Good Weather Brings Motivation

As you can tell we have been motivated since our last post. The sunshine has been out every day, cool 50s at night and no higher than 82 during the day. With that kind of weather a lot has been getting done. Not all work but a little fun on Wednesday afternoon. The yard is so dry that I bought a water sprinkler and started watering the backyard a few weeks ago. I decided to pay money for more water use to save my yard. That has worked out well.

Stella Played Like A Puppy Today

After seeing them in this position for hours at a time last night you would have never expected the energy I saw from Stella this morning. Things she had not done weeks and months if you don't count the couple of minutes two weeks ago. My energy seems to be slipping this year on these football marathons I partake in every Saturday. I am catching myself wanting to turn off the TV and sleep by midnight with some games having another hour or longer to go. I am out of shape this year for my 14 hour marathons. Or it might be game related, who is playing who.

Sometimes when there are too many games I want to watch but are being played at the same time. I have this option. Sometimes I will only watch two games at once but if it's my two favorite teams playing I leave this four game set as 'last channel', then pick one for the large screen ... click 'last channel' during the commercials of the game I am watching. During this, the hounds may jump off the couch to stretch but right back on so they other hound does not take their place.

It might be only September 30th but I remember it was almost too cold for a sweatshirt and cargo shorts yesterday on the morning walk, so this morning I wore my GoLight jacket with cargo shorts. There was a hidden advantage I found out later besides keeping warm. With the jacket zipped up over my neck and my arms covered by sleeves ... the large number of mosquitoes could only attack my face, ears and bite me through my ball cap. It was basically a mosquitoless summer but the past few weeks they are making up for lost time.

Stella started the walk as usual with some fresh wet grass to eat. I kept walking. I wanted to see if she would follow me today without any 'come on' verbals from me or try to wander off.

A shock to me as I turned around to see what she was doing. She wasn't trotting toward me but running ... that was a huge and good surprise.

Not slowing down she ran me off the path and kept going to get out in front of me.

The next surprise, she started tracking things all over the field, moving from one side of the path to the other. Sometimes she would trot or gallop from spot to spot. What had gotten into her?

I continued to walk, glancing back occasionally to see where she was or what she was doing.

Once again I barely caught her with the camera ... running ... at me, not the slow trot that I use to think of as some sign of improvement since it's been over a year since she has sprinted. Plus she can no longer jump up in the back of the FJ like she use to do.

Just like before she ran right past me and moved out in front of me ... while the mosquitoes were flying in formation around my head, face and ears.

Between her annual vet visit in July and getting weighed last Wednesday before her surgery, she had gained one pound and was back to 80 pounds. So much different than the spring of 2017 where she was so thin I had a blood workup done on her because she was all skin and bones with ribs showing.

As you can see it's going to be another beautiful day. The high temp for today is 80° with the windows open and a slight breeze coming through the house to keep it the right temperature. This is a great time of year here. Soon all of those green leaves should be changing color.

I did the full 200mm zoom to find her on the path heading home. She wasn't paying attention to me today.

While she spent the last 30 feet in the field sniffing I kept walking to get ahead of her for some photos. As I stood there waiting in the shade, she raised her head to see where I was and started running to the yard. It was more of a gallop than a sprint but at least it is faster than a trot.

Sorry I don't have photos of her playing. I tried with one hand while playing with her but the three photos I took were too blurred to make out what was going on. It started with her running up to me, stopping and staring at me. That was something she had never done at the end of the walk. So I faked her like I was going to run or jab a step around her. She lowered onto her front paws wagging her tail, then took off running away a few steps only to run back to me.

She wanted me to chase her, which I did. Running all different directions, we did this for a few minutes nonstop. I cannot describe how good it was to see her like that.

She trotted toward the house only to stop, and turn to see if I was coming or still wanting to play. Once she saw me walking toward her she ran around the corner of the house and was standing at the door wagging her tail to be let inside.

After every morning walk I am not the only one with wet feet and wet legs. Sadie never cared and never took time to dry herself off. I had to do it with a towel. Stella is different where she will spend whatever time it takes to lick and dry her legs, her paws and between her toes. She will not stop until she is finished ... unless she hears or smells that I cam cooking breakfast.

When it's 57° at 9:30am and every window in the house is open ... Heidi knows there is only one place to sleep while Stella and I take a walk ... on the sleeping bag. It's hard to believe that summer seems to be officially over.

I have had two 'senior moments' recently and one as recent as this morning. They could be too embarrassing I guess to post on a public blog but they are too funny not to mention.

Last weekend during my ballgame watching I either got up for food or a bathroom break, walked back into the living room wanting to change channels on the TV that for the day only has my sports channels in the menu. I can't find the TV remote control that was just laying on the arm of the couch. It has not fallen off onto the floor. It's not on the couch, not on the coffee table, nowhere on the floor, not on the kitchen island, nor next to the computer ... I even walked back in the bathroom to see if for some bizarre reason I left it in there. I normally do not walk around the house with the TV remote.

The whole time I was looking for the remote, talking to myself outloud then feeling myself getting a little more than irritated ... I looked ... it was in my hand. I had it the whole time in my hand !!!!

Over the 20 years I have lived here I have done at least a 1,000 loads of laundry and each load ends up in the dryer which I manually turn on. This morning was no different. At least you would think so. But ... once again something was not lining up inside my brain cells and I was off on another trip of insanity wondering what is wrong with me. I don't consider myself old but am reminded when I know my age.

I decided this morning it was the perfect time to wash all of the winter jackets, the fleece sweater, the gloves, etc. The washing cycle went perfect. Even the spin cycle that was full of waterlogged jackets, heavier than normal laundry. I was happy how dry the jackets were as I loaded them in the dryer.

I turn the setting knob to 'cool' and then after I turn the timer knob to 'more dry' ... I pull the knob to start the dryer just like I pull the knob to start the washer. I mean I have done this simple thing a 1,000 times or more with the same exact dryer !!!! The knob pulls off into my hand ... slides right off the stem.

So I am now wondering if it "is going to be one of those days". I look at the inside of the knob, nothing is broke. The steel knob on the dryer is in perfect shape but the knob will not stay on if I pull it to start the dryer. I get out my trusty pliers to pull the knob stem so I can start the dryer. The stem will not even pull out with pliers.

Now I am really confused.

Never fear ... gorilla glue fixes anything, just like duct tape does. So I glued the knob back on the stem and waited ... I let a lot of time pass ... hours. All this time I wanted my jackets to dry but can't get the dryer to start until that knob is glued and dried to the stem.

Then reality set back in. My brain cells lined up in sequence long enough to say "You idiot" ... that knob does not start the dryer. Just turn the knob to set the timer ... THEN .... THEN ....

PUSH THE 'TO START' BUTTON ON THE FAR RIGHT OF THE DRYER DASHBOARD !!!!!!

After those two confessions I cannot honestly tell you that all things are good today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... but the weather is great and it's NFL Sunday football.

Another Day Of Laziness

WARNING ... I started rambling unintentionally in this post. It was our normal routine after lunch is served. Even Heidi made an appearance outside long enough for me to capture a picture of her, just to let readers know that she still exists and has a pulse. She is into her winter hibernation mode earlier than I can ever remember. For Sadie and Stella I changed the camera setting back to "Auto-Area AF" for walk #2.


Heidi is in need of another bath, possibly an Epson Salt soak. I hid the wool blankets a few weeks ago thinking that was causing her skin to break out again. That does not seem to be the case and in fact may be just the time of year. Looking at her photos from October 2016 I saw the same changes to her skin after a summer of very little allergy reaction.

I am going to ramble about things in general this post, not even knowing when I will schedule it to publish. All of these photos were from our walk this afternoon (Monday). It's always nice the day after a storm blows through.

I've had another huge case of lack of motivation lately. I may have posted I was going to clean house, do laundry, rake leaves or whatever but none of those things have happened. I've been glued to either my computer with the large monitor at my desk either blogging, reading blogs, reading sports, working in my large photos library etc ... During the day I'll move to the kitchen table with a view and the permanent home of my laptop, to play Mahjong or write in my private journal.

There might be days where a siesta is needed from this fast paced lifestyle. You need all the rest you can get when you follow a nightly routine of ballgames from one sport or another and many times where multiple games are on at once. I did squeeze in a long movie last night instead of watching the NFL Sunday Night game.

It dawned on me during our afternoon walk that I have been using less data the past few days with internet speeds slower than Stella's afternoon pace. Does slower data download speeds equate to less data being used? I'll have to look into that later on the internet and see what I can find.

See it's questions like that keeping me at my desk in front of a computer. I have stupid questions like that all the time floating through my brain cells and the fastest way to find an answer to any of them is doing a search on the internet. Before you know it, it's 4pm and the day is gone.

Really though I am not in the mood for much more than I do most days, at least lately. So there are no feelings of guilt. It's kind of the lull before the storm as college basketball full-time viewing on tv starts this weekend as college football is heading for their last thee to four weeks of games before their holiday bowls and playoff games.

I have picked a couple of books off my bookshelves lately but stopped reading them soon after I started. my trips to the local library will probably not be a part of my week until the temperatures drop into the 30's and lower. The future weather in the next few weeks looks good for replacing the damaged plastic parts under my Z4. That should be a pretty easy fix, once the new parts arrive.

The pain in my jaw from a few weeks ago disappeared about as fast as it started. There isn't anything as intense as what I was feeling but I do have some occasional discomfort. After some jaw massage, or some heat and plus some ibuprofen, the jaw feels normal again. I still wonder at times what he cause of the jaw pain is.

From the few blogs I read that are showing snow in their area, it definitely proves to me I am not ready for that type of weather yet. I'll get through it when the times comes. The hounds will still get their walks. I will still wonder what we are doing outside with temps in the 20's or lower. I'll wear the same winter clothing I've worn every year since moving back to Indiana 23 years ago this December. Then before I know it, spring will be here and I'll be building my first large fire of the year, while burning the driveway bank full of dead ragweed and other wild brush.

I also remember over the weekend while looking back through my photos, it was October 25th last year that I traded the Voodoo Blue Toyota FJ instead of spending $3,000 to replace the catalytic converters and possible other repairs. I never planned to trade that FJ. It was the beginning of where I traded three cars within 9 months.

I'm glad those days are finally over since I have the only combination of cars that I have ever liked ... a sports car and a Toyota FJ. With the amount of miles I drive per year I don't need to trade cars ever ... and may not need even two cars. Yet with my constant brain activity it's always good to have options. So two cars are best for me.

My senior moment of the day was a little after lunch when I went to the fruit bowl to eat the last mango. It was gone !!! It was there last night because I remember seeing it while I ate the second to last one. I was about to interrogate Stella about the missing mango ... then realized that sometime around 3:30 am (yes in the middle of the night) as I looked at my watch, I was standing in the kitchen cutting the mango into slices ... eating my last mango in the dark.

A slight interruption here as I let you know that once again today, Stella spent a long time staring in the direction of the neighbor's woods and with hopes of seeing the yellow field cat that is larger than any cat you can imagine. She obviously smells or hears something over there.

I've been thinking about diets again lately. I've been eating healthy and just set an all-time historic event in the month of October for the first time I can ever remember. I did not make one trip through a fast food drive-thru and didn't spend any money eating out or ordering out for pickup.

That will not happen this month. I've spent the last three to four days thinking of the Chinese buffet downtown. It's around $8 for all you can eat. It is served every day except Monday's. It's hard to believe that we can have that kind of restaurant in a small rural town, out in the middle of nowhere, in the land of meat and potatoes. It's popular and has withstood all the economy has to offer for at least 15 years. It is one of my favorite places to eat.

With all the excitement and pounding my chest for the accomplishment of no fast food, there was disappointment at my monthly weigh in and measurement day on the 1st of November. Not only did I gain 4 pounds but measurements around my stomach and body fat also increased. That told me it's never a good idea to stop eating fast foods.  LOL

I continue to knock off one game at a time of Mahjong, completing that tile game under 3 minutes. I have 160 different Mahjong games to choose from, all different levels of competition. That is probably the best 99cents I've ever spent when I bought that app.

What does it mean when you are too lazy to get in your car and make a short trip to the store to buy the food you need or are craving to eat? Will those Amazon drones deliver to small town USA if you live outside of town?

Would that nice small round robot vacuum I see on every other commercial during the football games on tv, work well in my house? Or would it turn into a chaotic situation where the hounds chase it all over the house while it tries to be my maid? Would it be cost effective if it turned into a toy for the hounds with dog treats taped to the top of it? Does anyone know how good the suction is on those robot vacuums?

I wonder why these current hounds are growing more skin warts or skin flaps than any of my other hounds in the last 30 years? Food? Environment? Allergies? I think I have asked this question during a visit my vet but can't remember if they gave me an answer or passed it off as not important?

7 acres of field available to the hounds and Stella likes to walk very slow right in front of me. A huge stainless steel bowl of fresh water, enough for all the hounds. Yet, Sadie thinks enough of it to sleep next to it, protecting it from Stella and Heidi. Is there any food for human consumption that Stella does not like or at least feel it's not hers? Did her previous owners 'free feed' her?

Watching the tape of Dr Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet last night ... they had their first Bloodhound patient. I have yet to see any basset hounds visit their facility on their tv show. This bloodhound puppy looked like Stella in the face but was what they call a 'black and tan'. He was accidentally ran over by the owner, breaking it's leg right next to the ball joint in his hip. They inserted three small pens with a prognosis he would be okay eventually. 14 weeks later, even with physical therapy, the hound was barely using his rear leg if at all. I hate seeing those kind of stories.

There is never a day that goes by that I don't think of Winston. He had the best personality of any of the basset hounds I ever owned. All of them had great basset personalities but his was much different. Hard to believe it's been almost two years later and I still find it hard to look at his pictures.

Well that's about it for this afternoon. I am not sure if I'll watch Monday Night Football or watch another movie. I know right now I'm going to grab a snack and play a few games of Mahjong for the first time today. I guess the trip to the grocery store can wait a little longer.

Life is rough in the fast pace lane of 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

You WILL LOVE This Senior Moment ... LOL

I'll warn you now, if you are drinking something from a glass, cup or can, you might sit it down and step away. The story I will relay to you in this post MAY make you laugh so much that you are out of control ... that nothing near you will be safe. I am still trying to believe it and after 4 hours I still cannot comprehend what my eyes told me ... and my rake.

I don't know if it was the 'excitement' of the new project of replacing the Yews or anxiety over "what did I just do"?, that led me to waking up last night multiple times. Another words, the chances of me being outside in the yard starting my 'new' landscaping project at 8am ... were slime and none.

Once I did get started at 9am, Stella did not take long to show me that letting the hounds join me this morning in the yard while I worked in front yard was not a possibility. As you can see she was caught heading over to the wooded area next door. By the time the picture was taken she had heard me and was walking home.

It was a gallant try on her part. BTW, all of these photos today were taken with my iPhone 6s. I thought I'd let those few people know, that are trying to decide what phones to buy as their first smartphone.

It does NOT work well in the zoom mode. The picture of Stella in the middle of the field walking back with the storm clouds and high power tower was NOT zoomed in but normal setting.

I decided to let the hounds have the whole house to lay around in and enjoy the cool AC. It was so hot this morning and all last night. It was so hot, that at 4am during one of my many times being awake I heard the AC running which is rare for that time of day.

I remembered to put my bowl of fresh fruit on top of the fridge and out of Stella's reach. The AC on meant my bedroom windows were closed so she could not tear out anymore screens. Things seemed safe for her to stay inside without being shut up in the bedroom.

The plan for today was to rake up what was left of the Yews after they were pulled out of the ground and taken away. I wanted to get as much of them off the yard and off the flowerbed as possible.

I was guessing that I only had a couple of hours to get this done before the blasting hot sunshine would be on this side (west) of the house. I had only three small piles of Yew branches that I raked up in the yard. All the dirt that had been drug to the yard would be moved back into the bed areas.

Okay ... make sure that drink is out of arms reach !!!

As I was raking the dirt back into the holes were the Yew root ball was, I thought my rake had pulled up some of that black landscaping ground cover I had installed 5-6 years ago to prevent the weeds growing. It was something else ... I COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT IT WAS BUT I WAS THRILLED WITH WHAT I FOUND !!

It was one of two of my missing favorite socks that I had been looking for since March!! I remembered folding them up after taking them out of the dryer months ago and putting them in my dresser drawer of socks. I DO REMEMBER DOING THAT ... one time. 

I couldn't find them when I went back to wear them months ago. It drove me insane trying to remember where they could have been. I pulled every sock out of that draw to see if they had been mixed with dress socks. I even moved the chest of drawers in case the hounds had hid them under the chest. They were nowhere.

Since I had found one in the dirt where they Yews had been pulled from the ground I was hoping the second one was in that same area and had not been taken away yesterday. Could the second sock be stuck on one of the Yews that was taken away?

I lightly ran my rake through the loose clay dirt no longer trying to separate the Yew leaves(?) but to see if I could find that second sock. Then .... there it was. Buried in a pile of dirt because at first Ted used his backhoe to dig out the Yew instead of just pulling them out like he did the last three.

After 4 months of looking, then wondering what ever happened to those socks that I KNEW were in my drawer of socks. Who would have ever imagined having the Yews taken out and away when you thought the request was canceled ... would lead to finding the missing socks, gone for 4 months ????  I'd laugh but I am too amazed about this story.

At 65 years old we  keep telling our friends "I feel great", remind each other that 60 is the new 40 and we really won't be old until we are in our 80's. We may not recover from physical activity as fast as we use to but our minds are as sharp an the edge of a razor blade.

Then a story like that happens and you fall back to reality to see that you really aren't like you use to be.  LOL

With the Yews out of the way I could now open that window that is the entry to my crawl space. It's one where you can almost stand up under the whole house ... there is quite a hole under there. It came with a framed window that you could open to a screen so ventilation would take place in the summer.

That took only one tv cable installer to break not only the glass but the frame as he tried to get under the house to run cable years ago. I replaced the broken window with a solid piece of wood and that heavy stone to block it closed ... to keep the cats out and any other animals ... like skunks.

This vent was open but only about an inch. I don't know where the locking lever went to so with a fresh new Yew root, I could prop open the vent until I can repair it.

Here are a couple of more pictures to show just how thick the root of the Yews got. They were not deep rooted but some of these thicker ones are deeper than I can pull out. I cut them off as low as possible with the pruning shears. Ted told me they would eventually rot away.

All the recent activity must have uprooted this toad's home. He or she sat and looked at me with displeasure while I sat down drinking water and taking a break. I could remind myself just how hot it really was at 10am. Later the toad turned around facing the nice raked cleaned dirt ... and disappeared.

After looking through all the suggestions I received last night and this morning for what plants or shrubs to use to fill up these beds and cover some of my house ... I have different ideas I need to sort out. This might take a couple of weeks to complete.

While clearing this area I was thinking that an Azalea in front of the DirecTv dish might be good. They grow to only 3' high and that would hide the bracket for the dish. I might go three across but I really don't want to block the way to get under the house, so flowers such as hostas might work well there.

I am going to fill these three holes with top soil, then rake and mix it in with the light brown clay in hopes of softening up some dirt for flowers to grow. I will also be changing those downspout drains to extend out over the edging.

It was just about 11am when I noticed my shade was about to be burnt off by the hot mid-day sunshine. It was 88° in the shade and I had no plans to work after this. I just wanted to get both areas cleaned up, raked and all the dirt moved from the yard back into the flowerbeds.

Over the years I cannot ever remember having a whole baseball cap soaked with sweat. This isn't completely drenched but it's close.

To give myself a 'redemption' test ... I laid my two socks on the edge of the carport so the afternoon sun could dry them out since I washed them. MOST LIKELY this is the same spot I put them back in March after doing the yard work on the corner bank in back of the house.

OBVIOUSLY I forgot I put them out there to dry ... the storm with high winds only 5 days later probably blew the socks in the direction of the Yews under the kitchen window. Heidi never bothered to let me know the socks were there as she would walk past them almost every day as she headed to the front yard from behind the Yews.

After only two hours of light exercise, just picking up stuff and raking ... my shirt was soaked. Due to the sun's reflection on the iPhone screen I had to take the picture from this angle to keep my shadow out of the picture. If I rotated the picture right side up, the shirt and picture were at a weird angle.

Stella did 'breakout' of the house. After not doing it for many months, she lifted the door lever with her nose and was standing right next to me as I raked the last of the flowerbed. What a surprise that was. I guess watching me through the window was not good enough ... she had to be involved LOL.

I am not sure it it will look good but I am thinking of running solid boxwood hedges, cut 4-5' tall across the front of my carport to hide the cars. Then from the corners of the house to the porch on both sides of the porch ... use the Azaleas's as end pieces, maybe one or two in the middle ... then fill in with Hostas, Lilies and potted annuals with different colors.

The local landscaping business only had Lillies, Azaleas and some annuals today. I realize at least that this is not the best time of year for new landscaping projects. I have other places to check out 25 miles away.

Our second walk of the day may not take place until tonight just as the sun goes down around 9pm. The hounds were "yelling" for lunch when I finished my 2 hour yard work at 11:15am. Heidi was barking non-stop, Stella was howling, Sadie just hopping around .... ALL wanting their lunch.

Then a MINUTE after they finished eating, I started to take them outside but noticed all three hounds were sound to sleep within a foot or two of their food bowls. All was well with them ... food and sleep.

Thanks for all the emails, comments, pictures and links to help with landscaping the front of the house. If flowers were sports related I would know what to do ... but I never have answers when it comes to what or where in landscaping.

Off to make a new 3qt pitcher of ice tea ... those pitchers of ice tea are not lasting long right now.

Typical hot weather this time of year in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.