The Hounds Are Ready For 2020

What can I say? Life has been busy around here with normal stuff and some days I run out of time. I guess with us being here almost 7 months, life is back to a normal feel and a routine. I never make goals for the new year but I do see some things already changing within the first few days. All good stuff. It's also one of those times I am becoming a little bored with blogging and find some hikes and trips are good without taking photos. Someone told me once "the best pictures you will take will be the ones you don't." Although with a lack of adventure there is some news or updates really.

Heidi and I both had annual checkups including blood lab work. She is a healthy 10-11 year old basset with a waistline the vet really liked seeing. My lab work came back better than I ever expected with low cholesterol, normal blood pressure and a PSA count below 1. There was nothing on my blood lab work that was above the limits. I guess the labwork confirmed my diet of "moderation" and an occasional splurge is working okay. I set up an appointment for the same physical next year before I left.

My vet called me yesterday, or the administrator for the vet clinic. She was wanting to know what my complaints were about with Heidi's visit. I never mentioned their clinic name by name but they tracked me down by a comment I made on Facebook. Imagine that!! I'll just say that nothing turns me off more than a vet clinic trying to "up sell" me when I know my hound is healthy and all I want is the annual checkup and a rabies shot that is required by law. Nothing else.

With blue skies and higher afternoon temps I am still riding my bike inside on the trainer but plan an afternoon ride today with the temps in the 60's. There will still be a cool breeze but it will be nice to get back out on the road after a week or so.

 A zoomed in look over towards Tombstone. I finally decided yesterday I'd wait for a parking space and walk among the crowds to see Tombstone up close for the first time. For me, too many people and everything was overpriced. I took only a couple of photos and then deleted them when I got home. I'll try to back when few people are there.

Stella has a new nighttime sleeping routine. It's always been these two spots to sleep most of the night. This is one, the other is just to the left of the photo where she is next to the bed, against the wall next to the door. The new routine ???? She will sleep in the area where she can dig and move any shoes that might be in her way. The other morning I found she had slept on two pairs of shoes and a pair of hiking boots. Right on top of all of them. Yes, my Merrell shoes are under her and not seen in the photo.

Heidi sinks deep into her bed that I bought in October (?).

Stella's way of begging for food or when she is waiting for me to finish a container of yogurt or ice cream. She will get the container to lick out every last drop that is left. You must admit, she is consistent and disciplined in her process. Yes that is a little bit of Arizona dirt on her nose ... that's her latest new thing ... eating the dirt under the rocks in the yard. Never a dull moment with her.

Once she is fed her breakfast and a short trip outside she is ready to start her day of relaxation. I think she looks much younger than 10 years old.

 

A few days ago I attempted to write a post. I load all of my photos first and then type between them. When I clicked the button to upload the photos from my computer to the blogger format, this is what I saw. It's the first time I've ever seen that screen in the 14 years I've been blogging. I blogged for my online business prior to starting this blog in 2011.

All it took was to turn my computer off and on, then log into the blog again for it to go away.

I still love seeing the new sunrises each day but they are also becoming routine. Like how many photos can you post on the blog of the same thing or things?

This is the ONLY reason I am woken up by a whining bloodhound every morning and a basset hound shaking it's head hard enough where I can hear her tags making noise. They like to eat no matter what time of day or night. That is their main goal first thing in the morning.

You can see they love the sunshine and have spent every afternoon outside sunbathing and taking siestas.

I admit I am surprised that Heidi has adjusted from a grass yard to one of stone. Her allergies are gone, her eyes are clear and she takes the daily walk with Stella and I every afternoon. We will move that walk back to early mornings once spring arrives. The move to Arizona has been good not only for her but all of us.

Besides what is posted here I don't have much more to say. Things are good, life is very enjoyable and I still love this area as much as I did the first days I moved here. The new hip continues to heal and I have finally been able to read the list of things they installed and read the step by step process without feeling sick to my stomach.

Things are back to a normal routine here in the 'Wild West'.

Another Year Ends With RAIN

It's pretty amazing to look back through the blog to previous years, the exact date, to see how things change within that 12 month period. I can also search certain dates in my large Photos Library on my computer and see the changes all on one screen. It wasn't until I looked back in the older blog to see that last year it was -1° with a windchill of -9°. Consequently the hound walks were canceled for the day.

Then the foggy brain cells of mine remembered last year. The coldest winter in history here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. For over a month from December 15th to January 15th it never was warmer than 32° and many of those 30 days had high temps of single digits ... some below zero.

I started this post this morning with on the first two photos of Stella. It has been raining all night. Add all of that water to the saturated field, it was not walkable. Stella knew it before she stepped off the carport. She stood listening to the rain drops that were falling from the tips of the tree limbs, but it wasn't raining. She knew we were not walking at 8am. It was too dark, much darker than those two photos show. She stood in the yard a little confused.

Heidi didn't think it was that bad by lunch time, as she snuck around the corner of the house. It was warm enough to be above her threshold but she didn't stay outside long.

After raining all morning it didn't look bad for standing water. Reinstalling a new drainage system is the first thing on the list for a March/April time. It's old and obviously not working as good as it use to.

Early afternoon the winds picked up as predicted and rain was blowing from the west

About the time I thought it was over, I had a "Weather Advisory" hit my inbox, telling me high winds are scheduled for later this afternoon or early evening. Will those 40mph - 60mph winds disturb my tv satellite signal while I try to watch two good football games?

A little after 2pm the lights flickered, the internet lost service as well as my tv signal, with it raining so hard I couldn't see outside. When you see the amount of standing water you will not believe that short burst of rain was less than 20 minutes long.

Stella doesn't like to walk through water. Just to the left of those posts is her way outside. She snuck around the car thinking she could bypass the large puddle

She stood and thought of a plan. She had gone outside this morning to dump her tanks but likes to always go out after lunch. Walks were cancelled today so she knew she would not be able to get to the field. She doesn't like getting her feet wet.

Not until I cleared all of the overgrown brush in this area a few years ago, did I have that water path down the center of the yard. In fact with all the heavy brush, I never saw standing water of any kind in that area.

When the neighbor's culvert is flooded, that's a sign of a lot of rain water. Before December 1st we were 10" above our annual average of 42". We have had three major rain storms this month.

As Stella walked along side the car ... she saw more flooding ... she was stopped and would not go any further.

Sniffing the air, she didn't see any way nor smell any way of getting outside into the field or yard. She slowly turned and headed back inside to wait for a try later on.

We decided to "button down the hatches" and prepare for high winds. With the ground so saturated I am never a fan of high winds. In 2008 with more rain than what we have now, straight line winds pulled every tree out of 80' of bank, landing those trees parallel to the house. The closest tree was 8' from the front door and the front yard was covered with fallen trees.

I hope the winds don't disturb my satellite signal. I'll be watching the Michigan State - Oregon game at 5pm and Northwestern - Utah game at 7pm ... right during range of time for the high winds warning.

62° today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Happy New Year !!!!

Happy New Year !!

The hounds and I wish all of you a Happy New Year and to having a good 2018. Those arctic winds blew in yesterday afternoon and continued through the night. Very strong winds make the storms windows rattle and that they did even with them being iced over. As you see Heidi has gone to her 'freezing weather' routine. She will get up for lunch and/or to move to the couch in the afternoon but nothing more.

Don't let the sunshine fool you. I took this pictures around 10:30am and we were not out any longer than 5 minutes. That was all the time I needed to confirm it was not just cold but damn cold. We still have a wind chill advisory to go through that starts tonight at 7pm and will last until 7pm Tuesday night. That means two days of weather colder than it is right now.

Yet from the time we woke up in single digit temps and a windchill in the negative, by 10:30am my carport thermometer was telling me it had warmed up to 15°. Wunderground and WeatherBug was saying it was more like 10°. Either way, it was still too cold to even consider a walk. Sadie and Stella didn't seem to mind.

There was some strange energy going around the house before going outside. Instead of Sadie begging to take a walk and Stella doing her normal search for food in the kitchen, just in case I dropped some on the floor ... they both stood stoic in front of the kitchen island. They reminded me of two horses sleeping standing up in a pasture. Neither hound could get the other to play, when they decided to move.

They went no further than this during the short 5 minutes we were outside. I thought they might want to relieve themselves since we are not taking any walks today. Instead they wanted to track mole traffic under the frozen tundra. I have the worst mole damage I can remember since it was pretty warm for December until he hit this cold spell.

As Sadie headed for the door, Stella decided it really was too cold to take a walk. She had walked to the edge of the yard, took one step into the field then turned around and came back inside.

It was much warmer last year. Heidi made her outside photo appearance December 29, 2016 and then I don't have another picture in her photo file until I took one inside on January 1, 2017. That sunshine feels warmer than the sunshine today.

This was one year ago exactly and the photo even looks much warmer than those at the top of this blog. Yet I remember three years ago we were having the exact same weather this time of year. I had taken a trip to Bloomington to see my friend the first week of January and my FJ dash thermometer was saying -7° as I drove over.

It's just normal winter weather in the Midwest.

Not much will be planned for today except watching the last game of the NFL regular season. Most likely it will be the last game for the head coach of the local Indianapolis Colts. Speculation is broadcasting he will be one of many coaches in the NFL that will be fired by Monday. Since that is a holiday will NFL teams wait until Tuesday to announce who they fire?

Overall the college bowl games the past two days and nights have been great games to watch. The two teams I was hoping would win did not but that did not take away from the quality of play in their games. Too bad college referees take a lot of the enjoyment away from watching ... I started hating the words of "this play is under review" more and more this year.

I thought about taking the Z4 out for a drive today since the roads are clear and dry, free of any salt residue. Still there is just something I don't think is good for it traveling 55-65mph in 10° weather with colder than normal winds hitting the engine area under the hood. After all the Z4 is for only good weather. I think I will probably end up canceling all outdoor activity until Wednesday morning.

No major plans tonight to celebrate the new year. My party days were over many years ago so here in 'the tropics' our annual celebration seems to be watching the ball drop in NYC Times Square on tv, then stepping outside for a few minutes in the back to look at a sky full of stars. That is IF we are still awake.

I will try to come up with something or photos to blog about on Monday and Tuesday. It will not be about the daily walk I know that. I could do a 'feature post' about some of the past hounds I have had or if I'm in the mood I might do a post of rambling about things in general ... freezing temps kill brain cells in my book, so I am not sure I can even come up with rambling topics.

At least everyone here is healthy and content in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana so life is good.

Happy New Year !!!