I May Ruffle Feathers Today

I am talking off topic today. Long and Rambling Nothing about yard work where we need rain badly and nothing in the forecast for weeks. Nothing about hounds or dogs besides Ava is growing and Henry's growth on his tail is not growing. We go to the vet on Monday to get a second opinion. What I may talk about may ruffle feathers and my policy always has been when I write that way ... I don't care.

Hounds Dog & I Survive New Year's

I got the new wireless Harman Kardon speaker to work, but not through the tv. I used an app on my phone to listen to a ballgame the other night and used the speaker paired with the phone. Works very well. Since the hounds and dog are out of the puppy chewing stage I am going to replace my coffee table and end table where they (I think Walter) chewed the corners bad enough I am not sure I personally can repair them. As you will see, we didn't do much on New Year's Eve but we were up past midnight this year ... I didn't say awake, just up.

Too Hot To Hike This Afternoon

I keep forgetting how hot it gets outside starting around 10am. By 1-2pm it's like an oven outside and any thoughts of taking an afternoon hike have to be slid to the side for another day. Those hikes I did last week and blogged about were in temperatures in the 80s, so that is the difference. I had looked in my book for more details for hiking the Lower Brown Canyon. It is about 3 miles out and another 3 miles back with some southern exposure on a sunny day like today.

Just like any other morning the hounds wake me up with their head shaking, ears flapping, metal tags making noise. I have no doubt they are on Eastern time and may never change. This morning felt different though. A clear sky, a warm breeze from the SE as I opened the door. The sun was barely rising when these photos happened.

Hard to believe that small mountain sits inside the Mexican border.

If you look closely to the right you can barely see the Aerostat was launched for the first time in weeks. Right after taking this photo I did not even bother to make coffee. Changed into clothes for the day and tied my shoes while Stella whined for her walk ... and we were out the door. She was energetic today ... trotted down the block and just about the time she crossed the street ... she stopped and turned hard enough to swing my arm around with the leash in hand ... there was a scent in the middle of the street she had to check out and it was only a scent ... I saw nothing in that area.

As we stepped into the lot she kept trotting, tail upright and a smile on her face. (mouth open) She ran out ahead of me as far as the 25' retractable leash would let her. She was in the mood to run today I guess but like I said a few posts ago ... here is no way around here she can be off the leash. She would stop and sniff the air in certain spots ... like that huge smell of bacon coming from the exhaust vents of a nearby hotel. I couldn't get her to move.  LOL

After the walk I had just sat down with my first cup of coffee when I hear a loud distinct bird call. I have no idea what it is but it was loud and sharp enough to wake Stella up. She turned to look where all the noise was coming from. She had finished her walk and she was very interested in getting back to sleep. The increase of bird calls have not bothered her like this since she moved here.

Once Stella rose to her feet I knew our visitor wouldn't be staying long. A couple of steps into the stone yard and the bird was gone.

With her walk finished, some bird watching, she decided the best place to sleep was in the shade while I changed into my bike riding gear. I wasn't wasting time today as I went from dog walking to coffee to riding. Those blocks sitting next to Stella bother me so I guess I'll do some "yard work" and carry them into the garage and stack them them in the corner. Out of sight out of mind.

It doesn't happen every day but it could later even with high temperatures and a day full of sunshine. Storm clouds will blow in and before you know it, it's raining. Not good for surprised out of town afternoon hikers or bike riders.

These were not from today but from the SD card I downloaded from the Nikon D3200 from a few weeks ago. Notice the blue skies on the other side of the mountains.

The typical afternoon for the hounds are the two photos you see right here. They might move from the computer room where these were taken, to the living room and to the bedroom as day moves into early evening. They did the same thing as you know, back in 'the tropics' so there are no changes to their afternoon routine most of the time.

Along with that download I found some photos from our Sunday drive that either did not download properly or it might have been user error, not giving the card enough time to download. If I remember right this is Hwy 90 heading east toward Tombstone/Bisbee. I love traveling through this open land.

This was on Hwy 191 north of Pearce, I think. To me it looks like some sort of power plant and on the right side of the highway a possible nuclear plant yet I found nothing online about it. Anyone that is familiar with the area know what this is?

Again, I kept my eyes on the road and one hand holding the camera up in a general direction not knowing if the camera would succeed with what photo I wanted taken. No, I don't use the monitor on the Nikon while driving and still only use the view finder when I'm not driving.

I am thinking about contacting Canon about my G9X and see if they will do anything under the 1 year warranty about the black spots that are on the sensor. I am even a little motivated to package in it's original box and put that into a bigger box to ship it to them via UPS. After checking my memory banks I bought that camera just last January, sad that it didn't work right for at least a year based on how much it cost.

I've been fooling around with different browsers again. Currently I am using Safari with no problems. With their latest updates it is easier than ever to move an icon to my address bar that I can click to unblock the "blocker" so I can open forms I need from certain websites to view them. I may pay everything automatically but I still like looking at the actual utility bills for electric, gas and water.

Google is still the #1 ranked browser but just that word leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth, just like Facebook ... but I still use them. I tried Firefox again for a few weeks and it supposedly gives you privacy while on the internet, but when Facebook can figure out I've been talking to someone about cars, then floods my newsfeed with advertisements for the exact cars we have discussed ... I guess Firefox can't do anything about that.

I have been attempting to drink 100oz of water per day. I know that is between 4-5 glasses with the glass that I use. Even after bike riding in the mornings and the hot afternoons living in the high desert I find it hard to drink that much water.

No ... I don't miss the thunderstorms nor the tornado warnings I left back in Indiana.

Another laidback day here in the Wild West.

Back On Facebook - I Must Be Bored

The rains arrived as predicted. It was one of those rains that was steady, quiet, straight and strong enough at times to block all satellite connections for my tv and internet services. Maybe it was because I was bored while it rained, or it might have been because I really did miss some of the services I had with a Facebook account. I've RE-started a new Facebook account this morning and am slowly building it again with photos and the few friends I have scattered all over the USA and Canada.

Some of the groups I use to follow did not have a Twitter or Instagram account. A few local pages were nice in case of weather or electrical emergencies and were helpful. I use Twitter to get all of my up to the minute sports news. I opened a Instagram account months ago because a few bloggers had moved there to continue their blogging as well as some old friends that have photos of their dogs. So I guess social media is nice to have as long as the verbal wars and disagreements stay away. Most of my friends are not local so it's a good way to stay in touch. I have a few friends only on Facebook that enjoy photos of the hounds there but rarely if ever come to the blog.

If you would like to add me on Facebook, here is a link to my account.

https://www.facebook.com/steve.floyd.31105

I do post a few photos of the hounds but none of them are different than the photos you see here on the blog.

I was so busy trying to rebuild my account, I worked right through the time I normally feed the hounds at lunch. They did not bark, howl or whine for food today ... they slept right through lunch with the sound of quiet rain creeping through the open windows. With the rain, none of them were going further than the roof overhang to relieve themselves ... except Sadie. She wasn't in the yard long before she sprinted back to the door to be let inside. She waited for Stella and Heidi to join her.

Heidi moved so fast after her bathroom break that I took four different photos and only this one came out clear. She ran to the living room, dove onto the floor and started her daily rolling on her back while growling at herself. She was sleeping soon after her burst of energy.

Even with a lot of good rain ... none of it reached my flowers and plants in the flowerbed, which you will see below.

We didn't do much Sunday so we didn't blog. I found out how out of shape I am in when I woke up Sunday with very sore muscles in the back of my legs just from my activity on Saturday. It was nothing strenuous. I did a lot of bending over while I was on the roof cleaning a couple of gutter downspouts, pulling weeds in the front flowerbed and finished by washing the Z4 which sits low to the ground. Ibuprofen was my best friend on Sunday. All outdoor tasks were cancelled.

The hounds felt the same way. They spent most of Sunday sleeping but still got their two daily walks in. Heidi felt like I did ... she wanted to do nothing and did nothing.

By accident this morning I think I have found Stella's allergy source. This is her itching yesterday. It was also a day where I kept taking allergy tablets myself. That is just a hint of what may be wrong with her, that will talk about below.

We had a lot of good solid rain last night but I never heard it while I slept. This shows why my plants do not get rain water. I planted each plant in the middle of the flowerbed so when they are fully grown they will not grow past the landscape edging. Also, the corner where the edging turns left is the approximate location of my septic tank inlet. That area would need to be dug up for them to clean my system, if it's ever required.

Therefore I still have to water my plants even if it rains. You can see that one Azalea has been brutally beaten down by a sub zero winter and a hot summer. I am not sure it will recover and continue to grow. I have two more on the other side of the porch and each of them look more like the full leaf green one.

Sadie wasn't sure we were going to really go for a walk through the wet field this morning. I could tell there had been a lot of rain by the way the ground felt, very soft. Also my yard was turning green before my eyes. It's amazing how much it changed in a 48 hour period. Just last week I considered bringing out the lawn sprinklers to water the yard if I was not going to get any rain.

I have no explanation for Stella. This morning she started walking on the path in her slow pace but the difference was ... she never stopped walking. 99.9% of the walk she walked with only one time she stopped for some deer scat. She never lowered her head to the ground but that one time during the walk ... it was like she was walking in her sleep.

She walked and walked ... LOL

Sadie was doing what Stella normally does. But I don't have to call Sadie catch up as she does that on her own.

You can barely see Stella hidden behind the brush.

This is the only time she stopped walking during the half mile walk.

With thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon and the dampness in the air, my painting project is on hold until the weather is dry and hot again.

Yes, Stella is still walking in slow motion. She is walking along the overgrown ATV path from last summer that runs parallel to the back edge of the field but much further left of Sadie and I.

She almost stopped as she circled something that interested her. About the time I started walking her direction in case I needed to get her to move ... she took off walking again towards our return path by the last turn of our walk.

You can barely see the path we take, which moves right next to the right of the roll of hay. Stella has crossed the path waiting to see if I tell her to stop and turn around.

I did tell her 'no, come here' and she was about to me when she dodged to check out one more thing before she started her walk home. Yet, she never put her nose to the ground.

Sadie was on her own and always ran to catch up to me.

Notice that Stella is in the exact same pose as she walks ... I should have shot a video of her instead of having the camera catch her in stop action. No, for those that are wondering, this will not turn into a Vblog.

A little verbal herding kept Stella headed in our direction. She would love to go over and visit the neighbors backyard and check for any food that might be out for the wild field cat.

Instead of sitting and scratching this morning when she returned to the yard, she stood and waited for me to take her picture. Then she turned and started walking toward the house. She has NOT scratched at all this morning inside or outside ... and I have not had to take any allergy tablets today, with all the windows open due to the low temperatures.

Have you figured out what I think may be Stella's itching source???

Pollen.

I look at Wunderground every morning to see what kind of weather I have to look forward to. This time of year I look at their block for Precipitation and Pollen. When I started thinking about it I remembered noticing that Stella does not scratch all the time and even not every day. Just like I don't take allergy tablets every day or all the time. I also saw that Wunderground's pollen count was pretty accurate and I can usually feel it in my sinuses first thing in the morning when I look at their site.

I'll start paying more attention and see if what I said here about Stella's allergies proves to be fairly accurate.

This is not the pose I wanted of Sadie when I took this picture but she moved at the last second and turned her face away from the camera.

With the Reds and Cubs having the night off from baseball, it might be a night to catch a movie on tv or a DVD off of my shelf. I don't watch hardly any prime time tv shows but I do have my DVR set to automatically tape new and older shows. That library is building up fast. I am going to have to change the settings to only 'new' episodes.

What might some of them be?

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives is one of my favorites. There is some great food on that show and luckily he has stopped a few places in Indiana within driving distance. I like watching Mexico Life, Caribbean Life, Beachfront Bargins Hunt, Mountain Living, Building Off The Grid, F1 Racing, IndyCar Racing, Hometown, Dr. Jeff Rocky Mountain Vet, and Comfort Food Tour. I also have various college football programs that include the Pac12, and the BigTen.

Luckily I put the car cover on the Z4 Sunday afternoon while it was sunny. Rain was predicted for Sunday night, which did happen. It's good to keep the rain, pollen and dust off of it when it's parked.

For those readers that use Apple products I still like the new macOS on my Mac and laptop. I have not put it on my iPhone and won't until it is officially released this fall. I am currently using the 'beta' version on my computers.

So ... not much going on today. Rain off and on, at times very heavy. Temps are still cool, no AC and the hounds and I are enjoying this weather rain or shine here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.