Not Bad For A Monday

It is pretty well set in stone that if I don't start doing something outside right after the morning hound walk, it most likely will not get done. Unless it's mowing the lawn. Otherwise I fall into a routine of downloading my photos into my computer and editing them right after the walk. They might go into a blog post and all of them will be exported to and saved on Flickr. A blog post may or may not be written. IF I move into some other activity besides the computer right after the walk ... it's a productive day.

This gives you a pretty good range of the different flowers, weeds etc that are growing in the field right now. The field is so much different than it was when it was cut in June. At that time it was almost all tall grass.

Since my plants in front of the house are too far under the overhang to capture the rain water, right after my hound walk I stepped inside to set the camera down, pickup the 3qt pitcher for water and headed back outside to water the Azaleas and the flowers that I cannot remember their names. Since my hose only goes so far I use the pitcher for the last three plants by the tv and internet satellite dishes.

We started the walk early but that humidity never left overnight. The old thermometer in the carport was a mark under 90° this morning and the air was thick. Low 90's were predicted highs but high humidity makes it feel much hotter. The hounds didn't mind, it was much cooler in the shade as we took our walk. For some reason Stella joined us right from the start this morning.

Knowing it was going to be watering day I was pretty sure I might get some things done before it gets too hot by 1pm. I use to paint houses in this kind of weather centuries ago when I was 19 or 20. Now I have a choice on whether I want to do anything outside in this heat. Lawn mowing is about all I'll do now, when it's hot. It's too wet to mow in the mornings so I don't have a choice but to mow in the afternoons.

There were two things I wanted to get accomplished this morning. The tires on the FJ needed some air. Little did I know just how hard that task would be. Since I was past the 15 days for returning my TV I decided it was time to recycle that huge box the TV came in. Of course to do that I had to take out all of styrofoam packaging because that is not recyclable. Since it wasn't I was going to end up doing something I had not planned on but it worked out well.

I didn't hear any tree limbs breaking this morning as I walked past the woods. Evidently Sadie did. She was almost in an agitated state of mind while she looked into the woods, running back and forth to get a better view. Finally she decided she had better things to do than run through thick brush and thorns just to see what she had heard. She turned and went back to her exploring in the field.

Stella was in the mode of continuous non-stop walking. If I was in the way she would walk on my foot and would never even look up at me. She just kept walking. Maybe she had already decided it was going to get hot today and she wanted to get back to the house as fast as possible. I am never sure what her reasoning is.

With a nice wind from the southwest, I knew if I burned anything, the wind would keep the smoke away from the house and from me. Some readers may cringe and cuss at me under their breath as they read this ... but yes, I burned that styrofoam along with the case I received last December when a Christmas present arrived in dry ice.

With a fire going strong and that terrible black chemical laden smoke blowing toward the northeast, I ran in the house to get the trash can under my desk that includes nothing more than all the street addresses I cut off of my mail before recycling the mail. Since I am a fire lover at heart (not a fan of the forest fires out west though) I grabbed all of my old business records and slowly fed them to the fire. I could have recycled them but it would have been too time consumer of deleting addresses and bank account numbers from the paperwork. Six years of business records went up in smoke, not a trace of them anywhere.

By noon the three hounds outside while I burned paper, were begging to go back inside where the AC had cooled the house the past hour or so. I did not have a camera handy to take my proof but Stella not only had another large drool this morning, but she had been eating dirt. What do you get when you mix water and dirt .... MUD ... hanging from both sides of her jowls. Where's the drool rag?

It was close to lunch time for them and hot enough that I knew once I went inside feeling that nice cold air I wasn't going back outside for a while. Probably not until after 8pm, when it is nice enough to sit outside. Like I said the other day, for some reason there has not been a problem of bugs, gnats or mosquitoes this summer, so sitting outside is enjoyable that time of day.

I have been able to hold off lately and fight through the cravings for ice cream, cookies or candy. I'll eat healthy throughout the day and early evening but by 9pm it is pure insanity craving sweets. Eating sweet fruit does not solve the craving ... drinking water does not either ... only ice cream, cookies or candy will work. Each night is a battle.

Stella has started to get a little more kibble in her bowl starting yesterday. I am going to see if I can put some more weight on those ribs that are showing. She was a lot skinnier than that in February 2017 but gained a lot of her weight back this spring. She weighed 79 pounds in April.

It might look like two butterflies but it's only one this morning. This flower is about 10' from the yard and at the end of our walk if we take the alternate path. I let the bloodhounds decide which path we take and believe it or not, they don't choose the same path all the time.

I didn't get any photos of the hounds after their lunch. What you saw yesterday is the way it is every day. None of them stay outside long and seem more interested in getting back inside to sleep than anything else.

Last week while Sadie was checking for any kind of spilled kibble around the sealed lid container, she not only moved the 25# dumbbell that holds the container in place, but dug out the old Coleman sleeping bag (for the hounds) in the closet to check under it. Then she decided if she would spread it out with her front paws it would be nice to take naps on ... just like the camping trip. She spends every afternoon on that sleeping back for her naps.

Stella had one thing on her mind this morning when walking ... getting into the shaded backyard as soon as possible. It's rare that she is the first one back to the yard, but today was one of those times.
 

I have to admit that shade this morning felt pretty good. It was at least 10°-15° cooler than the field. She still walked without stopping all the way to the carport/kitchen door to be let back inside.

With it being a 'low' pollen count today, she did not stop to scratch herself in the shade nor did she scratch herself inside ... she laid down and went to sleep, which is her second favorite activity right behind eating food.

I almost forgot ... how hard it was to air the tires up. It wasn't or isn't the process of airing them up. It was finding the air pumps to do it. In this small town three mini mart/gas stations have air pumps. One of those accepts debit cards, which is what I live on. I rarely have cash let alone quarters. Well the first pump I went to did not have a sign on it telling me that debit cards were not working. I won't tell you how many times I swiped my card, then slide the car into the slot before figuring out it wasn't working. I also won't tell you the words I was mumbling to myself during that time.

I go to store #2. At least it has a large page sign on the machine telling me it was "Out of Order". I was down to one last chance, otherwise I was on a 25 mile round trip drive just to put air into some tires that were low and needed air as soon as possible. Of course that machine only took quarters. Unlike last time, last year, their ATM machine was working this time so I could at least get some cash without driving around town looking for an ATM machine that worked.

Pretty soon, even this small town will be on nothing but electronic payment. I am not a fan of Apple Pay yet. Anyone else use electronic payment with your smart phone without any kind of issues??

I was successful getting the tires aired up. I passed on their candy, fresh oatmeal cookies and they didn't have Ben&Jerry's ice cream in their (minimart) freezer ... so I got out of the store with 6 quarters for the air pump, some dollar bills for my next trash run and a ten dollar bill for my next fast food run.

All in all, it was a nice day in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana today.

Back On Facebook - I Must Be Bored

The rains arrived as predicted. It was one of those rains that was steady, quiet, straight and strong enough at times to block all satellite connections for my tv and internet services. Maybe it was because I was bored while it rained, or it might have been because I really did miss some of the services I had with a Facebook account. I've RE-started a new Facebook account this morning and am slowly building it again with photos and the few friends I have scattered all over the USA and Canada.

Some of the groups I use to follow did not have a Twitter or Instagram account. A few local pages were nice in case of weather or electrical emergencies and were helpful. I use Twitter to get all of my up to the minute sports news. I opened a Instagram account months ago because a few bloggers had moved there to continue their blogging as well as some old friends that have photos of their dogs. So I guess social media is nice to have as long as the verbal wars and disagreements stay away. Most of my friends are not local so it's a good way to stay in touch. I have a few friends only on Facebook that enjoy photos of the hounds there but rarely if ever come to the blog.

If you would like to add me on Facebook, here is a link to my account.

https://www.facebook.com/steve.floyd.31105

I do post a few photos of the hounds but none of them are different than the photos you see here on the blog.

I was so busy trying to rebuild my account, I worked right through the time I normally feed the hounds at lunch. They did not bark, howl or whine for food today ... they slept right through lunch with the sound of quiet rain creeping through the open windows. With the rain, none of them were going further than the roof overhang to relieve themselves ... except Sadie. She wasn't in the yard long before she sprinted back to the door to be let inside. She waited for Stella and Heidi to join her.

Heidi moved so fast after her bathroom break that I took four different photos and only this one came out clear. She ran to the living room, dove onto the floor and started her daily rolling on her back while growling at herself. She was sleeping soon after her burst of energy.

Even with a lot of good rain ... none of it reached my flowers and plants in the flowerbed, which you will see below.

We didn't do much Sunday so we didn't blog. I found out how out of shape I am in when I woke up Sunday with very sore muscles in the back of my legs just from my activity on Saturday. It was nothing strenuous. I did a lot of bending over while I was on the roof cleaning a couple of gutter downspouts, pulling weeds in the front flowerbed and finished by washing the Z4 which sits low to the ground. Ibuprofen was my best friend on Sunday. All outdoor tasks were cancelled.

The hounds felt the same way. They spent most of Sunday sleeping but still got their two daily walks in. Heidi felt like I did ... she wanted to do nothing and did nothing.

By accident this morning I think I have found Stella's allergy source. This is her itching yesterday. It was also a day where I kept taking allergy tablets myself. That is just a hint of what may be wrong with her, that will talk about below.

We had a lot of good solid rain last night but I never heard it while I slept. This shows why my plants do not get rain water. I planted each plant in the middle of the flowerbed so when they are fully grown they will not grow past the landscape edging. Also, the corner where the edging turns left is the approximate location of my septic tank inlet. That area would need to be dug up for them to clean my system, if it's ever required.

Therefore I still have to water my plants even if it rains. You can see that one Azalea has been brutally beaten down by a sub zero winter and a hot summer. I am not sure it will recover and continue to grow. I have two more on the other side of the porch and each of them look more like the full leaf green one.

Sadie wasn't sure we were going to really go for a walk through the wet field this morning. I could tell there had been a lot of rain by the way the ground felt, very soft. Also my yard was turning green before my eyes. It's amazing how much it changed in a 48 hour period. Just last week I considered bringing out the lawn sprinklers to water the yard if I was not going to get any rain.

I have no explanation for Stella. This morning she started walking on the path in her slow pace but the difference was ... she never stopped walking. 99.9% of the walk she walked with only one time she stopped for some deer scat. She never lowered her head to the ground but that one time during the walk ... it was like she was walking in her sleep.

She walked and walked ... LOL

Sadie was doing what Stella normally does. But I don't have to call Sadie catch up as she does that on her own.

You can barely see Stella hidden behind the brush.

This is the only time she stopped walking during the half mile walk.

With thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon and the dampness in the air, my painting project is on hold until the weather is dry and hot again.

Yes, Stella is still walking in slow motion. She is walking along the overgrown ATV path from last summer that runs parallel to the back edge of the field but much further left of Sadie and I.

She almost stopped as she circled something that interested her. About the time I started walking her direction in case I needed to get her to move ... she took off walking again towards our return path by the last turn of our walk.

You can barely see the path we take, which moves right next to the right of the roll of hay. Stella has crossed the path waiting to see if I tell her to stop and turn around.

I did tell her 'no, come here' and she was about to me when she dodged to check out one more thing before she started her walk home. Yet, she never put her nose to the ground.

Sadie was on her own and always ran to catch up to me.

Notice that Stella is in the exact same pose as she walks ... I should have shot a video of her instead of having the camera catch her in stop action. No, for those that are wondering, this will not turn into a Vblog.

A little verbal herding kept Stella headed in our direction. She would love to go over and visit the neighbors backyard and check for any food that might be out for the wild field cat.

Instead of sitting and scratching this morning when she returned to the yard, she stood and waited for me to take her picture. Then she turned and started walking toward the house. She has NOT scratched at all this morning inside or outside ... and I have not had to take any allergy tablets today, with all the windows open due to the low temperatures.

Have you figured out what I think may be Stella's itching source???

Pollen.

I look at Wunderground every morning to see what kind of weather I have to look forward to. This time of year I look at their block for Precipitation and Pollen. When I started thinking about it I remembered noticing that Stella does not scratch all the time and even not every day. Just like I don't take allergy tablets every day or all the time. I also saw that Wunderground's pollen count was pretty accurate and I can usually feel it in my sinuses first thing in the morning when I look at their site.

I'll start paying more attention and see if what I said here about Stella's allergies proves to be fairly accurate.

This is not the pose I wanted of Sadie when I took this picture but she moved at the last second and turned her face away from the camera.

With the Reds and Cubs having the night off from baseball, it might be a night to catch a movie on tv or a DVD off of my shelf. I don't watch hardly any prime time tv shows but I do have my DVR set to automatically tape new and older shows. That library is building up fast. I am going to have to change the settings to only 'new' episodes.

What might some of them be?

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives is one of my favorites. There is some great food on that show and luckily he has stopped a few places in Indiana within driving distance. I like watching Mexico Life, Caribbean Life, Beachfront Bargins Hunt, Mountain Living, Building Off The Grid, F1 Racing, IndyCar Racing, Hometown, Dr. Jeff Rocky Mountain Vet, and Comfort Food Tour. I also have various college football programs that include the Pac12, and the BigTen.

Luckily I put the car cover on the Z4 Sunday afternoon while it was sunny. Rain was predicted for Sunday night, which did happen. It's good to keep the rain, pollen and dust off of it when it's parked.

For those readers that use Apple products I still like the new macOS on my Mac and laptop. I have not put it on my iPhone and won't until it is officially released this fall. I am currently using the 'beta' version on my computers.

So ... not much going on today. Rain off and on, at times very heavy. Temps are still cool, no AC and the hounds and I are enjoying this weather rain or shine here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.