I Am An IDIOT !!!!

Okay ... here's the deal. It will not hurt my feelings if you admit it here on the blog, that you have been laughing to the point of almost falling down for the past 12-24 hours after you read me telling you about the $1 iPhone SE (new) that I discussed in my post last night.

Really, it has taken me this long to write this post because I haven't been able to stop laughing about it even after driving the 25 miles home with my new iPhone. It's a funny story that I will describe and it also might help someone getting ready to upgrade their phone.

I knew when I saw these two leaves hanging in midair that my day was going to be an interesting one. I just didn't realize at the time, the $1 iPhone was going to be the answer to the weirdness today.

Before I get started on the phone story, I'll narrate our late afternoon walk but it is still 90° as I write this at 7:10pm. We finished this walk about 10-15 minutes ago.

I am seeing more and more new purple flowers blooming throughout the field. They are everywhere. I have no idea what they are but they look nice.

Sadie and Stella didn't care about the flowers or the heat, all they knew, was they were on their daily walk and that was all that mattered.

While I was taking photos of flowers and the leaves that had turned colors, both of them ran pretty far away from me. They were happy to be outside today after I left them in the house for a little over 3 hours while I was at Best Buy picking up an iPhone.

For some reason today, Stella decided she would join us without any veering away from us nor hanging way back, ignoring my calls. That is always a good walk when that happens.

Lots of new spots for Sadie to check out ... nice fresh, some sort of natural organic nutrition. That's as far as I will go on what they were eating.

Stella trots along the back edge of the field, near both of us.

But she has that "I'm hot" look on her face, so I was pretty sure she would be following me all the way back to the house today.

Stella was the same way ... not many stops on the way home.

For those that read my post Sunday (yesterday) I spoke of the deal with Verizon and Best Buy for the iPhone 5SE ... $1 as long as you signed up for a 24 month commitment. Other options showed you would be paying a monthly installment of somewhere around $16 per month for 24 months for the cost of the phone.

I'm not as dumb as I look ... so the difference between those two options for the same brand new phone just didn't add up in my old brain .. circuits were evidently missing as I am trying to process this information over the weekend. I kept asking myself why is that iPhone only $1 ??

To make sure I was  "clear" on how I understood the two options I called customer service at Verizon and Best Buy ... and spoke to real people on each call, not a robot.

I find out today at the store at the time of purchase I was REALLY CONFUSED !!!!

The monthly charges were going to be for the data plan, one smart phone fee, a one time activation fee and the $1 phone.

NEITHER CUSTOMER SERVICE REP that I had called, told me that $1 was NOT the cost of the phone ... even after I told both of them "I just can't believe you are selling an new iPhone 5SE for ONE DOLLAR !!!!

So after a lot of research over the weekend, I was pretty sure I wanted the smaller size iPhone (4"), the same size as my 5S I sold last November. Luckily due to one of the regular Best Buy phone service reps leaving for lunch, someone that did not work in that department started my purchase.

Why was that lucky?

As I was bombarding her with more questions, she called the "Verizon/iPhone EXPERT" to help her with the purchasing process and answer the questions I had.

He had moved from the 5S to the 6S last year and had a lot of knowledge about the few differences between the two phones that I was not able to see when reading about them online. As I put the 6S in one hand and the 5SE in my other hand ... I was starting to change my mind. The slightly larger screen was easy on my eyes and it didn't feel that much bigger in my hand.

Long time blog readers know that I ALWAYS change my mind before the final purchase is done, no matter what I am buying ... RVs, computer, cars, trucks, etc.

As I told him ... "It's almost too hard to pass up a ONE DOLLAR iPhone 5SE for the larger 6S" ... he stopped ... he stared at me ... he had a shocked look on his face .... he started stuttering but the words would not come out !!!!!

And then .................. I was told ..... "it doesn't cost just a dollar ..... didn't they tell you about the $40 per month fee added for 24 months to pay for the phone ?????

I looked back through my hand written, notes ... I didn't see that fee listed.

So there was the REAL COST of the phone.

The interesting thing is, for some strange reason I could pick up the 6S model for $13 less per month and NO 24 month commitment, then after I added another $4 per month my 16Gb iPhone was bumped up to a 64Gb iPhone ... still under that $40 per month fee no one knows about for the ADVERTISED $1 iPhone.

It's only been a couple of hours playing around with it as I been going through the process of setting it and checking all of the settings that comes with it. I've also been downloading free apps that I had before on my other phone, all of this before our daily hound walk ... but after a short time, I can say that I am very very happy to have a smart phone back in my life.

I don't watch movies, nor ballgames and I don't play games on the  phone ... but I love the camera, the Notes program (basically my memory), the Maps that I can use as my GPS, and the free apps that help me track my diet/fat/calories and monitor my activity along with other uses.

Getting phone calls are just secondary ... I bought it for all the things it does besides being a phone.

So ... I hope you didn't spill anything while lauging about how stupid I must be to let the world know that there is a $1 iPhone available. ... it really is a good laugh and one that I enjoyed, even though the joke was on me.   LOL

All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It Was A Scorcher Today

By the time I took the camera outside it was mid-day and HOT!!! That hot air hit me as soon as I stepped outside, telling me not much was going to get done today.

I was wrong.

The front yard needed mowing. It had been 9 days since I cut it last but I did the backyard the other night because it needed it and rain was predicted within that night or the next day. I also raised the mower blade back up one level higher ... my best estimate tells me it cuts at 3", the recommended height for my location and grass by Scott's Lawn Care.

It was near 2pm when I decided to drag everything out of the shed. What you see there is everything I take out of the shed that is stored around the mower, so the mower can roll out. The shed is only a little over 22" wide, but it all fits. Right before the photo was taken Stella was actually laying down about where she is standing ... taking a Sunday nap.

I decided today to let the bloodhounds roam while I cut the front yard. It was hot but I figured if it was that bad for them, they would be at the door wanting back inside. Instead they both disappeared into the field that they love to roam on their own. They were gone the whole time it took to mow the front yard.

In a little over 30 minutes I had finished the front yard, cut a little higher this week so there were no brown spots where the grass was cut too short last time. Sadie and Stella were standing at the corner of the house about the time I finished ... panting, tongues hanging out, wanting to go inside.

Some time last night in between football games the urge to moved back to an iPhone from my LG flip phone hit me, hard enough to look at Best Buy and Verizon websites for prices. I found out they have the same pricing and deals going on. Those deals and pricing were good enough to make the thought of upgrading again pretty strong.

We all came outside around 5:30pm. I was thinking we might take a walk but it was still really really hot and none of the hounds seemed too interested in being outside very long. After I took the photo of Heidi, they all "trotted" to the door to be let back inside.

This weekend brought a lot of dead, BROWN, leaves down to the ground. It's that time of year.

Heidi took a look around but was not interested in moving to the yard ... she likes the AC with the added feature of a fan blowing on her. How do I know that????  She always moves to sleep in front of a fan if I have one turned on.

Here are the iPhone prices that have me very very tempted to upgrade. I don't mind a two year contract, even though they got rid of them ... because I don't plan to change from Verizon.

So an iPhone 5 SE is $1.....ONE DOLLAR ... plus a 2 year contract, $55 per month for one line and 2Gb. Since I wifi off of my home internet, the 2Gb is plenty for me. I survived on 1Gb before.

An iPhone 6s is $49.95 .... total cost ... plus a 2 year contract, the same $55 monthly fee for one line.

Those are not bad deals.

In the meantime, it is still 93° and a heat index of 113° at 6pm here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Some Saturday Morning Rambling

If you thought my blog was boring yesterday you will hate it today ... it feels worse. It's to the point that I decided to write one of my "rambling" posts that I do from time to time.

As you can tell from the blog appearance I was a little bored this morning and did a little redesign work. I was about to change to a totally different template and colors but after spending time looking at the different options and playing around with colors and different fonts on this template ... I deiced to make a minor change to the date color so it would show my different posts a little better. I also added a little gray to the sidebars so they would not run into the posting part of the blog ... separate them a little.

I like to write so that is one reason I write these "rambling" posts every once in a while and writing is another reason I have two other blogs that are set to the private setting. Some say even that is not safe so I had to ask myself when I decided to go that direction, "is there anything here that I would not want the public to see?" ... the answer is always no.

If you feel like reading on, I have some photos of Heidi's skin and my thoughts as we start Day 4 of the Wounded Warrior Ointment. I don't have any photos of the hounds except this one of Stella ... because we have not done anything outside and it's already 12:30pm as I write this.

So ... for those that want to cut this post short and not waste your time, I may have something more in depth tonight and with more photos. I do know I have the 'itch' to do something today that involves driving, I just don't know yet what that might be or where it will lead us.

As you can see Stella wasn't much more enthused about this morning as I was.

I noticed on our late evening walk we ended up taking last night after I posted it was not going to happen, Sadie was having some digestive problems. Nothing had changed in her food so it hopefully is just a 24 hour bug. Still at 3am I can't say that I was happy about getting up to take her outside.

My little LED camping flashlight wasn't strong enough to see her in the field but the sky was bright enough that I could barely catch her as a dark figure roaming the field. She has never requested to go outside at that time of morning except when she was a 12 week old puppy and we were house training.

I couldn't see if she was dumping tanks or just locked onto a scent ... she was trotting fast all over the field but she also does that at times when she is looking for her perfect spot to relieve herself. She must be okay today since she has been sleeping all morning. At least there have been no accidents in the house.

Consequently after waking up and getting up in the middle of the night I needed coffee and I needed it bad this morning when the hounds finally woke up. They let me sleep in until 8:30 am. I did wake up on my own when I THOUGHT I felt something crawling on me ... like one of those small ticks.

As you see in the upper left corner, our tick count continues to increase at a rapid rate. They seem to love Stella's ears, they don't like Sadie and Heidi isn't out enough to collect them. Most of mine if not all of mine are caught crawling before they attach themselves.

I emailed Stella's previous owner last night asking her what she used for tick prevention on her outdoor herding dogs that live on a Kentucky horse farm. What a better place to have a tick problem. She said she had great results with this collar, the Bayer Seresto Flea and Tick collar. She didn't see a tick on her dogs or Stella at all during the summer or about 6 months total time.

Remember that all my links I put in my posts are not affiliate links, only links that provide information. They are safe to click.

Somewhere during my coffee I decided I was going to get online and look for a game store locally where I could by the old board game Strat-O-Matic Baseball. I knew it had gone to an online game or a computer game ... but I want the board game. Actually while reading Greg's story about his puzzle last night ... that was when I started thinking about the board game.

I mean I can't sit all day at the kitchen table, while looking out the large window at the traffic passing by ... playing Mahjong all the time. I use to love playing that baseball game, keeping score and then writing out the stats for the Top 10 in different categories like the newspapers use to do.

So took most of my morning, looking online then calling a lot of game shops in central Indiana trying to find the board game that I could bring home today. After hours of doing that, wanting to drive somewhere in the back of my mind ... I'll have to buy the game online and have it shipped. In the meantime I'll give it a day or two to see if I really want to start playing that game again or try my hand at putting puzzles together.

Now on to Heidi. I've been taking photos at different times so I can see any differences in her skin as we use the Wounded Warrior Ointment. Yesterday around 2pm I had a scare when I looked at her stomach and noticed it was not a smooth texture but each little piece had it's own boundary.

Because of this plus it was a little more red than the photo shows ... I did not apply the ointment for the rest of the night.

 
This morning around 8:45 am when I looked at that same side of her stomach a lot of those, what I called "individual" pieces had moved back to a smoother texture although still evident. In the area on the far left, the skin was dried out and rough ... I took that as her skin is healing from the use of the ointment. I cannot explain what was going on yesterday in the first photo.

I wanted to wait until now to see what her skin looked like before applying any ointment today. We have had only 5 doses since it arrived on Wednesday afternoon in the mail.

There is another possibility ... most of the time she sleeps curled up on that side of her stomach. That skin is always hidden underneath her and not exposed to the air. The opposite side of her stomach is normal with a smooth texture. Did the confined ointment make her skin react that way? I don't know.

Sadie and Stella have passed their normal time for their lunch. No begging, no howling for food ... both sound to sleep. That proves today is not lined up correctly with the moon and stars. The whole day is out of whack.

I had other things on my mind to write about in my next "rambling" post and now I sit here trying to remember them. I hate it when that happens to my memory and it seems to be happening more and more.

I saw on one of the news sites that more and more consumers are moving back from smart phones to flip phones. I did that for the first time last November. So far so good but I do miss a couple of things from the iPhone ... the camera capability for those unexpected shots. Also the "note" program that helped me during the times my memory lapsed.

Still when I can see after a year I will have saved $444, I am still quite hesitant in going back to the new iPhone SE. Of course Verizon sent me an email yesterday telling me "you can buy the new iPhone SE at FULL retail price" ... 2 months before my upgrade month.

On one  of the pages I follow on Facebook, called Juicing for Life, it had an article about drinking water decreased your chances of a heart attack. I read on. After figuring out how much water I needed to drink every day to reap those benefits I realized they don't know how my bladder now operates ... LOL ... no way can I drink that much water every day.

How much do you need?  Take your weight and divide it by two. That number is the amount of ounces of water you need to drink every day. Take that number and divide my eight and see how many glasses that amounts to. Good luck!

I don't need two vehicles since I am barely driving either of them since being retired. Yet, I like having a different car to drive at times when I need a change. Is that a bad thing?

Well I need to get going. It's already past 1pm ... the hounds are eating ... I want to go somewhere but don't know where ... it feels cold today with the temps in the 50's. ... none of the hounds have ever lost their appetite.

It's a cold, damp, dreary day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Hounds Are Slow This Morning

As you can tell from this mornings photos, the world has stopped here in 'the tropics'. The temps are up into the mid 50's, its not raining so that is good.

Maybe it's the overcast skies that laid out the energy levels for today???  I do know one thing and it's just not me but Sadie and Stella also ... today has turned into a slow-motion movie. They are taking the morning off so far ... but I know there is plenty of time left today to rally and make something of ourselves. What that might be is hard to imagine as I have my 2nd cup of coffee 3+ hours later than normal.

The first trip out every morning this is what they do ... not all they do .. but you understand that somethings they do are really not for public viewing. So these are the before and after shots. I have to wonder though, what is it that makes them so interested with their noses to the ground?

Is there really that much animal traffic at night in the field while we sleep that gives them new scents to smell? Or is it just that one cat that I saw months ago sprinting in front of me while I stood outside at 1:30am.

I think as you can see, they are not really energized this morning nor have I been. I've been back to that Apple site looking at comparisons between the new iPhone 5se and the older 6s. Yes ... I am considering going back to an iPhone for the camera, the GPS, a library of "notes" that substitute for my memory and a few other features. Notice I said nothing about phone calls ... rarely get them since the world is texting now.

We will get in a walk or two today but it's nearing their lunch time ... I haven't seen nor heard any begging for lunch so that confirms this day is definitely off the earth's axis.

Everyday cannot be exciting here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.