Winter In April

It was less than a week ago where I was washing my car after mowing the yard wearing a t-shirt and cargo shorts. My brain was sure that "spring is here" with the hot temps of summer right around the corner. As Stella and I finished our walk this morning, the "feels like" temperature was 31°. It felt colder than that as we marched through the wet field.

Starting To Get Warm Again

I took this picture of Stella a few weeks ago but it's her daily position to start her siesta right after lunch. Later in the afternoon she will move to the couch but this is a daily spot for her and has been since the day she arrived. I'm starting today's post from yesterday afternoon. Just like it was predicted, the temps crawled into the 20's but with each degree it climbed the wind seemed to blow stronger so the "feels like" temps never got above 0°

It was so cold after their lunch kibble yesterday, Heidi was too fast for the camera to catch her. She went as far as the mulch and sprinted back to the door. It was only 15° at 11am.

Stella spent a little more time outside but I kept calling her telling her to come on, get inside. She was most likely looking for frozen dirt to eat. Yes, dirt. For some reason when the mole hills are rock hard from the freeze, she likes chewing off the tops. Could you call that "rock candy" ????

So with the hounds sleeping, the heat turned on to keep the house around 68° since anything warmer is too uncomfortable to me, I was finishing Mahjong games under 3 minutes. I glanced up from my laptop computer between games to catch this ... with my Nikon D3200 sitting next to the laptop on the kitchen table it was easy for me to catch the action. It's pretty rare to see a truck like this in the middle of winter, driving into the field across the highway. I took all of these from my chair at the kitchen table, with the Tamron 18mm-200mm lens.

Can any readers with a farming background enlighten me on what he dumped and what it's for? I'm guessing it's either saw dust or finely ground corn husks. I have no idea what the purpose is. Any guesses ???

This morning was a different story though. I could feel the energy in the air inside the house and things were changing, hopefully outside. Stella was more active and back to her normal self after surviving a couple of days of 'cabin fever' and I could even feel a difference in my thought process. It will not hit 30° today but with it being 24° warmer than yesterday that is a big difference.

I thought a walk might be possible this morning as I drank my two cups of coffee. A little after 8am Stella walked in the room and starting hydrating herself by drinking and finishing half of her water bowl. She was ready to take a walk. It looked great outside, with bright sunshine but my watch was telling me it was only 17°. I thought we'd give a shot and see how far we could walk. If anything, just to get out of the house.

It was colder than I thought it would be and I could tell immediately this walk might not last long. I mean it was really cold with the slight breeze from the NW. From past experiences I was pretty sure that Stella would not be able to walk too far this morning.

I was right. When she stopped and turned to look at me, I knew we were finished.

When she raised her rear paw, I knew for sure we were finished. I told her "let's go home" and she turned around immediately then starting walking the same way she came, back home.

I had walked over to the 'return' path but she wasn't taking a chance walking through the snow covered grass. She stayed on the 'outgoing' path all the way home. She didn't stop this time either and walked all the way to the door to go back inside.

I glanced at my watch to end the app that tracks our walk and we were only outside a little over 4 minutes. When I told her I needed to go buy groceries, she walked right into the bedroom, laid on the floor and waited for me to shut her in with Heidi while I was gone. Again, I like that new habit of hers.

After lunch today it was much warmer, over 25° but Heidi let me know real quick she had already dumped her tanks earlier this morning and didn't need to be outside for any reason at all. She turned and headed back inside before I could snap off another picture.

That is a good sign to see the snow disappearing from the yard. Yet, I heard on the radio on the way home from grocery shopping we could get 1"- 2" of new snow tomorrow (Thursday) and it will be a rainy 55° on Saturday. I'll take the rain and warmer weather.

Stella checking for any frozen mole hills again today.

As you see I made a little color change on the blog this morning. Yesterday I changed the trim to crimson so the links in my blog posts would show up better. It was hard to see the links when they were dark blue. The problem with this blog template (theme) is the link color is tied into the trim color ... such has that thin crimson line below the blue header or for each section on the sidebar.

So whatever color I chose for the links in the posts that will also be the side bar color and the blog trim color. On Blogger I could change all three of those individually. I like the blue header verse a white header, so that will probably stay. I am still not sure what color to make the links so they show up next to the black fonts in a blog post.

The question of the day is ... does coffee taste different if you put the creamer in first or after you pour you coffee? No, I haven't lost my mind. I read that on a blog site last week when I was checking out adding heavy whipping cream to coffee instead of just CoffeeMate vanilla creamer. Then there was a blog linked in that article where someone was actually testing those two options with tea.

So does it make a difference? I can't tell.

It will be warm enough later this afternoon to take a full half mile hound walk I think. It's already up to 24° and it's not even noon yet. So this might be a two post day just because I feel  like blogging, plus I can post all of the photos I take on the walk today in a post later tonight. You cannot imagine how nice it's going to feel to have temperatures back above 32° and Saturday's temps are almost too hard to imagine.

I watched part of the live testimony from the lady at Homeland Security in front of another Congressional committee. She said at the current rate of 2019, they are on pace to have 1 MILLION illegal immigrants crossing our southern border this calendar year. I hate repeating myself but damn!!!! How much free stuff can be supplied to a million people ?????

I have to stop watching the news on tv and reading anything online AGAIN .... it pisses me off to no end about all of this crap. I'm sick about it. As long as Trump keeps focused, accomplishing what he has and wants to, I feel we will be in good shape with all that other stuff just 'distracting noise'.

One thing about pushing through a security clearence for someone working for you, I saw that happen all the time when I worked for the government. So the headline about Trump pushing staff and others to get a security clearence process for his daughter and son-in law doesn't surprise me.

Check out who Obama did that for when he was president ... then track the trail of some of those people to the Muslim Brotherhood. Then check out who they are and what they do. Another word ... to all the whiners about the Trump Administration ... STFU !!!!

Maybe I'll change that blue header to a color of forest green ... LOL

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

The Frozen Tundra

As expected, it was extremely cold this morning and the solid ice on the storm windows proved it. I had no plans of taking any walks today at all. We did last year in much more colder weather, more wind and a lower wind chill. There are always concerns walking the bloodhound in temperatures that range of 15° or lower. Will she get ice in between her toes and then have to be carried home? Or, will the extreme freezing weather harm her pads of her paws? Will it cause cracking later on? So with some hesitation, we cautiously walked outside after 10:30am and at 14° and a wind chill 5°.

Two things made it feel warmer, the sunshine was out and very bright. Plus the thermometer in the corner of the carport was at 20°, in the shade. The freezing wind was from the Southwest let me know it was going to be colder on the way home. With that bright sunshine, mentally it felt a lot warmer than it was. I didn't mind it so far and neither did Stella.

With it so cold what little snow was left from last night's dusting, it was not moving from the path onto Stella's paws. It was very dry, like the snow you would experience out west. So the only question would be as we started the walk was ... will Stella's paws get cold enough that we would have to turn around?

Really it did not feel that bad. I was wearing my normal layers of clothes, covered with a down parka and a hood over the top of my sock hat. The Mountain Hardwear parka is 25 years old and is still working fantastic keeping me warm. I had no doubt that I'd stay warm enough to finish the walk. Stella looked a little energized and ready to go. A complete walk was looking promising.

Stella kept trotting fast enough to always stay in front of me. I tried a couple of times to get around her but each time I was about to take a photo of her from the front, she would run by me before I could press the shutter. I was a little curious if that meant she would head for the far right corner of the field, knowing I was not going to run after her? Our pace was the same as always. We did not speed up just because it was cold, after all ... the sun was out. :)

With the straw blowing from left to right, you can't feel it by the way it is bending to the right, but it shows the winds were stronger than normal. With it forecasted to be even colder tomorrow I would have expected the winds coming from the NE or the upper left corner of the photo, since that is where the arctic front is coming from.

When I asked "Do you see any deer?" ... LOL .... she stopped and studied the landscape.

Then looked back at me to see if I was serious or just joking with her. Looking back through some photos in my Deer folder the other day, it showed I have not seen deer in this field since November 2017. What happened? Where did they go? Deer tracks yes ... actual deer no.

This is about as far as Stella veered off the path this morning. She did not act cold in any way but she also did not get off the path too far.

As she stopped at the last turn for home, I told her "lets go home" ... and she took off trotting down the path.

I ran a little to get ahead of her, thinking I might catch her running but not today. She always tried staying in front of me.

The daily stop and look toward the woods behind the neighbor's house. Is it the smell of food outside or the smell of the rarely seen field cat?

It might be really cold, but that does not mean Stella will move any faster. She is always on her on time.

The bright sunshine made it feel warmer mentally. It is supposed to get up to 21° by late this afternoon but still has a wind chill of 7° predicted ... about like it was this morning. So the walk may not happen. I do know for sure it will not happen tomorrow when the high temps are single digits. She and Heidi will get their short 1-2 minute supervised trips outside to relieve themselves but that is all

My friend from the Chicago area after waking up to 8" of new snow on top what they had the previous days. Then today ... it's reported that Chicago will be colder than Antarcticia this week!!!

I was in such a hurry to get out of the store yesterday like I wrote about last night around midnight, that I forgot to buy oatmeal. I had failed to put that on my list. I did run into an old co-worker at the store yesterday. She retired a few years before I did but yesterday she told me the same thing I tell people, "It was the best career decision I ever made, and I don't miss working at all." No plans for today other than watching the taped show Bull, more reading about Steve Jobs, some internet surfing and probably some Mahjong games. Without any ice cream in the house, it is doubtful I'll pass out from a sugar overdose and need an afternoon siesta like I did yesterday. Life is rough in retirement but someone has to do it.

'The tropics' of Southern Indiana is freezing today but still warmer than most states in the Midwest and east of us.