Sadie Drags Me Out Into The Cold & Rain

I knew if I did not decide to take this early morning walk, then Sadie would not leave the doorway to my computer room and would keep staring at me for hours on end. We woke up to rain, earlier than normal and dark inside the house. I felt energized and didn't hesitate in starting the day a few minutes after 7am. When it's cold and rainy outside, is there anything better to do with a hot cup of coffee and a brain full of words to type ... than to blog?

Quite a difference from yesterday when I spoke about my mind being a black hole and finding it hard to put any words to print. Was it the early morning starting time? Hot coffee? Or the 7 hours of good sleep? I'm not sure but I found I was doing things without a lot of thought or analysis.

The hounds didn't think or analyze .... they hit that field and took off running.

Another thing I didn't put a lot of thought into was what I was going to wear in 33° weather and light rain. The weather radar looked clear at the moment but it had been raining the first two hours we were up. I didn't hesitate to grab my Columbia winter parka today and putting on my snow boots that have been doubling as my rain boots.  I wanted to stay warm and dry and didn't care it was only November 1st.

When I started the walk I knew for sure what I was wearing was perfect for this weather. I was not only warm but dry as I started hearing drops of rain hitting my parka. It was strange to me that as dreary the day looked, I felt as good as I do when it's a hot sunny summer day. Why the change in moods.

Sadie had already disappeared around the first turn. Stella was trotting to catch up with her and I was pretty sure they both would end up where they were yesterday. With the rain becoming harder I wasn't going to let Stella hang back today. We had to make this walk fairly fast in case it started to pour.

I was right. As I made that first turn they were there in the same spot as yesterday.

I kept walking and kept repeating "let's go" and was actually getting some kind of response from both of them. So it did not surprise me to see Sadie run up along the right side of me. I was even more shocked to see Stella right behind me as I turned to see where she was.

I probably have too many blurry pictures today but in a way it catches the hounds as they are running, sometimes faster than the auto focus on my camera can bring them into view.

The rain was light but loud against my parka sleeves. When you are dry and warm it really doesn't matter how much it rains. The hounds didn't mind getting wet nor did I.

It looked like Stella might decide to stay in the field all day unless I called her name. She wasn't fast but she slowly walked toward us and eventually caught Sadie and I.

Once Sadie tapped noses with Stella, they both took off in a trot heading home.

Just because we get close to the yard doesn't mean the walk is over. If either hound finds something interesting to check out further they will and it doesn't matter how hard it is raining. The little color of the leaves are gone today. The leaves have fallen but plenty are still on the trees. They will keep me busy raking them, or blowing them, or leaving them. (greg's suggestion)

Stella gave me a look as if she was telling me "yes, I know it's raining ... but" she follows her own pace as usual.

It's an old parka but it still works. It has survived heavy snow, hard rains in all kinds of single digit temperatures. Why upgrade?

I was able to do some software updates this morning before 8am. That puts me in the range of using my extra 50Gb of free data I get. I did not plan to use a lot of data today because I am very close to using all of my monthly 20gigs that I pay for. I had gone back to Google Chrome a few days ago and once again .... it nailed me with an unexpected update with Google Chrome Helper running in the background, an update you can no longer change from automatic to manual.

Just in a blink of an eye 386Mb zipped through my available data just like that. For those of you that have unlimited data that doesn't sound like much but when you pay for only 20Gb per month that is about half of your daily data budget. It didn't take me long to export my Google bookmarks to my desktop and then open Safari and import all of my updated bookmarks, using Safari again as my default browser.

Is it hard to believe it's already November 1st, it seems that summer was just here a few weeks ago.

In my post yesterday Greg suggested a new invention of "Castor Oil for Writers". Maybe that is why I feel in the mood to write.

I had an insurance adjuster show up yesterday to take a look at the damage under my Z4. He pulled out his new iPhone 8 to take photos under the car. I offered to jack up the front of the car for easier access but he didn't mind crawling on my freezing concrete floor to check out the damage. Being a fellow IU football fan we both agreed just how frustrating it was to follow IU football year after year with below average results.

I'll get an itemized list of for the repair estimate. My friend tells me that he has had great experiences with USAA insurance when a claim is filed.

I've added a couple of old blogs I use to follow on the left sidebar. I am probably back to my original list of bloggers for you to take a look at if you want. There are some that have great photography of where they are or have been. Everyone seems to be in a different place in the USA or Canada and that's what makes it interesting when reading their updated posts.

A few of you have asked where is Heidi, if she's okay ... she is, buried deep inside 'her' Marmot sleeping bag and isn't enthused to have her picture taking. She has officially declared winter is her for her. I have a surprise for her on Sunday ... it's suppose to be above 70°

The World Series will end after tonight with Game 7. If you are a baseball fan, no matter who your favorite team is, you have to admit it's been an exciting World Series ... although I am not a fan of the 'juiced' baseball ... I prefer pitching duels with games like 2-0 or 3-1 instead of 13-12 with similarities to playing MLB on PlayStation 4.

Sometimes I will turn on the tv to sports talk shows. It will be on in the background but a lot of times those shows don't last long before I turn off the tv. Why does every show in sports or news turn into having loud arguing with each other ... even if they were hired to present different points of view. Yelling and arguing does not improve viewership as ESPN has found out the last year or two, more layoffs to occur.

There were other things I was going to 'ramble' about in this post but they have evaporated in my mind ... I can't remember anymore stuff to write about.

With it raining again there will not be much planned for today besides the usual ... some internet surfing, games of Mahjong, some reading and a possible siesta ... speaking of ... maybe it was that 5 hour siesta I had yesterday afternoon that made me feel so much better today. It could have lasted longer and into the the baseball game, but the phone ringing woke me up just in time.

With Sadie and Stella wrestling inside, it's a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Boring Rainy Day Turned Exciting

The predicted rain started last night and I could hear it throughout the night with the windows open. It did not even stop long enough for the hounds to take their morning trip outside while I poured out their morning kibble. Sadie made it out the yard but Stella nor Heidi were going to out in the rain to pee ... so they stood in the carport waiting until I was finished, normal routine.

Consequently it had been a pretty slow day being cooped up inside. Once the temperatures dropped to 51° I walked around and changed the storm windows from screens on the lower half to winter windows. Nothing in the 10-day forecast shows we will return to temps warm enough to open the windows. After checking the weather radar all day, trying to find an opening in the rain ... we found a gap so that we could take our first and probably only hound walk at 2:30pm.

I had already changed to jeans, a sweatshirt and a rain jacket over that for the walk. It was going to be close if we could do a complete walk and get back to the house before it started raining again. Both hounds were happy to get outside but Heidi saw that afternoon temperature and once again said 'no way'. I look for her to go out tonight at the same time she always goes out after dark.

It wasn't cold, I didn't smell any smoke in the air like the last few days. Plus the rain had not really been that heavy but it had been a light steady non-stop rain. I am wondering how late into the fall will I mow the lawn for the last time.

Stella was showing more energy than normal with a bounce to her step from the time she left the house. While I was catching up on my taped tv shows last night, she snuck away into the kitchen. Standing on her rear feet and looking over the kitchen island, she was able to pluck out my last mango out of the fruit bowl and ate everything except the large seed ... skin and all.

How did I know?

As she came back into the living room like nothing happened, thinking she would climb up on the couch on the other side of Heidi while I was watching tv ... I noticed some mango residue hanging from her jowls. A dead giveaway ... she was caught just after the act again. That is what I get for letting the mango sit for a few more days to ripen I guess.

So today we played around the computer for most of the day. My iPhone told me I needed to update my iTunes but my App Store on my iMac showed I had already did the update and the download. With my iPhone using my wifi connection to save some Verizon data I couldn't find out how large the file was ... so it started downloading and installing. You never want to stop those until they are finished ... but my Activity Monitor was clicking off data faster than I could even imagine.

iTunes update finally stopped at 2.3Gb but so far my HughesNet is not showing that much data being used. I have come to the conclusion there are very few ways a person can control their data usage anymore. All  companies that provide internet service know we are addicted and knew we will pay for more data if needed. I still think that HughesNet uses more date per day than the Exede service I was using the previous two years. By my calculations while I do basically the same type of internet surfing, HughesNet has me using about 300Mb more per day than I did with Exede.

What was a slow dragging day turned into some fast excitement while I was editing photos for this blog. The hounds didn't bark but did get up from their naps. I thought I heard knocking at the front door. That's a sign that a lost stranger is at the door because all people that know me always come to the door in the carport since that is the door we use the most.

Once I confirmed a stranger (door to door salesman) was on the front porch with the 'getaway' van parked in the driveway running ... my adrenaline increased as I move into 'game mode' ... have I ever told you how much I hate unsolicited salesmen?

As I walked through the carport around the Z4 to see who was at the door, the 'getaway' driver waved at me with his window rolled down. My pulse rate increased even more ... LOL ... I was going to have some fun as I usually do.

He had the same sales approach as the Satellite TV/Internet rep did a couple of years ago ... but he was talking so fast I really couldn't understand him ... so I let him ramble until he had to stop to breath ... then I CALMLY asked him "what the (*&#!*&&*$#@ do you want?

He made the first mistake for a sales rep, man or woman, ... he didn't listen, didn't answer my rude foul question ... he proceeded to talk just as fast as he was before following his well practiced script. At the same time he was handing me a large container of Comet. Did he think that would confuse me with a free can, worth about $2.49 at Walmart along with his fast talking.

Well ... it did !!!! I mean how many times to you get handed a large can of Comet? I can't even remember the last time I ever used it, in fact I don't think I have at least in 20 years !!!

I still have no idea what he was trying to sell me or what he wanted. He did ask me what I would use the Comet for ... my honest answer was "not a damn thing" !!!!

That answer did not even phase him. As he continued to mumble into the next phase of his sales pitch, one that he had practiced so many times before 'hitting the streets' ... I could tell he was on a mission to make this sale, after all I had a pulse, I had answered his question ... there was hope for success. For some reason he started trotting sideways down the lawn toward the back of his van as I stood there with my free (I thought) can of Comet, a $2.49 value at Walmart.

I still has ZERO IDEA what he had said or was trying to sell me !!!!

He was still mumbling something I couldn't understand as he approached the van parked half way down the driveway about 50' away from me. I yelled that I had things to do and started walking back to the door to go inside. I THINK he was yelling for me to give him MY FREE can of Comet back ... at least I thought that is what I heard .... so .... I tossed it to him from my front carport door step .... flying end over low enough to clear the roof overhang .... but I knew it was going to fall short and not reach him.

I didn't want to hurt him with a 95mph football pass so I tossed it underhand ... the last thing I saw as I opened the door was that free can of Comet hitting the wet grass, kicking up a divot from my yard, and a small chunk of yard attached to the can of Comet.

Some may think that is not nice of me ... but all is fair in war and door to door salesmen that don't listen to their potential customer.  LOL

How did he or they decide to pick my house? All of my 3 neighbors are home with trucks in their driveway ... yet as I glanced out of my large kitchen window I saw 'that van' heading south bypassing my next-door neighbor that happened to be standing by his mailbox rescuing his mail before the next rain. The van didn't even honk as they flew by him.

So any guesses what they were trying to sell me? A free container of Comet was mine to keep if I would have just signed some paperwork. I let him approach the carport from the front door because I thought he was going to try to sell me whatever satellite tv service that I did not have, which in my case they would give me the best deal on earth to switch to DishNetwork. It wasn't that.

Looking back on the experience I probably should have let the bloodhounds have all the fun. They wanted out the door bad when I opened it to walk outside. With any bloodhound, excitement brings drool, excitement of seeing people brings them close so they can figure out who they are. How would he have felt seeing two large dogs running at him with 'Gorilla Glue' type drool flying from each of their jowls with each jogging step? It's probably best that I kept them inside to prevent any chances of being sued by a scared sales rep.

As you can see in the last 24 hours the trees continued to change colors.

I guess I will have to 'google' and find out what is being sold by door to door sales reps offering free cans of Comet.

The hounds are snoring. No baseball games tonight. There is a NFL game where I have little interest in either team playing. Sounds like a good night to watch a movie or two and hope we don't have to turn on the heat.

Never a dull moment in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It's Almost Too Quiet Today

Living on a hill a hundred feet from a major highway you get use to the traffic noise after residing here for 20 years. It's not evident until Sunday mornings, where it is so quiet around here that you could hear a pin drop. This morning was one of those days with a light rain mixed in.


As I was standing at the corner of the house taking my daily "2nd picture", I felt some light rain. With a forecast of a good chance of off and on rain throughout the day, increasing tonight, I knew our chances for three walks today might be slim. Sadie thought otherwise.

As soon as she saw that I had gone into the house to grab my light rain jacket, she was more than excited that we were going to take the chance of getting wet on this walk. The weather radar was solid with colors signifying rain. She went immediately into the tracking mode and followed the same deer scent along the tree line as she did Saturday morning.

Both of them were not into any kind of eating 'stuff' this morning, just Sadie inhaling deep enough with her nose pressed to the ground. I could hear her jowls move as she gathered all the information she could about who and what had been in 'her' field while we were sleeping.

Stella on the other hand didn't have time for any kind of work. She was into a casual morning stroll like she didn't have a care in the world.

Yet, Sadie was more intense than ever, collecting all of the information left by the scents her nose was picking up. When she has her ears out sideways from running to the next spot, you know she has too much work and not enough time to finish it.

Still, Stella was having none of the high intensity that Sadie was showing. She will and would walk at her own slow pace. When I mentioned the possibility of rain and we needed to get home ... she walked even slower.

She then decided that she would let me know that she was still in charge of this walk, by lagging behind and ignoring anything that sounded like me calling her.

To give you an idea how different the weather is this morning, not even the enhancement button could help this photo in lighting it up or making the sky blue again. The butterflies were gone this morning so the mosquitoes moved back into town. After three quick unexpected bites, I remembered my new can of repellant sitting back at home.

These rolls of hay told me a story this morning, showing that I really am aging through all my denials. It's why you see old men wearing their ball caps crooked ... because they feel like they are on straight. I notice that sometimes with mine if I look in the rearview mirror before driving.

Lately when I edit my photos I notice that things are not straight as they should be. Luckily in the cropping section of Apple Photos, you can turn a photo any direction to make them straight. These rolls of hay helped me straighten the picture out and remind me that my balance is a little off today. I'll not tell you just how much that editing adjustment was.

As I continued to walk home with not a drop of rain anywhere, the hounds lagged behind enjoying all the scents this field gives them. Bloodhounds can smell scent up to two weeks old, even in water. I always wonder what their noses tell them with 7 acres of wild stuff growing, deer traffic, and a cat or two.

I didn't have to bribe them this morning with a treat when they got back home. They seemed to be finished with their exploring for this morning and could feel it was time for their daily morning siesta.

Who would have ever thought those pretty white flowers really are weeds, and not good weeds either. While looking up their pictures on Google Images this morning, I clicked the button "view page" and ran into a blog named Dave's Garden writing about "weeds in my lawn". He has the same problem I do with moles and weeds in his yard because we both live next to a field.

Who would have ever thought something as pretty as this could have such an ugly but factual writeup. I guess I will NOT dig some of them up and plant them in my flower beds but then again if their seeds are viable for decades and they will fold around a fence or other plants ... maybe they would be good to hide my old cast iron railings in front of the carport.

Here is what he said about what I call "that white flower":

“The prettiest, but most annoying weed is the Convolvulus arvensis also called Field Bindweed or Swallowtail's Dress, as we call it in Romania. It chokes the plants and is one of the most invasive species. I am pulling out thousands of Field Bindweeds, not to mention how many times I have to unfold them from the fence or from my plants. The roots are deep, but sometimes they come out easily; still they have rhizomes which produce more sprouts. I've found out that their seeds are viable for decades and only one plant can produce 500 seeds."

Don't feel sorry for Sadie and Stella by the looks on their faces. They sniff their way all the way to the house, on EVERY walk. They walk into the house quietly not wanting to wake up Heidi after EVERY walk in the morning. Sadie jumps in her big leather chair with the ottoman to sleep and Stella lays down behind my computer desk chair so close that I can barely roll the chair back enough to sit down.

They will sleep almost to lunch time. If lunch is not served on time, Heidi will start barking and that leads Stella to howling or vise versa. Sadie does not bark or howl but stands right in front of the food container waiting me to pour kibble into their bowls.

I am about to post this and with the windows open I can hear how wet the highway is by passing cars and trucks. There still isn't much traffic as most people are in church. They have a lot of churches in this small rural town and almost as many bars ... I guess you have to even life out someway.

To long time readers this will come as no surprise. To new readers I might let you in on a secret ... I change my mind a lot. I don't have a lot of history on this blog to show that and back up the facts but long time readers can attest it's true.

So as I turned on my computer this morning and as always Google shows me 12 websites that I go to often, the small picture icon of this blog was one of the 12. Here is the problem ... I liked the way the blog looked in that picture better than my current blog home page.

Yet, that other one had all the links of information in the Footer of the blog and not on the Sidebar as it is now. I need to find a template (WordPress Theme) that has the look of the other one I used on Friday with the Sidebar I have today. With a day of rain in the forecast what better time than to look through templates again, using all of my data left with 4 days to go on my billing cycle ... and find a template that I like.

Luckily I have listed those I previewed and added an asterisk or a number of them to the ones I liked. It also occurred to me this morning when looking at my categories, I had nothing written here about the "Other Stuff" part of the blog. All of that history is on my old blog.

I could import all the posts and photos to this blog from the 6 year old blog on Blogger but the last time I tried that a year or so ago, there were a lot of issues between the different blog platforms. Blogger and WordPress don't play well together.

I'm okay with starting over, with what I consider a new blog. As I write about that "Other Stuff", categories will be added. But right now it's time for just one more cup of coffee and back to looking at templates.

(note: I know I shouldn't start a sentence with the word "But" and I also know I should place the period or question marks inside quotation marks) ... but to all the grammar police and spelling bee champions out there, I like starting a sentence that way and putting periods outside of quotation marks ... plus the spelling here will be only as good as the WordPress spellchecker. I am not a professional writer so you might find a mistake here and there when I write.

Yet, even on rainy days, its great living in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.