My First Day Without News

I did it in October and I'm going to do it again, otherwise I am heading down the path of insanity. I am no longer going to watch nor read ANY kind of news outside of sports. I have already found out this morning before our morning walk just how much time I was taking to read online news. That didn't count the amount of time I had the tv turned to the news. By the end of Wednesday night I couldn't take anymore.

It was all crap and it didn't matter which side of the political fence you are on.

With my tv remote in hand, I went into my DishNetwork settings and deleted the two news channels from my menu. One of them was a business channel but they would discuss politics when appropriate.

Then I went to my Twitter account and deleted any account I was following outside of sports, plus the tornado account. I went to my Feedly account and repeated the same process. I went into this blog's dashboard and deleted a few blog links in my "Favorite Links" section that dealt with politics or immigration.

So as I write this I have been up and online for two hours and twenty-four minutes. I have not seen nor read a word of news or politics. I went for over a month back in October. It was fantastic and I could tell a major difference in my day and thought process. My mood was better. I used less internet data and spent less time on the computer.

Only after moving my main blog to Wordpress in early December, with an announcement I was going to be more open in my writing and expand the subjects for blogging, did I take a look at the news so I could make comments about it.

THAT was A TERRIBLE DECISION !!!!

It will be just as hard as following a strict diet change to keep from taking a peek at the news sometimes. The fact is, I know what's going on. I know it's not going change as long as Trump is President and maybe even longer. I know that I cannot do anything about any of it. Me watching or reading about it does nothing to improve my life.

I am just tired of hearing it. All of it.

Stella and I still have about 20 minutes before it's time to take our walk this morning. It's going to be warmer today which is good. We did the afternoon walk yesterday but without the camera. As the field thaws it was soft and muddy in spots. With a mix of rain tonight and tomorrow the field will be a mess, maybe too wet to take a walk. At least it will be much warmer.

NO NEWS will be read or watched here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Starting To Get Warm Again

I took this picture of Stella a few weeks ago but it's her daily position to start her siesta right after lunch. Later in the afternoon she will move to the couch but this is a daily spot for her and has been since the day she arrived. I'm starting today's post from yesterday afternoon. Just like it was predicted, the temps crawled into the 20's but with each degree it climbed the wind seemed to blow stronger so the "feels like" temps never got above 0°

It was so cold after their lunch kibble yesterday, Heidi was too fast for the camera to catch her. She went as far as the mulch and sprinted back to the door. It was only 15° at 11am.

Stella spent a little more time outside but I kept calling her telling her to come on, get inside. She was most likely looking for frozen dirt to eat. Yes, dirt. For some reason when the mole hills are rock hard from the freeze, she likes chewing off the tops. Could you call that "rock candy" ????

So with the hounds sleeping, the heat turned on to keep the house around 68° since anything warmer is too uncomfortable to me, I was finishing Mahjong games under 3 minutes. I glanced up from my laptop computer between games to catch this ... with my Nikon D3200 sitting next to the laptop on the kitchen table it was easy for me to catch the action. It's pretty rare to see a truck like this in the middle of winter, driving into the field across the highway. I took all of these from my chair at the kitchen table, with the Tamron 18mm-200mm lens.

Can any readers with a farming background enlighten me on what he dumped and what it's for? I'm guessing it's either saw dust or finely ground corn husks. I have no idea what the purpose is. Any guesses ???

This morning was a different story though. I could feel the energy in the air inside the house and things were changing, hopefully outside. Stella was more active and back to her normal self after surviving a couple of days of 'cabin fever' and I could even feel a difference in my thought process. It will not hit 30° today but with it being 24° warmer than yesterday that is a big difference.

I thought a walk might be possible this morning as I drank my two cups of coffee. A little after 8am Stella walked in the room and starting hydrating herself by drinking and finishing half of her water bowl. She was ready to take a walk. It looked great outside, with bright sunshine but my watch was telling me it was only 17°. I thought we'd give a shot and see how far we could walk. If anything, just to get out of the house.

It was colder than I thought it would be and I could tell immediately this walk might not last long. I mean it was really cold with the slight breeze from the NW. From past experiences I was pretty sure that Stella would not be able to walk too far this morning.

I was right. When she stopped and turned to look at me, I knew we were finished.

When she raised her rear paw, I knew for sure we were finished. I told her "let's go home" and she turned around immediately then starting walking the same way she came, back home.

I had walked over to the 'return' path but she wasn't taking a chance walking through the snow covered grass. She stayed on the 'outgoing' path all the way home. She didn't stop this time either and walked all the way to the door to go back inside.

I glanced at my watch to end the app that tracks our walk and we were only outside a little over 4 minutes. When I told her I needed to go buy groceries, she walked right into the bedroom, laid on the floor and waited for me to shut her in with Heidi while I was gone. Again, I like that new habit of hers.

After lunch today it was much warmer, over 25° but Heidi let me know real quick she had already dumped her tanks earlier this morning and didn't need to be outside for any reason at all. She turned and headed back inside before I could snap off another picture.

That is a good sign to see the snow disappearing from the yard. Yet, I heard on the radio on the way home from grocery shopping we could get 1"- 2" of new snow tomorrow (Thursday) and it will be a rainy 55° on Saturday. I'll take the rain and warmer weather.

Stella checking for any frozen mole hills again today.

As you see I made a little color change on the blog this morning. Yesterday I changed the trim to crimson so the links in my blog posts would show up better. It was hard to see the links when they were dark blue. The problem with this blog template (theme) is the link color is tied into the trim color ... such has that thin crimson line below the blue header or for each section on the sidebar.

So whatever color I chose for the links in the posts that will also be the side bar color and the blog trim color. On Blogger I could change all three of those individually. I like the blue header verse a white header, so that will probably stay. I am still not sure what color to make the links so they show up next to the black fonts in a blog post.

The question of the day is ... does coffee taste different if you put the creamer in first or after you pour you coffee? No, I haven't lost my mind. I read that on a blog site last week when I was checking out adding heavy whipping cream to coffee instead of just CoffeeMate vanilla creamer. Then there was a blog linked in that article where someone was actually testing those two options with tea.

So does it make a difference? I can't tell.

It will be warm enough later this afternoon to take a full half mile hound walk I think. It's already up to 24° and it's not even noon yet. So this might be a two post day just because I feel  like blogging, plus I can post all of the photos I take on the walk today in a post later tonight. You cannot imagine how nice it's going to feel to have temperatures back above 32° and Saturday's temps are almost too hard to imagine.

I watched part of the live testimony from the lady at Homeland Security in front of another Congressional committee. She said at the current rate of 2019, they are on pace to have 1 MILLION illegal immigrants crossing our southern border this calendar year. I hate repeating myself but damn!!!! How much free stuff can be supplied to a million people ?????

I have to stop watching the news on tv and reading anything online AGAIN .... it pisses me off to no end about all of this crap. I'm sick about it. As long as Trump keeps focused, accomplishing what he has and wants to, I feel we will be in good shape with all that other stuff just 'distracting noise'.

One thing about pushing through a security clearence for someone working for you, I saw that happen all the time when I worked for the government. So the headline about Trump pushing staff and others to get a security clearence process for his daughter and son-in law doesn't surprise me.

Check out who Obama did that for when he was president ... then track the trail of some of those people to the Muslim Brotherhood. Then check out who they are and what they do. Another word ... to all the whiners about the Trump Administration ... STFU !!!!

Maybe I'll change that blue header to a color of forest green ... LOL

It's all good this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

No Action Monday Afternoon

I knew by lunch on Monday there wasn't going to be a lot going on around here. The light rain never stopped. I was surprised that Heidi went as far as she did, all the way to the front yard. Stella decided she wasn't getting off the concrete floor and even snuck around the Mini Cooper to go back to the door.

While Heidi was heading out front I noticed some things that all the rain did the other day and the standing water. The owner of the landscaping business told me last fall when I was buying new mulch that in some cases mulch is better than adding dirt when there is soil erosion, like I have.

It was interesting how all of that rain lifted a few inches of packed much up and away from the edge of the carport

It was good to see some green showing up in the Azalea. Due to being under the overhang but centered in the flowerbed, it doesn't get much rain and I have to water it during the summer. I might replace them with some kind of ferns this spring.

The mulch tried to float away the other day but luckily the stones kept most of it around. I still want to have a big rock delivered and placed where those two different types of stones are. It would give the ground some stability and the overflowing gutter could drop water on top of that big rock instead of these stones.

Heidi got a little running in today. She doesn't like to get wet either but she found a spot in the middle of the front yard today so she had no choice about staying dry. It was good to see her 'sprint' up the driveway back to the door to go inside, getting a little exercise during the winter.

While the light rain continued Stella stood at the edge of the concrete looking out onto the driveway but decided she was not going to get wet. It was only sprinkling like it was this morning during the walk but she wasn't doing it. About the time I said something to her, she snuck around the Mini Cooper to go back to the door.\

It wasn't long before both hounds were in their afternoon spots on the couch while I read books. That is their sleeping areas in the afternoon and night. I might have to take back what I said the other day comparing the iPhone 8+ photos with the Canon G9 X photos inside in low light. After seeing these I think the iPhone might be slightly better in capturing more details in low light.

I could tell a huge difference Monday, I never watched one minute of tv news and didn't glance at any news online. I checked ESPN of course but they seem to stick to sports news again unlike a couple of years ago.

I am writing this late Monday night and will schedule it to post early Tuesday morning. With that in mind I might get back on a schedule with posting my one post of the day at the end of the afternoon or early evening. That way I can cover all activity that day instead of overlaping days. I can surely keep the number of photos down to 30 and show a few less photos from the morning walk.

As a reminder, for those that don't have a WordPress account but want to make a comment. All you need to fill in is your name and email address, leaving the box for the website blank. Your email address is a WordPress requirement for comments but will not be used by me in any way. Also the very first comment you make I have to approve, as per the rules of Wordpress. After your first one your comments will post immediately.

I might have to get creative on Tuesday to have enough photos for the second post of the day. Rain is in the forecast again, how hard or light I don't know nor how long it will be. Sounds like another perfect day for some Mahjong games, a little reading and a short siesta.

Time flies when you have too much fun in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.