Spring Has Arrived

Spring arrived today. Low 70s as the highs and a forecast that the week will only get hotter. Yard mowed with the backyard cut higher this year at 3", even measured with a tape measure to make sure. A short trip afterward in the Z4 with the top down. As you will see there is less Watson barking while the neighbors are outside enjoying the weather. Smoking chicken on the grill to combine with some steamed broccoli for dinner. Reds game at 6:20pm ... all is good.

Not Warm Enough For Heidi

It might be sunny and blue skies outside but that doesn't mean that Heidi has declared that spring has arrived. It is not even close to her threshold of 70° and until then she will act accordingly. That means a lot of sleep time and as the day gets longer she will eventually end up on the couch that she shares with Stella every night. She does spend time outside right after her lunch and depending if it is raining or freezing, the only options this week, she might take a lap around the house. Sadie and Stella were happy to be outside this morning even with a ground that was frozen.

There is a little 'ranting' below.

These popped up a few days ago, in the four different areas I planted them last summer in the middle of the July heat after the Japanese Yews were pulled out. I miss the deep green yews in the winter but they had become just to big to keep trimmed. I still didn't know until they were pulled out, just how deep their root system was and if it could reach my septic system.

I took a little over 24 hours to go from lakefront property to a corn field drained like pulling a plug of a bathtub drain. Evidently the Ohio River, ~70 miles away, must have stopped peaking, giving the rivers in Indiana a place to run to. It's nothing new, happens every spring but we are way ahead of the annual rain schedule.

By the time I hit hit the path, Sadie and Stella were ahead of me and on their own pace.

A lot of new scents for both of them to check out this morning, at 30°.

For some reason this week, Stella will come when I tell her 'over here' ... I've left her on her own while Sadie and I walk. She has not wandered off in quite a while.

As long as it is not raining, we have been getting in a couple of walks per day. There was one day this week or was it last week ??? that Heidi walked out into the field with us and explored while the bloodhounds and I did the half mile walk. She actually trotted from the house to the field but my camera was back inside the house.

At least all of the rain, over 6" in 17 days, has turned the dormant winter lawn to green. I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of mowing this year but between the days of rain. Predictions of a 'wetter than normal' spring and summer will make things interesting.

I guess the most excitement we have had recently was changing from Directv to Dish Network about 8 days ago. I did the normal cost analysis before making the decision since I would be breaking my contract and would have to pay extra to do that. I made a lot of calls to Directv to see what kind of 'retention' or 'loyalty' discounts they could give me as they did in past years. Of course anymore with their customer service shipped out overseas communication is harder to understand each year.

This may not be the same for everyone but what I say here pertains to only my experience.

I was told over and over there was nothing Directv could do as far as discounts ... for someone that had been with them since 1999, minus the 7 months I did switch to Dish Network due to contract negotiations with local channels on showing HD quality production. So basically I had been with them since they had bought out a company called Prime Star Satellite back around 1999.

The tipping point in my decision this time was when I received my bill and saw an increase because they were charging me for Regional Sports Network channels for the first time ever. After a google search on 'RSN' I found out not only what that charge was for but that Comcast Cable was being sued a few years ago for doing the exact same thing Directv was now doing with those charges.

I pinch pennies enough to know that I was not a happy Directv customer and the issues with understanding the customer service rep on the other end of the call continued to send me to the brink of insanity. Let's just say I had to call back a lot of times, spending hours on the phone, with no positive results.

So the option was to switch to Dish Network, getting those 3 free sports channels back plus a sports channel (Pac12) that would give me more college football games next fall and the same 200+ channels I had with Directv .... but .... with a 2-year price guarantee. It would be $20 per month cheaper until September then $43 cheaper per month after my final discount with Directv would expired.

After a cost analysis and seeing what my calls to Directv did to my heart rate ... I made the call early Monday morning to my local Satellite provider to make the change. They were there on Wednesday morning. Same installer that did the initial install plus installed my HughesNet Gen5 satellite internet system.

24 hours later Directv was giving me those "Come Back" discounts of $29 per month for the next 12 months ... all the same programming.

What kind of business plan is that? Losing a long time customer, telling me they could not offer anything in way of discounts .... UNTIL AFTER the account was closed?

So things are good. Good weather, bright sunny skies, MLB spring training games in the afternoons and a week or two away from March Madness ... the perfect time of year for a sports addict. And like offers for new customers for both Directv and Dish Network ... free movie channels for 3 months. One big plus this new HD DVR receiver will now download to an external hard drive. I will never have to transfer recorded movies and ballgames from a DVR to DVDs again.

The hounds are enjoying 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Sleeps Through Loud Storm

Welcome new readers to the blog of redundancy. Not much has been discussed lately beside weather, computers and of course the main feature ... the hounds. It has seemed to turned into that more than just 'lately' and is a blog that bores even me sometimes.

It was a few weeks ago when I noticed sparrows making their annual pilgrimage inside the carport to where they use to build or would try to build their nest ... on top of the old wall mounted thermometer. Once they figured out that I had removed that due to their nesting and bird crap on my cars ... they came up with a new place this year. I will let this one stay and will try to wash around it during my semi-annual high pressure wash of the house.

When I picked up Stella in August 2015, I knew about her severe separation anxiety before I made the decision to get her. It wasn't until I arrived after my 4 hour drive, that I was told she was also terrified of thunderstorms. That wasn't a problem because my first basset hound Harry was an expert in thunderstorm panic and I couldn't imagine hound worse than him ... once the thunder and lightning started.

Even after a great light show from the sky and a full night of rain it was somewhat surprising to see less water in the fields than I saw late yesterday. A few weeks ago, one reader was wanting to see pictures every couple of days of the "field of yellow" that I had blogged about. I guess this picture answers the question on what will happen to them.

At first Stella would moan a little, pace a little when that loud roll of thunder sounded not quite 2 years ago but would eventually go lay down once she figured out she was in no danger. Click here to see why she would react this way. Last night was different though. With all the windows open and not aware any storms were on the way ... the sound of an explosion of thunder vibrated the whole house and so much lightning I thought it was inside the house ... Stella woke up and walked over to me. Once I told her it was okay, she returned back to the couch to sleep.

I flipped the light on in the bedroom around 4:50am after getting up for a short time and she was stretched out across Sadie's dog bed on the floor sleeping soundly while the storms raged on outside the open windows. Like last year and a few months in the year before that ... I believe that Stella has lost her fear of storms.

Last night the weather radar showed a massive storm with all the color codes you don't want to see, all north of us. We were just on the southern edge for the start of it but due west that storm was big enough to hit us with the second wave. I turned all the electronics off and headed to bed around midnight with a lightning bolt outside my bedroom window that made me wonder if sleeping in my house with the windows open was even safe.

I knew the field would be really wet this morning. I was sure some of the low points of the path I walk would be under water but with my latest change to my North Face light weight snow boots, standing water is no longer a problem. As long as rain was not dropping from the sky, walk number one of the day was on. Sadie and Stella did not mind getting their legs, paws and belly wet from the taller grass.

Facebook reminded me again today with their one year anniversary reminders on photos, just how great Stella looked a year ago. She has not changed since I took her to the vet a few weeks ago. She has never lost her appetite, or her water consumption and at times her personality ... just her weight and the love or running at top speed. I have to keep reminding myself that infections with dogs never heal as fast as a human. It takes a long time for them to get rid of any kind of infection they might have. Heidi is proof of that.

As usual the rain brought the scents out even stronger than a normal day. Both hounds seemed to be on the edge of taking off on me by the way they acted. Eating "stuff" was not their major focus today ... but exploration was. They were intense in their search.

Too wet today to head to the far corner. They both were heading that way until I told them "over here". The followed me as I made the turn to walk along the back edge of the field ... at least I thought they did.

With Sadie walking just to the right of me with her nose to the ground, I turned to check on Stella. When I thought she was following me, she had turned to go into the far right corner on her own. Where Sadie won "the most obnoxious hound I've ever owned" award years ago ... Stella is a clear winner of "the most stubborn hound I've ever owned" award and no current nor past hounds are even close to winning that award. She is so head strong.

Yet, she turned and headed my way when she heard me yell "Stella, come on". I swear sometimes she is here only to drive me insane. I will admit though, retirement living would be quite boring if she was not around. There is not one day where she is doing something hilarious that makes me laugh and mumble to myself. She really is a great bloodhound and keeps things moving around here.

Sadie took off into a fast trot toward the 'no-fly zone', it was fast enough I thought she was gone. Stella didn't follow her and followed the path slowly right around the turn and headed for home.

It is not hot and humid yet, but it's one of those quiet cooler overcast days. Our routine will not change much of course but I might be giving Heidi a bath later on. She let me know she wanted one as she rolled on her back last night before I could pet her. She came with long toenails, she still has long toenails and I will cut them again as short as I can. It doesn't take much before I can see I cannot cut them any shorter.

I have a lot planned on my 'to do' list once it is hot and sunny. I high pressure wash the house and the carport floor every six months. Living close to these fields makes this the dustiest place I have ever lived, covering 4 different states. I also have my own Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and I do that every six months but only when the temps are in the high 70's and its bright and sunny outside. It dries faster in that hot weather.

Either tonight or tomorrow morning I am going to take Stella back to the vet to check her weight and hope for a few pounds difference than a couple of weeks ago. I am also going to request them to give her an in-depth blood test. If she was puking or lost her appetite, had diarrhea or was lethargic I'd request an x-ray but so far in those areas nothing has ever changed.

As we get closer to home, every walk Stella will always stop and glance over at the neighbor's wooded area to see if that big yellow field cat is around. I assume that is who she is looking for by smell or listening. She is never in a hurry to get back to the house.

I don't want to beat a dead horse and I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing about my computer, but I just wanted to say the new setup is working fantastic. I am happy with the choice I made of using the laptop as my main HD, connected to my large monitor.

To start getting those 160 Mahjong games back under three minute completion times, I ejected my two external drives and pulled the four connections from the sides of the laptop (convenient) and moved to the kitchen table to use the smaller 13" screen and the built in touchpad. I played my first 40 games and finished them below the 4 minute mark and a couple under 3 minutes.

I am also very very happy with my change to HughesNet Gen 5 satellite internet last month. It is faster than what I had, although I read yesterday that Exede is launching their new satellite into space in June. I expect to see a deal of all deals with a "come back" email in my inbox soon after that launch.

I watched my HughesNet data counter last night and exactly at 1 minute past midnight my new 20Gb of monthly data started. Their data counter has also been equal to my computer Activity Monitor count, before with Exede there were differences at times because "we haven't rebooted the system yet". Then this morning I was sent my new invoice for the billing period. After taxes it was $14 less per month for the next 12 months with more data and 4x faster upload speed.

I am still waiting to hear for some feedback from you telling me if you like multiple posts per day or just prefer one per day with over 20 photos to scroll through. When I do post more than once per day, do you see the earlier posts?

There is nothing I can complain about, life is good here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana ... except my annual sinus/allergies are back ... and it's raining again.

The Hounds Prepare For Rain

I could tell after lunch that not much of anything would be done this afternoon, hounds included. The occupants of this house barely had a pulse.

Even though it was not raining Heidi heard the forecast and walked out to the front yard just long enough to dump her tanks. She took her bad weather path behind the Yews, climbed the three steps up to the porch and then jumped into the front yard. She came back the same way, only walking around the porch to get behind the Yews.

Sadie and Stella didn't get any further than this before they came back to the house to go inside. That's really strange for them as they are usually trying to talk me into a walk after lunch.

As much time as they have spent in this area the past 24 hours, I suspect the big blonde cat has paid us a visit sometime in the pre-dawn hours.

The house got so quiet this afternoon you could hear a pin drop. Instead of that, all I heard was constant ringing in my years. The hounds were in such a dream state of sleep, none of them were snoring.

While sitting at the kitchen table playing some Mahjong on my laptop, this piece of machinery drove by the house and made a right hand turn onto that one lane of gravel I was on last week. I have no idea what they are spraying. Since it's wild mustard and they have plans to plant there, my wild guess is that it is weed killer.

Or maybe they are spraying fertilizer before they plow them under????

Just like Heidi, they went back the way they came. I was so lazy I did not even get outside to take this. It's shot it through the kitchen window as I sat at the kitchen table.

It was one lazy afternoon. I heard the sound of thunder after we returned from our afternoon walk without the camera. It seemed like the perfect time to crack open a window in cool weather and take a siesta.

No plans for the weekend, except a 100% chance of a lot of rain here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Stella 's Left Ischium

We were up before 7am with a cool wind blowing strong through the open windows. If it stormed last night, I never heard a thing. With rain predicted for the next three days, the daily routine of the hounds will change.

Stella barely took a step off the carport floor, felt something wet and sat down. She had to think what her next move would be. She didn't move from that pose until we went back inside.

Sadie did almost the same thing. This was the second trip outside since it was daylight but she never left the gravel drive. I can see cases of bloodhound boredom these next three days as forecasted.

I took a look at Intellicast radar a little after 9am. That looked clear even though the skies outside were covered with dark gray clouds. If it was dry, then we could still get a walk in. Based on the ground, it did not look like it rained much at all while we slept.

With tail wagging Stella took off out into the lead. She was trying to gradually veer toward the left of our route with hopes of returning where she went yesterday. About the time I started to say something, I felt small drops of rain. Looking at my jacket sleeve it was sprinkling harder than I could see or feel.

With the rain becoming a little heavier, I could tell it was time to turn around and head home. Sadie had not left my side the short time we walked. Stella had to find one more spot to pee before she called it a morning.

We gave it a little time to see if the weather would blow through and it looked like it was doing just that. Once again Stella tried to talk me into feeding all of them about an hour early, close to that 10:30am mark again.

After they were fed at noon, we saw the rain was gone, the yard wasn't that wet and Sadie thought it was a great time to walk. So we tried it again. To cold for Heidi so she sprinted back inside for her position on the couch for the afternoon

Stella trotted out to the front with Sadie. She seemed normal and looked normal. You will see what I am talking about later in this post. It was late last night that I thought we might be going back to the vet this morning. I'll explain later in this post.

With all the growth the past few weeks, the bushes are once again hiding most of the wooded area. You can barely see the chewed tree limb from last winter. Since we are getting just the right amount of rain, everything has gotten nice and green without a lot of rainy days.

So you might be asking what a "Ischium" is and where did I come up with that. It's part of the pelvis that you sit on or in this case that Stella, Sadie or Heidi sit on. The are sometimes called the "sitting bone" and are on each side of the tail. As Heidi's use to be when she was ultra thin, too skinny, those two ischiums are pretty visible.

The pictures will show below that Stella was having some swelling around her left ischium as of Monday morning. I'll tell more of the story below. How did I find the word "ischium" ??

Last night I did a google search on their images for "canine skeleton". On that picture I was able to identify the bone I was looking for and noted the name. I found it strange that when I went to petMD online they did not recognize that word when I did a search on their website and asked me if I had misspelled it.

Sadie was heading down the path home, stopped suddenly and looked over at the small wooded area behind the neighbor's house. With a strong 15mph wind I am sure they were picking up a scent of that large blonde cat seen last month.

Stella was practically begging me to let her head that direction and it took me a few times telling her "let's go" before she moved in the direction of the house. You will notice her left ischium protruding out and you might think that is not normal ... but since she is so skinny, that is the way it is at this time on both sides. It was like that for Heidi too when she was having problems with her lack of weight.

Monday afternoon as we were walking along the back edge of the field, I noticed that large lump to the left of her tail. I waited for her to take another step to see if it would disappear and was part of her hip rotation as she walked. It did not disappear, so I took a picture of it for reference.

When I felt it on Monday night it felt like all bone. There was nothing soft around it and when I pressed on it lightly, she did not react. With her getting that rabies shot Friday night a little after 7pm, I thought this might be a side effect of that shot but found nothing online telling me it was.

About the time I thought about taking her to the vet on Tuesday, she had been wagging her tail that morning. She was shoving Sadie out of the way with her hips when standing at the door. She does that when she wants to be the first inside. Her tail was upright and as soon as we started the walk she started running just a little faster than a trot.

So I figured things were fine and no need for a vet trip.

Yesterday morning during breakfast that lump looked smaller but I thought I'd wait until she moved around before I would claim it was better. While she was walking that afternoon it did look slightly smaller. When I got home I pulled up this picture next to the one taken on Monday afternoon to verify that yes, it was smaller in size.

Here you can see that both sides are the same size. This picture was taken early this morning. So comparing it to the one taken Monday afternoon I can see a lot of difference. Whatever it was, it's gone.

Last night as I was standing over her looking from a top view so I could compare the left and right side, both ischiums looked equal in size. Once again since she is so skinny right now I expected to see them more visible than normal. For example, now that Heidi has gained her weight back I do not see hers.

The thing was when I felt it, she reacted by turning her head toward my hand and maybe a slight whimper. That is when I went to the internet to find all I could about this area and what might be the cause. At that time I was planning to be at the vets office as soon as they opened at 8am.

I did not come up with a lot of information about that specific bone, the cause of swelling and if there were issues. Some of the worse things I read were about hip dysplasia, and bone cancer. Yet, she was not limping, she had been trotting in the backyard just a few hours earlier. Plus she did not yell in pain when I pressed on it, just a slight whimper.

This morning it looks like the swelling was totally gone. I felt around each one, they felt the same. As I pressed on the left one a little she did not response but wagged her tail and wanted her back above her tail rubbed.

I'll keep an eye on it and look for swelling or limping. She has no problems walking up the two steps into the house, hopping on the couch or climbing on the bed. Her gait has always looked like she might have a small limp but she is always dragging her feet when she walks slow, so it's hard to tell if she is favoring the leg or just walks that way.

All I know is when I saw her wagging her tail, barking and howling for breakfast, then pushing Sadie out of the way with her hips I decide a trip to the vet was not needed today.

I am thinking of putting her on the Taste of The Wild dog food with bison as the main protein. That has 35% protein and 18% fat which would help her regain the weight she has lost, barring there is nothing else wrong with her.

It's a quiet day here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana today.