We knew it was going to happen but that didn't mean that Sadie and Stella had to like it. In exchange for warmer temps and the official declaration it was now Spring here in 'the tropics' ... the rains came. Sometimes it's been heavy but most of the time it's been light ... a drizzle.
That drizzle will cancel most if not all hound walks. Walking through mud is one thing but coming back home with two wet/soaked hounds is never fun. With Heidi being the smartest, she stays inside without complaint when it rains. She will dip under and behind the Yews next to the house to keep her dry while she dumps her tanks.
After only a few hours this morning Sadie is going nuts inside. Unlike last year, the bloodhounds are not wrestling with each other inside. Sadie instead tries different balls, or bones to start a game of fetch with me. If I don't pick one up after she tosses it at my feet here at my desk ... she will go get something else for me to try.
Sorry this next picture is blurred but I thought I had caught her just in time ... she was running faster than I could react.
Stella was somewhat confused what to do this morning after she stepped out into the yard earlier and felt wet grass and rain hitting her in the nose. So this next trip outside she got no further than the carport.
It's good to see her ribs are disappearing and she is gaining some of her weight back.
Honestly ... she really does have her eyes open.
{editor's note: by adding the photos AFTER I wrote the paragraphs, there is an extra space below the photos above, where I have to delete a blank row between the last pictures and the sentence below them.}
Me ... I'm waiting for my Apple Photo's program to reload my photo library of 50,000 + photographs. That is just one thing that happens have you do an update to your operating system. I like to do the OS updates as soon as they are released for security reasons and am hopeful of one bug fix. With my free data between midnight and 5am I did the download and installation after midnight.
Those little notices telling me a phase would take 20 minutes turned into 45. Overall, the total process took almost 2 hours from start to finish. What that means today is, as I open programs up to work with I might have to retype my password or in this case wait for the photos library to update so it can then download my new pictures on this blog into my iMac for editing and storage.
With that wait I am writing this blog post the 'old way'. Writing first and installing pictures afterwards. Let's see how that photos library update is doing .... it's finished. I remembered yesterday as I looked at those rich green clumps of grass in only certain parts of the yard ... is where all the hounds dump there tanks over the winter.
With this rain my new grass seed is growing fast. This is the bank right behind the corner of my house and right below that old 75 year old fence post I spoke of last summer, with pictures.
I only did 13 pictures this morning. There is not a lot of enthusiasm when it rains, either from me or the hounds. We did do a couple of walks yesterday but one with the 25' leash for Stella. She does well on that leash, she will trot and check her her normal spots but is always within 25' of me. Some days that just feels better.
There was excitement on the afternoon walk yesterday ... Sadie did something very unusual and almost got in trouble. About the time that Stella (on a leash) and I walked into the field, Sadie took off sprinting toward the wooded area. I did not see any birds, cats or deer but she was GONE !!!!
She charged into the wooded area at full speed and DISAPPEARED OVER THE BANK !!! I went running and yelling her name expecting to drop the leash for Stella and charging over the bank, in the mud to chase Sadie.
Luckily as I got closer to the wooded area ... Sadie popped back up over the edge of the bank and came running toward me.
I have no idea what she was after but she disappeared over that edge you see just to the right of her hip. It's really steep and I would have had a very hard time walking back up the side of it if I had to go that far.
A couple of the blogs I read when they update on my sidebar, mentioned yesterday they were wondering what their future was in blogging after so many years. They had noticed a large decrease in blog visits recently, a lack of comments or reader interaction on their blogs and were wondering if blogging might be 'a dying breed'.
More people are on Instagram, where you can just post pictures and a few sentences. That and Pinterest seems to be even more popular than Facebook now days. I like to blog though because I like to write, even without proper English. It also serves as a great journal that can be looked at and read years from now ... I am assuming my memory may fade just a little over time, so a journal will come in handy.
I received my 2017 Indiana vehicle registration paperwork in the mail yesterday. I can do everything online and have my 2017 tags mailed to me. Instead of changing plates on the Mini Cooper Countryman to one of the ugliest license plate designs in state history ... just voted on by the people last fall ... I will keep the plain white plate with black letters for trucks 7,000 pounds and under. How can I do a truck plate on the Mini Cooper ??? The Countryman model is classified as a 'wagon', or SUV, so I can legally transfer the plate from the FJ to the Mini.
It matches the black color of the Mini also ... I like color coordination.
I like the temp increase but not real thrilled with rain. I have things I need to do outside and one of those is go into my crawl space (big moon crater) under the house and close the vents. After reading more and more about how crawl spaces should be set up, the experts NOW say that they were designed wrong 40 years ago and that the vents and crawl space door should be closed at all times.
I also like to inspect under the house every spring to see what's going on. When I thought of going crawling in the small window built into the foundation in front of the house, is when I thought again of removing the Yews. Were they blocking any potential air flow into the crawl space vents?
From my Google research on Monday I found the news about the vents but more importantly I found out that my Yews were one of the recommended plants that would NOT destroy water pipes. With that info I am assuming they will NOT destroy a concrete septic tank ... so the Japanese Plum Yews are staying where they are until further notice ...
Well it's a little after 11am. I'm sure if you are to this point of the post you are tired of reading my rambling, plus both hounds are sitting next to my computer desk chair letting me know it is time to eat lunch. I think later I'll head out to grocery shop and prepare for the Final 4 basketball games this weekend and the championship on Monday night. I run out of food but am never out of coffee and dog food ... go figure.
What then? Well as of today Major League Baseball's regular season starts in 6 days ... just in time to keep my sports addiction going.
Directv will try to bribe me into buying their expensive MLB package by giving me a week of free access to 10-15 out of market ballgames a night. I'll take advantage of that and get to bed late every night for a week. Those games on the west coast don't start until after 10pm local time ... so you are talking between 1am-2am before they are over.
All is good today here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana ... because it's warm !!!!