From Storms To Sunshine

When the radio pre-game show was interrupted a little before 12:30pm to let me know there were tornado warnings southwest of my location I would have never guessed that Stella and I would be taking a walk under blue skies and bright sunshine by 4pm, but we did. As you can see there, with the strong wind from the south, it was raining inside my carport. Normal, nothing I haven't seen before in strong thunderstorms.

I took that downspout apart on Monday and made sure it was not blocked by wet leaves that had made their way down into the spout. It was all clear and like I said then, there wasn't a leaf anywhere in the front gutter. So that water coming out of the seam and over the edge of the gutter is just too much water for the space available.

About an hour later I stepped outside because I was seeing patches of blue sky from my seat on the couch. The storm was heading NE, in the direction of that power tower. The sky was brigher as the sunshine was working it's way through the clouds.

By 4pm I glanced at my watch to see that it was 71° and I couldn't let that pass by without an afternoon hound walk. In fact as I stepped outside I could tell I was overdress with my long sleeve rugby shirt on. Heidi was happy with hot sun on her side and Stella was not sure if what she was seeing and smelling was real.

I put on my North Face snow boots that I use for rain boots. I knew the path would not be operational with all the rain we had today and I planned on walking just off the path in the thick grass. Stella had other ideas ... she took off along the return path. Her new routine this week.

In different pictures you will be able to tell that the grass is blowing a little more than it normally does. The wind was really strong and a few times moved me just about the time I took the picture.

We were not quite to the first turn when I caught myself saying "its hot out here", then remembered that by tomorrow we will be back in the low 20's at night and no more than the 40's as high daytime temps. I enjoyed the heat for the rest of the walk.

No sounds of cows today but Stella had to check to see if they were around.

Wind is from the south between 20-25 mph.

I had to turn my camera off on the way back home. That battery icon was flashing red again so I knew I had a battery that could only take a couple of pictures before it died on me. It was too windy anyway as Stella and I walked directly into the headwind.

I don't know if Heidi was happy about the hot weather, or that we had return or did she want back inside ... she was barking nonstop once she saw we were back. Right after this photo, she turned and sprinted up the steps all the way to the couch as I opened the door.

After my wild "Un*******believable" blog post title yesterday, things have calmed back down. I only had a couple of interesting emails yesterday. The kinds of emails that I download into a file and print them out in case I need them in the future.

In my online selling days I had a customer that threatened me after buying a small display case for his diecast NASCAR. Even though I had written in big blue capital letters "Car Is Not Included", he seemed to think I had decievied me and he knew where I lived from his home in Arkansas. What he did not know was my friend that works for the State Police in the Internet Crime Division ... There's a lot of crazies out there so you never know.

Overall from those that comment or send me emails agree with what I say when I go down the political path.

That does NOT make me the expert though.

I admit I am enjoying sitting back looking in at the circus in D.C. ... Pelosi and Maxine are my favorites this week. I also like hearing about the latest testimony from the FBI that has been released for the public to see. I can describe all of it, from 2012 - 2016 in one word .... CORRUPT !!!!

You thought I was going to say Collusion didn't you??  :) IF and it's not a sure thing that Trump gets re-elected in 2020 but if he were what are all of these anti-Trumpers going to do for another four years ... waste eight years of their life bitching and moaning???

Well as I sit here the wind is howling outside. That should be about finished later tonight and we can get back to some winter weather. I think it was last year on this day that it was so warm I guessed wrong and planted some new grass seed on my bank in the backyard only to have a light snow the following weekend. Bye bye grass seed.

I heard something about the Keto Diet on a short two minute video for Dr. Oz a while ago. He said one thing that makes him hesitate in recommending the diet and made me think again. He said if you fall off the strict Keto Diet and have that bun with your hamburger or a day of pancakes or toast with jam and butter ... then not only are you eating high carbs but with keto you are adding high fat and high protein ... eating those three things in high quantities is not a good thing.

Back to more reading. I found this article interesting and backed scientifically.

I'm really thinking of going back to a book I bought in 2003, "Eat To Live" by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. He is a cardiac specialist who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. I remember having good results when I followed his plan and it was not hard to follow. He had a 8 week plan to get started if I remember. I was not eating a lot of fat and proteins ... just the required amounts for healthy living.

It was a great day today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, except for the results of the IU basketball game.

Heidi And Stella Get Outside Today

A little after 4pm I was beginning to wonder if Heidi and Stella was going to sleep the whole afternoon away or would they wake up in time to enjoy the 50° afternoon and sunny skies. It was their decision but they sleep every afternoon away, so this is normal.

Finally an hour later they decided they needed a break. It was sunny but with a cool chill in the air. I knew that Heidi would handle the time Stella and I would use for our walk. As you will see in the last two photos, she was happy we were back and was anxious to get back inside, where she could get back on the couch, lined up in that direct sunlight coming through the window.

It was really a nice day today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Local Flooding Not To Bad

Once the hounds were fed lunch I had plans of driving the local area taking photos of what I assumed would be some major flooding in the area. I was surprised ... nothing that I saw was out of the ordinary like I thought I'd find. Yes, the highway heading north out of town was closed due to flooding as usual, but the water level was not close to the highway heading west, like I expected.

Here is some of the yard damage after all the water was absorbed by the yard. Any gardeners or landscape experts out there? Can you tell me what this is?  Yard moles or something else?

Both hounds were ready for their afternoon siestas and I was ready to take a drive.

Good to see a part of the local water system, which I do use their service living outside of town, is above water. Yet that is a good gauge of the depth of the water in the low laying field.

Even in 24° weather I rolled my car passenger side window down with hopes of getting this exact shot. I wanted a clean window and if I didn't roll down the one I had, I'd have a dirty filter for the photo. The Canon G9 X did well shooting on the move.

Here you can compare and see just how deep the water has risen during the storm that started Wednesday night and peaked at 11:30am on Thursday. This was taken on January 10th of this year. As you can see the river has risen quite a bit in a very short time.

This is just normal flooding after a good few days of storming, as I have seen it much worse in the past. The airport I blogged about on January 10th is to the left of the photo.

I admit, unlike some bloggers that take photos of their local area while driving roads they know and some areas they see everyday, I am not good at doing that. It's mainly because I really don't enjoy it that much. Even when I was much younger, before the internet was even a thought, I was never was one to explore the local area ... I'd rather spend time shooting free throws on the backyard basketball goal.

So after that group of photos from the local drive which turned out less than I had expected, I stopped for a few groceries, filled up my gas tank and headed home for a relaxing afternoon. I played a few games of Mahjong with this view from my laptop. Isn't that a nice view of my new lake? While the hounds slept I read some, then took a siesta just like them.

A little after 5:30pm it was time for our second walk of the day. The only difference besides the weather, Heidi led the charge outside wanting to spend some time exploring the yard while Stella and I walked our half mile as the sun went down. It was 24° but she was more than excited to get outside.

You can see just how far the flooding goes to the right of my house and across the highway. Most of that water will go, I don't know ... maybe a quarter mile to the north.

Walking back directly in the sun gave all the photos a much different look. Very little editing on any of these photos today.

A rare sudden burst of energy as Stella hops into a trot.

14 minutes after we stepped outside to start the walk, Heidi was in the backyard meeting Stella and I upon our return. She didn't mind the cold temperatures. Needless to say she led the way back inside.

A pretty good end to a nice day. With my new political perspective I wrote about this morning I felt stress free and enjoyed what the day brought. I didn't watch that much tv today and only saw glimpses of online news.

I barely caught this photo. I was about to publish this post when I stopped and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. I caught the sun setting outside my kitchen window. I grabbed the camera, ran outside and almost missed it. To keep it real as possible I just uploaded to the blog without any editing.

Well it's another Friday night without a lot planned. I think I'll change things up a little and take DishNetwork's offer of Showtime being a free preview this weekend starting tonight. If I don't find anything I want to watch on that channel, they also have a pretty impressive list of new movies I can pay to view. I see a couple I would not mind squeezing some money out of my tight hands and pay to see a couple of them.

It was also the day of junk mail in my mailbox by the driveway. Some of it had been in there for days and survived all the hard rain. I was happy to see the "time sensitive, immediate reply requested" piece of mail survive because it has all the great deals on hearing aids .... which I do not need ... but they remind me every month ... that I might.  :)

There is one thing consistent in all the news stories about Jeff Bezos ... I have read a lot of them and in none of the articles I have read or the news about him on tv ... not once has he denied those photos are of him. He can't. From the details of each photograph that someone possesses, he took a full body shot with his face in view ... damaging ... even if he might be getting blackmailed.

No denial from him.

Oh and all of that junk mail was tossed right into my recycling container like always, hearing aids offer and all.

It was another successful day of retirement here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.