Strange Weather Strange Times

It has been a strange time since my last post. One thing that always changes besides the weather is life, sometimes with devastating news. As you will see in the photos taken over the span of time since our last post on March 15, the weather here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana has been wild and crazy. That continued this morning, but I have not gone outside yet to document the the light snow we had late last night on the 9th of April.

Over the 6 1/2 years I have blogged here the blog has changed from very personal thoughts during my RV research. Then it slowly migrated toward the hounds once I decided in June 2015 that traveling with just one bloodhound and two basset hounds would be too much to handle. At the same time I pulled in a lot of my personal thoughts or what was going on in life and just wrote about the hounds.

Some people can write about everything that is happening in their life, from traveling to depression, health issues, car issues etc. I cannot be that open on a public blog. So as many of you know or could tell over the past year or so most of the blogging has been about the hounds and less about me or what I am doing. It's just the way it is. You will have to fill in the gaps.

Even this morning I can't say if I will continue blogging or not. I am pretty sure I will no longer be blogging on a daily basis. I do know as the weather warms up my 'to do' list feels like it's a mile long and that doesn't give me a lot of computer time. I will just have to see what happens.

I will say that local tv weather experts were right in their forecasts. If they said it was going to rain non-stop for days and nights ... it did. A few times I had the feeling me might slide down the hill house and all or blow away from the strong winds. About the time the ground would be close to dry, it would snow. Dreams of spring weather were nowhere to be found and that stupid groundhog out in Pennsylvania was pretty accurate that winter would be extended this year.

Occasionally we do have some nice sunsets here. Yet, those sunsets that some of you post on your blogs out west are hard to beat. That wide open western sky is fantastic.

Not only were Sadie and Stella confused about the weather and why it was too wet or raining to take our daily walks ... this robin was also confused. The birds showed up normal time in the end of March, not knowing there was more snow on the way a week later.

Stella has been pretty good the past month as far as wondering off during our walks, then ignoring me. She has continued to stay in the general area while Sadie and I complete the walk and she actually walks slowly in our direction when I call her name as we return home.

A year ago she was skin and bones, looking sick ... this year she has gained all of her weight back, her coat is soft and thick. Maybe it's that 'natural protein' she enjoys eating.

Sadie runs whenever she gets the chance in the field. It doesn't matter how wet or saturated the ground is with the large amounts of rain we have had.

It happens every spring but rarely does it happen in March. From back in the field looking this direction you would think we have moved to lakefront property. This was taken a week or two ago, there is even more water than that right now.

The only thing that kept us sane was the bright sunny days although the temperatures were in the low 30's and the field was frozen mud. Thoughts of the town I want to move to was 40° warmer and the cost of housing is bout $40 per square foot more than where I live now. A lot of thinking and a lot of conflict again on what to do.

With less blogging I took less pictures lately. That led to some low quality photos even with the auto focus settings. We still took 1-2 hound walks per day as long as it wasn't raining or the water didn't come up over my boots as I took each step in the field. Many of those walks were with the retractable leash in hand just in case Stella decided to turn stubborn.

Stella decided one morning it was more fun to make the complete walk on her own without a leash, rather than hanging back and supplementing her diet with natural protein left by the deer. She even had a little bounce to her step so I knew she was feeling pretty good.

Many of the morning walks the past 3 weeks have had the sound of crunching frozen grass under our feet. It's just hard to wrap my brain around freezing temperatures in the month of April. I cannot say that I am thrilled about that. I am ready for warm, hot, sunny weather.

After the snow disappeared at the end of March, the robins tried one more time to set up their camp. I guess the 40°'s felt like 60° to them.

I have noticed a lot more deer traffic lately on our walks with fresh hoof prints and Sadie taking more and more trips into the wooded brush area. She spends a lot of time with her nose to the ground and running from spot to spot.

As she turns 10 years old in June I think I am seeing a little more gray hair around that black nose of hers.

Stella is always in deep thought.

After almost two months of Dish Network I can say that I am pretty happy with the change in satellite tv service. Of course like anything else, there are some things I don't like as much as I move around their menu with my remote and other things I like better than Directv. I continue to get the mail from Directv every week telling me to come back with some pretty interesting offers.

They are now willing to give me the same programming that was going to cost me $99.99 per month for $19.99 per month for the next 2 years ... plus ... throw in a $300 gift visa card. Yes, you read that correctly NINETEEN DOLLARS per month.

Here is Stella on March 22nd trying to figure out what happened to her green yard she was in the day before. Not a lot of snow but just weird ... I was mowing my yard a few times a week this time last year.

The only one not confused around here abut the weather or life in general is Heidi. She knows what is going on outside and she wants no part of it. She might do a lap around the house after her lunch but as far as checking out the rain, the snow or high winds ... not going to happen.

Consequently with all the bad weather the past 25 days ... the hounds do a lot of this.

The light snow covering the ground this morning is already disappearing as I write this. I'll be mowing parts of the yard this Thursday as the temps move into the mid 70's for a couple of days and then drop back into the 40's a good 15° - 20° blow average temps for the month of April.

You will notice the comments section is open again.

Basically the hounds and I are doing okay, taking one day at a time here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Vote To Keep Same Blog Theme

It's been a couple of days since I mentioned the idea about changing this blog's theme (template) to one of the new Blogger themes they recently announced.

They are all nice and well designed. It was like the people that designed them took a leave of absence from Wordpress and contracted out some work for Blogger. That is not true about leaving Wordpress, I am only using that as an example to show how similar they are with Wordpress templates.

Even with my nightly consumption of NCAA College Basketball Thursdays thru Sunday night ... I still have had time to look at the new themes, to changed their fonts, colors, add gadgets and see what this blog would look like with the new designs.

Off topic ... We saw our first Robin of the year this morning. I was surprised that Sadie did not chase after it when she glanced over. Also last night while I was sitting on the couch watching the first basketball game, a male Cardinal was sitting just outside the window, looking inside to see how I was doing. I didn't have a camera around to take a picture of him but I hope to see him again soon.

One of the reasons I was thinking about changing themes, was the option they had where the main page of the blog, lists a list of posts in order, each with a short summary and a "read more" link. I cannot be sure but it might cut down on the amount of data used when someone opens the blog. It also might load faster on your phone or tablets.

Sadie was running back to the house when I yelled 'coffee'. That keyword seems to work and they will both head back to the house when I say that. She ran within 15' of the Robin and never changed course ... interesting since she is a qualified bird chaser.

All the new themes had a lot of nice features. If I were starting a new blog I would probably use one of them. After uploading everything this blog has into the new blog I set up so I could look at different themes ... I came to the conclusion this morning around 3:00 am that I didn't see anything that would make me want to change. There were always one or two things I didn't like about the new design.

It's always a possibility later but a lot of the things I see readers using here would be different and harder to find on the new themes. Those things on the sidebars that did show up okay on the new themes, did not look as good since I was changing the default design of the blog.

The hounds were more than happy to keep their blog the way it was. Although they were more interested in getting their first walk of the day. A small chance of rain around mid-afternoon but at least it was 65° when we stepped outside. I don't mind the overcast skies as long as it is warm.

I had decided before starting this walk that I was going to give Stella total freedom. I wanted to see what she would do, with hopes that she would keep up with me and Sadie.

Back to the blog topic, I am going to keep it to one blog post per page. A few people have told me it uses less data with only one post per page instead of multiple posts. I am sure the number of pictures I include is a factor in data usage.

For the few people that have told me they like the option of showing multiple posts with a 'read more' option like the Wordpress blogs have, I guess I can only suggest looking on the right sidebar under the listed Blog Archives to read past blog posts. That would be the only options for those readers that do not stop by every day and might miss past posts of the week or month. Also the daily readers might find that to work okay. I hope so.

I was pretty sure when I took this next picture that Stella was telling me 'thanks but no thanks' and that she had other plans today on the walk. Sadie and I turned the first corner ... I hoped that Stella would not end up back in the neighbor's drainage ditch.

As we walked the sounds of all the different birds talking was loud. It was like they had came from nowhere since the weather was warmer. The sounds did not bother Sadie, as usual she had plenty of scents to check out.

As I turned and did not see Stella, I picked my pace up. I was anxious to get to the final turn of the walk since I was pretty sure Stella was going to end up next door. She might be near the wooded area but also their drainage ditch was a possibility. Sadie lagged behind a little and then sprinted to me as she normally does.

After I made that final turn I didn't see Stella anywhere on the horizon while I looked through my zoom lens set at 200mm. I did not see her anywhere. I was sure she was back in either the neighbor's backyard or down in the drainage ditch again. I didn't run but I was now walking as fast as I could.

Then while scanning the horizon I picked up something kind of rust color ... it moved ... she was near the woods but on the opposite side of them, a distance furthest from my house.

When I yelled her name, she did her normal stare right at me and then went back to what she was doing. One funny thing in his picture and the one above ... the brick house looks like it is so close to the white house but is actually down the hill and across the highway a good distance away.

As I walked calling her name and getting closer ... Stella turned and started her slow walk to Sadie and I. She looked about as sad as a hound could/can look ... almost like she had lost her best friend. What I wouldn't do to know what she is thinking when she looks like that.

Sadie made her mad dash to Stella, touched noses, turned and got her to trot toward us on the path. That didn't mean that Stella was going to increase her walking pace ... it just meant she was on the path home.

There is always something to check out before they get home. They never run out of scents to smell.

At least Stella continued walking non-stop after Sadie and I returned home. She wasn't fast but she was steady.

With my first game not starting until 6pm tonight and with the skies overcast I am going to pull out the ladder and get up on my roof to check the gutters and pick up the small limbs that have blown on the roof. I'll take my camera with me and try to post some rooftop shots later this afternoon or on tomorrows blog post. I always enjoy sitting on the roof to get a different view of the neighborhood.

I have quite a few new limbs to pick up in the yard also ... so after their lunch  of kibble, all three hounds and I will be spending most of the day outside enjoying the nice weather ... unless that rain shows up. So far Heidi is still in her winter routine, not realizing how warm it is outside.

If you have read this far ... I posted all of these pictures today without any editing. Can you see any differences?

My internal clock must have calibrated itself last night because it feels like a Saturday here in 'the tropics' today of southern Indiana.

Hounds Survive Last Night's Hail

That beautiful morning I posted about yesterday slowly started turning toward the forecast. Stella, Sadie and I decided to go out to check the sky one last time late yesterday afternoon. You could 'feel' that rain was on the way.

Even Stella could smell rain was on the way. I was told when I got her that she was afraid of thunder. So far in the previous storms I haven't see any freaked out fear, just a little slow pacing.

She came and got me a little after 7pm. It was really dark outside and the storm had started. We were getting pounded with small rock size hail. I grabbed the camera to take some photos of how white the yard was becoming with hail ... battery light was flashing and no photos were taken. It didn't last long but it was strong storm.

This morning, the air was clean, the robins were singing their musical and the hounds cautiously checked out the yard and field for any damage or new scents. The sun was trying it's best to poke through the gray clouds.

We went back inside as usual. I needed breakfast and coffee, the hounds needed their nap. A few hours later it was back outside and it's the normal time for the first walk of the day but not today ... the ground is saturated with some water still standing. Sadie forgot her bone was left in the yard from the other day. It was spotlessly cleaned by the rain ... she decided it was time for some Monday morning fetching.

Remember that Stella doesn't like to play fetch and she hadn't wrestled in a while. Sadie was more interested in fetching not getting mauled by Stella ... they both lost interest in what the other wanted to do and went their separate ways.

The robins were out in full force this morning. The morning was filled with their music. They all sounded pretty happy to me and I was surprised that when they did their low level flyby's, Sadie did not chase them like she normally does. She was still more interested in her clean bone.

While I was walking around taking photos of the robins, Stella decided to sneak off. No doubt looking for new food sources. Yet, she came running when I called her. She knows that tether can be installed anytime I guess and enjoys her freedom instead.

Sadie in the meantime contemplates what she plans to do for today and this week. MLB starts in 7 days, she likes baseball.

A few off topic notes --

• 2 of the 4 college basketball teams playing this weekend in the NCAA's Final 4 are being investigated or have been punished for academic fraud within their basketball teams. The NCAA is a huge profit making machine with billions of dollars in revenue yet has a 'non profit organization' tax status. How corrupt can that be?

• I would prefer to use Firefox as my default browser but with all the built in security measures, it doesn't open websites correctly at times. Safari is faster today after the latest update last week but it has the same problem with opening websites correctly ... like my blogs. So I stick with Google Chrome, which is fast, and opens all websites without any issues.

• Can you believe it is only a couple of days from April? That seemed to be a pretty fast winter ... one where I saved a lot of electrical usage that will equate to my May bill being paid with the credit built plus a check for a refund of overpayment. I am on the monthly plan paying the same amount every month based on previous year's average and then settling up on the annual month of May.

• 19 years ago last week I moved into this house. I've never lived anywhere this long. I had only two basset hounds at the time, my first ever named Harry and another basset named Maggie. Both bought as 8 week old puppies and great bassets. I'll have to do some posts about each of them in the future. 

• Is anyone else not voting this year because there is not one presidential candidate to like? That is all I am going to say about politics on this blog. At this time I don't think I am voting this November.

• For a sports addict, I am about to move from a winter of basketball into a summer of major league baseball. Daily routines will remain the same. Life is rough being retired.

Not intending to but by looking through Facebook photos of the person that gave me Stella last August, I saw the name of her original owner off to the side of one of the photos where she had either commented or liked it. Her name was listed on the vet records that were given to me. I contacted her on Facebook thinking she might like to see that Stella was doing well with her bloodhound friend Sadie. She was happy that I contacted her and was happy to see her updated photos. Facebook and the internet make it a very small world we live in.

I have some errands to run today. Stella will get her chance to improve on her separation anxiety. She is on a 'hot streak' where there has not been any damage on my recent 'escapes' from the house. No matter what, she is still a great bloodhound. She will never get in trouble for what she does.

It's still trying to become sunny here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.