The Hounds Hide From The Heat

Sitting here during a rain delay in the Reds game tonight, so I thought I'd pull some photos from the first half of today. It was a busy Saturday but the hounds didn't mind because they really like sleeping all day in air conditioned rooms. It was a 'scorcher' by 9:30am, so I knew we would not be doing much. If they moved at all it was just from room to room, do their different favorite sleeping spots.

Stella took a little while to decide if a walk was needed this morning. About the time I was about to take a step into the field she cut me off, stepped on my foot and jumped in front of me on the path. Just long enough to veer left to pee. She then headed back to the path way ahead of me to join Sadie. I don't want to read too much into that. She was just making a normal bloodhound move ... I think.

Sadie was sure she had cornered a rabbit. No barking (she never barks), and didn't go into the woods but she was positive that she had ran the rabbit out of 'her' field into the woods. I checked the right side of her first thing this morning before, running my hands over both lower sides of her.

There still is a slight lump on her right side. It is just like yesterday. It is not rock hard and it is not squishy as if there is fluid. It feels like muscle if anything. I still know it's not normal so I will continue to keep an eye out for any changes.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do today. The more I read about TVs, the more I felt I didn't need one. I am getting most of my reviews from online searches. Most of these sites are not selling any kind of TV, most likely have affiliate links built into the reviews and like anything else ... everyone has different opinions, different lab test results and different recommendations.

I was set to start more reading about the differences of HDTV and 4K UHD TV, when I had an article drop into my Feedly account this morning about using your DSL camera correctly. That gave me some information to look at again and maybe fine tune some things. Plus I could double check some camera settings. Just like the TV reviews, each has their own ideas and experiences in the camera field.

I did find a good website that explained a few things that potential buyers don't consider when buying a new TV. One of those factors is how far do you sit from the TV screen. Based on my distance of 7'8", I did not need any screen bigger than a 55".

Based on their testing the human eye would not be able to see the difference between a HD TV and a 4KUHD TV at certain distances compared to the screen size of the TV. Depending if you spent most of your TV time watching prime time shows, movies, sports, Netflix, or different apps ... that would also be a factor in what TV you should buy.

What happen to just buying a TV, plugging in your satellite or cable box, maybe your stereo or surround speakers and a DVD player then turning it on?? One TV fits all. So I stored that idea away for later research.

When I bought my TV in 2010 it was one of the largest screens available but it also fit in the back of my Toyota Corolla with the seats folded down. The HD market had forced me to upgrade because the TV shows were no longer matching up with my Sony SD TV. It turned out to be 46" and still continues to do a good job. I decided to continue my research but like anything I buy, I was going to set a limit on how much I would spend ... IF I bought something new.

There are so many 'behind the scenes' electrical functions that go on now it is simply hard to find one TV that does all those well. Every TV has specs that are pretty close with their competitors and each of them has something you would want the other to have. I guess that is just like anything else electrical from smart phones, tablets, computers, laptops etc.

Sadie still shows no sign of pain, discomfort, lack of energy, or appetite with her small lump. Even in the hot morning she could have ran all day if I had let her.

Stella was moving right along with Sadie this morning. I used very little verbal herding to help her complete the walk. I think they are slow until I remember the days of Winston lagging behind with legs not 4" tall and a pace slower than Stella. Like Sadie, his nose would always lead him off the path and making the walk longer.

I could tell by the end of the walk Stella was getting hot, because I was hot. Plus her jowls were hanging down more than normal. We didn't have too far to go before we could stand in the shade under the Mahogany trees in the backyard.

This is the sign that Sadie not only had a great walk but got some of her aerobic exercise in when she wanted to.

We stepped outside about the regular time after lunch. Heidi practically refused to come outside. She made a direct right hand turn to the front yard one step out the door and by the time I was finished talking photos of the bloodhounds, Heidi was standing next to the door to go inside. She is a very smart basset hound.

Stella had already decided there was no way she was staying outside any longer than 5 minutes ... as did Sadie.

They both let me know ... I should head for the door and let them in.

By early evening were were getting some sprinkles of much needed rain but the real storms were passing about 70 miles south of us.

I almost forgot to tell you I saw a first last night, ever ... I found a tick on one of Heidi's pads on her food. The tick had not been there long, was not swollen but had attached. My 'tickedoff" tool pulled everything out. I would not have caught it if she had not stretched out on the couch to sleep during the game I was watching.

I check all the hounds after every walk or when they go outside, behind and inside their ears, their necks and between their shoulder blades. Those are all favorite places of the ticks. It has not been too bad this year for the hounds ... but I average 4-5 on my after the afternoon walk.

It was a good day here today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Is A Funny Bloodhound

It's hard not to start taking this beautiful weather for granted. It's Indiana and it will change eventually but right now I'll take what it gives me day after day. Since I am a fan of hot weather, the heat and humidity does not bother me. Spring and Fall are still great times of the year also, it's those weeks in December and January where you think about packing up, throwing a for sale sign in the front yard and get out of town. You can see we started our walk this morning in the same weather of low humidity, high 60's and most of our path in the shade.

This will give you some idea just how wet the field is. It will also show you just how much of the field is full of wild plants, some weeds and very little grass.

Can anyone tell me what the 'theme of the walk' was???  You guessed it, and it made the walk slow and slower.

A fine example of Stella's blocking out all verbal comments, direction or begging.

That spot might look huge but it is a 1/4" thick, a little less than Wednesday when it was discovered. This morning there was no fluid that I could feel. There isn't a feeling of a 'rock' in that area but the same feeling if you were rubbing your hand along the side of her. I just brushed her undercoat out yesterday afternoon and can see more coming out this morning.

It was going to warm up to 91° today but with the humidity so much lower than normal, it doesn't feel that bad when we take our early evening or late afternoon walk. Stella now waits for me in the carport for me to hook the retractable leash to her collar, only on the afternoon walk.

Here is a good photo of Sadie's right side, the lump was barely noticeable this morning.

I was at the point of making the final turn toward home. Needless to say I had to wait quite a while until the hounds joined up with me. I decided while I waited I'd take a few photos of any flowers I found.

Galen posted on her blog last Friday that these are poisonous. This is the only one I saw in the field this morning.

Both hounds stopped to look and listen as we approached the north yard. Looking in the direction of the next door neighbor I wondered if they were smelling a late breakfast or heard something out of my hearing range.

At times Stella is hilarious. She stood next to this tree doing nothing, looking at nothing so evidently she needed a little shade to cool off before she came inside. I didn't call her this morning so when she was finished standing there she came trotting to the house on her own.

Poor "backyard breeding" gave Sadie shorter ears than most bloodhounds have. Yet as a 8 week old puppy the length of the ears passed the test by wrapping around the front of her nose when pulled out straight. It was 10 years ago next month that Winston and I drove a few miles north of town to see her. Her parents were there so we could see them. Both of them had bloodhound features of a hound that would be in a dog show. I wonder what happened in the breeding process ??

She is a great bloodhound though and actually surprised me how calm down she has become after being a destruction monster her first three years. I would not trade her for any other bloodhound.

Even though the temps were slowly creeping to 91°, it was still very nice mid-afternoon. I thought after lunch it might be time to sit outside. I would let the bloodhounds roam the field and I thought Heidi would probably take her spot in front of my chair as I looked out at Sadie ... That wasn't the case. You can almost tell that Stella and Heidi had no other plans but to get back inside where they could sleep with air conditioned air.

Trained to be a house dog at 12 weeks old, Sadie always knows that after every meal it's time to go outside, find a good spot in the field and relieve herself. Ten years later she still remembers.
 

Stella and Heidi decided to put their brains together in deciding what to do. It did not look like they had come to any conclusion as I swung my chair onto "Winston's Patio". It felt hot but it didn't feel that hot ... it was nice with a slight breeze, no bugs ... Heidi and Stella never came to the backyard so I knew that was a sign that they would not be outside too long.

Sadie had those same thoughts as she galloped back to the yard. Her job was done and it was time to go back inside.

Since Sadie is the 'team leader', she always makes sure the hounds are accounted for and no one is left outside. Only today was different. Heidi was at the door waiting for all of us ... and Sadie found out what it's like to be ignored by Stella. She (Stella) is in her own world most of the time.

Stella was taking a quick noon nap and was in such a deep sleep I didn't want to wake her up ... about 30 minutes later she was at the door wanting in, wondering where we had gone.

For those Apple users that are curious about the new macOS that will come out this fall, a new iOS is due at the same time. I am using the beta version of the macOS on my iMac and laptop but not on my iPhone as I plan to wait until the official release this for before I make that change. Last night I decided to go back to the "Light" version which is the background that all of us are use to. It wasn't 10 minutes that I went back into settings and changed it back to 'Dark' ... that is how much I like the new idea of a Dark background. It is a huge difference when you start using it.

The mind and advertising is an amazing thing, even the mind and your smart phone was/is programmed intentionally so you become addicted to it. Ask yourself if you can go 15 minutes without checking for email or a new text ???

Anyway we all understand the history of advertisements. I'll not go into it because it's too much to write about here and I can't write that long today. My story starts a few weeks ago when I was checking out different stereo receivers and amplifiers at Best Buy because my 34 year old Yamaha Control Amp finally broke. My shopping trips are usually pretty disciplined, and nothing more than in, buy and out. I do all my research online before I decide to buy or head to the store.

Of course they have the stereo receivers near the Home Theaters which have to be next to that huge wall of 4K UHD TVs ... not to hard to figure out their plan of attack.

My Samsung HDTV is 8 years old. It's only job is to provide movies every once in a while, ballgames every night and 14 straight hours of college football on Saturdays between August 30 and through the bowl games ending the first part of January. By that time college basketball has taken it's place. So the TV does get a work out but not for news nor prime time tv shows.

A week or so ago as I was walking through Best Buy to pick up the Amplifier I had decided to buy, my peripheral vision couldn't help but notice those fantastic tv pictures that covered the huge wall to the right of me. With more pixels and eight more years of technical development I could tell a big difference between their tv picture and my tv picture. Luckily I got out of the store unscathed and bought only what I intended to buy.

When things are slow, my mind wanders. In freezing winter days it's about moving, before each holiday it's about "deals or holiday discounts on electronics" and when you are 51 days from the first college football game in 2018, the mind turns it's focus to TVs ... a dream of tv's on the wall like a Sports Book in any Las Vegas Casino ... a wall of ballgames.

Today I shocked myself.

After a few days of careful analysis, the Stanley tape measure giving me a better visual with what I would be working with, plus digging into my Samsung Remote Control to make a few minor picture adjustments to keep up with eyes that need a new glasses prescription ... I was ready to do it. I was ready to buy a new 4K UHD TV. I would either sell my HDTV or keep it as a second TV giving me the capability to watch more games at once.

Hounds were fed, let out long enough to relieve themselves and when the hounds heard the words "I gotta go" in my sentence ... Sadie and Stella trotted to the bedroom and by the time I finished brushing my teeth Stella was asleep. Heidi had taken her place back on the couch and was stretched out as far as she possibly could.

But ... I wanted to take another look at my tv picture quality .. I had a tennis match to look at, some NASCAR practice, NFL replay games from last fall and an F1 Race on the DVR from last weekend.

That old (8 yrs) tv has a great picture ... not even bad enough to make a change.

The shocker came when I opened the bedroom door to let the bloodhounds out and then switched back to my cargo shorts/t-shirt and told the hounds I wasn't going anywhere ....

I'll stick with HDTV ... at least for today ... LOL

If any of you have made the switch from HD to 4K UHD+ TV ... let me know if you like the difference and if you think it was worth it.

Otherwise another great day here in 'the Tropics Of Southern Indiana" with two baseball games on tonight back to back, ending in San Diego.

Sadie Is Curious About All The Excitement

Sadie was wondering what all the excitement was about after the blog exploded with increased traffic, three different friends texting me nonstop last night to talk about 'the' lipoma. She couldn't figure out why I kept trying to get on the right side of her with the Nikon or iPhone camera in my hand. What was going on ?? After all she had ran on both of her walks yesterday, got a ride in the FJ and never missed one piece of kibble.

So as we stepped outside on a cool morning, just like all other mornings she nudged my hand with her wet nose and then took off sprinting into the field. I am amazed by the amount of weeds that have taken over the field since they cut it in early June. It was almost all grass before the cut and now it's hard to see any of it.

Stella finds it though, before she starts every walk at the edge of the yard/field. Nothing like some nice wet grass to eat before she starts her half mile wander. She had no plans to escape today as she trotted onto the path of worn weeds and followed me until I got out of her way.

The added dropped the cool temperature of 68° a few more. It felt really nice compared to inside the house, which was very warm as it retained the heat from yesterday. I turned off the AC and opened the windows about the time I turned off the lights for the night. Hard to resist low 60's and low humidity.

A lot of scent to track this morning. There were some deer scat added to their searching results at times but not a lot. Even Stella thought a couple of times she had found a track that lead into the thick brush along the woods.

As I looked at them walking together I still had a hard time understanding that both of them weight the same yesterday. I even let each hound sit on the scale long enough for the digital scale to stop on a number ... then a few more minutes in case it wanted to be more accurate. Each time, 79 pounds.

The more I thought of our vet visit, an office I have been going to for 17-18 years, the more I realized that things had changed over time and I will moving to the vet in town. She is the same vet I took Heidi to almost four years ago with skin allergies. I remember the responses I got as Heidi walked into the office. I remember how well the vet explained everything during her inspection where I had to ask very few questions.

Yesterday afternoon the decision was final when I realized I had missed them not taking a blood sample of each bloodhound to check for heartworm. It was not on my invoice either so I called the receptionist who I have known for those 17-18 years.
 

When I asked I found out that the heartworm test was no longer part of the annual exam "Unless you ask for it" ... I remained calm with my pulse shooting through my Garmin Smart watch and my mouth wanting to rip into that answer. As I hung up the phone I knew that was it ... I was never going back to that place.

In the land of hot humid summers with fleas and mosquitoes ... and you don't even do a heartworm test unless asked to do ... my bullshit flag is flying high today.

You would think with all of the condensation you see on that plant/weed that it has to be humid and sticky early in the morning ... but humidity is sitting at 63%, high for some, low for me.

A mysterious light leads Stella down the path. A little news on Stella's lack of running or trotting in the past year. I have not seen her full out run in the field for so long I can't remember the last time she did. This morning with the morning breakfast kibble waiting for them in their own stainless steel bowls, I walked to the door to let the three hounds inside.

Unlike every morning, only Sadie and Heidi were waiting to run inside. Stella who is usually first, was not around ... until I was about to close the screen door. She was sprinting as fast as she could, trying to make the turn around the FJ and make it before I close the door ... sprinting is the key word there ... for food.

Today's photo of the fatty tumor I am keeping an eye on ... dead center. I am making an appointment with my 'new' vet in town. I had a couple of comments last night on the blog relating their experiences when their dogs had the same thing. Like what I read on the website searches I did ... surgery is needed only when it makes the dog uncomfortable to sit or lie down. Another said her vet sucked out the fat with a needle inserted, the FIRST time she was at the vet.

All good information.

I always read the comments and try to reply to all of them too.

It was a long slow process completing this walk this morning. I let the hounds do their own thing at their pace. Once I wasn't sure we would ever leave the back of the field.  LOL

I am not sure why I had my head down walking, or what I was looking at ... I didn't miss him. He never moved as I took 2-3 photos hoping to get a good one. I passed him and stood and waited for Sadie to see what she would do. I now changed my statement from a few days ago where I thought Sadie was chasing a field mice to a toad. As Sadie's nose came closer I was expecting that I would have to yell at her to leave the toad alone. He was still there as she slowly walked right past him, giving him no acknowledgement that she had seen him.

The mole traffic is increasing on the north end of the yard. I went out with my tamper to smash those small dirt hills back to ground level ... that usually makes no difference.

Sadie was ready to get back inside for her late morning nap until lunch is served. She did lay on her right side last night under the coffee table and slept while I watched the baseball games. She shows no sign of pain and really she shouldn't if it's just a fatty tumor.

Yes, they are snow boots ... but they keep my feet dry on these morning walks where the field is covered in heavy dew.

I had a lot of ideas on what to do this afternoon after the hounds were fed their lunch. I ended up doing other stuff. It was nice this afternoon, in fact all day. The low humidity was making all the difference in the world and when I saw how low it was on a weather app, I looked at two other weather sites and confirmed it was 41% around 1pm. Stella thought it would be a great time for me to pull out the hound mitt and get a nice brush.

Sadie had so much hair being collected by the mitt, yet not all of it, I had to use the wire brush to get her undercoat. For some reason this year she has never stopped shedding. I barely had any hair come off of Heidi and brushed her while she slept. She has basically refused to leave the couch, only to eat today. She loves the air conditioning.

Since I was doing hound coats I decided it was also the perfect time to clean their ears. I don't use any commercial ear cleaner, just a basic 50/50 mix of water and vinegar. The vet is always impressed with how clean the ears are for the bloodhounds and basset hound, since their ears are built to collect wax and yeast. Their ears don't get much air and it takes routine cleaning to keep them from needing medical attention.

Stella was still amazed by the great weather around 2pm. She went to the door to be let out ... she had plans which you will see within the next two photos.

This morning I was about to make an appointment with a different vet, located downtown. While feeling the lump on Sadie it was not rock hard but it wasn't squishy like it was yesterday. It felt more the normal stomach although the size was still the same. I decided to wait until tomorrow morning and see if it goes back to having some fluid, gets harder or reduces in size. I know today based on what I felt, there was no fluid that could have been taken out by needle. I didn't feel any kind of fluid like I did yesterday.

I should have never cut my yard a notch lower last Sunday ...

It wasn't soon before Stella had had enough sunshine and she was more than ready to get back into the cool living room or on the cool kitchen floor so she could take a nap.

Sadie must have felt the same way because once I yelled her name, she came running out of the woods all the way to the yard, brushed my knee and headed to the door.

I have had a few email subscribers tell me that they did not receive their email about my new post yesterday until about 11am today. That is about 16 hours later than when I posted it. Since I also subscribed by email to see if the system works, I had the same results. Blogger has always been slow with their email notifications.

I guess you can probably tell the larger tall photos were taken with my iPhone 8+ camera. Sometimes I forget I have that camera when I am outside. It's better for low light and indoors than trying to zoom in on the hounds.

Hard to believe it's Thursday already, as if it makes any difference. Now if I can find some motivation to wash the Z4, things will be back to normal.

I'm still just hanging out in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... not doing much.