Bloodhound Doesn't Understand "Heat Advisory"

Sadie had a pretty rough July 4th. Just like days in the winter when the windchill is below 0° and a walk is not possible, when the 'feels like' is 105° late afternoon and there is also a 'Heat Advisory' sent out ... she has a hard time understanding when I tell her "it's too hot, we cannot go for a walk today". She finally gave up and crawled into her usual sleeping spot for late afternoons ... under the coffee table in the living room.

Past hounds you may not know are below.

Heidi was the hero of the day I guess. She went to the door to tell me she wanted out in the middle of the afternoon and stayed outside a whole eight minutes before wanting back in. I wasn't going to let her stay outside longer than 15 minutes anyway. It's good that I no long see her ribs anymore like a few years ago with the mystery weight loss.

Stella has me a little confused every afternoon. She doesn't leave the driveway, doesn't relieve herself and is back inside soon as possible. When we take that second walk of the day, mostly late afternoon or after 8pm ... she will stand at the corner of the house and not move ... if I try to let her go outside, she trots to the field to start her walk. No worries though, that routine change within a couple of weeks ... hopefully.

Today was a bit strange as we started the day but by noon a text I received changed the pace and interest. The day took off like a rocket and really didn't stop until I sat down to put this post together. Let just say that right before I received that text I was going to blog about something entirely different and had just loaded photos to go along with that story or topic ... which you will still see and read about below. Looks like he planted soybeans this year across the highway.

Early this morning when I opened the door to let the three hounds outside first thing in the morning while I pour their morning kibble into their dishes ... a ball of heat, very hot air hit me ... I knew the morning walk was canceled right then ... Sadie did not.

We waited to go out right after they had lunch and you can tell from the photo that all three hounds are not really motivated to move too fast nor did they want to go anywhere ... so we didn't stay out long.

Heidi went over to the shade by the fence to relieve herself and ALMOST walked into the yard. When she decided it was too hot to go anywhere and it was too hot to lay in the grass to soak up some sun, she made an abrupt left turn looked up at me and headed toward the door.

The hounds might be rated on the AKC list #73 and #74 in the department of intelligence for their respective breed but they are smart enough to know it feels a lot better in the air conditioned house compared to outside.

Sadie was stymied. She had waited all morning for her walk. She pleaded with her stares for me to break down and take her out but it was just to hot to do that. The heat index was at 107° and with all the hounds being a year older I am more cautious than last summer on when we take the walks. She didn't even go into the field, glanced at Heidi and followed her to the door.

Of course Stella as usual was on her own schedule. This just shows how great of a house dog she is. Due to the heat she had been "holding it". So even with the heat as it was at noon, she stepped out into the field to poop because she knows I hate mowing over it. Then she walked back into the yard to pee just to give the yard a little extra nitrogen to keep it green.

I agreed with her, that I needed to mow. The hourly weather site told me it looked pretty good temperature wise to mow late afternoon or early evening. I ended up mowing around 4pm when I saw gray clouds outside, storms to the north of us and a pretty strong wind passing through. By the time I finished mowing the temps had dropped to 90° and we were able to fit in our afternoon and only walk of the day in.

With this morning being so slow and no plans of going outside I decided to pull some photos of my past hounds and post one each. These go back to 1975, a lot of them from the 1990's and some from here. I've had a lot of hounds but at the same time I've had basset hounds since 1987 ... every year since I have had at least one but more than likely two or more. I'm sure you recognize who that is ... Winston.

Gretchen was picked up through a rescue service in Bloomington Indiana when I was attending Indiana University in 1975. She was half basset hound and half german shepherd. You would think that I had the only one in the world with that mix .... but a frat house had the male named Nick. Gretchen use to get all kinds of smiles, laughs and photos taken of her whenever and wherever we took a walk.

In 1987 I got a call from the Oak Harbor Washington shelter telling me they had not only a basset hound but a beautiful pure bred basset hound. I could not believe a hound that nice would be in the shelter with no owner. She was not a volunteer turn in but had gone unclaimed the past 14 days. We found out within an hour after we brought her home why she ended up in the shelter .... she was a 'runner' ... if the door was open an inch she was gone ... like in disappear gone ... nowhere on the horizon.

We use to have to search for her so many times we named her Sadie after the Beatles song, Sexy Sadie "where have you gone".  In 1987 while living out by Ft. Ebey SP on Whidbey Island I bought a basset puppy from someone I worked with. Harry was my first basset puppy. He lived and traveled in Washington, Breckenridge CO and his last home was right here. He use to like to run off but would always come back. It didn't matter what time of day or late night ... if you let him out to pee, he was also gone but not every time.

Some of his naps were taken at the Oak Harbor BMV, the Oak Harbor Park down by the baseball fields and Bradfield's Landscaping just down the road from me. I can see the roof of their building from my window. ALL of these area's that Harry would sleeping, would call me and let me know that that Harry had wandered off and when I had time, he could be picked up by the desk or cash register counter ... but he was taking a nap so I could wait.

Barney was a Colorado puppy. He had spent time at my sisters for a while during a move I was making back to Washington. They flew him and Harry out to this house on Whidbey Island right on the water. So Barney did have commercial flying experience. Honestly he did nothing wrong ... didn't run away, didn't chew things up, did just normal basset hound stuff.
 

Arthur showed up right before I moved from Washington back to Indiana in 1994. He and Harry were pretty close but luckily Arthur was not a runner nor a wanderer ... he just liked to hang out. He loved kids in the neighborhood and didn't mind riding in cars ... so the 3,000+ mile trip in the 4Runner was not a problem for him.

No that is not Sadie, that is my first bloodhound Bertha around 2003, maybe 2002. I had another Arthur. This puppy was from the same breeder as Winston's, who I would pick up in 2004. Different couch but the same house as I am in now. Sadie and Bertha look a lot a like but they came from different parents and different parts of Indiana.

That's a grown Arthur a year or so later with Max (on right). Max was a rescue from the link on my sidebar "Basset Rescue" He was the biggest basset hound I had ever seen. He weighed 81 pounds and the owner told me "he only eats kibble if you put cottage cheese on it" ... while she said that I thought to myself "not in my house"  LOL

He could barely walk to the edge of the yard and field without laying down, on his very first walk. We followed the same path then as we do today ... a few years later he was down to 62 pounds and could do laps around that field. He spent his last 5 years totally blind by never missed a walk and would play with all the other hounds in the yard and field ... an no, he didn't get scoops of cottage cheese on his kibble but he got to lick out the empty cottage cheese container.

Maggie was a lot like Heidi in temperament. I took this photo when she was really sick with cancer. I had to put her down a couple days later. You'll notice the large lump on the left side of her throat, well that wasn't the only lump she had. She was my first two tone basset hound. As a puppy my niece walked her in the Apple Festival Parade.

I always say that the three hounds I have now will be my last. As you can see that might not be possible. I have had hounds since 1987 and sometimes I had up to 4 hounds here at this house ... that's too many. So we will see what time brings. About the time you think you will never have another hound as good as the one that just passed ... a different shows up and is just as great as the previous ones.

So ... what was the text that turned my day into something entirely different?

Nothing major really ... just a surprise text from Best Buy telling me my amplifier had arrived and was ready for pickup. It came in FIVE DAYS EARLY !!!! So I was pretty happy to jump in the Z4, turn on the AC and leave the top up today, for the 35 mile drive over to Bloomington.

I had it hooked up, checked out all the inputs like the CD player, Cassette Tape Deck and even my Turntable, before taking time to mow the yard. I plugged my tv into it so I do have the separate speakers now but it's not a Home Theater by any means, nor did I want that. It has a few watts per channel less than my old Yamaha Amp but like I read during my research, the human ear cannot tell the difference between 150W and 100W per channel. The receiver comes with all the wireless features such as AirPlay (Apple), Pandora, Spotify, and others.

For those of you that use the new Firfox Quantum browser I think I have found something you can use to wipe out those videos that automatically play when you go to a news or sports website. Videos were still playing automatically with uBlock, AdBlockPlu running. I even use FlashBlock Plus and the videos were still playing when I was on Firefox. That was one reason I would not use it.

I loved the new browser. I wanted to use it as my default browser but Firefox was a 'data hog' and I can't waste data based on what I pay for. So today I did a little more research since it was a slow morning and I found this:

How To Prevent Videos From Playing In Firefox

I followed their simple instructions after I clicked that link. Then I refreshed Firefox without restarting it (not needed) and went right back to ESPN and FoxNews to see if the videos still played ... zapped, nada ... no videos. So I did the next test of going back to all the websites I visit ever morning over coffee and wrote down how much data Firefox used with that new setting that prevents videos from playing automatically and it was less than Safari or Google Chrome.

Firefox Quantum is my new default browser.

That is about all for today ... everything is done around the house, the hounds are asleep again and my AC is at full steam ahead. Vinyl LPs really do sound the best compared to CDs or digital downloads.

The days right now really do feel like 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

No Surprises In Weather -- It's July

Yes .. you did see this page before it disappeared ... I didn't want to 'publish' until this afternoon or tonight but by mistake hit the 'publish' button instead of 'close' ... so, you are correct, it was here for a few seconds this morning.

As I return to blogging, I am thinking that my normal post time will be late afternoon or early evening around 6pm at the latest. That seems to be the best time not only for me but I am able to capture photos or thoughts that happen that day. Otherwise I leave out what happens that afternoon, photos included. I am still not sure if I'll post daily and am planning to post when I feel like it ... could be daily, could be a few times per week. {A little early today}
When I was blogging back in January with the temperature 7° and a windchill below 0°, I wanted this weather we are having now. Now I am not sure I wanted this extreme heat, but it's much worse in other parts of the USA. It's normal for July yet the 'system' has definitely changed. Stella doesn't mind ... she still tries to head due north every morning ... I call her name, she veers our direction.

For you Mac users I am trying out the Beta version of the macOS Mojave. It's is going to have a much different look for you unless you go into your Apple preferences and change it to 'Light'. I'll keep the surprises under wraps since I hate when people tell me about the whole movie before I see them. One thing I am having trouble with is keeping signed in on Blogger.

I have to go to the laptop that still has the previous macOS High Sierra, to reply to your comments or for me to make comments on other blogs .. because it keeps me signed into Blogger all the time.

Not much has been going on out of the ordinary routine this past month or so. I had a break from doing my 'to do' list when a DYI article fell into my inbox. It listed most of the things I wanted to do, are not to be done in humid weather. I guess 95% or higher on that scale is good enough for me to wait until fall before I attacked a few things out of vengeance as well as required before winter.

You might notice a different collar on Stella. The one I bought for her two years ago became too small for her. I couldn't adjust it to be longer so I looked inside the closet door that has old collars, different 6' leashes and a few bicycle tools hanging on a small rack ... I still had the longer, bigger collar she came with in August 2015 ... a pink collar with John Deere icon on it. With a bumper crop of corn this summer, the John Deere collar seemed appropriate for her.

After a year my neighbor that works the Texas oil fields, decided he needed to move closer to the lake 30 miles away. Luckily his friends decided to buy the house and they moved in a few weeks ago. A young couple that likes to keep the place clean, the yard mowed and the nights quiet. It's good to finally get someone in the house that seems like they will be there long term. The hounds have not realized they have new neighbors and that's a good thing. I like to keep them in the yard and the field if possible ... less chance of them finding something interesting in the highway to inspect.

I am finding out that when electronics get old, they break. They don't last forever, nor should they. It's hard to understand I am sure in this day of 'disposable' electronics but my Yamaha stereo was bought in July 1984 ... yes 34 years ago. My computer speakers, a pair of Bose Companion 2 Series II were bought 8 years ago and needed replaced.

Of course one of my friends that is into music big time, an ex-music store owner, younger than I ... was pushing me to move my large collection to digital. That was a lot like the plan I had in 2014 of moving all my music, photos, filing cabinets of paper files all to digital ... it turned into a huge job and not one I wanted to finish.

I still think my music sounds better in those tall Polk Audio speakers with two 12" woofers, 4-mid-range speakers and 4 or 6 tweeters. Heavy and have moved all over the USA in the past 25 years but they still put out quality sound. With my old Yamaha Control Amp C-40 only playing the right side I needed a new amplifier. Things have changed over the years I found out while I looked for a replacement.

Rare to find separate components so my choice was an integrated amp or a receiver. A home theater did not interest me yet I wouldn't mind plugging my tv into the amp to use those tall speakers for movies, hear the crack of the bat in baseball games or F1 racing moving across my living room. So I found a receiver to buy and it will be here next Tuesday.

With one of my smaller computer speakers sounding scratchy, as if it I had blown it out ... I needed a new set of those. Of course I am old so any young sales rep at Best Buy assumes I know nothing about computers or electronics and he told me a $9 set of audio cables would fix my problem. I was pretty sure that was not the answer but decided to try his way anyway.

I returned those cables a day later and picked up a new set of Bose Companion 2 Series III.

Before they cut the field and rolled the hay, there wasn't a weed to be found anywhere. The seven acres was almost all grass. Now the field is full of what I call 'weeds' ... stuff like this is all over the field and I am sure it's not the healthiest stuff a cow or horse would want to eat if it were baled. I am guessing again this fall they will NOT cut the field a second time and let the winter freeze kill off the weeds before they cut the field in June 2019.

Back to those small computer speakers and digital music ... I did decide to load my CD collection (large) into iTunes so I can play those on my computer or when/if I travel. With all the CDs in iTunes I will be able to access those with my phone or tablet as long as I have an internet connection. That is one thing I don't do at all ... listen to music on my phone. I guess I was not part of the iPod generation when it came out years ago.

I saw the other day that 95% of the US population will have temperatures above 90° this 4th of July weekend. I know it's hot when I hear the AC running in the middle of the night. It's also a sure sign when all the hounds oversleep their normal wake up times.

It's not why I stopped blogging because it had happened a couple of times before. The "Grammar Police" sent me some emails giving me some help on clearing up my use of the English language in grammar and spelling. Obviously they had missed what I had written just months before that the blog will have misspelled words because the Blogger spellchecker can't catch everything and will be confused sometimes. I proof read but obviously not well.

I also explained it was my personal preference on how I use quotation marks with the punctuation OUTSIDE the last quotation mark ... because to me it looks better. But that (just like starting the sentence with But) irritated them enough to email me their advice and corrections ... that I didn't asked for.

It's my blog ... the grammar and spelling errors will continue.

A little after 12 noon the hounds went outside for their after meal trip. Stella did nothing but stand in the middle of the driveway wanting to go back inside where the AC was running full steam. Sadie got no further than the edge of the yard and Heidi inspected the mowing job next door.

As you can tell, we don't do much mid-day and will now keep busy inside until after 8pm or later for the next hound walk in weather like this. I've been in the reading mode lately so soaking up time between walks or ballgames is not a hard thing to do.

With the large amounts of rain this spring, then hot sunshine, with some humidity, its a perfect storm for maximum weeds. After the rain forecasts move out in the next three days I'll try more combinations of natural weed killer. As you can see not many are successful. I am also doing a test along the driveway bank of letting a section grow to see if that helps in preventing erosion but I don't like the look of it.

It was a decision by committee ... all three wanted to come back inside when I asked them.

I decided to post a little early today. It will be ice tea, a Cubs game on tv by 2:10pm and dinner soon after. I didn't see anything else that would be exciting enough to write about.

All is good and it's really really hot here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.