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".

Summer's Officially Here

The air conditioning was turned on last yesterday afternoon as all three hounds started panting with their tongues hanging out of their mouths ... inside the house. That's the official look to turn on the AC for another summer of high temps and high humidity. Who's complaining? Not I, I love hot muggy weather and will take this over those 7° days just a few months ago.

Again the field looked like it had grown another 6" overnight, but this portion of the field is always the tallest of all 7 acres. All the underground water flows this direction and it has a lot of afternoon sunshine. At least we could still see which way to go.

While Sadie charged out in front, I was reminded that yesterday Stella tried her best to take off to the north woods. It got to the point of no return as I watched her and listened to her ignore my calls. I had to take off sprinting to catch her. She wasn't running but had her head down and was walking at a fast pace, almost past the 2nd house north of us.

So today the focus was to keep her walking with Sadie and I ... but it was hotter than normal this morning. She slowed to her afternoon pace which is almost like me walking in slow motion, yet I wasn't going to let her fake me out today with that ... then attempting to escape.

Do you notice anything different in the picture below?

I did not see any beaten down grass, nor any kind of path but something just barely inside the brush had Sadie and Stella's attention. A lot of verbal commands were needed to get them to move. It was hot, muggy, not even 9am and the gnats were out in force.

Not even halfway through the walk my hiking boots are completely saturated.

I was curious enough to check last year's blog posts to see when we turned on the air conditioning. That is one thing that is good about a blog, it makes it easy to find answers for questions concerning the house, the hounds, the vehicles, weather or myself. It wasn't until the 2nd of June that the AC was turned on and a week later where it seemed to be running full time.

Why does Stella cry like she is in pain ... when I sneeze ??

By the time I turned around Sadie was headed into the brush and Stella was about to follow her. What was leading them out of bounds??

Calling their names and telling them no got both of them back on the walk with each hound going their own separate ways.

After yesterday's escape by Stella, Sadie was going to keep a close eye on her. She did this various times throughout the walk this morning, just to make sure that Stella was still in view.

"After further review" as they like to say in NFL games ... I have decided this morning they planted corn in the back field and not soybeans like I guessed last week.

Can you feel the 'mugginess' in those photos?

What a difference a few months makes in the weather here and the color of the fields.

At this point in time I wasn't sure if Stella was going to make it back to the yard before noon. Each step was deliberate, no signs of being in a rush and no signs of veering off course. Would she make it home by noon?

She made it to the yard about 5 minutes later but still at the same pace. She can tell it's hot and in that case she does nothing fast or normal ... everything is slower for her.

While my mind was daydreaming yesterday I thought that I might start blogging again at the end of the day instead of this time of morning. I know that will not change your reading habits nor is it an attempt to. It's just a warning that new posts may not happened until late afternoons or early evenings. That way I can decrease some of the morning photos, add some afternoon shots that would include Heidi and include a whole day not just the morning walk.

Just because the temperatures are above Heidi's threshold for activity does not mean she wakes up any earlier. She isn't real active and photogenic until after her lunch.

If anyone would like to live in 'the tropics' the house next door is going to be for rent. My neighbor of one year, that works in the Texas oil fields and stays up here a week per month, moved out last week. I knew something was going one when the satellite installers were taking his satellite dish down without replacing it. I also saw some loaded pickup trucks pulling away from the house.

Not sure when it will rain again after a forecast of a 'wetter than normal' summer ... and I don't know if my last place Reds will ever lose again since they are on a 6 game winning streak. (Have I jinxed them?) Besides, I'm back on Facebook and even signed up for an Instagram account last night so I could find some old bloggers that moved to Instagram. I can also follow that 'vanlife' group.

Does it really matter if you try to hide from Google if you have used Blogger for years and have gmail as your email service, both owned by Google ... the lightbulb finally came on inside my head and I realized they already had info on me that would never disappear so back to Google Chrome I came. It uses less data than Apple's Safari does.

I may have finally found an 'in home' pet sitter ...  waiting for a reply from her.

That's about it for this morning from 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... air conditioning was a great invention.

Firefox Browser Is A Data Hog

Under overcast skies, sounds of thunder and storms all around us ... we will stay dry for most of the day. There is something about that I-70 corridor as it has thunderstorms and snow storms follow it across the state. It didn't take me long to find out this morning why I stopped using Firefox ... it's a data hog ... I'll discuss it at the end of this post.
As I made coffee I was sure it was going to rain any second and our morning walk might not happen. With my 11pm grocery shopping trip last night I had a new bag of Seattle's Best Coffee and a much needed caffeine boost.

After checking Intellicast radar I could see sever storms to the north and northeast of us but nothing was to the west or southwest of us. It was time for our first walk of the day. With Stella nibbling a little grass before we got started, Sadie and I took off on the path.

I was surprised as I turned to look behind me and didn't see Stella. When I looked to the side and in front of me I didn't see Stella. Holy cow!!!!  She was taking a brand new path and was over on the corner of the yard heading in the direction of her favorite woods ... nowhere near Sadie and I.

As I yelled her name she ignored me and kept walking north, parallel to Sadie and I. No doubt she was smelling the scent of one of the field cats.

While calling her name over and over, she sloooowly turns in our direction.

She started trotting toward Sadie at a fairly fast pace but not quite a run. I cannot describe how good I feel when I see her trotting again more than once per day and multiple days in a row.

Although we had assurances of no rain on the radar, the thunder was loud and in the skies up ahead. The colors of the radar of those storms were those deep reds, browns signifying just how serious the thunderstorms were. They were about 20 miles from us.

After reading last night that a favorite lens of a professional photographer was her Nikon 16mm-35mm lens I thought I'd try a few shots today on the walk with the lens set at 35mm. Here is one of them below, power tower and lines included.

Sadie had other plans and started running in the direction of the far right hand corner of the field, but she had a scent to check out first. That area is a deer lounging area.

This next photo is a good example of why it's so hard to put both bloodhounds on a leash that is connected to a splitter. In that situation they would be 6' away from me and walking right next to each other. They each have their own interests when walking and their noses leading them in different directions. No RVing for them. I would never do that here on our walks, only as a test for possible travel.

Sadie had found some fresh protein supplements this morning. Stella trotted to see if Sadie would share any of it. Of course I had to stroll over and tug on Stella's collar to lead her in our direction. Sadie will always come running when I call her name ... Stella is a different story.

Walking by those rolls of hay and smelling the aroma of hay bales (rolls in this case) reminds me of the summers in high school where I had part time jobs of baling hay for the local farmers, then stacking it in the barns. Extremely hot work, good money. You would have to wear a t-shirt to keep from being scratched by the cut hay ... but the smell of cut hay always brings those memories back to me.

When Stella heard thunder becoming louder she thought it might be to her advantage to get home a little faster this morning. She didn't trot all the way but I couldn't keep up with either hound all the way back to the house.

With everything green around here, I thought I'd add a little color to my blog post this morning.

During the walk I also realized that I don't and probably will never have a set time each day where I post to the blog. I am pretty consistent in posting in the middle of the day after editing our morning walk photos ... but I find it too hard at times to wait until the end of the day to post which adds even more photos.

Two blogs per day are sometimes missed by readers, at least statistics show that. They will alway view the latest blog post of the day but not read the previous one. Yet there will be days I'll blog multiple times per day because my schedule is basically this --- "do what I want when I want, no plans".

Now to the Firefox story ....

I opened it up late yesterday and used only 20Mb of data to get it updated. It seemed faster than it use to be. I liked the look of it. Yet it would open websites up a little slower than Safari (instant) or Google Chrome (2 seconds). It was not until this morning when I tried it, that it reminded me EXACTLY why I don't use it.

Since I have limited data per month for my home computer, no choice based on my location ... I always have Activity Monitor open and on my other monitor so I can catch any unexpected data usage that is more than I can handle to stay within my estimate of 665Mb per day to spread 20Gb out per month.

So this morning I did all of my internet reading on Google Chrome, which uses a data saver in the background. After I returned from the walk I opened up Firefox and went to my blog dashboard to edit last nights post and correct some spelling errors.

That was the only website I had open.

Right before clicking the 'update' button on the blog, I glance over at my Activity Monitor and see that Firefox had used 83Mb of data just on my blog edit. While two hours of internet reading, including my blog and looking at stats from the dashboard had used a total of 38Mb !!!

That probably doesn't mean much to you but when you have limited data 45Mb used doing really nothing is a lot. I can buy more data if I go over the 20Gb limit and luckily with HughesNet any of that additional data I buy but do not used is carried over for future use. Exede Satellite service zero'd it out at the end of the billing period.

Even writing this post and uploading photographs to it, I still have not used as much data as Firefox did this morning and that includes my 2 hours of internet reading while on Google Chrome.

The pace of life will not be out of the ordinary today. I have found an old John Grisham novel on the bookshelf ... it's hard to put down ... yet the hounds will get their 3 walks in today.

Heidi has moved from the couch to the floor right next to the register that has that ice cold air conditioned air flowing out of it ... she is a pretty smart basset hound.

Food supply was replenished late last night ... all is good again here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.