be. I am not going to play that "chasing the tail" again with different dogs foods like I did for Heidi's skin two to three years ago. Her skin problem was much worse than what makes Stella scratch. It might also be the season, cooped up in the house much more than laying outside in the yard sleeping under the sunshine.

After normal use of the internet for about the same number of hours yesterday, I can say that the Wordpress Dashboard is the cause for the mysterious data leak. I did not have that problem with the "wp-admin/dashboard" Another reason I think that is the cause, the Wordpress techies emailed me last night telling me they were "still working on the problem" after I sent them a FYI email with my data use results for the day. I used only 400Mb yesterday after using 800Mb or more per day since moving the blog from Blogger to Wordpress. Each post still has pretty close to the same number of large (450Mb) number of pictures. So I'll keep an eye on that and see if the low data usage continues.

Google Chrome "Data Saver" app does not save as much data as it use to but the nice thing is, it will list in order every website you visit and how much data that website used. It goes from the highest data usage to the lowest. You can check 1 hour, 3 hours, a week, or a month ago .... Facebook use to be the #1 data sucker but recently it's been Wordpress .com by 10x as much.

I have run out of things to ramble on. I covered what I had listed in my "notes" program. Oh ... I will NOT be tuned into the President's nationwide speech tonight ... I'll either have the tv turned off or I'll be watching a basketball game during that time. It's a never ending battle in D.C. and it will never get better no matter who is in Congress nor who is elected President. Cooperation, negotiation, and compromise are words not even in their dictionary anymore. I'm going back to 'no news' ... screw it.

Heidi has risen and has a pulse, as she gulped some water then sprinted to the door after her morning nap. She was out and back in so fast I was not able to eject my SD card, insert it into the camera and take some morning pictures of her. This afternoon might be a good time for writing a post only about her, with pictures.

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

Canon G9 X Fine Tuned Finally

Canon G9 X No Flash

With the pictures from Stella's Sunday afternoon walk I was pretty sure I had made the corrections to the settings. I also think I inadvertently pushed a small icon when I was on the monitor on back of the camera, changing AF to MF and not knowing it Sunday morning.

Canon G9 X w/Flash

I took these during the commercials of the NFL game. I can say with this picture and the next picture that the Canon G9 X takes better pictures inside at night as long as the flash is used, than the iPhone 8+ which does a great job.

Canon G9 X w/Flash

That white spec on her top of her nose is dried yogurt, from licking out the empty container.

iPhone 8+ No Flash

This is my normal hound pictures from the couch, no flash with the iPhone 8+.

Nikon D3200 w/Flash

Out of curiosity I did something I never do ... I took a 'couch picture' with the Nikon D3200 with the flash. Heidi still wears the dried yogurt on top of her nose.

We started our walk this morning about 45 minutes later than normal. It wasn't the weather nor the hounds, I woke up about an hour later than normal. We don't start the day until I have at least one cup of coffee, hopefully two. So this morning was going to be a big test to see if I corrected the wrong unseen settings from Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon and night looked like I had fixed the problem. The lighting was a little different when you wait an hour before taking the walk, but this morning was slightly overcast. That presented another good test.

I think you will see the camera settings are where they should be. I did not make any editing changes to any of the photos.

You will see toward the end of this post just how warm it was this morning. No down parka was needed, nor any gloves. Stella was happy to get out in front on the walk.

A little off topic before we start. I've been talking to WordPress for the past three days about the problem with their .com site dumping 700-800Mb of data unexpectedly while I have either added photos, put the blog post together or was proof reading it from the blog url. Finally about midnight last night they finally decided to try something, like digging into the problem to see what was going on. I also sent them a screen shot from Google Data Saver showing wordpress .com in a large lead in the list of websites and how much data they were using. As I have said before, paying for only 20Gb per month I keep an eye out on my data use all all times. The screen is on my second monitor and open anytime my computer is on.

So last night they wanted me to move to the 'old' Wordpress Dashboard that all bloggers have ... "wp-admin/. That makes writing this post a little different. I will not be able to see until I post this, if the line spacing is correct. I don't see anywhere on this screen where I can "preview" ... so I might have to finish it, then save it first and access the preview function that way. {FOUND IT}

Rain is in the forecast by this afternoon with winds in the 20mph-30mph range. Hard to believe we will get more rain since the field is still very saturated with unground water. As we climb a few feet in elevation and get closer to the top or the back of the field, the path gets wetter. Water rises up along the sides of my boots with each step. How will that be after today's rain, IF it shows up. I always say if you want rain or snow I just have to do one of two things ... wash my car ... or mop my kitchen floor. I mopped the floor last night. It will be nice and clean for the first hound paw prints this afternoon or tonight. I guess I could keep a towel outside to wipe their paws before they come in ... sounds like a good idea.

I also saw something on my camera's monitor that is used without a viewfinder to take the pictures. The status bar turns yellow after a certain amount of zoom, then a light blue when it's maxed out. Yesterday morning I could not even move that bar code to the far right, but that setting must have cleared itself when I took the camera back to it's 'default' settings. I did do a couple of pictures in this post with the yellow and light blue colors showing as I zoomed in on Stella. See if you can find them.

It's good to see she has a thick winter coat but more important that she has some weight on her. Two years ago in February she had lost almost 20 pounds. Blood work and different vets could not find any health issues that would cause that weight loss over a six month period. It was in February 2017 I changed dog food brands and haven't changed their food since.

She followed the small narrow deer path into the edge of the woods. Another six to ten feet in, there is a huge drop off that can barely be walked ... falling down into the gully is a real possibility.

I did not change anything editing these because really they looked just like I was seeing ... a dark overcast sky. This picture looks drab but I'd say it's 99% accurate.

She kept me on my toes this morning. She ignored me as much as possible. She did only what she wanted to do. Let's just say we had many 'discussions' on this walk ... but she would just wag her tail and take off in a slow trot, letting me know that I was just along for the ride, and she was making all the decisions today.  LOL

Yes, I should have made this picture lighter but I wanted to keep all the pictures the same to continue my test ...

Almost to the backyard, looking east back into the wooded area. Again I could have brightened this picture up but didn't. I don't know what those to white spots are in the lower right area. I just noticed them while I was typing this sentence. They might be from the house that is located on the opposite side of the gully, tucked in the woods.

That was the real temperature at 8:55am this morning ... in January?? in the Midwest??? ... I'll take it

I followed the steps on the Apple website yesterday to take a screen shot with my watch but all that did was reboot the watch. So this morning I took the best picture I could with the camera, within a minute after we finished the walk. I can choose the design and apps I want on the watch face. There are many different watch faces to choose from. All the adjustments are done on the iPhone and are transferred to the watch in less than a minute. Basically what I have there is all I want. Starting in the upper left and going clockwise ... that BPM translates to the reading "Now", Time and Day of course, lower left is the actual temperature with the range for today, middle is my workout app, with me taping that gives me over 10 different types, ranging from walking inside, outside, riding a bicycle inside or outside, swimming, running etc and that "54" is what percentage of the watch battery is left.

I will write a post reviewing the Apple Watch soon. I will say it does more than I expected and again, one of if not the best Apple product I have ever bought in the last 10 years.

As I glance over at my Activity Monitor I do NOT see a big 'data dump'. For three days in a row, all around 10am, with me on the 'newer' blog dashboard, I'd lose 800Mb within minutes. It could have been more had I not closed Google Chrome and the one time I tried it with Firefox.

About the time I thought I was finished with football games until next weekend, I just remembered tonight is the College Football Championship game. Since that is played on the west coast, kickoff probably won't be until 9:20pm local time. They need 20 minutes of commercials before they can start the game. I'm tired of too many commercials in ALL sports that I watch on tv. But, they pay the bills as they say.

Okay ... I can't think of anything else I wanted to say. I think I am pretty well set with the camera settings. I'll do a little editing when needed, from now on. Thanks for hanging with me through some bad photos and giving me your feedback on what you were seeing on your side of the computer. It was helpful.

I just found the 'Preview' button ...

Warm, windy and gray skies this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.