Even though it will be in the high 50's by late afternoon that does not meat that Heidi is changing her recent routine. She is outside first thing in the morning with the bloodhounds while I pour the breakfast kibble. As soon as she eats its back to 'her' sleeping bag and she will stay there most of the morning until lunch is served around 11am, adjusted for DST. Her routine will not change much this winter.
It's hard to believe by this afternoon I'll be hand washing my car along with changing the oil filter. Yes, I found the correct tool ... not online but at O'Reilly's Auto Parts just 12 miles away and open on Sundays. I decided to do more research online for the correct tool that would remove the cap to the oil filter. The Z4 has a different type of oil filter where the filter itself slips into a permanent casing on the engine. So removing the cap on top was the tool I needed.
Many of the online auto parts stores agreed their part would fit my 2003 BMW Z4 3.0i, but they were showing the same incorrect part that I was shipped twice and was the wrong one. The diameter was too small and would not slide down over the 86mm cap. Only by a description for that part on Amazon noted it would not fit the Z4 but if you needed that part to click here. I clicked the link to find my answer.
Since Amazon also lists other sources for the product you are looking for, there was a picture for a 36mm socket that would fit over the nut on top of the cap that is built into the cap. A quick phone call to O'Reilly's, speaking to someone finally that 'knew' cars ... he confirmed not only would that part work on my car but had one on the shelf for $9.99. I drove right over and bought the part, after checking to see if it would fit in their parking lot. When I got home I let the engine cool while I watched the Colts blow another 4th quarter lead and then used the new tool to loosen the oil filter cap.
Sadie seems to be getting more demanding (by staring) as she gets older for the times she wants to go on a walk. That is a minimum of 2x per day and most of the time 3x per day. She and Stella was go outside for short roaming trips around the yard or the front of the field near the yard, in-between those walks. So this morning she is sitting in the doorway staring me down for the first walk at a little past 8am. My first cup of coffee had not been consumed yet, so the earth's rotation had not started in my world.
She waited.
The temperature was great for an early Monday morning walk. Stella let me know soon into the walk that she was on her own schedule as was Sadie. I kept walking with my camera ready for any action shots. There wasn't a lot of action this morning but it was a good walk.
I wrote about it on my other blog yesterday how Sadie and I changed our path for the afternoon walk. Stella was left behind just like this morning but I heard the neighbor mowing his yard for the last time this year. I thought that mower would entice her to check him out to see if he needed any help and I didn't want her tempted in leaving the field. So Sadie and I cut our walk off before the first turn and walked toward the corner of the woods behind the neighbor's house to wait on Stella to migrate over to us.
If she would follow her past trips while Sadie and I walked up ahead ... if we stood there a while, Stella would eventually show up by walking right to us with her nose to the ground. She didn't disappoint us and that decision worked out well. By that time the neighbor was in his part of the yard that borders the field.
This morning Sadie and I moved on. She didn't hardly raise her head today as she explored the edge of the field. She was walking a constant pace as these photos were taken.
As I walked along the back edge of the field I saw a shadow moving up behind me at a rapid rate. Sadie was sprinting by me and then put her nose back to the ground to collect more information about who, when and what had been in 'her' field while she slept.
As I looked at the horizon I did not see Stella anywhere. She blends in well amongst the dead light brown hay.
In times like these I always ask Sadie "where's Stella" ... she will always stop what she is doing, scan the air with her nose and then take off running in Stella's direction.
It was not until Sadie was almost to Stella did I see her through the lens.
Once the job of locating her is over, Sadie moves to her own exploring.
Even with Stella within 5' of the path I am walking, she will not come when called, ignores me and then slowly walks to the yard on her own time. She has taught me how to have patience in the short 27 months I've had her.
She has another walk in the books, another new week starting and a new 40# bag of kibble to be opened for lunch. Life is good in her eyes.
After our morning hound walk yesterday I took the Z4 out on my 42 mile loop through the country side. It has country highways along with a state highway where you can see forever and a good spot to do a high speed run. I wanted to push the limits on my newly installed grille and that was the highway to try it on. Luckily there is plenty of clear space where I can see if any State Patrol cars are parked on the side of the road with their radar locked in on me.
I got home, laid down in front of the car and checked every piece I installed last week. Everything was tight and that's a good sign. I even had a few rough spots on the country highway that I went over doing 60mph. So the new installed parts have a little over a 100 miles on them and everything seems to be okay.
As Sunday moved on I kept feeling better after my short intense sickness. I knew I was back to normal late last night as I decided to change all of my spreadsheets back to Microsoft Excel from Apple Numbers. It was just a few months ago that I moved them from Excel to Numbers.
Why the change??
It's that time of year where I make new sheets for the upcoming year (2018). For those that don't know, I love spreadsheets, just short of the line of addiction. I've had these personal spreadsheets for at least 19 years, all the way back where Lotus 1,2,3 was THE spreadsheet software to use. So why the change? I was setting up new ones for the new year in advance. When I started inserting simple charts and adding their data source Apple Numbers was too long to do and too confusing.
I had to Google to find ways of setting up the data sources for the charts so I was already spending more time than I wanted and I still could not figure out how to do it. I tired copying the Numbers 2017 sheet and pasting it for 2018 but that did not work like it does on Excel.
In the amount of time I spent looking for answers online, I converted 24 spreadsheets back to Excel and set up data sources with a click of the mouse, or in my case a tap on my mouse pad. I found the few short months I used Numbers there are things that I like where one program uses it but the other doesn't ... yet overall I like Excel. Since my spreadsheets never leave my computer, sent to anyone via mail or messages, I am still using the Microsoft Office for Macs 2011.
Microsoft announced last summer they would stop supporting that version with updates "leading the sheep" to buy their 2016 or newer versions. I'm not going to do that since I only use Excel for very simple designed spreadsheets only on my computer.
Social Media was in action last night and may have set history outside the Presidential Election last year. The University of Tennessee was about to announce their new football coach on Sunday night when Vol fans caught the information online about who was being hired ... a Twitter storm erupted. Even state congressmen got involved. Long story short ... by the end of Sunday night the university let the coach and his reps know they had changed their mind and the offer to be their head football coach was being rescinded.
When I look at my iPhone weather app it is showing temps in the mid to high 50's for the next week. I'll take it without complaint.
Could be 3 walks today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana and that could mean another post sometime later this afternoon right after another Z4 drive.