Miserable Day For Hounds & Dog

It was expected. It was in the forecast. It is happening as I write this. Newspaper said 2"-3" of rain by Thursday afternoon when it stops around 3pm (prediction) but after the first storm blew around us on Wednesday, I had my doubts about the storm that started last night around midnight. Consequently the hounds and the dog are not "happy campers". Henry has been the only one to sneak out along the edge of the house, around the corner into the stone area to pee first thing this morning.

Saturday Morning Showers

A loud roar of thunder and lightning bright enough to light up the bedroom woke me a little after 6am. From what I could tell neither hound moved or sat up in the corner of the bedroom where they share a spot to sleep. I knew that I was not getting up that early again today and was back to sleep in seconds. Would our morning walk be rained out ??

The field was not as wet as I anticipated but it took forever to get Stella from the corner of the house, then into the yard and then into the field. She must have been remembering the hour before when I let her out to start the day and it was dark and pouring rain. She is not a fan of any kind of rain. Once she started the walk in the field she was okay as we continued on with an occasional rain sprinkle hitting my hand.

I couldn't capture this fast enough but she was tangled up in the thorn bushes. Bloodhounds are not problem solvers and their only response to a puzzle like that is just apply more force to tear away. That type of movement has resulted in a trip to the vet only one time in 21 years. Sadie sliced the inside of her ear open when she was a puppy by a razor-sharp thorn.

We are supposed to get almost 2" of rain today but it will be hit or miss as the thunderstorms roll though the Ohio Valley. I hope that does not cancel the Reds game at 2:10pm today. Currently there is a huge storm that won't miss us, southwest of us in Missouri.

Only two basketball games tonight as the single elimination tournament slowly reduces the 68 team field to four teams after this weekend. There have really been some good ballgames this year if you are a basketball fan, some questionable calls by the referees and some exciting last second finishes.

You might be able to tell I am grasping at straws this morning for something to write about. I've tired of the political scene and understand we have moved into the next Plan B in Democratic Party strategy. It's a long way to November 2020 and I've had enough of the political bullshit I could puke. So the tv stays off the news channels, in fact none of them are even programmed in my tv remote control.

I'll glance at the headlines online but that will be about it.

Stella continued her policy of not getting her feet any wetter than necessary and walked just off the edge of the path. I didn't feel the same saturation I felt this last week on the walk. That was strange because I saw more spots of standing water from the storms last night, which Stella and I walked around.

I had another good day of following my eating plan. I could not wait until Monday morning to see if I had lost a pound or two these past 7-10 days so I hopped on the scale this morning before I did anything. It was nice to see I had dropped two pounds and that is right on schedule for weight loss ... actually the experts tell me to expect to lose 1-1/2 pounds per week. I can live with that.

I'm going to leave you with the photos of the rest of the walk and step away from my computer. I'm not sure what I will be doing today. Due to weather I might be reading a lot today. I think a little 'cabin fever' has set in plus ... the words are hard to find this morning.

Heidi has the best plan of all for surviving a crappy weather day. I still say she is the smartest of all three of us.

It's still good though, in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

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.

From Sunshine To Storms

Just like anywhere else in the USA, weather can change in an instant. I know my weather changes from yesterday afternoon to this morning are nothing compared to those having severe weather up in the Dakotas, Montana, and the Central Midwest yesterday. I caught some of the national weather stories last night. My worst weather of the day is not suppose to start until around noon, about the time I tune into my IU game. How will the satellite signal do in high winds and thunderstorm conditions? I am hoping the forecast is wrong

So anyway, back to yesterday. It was beautiful. It got up to 72° and as you can see Stella and Heidi were in shock. They couldn't move, they couldn't think clearly to figure out if this was a dream or was spring really here. Stella and I did take an afternoon walk but it was without the camera because it was a spur of the moment ... I didn't know I was going for a walk when I went outside with her. She decided we were.

Heidi heard me ask if she wanted her toenails cut. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to pick her up to take her to the backyard for that task or if she would eventually agree with me that her nails were way past due. I thought I'd give her time to decide, I didn't want to force anything on her. She is the best of all the hounds I've had when it comes to trimming her long nails. Winston was the second best, and Sadie was 0 on a scale of 1-10.

I was a little surprised that neither hound sprinted to the backyard and head dove into the grass with excitement. They acted their normal slow, analytical self, deciding just where they were going to go. I decided I'd walk around the yard enjoying the warm sunshine, maybe they would follow me.

By the time I returned Heidi has almost decided it was time. I went inside and traded my camera for the nail clippers. Without me saying a word, she followed me to the backyard, laid down and rolled over on her side ... true story. Within a few minutes all of those extra long nails were trimmed back to where none of them touched the ground when she was standing. She sprinted for the door because she knows a dog bone is always her reward after getting her nails trimmed.

Stella was not as cooperative. She use to like having her nails trimmed but after three of them she decided she had enough. I had to get a few more while she was sleeping on the couch last night but even that woke her up. I have two more paws to do today, someway.

They say we will get high winds today with our thunderstorms, but in our area that is only 20mph - 30mph. That will still make a howling sound up here on the hill though. That sound is what woke me a little after 2am.

You can see from the rain we received last night there is some flooding starting to show. He installed a huge drainage system a few years ago that starts behind that corner of trees on the left, diagonal in that low area to the trees on the right ... but by this afternoon that will be flooded as if his drainage system is not working.

The crushed egg shells continue to get whiter as it rains more. We are currently above the average for rain/snow this time of year and will add another inch to that surplus today. I better get my lawn mower ready for a lot of work this spring.

This shows why I am filling in all of the worn, low spots of the carport floor this spring. 44 years of wear will do that to concrete I guess.

A sure sign that all hound walks are canceled for today. The field was still soft from underground saturation yesterday, it will be muddy today. Stella doesn't like getting her paws wet and I don't like water running up the sides of my boots either.

Yes, these low spots will be filled in and repaired this spring.

As you can see my blog design has changed again this morning. I like the format, I just can't decide what colors to use, header image or no image. I even changed my computer back from Apple's "dark mode" to "light mode" and both desktop photos ... I put their desktop picture of Yosemite on my other monitor. I think it was the National Geographic channel a few weeks ago that was showing the movie "Solo" for free ... quite a movie and quite a climb for "free climbing."

I was in the mood to watch some movies late afternoon yesterday. Inserted the first DVD, the player changed my tv input to the blu-ray player input as it should. Then the screen went blank. After trying many things, reading the owners manual for the dvd player, I finally went online and found out that it was a common problem with Samsung DVD players ... I had just been lucky the past few years, having no issues.

By the time I tried their troubleshooting steps a second time ... my remote for the dvd player would not work. NOTHING worked. I went to the Best Buy website, put "Sony Blu-Ray Player" in the search and had a few to choose from. With $40 in rewards that I had forgot about and an expiration date of March 23rd ... I guess it happened for a reason.

I bought a Sony 4K Blu-Ray player with a lot of stuff I won't use for a pretty low price after my $40 discount that they showed at the final step for checking out. Instead of driving to Bloomington to pick it up I took them up on their offer for free shipping and a delivery for tomorrow. (Friday) That was the second Samsung dvd player that has stopped for the exact same reason.

I use to have a Samsung tv, so I bought the Samsung dvd player at that time.

I can hear the wind and rain off and on outside while I write this. About all I can tell is that I will be watching basketball at 12:30pm hopefully without signal interruption, and explaining to Stella why we are not taking any walks today. She will figure that out soon enough when she goes outside this morning. Heidi may not get off the carport at lunch if she sees and hears the rain and wind.

While I tried to post this at 9:30am, I lost my HughesGen 5 satellite internet signal.  :)

I added these recent photos after I posted this morning. This is right after their lunch, and Stella was not interested going out into the yard. Luckily she dumped her tanks first thing this morning before her breakfast.

At least it is not snowing and single digit temps here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.