The Hackers Are Out Playing

Recently I've noticed a lot more junk mail being blocked by my Apple Mail than normal. Sometime last year all the spam experts decided they liked the email address I have here on my contact page. So I use that address most of the time when a website needs an email address either for me to log in or contact information. That way if they want to spam it my personal email address is not affected. Blog traffic is also showing Russia, Ukraine and Chine passing Canada in the number of daily visitors to the blog for the #2,3 and 4 highest.

I have all my browsers set to where I have to click for any website to play a video. I don't do automatic updates but will get notices where there is a new update available. I don't open attachments of any kind. I have a firewall set on my computer settings but I have never ran anti-virus protection on my Apple computers. I do run a malware finder every week. It will automatically isolate and quarantine any malware that is finds, keeping it from harming the computer. All of those settings are to protect my computer from hackers.

At times Facebook will starting showing some strange requests for people I don't know. I have my account there locked down as tight as possible. I don't have anyone able to request to friend me for that reason. Pubic has no access to my account or the few pictures I post on there.

So with increases I have noticed recently in strange traffic and even strange messages on my Facebook account, this post this morning over at A Satisfying Retirement didn't really surprise me ... but it does show just how hard it is to get rid of the embedded files that hackers plant once they have access to a computer.

He mentioned that if it happened again he would shut down his Blogger blog immediately. I found that when I moved my blog to Wordpress a few years ago I had twice the amount of hacker traffic there than on Blogger. Based on what they had blocked. I don't believe Blogger is his problem.

I would say it was more likely that an attachment was opened sometime or a weblink clicked that causes the damage to his computer. Otherwise if it was his blog being the culprit then it would seem logical to not visit his blog and to take it off my sidebar to protect myself.

I believe Apples security system has proven in the past it does quite well preventing access to a computer, table or phone. I mean when the FBI computer experts cannot access an iPhone they need to get into and ask Apple to do it for them ... to me that is pretty good security.

I believe that Stella is getting better. Today, in a very long time she trotted fairly fast on two different occasions. This morning before the walk she was nudging Sadie's head as if she wanted to play or wrestle. She has not tried that in many months. Both of those are good signs that she is feeling better from whatever has been ailing her since March.

The local tv weathermen keep talking about it being really hot and muggy but I'm not feeling it. When I think of hot and muggy I think of weather being unbearable. It has not felt that way to me on our daily walks. Yes it's hot in the upper 80's to low 90's but when I check different weather sites it is telling my the humidity here is 65-70% ... that is pretty low for this time of year. So I'll take the overcast skies today to keep the temps down.

All of us still prefer being inside enjoying the air conditioning. Heidi is setting all-time records in the number of hours she is sleeping. Sadie and Stella are always sleeping unless they are eating or taking their walks. This kind of weather really zaps their energy.

Another good sign for Stella is they she held her tail upright for most of the walk, instead of lowered. I really think she is on her way back to being the old Stella that liked to run and play with Sadie.

The yard is not quite tall enough to mow after 6 days but with 4 days in a row where Wunderground predicting a very high percentage for rain, you have to decide to mow it now or take a chance for it to be too tall if we do get rain this week. Nothing worse than mowing extra tall grass.

Whatever Stella found to eat must have tasted good.

This was the 2nd time she was trotting at a pretty fast pace. She was almost running before she caught up with me and went right past me to where Sadie was standing.

It's poses like this where I remember the bloodhound can hear things 4x as far as the human ear and of course smell 200x better than my nose. The look of Stella leads me to believe she smelled and heard the large field cat in the woods. The neighbor says no one owns it and yes, it's a very large cat and spends a lot of time in that wooded area. It's so large that the first time I saw it from a distance I wasn't sure what kind of animal it was.

They might be on the final stages of getting home on this walk but there is always one last thing to find to eat before I walk over and tell her 'let's go' ... if I'm ignored I have no other choice but to lead her by her collar until she starts walking on her own in our direction.

She still likes returning home by entering the north side of the yard. At least she keeps things interesting around here, with never a dull moment.

They will have another late lunch today and probably two more walks, unless some of that 50% chance of rain shows up in the next couple of hours.

I'm back to reading books today, totally motivated to accomplish nothing as I have decided to make this a long weekend. It has the potential to stretch all the way through the week. I am still thinking of other options of having groceries delivered ... that is how lazy I am feeling today. What I couldn't do with a drone.

I image by the afternoon sometime or tonight, my hunger will shove me into my car and lead me to the store. I have some food left but nothing I want to eat. I'd rather have a $1 frozen burrito than another salad right now ... strange stuff.

My circular polarize filter has been shipped, should be here tomorrow a day earlier than they estimated.

Time moves on here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Must Be Feeling Better This Morning

Her morning walk today proved she must be feeling better. She runs away deep in "the no-fly" zone!

If you look at this next picture you would think she feels terrible. The camera caught her at a bad time and I debated whether to post it or not. She woke up at 6:45am to go outside with her tail wagging as she trotted toward the door. A fast trot around the corner of the house and into the field. I stepped back inside after letting the other two hounds out to serve their breakfast kibble.

This picture was taken during our 2nd trip outside, which happens right after their breakfast while my coffee is brewing.

She then came back inside and slept up until the time Sadie decided it was time for the morning walk. I figured we would be taking it slow today based on yesterday afternoon's walk. She already looked better this morning but was totally out of it Saturday for most of the day ... due to my mistake.

I haven't in the past for many years, had my hounds get rabies shots. I made that mistake for some reason on Friday's vet visit but after the way her side effects were yesterday I will not giving her any more shots, nor Sadie and Heidi.

That is why this morning I could tell she was feeling much better so soon after waking up. Compared to yesterday she looked and acted so much different. Her tail was high and wagging as she trotted to the door. She howled loud when she came back inside knowing it was time for breakfast.

While Stella stood and posed for that terrible picture, Sadie was out in the field searching for the latest scents. We finally headed out a few minutes before 9am for the first walk of the day in 48° weather.

Stella was cruising at a speed a little faster than I had anticipated and I think it was a good sign seeing her tail held a little higher than she has recently. She was a lot more curious about what she smelled and a few times caught up with Sadie ... so things were looking much better for her today compared to yesterday's afternoon walk without the camera.

All the way up to the last turn toward home I suspected nothing out of the ordinary taking place. Sadie was pretty relaxed in her walk today and I saw no signs of deer on the horizon. Little did I know what would take place in the next 10 minutes.

This is just a little past the last turn, toward the back of the field, not 10' away. I decided I'd let the hounds do what they do as I continued to walk home.

It wasn't until Sadie ran up next to me, acting a little upset. I'd seen that look many times over the last 8 years and 8 months that I have had her. As I turn to check on Stella I can see what Sadie is upset about ... Stella has not moved from the spot that Sadie found. When I looked before making the turn home, I saw nothing but bare ground where the grass had been mashed down and moved by Sadie's nose to get a better look.

One thing to keep in mind when you are looking at this pictures, I am really far away. I am shooting them with a 200mm zoom and still not even getting close to her. Yet, I could tell that she raised her head to look for us to see or smell where we were.

It wasn't five seconds after I snapped the shutter, that she turns and starts walking to the left, along the edge of the field into the "no-fly zone". You can barely see her in the center of the picture as she walks with her head down. I can tell she is in a slow trot ... she is going places !!

I immediately turned off the camera, slide the lens back into it's normal position and took off running up the path. She had a real good lead on me and I knew by the time I got to that tower she could be either in the woods or sprinting after a scent in the cornfield just behind those bushes.

Sadie realized what was going on and sprinted past me like I was standing still while my run turned into a jog up the path. At this point I thought Sadie had found Stella and she would be in view.

When she took off running I thought she had found her and was running toward Stella ... I was wrong.

By the time I got just past the tower, Stella was nowhere in view. By the way Sadie was acting I thought Stella had turned right into the cornfield. I stepped a few steps over the tall grass into that corn field looking every direction, calling Stella's name and did not see Stella anywhere in the cornfield.

Just about time that Sadie and I started heading straight ahead to the right of those trees, calling Stella's name, I make one more search along the tree line ... there she was, staring back at us and sitting as quietly as possible. It was almost like she was trying to hide from Sadie and I, as we were walking north instead of west toward her.

She finally came when I called her.

As she pushed her nose up nudging my hand to let me know she was okay, we made our slow walk back to the path. You can tell by the yellow field in the distance just how much of an incline there is on the north half of the field when it looks pretty flat as you walk on the other side.

So her excitement was over for at least this morning. By the time I downloaded and looked at the 45 pictures I took during the walk, Stella was sleeping right up next to my desk chair while Sadie slept guarding her water bowl.

I thought I'd include a couple of pictures from yesterday. This is Heidi's normal routine after she comes back inside after her lunch. She sprints from the door to the other end of the house in the living room, nose diving into the carpet, scratching each side of her face while growling to herself ... or most likely wiping her mouth clean.

I can only hope that Stella regains her weight as well as Heidi has. I am taking Heidi in on Monday to get on the vet's scales for an official weigh session. I have a feeling she will be back close to 45 pounds.

As I sat playing some Mahjong on my laptop at the kitchen table early yesterday evening, it looked like the field was turning more yellow before my eyes. I was too lazy to go outside at that time, so I took the picture through the window.

If you look close in the dirt, you can see the recently planted crop is staring to grow.

With the temps climbing to over 70° today, we will be taking another walk and multiple other trips outside. The 6' standard leash will NOT be taken but a closer eye on Stella will be. I am off to read more about dog food protein, how much is needed, how much is too much and hopefully find out why a hound stops processing it.

It's a beautiful Sunday here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.