Never Ring The Doorbell

 

The Sunday afternoon was a nice 58° and all of us were in a deep siesta, when I woke to hear the doorbell ring and two hounds and a dog were sprinting down the hallway to the front living room windows to see who was visiting. That included a lot of barking as usual. As I leaned over to look through the lower glass of the door, it was a girl holding a menu for Girl Scout Cookies.

Normal Routine For The Hounds.

Stella spent so much time laying in the sun on Friday she was exhausted by Friday night and decided to camp out in one of her five over night spots to sleep. Eventually during the night she ends up sleeping next to my bed right next to the doorway. She can then alert me when Heidi is heading to the patio door to be let out for her nightly middle of the night outdoor run. I cannot remember the last time I had a solid night of sleep. Nothing has happened outside the daily routine since my last post.

The sunrises are still great to see and they are so much different from day to day. I noticed this morning on my weather app on my phone, there is a 'snowflake' icon for next Friday. That will happen sometime before the sun rises Friday morning and will be gone soon after since the high temp that day is 40°. I am interested in seeing what kind of snow they get here, which is pretty light and not for long if it's their normal snowfall.

I have a couple of friends that continue to do their bike riding in the mornings when the temps are in the 40's but that is colder than I want to ride in. I've been waiting until 1pm-2pm to get on the road when the temperatures are above 53°. I found out yesterday that it doesn't make much difference in temperature from the ride I did on Thursday at 53° and what I did yesterday in 63° weather ... high elevation, mountain air is cold no matter what. It's winter no matter how nice and sunny the day is.

No complaints though about the weather from me or the crew. It is so much nicer than what we have experienced in Stella's last four years and Heidi's last eight. She continues to join Stella and I on the daily .57 of a mile walk. With her needing to check out every rock, branch, or desert weed along the way it turns out to be a little longer walk than Stella and I did alone. At least she is getting her physical exercise and a workout for her nose. She does have the better nose than Stella's.

As you can tell, they love that hot sunshine and spend most of their afternoons, or late mornings sleeping outside in the hot sunshine.

Although it's close to Christmas I have three doctor appointments this coming week. I finally get some blood lab work on Monday morning and will be on a water fast from Sunday night until I return home Monday morning after my appointment. Tuesday afternoon of all day's I have my first meeting with a cardiologist. I'll be interested to see if his opinion differs from mine and that of the MD I went to last month.

I'll let him know that I rode my bicycle a little over 30 miles yesterday, climbing a total of ~1,200ft. Plus reports show the heart is working "normal". The third visit of the week will be for another physical at the VA. I'll be anxious to see how much different it is compared to the one I had supposedly at the MD's visit I had last month. Past physicals I had years ago were much more detailed than I got last month.

I'm feeling a road trip today in the 'Wild West', so stay tuned.

Distracted Into A Different Direction

I guess I should apologize right from the start today. When I left you last a few days ago it sure sounded as if I'd be posting again that night with new photos of the next adventure as I said it was time to start exploring the local area again. I intended to and was almost to the point of loading a vehicle and hitting the road ... but first I needed to do something. What that something was I can't remember but all I know is after that took place, the direction I was heading changed ... adventure wasn't on the priority list.

In fact ... traveling wasn't on the priority list, just like that. I found out sitting outside with that direct sunlight on my face was the best thing I had felt in weeks, if not months. I couldn't move and in fact one time felt asleep in the chair on the patio only to be awaken by my iPhone falling from my hand to the patio floor.

Another change, at least for today ... my descriptions are going to be BEFORE the photographs I may or may not talk about. How's that for some examples of indecision?

Like me, the hounds have also been enjoying the warm sunshine. The temps haven't climbed out of the 50's yet but that sun is hotter than hot for most of the day starting around 11:30am. I was cleaning out hound ears the other day and it's always good to see a little more shaking to dislodge some of the stuff I cleaned ...

I'd like to cut some hound toenails but my attempts of getting on the floor to the level I need to cut them is still in the "take it easy and watch it" mode. Those muscles in the hip need a little more healing or stretching ... probably both. In that case I might be calling the mobile groomer again for her to cut them.

You may remember me mentioning I was testing out a camera with 65x zoom a few weeks ago. Like I have posted, every camera I have and I DO have TOO MANY of them ... but each does one thing the best. Now I am finding out that TWO of these cameras can do it all for me ...

- the iPhone 11 Pro Max camera
- the new Canon SX70 HD camera

It's a shock to me that I am not listing either Nikon DSLR that I own on that list.

For example ... those mountains you see on that first photo, this is the tops of one of them. My Nikon 70-300mm lens cannot even get this close and this clear to one of the tops of those mountains and both photos were taken from the same spot where I stood in the backyard.

The hounds had a "dog visitor" today, someone they had met before ... Heidi double check some scent from that visitor. The visitor's nose is in the upper right corner if you did not notice. All three got along great.

Here are some photos from today ... taken with the two cameras mentioned above.

As you just saw, the recent pace of life has been pretty fast lately. The hounds have no idea it's December and I had to pinch myself last night when I realized I was rode my bicycle yesterday afternoon on December 19th ... DECEMBER ???? I guess I was already taking this change in location for granted.

My latest addiction .... PGA Golf on PlayStation 4. It took me a while to get back in shape but I am back to my professional level performance from years ago and I can actually win a tournament now. Hey ... it keeps me "off the streets" and out of trouble ... LOL

Just remember I am very impulsive. I live in 5-minute windows but always walk and feed the hounds on schedule every day. After that all the hours in the day/night are up for grabs where my brain cells decide to take me. That might be to the top of Carr Canyon, Tucson or Tombstone ... I don't even know. When it happens I'll take photos of it and blog about it. Believe it or not I am kind of the same way right now with my bike riding. What I plan to do may not happen based on how I feel.

Winter is great in the 'Wild West'.