Brutal Morning Temperature

What I expected for weather Sunday morning was right on the money. It looked like and felt like the weather experts were 100% correct even if they were about six hours off in the time it was supposed to start. After watching a basketball game last night, checking my movie shelf, then the DVR recordings and finally channel surfing ... I decided the best thing to do in weather like this was call an early finish to Saturday. Of course when you go to be early you wake up early, and that we did ... 4:05am. I could tell by the ice on the outside of the storm windows it was a very cold night. I glanced on the lower corner of my watch and saw it was 12° ... but it's early so plenty of time to warm up.  LOL

With an official weather advisory out, meaning unless you are going to work or in an emergency situation ... stay off the highways, I didn't hear a lot of traffic this morning but who would when it's a Sunday morning at 4:30am??? All I heard were snow plows passing back and forth in front of the house. I took this photo from inside a dark house at 7:07am ... it didn't turn out quite as good as I was hoping but in a way it's a neat picture.

The problem for any travelers today is that with the high winds, and snow that started as rain, it has turned the highways into a hockey rink. Even the snow plows couldn't get to the highway surface so they have spent most of their time spreading the Indiana winter highway mixture of salt and sand. In fact there is a big spot of sand just left of my driveway out in the middle of the highway. Every device I looked at showed 16° by 7am but a 'feels like' temperature of 8°. I knew that Stella and I would not be outside long and we definitely would not be taking the morning walk.

Where Sadie would have been hopping up and down with excitement dragging me outside to do the complete walk .. not Stella. I remember last winter on a day similar to this one, we had not made it to the first turn yet and Stella lifted her paw because of the ice in between her toes plus having cold feet. She immediately turned around to go back home but had to limp as she walked. I picked her up and carried her as far as I could, but at 83 pounds that wasn't far. I had to convince Sadie the walk was called off and we were heading home, she didn't want to quit.

Why two pictures of the same thing? It's a camera comparison. Yes another comparison just because I was curious. Photos from today are mixed and matched between the Nikon D3200 and the Canon G9X Mark II.

I had let Heidi and Stella out this morning just like aways. Both were at the door waiting for me by the time I finished pouring two bowls of kibble. Yet I will say it wasn't the coldest day I have seen here. There have been times the aluminum storm door has been frozen to the frame where I couldn't open it to let the hounds out. Not today.

So with Heidi in bed sleeping Stella and I headed out a little after 8am. I explained to Stella that "just because you see me putting on my down parka, my gloves and sock hat DOES NOT mean we are going for a walk." She looked at me as if she understood, so out we went. I took about a step outside inhaling that freezing cold air and hoped that Stella was not going to take too long to pee. I wanted back inside. This only shows there was a lot of wind last night for my car to have that amount of snow parked inside the carport.

From the paw prints from early this morning in the dark it looked like Stella took off around the house and only followed the house because in the backyard there were no signs of her getting out into the yard ... the yard was perfect smooth layer of pure snow.

These are Stella's prints returning from her lap around the house and that happened in the dark a little after 4am.

I will be changing the dog food when I buy the next bag. Same company but a change from chicken to lamb to see if she scratches less

Stella THOUGHT she wanted to go for a walk. By the time she got where she was in that picture, notice that left rear leg ... she's cold. Stopped in her tracks as she was trotting to the field.

Signs of some high winds last night.

She didn't move but stood there while I took pictures, wondering  if she really wanted to go out in the field. Obviously she didn't have to dump her tanks that bad and turned around the same time I did, heading toward the house.

She wasn't finished though. While I looked around a little, without going out into the yard, her paws must have warmed up.

She's excited jumping around and goes running back, jumping into the snow in the backyard as if she and I were going on the walk. There is probably no more than 3" of snow but it's too cold for me, I'm not going anywhere. Besides, I didn't have my boots on just some Nike shoes.

She tried her best to convince me to go ... but it wasn't going to happen.

She knew it was time to come back inside.

Right after the hounds had "Brunch" ... I asked Heidi if she was coming outside, the normal routine after they eat. She turned and sprinted for the couch ... an obvious no.

Stella did what she had to do in quick fashion and slowly migrated back to the house.

This weather reminded me of my 1961 VW Single Cab pickup I had in 2004. With a brand new Jeep Liberty parked next to it, this truck was the best vehicle to drive in any amount of snow. Due to its low gear ratio, there was nothing that would stop this truck from snow to sand. I drove it daily to work during the bad weather days. Of course like all old VWs, the heating system was based on the heat produced from the engine. I had a control inside that would adjust the amount of heat I wanted ... but the faster you drove the hotter it got, so I 'd turn the knob that was below my seat counter-clockwise to decrease the amount of hot air coming out of the heater. That large door on the side is the "Treasure Chest", storage under the bed of the truck, with doors on both sides.

With the forecast telling me it's not going to get warmer today even with the sunshine out, the hounds and I will not be doing much different from what we did Saturday afternoon. They will sleep after their lunch while I start watching the first of two NFL Playoff games at 3pm or so. Compared to the pounding the Northeastern USA got the past couple of days, our small amount of snow doesn't mean much. I'll take it though. Looking again at the 10-day forecast, our temperatures will bounce back and forth with high temps one day at 45° and a couple of days later 16° ... it will be yoyo type of weather as we finish January.

I tried Firefox again the past two days and still found it to be nothing more than a data hog, using twice as much data looking at the same webpages I do every day, including blogging, as I used with Google Chrome. So I'm back on Google Chrome today.

I mentioned to my long time friend Ralph that I had bought the point and shoot Canon G9 with the 1" sensor. Ralph has been a camera buff all the way back in the 1960's when he was already shooting 35mm film and having them developed into slides. He had recently bought a new DSLR but said some interesting things about my camera. "that sort of camera can be SO nice because they are SO CONVENIENT!! If I had it to do over, I likely would have not allowed myself into buying the DSLR ... I'm just losing my motivation to strive for high level pictures. A pity actually, but a few snapshots and I'm kinda' ok."

So maybe I am not going crazy after all thinking my Canon G9 could replace my Nikon D3200 for most of my photography.

It's sunny and 16° here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Cold Weather

When the "feels like" temp drops below freezing, Heidi and Stella react differently. Nothing changes year after year because they know what season it is, even if it's a little early for winter. 8

Stella Thinks It's Too Cold

After a solid night of sleep I was unaware what was taking place outside last night. I knew the temps were suppose to dip into the teens but with bright and sunny skies predicted for Saturday, it wasn't a big deal. This morning I wondered at the time if what I was seeing through my camera viewfinder was my eyes or something else ... there was scattered white stuff in that grass. Heavy frost ???

I could tell near the house it was more than just frost, it looked like very very small amounts of snow. November 10 ???

Is there enough white stuff in these and other photos in this post, for me to officially declare we have our first snow of the winter ?? Whatever I declared official did not matter until later in the walk for Stella. I was making sure this morning I could get in the backyard before she walked into those burrs again. I was successful but she was within a couple of steps from me yelling "No".

Needless to say, the air was just a little crisp to start the walk, a few minutes before 8am.

 

With the light dusting of white stuff, those narrow paths made by deer traffic (me guessing) was showing up much easier today.

All the cold temps, the dead leaves, and here stands some bright yellow. It looks like it is not ready to give up on a Fall season nor wanting to say goodbye to Summer.

This small path is coming from the woods behind my neighbor's house. It extends from their woods to the woods behind the field. Can you see it ?

Just to the right of my path is that same path leading into the woods. It isn't straight, but curls around different blades of grass. Any deer experts reading this ?? If so, chime in and let me know if I am correct in assuming this is a path made by deer. If it isn't a ballgame or a hound topic, I am pretty ignorant on stuff like this.

I was wrong. I said a week or so ago that I would not be out early enough on the walk to see the sun in this position. Since we got up and moving a few minutes past 6am, Stella was whining to go on her morning walk about 7:45am today.

I noticed she was spending more time on the path after we turned the first corner and she was walking much slower ... is that a slight limp I see ??

It certainly was. Her pads of her feet were covered with that freezing cold snow and her feet were cold. She sat down for a few minutes and didn't move while holding her rear paw up for me to see. I rubbed off the snow from each of her paws. She jumped up and took off down the path after that. All was good to her.

During my walk I was still trying to decide if I could say this was our first snow of the year. I decided to take photos of rooftops within my camera's view and let you decide if it's official or not. I am beginning to think it is not an official snow.

In the 21 years I have lived here, I have never seen the curtains of this house opened up. In fact I have never seen anyone out in the yard except the commercial lawn crew. I've been told by a neighbor there are people living there 12 months out of the year.

This was so funny ... When I told Stella ... "let's go home and get your feet warm" ... she took off running down the return path.

In fact she did not stop to sniff the fence or the trees. She did not stop to scratch her neck. She did not stop to stare at me while I stand at the corner of the house. She moved nonstop all the way to the door. By the time I got there she was trying to open the door by nudging the round door knob with her nose. She was more than happy when I opened to door and felt warmer air inside.

Well, last chance ... official snow or just heavy frost with temps in the teens ??

I am set for the next few weeks of cold weather in the forecast. A full tank of gas, a kitchen stocked full of food and a couple of books from the library to read. I told you I was going to enjoy this winter no matter how much snow we get or how cold it gets. I do have a feeling that Stella will be taking me on less walks than past years after those temps drop below 19°. I cannot carry a 80 pound dog too far, so she will have to walk home someway if her feet get cold.

I was only joking a few days ago about mowing my leaves in the snow ... really I was ... it was only a joke ... honest.   LOL

Clear and bright sunny skies this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.