A Boring Rainy Day Turned Exciting

The predicted rain started last night and I could hear it throughout the night with the windows open. It did not even stop long enough for the hounds to take their morning trip outside while I poured out their morning kibble. Sadie made it out the yard but Stella nor Heidi were going to out in the rain to pee ... so they stood in the carport waiting until I was finished, normal routine.

Consequently it had been a pretty slow day being cooped up inside. Once the temperatures dropped to 51° I walked around and changed the storm windows from screens on the lower half to winter windows. Nothing in the 10-day forecast shows we will return to temps warm enough to open the windows. After checking the weather radar all day, trying to find an opening in the rain ... we found a gap so that we could take our first and probably only hound walk at 2:30pm.

I had already changed to jeans, a sweatshirt and a rain jacket over that for the walk. It was going to be close if we could do a complete walk and get back to the house before it started raining again. Both hounds were happy to get outside but Heidi saw that afternoon temperature and once again said 'no way'. I look for her to go out tonight at the same time she always goes out after dark.

It wasn't cold, I didn't smell any smoke in the air like the last few days. Plus the rain had not really been that heavy but it had been a light steady non-stop rain. I am wondering how late into the fall will I mow the lawn for the last time.

Stella was showing more energy than normal with a bounce to her step from the time she left the house. While I was catching up on my taped tv shows last night, she snuck away into the kitchen. Standing on her rear feet and looking over the kitchen island, she was able to pluck out my last mango out of the fruit bowl and ate everything except the large seed ... skin and all.

How did I know?

As she came back into the living room like nothing happened, thinking she would climb up on the couch on the other side of Heidi while I was watching tv ... I noticed some mango residue hanging from her jowls. A dead giveaway ... she was caught just after the act again. That is what I get for letting the mango sit for a few more days to ripen I guess.

So today we played around the computer for most of the day. My iPhone told me I needed to update my iTunes but my App Store on my iMac showed I had already did the update and the download. With my iPhone using my wifi connection to save some Verizon data I couldn't find out how large the file was ... so it started downloading and installing. You never want to stop those until they are finished ... but my Activity Monitor was clicking off data faster than I could even imagine.

iTunes update finally stopped at 2.3Gb but so far my HughesNet is not showing that much data being used. I have come to the conclusion there are very few ways a person can control their data usage anymore. All  companies that provide internet service know we are addicted and knew we will pay for more data if needed. I still think that HughesNet uses more date per day than the Exede service I was using the previous two years. By my calculations while I do basically the same type of internet surfing, HughesNet has me using about 300Mb more per day than I did with Exede.

What was a slow dragging day turned into some fast excitement while I was editing photos for this blog. The hounds didn't bark but did get up from their naps. I thought I heard knocking at the front door. That's a sign that a lost stranger is at the door because all people that know me always come to the door in the carport since that is the door we use the most.

Once I confirmed a stranger (door to door salesman) was on the front porch with the 'getaway' van parked in the driveway running ... my adrenaline increased as I move into 'game mode' ... have I ever told you how much I hate unsolicited salesmen?

As I walked through the carport around the Z4 to see who was at the door, the 'getaway' driver waved at me with his window rolled down. My pulse rate increased even more ... LOL ... I was going to have some fun as I usually do.

He had the same sales approach as the Satellite TV/Internet rep did a couple of years ago ... but he was talking so fast I really couldn't understand him ... so I let him ramble until he had to stop to breath ... then I CALMLY asked him "what the (*&#!*&&*$#@ do you want?

He made the first mistake for a sales rep, man or woman, ... he didn't listen, didn't answer my rude foul question ... he proceeded to talk just as fast as he was before following his well practiced script. At the same time he was handing me a large container of Comet. Did he think that would confuse me with a free can, worth about $2.49 at Walmart along with his fast talking.

Well ... it did !!!! I mean how many times to you get handed a large can of Comet? I can't even remember the last time I ever used it, in fact I don't think I have at least in 20 years !!!

I still have no idea what he was trying to sell me or what he wanted. He did ask me what I would use the Comet for ... my honest answer was "not a damn thing" !!!!

That answer did not even phase him. As he continued to mumble into the next phase of his sales pitch, one that he had practiced so many times before 'hitting the streets' ... I could tell he was on a mission to make this sale, after all I had a pulse, I had answered his question ... there was hope for success. For some reason he started trotting sideways down the lawn toward the back of his van as I stood there with my free (I thought) can of Comet, a $2.49 value at Walmart.

I still has ZERO IDEA what he had said or was trying to sell me !!!!

He was still mumbling something I couldn't understand as he approached the van parked half way down the driveway about 50' away from me. I yelled that I had things to do and started walking back to the door to go inside. I THINK he was yelling for me to give him MY FREE can of Comet back ... at least I thought that is what I heard .... so .... I tossed it to him from my front carport door step .... flying end over low enough to clear the roof overhang .... but I knew it was going to fall short and not reach him.

I didn't want to hurt him with a 95mph football pass so I tossed it underhand ... the last thing I saw as I opened the door was that free can of Comet hitting the wet grass, kicking up a divot from my yard, and a small chunk of yard attached to the can of Comet.

Some may think that is not nice of me ... but all is fair in war and door to door salesmen that don't listen to their potential customer.  LOL

How did he or they decide to pick my house? All of my 3 neighbors are home with trucks in their driveway ... yet as I glanced out of my large kitchen window I saw 'that van' heading south bypassing my next-door neighbor that happened to be standing by his mailbox rescuing his mail before the next rain. The van didn't even honk as they flew by him.

So any guesses what they were trying to sell me? A free container of Comet was mine to keep if I would have just signed some paperwork. I let him approach the carport from the front door because I thought he was going to try to sell me whatever satellite tv service that I did not have, which in my case they would give me the best deal on earth to switch to DishNetwork. It wasn't that.

Looking back on the experience I probably should have let the bloodhounds have all the fun. They wanted out the door bad when I opened it to walk outside. With any bloodhound, excitement brings drool, excitement of seeing people brings them close so they can figure out who they are. How would he have felt seeing two large dogs running at him with 'Gorilla Glue' type drool flying from each of their jowls with each jogging step? It's probably best that I kept them inside to prevent any chances of being sued by a scared sales rep.

As you can see in the last 24 hours the trees continued to change colors.

I guess I will have to 'google' and find out what is being sold by door to door sales reps offering free cans of Comet.

The hounds are snoring. No baseball games tonight. There is a NFL game where I have little interest in either team playing. Sounds like a good night to watch a movie or two and hope we don't have to turn on the heat.

Never a dull moment in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

An Active Sunday Morning Walk

Since it dropped into the 50's last night after reaching a high of 80° yesterday I knew the field was going to be extremely wet this morning as I put on my North Face snow boots. That would make no difference to Sadie. While I was lacing up the boots I decided Stella would have what I call total freedom this morning ... she could go anywhere she wanted at her pace ... I was not going to be 'herding' the hounds this morning.

It was a perfect quiet morning for our walk that started a little after 9am. Things were back to 'normal' since we our internet service had been fixed on Saturday. I was up early to upload over 300 photos to Google Photos and Flicker since July 26. I then move them into their own individual albums. Before I knew it, my 'free' data period was over at 8am. A little more reading online, two cups of coffee and Sadie let me know it was time to walk.

Since she was very active this morning I was sure we had just missed some early deer appearances. A lot of things were getting Sadie's attention just after starting the walk through the wet grass and wild flowers that are starting to grow for their fall cut.

Stella followed along laidback as usual, casually walking one paw at a time ... in no hurry.

That is until she saw Sadie sprinting toward the middle of the field. She actually ran again for the 2nd morning in a row. I know what is wrong with her though. It's her rear hips. She couldn't jump up in back of the FJ yesterday for our local drive. I helped her up as he put her front paws on the bumper ... Sadie was already inside ready to take off.

The way both hounds acted and me being so far away that I had to use the 200mm zoom on these next three photos, I was sure that we had just missed some deer. I thought they might be back in the far right corner of the field so I glanced in that direction once I caught up with the hounds.

It was good to see Stella running slowly but hard enough that both of her rear paws were off the ground as she ran. She and Sadie were all over the first part of the field up to the first corner turn.

As I turned into the sunlight you could see the heavy dew reflecting off the grass and wild plants.

Just as I was about to reach the rolls of hay I turned to find Sadie staring at me in the far right corner. She was having a blast running all over the field. Stella was not in sight as he was behind us on her own path.

By the time I had walked by 4 of these rolls of hay, Sadie had sprinted toward me and ran right up next to me. She covered quite a distance in the time it took me to walk only halfway in front of the hay rolls.

As usual I could barely see Stella's red coat through the growing field as I was on my way back home. The cooler overnight temps had chased away all the mosquitoes so far this morning. I forgot to mention the other day, that a light spray of 50/50 water and vinegar DID keep the mosquitoes off of me on my afternoon walk. Bethers had suggested 100% vinegar but I thought I'd try the 50/50 solution first since I had that mixed for Heidi's skin allergies.

I told Sadie to 'go get Stella' ... she had Stella in her sights of her nose within a minute.

She ran towards Stella and tapped noses, and like always Stella turned to follow Sadie. That message by touching noses must be pretty influential for Stella to follow Sadie's direct order.

I started to call the hounds for them to move over to my path on the last part of the walk. Today I decided to keep quiet and see what they would do. I was pretty sure that eventually Stella would walk into the north part of the yard near the property line pole that I was asked to leave up years ago.

By the time Sadie was almost home, she was soaked from the field. Her legs and paws were just as wet.

I might want to get back inside to make a small breakfast but that doesn't mean that Stella wants to. She is always on her on 'clock' unless food is mentioned ... then she will run for the house.

Still waiting for her to finish.

Slowly but surely she starts towards the yard. Instead of a direct route toward me, she walked far to her right and entered the yard just inside the property line pole. I find that to me not only interesting but amusing.

Sadie wasn't going to wait much longer. She was reading for her morning nap ... Stella took her time, she wasn't going to hurry for anyone.

The Daylilies are trying their best to show me they can grow after planting them only a week ago. I'm not sure how long it will take for them to get fully grown but they will cover a lot of area and still have nice blooms. That's the reason I chose them.

This is to the left of the porch under the living room windows Saturday afternoon.

This is from this morning showing how they had closed over night. They will get shade until about noon. Then that sunshine moving to the west will blast them with bright sunshine all the way to sunset.

I am going to go on a plant exploration sometime this week in Bloomington and hopefully find some Hostas to add to these areas. Once I get all the planting done and the ground settles a little, I'll cover all the exposed ground with Cypress mulch.

A little rambling before I go this morning. I had so many pictures from this mornings walk and was only able to get my choices down to 21 pictures for the blog. With the day as nice as it's going to be I can see later tonight I'll do another blog post with pictures of the hounds taken throughout the afternoon. I continue to read "Inside of a Dog" by Alexandra Horowitz. I can see a lot of what she says in all three of the hounds.

I really cannot figure out my internet data usage. By paying only for 20Gb per month and only 2Gb per month on my phone I am still very careful how I use and what I do on the internet.

Here is what I find strange and it makes me wonder if it is costing me more data to use HughesNet Gen5 for my internet service. When I had Excede Satellite I averaged below 500Mb of data per day. My internet use has not changed just because I have changed service.

I get faster speeds now ... 48Mbps instead of 10-12Mbps. My free period changed from midnight to 5am with Exede but 2am-8am with HughesNet. I normally use my free data early in the morning but not every day. This morning uploading those 300 photos took almost 200Mb of data, luckily it was on my extra data that HughesNet gives me for free.

Friday when my internet service was down I viewed and did my normal online reading on my Verizon account on my iPhone. By the end of the day I had used 358Mb, way below my self imposed 667Mb average.

Yesterday after the tech rep fixed my internet service, it was past 12 noon. I did my normal internet reading but spent a lot of time away from the computer. I cannot say that I did anything different than what I did on Friday with my iPhone.

Last night at midnight when I logged my daily data use into my spreadsheet ... Hughes told me I had used 895Mb !!!!

895Mb from 1pm to midnight compared to my use on Friday with Verizon 358Mb doing the exact same kind of internet surfing. My Activity Monitor was showing I had used a little over 500Mb of data.

My iPad, iPhone and MacBook Air had Wifi turned OFF during this time as part of my test.

The Google Chrome Extension I added a few weeks ago called Data Saver shows how much each website I visit uses in data. I can choose to look at their counts for 1 hour, 3 hours, 1 day, 1 week, 30 days and 60 day intervals.

In all cases Facebook was the leader in data use, using twice as much data as the #2 in line ... Blogger. My blogs use more data than any other website I visit except Facebook. If I use Google Photos or Flickr between 8am - 2am, then they are a close 2nd place depending on how many photos I am uploading.

So this morning after 4 hours, minus the time it took us for our walk ... I did the photos upload during my free period and I have not spent one second on Facebook ... I have only used 99Mb of data in a 4 hour period.

99Mb ... 25Mb per hour roughly ............ how could HughesNet show that I used almost 900Mb??? I would have had to been on the computer every minute of the day and night for that to be possible.

Also I have all automatic updates in the background .... shut off

Also I have an extension called Disable HTML5 AutoPlay that works well blocking videos that want to play automatically on different news and sports sites.

I have AdBlock Plus to do what it sounds like ... block ads.

I can't think of anything else I can do to stop any data "leaks". I'll be anxious tonight to see just how much data HugesNet tells me I have used after a very similar internet day compared to "their" 900Mb day on Saturday.

Since switching to the faster download speeds of HughesNet, my average data usage is 723Mb per day doing the same thing I did with Exede and averaged less than 500Mb per day.

Any ideas?

I cannot believe this weather we are having this summer in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... it's been great.

It Wasn't HughesNet Gen 5's Fault -- Our Internet Service Was Out

I did not notice it storming Thursday night after I had moved to the living room away from the computer. How could that be, since it looked like it had stormed when I took Sadie outside around 10:30pm? The Reds game wasn't going well so I turned off the game and started reading a book ... only to fall asleep for an hour. Only when I went back to my computer around 11pm and could not get any websites to load did I realize I had a problem. I had lost my internet service.


I'll not go into the whole story. The same installer showed up Saturday morning for the service call that was called in by HughesNet. He also had installed my very first internet satellite system called Exede 3 or 4 years ago. When he changed my system this past April to HughesNet he used the same coax line that goes from the modem ... under the house ... and out to the satellite dish receiver. This morning he found out the line was bad, not the radio receiver on the front of the dish. So I am back online after a day and a half. It was a nice break from my internet addiction.

With the baby gate keeping Sadie and Stella in the living room while the two men did their work, the hounds were pretty excited to get outside after the techs had left. Of course they had to double check those footprints and van tire marks scents before we could go on a walk.

How the temperatures ever dropped to the low 60's this morning is beyond my knowledge base but I liked it. It will eventually get to 80° by late this afternoon but in the meantime the AC is off and all the windows are open with a solid breeze from the SW.

It was so nice outside that even Heidi decided to join us for part of the walk before she turned off to do her own thing, while Sadie, Stella and I walked on.

Hardly into the walk Stella had already started trotting to catch Sadie. When I see that I always hope she is on her way back to running full speed since she loves to run but hasn't been able to for some unknown reason.

Heidi was actually trotting a little also but she was really more into smelling every scent in the field instead of walking. I knew she would be turning into the field soon on her own exploration.

What a difference in her appearance compared to two summers ago.

After I turned away from Heidi, I barely caught Stella actually running to catch Sadie. Galloping more than trotting. They both took off around the corner, so I thought a deer sighting might be possible ... but nothing was there. They were just both feeling good with the cooler temps.

Just as I arrived at the first corner I turned to check on Heidi a final time to see if she was headed our way or somewhere different. She had already found a scent to keep her occupied.

Again ... as I turn back to the bloodhounds, Stella is running again to catch Sadie. This is more running than I have seen her do in almost a year. I'd have to go back and look at pictures or blogs posts to get an accurate time.

Not a lot of eating stuff today ... just a lot of snooping and sniffing around.

As I neared home I could see Heidi looking up at us. The camera rarely catches the movement of her wagging tail. She has been a happy basset hound lately. She is back to growling at herself as she plays inside or out in the yard. Once the bloodhounds try to join in her fun, she will stop playing. They are too big and stronger than she likes.

For once she was not sleeping in this next picture. She was rolling on her back from side to side to scratch it, then would just lay there enjoying the sounds and scents of the field ... then roll back and forth some more.

Once I told Sadie 'go find Heidi', it didn't take her long to run at her. Sadie will always perk up her nose and ears when I ask her to find either Heidi or Stella.

There were not a lot of butterflies this morning but this one was extremely tiny. I was surprised when I saw the picture that it had so much color.

No, that is not Sadie taking a nap next door. It happens at least one deer a year but they usually end up in my driveway or the culvert and at times in the front yard. This time the deer ended up in the neighbors yard. He called the state highway department for them to pick it up yesterday but they didn't show up. This morning the neighbor was moving it off his property with his ATV.

I was surprised to hear the deer had been there since yesterday afternoon. I saw it last night about sundown as I checked my mailbox. Luckily the hounds did not smell it and want to take off to check it out. Most of the time someone will pull up in their pickup truck with a friend and will take it away. They are usually not by the side of the road long.

Sadie is in the opposite direction of the deer. She is behind the house not noticing anything about a deer next door.

It's such a nice day today that I decided to go ahead and post this now instead of waiting. I don't think I will be around the computer until late tonight since the weather is so nice. I think it's time to head out for a local drive with the camera and see what I can find.

I cannot describe how nice of a day it is here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.