9 Years Ago Today

It's been 9 years already, where I headed north from 'the tropics' to NW Indiana near Merrilville to pick up Heidi from her foster mom. I had found her for adoption on Guardian Angel Basset Hound Rescue in Illinois and knew instantly she needed to be with Winston and Sadie. That was July 28th, 2011. I had stopped by Costco and picked up a new dog bed since I had time to burn. I had forgotten they were on Central time where I was on Eastern time in the same state.

She spent the first 15-20 minutes of the drive literally talking to me non-stop as if she was telling me her story. I had the dog bed sitting level with the front seat on stacks of bagged dog food. She had the perfect view out the window for the four hour drive home.

After I searched for that photo I decided to go back through my library of photos and search for each year on this day. Here are a few from past years in July 28th. For some reason on all of these photos that were taken outside I can feel the muggy humidity through each photo. Stella has stopped scratching all the time since moving to the "Wild West".

It's a long way from corn country to the high desert. It was a great move at just the right time.

One thing I don't see as much out here are butterflies. I could if I would plant the correct plants and flowers that would attract them. But when I think of landscaping I think of more chances for snakes to visit me and the hounds and Walter.

In 2013 it was hot and muggy I imagine back in 'the tropics' and even with the AC running this was the coolest spot in the house for Sadie to sleep.

Winton enjoying the Reds game no doubt. I was a little confused by the sweatshirt and had to do a double check on the photo info to see if that was really taken in July. It was and I am still confused why I'd be wearing one.

This is my current location last year, 2018.

Friday morning we woke up and saw that all the mountains had disappeared over night. Rain was on the schedule within the hour and it rained and rained hard. Maybe it's the monsoons that are making me lazy and unmotived to go explore. Not sure but I've been dragging with no energy this past few days.

The excitement of the day yesterday was seeing this young lizzard on the back wall. Neither Walter or Stella saw it and they were standing right next to me when I took the photo. As for the lizzard we had inside the house out in view for a few days ... disappeared. Walter claims he knows nothing about that disappearance.

By Friday night Walter had about all the excitement he could handle for one day. He spent a lot of time growling and barking at his bones and himself during the day since Stella had declared it a day of rest and didn't want to wrestle that much.

I had just sat the last bowl of kibble down on the floor to feed Heidi when I stepped outside to see this. What a way to start the day.

The sun was just clearing the eastern landscape towards Tombstone and Bisbee.

It was lightly raining as I headed north to Huachuca City to have a huge breakfast at Sunny D's. Their pancakes are as big as the plate and their biscuits and gravy are irresistible. If you are ever in that area that is the place to stop for breakfast or a good lunch.

Walter tried early this morning to get Stela to play but no response. I am beginning to think a new basset puppy is just what Stella needs for some relief ... where Walter will be occupied with his new brother. We'll see what happens and that is about a month away.

I have to admit ... he likes the camera and the attention.

It wasn't raining up north of Phoenix. My friend sent me this photo biking on the trails outside of Prescott. She said the small town was busy with a lot of people out but nobody was wearing a mask. Why does not that surprise me. Yet, Arizona does NOT have statewide mandate, it is only determined by the mayors of each town/city.

I had a long Friday night call with my old friend back in Indiana. We each had similar virus stories. Basically people don't follow what they are told to do and then the virus spreads. He too was feeling low engery when it comes to riding the bike but seems more interested in little projects that he has not finished around the house. Of course the muggy humid midwest puts him in a different environment when doing those small projects.

My diversion started yesterday afternoon as I tuned into the first Reds game on tv. That was followed up by the Arizona - San Diego game afterward but by that time I had watched enough baseball. It's a strange game to watch with nobody in the stands. Even that disrupts businesses, vendors and people that work at the games. I read where College and Pro football hopes to have a policy of 25% of the seats filled for their games this fall, if they even play. Baseball will give them a lot of good data on if that process of playing games is going to work.

The highlight of my day today, besides that breakfast ... vacuuming. I love to vacuum and have just enough carpet and the living room rug to keep me occupied. Walter shows no sign of fear as I run the Dyson to pick up all of Stella's dog hair. It's late Saturday afternoon and all the dogs are passed out after their afternoon kibble.

I am going to see if I can find a online source to watch the Reds game for free. Otherwise I'll head out to the patio and enjoy the 85° weather.

Things are still wet but are fine in the "Wild West".

The Hounds Thought About Building An Ark

I forgot to tell you about the page I wrote for Sadie last night. Click here or you can see it on top where the other pages are listed. If you are reading this blog on your phone or tablet, you will see the red bar with the word "home" on the far left side ... glance right and click that down arrow for the menu of pages not seen in the smaller format.

It's Thursday afternoon at 2:30pm local time. It is still raining and it started sometime Tuesday night. Luckily it is off and on this afternoon and should be over by midnight. Once the hounds saw standing water in the gravel driveway they thought they might have to put some plans together so I could build an ark. They had heard somewhere about arks and high water. Thankfully for me they decided they had a better option.

Unlike them, the squirrel as been busy the past few days in the middle of rain. I hope that doesn't mean his increase in activity means we are heading for a colder than normal winter.

Stella heard rain drops, turned and came back inside to do this ... no time to supervise building an ark.

Heidi had already seen enough outside that she thought this was her only option. She still cannot figure out why I fold her blanket into a square and put it on the floor. I should know by now that a neatly folded blanket is not that comfortable. She always fixes it to her standards.

I am not sure movement while sleeping counts towards an aerobic activity but that is the only form of activity Stella did most of the afternoon yesterday and today. When you miss four walks in two days she had to do something to stay in shape.

The one time she ventured off of the carport late Wednesday afternoon she looked at me in disbelief, wondering how she got talked into walking that far out into the light rain.

Two separate photos minutes apart but she was still in shock and hadn't moved.

This morning we wake up to the same sound as Wednesday ... pouring rain.

Stella decided after lunch she was going no further than that ... she was out in the rain in the dark at 6:30am before her breakfast and to her that was more than enough. She wasn't crossing the river coming from the shed across the carport floor.

The view from my laptop computer at the kitchen table. Games of Mahjong for a short break from my book reading marathon.

Luckily he got his corn crop picked weeks ago but the farmer waiting on combining soybeans will have to wait a few more weeks before that field is dry enough for his heavy farm equipment.

Once the rain stops, and the sunshine comes out it looks like I have some leaves to get rid of. It will depend what I am in the mood for, but I am liking that idea of mowing the yard in one direction blowing all of the mowed leaves towards the field. That method worked very well a few weeks ago. Raking leaves takes too long and equates to too much Motrin later on. Using a leaf blower on a yard is only a joke and never works like the tv advertisements. (Ask me how I know)

I wasn't quick enough with the camera but that squirrel jumped to the ground from the middle piece of the fence and headed over that bank. I thought I caught is tail but I didn't.

Since there isn't much going on here today and won't be the rest of the day, I am posting just a few photos of Heidi after she first arrived in June 2011. Then a few of Stella that the previous owner sent me when I was trying to decide if I could handle two bloodhounds and then drive down to pick her up.

I bought Heidi a brand new dog bed at Costco the day I picked her up in June 2011. I had forgot about the one hour time difference in the NW Indiana area near Chicago so I had some time to spare. So I picked up a new dog bed and bought some chew toys for her. (Winston took her toys - She took his bones)

Her first afternoon was the only time she slept on the dog bed. Sadie used the 'Bloodhound Property Laws' and claimed the dog bed was hers that night. Sadie slept on that dog bed for the next 7 years while Heidi led me to believe she had been sleeping on a bed not made for dogs, most of her life.

Like I said before in other posts, she came to me with the reputation of being "a runner" and instructions on her adoption paperwork said that she needed to be leashed at all times. So she had about 40' to roam from my hand to her collar. She loved the mowed field but never showed signs of running off. That strict leash policy wasn't implemented but a couple of days.

Winston thought she might need an escort since she might take off running.

A month or so later during one of the hottest Augusts in history, she still wanted to take the afternoon walks. This is the only way she thought of cooling off. The AC just wasn't enough for her.

Stella was living at the time on a large horse farm in Kentucky. The Facebook Bloodhound Group ad said .. Need a 'rehome', severe separation anxiety, an expert in escaping and a fear of storms. Preferred someone that was familiar with the bloodhound breed (meaning she was just a normal obnoxious bloodhound) and worked at home. (meaning she needed 24 hour supervision)

That sounded like me. After a week of analysis I decided I would become her 4th owner in her first 6 years. She has been here 3 years and 2 months and had adapted into the perfect indoor bloodhound.

She looked like she had a sense of humor in this photo, could supervise a leaf raking project and liked other dogs.

In fact it looked like she liked a lot of different dogs. That is a black boxer, and three herding dogs. Obviously with her tongue hanging out to cool off it was just as hot in Kentucky in August as it was in Indiana. She loved her 4 hour ride in the back of the FJ on the way home. She spent the first 30 minutes of the drive trying to poke the windows open with her nose to escape ... then decided I needed helped driving and climbed in between the front seats to sit in the passenger seat at 3rd lane freeway (interstate) speeds.

Stella and I just went outside to check the weather ... basically she decided she couldn't hold it any longer and rain or high water she had to go to the field for a quick break.

Evidently those leaves needed some water to change color. While Stella was busy in the field to the left of me I took a couple of panoramic shots from behind the burn pile to the left.

It wasn't possible to get a photo of just how high the water came to the side of my boots but I was able to catch the water as it was moving back into the ground. The backyard is pretty saturated and by the way the mole tracks feel, they won't be back for a while.

Slow light rain ... but she still took her time.

Two days in a row with no walking makes for some long days for a bloodhound. Sadie use to like to play fetch inside during weather like this to burn off some of her tracking energy. These two hounds look at me like I am crazy when I toss a bone across the room for them to go get and bring back to me. They'd rather sleep or beg for my food.

The rain is decreasing ... that is only about 5 minutes worth while I stood in the yard waiting for Stella to finish.

The official flood plane is across the highway so we are still safe here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi's Gotcha Day Was On Saturday

I did not forget the day for Heidi but I did not blog about it. 6 years ago last Saturday I drove up toe Merrillville and picked up Heidi in my 2010 Toyota Camry.

She really has been a great basset hound.

She came with a reputation of a 'runner', had to 'be leashed at all times'. Not here. She does not even wear a collar except when we go to the vet. She had meds to take and skin allergies. She did have a couple of years with terrible skin that 4 different vets could not figure out.

She has been healthy this past year, gained her lost weight back. She is back to being a basset hound again. She was really depressed in the 2016 spring. Could it have been Winston's death that bothered her?

No pictures and not long post but I wanted to mentioned for the record (to me).

It was 6 years ago on June 30.

I'm Rambling While It's Freezing Outside

Due to the temps being in the "danger zone" for being outside, the hounds and I have not done much outside except for THEIR occasional pee breaks .. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that and there is no confusion about me and pee breaks.

So buckle up, because I have stories, comments, opinions popping out of my head today and I'm not sure if it's because of the wind chill factor of -3° outside as I start this or all of these old pictures bringing back memories and the stories that went with them. Anyway I was digging through my picture files so I could post more than the three pictures from today ... the memories were rising to the top of my brain cells.

Sadie is having the hardest time of all of us today. She doesn't understand the concept of a wind chill factor. All she knows is she has not been on that first walk of the day and she is anxious today, can't relax. Not only is she giving me the 'stare down' to walk but it seems like every I get up out of my chair she is doing the 360° dance thinking we are finally walking.

I have a lost bird in all of this freezing weather. I can hear him him/her chirping but I can't find him/her to take a picture. So the picture above with the feeling of 10° and feels colder than that (-3°) will have to suffice.

With only three pictures taken today I knew I needed more than that to post on the blog. I had a some things I was going to write about anyway but after looking through the old picture archives I may forget what I was originally going to write about.

{Warning:} Some of these pictures will be duplicates from past posts but new to some readers, plus a few new pictures to long time readers.

This next picture is the first HOUR that Stella was at our house, the day I brought her home. It was a hot August 30th, 2015. I didn't want her to run away so I had her on a 80' tether anchored out in the field. She explored as far as the tether could reach and seemed pretty happy with her new surroundings.

Sadie on the other hand wasn't so sure what was happening. She knew before Stella arrived that she was the 'leader of the pack', authority passed to her from Winston after he retired and just wanted to lay in the sun sleeping. By that first night, Sadie wasn't really sure if Stella was going to take over her spot in the 'food chain'. Stella wasn't Stella then either ... her name was 'Dipstick' because of her blackish tail.

Since Dipstick and I had only known each other for about six hours that first night, she didn't just jump up on the couch like she normally does now but found her a spot where no hound had ever laid down before ... west wall beside the speakers, while they were playing some tunes by the Grateful Dead.

Since we are talking 'first days' this was Heidi about 5 years younger, much better health and 20 pound heavier than now. I had bought the new hound bed at Costco right before I was to meet Heidi's foster mom. I was buying her through the GABR (link upper left). I had forgot about the one hour time difference, even though I was still in the same state. I decided during the one hour rate to run over to their Costco and buy a bed and some dog food. Heidi wasn't Heidi then either ... her name was Lucy. She told me all about it as we started our 4 hour drive home on a very hot June day.

Of coarse Heidi only spent one night on her new bed. Sadie initiated the "Bloodhound Property Laws" (linked right sidebar) and decided that bed was her new bed ... it was pretty obvious where Heidi had been sleeping prior to her arrival here in 'the tropics' ... she didn't hesitate that second night to jump up on the bed and take the open spot next to me, and even the pillow ... she has slept there every since.

This is the earliest picture I have of Sadie. I had a lot of puppy pictures of her but in my infinite wisdom I re-formatted my hard drive on a Windows PC thinking I had backed up everything a few days prior in 2008. I was mad to see that was not true and I had lost every picture of Sadie's first year along with all my other pictures.

It didn't take her long to let me know she really was a bloodhound and that she would be running the house from now own and not only that ... the 'Bloodhound Property Laws' were in action so the furniture was hers, not mine. That has also continued for over eight years.

She did one strange thing, and something none of my other hounds did ... she liked to sleep on hard surfaces with little or no blankets. When kept in the indoor kennel, she would scratch the blankets back to lay on that black plastic floor.

That is until she took over Heidi's new hound bed. She only decided to sleep on this blanket pictured below, one afternoon because she saw Winston sleeping there. According to the 'Bloodhound Property Laws', it was now her blanket. She bothered Winston enough that he got up and moved to the living room to continue his nap on the couch.

She was and has always surprised me. Nothing tops the time on one Sunday morning where the hounds came back inside after their first trip of the day outside. I am not sure what she ate, or what bit her but these bumps were everywhere from her head to her tail. A little Benadryl took care of it within thirty minutes.

It's not a first day picture but this time of year is bringing back some pretty sad memories. If you go by the date it was December 19 last year where Winston hurt his back when he got up that Saturday morning and totally lost use of his back legs. The vet ran needles down his spine a few hours later without even a flinch from Winston. He was paralyzed.

That vet suggested to put him down if he didn't respond to his medication by the following Monday. I needed a second opinion so I went to a different vet that had different ideas. We worked a couple more weeks until January 5th when I had to euthanize. He had a bad last day/night and got a lot worse. I know all about 'letting go', and all the other stuff on how I should feel .. but almost daily this past year I catch myself wishing he was still here.

To change to a better subject ... what about my "issues" as some people have called them, with my cars habit/addiction? I thought I remembered many of them but after looking through old pictures I may have had more vehicles than I can remember. These pictures are not all of them either, just a few of them.

This was my first 2003 Z4 that got me addicted to that make of car. It's one of those "I should have never sold it" and one of the reasons my current silver one is sitting outside my window and was just driven yesterday.  It's hard to find this color combination for a Z4 .. yes, I sold it on impulse with an offer I could not refuse.

Are there any other cars where I sold them in forty seven days or less? Well not this 2011 Kia Sorrento but it didn't last longer than three months in 2014. I didn't have it long enough to take many pictures if any at all but I had time to mount new tires on it along with a brand new OEM cargo mat, new floor mats and a cargo net. I needed the new tires to get up my driveway in the snow AN HOUR AFTER I BOUGHT IT !!!!!

Earlier before I made the purchase I asked the salesman if I could drive this car up my driveway with snow and ice. I even held up my iPhone showing him a picture of the driveway taken that morning to use as a reference. He told me that the Kia's whopping 4-cylinder engine, FWD could make it up my 100' driveway in snow and ice without any problem ... he knew that "because my mother-in-law drives her Kia Sorrento every where in the snow". That is not why I bought it because the more he talked the more I felt my hip-waders filling up at a rapid rate ... if you get my joke.

Besides that maroon color 2003 Z4 (I happened to like that color on the Z4 just not on the latest FJ), the other vehicle that I kick myself in the butt for selling was my 1994 Chevy 2500 LT truck. I saw it downtown last month doing just what the new owner told me in May 2014 he was going to use it for ... towing a trailer with a lot freshly cut wood on it.

It had a V-8 engine and could have towed any trailer I wanted or the full size bed would have been good for an Arctic Fox truck camper. The truck already had heavy duty springs. Yet there were not have been enough room up in the cab for three hounds, especially two bloodhounds. At the time it was hard for two bassets and one bloodhound to ride with me up front.

I sold that white truck because at the time my 'hair was on fire' about downsizing, buying a trailer and hitting the road in May 2014. I stopped in to just visit with my friend that has the used car lot. While we were talking they brought out this 2006 Chevy 2500HD 4x4 from the garage to the sales lot. I told him to start the sales paperwork and have it ready by the time I got back from a test drive.

It was a fantastic truck ...one that I traded possibly less than forty-seven days to buy the 2007 Blue Toyota FJ. The FJ was something I had always wanted ... I have not looked back in my records to get an exact number of days but I know it wasn't much longer than a month. The car lot that took it in as a trade for the FJ, sold the truck within two days.

For you new readers, your may not be familiar with my history of trading and buying cars. This next picture is before I knew any of you online and way before I even thought of blogging let alone writing on a blog.

Let me introduce you to four vehicles I owned at one time, sometime around 2004 I think maybe even 2003. Going clockwise from the bottom left ... that is a 1965 Standard VW Bus, behind it is a 2002 Jeep Liberty that I bought new, to the right moves to my 1960 Single Cab VW Pickup and in front of that is a 1993 Mazda Miata LE, where they made only 1,500 of them. It was black with red leather interior.

One thing about that 2002 Jeep, it was jinxed. I've never had luck with the two jeeps I've owned while living here. This was one of them. Within it's first 1,500 miles a deer running down a hill crashes into the side of my new Liberty ... that's what I get for going to work on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

It doesn't stop there.

A few weeks later while driving to a vet 40 miles away to pick up Max (basset hound) after surgery, I am sitting at a stop light in a small town almost at the vet office, when one of those old 1970's 100ft long and heavy as a tank Oldsmobile's drives into the back of me like I wasn't even there. She was talking on her cell phone.

Ask me how I know she was talking on a cell phone??? I know she was talking because as I stepped out of my car to look at the damage, she opened her door to tell me everything was okay and nothing was damaged ... while standing with a cell phone attached to her ear .. talking. I was just happy she used the same company I did for car insurance and I was paid quickly.

I'm not done with the Jeep ... LOL ... are you still with me??

Since the new Jeep Liberty had been ran into, it needed a new rear door and window. Two weeks later as I have driving that same Jeep home from the dealership body shop with a new rear door and new rear window ... 10 miles from home a dump truck in on-coming traffic decides it has that one special rock in the back their truck that can fly out of the dump truck and hit my front windshield perfectly .... I now need a front window replaced.

NO!!!!  I am not done with the jeep .... I've only driven this 2,500 miles, it's new !!!! All of that stuff happened within the first 2,500 miles for the brand new Jeep Liberty.

A year or two later, I am not sure, but I do know that 22,000 miles later I hear a loud clicking sound coming from the engine. My co-workers at the time were all 'gearheads' in their spare. Each one tells me in different discussions "it's your timing belt".

I'll make this long story short ... the Jeep Dealership service manager accused me of using the wrong oil filter on my oil changes ... that is ... until I brought over every dealership receipt showing THEY did all my oil and filter changes. They did NOT replace the timing belt while they had the chance .. they replaced the $8 plastic clip that worked with the timing belt tensioner.

I came home that night, got online and found a nice 2000 Toyota 4Runner at a JEEP dealership up by Indy. We had barely just enough time to complete a test drive and sign the paperwork right before the lights went out at 9pm.

LOL ... I told you in the 2nd paragraph you better hang on.

Back to that 1960 VW Single Cab pickup ... fantastic in the snow due to the low gear ratio. I use to have strangers stop by the house that saw it sitting on top of the hill as they drove by. They were wanting to swap out their dune buggy transmissions for the one I had in the VW because it had a lower gear ratio and would be great in the mud or sand for them.

I sold it really by mistake. One Sunday morning I posted it on a VW site at a very high price, just to see what kind of interest I would get, never expecting to sell it ... it sold within 45 minutes to someone in Florida. I guess my sales prices wasn't high enough.

I won't bore you with all the details in my processes to buy or not buy RVs, or trailers ... but just ONE story. After a lot of research I was planning on buying this Starcraft AR-ONE trailer. It's the same trailer that Gary Ramsey still uses today, living full-time on the road.

I walked in that day after talking to them the week before with my check in hand and ready to tow it home with my H3 Hummer. I would have taken it the week before but they needed time in their busy schedule to prep it for delivery. As I walked in the man I needed to talk to was helping another customer. While they talked I went outside to look at the trailer .... 20 minutes later ... I changed my mind !!! I told him I had changed my mind, got in my Hummer H3 and drove home.

Nothing struck a memory cord for this next picture. I just happened to see it while looking through a folder I have called "My Pictures". Hussong's wasn't in this nice of shape in 1977-1980 as it had the more authentic look to it. I can't say how many days and nights I spent there down in Ensenda MX, Baja California but it was enough we seriously considered buying a place on the beach even with Mexico owning the land. A great place even today.

It's days like these in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana that my mind drifts to places like this ... I can almost feel how warm it is looking at these pictures but my iPhone weather app is still saying "it feels like" 16° outside a little after 4pm. Still too cold for a walk today.

No more pictures but I still have a little more rambling to do if you are still here.

It's been one of my most productive days and full of good news in my eyes. Some information might be helpful to those that have Directv or own a 2012 Mini Cooper S Countryman.

Let's start with the car first. Whenever I trade cars I look at it's CarFax but that doesn't tell you everything that has been done with maintenance or repairs. It does tell you some of the places they had that type of work done along with phone numbers. All I needed was the last seven to eight characters of the Mini Cooper's VIN.

No bad news, as nothing needed repair with the past owners. Only two recalls were done. The great news is when I called the local Mini Dealer (90 miles close), they told me that Mini had extended my warranty for 10 years or a 120,000 miles for the fuel pump ... 7 years or 84, 000 miles for the water pump. I am sitting here at year 5 and just turned 59,000 miles. So those were two things after reading the owners forum I thought I might want to save my money for in case I needed them replaced in the future.

I mentioned a few months ago about Directv's protection plan where I had been paying close to $100 per year and never used it. The last time I ever needed service help was in 2008 after straight line winds destroyed their satellite dish. So to me that was $800 I've paid over 8 years that I never used. That money would have been better invested at the local casino 50 or so miles away, and preferably a craps table. Plus it would have been a lot more fun.

I had been holding off canceling that protection plan because they would remind me I would lose my free upgrade to their Geni Receiver. With that I could record five games/movies/shows all at the same time. I really wasn't interested in that nor did I care about the 1Tb of memory.

That extra memory would only lead me to the same problem I have now with a 500Mb DVR being full of ballgames that I don't want to lose if I switch out receives.

So I cut the cord to the protection plan ... why? What if 'Murphy's Law' shows up tonight and my system breaks right before college football bowl season? Well ... IF that were to happen and I were to call for repair service, Directv's customer service rep will offer me to sign up for that protection plan again, effective immediately, for free repair service. The catch is I would have to keep the protection plan for twelve months moving forward. Not a bad deal that they do not advertise. Plus I like to gamble I guess.

It's still freezing, too cold for a hound walk and besides ... Sadie gave up and joined Heidi and Stella for a long afternoon nap on their camping sleeping bag I bought them for the Utah trip in June 2015. Plus they have formed an attraction for my Marmot sleeping bag.

It could have been 'movie night' tonight but instead we will be watching the Seattle Seahawks game on NFL Thursday Night.

All is good here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.