Ranting And Raving Today

I'm not sure what the reason is but for some reason it was a day of the littlest of things bothering me and even ticking me off a few times. Even as late as a few minutes ago I could not even go through my photo library to find some photos to add to this post since I didn't take more than these photos today. Yet, I felt like blogging, like I had to blog to clear my mind. So for readers that love 20+ photos ... not happening today. For those that like rambling you MIGHT be interested otherwise I can feel a vibe right now as the words come out that there could be more ranting than rambling.

That dog bed that Heidi is laying on has a lot of drool stains that remain even after the cover is washed. I bought that bed the same day I picked her up from GABR only to have Sadie claim that bed was hers when she saw it and the older bloodhound slept on that bed every night for the next 7 years. The morning after Sadie passed, Heidi creeped over to it to check it out ... laid down on it ... and has been sleeping on it at night and different times during the day since last September 2018.

The two photos of the hounds exemplifies what the day was like today ... but it really started out beautiful as the sun came up. It may have been one of the best sunrises yet since I moved in June 13.

Another thing interesting in these photos ... they were taken with my iPhone 8+ camera. Yes I am eligible for what they call an "upgrade" but that is only a way to keep buying a new phone every two years. I plan on keeping this phone for quite a while and not fall into the marketing trap of Apple, Verizon, Best Buy or whomever wants to sell me a new phone. Their emails are always deleted when received.

So lets get back to the day starting and try to put some order in this. My routine was changing before it got started today with Stella's vet appointment at 9am. That's a bad time for me because I am out riding my bike at that time 4-5 days per week. Maybe not riding was the cause of this day that seemed out of order.

Or it might have been arriving at the vet about 10 minutes before my appointment ... then sitting there ... sitting some more ... glancing at my watch numerous times and watching the waiting room fill up with dog and cat owners ... all of us here for our appointment. With FIVE behind the counter and vet tech's walking all over the place going somewhere you would think at least ONE of us dog and cat owners would be called for our appointment.

Didn't happen.

We continued to sit and I could feel the lack of patience rising in my pulse rate. I was keeping my mouth shut but I could tell I wasn't thrilled about what was going on. Then like everything else either in dental, doctor or vet appointments ... each visit brings out the same exact questions with the same exact answers because they are reading from a prompt basically ... just like those you talk to over the phone for any kind of customer service.

WTF .... do you think my address and phone number has changed in the LAST TWO DAYS SINCE OUR LAST APPOINTMENT ???? Or on the phone ... you press different numbers moving through their maze of questions when all you want to do is talk to a live person. Then after you have told the recording your name, street address number, your phone number blah blah blah .... what is the first thing that live person asks ???  ALL THE SAME QUESTIONS YOU JUST ANSWERED IN THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM.

Since I'm in that area of bitching that brings up something else I have noticed lately ... you cannot buy anything either in person or online, you cannot go to the dentist, doctor, vet or car dealers, WITHOUT HAVING A SURVEY EMAILED TO YOU WITHIN THE NEXT 24-48 HOURS to fill out "How did we do?"

It has gotten so ridiculous with all this crap being electronic that even the phone, email and texting systems got confused when I confirmed my vet appointment as they asked by email. When I typed "C" on the vet office text to confirm THE SAME appointment .... it came back with a reply "We don't see your appointment, please call the office !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It's 11pm the NIGHT BEFORE the 9am appointment THAT I HAVE ALREADY CONFIRMED ON THEIR EMAIL.

How ridiculous can it get???

So back to the vet ... the day is still early with a lot more story telling. I can feel all the frustration and anger leaving my body as I type and I am not even to the good stuff yet.  Ha Ha Ha

We are called in ... the tech has her clipboard with the green form that will later be put in Stella file by one of the five people out at the counter I'm sure. Let's see ... same phone number, same address, yes she eats and drinks normally, no she has not puked or had diarrhea, yes she seems normal blah blah blah. Same answers as the PREVIOUS THREE APPOINTMENTS in the LAST TEN DAYS !!!!!

I'm instructed to go sit in the waiting area while they take off her bandage, check the healing area and then decide whether we continue this #$^@#@E%7 circus another two days or is she okay? Guess what ????????? A new bandage ... "the area looks great it is really healing well. She is such a nice dog" ... come back on Friday and we will take off the bandage" $34.71 each visit to replace the bandage. At this point in time I just don't give a shit ... I'm irritable and I want to get out of here as fast as possible. I feel almost claustrophobic.

Then guess what?

I have to go through the "maze of questions" with the girl at the front desk just to pay my bill and make Friday's appointment. I wanted to tell her so bad "Isn't any of this information on your computer screen" .... GEEEZZZZZUUSSSSSSS !!!!

We are loaded and we leave. I can tell this day is not lined up right so I am keen on watching other drivers just to prevent any kind of possible wrecks. LOL ... if you only knew what was going to happen. I decide to hit the McDonalds drive-thru for a coffee and a bacon egg cheese biscuit. It's down the highway about a mile but don't they say most accidents happen within 6 miles of home?

No accident ... but something different.

I'm on the highway at a stop light heading home. I feel better already with the TOO HOT Mickey D's coffee moving through my veins. I'll eat the biscuit when I get home. The light turns green and I accelerate at a normal speed, not beating any land records but also not crawling through the intersection like a turtle. Left lane is bumper to bumper traffic and in my .... rear view mirror .... I see a beat up old Dodge Chrysler van with a closing speed so fast that my mirror is filling up fast and I can see her eyes in my mirror ... she is that close as she slams on her brakes to keep from hitting me.

Nothing I hate worse than a #^$#@@$& idiot hitting my car from behind ... a rear end crash. NOTHING I HATE WORSE. Especially when I have my bloodhound riding in the back ... that would have been ugly ... but no ....

She swerves to miss me, cutting off the cars on the left as she cut into traffic on the left lane.

Now, remember I don't care how hot it is ... when I drive around town I like to have the windows open ... HER window is open .... as she flies by me tailgating the car in front of her ... I mean NASCAR close to their bumper like she was with me ... she starts slowing down and with no cars in front of me I think she is going to move to my lane and that's fine.

NO .... she doesn't want to change lanes in front of me ... she wants to yell at me. In the mood I'm in not not even 10am in the morning this is going to get ugly. I have no idea what she is yelling because I am yelling louder and calling her everything possible ... I had this one second urge to veer left and ram her beat up van just like you see in the movies but not when my bloodhound is in back.

So what does she do .... you guessed it.

She slows down way below the speed limit blocking the cars behind her as she cuts in front of the pickup truck following me and is right on my bumper RIGHT ON MY BUMPER !!!!

Luckily my turn is just up ahead ... I move right into the turn lane ... SHE DOES TOO. Is she going to follow me home? LOL .... I hope so. Nope, we both make the turn at the stop light and while I go straight to go home she makes another left which will take her to multiple businesses.

She was probably late for work.

The day is just getting started WITH FRUSTRATING FUN !!!!

I just finish the bacon egg cheese biscuit and my coffee that has finally cooled enough to drink it. I let the hounds back inside from the backyard and I hear the doorbell ring. HAS SHE FOUND ME, SAW MY CAR AND KNOWS WHERE I LIVE ????

It's my neighbor from across the street. Nice guy, late 70s maybe 80's ... LOVES to talk and is holding his tail light from his Jeep Liberty in his hand. I'M NOT A MECHANIC, but he is mechanically inclined with a garage full of every tool you can imagine.

He shows me the problem, asks me what to do or can WE get that broken large melted plastic OUT of the tail light through the hole the light bulb would go. NOW ... I have Stella and Heidi wanting to investigate with the door open and identify this visitor so I am trying to keep them inside, hold the door open and still give my opinion on the light WHICH I KNOW IS NOT THE RIGHT ANSWER HE WANTS !!!!

I don't mind helping people but I have plans to change clothes into bike stuff, get on the bike and pedal my anger away mile after mile ... I HAD those plans but just like that my whole day is about to change.

It's called life ... live with it.

I'll not lead you down that rabbit hole of the story but if I tell you I didn't get back home for 3 hours ... you get the picture I'm sure.

Back to the vet ... Stella weighed in a pound heavier today ... that is what happens when she doesn't get her daily morning walk I guess. Hopefully by Saturday morning she can get back on the road right after the sun comes up.

When I mentioned my camera problems the other day, with the 6-8 month old Canon G9 X having a black spot on the sensor ... a sensor I can only get to with a jeweler set of screwdrivers and take the whole thing apart ... NOT HAPPENING. Then wondering if it is time to upgrade from the Nikon D3200 to a D5300 or a D5600 ??? There is one way to find out ... one way to sort out all the bullshit specs on different cameras. It's just like the marketing of the smart phones ... new models very little change except the prices.

So as I have in the past when I am confused about what to buy IF ANYTHING ... I go here for my camera comparison. As you see the link I use is where I was comparing the Canon G9 X with my Nikon D3200. Looks like I should have followed my intuition and the website advise instead of following the advice of the world famous blogger on the motorcycle and a sidecar. That was back in December or January.

Long story short ... Today I plugged in every camera model I was thinking of upgrading to and followed the advice of these experts. This old D3200 is a pretty good camera even though it's an entry level camera for a 'beginner'. Add to the fact I needed to update the firmware for the lenses I use, I saved myself hundreds of dollars today by following that website.

I also looked at CNET Reviews for camera's. I am not interested in the 'mirrorless' cameras. I was able to pull some other models off of CNET that they recommended and compare it to the old D3200. Nothing I could find in my price range was worth buying to replace the D3200.

The best thing I could do for my frame of mind today was to .... take a nice long siesta.

I think the trend lately of disrupted sleep every night and my lack of riding a bike today is the cause of the shitty attitude I've had today. I have ZIP to bitch about. My life is good as always, very easy and chaos free compared to many others and where I am at I don't have to worry about trees falling on my house from the wind or even if my house will be lost to flooding ... so I have NOTHING I should be complaining about. Every day can't be smooth as butter ... sometimes there are disruptions.

I will keep an eye out for that faded old beat up maroon dodge/chrysler van just in case she is still angry and wants to ram me. LOL

Ah ... I feel better now after my "writing therapy" ... sorry I didn't have a lot of photos today but hopefully some humor.

Really ... all is good in the Wild West.

Vet Gives Stella An A+

With an 11am vet appointment for Stella today, we were able to fit our morning walk between a light rain and our departure. As you will see from the photos, Stella's walk was more of a leisurely stroll  than anything else. It was 69°, all the house windows were open again and the AC was turned off. All of that did not mean that Heidi would take the morning walk with us, she didn't.

With the photos being just as dark and dreary as my eyes were seeing, none of these photos were edited. It was fantastic news last night when Barney made a comment on my post yesterday afternoon, explaining why my photos did not look as sharp, clear and crisp as Mark's over on his BoxCanyon Blog. It's the moisture in the air that makes the photo quality different than his in the mountains of Colorado.

I never thought about that. One reason is, I still think to this day that the first week of using the Nikon D3200, it's photos were much better than recent ones. Still, it was great to hear Barney's reasoning and from someone that had experienced using his camera in Colorado and Texas locations and noticed the difference.

As I approached the first turn it was good to feel less mosquitoes this morning. I hope the cooler temps tonight and tomorrow drive them away for good. Stella had to be in front of me today. Anytime I took the lead on the walk so I could take a photo in front of her, she would trot and pass me.

Finally as she found something interesting enough to stop ... I was able to move in front and get pretty far in front of her for these next pictures.

These next two photos show how slow she walks ... you can see each front leg raised, one at a time. I know they both should not be off the ground at the same time but every step is defined in a slow movement.

One thing I have noticed between the two cameras .. the Nikon D3200 and the Canon SX530 ... I am taking the same photos, holding the camera the same way and the Nikon D3200 would be 2°- 4° off in photos that had a house or a cell phone tower, maybe some trees in the photo.

That tells me that one day in 2017 when a strong wind picked up the chair the Nikon was sitting in and blew the chair/camera about 10' into the driveway, it did something to the Nikon camera. I was washing the FJ at the time and there were no signs of strong winds, until that sudden wind burst.

While I reminded Stella that we had a pretty tight schedule to keep to get to the vet on time, 12 miles away ... she continued to observe the area and walk as slow as possible. Her world moves on her time, no one else.

I am able to take better close up photos with the Canon SX530.

This is another time I wish I could find out what Stella is thinking.

Finally it clicked in her brain that it was time to leave for the vet. She was excited to go somewhere.

The vet removed the three staples on her inner left front leg. It had healed nice. The spot on her head above her right now healed quickly and is growing hair back. He thought her right eye was looking very good and I could stop the eye ointment I had been putting in her eye twice per day. He reminded me to keep her eyes clean as possible due the way a bloodhound and basset hound eyelid is designed opposite most dogs .. they fall outward.

With the off and on light rain all day, it was a good day to read the books I brought home from the library. My 'to do' list is on hold until tomorrow when the rains are gone. Plus I played a lot of games of Mahjong, trying to get more games finished under 3 minutes. You can barely see the rain going at an angle from upper left to lower right.

It is the only app I have ever bought ... 99 cents. (Mahjong Deluxe) That keeps all the advertising away. There are 4 levels with 40 games per section. One of the best time wasters I have ever found.

While Heidi refused to come out for photos ... Stella found it pretty easy to stretch out and sleep the afternoon away.

Another great day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.