It's Friday - Now What??

It was pitch black, completely quiet as I woke from one of the most strangest dreams I've had. Of course I could remember nothing about it as I lay there for the first few seconds. I did hear something familiar though ... that bloodhound whine just to the left side of my bed. Stella was standing next to it waking me up. How long had she been trying?

Then I heard another familiar sound ... her stomach gurgling. It was 4:13am.  :)

She returned from outside in about 5 minutes, walked in and went straight to her dog bed and went back to sleep. I was still awake but I wasn't going to get up that early and start blogging. I did that in December when I first moved my blog here on WordPress. Not today though.

Luckily the hounds let me sleep a little later than normal, just past 8:30am. The daily routine changed drastically and really, it already had at 4:13am. We took our morning walk before I made any coffee. I was active without my two cups of caffeine. That was strange.

You forget how nice things are until you don't have it, then it returns ... Warm Weather !!!

Since it rained all night, starting while I was watching the baseball game on tv, the path was pretty soft but it was not slick with mud and leaves under my boots. I could see how fast wild bushes and the grass is greening up. If the sun were to every get hot during the day, all of this would be growing much faster.

I wasn't sure what I had planed for the day but the only thing I could think of was some minor lawn mower repair. The mower old but runs great. There have been too many times of mowing wet grass, where I didn't clean it after I mowed. So here many years later I have a few small holes worn through the metal bucket. I might be buying a new mower but I want to try something I read last fall about repairing it.

An article from "Handyman" website, shows that I can sand around each of those holes, preferably to bare metal, then apply some Gorilla Tape. My choice whether to paint over it to match the color of the mower. That will be my one thing of the day to do. Then the first test to see if it works will be early next week after it stops raining.

It was good to feel that the 800mg of Ibuprofen I took right before I went to bed, sucked all of the muscle soreness out of me. I felt nothing this morning as I walked the path alone. I had let Stella go off on her own, thinking I would meet her somewhere on the way back home.

As I was on the last part of the walk home, you can barely see Stella just left of center.

No doubt she has found a fresh spot of deer scat.

She evidently was happy with the freedom I gave her this morning. She walked right over to our path when I called her name. She is only a stubborn bloodhound when she wants to be and hears me perfectly clear. She just chooses what she wants to hear.  :)

Shaking a little more of the ear cleaner out of her ears this morning. Yesterday was Hound Ears Cleaning Day. She has much cleaner ears than Heidi.

It was extremely quiet this morning has we walked. I knew it was a Friday but traffic noise from the highway sounded like a Sunday.

It looks like I missed one of my small raked piles of leaves and twigs the other day.

I haven't heard any ideas about what to do with this area along the back side of the house. Mulch, river rock or replant grass all the way up to the edge of the house? I have ground swell and I remember digging out that 'flowerbed' area about 5" deep before filling it with rock. The level was below the edge of the house.

Not only does she walk near the house when she finishes her walk but also as close as possible to the car .. every morning. As long as the rain is in the forecast for the next few days, washing the car will be on hold.

I love having the windows open again. Just barely above 50° but feels warmer. A hundred different birds are talking. Other than that it's quiet as I finish my second cup of coffee. There's that woodpecker again.

A month or so ago I read the latest book about Howard Schultz. After reading about who he was and what he was about I had a feeling that I could vote for that man if he were to run for President. Last night Fox News had a "Town Hall" with Howard Schultz. Of course I have no doubt that all attendees are screened as well as all the questions but once again after watching the show, I had a feeling I could vote for that man. I hope he chooses to run.

He has some good ideas on how to heal the country if elected. He has experience talking to world leaders as he expanded his Starbuck's business. His business was the first to give free health care to all employees, fulltime or partime. He can work with people from different backgrounds, have different colored skin, male or female.

As I sat there listening to him answer the questions fired at him, I kept wondering if it was even possible to have both sides of Congress work with him as President to finally get something done. I kind of leaned toward the word "no" ... I have no doubt the Democrats would be pissed even if he was elected because they didn't put their "chosen one" in office. I don't know who that is.

They will be very angry if he announces this summer that he is going to run. They feel that is handing another 4 years to Trump because Howard Schultz will NOT run as a Democrat. Like he said last night, "I didn't leave the demorcratic party, the party left me." He also thinks he can win those 8 states that determine who is president in every election.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out by November 2020.

In the mean time I will go back to watching my Cincinnat Reds, who are playing much better baseball this summer but still have a 1-5 reccored because they cannot score runs and cannot hit a baseball. Last year it was just the opposite they couldn't pitch but could hit. They started last year 1-13. It's a long season, the bats will warm up but it's never good digging yourself in a hole at the start of a season.

Of course they are ONLY YELLING a lot in Cincinnat with the poor record, a new manager with analytics but they are not JUMPING OFF BRIDGES like they are in Chicago because the Cubs are also 1-5, but they are suppose to win the World Series and not suffer through another bad season.

A perfect overcast day this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Strange Visitor???

As we stepped outside after the hound's lunch ... it really felt warm. I took this picture just to make sure I saw what I was feeling. It also proves to you that are scattered all over the USA, Canada and Mexico ... I'm not crazy .. it's 40° 18 hours after a snow storm. The NFL Playoff game didn't start until 1pm so I had some time to take more pictures, let the hounds out to wander ... but they did not wander for long until they were back at the door wanting inside. It was such nice weather I wanted to stay out longer ... then I saw them. Paw prints of something.

Heidi did not spend much time trying to decide what she wanted to do. That didn't mean she was going to walk out into the snow ... just under the overhang on the dry mulch. She has not been in any of that snow since it showed up on Friday. Of course since she is allowed to dump her tanks on the mulch, I have no problems using my old 25 or 30 year old 'pooper scooper' to pick it up and throw it out into the woods.

This looks like a typical January day. I clicked a 'tag' on this blog last night "Bloodhounds Love the Snow" and found out that it was just 3 days away from exactly a year when it snowed here last year and a lot more. Sadie and Stella ended up playing rough in the snow and did some running. The snow energized them, not so much anymore.

Stella stood and thought about it. Was it time for her afternoon walk? Or was it time to go back inside and sleep for a couple of hours?

I was starting to walk down to the mailbox in case something had been delivered the past few days when I saw something a little disturbing. Let me explain. These paw prints went all the way down the driveway before curling to the right into the yard. BUT.... they did not show up going back to the house in the middle of the front yard nor anywhere in the yard.

Stella has NEVER been that far down the driveway nor has she ever been close to the highway or the mailbox. So could those paw prints be hers? If so, she was doing it during that early morning trip when I let them outside while I pour their morning kibble. IF that was her I cannot let her outside on her own, after 3 years of doing it because I cannot afford to let her go that direction any time ... whether I am outside or not.

They look like her paws ... but could it have been another large dog roaming the neighborhood during the night or before I let Stella and Heidi outside in the morning? It has been YEARS since I have seen any loose dogs running around this neighborhood and they were not large dogs. Two of my three neighbors do not have dogs. The brick home across the highway has a St.Bernard but I've never seen him outside their yard and never near the highway. He will bark at me sometimes when I go to the mailbox but that's all I ever see or hear from him.

So I'll have to try to fake Stella out Monday morning as I let her out, turn like I am leaving to pour out dog food but sneak out of the house to see where she is going. The problem is, 95% of the time she doesn't go anywhere and stands at the door waiting to get back inside. We will see what happens.

Yes, a few dents in that 44 year old aluminum siding when the house was owned by other people.

I took more pictures of those paw prints as I went to the mailbox. Is it a stray Cougar??? Don't laugh, we have them in the area sometimes. Yet, I am pretty sure these are from Stella.

Or could those be Heidi's ????

Time to go in ... Stella will always put her nose to the door knob to go back inside. We all know though, she can't open doors with round door knobs don't we?  :)

Not only one of my favorite healthy breakfasts but one with color ... it was the colors that made me post this. Bacon, three eggs, baby spinach and cut up Roma tomatoes.

During one of the commercials of the football game I was looking outside the north window noticing how fast the snow was melting. Then .... I saw more of those paw prints. So I took my camera outside and followed them from the north yard down across the front yard heading for the driveway. I did not see any paw prints where they went from the driveway into the yard.

At least my car stayed clean this weekend. I might have to make a trip to the recycling center on Monday ... I'll wait as long as possible for the highway to dry completely before I go.

IT WAS CONFIRMED AT 3:07PM EASTERN TIME THE MYSTERIOUS PAW PRINTS ARE STELLA'S !!!! 

This was my chance to watch and follow her. I think we have a 100% confirmation these prints and those in the yard and driveway are Stella's. It's the house rules for the all the hounds EXCEPT Heidi, not to go into the front yard. It's been that way for 20 years of hounds ... Stella is now officially on "Double Secret Probation" .. (a Animal House movie reference for those that can't figure that out)

In the meantime the snow continues to melt at a rapid rate without the sun shinning ... the highway looks dry enough to me that I can make that trip to the recycling center Monday morning after our walk.

Still 40° today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.