Stella Has Changed Since Sadie Is Gone

 

Stella's changes have been subtle since Sadie left us on September 15th. Yet, they have been noticeable. There is nothing that she is doing bad or getting into trouble, really the exact opposite. I don't think it is because of Sadie but maybe having a second bloodhound around that made her a little different. Both of them wanted all the attention, get their food first, be the first outside and the biggest ... wandering off next door or out into the field alone while I was busying working outside around the house. Who knows, maybe it was Sadie who got Stella to wander off on her own?

That most noticeable thing is Stella has not gone out into the field alone since Sadie died. She has not even thought about wandering over to the neighbors yard and she has had her chances. Even in our walks for the past three weeks she has not tried to wander off and if I say anything to her she will always head back to the path we take. Like today I left her outside while I mowed the yard and cut weeds. She spent most of the time on the carport floor watching me and did walk out into the yard while I was cutting weeds along the bank ... but never took a step into the field to go explore. She spend over an hour and a half outside with me and never disappeared.

She also spends more time following me inside the house. She doesn't do that a lot but does follow me more these past three weeks than she did before. When I am editing photos or blogging she is always asleep beside my desk chair. If I am washing dishes she is laying on the floor right behind me. If I sit outside she doesn't leave the carport. She doesn't go to the front yard and will watch my every step to and from the mailbox. If I am sitting on the couch reading a book or watching a ballgame, she has to be between me and Heidi.

She rarely goes to the door to be let outside. She never barks but will howl when she knows she is going to be fed breakfast or lunch. As laidback as she always has been, it's hard to believe that she is even more slow paced now when she is in the house. She has no interest in chewing bones, playing fetch but she loves being brushed with the hound mitt or the rake that can take out her undercoat.

She does like to ride in the car. She goes to the back and waits for me to lift in her in the back even if we are not going anywhere. Dried bloodhound drool is one of the hardest things I have tried getting off automobile paint. It might be harder than removing bugs. I have been gone a few times to buy groceries, the library or out for dinner so she stays in the bedroom sometimes alone and other times with Heidi. With the two windows cleaned a few weeks ago, there are zero smudge marks on the windows that she use to leave by pressing her nose against the window ... a technique she has always used to see if that window or door will open. She does the same thing to the car windows when she is inside.

In a way it is quieter around here with Sadie not here. It wasn't that she was a loud dog but she was either wanting to go on a walk, wanting to be let outside so she could roam the field, or checking the dog food dished for that one small piece of kibble that might have been missed by Stella and Heidi. If she did find any in their dishes maybe I dropped some next to the food container. At times she would drag what she could move out of the closet just to check if a few pieces of kibble had bounced further back on the closet floor. She would sit for hours by the screen door looking for the squirrel or cardinal to show up on her fence by the driveway. She always seemed to be doing something when she was awake.

Sadie would try to sleep when Heidi or Stella would but she would always be awake first and ready to do something. Anytime I might be sick and get up in the middle of the night, Sadie would always follow me into the kitchen in the dark to check on me. If Heidi was outside alone she was always at the door when Heidi came back inside to tap noses and make sure that Heidi was okay. Of course she would always stare at me when she wanted to go on a walk, now I have to wake up Stella from sleeping to go on a walk.

Another change I forgot is the water bowl for Heidi and Stella. They use to have their own water bowl in the bathroom away from the bowl in the computer room that was claimed by Sadie as her own. She would never growl, would never fight but she would guard that water bowl sometimes and if Heidi or Stella got close to 'her' water bowl she would do nothing more than hang her head beside theirs not saying a word nor growling ... just hanging her head close to them ... they would never drink and walked away.

Now Heidi and Stella drink out of the same bowl that used to be Sadie's in the computer room. Neither hound cares if the other drinks out of that bowl.

I still wonder what happened to Sadie that Saturday morning. The early predawn hours right as I wake up are the hardest for me or seeing that big leather chair with the ottoman empty every night while I watch a game or movie on tv. I will always wish Sadie was here dragging me outside in all kinds of weather to get her walk.

The hounds have adjusted well, I've done pretty well. It's not the first time I have lost a hound,  it won't be the last and as usual it gets easier as time passes. I remember every basset hound or bloodhound I have had since 1987 and their different personalities. I have lived with a lot of good hounds in the last 31 years, a lot of funny memories and thousands of photos I can look back through to remember them.

Stella goes back to the vet tomorrow at 11am to get the three staples taken out of her leg where they took off a growth. Evidently it wasn't that small if they had to stitch her leg up. The spot on her head has complete healed up and her right eye looks really good. I have been putting in eye ointment the vet gave me, 2x per day. She knows when I turn on the hallway light at those two times during the day that I am going to put ointment from my finger to her eye. She doesn't resist, she just sits there and then wags her tail as I rub her eye so the ointment spreads.

You may have noticed a difference in my photos the past couple of days, maybe not. Yesterday's post and this post have photos taken with the Canon PowerShot SX530. I can see some small changes but I don't see the crystal clear images that I'd like. I do see a difference in the color in the early morning light when we do our walks. The color looks close to the real tone of green. I do edit some of them just like the photos I took with the Nikon D3200.

I can take macro photos like this where my Nikon D3200 does not have a macro lens but the zoom lens is as low as 18mm. I tested some different settings on the Canon last night to see if I could tell a difference. The Canon SX530 has some nice features, some of them I really like, others I will never use.

Not until I used the Nikon D3200 camera this afternoon did I realized the difference in weight was that noticeable. I knew by reading the specs the Canon SX530 was the lighter camera but after using it on the walks for the past two days and then picking up the Nikon D3200 today I could feel a major difference.

I've compared photos from both cameras on Flickr where any photo you upload is not compressed to a smaller size. I looked at them on this blog and my Wordpress blog. They look best on my iPhone 8+ and don't look bad on this blog. Yet in some photos you do get that crystal clear sharpness with the Nikon D3200.

With the photo quality being so close between the two cameras, I ask myself is there really a need for a different camera? I use the iPhone camera for indoors and it produces great photos in low light situations. The Canon is light, has the macro capability and can zoom just as far as my 200mm Tamron lens. It might be easier to shoot rapid fire photos with the Nikon since the Canon has a slight delay in getting focused when I am trying to catch Stella running.

I can use the 14 day no questions asked return policy for a full refund if I decide I don't need a different camera. About the time I think I'll return it, I see a photo I have taken with the Canon that I really like, that might even be better than the one taken with the Nikon .... and vise versa.

It was cool enough to mow the yard in the middle of the day today. Tomorrow the high is suppose to be 79° then will drop into the 50's by Thursday. I will be applying polyurethane on the windows and front door Wednesday so I can have the windows open for ventilation.

Dishes are done, laundry is finished and the house has been vacuumed, plus the lawn mowed ... I think I'll call it a day.

The other tree sampling I cut down about four years ago. Different fungus with an interesting design.

I took this photo Monday night with the iPhone 8+.

Within minutes I took the same photo with the Canon SX530.

While I was putting the mower back in the shed, Stella and Heidi came outside only to see it was better to be inside with the air conditioning and an afternoon siesta. They didn't hesitate  going back inside when I did. As you can tell, they were thrilled being outside.  LOL

Can you tell which camera I used for the photo below?

A great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

That Arctic Weather Is Gone !!

Not only was I thrilled but so were the bloodhounds, waking up to temperatures in double digits for the first time in a week. Heidi is still hibernating but when I saw the temperature at 17° I knew we had to take our first morning walk in 5 days. Sadie was beside herself with excitement when she realized I was getting ready to go outside. She has had cabin fever to the max these past 5 days.

I know we did not get the high winds and all that snow you may have seen on the national news in the upper NE of the country, but we shared their temperatures. Most days were spent with high temps in the 5°-7° range with a wind chill below 0°. The hounds were limited outside to just long enough to dump their tanks. I never had to call for them because all three were back at the door to be let in as soon as possible.

For the first time that I can ever remember, a few mornings ago just after Sadie finished relieving herself in the field, she started to walk ... stopped ... then lifted her paw. It was that cold. She never gets that cold. She along with Stella staggered to the door but ran inside once I opened the door for them.

We spent a lot more time inside than I can remember. The bloodhounds played, slept and ate. While Heidi slept, slept and slept ... only getting up to eat. I transferred movies and ballgames from my Directv DVR to DVD's. I watched college and NFL games and spent time on the computer researching different things I had on my mind.

So this morning it was nice to get back to the normal routine. It felt warm with a wind chill up to 7°. The temperatures alone will climb to the high 30's today and believe it or not, there is a good chance to see Wednesday and Thursday in the 50's and Thursday being just a few degrees below 60°.

I was very happy to hear my local tv weather man tell his viewing audience that after January 15 we are headed for a "warmer than normal" winter. My electric heat bill will welcome that news or is it my checking account will like that? The utility company and I don't settle up until the end of April since I am on their 'budget plan'. In my case my annual date is April 30 before my new monthly rate is adjusted for the following 12 months.

I could tell very early in the walk that Stella had no interest in joining Sadie and I this morning. As I walked away I only hoped we would meet her back in the field on our way home and would not have to send out the search team to find her somewhere in that wooded area.

Sadie was back in true form after a 5 days layoff. I cannot describe how much she begged to go outside these past few days. She did not understand how cold it was nor how dangerous it was to be outside for longer than 5 minutes. Let's just say she wasn't a happy bloodhound and spent a lot of time just sitting, starring at me, then moving with excitement every time I got up out of my chair.

So today's walk was a big relief to her and to me also.

Whenever I would check the temperatures online I could see that unless you lived in the SW near Arizona and San Diego ... everywhere else in the USA was just cold. My Facebook friends in Florida were in shock and couldn't get over how their change in weather had rocked their world.

These are Christopher's ATV tracks down into the gully from the opposite side. This gully is all part of the field, owned by the neighbor a couple of houses north of me. When he stopped to talk and see the hounds last fall while we were walking ... I told him the deer moved from the far right corner, over the hill and into the gully ... he must have decided to check it out.

With the severe weather, the argument of climate change pops up on the news, on social media and forums. Everyone has their own feelings on the subject and at times those discussions become pretty 'heated'. I stay away from any kind of discussions like that.

Yet I found in this article in Apple News that is delivered to my inbox ... some scientist agree with me. "It's just winter". You can read the article here.

I did start the Z4 every couple of days in the afternoons during the freezing weather. I wanted to see if the battery was okay and I wanted to idle the engine for a short time as a workout. The FJ did go on a few trips in the extreme cold temps but we didn't go far and only a couple of times. Food needed to be replenished.

Standing in back of the field there were very little signs that it had snowed. Just a few patches of frozen ice laying around ... but the ground felt like we were walking on solid rock.

My friend in Phoenix enjoyed reminding me it was 75° yesterday.

With that cold weather also slowed blogging down. I wrote a little in my private journal just to document what was taking place. As for finding anything to write about for the blog, without any hound photos, it was pretty hard ... thus a blogging vacation so to speak.

I still like my decision to upgrade to the iPhone 8plus last month. I no longer notice the larger screen. I do not find it inconvenient and the photos taken inside are sharp and clear as ever even in low light situations. I cannot say it will be my last iPhone because I know history shows that I upgrade every 16-24 months. I have done that since I bought my first iPhone 3s.

As Sadie and I were finishing the back half of the walk or really the last third of the walk, I noticed Stella walking at a pretty fast pace across the field near the house. That was much better than the option of not seeing her anywhere and having to spend time trying to find her. In the last minute I changed my mind about taking the regular path to the alternate path so we would meet.

She had her nose to the ground and was semi-trotting. You can see how close she is to the path we are taking, just straight out from that property line pole with the red tip.

Sadie ran to catch us once she saw Stella.

At first Stella thought she could continue doing the whole walk when I called her name. She was walking toward me, then walked right past me like she was going to do the walk on her own. That wasn't going to happen ... LOL

When I told her "we're going home" she seemed happy about that while doing an immediate turn and trotted toward the yard.  With both hounds trotting out in front of me did that mean they were a little cold in the 17° weather and wanted to get inside?  Neither lifted their paw and acted normal during the 12 minutes outside.

With days off from walking there were a lot of scents to catch up on in the yard. The followed the property line along the backyard all the way to the burn pile before I called them inside.

After watching some very good college and pro football games recently, I have two more NFL playoff games today. I am not really excited about the match ups today but will at least have the games on in the background, along with check college basketball. Monday night will be a great game between Alabama and Georgia. I am happy to to have the 'reminder' helping me from forgetting there is one more college game to watch.

I have tried to read books on my coffee table but can't seem to focus long enough to keep reading. I've have improved my times on a few Mahjong games finishing more of them under 3 minutes. The other app game I play is '2048' and finally have high scores on all my devices in the 35,000 point range.

The Garmin VivoSmart3 still does not want to connect to my iPhone 8+ so I have been downloading all the data into the Connect App on my iMac. That is NOT nearly as convenient as just tapping an icon on my phones home screen to see my data.

The transferring of movies and ballgames to DVD is working out well. The reproduced picture is not HD quality but it's very close. This work will clear out my DVR so I can do one of two things ... either threaten to move to DishNetwork for a lower monthly fee and a 3 year lock on cost or stay with Directv, which I like much better, and upgrade to their newest model of DVR.

That idea I had LAST winter of scanning old photos into digital form is just too slow of a process ... do I have enough trust to let a business do that for me?

The hounds are glad to be back walking and blogging from 'the tropics'of Southern Indiana.

Heide Checks The Weather

The needle on the old thermometer may have been close to 40° but it didn't feel anything like that. Windchill was in the low 30's. Still, right after lunch Heidi thought she would give me her first pose with the new iPhone camera. She doesn't pose like this too often but she seemed happy doing it ... or maybe she was just cold?

While doing some laundry and cooking tonight's dinner, I continued to read more and play again about the new iPhone 8 Plus. This phone probably does more than I will ever get around to trying or using. I cannot say at this time I am happy with the photos that I zoomed at 10x but that might have to do more with my shaking hands than the camera itself.

Yes, it looks unstable as hell, about to fall over, but it doesn't move an inch in either direction. Years ago I had it straight as an arrow, planted in some solid concrete and ir would have lasted for decades. The the Indiana State Hwy Dept decided the highway needed to be dug out and new asphalt applied with new shoulders at every mailbox for mail carriers to use when delivering mail.

That meant they dug up my mail box and moved it to the current location, no concrete was used. Consequently after 10 years or so, I have a leaning mailbox. That is probably caused by the soil sinking, just to the right of it.

My idea of picking up sticks while the hounds were outside after lunch lasted all but 5 minutes. It was too cold with the wind blowing and I lost interest fast. Heidi lost hers to stay outside and beat me back to the door. She has been asleep under her blankets every sense.

After the laundry was put in the dryer and the stove looked like it wouldn't burn the house down while cooking dinner, we thought we'd give this new toy another chance on our afternoon walk. Sadie is always ready for a walk while Stella quietly agreed.

I've mentioned before that for the past 9 years and a  few months, Sadie hops up and down on two occasions every day of the year and year after year. Those two events are being fed kibble and going for walks. This is the best I can do catching her in that hopping up and down action.

It might look warm in that picture with the sunshine out but it's nowhere close to jacket weather nor t-shirt weather.

The phone does not have 'macro' capability but I wanted to see what it would do if I held it pretty close to the target of the photo.

Again, I did not do any editing to color, sharpness, definition etc ... but I did crop some of the photos.

I am down to one problem that might not have a solution yet. After the phone was all set up and fully operational, my Garmin VivoSmart 3 would not connect. That meant not only would it not download my activity, sleep hours and heart rate throughout the day to the phone but also to the other devices I have with that app.

I went to Apple Support and read. I went to Garmin Support and read about that model of watch and it seems connecting by bluetooth became a bigger problem than normal, after Apple did their iOS 11 update. I was one of the lucky ones when I was able to connect it to my 6s after that update. Garmin says they are working on a fix.

I forgot to mention this morning some of the other benefits I've seen in the short time of using this phone. My signal strength went from 3-4 bars to a solid 5 bars all the time with the same Verizon service. I had a call last night from a friend that was doing her walking for exercise while talking to me through her phone's mic ... the call was so strong and clear you would have thought she was in the same room ... much different that past calls.

I mentioned the A11 chip makes everything lightning fast and most of the time close to instantaneous. The battery life is so much better than the 6s I had. I've had it on since early this morning, have taken a lot of photos, surfed the internet, answered emails and I have used only 7% of the battery at 5:00pm.

My journal project is progressing okay. I am in the stage now of scanning old photos that I took during that trip and will upload them into my Pages document once the scanning is complete. I still like the idea of using a page on this blog because I like the formats of blogs more than I do documents. I am probably missing something in all the design options I would have keeping it in Apple Pages.

I thought the position of the clouds were interesting in this picture.  Once again, any blurriness is from my hands moving, not the camera.

It was about this spot right here that Sadie would do what Stella does ... ignore my calling of her name.

So I continued my walk home when she finally realized I was serious and wasn't going to stop. No zooming here, just trying to keep her in the center of the photos.

That gave her a workout for the day and to keep her in shape this winter.

Stella saws us walking past her so she caught up with Sadie and escorted me back to the house. On a day like today they both wanted to make sure I was around to let them back inside a warm house.

Another successful walk for the afternoon, the 2nd of the day and probably the last one due to me being a whiner when it comes to freezing weather. Cold weather makes me want to drink coffee in the late afternoon so I may pay tonight for the 12 oz of coffee I had this afternoon.

I guess if I can post one selfie I can do another. This was the very first picture I took with the new phone. I had just pulled into the parking space at Mother Bear's Pizza. I was honestly shocked at the quality of this photo and how real it looked.

On to more reading, researching plus scanning photos for the journal ... and a few games of Mahjong fit in between while I am on break.

How soon will the snow start flying here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana?