Lots Of Ideas Not Much Action Today

You know something is wrong when you wake up and the room is filled with more sunshine than usual. Both hounds still sleeping, they have not had breakfast yet as far as I can remember. I don't recall ever waking up during the night nor do I remember a bloodhound nose nudging my arm if it's near the edge of the bed. It's 10 minutes until 7am and we haven't slept this late since we moved here. Not even the hounds.

All three of us jump into the normal routine. The hounds seemed confused since it's me waking them up instead of them waking me up. Once they head down the hallway they begin to realize we are starting our day and breakfast kibble is only a few minutes away. They both trot for the back door to be let outside. As I set the two dishes up to pour out the kibble, Stella lets out a loud bloodhound howl telling me she is happy breakfast is being served. Heidi trots around in excitement trying to get the best position once I set the dog dishes down full of kibble.

It was going to be either hiking or a roadtrip today but I needed coffee first, at least a cup before Stella and I took our two hour late walk. What would it be like, walking at 7:30am instead of 5:30am ... more people out walking their dogs or more bicyclist passing the house? I was almost shocked that we saw no one, no dogs, and only one car leaving the area.

That included a walk to the mailbox that is around the corner and down the block. I thought that was a pain to go that far for mail but it's nothing compared to those people that live outside of town and have the same set up. A cabinet of mailboxes on the side of the road for those that live locally. I get the idea that some of them drive a long ways to their mailboxes.

Instead of just grabbing some water, my cap, camera and heading out to the nearest trail, I was in a state of paralysis. Hiking or a roadtrip? I wanted to do both. Take the hounds or leave them home? Well that is pretty easy to answer. With the temps in the 90's by 10am most every day, if I plan to stop to eat somewhere or go see someplace interesting the dogs can't stay in the car due to the heat. Not all small restaurants allow dogs. So If I even think I might stop somewhere they stay home. The hardest part was trying to decide where to drive to.

Then I started thinking of all the stuff I'd like to buy for hiking in general, things suggested by a couple of readers. Like a First Aid Kit, some trekking poles, some t-shirts ... you know, just things on my mind that do nothing but distract me from doing what I planned on doing. Each time I glanced at the time, 30 minutes had past. The day was passing me by.

Around here if you don't get your outdoor activities finished by 10am, it is going to be too hot, possibly too dangerous to do much outside. I like hot, have no problems with temps 90° and higher but there are days I'd prefer to stay inside and just hang out. That's basically what the hounds and I did, not counting the short trips to the library, post office and the sporting goods store for those hiking items.

After that it was ok ... were do I go? I looked through my book of trails, looked at maps and even thought of going  back to the San Pedro River area. That's it ... I could go late in the afternoon. Yet by 5:30pm, even the hounds stood on the small patio and they did not want to move either. Zero motivation. It was still 90°.

Before I could decide what to do, I was deep into that book I have mentioned a few times Going Back to Bisbee. I couldn't stop reading it. It was not only describing the San Pedro River area, he was giving me a history lesson about the area I walked in just a few days ago. He was going back to 1830 in his paragraphs. I was totally unaware what I was walking through and taking photos of the other day, until I read this book today.

Stella decides even at 5:30pm it's too hot and she wants back inside. Since our move she basically doesn't let me out of her sight, following me from room to room. When I let her back inside she laid down by the door right inside with the AC while I sat outside reading my book. Although as I type this I am in my computer room and she is sleeping in the living room, so I guess it's not as bad as I think it is at times.

As I kept looking at the sky today I realized that some days I do not need to go anywhere ... I can enjoy the mountain views, the cloud changes and wide open skies right from my patio. Each day is still pretty amazing here as well as the night skies. I might have to start a little research on basic telescopes to use at night.

I went back to that book on local hiking trails, each having a detailed description and all hiked by the book author. Between the book I'm reading and the book describing local trails there is one thing in common I keep seeing. Each says the best time to see these specific areas are in September and October. Those are options with cooler temps, less people around but if I can go hiking on the mornings I don't ride a bike ... I can take some of those hikes now instead of waiting.

I wasn't going to do anything when I saw their news but this morning I clicked that link provided by Equifax to see if my information was in their 2017 breach. Within a minute they told me I was. Since I was also involved in the Government OPM breach many years ago, I have lifetime ID protection provided for free. Since I could prove to Equifax that I would have ID protection for the next six months I could chose the option for them to send me a check "up to" $125 ... whatever that means. How will they determine the amount of payment? Information is the same for everyone .. with financial risk different.

By 9:00pm the skies were calling it a day. Heidi had not moved for hours sleeping deep in the dark bedroom on her dog bed. When it comes time to sleep for the night she is still on Eastern time and does not hesitate to get up in the living room and walk back to the bedroom to go to her bed. Thats 5:30pm local time for her calling it a day.

A short note ... the book about this area had a great description on the history of a small town NE of me called St. David, as he was following the development along the San Pedro River. This book was written in 1992 but many things he wrote then are still obvious today. The book is so good that I took the one I was reading back to the library and bought my own copy on Amazon.

Everybody talks about water here in the Wild West ... it's like gold and I don't take my water for granted.

Our First Tarantula Sighting

Normal routine this morning at "oh dark thirty" when I hear a bloodhound whining so slightly I can't believe it woke me up. The longer I lay there making a decision to get up or not, the whining gets a little louder each time because she has seen me move. If my wrist moves the Apple Watch will light up ... Stella then knows that her first food of the day is just minutes away. That is all she wants, food.

I was happy she woke me up this morning because I was able to see soon after letting the hounds outside this amazing sunrise. I went back in the house to grab the Canon G97 and hoped to capture what my eyes were seeing. To wake up and see things like this happening every morning is pretty amazing and a great way to start the day.

If I lean forward or look around the corner of my patio wall ... I see the sun rising in the east. I wish that tree was not there.

I decided this morning since there would not be a school bus pulling into the neighborhood by 6:15am, that I'd have a cup of coffee this morning before Stella and I would take off for our daily walk just after sunrise. Remember those times where Sadie use to whine if we were not walking by what time ??? 8:00am ??? I don't think there is anyway I can sleep that late living here.

As the fog started to clear from the brain cells as the caffeine of SE Arizona's Arbuckle's coffee hitting all circuits, I could see my plan of the day taking form. I've been searching for just the right coffee lately as I have tired of Starbuck's and Seattle's Best Coffee. So I have a few different blends/companies to choose from in the cabinet. I'll not throw any of it out in the trash but I have checked off a few from my next coffee shopping list. It is almost easier anymore to order stuff from Amazon than making a trip to the store.

By late this afternoon the temps had warmed up and climbed out of the 70's. The hounds and I had a pretty uneventful day but at least I was able to buy groceries this morning and had them unloaded and put away by 7:30am. The only bad thing was, I needed a couple of non-food things from Walmart that Fry's Market would not have ... so I thought I'd make one trip for that and for groceries.

Bad choice.

I have a cart full of groceries, 30 million cashier lanes available, and the only lights turned on to let me know which lanes were open ... were the "self checking" lanes. I could feel my pulse rate increase just a little but it almost went off the charts as I moved through my stack of groceries ... scanning and bagging them. I guess all young cashier "monitors" see white or gray hair and instantly think we are all computer illiterates. When I heard the question "Are we doing okay" ... I tried my best to keep my mouth shut ... but you know me.

With 30 million cashier lanes available and all closed what else was I suppose to do?

I blurted out "you know if I wanted to be a (*##$^@&*@ cashier I would get a (*##$^@&*@ job !!!!" I guess she figured out I WAS doing okay checking out my groceries because she walked away. So the next time I will go BACK to Fry's Market and buy groceries in the early morning hours and then have the fastest checkout cashiers in the world (from my experience) scan and bag my groceries. I'll not have to do anything but load the moving counter and slide my debit card in the reader to pay. Plus they give you a discount on gas for the car based on how much I spend.  :)

The efforts to change policy about the new couch are still going strong. Heidi and Stella will not give up their vigilant efforts to get me to change my mind and let them on the couch or small loveseat. I did not measure the old leather couch before I moved so I am not sure but by the looks of the new couch as I sit in the middle ... it does not look as long as the old leather couch I use to share with the hounds since 2003. There is enough room for them ... barely.

When Stella begs for anything ranging from wanting my food, more of her food, cookies, candy, pizza crust, dog treats, ice cream, steak, chicken, .... ah ... you get the picture ... she almost closes her eyes and looks downward with a feeling of rejection. Still ... the policy is not going to change on this. I am looking at some options since friends I text hound photos to are making a lot of suggestions ... they think I am cruel. All ladies from our college years and all have dogs ... small dogs ... like 4 lb dogs. HUGE difference between a 4 lb dog living on a couch and a 85 lb dog living on the couch with a 45 lb roommate.

While I have been watching Reds baseball games usually between 4:10pm - 7:??pm almost every day ... I like to step out on the patio between innings and check out that crazy sky again. Sometimes I take more photos and depending on what is going in the game (Reds losing), I will pull up that ugly chair and sit outside and enjoy the sundown and the mountain views.

After their failed attempt last night to get me to change my mind, I walked back inside from one of those patio trips between innings and they had decided 71° with blowing wind coming through the open windows in the house was too cold for them. It was the first time I've seen them sleep side by side out here. You will notice the iPhone camera took a much more accurate picture of the rug compared to the bright colors the Canon G9X took the other day.

Yes our first tarantula.

With a big mystery. I saw it off to the right of the patio if I am looking out toward the fence. It's the area that Heidi usually pees in so I was happy I had checked the yard like I always do before letting the hounds out. I saw two strange things though when I keep staring at it from the patio. It wasn't moving and what was that strange black thing next to it ????

I slowly tiptoe'd toward it ... it didn't respond. I dropped a few of those small rocks on top of it and it broke apart as if were nothing but dust !!! Then I started looking at that small black stuff. It was something I had never seen in my house, my trash, or the yard. I have no idea where it came from. It looked like a black rubber chain of some sort.

Any ideas what would kill a tarantula ??  Where did that small black plastic/rubber chain come from?

Since I am basically obsessed with the sky that I can look at from the patio or the kitchen windows and the bedroom window, I thought I'd show you some of the different changes I witness from day to day. Some of these were taken before I returned to blogging. I am not sure if Blogger loaded them into any specific order. I really find it interesting to see all the different changes. I am positive these same type of changes occurred back in 'the tropics' but for some reason they were just not as dominant.

There is nothing like a wide open western sky.

With the weather forecast showing the rain has passed through, I have almost a week of sunny weather ahead this week. There will be a very good chance I'll be doing some local road trips this week after I return from my morning bike rides. I have a few trails I would like to hike also. It will be my first attempt at hiking in this area. I'll be sure take plenty of water with me if nothing else.

As I put this post together the hounds are in their normal blog writing positions ... Heidi sleeping in the corner of the room and Stella is sleeping pressed up behind my chair so I cannot slide it away from the desk. I can't move 85 lbs of dead weight, even one that snores a little.

It was a beautiful day here in the Wild West.

The Monsoons Are So Interesting

When you hear a loud clap of thunder, look out the window and see sunshine it's hard to figure out. So I always grab my camera and head to the patio because that is where I am going to find my answer. This time of year it's "The Monsoons". That is one reason I want to get my bike riding in during the early morning because any time after noon, all bets are off when it comes to weather right now. Those are the Mule Mountains that Al on The Bayfield Bunch mentions sometimes in his winter travels to the SW.

Starting with that top photo the top three photos were taken in order from left to right. All withing one minute. Luckily Stella was sleeping all through the noise outside as was Heidi but she isn't afraid of any kind of storms.

The small mountain to the left of center sits across the border in Mexico.  You can see how the sudden rain splits the skies into two different worlds.

This morning at 5:55am Stella and I witnessed some fantastic skies taken after we got back from her daily walk. I always take these photos from my patio and from left to right. There is never a morning where I am not amazed at what I am looking at. I remember seeing some early morning sunrises across the field in back of the house in Indiana but even at that time of day the air could be really heavy with thick humidity, not here.

This time of year, it is going to be clear weather in the mornings and then things get interesting from 12:30pm on and never at the same time. I haven't got caught in the heavy rain grocery shopping yet but I have come close, where there was hard rain less than a mile from the store as I drove home.

You really can't go on the percentage for chance of rain either. I looked at WeatherBug and Wunderground weather this morning before I went bike riding and both said I had a 10-15% chance of rain up to 12 noon. Yet it didn't surprise me that it was lightly raining on me 45 minutes into my bike ride. It only rained for a short time toward the mountains where I was heading but I could tell by the rain puddles coming home it had rained hard near town.

With weather like this, I canceled any plans for a short trip. I really didn't want to look at Tombstone in the rain and didn't want to leave Stella at home if there was going to be on and off thunder. Heidi cannot control Stella's pacing and whining when it thunders. I can usually get her calmed down enough that she will lay down and go to sleep.

With two days off I was planning a big ride today on my road bike. I knew exactly where I was going and what I was going to do. I rode 30 miles and climbed over a 1,000 ft in elevation on long gradual climbs, then spent the last part of the ride on fairly flat bike path and streets to get the pulse rate a little lower or what some call a "warm down."

I don't know what, if anything comes into our yard at night, but if you watched Stella this morning giving the yard a close inspection you would have thought we had a zoo of animals pass through last night and then escape the fence by the time she woke up.

I would pay a large sum of money to know what really goes through her mind and know her thought process.

Like I have said before, I like my barren plain rock yard. It's much easier to see the scorpions, rattle snakes and tarantulas WHEN they show up. So far I've only seen the one dead tarantula yesterday afternoon. My friend did post on Facebook last night a picture of a rattlesnake he saw at ... ???? The Ramsey Canyon Ranch House last night ... we were there that morning taking photos.

My couch has been tested and passed with flying colors as a couch that siestas can be taken, they might last longer than an hour. Here I was, wondering what to do with all the pillows that came with the couch. (j/k)

I saw where the NFL started their pre-season games last night but I did not watch one of them. I wasn't interested. Instead I grabbed a tall glass of ice cold water, sat in that ugly blue chair on the patio and took in the sky show. Rain was on the way later in the night so it was nice to hear all of the animal activity off in the distance.

Last month I had a wisdom tooth break below the gum line leaving about 1/4 of the tooth. I had it extracted along with some bone, based on what the invoice said. It was painless and I had no issues the following week. Something happened the next day though that I had never experienced in my life as far as dentists go. Dr Edwards called me to see how I was doing and reminding what could happen in the next six days. I must admit the call surprised me and confirmed to me ... I had been given the right dentist office, recommended by a blog reader and the owner of the bike shop I visit.

So today as I was about to dose off on that new couch, soon after lunch, when the phone rings. It's Dr. Edwards again calling to see how I am doing with the work he did yesterday and reminding of things I might feel, maybe not. He also reiterated his plan for when I go back on the 27th of August. Not surprised he called but with minor dental work I didn't expect the call.

Where as my dentist back in Bloomington that I blog about here in August 2015 was entirely different as well as his office. His focus was money money money. Not a lot of explaining, just get done as fast as possible ... patients in and out as fast as possible ... more bang for the buck. I had a permanent crown put on the same day he did a root canal. No ... he never called to see how I was doing. I paid in cash in full and owed him nothing so he was happy I guess.

Every day around 4:30pm local time or 7:30pm Eastern time (Heidi's still on Eastern Time), she will walk into the kitchen right to the door where the small bone treats are. It's that door on the left in the corner. Of course that wakes up Stella and just the sound of possible food of any kind has her drooling ... they both get one bone treat and are soon back to sleep ... but Heidi leads the attack on that one. IF that treat is not given out fast enough she will bark nonstop.

She was skin and bones a few years ago and now may be a pound or two overweight. No bare skin on her legs, feet or ankles.

She looked like this in October 2016 if you remember. Four different vets, grain free food, allergy shots and pills, blood tests ... Each vet attempting something the other had not ... and no one had an answer. Was it food or environmental allergies???

Then I went back to basic ingredients dog food with chicken meal with brown rice, Wholesome Sportmix. It is made by the same company that makes the grain free food called Earthborn. Within a month I started to see changes to Heidi's legs and Stella's coat and weight gain. She was also having weight loss problems that blood work was showing normal readings.

I am still using the Wholesome Sportmix w/grains.

I have caught myself being so amazed by the constant changes in sky in back that I cannot stop taking photos of it when I am at home. I was reminded the other day by a long time local, that this month and September are the two worst months of the year. If that is what this is, I'll take it.

I am going to take a little drive south of me tomorrow for lunch. I hope they let me take photos inside otherwise it will just be one or two taken outside before I walk in to eat. It has good reviews on Yelp, as if that makes any difference and is nearby. I keep forgetting how much business is south of me, a direction I rarely drive.

The hounds are sleeping before the Reds game that starts at 4:10pm Pacific Time. That's their normal procedure. Someone asked me if I still played Mahjong and if I ever got bored. She seemed to think I sounded bored for years when she read my blog. She may have been right.

Yes, I still play Mahjong, just not as much.

The Monsoons are playing right now in the Wild West.