It's Always Hazardous To Run Out of Coffee

The hounds woke me at the usual time around 6:25am ... or should I say Winston woke me at 6:25am. He's getting older and when he whines to go outside he means it, but he is also great letting me know that he does have to go outside.

The sky was beautiful so I ran back inside to get my camera. After looking at the photographs I have to say the sky colors were much more dynamic in person than what these photos show.

We proceeded to go back to bed until 9am. Of course Heidi doesn't wake up or go outside with the other two at 6:25am .. she never does.

When I posted yesterday about being "out of the zone" and not knowing why ... well this morning I think I figured out why. When I opened my eyes this morning and felt for any kind of pulse to let me know I was good for another day, I realized I had not had my morning coffee for the last 5 mornings. I had a rare headache Wednesday night but I thought that was more from watching the Cincinnati Reds play bad baseball with a minimum wage of over $400,000 per year, than it was from my lack of caffeine.

The routine is always the same, letting the hounds outside, make coffee while they are outside and then let them back inside after the coffee starts dripping into the pot. That routine was off this week. I was out of coffee.

I wondered if the lack of a good cup of coffee to start my day might be the reason for my lack of productivity and a foul mood that I wrote about yesterday?

Last Monday morning as I was grocery shopping and adapting my shopping to only the produce, meat/fish/poultry isle to fit the new diet ... I missed the coffee isle. I didn't realize the error until I returned home 12 miles later. I was out of coffee. I knew then it might be dangerous for me to proceed without having that morning cup or those two cups in the morning, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Since I only drink Seattle's Best Coffee and Starbucks, most of the time, it was going to take me 25 miles round trip to pick up a pack of coffee. My local IGA grocery store carried Starbucks at a higher price but it closed at the end of April due to very poor management by a new owner. That new owner was able to destroy a local 40 year grocery business within 4 months after taking ownership. It had carried "my" Starbucks Coffee and was only a mile away.

So it was going to be a 25 mile roundtrip just to get coffee. I knew this morning I needed a cup and was willing to do whatever it took to have a cup before doing a list of things needed to get done. While taking some photos of Winston and Sadie you would have never thought a torrential downpour was just 10 minutes away. It wasn't sunny but storms did not see like a possibility.

After the photos, and telling the hounds I was off to buy coffee, the skies opened up 4 miles away raining so hard I could barely see. A lot of people couldn't see so there were a line of brake lights coming in the traffic ahead of me. When I left it was partially sunny 67° and looking like a great day ... so every window of the house was open.

It rained hard off and on and by the time I got to the Walmart Super Store, it stopped long enough for me to get inside. I felt better just picking the package of coffee off the shelf. I knew this was going to be the solution to my "twilight zone". I grabbed a couple of great tasting cantaloupes, some fresh strawberries and fresh blackberries ... and I walked through a hard rain back to the car.

I thought I might be the idiot of the day for driving 25 miles round trip to pick up some coffee but I was wrong. I was not the idiot of the day. There were more than one winning the idiot award today and that was 6 different golfers, sitting in 3 different golf carts in 3 different places along the fairways that run next to the highway. Why did they win the award? Everyone addicted to golf one time or another has played in the rain but these 6 golfers were sitting in their golf carts UNDER TREES as LIGHTNING was putting on a great sky show.

I might be wrong about that assumption but I think I remember there is something about being around trees when there is lightning going on. Were the rubber tires of the carts enough protection for them? So maybe I was the idiot after all.

One of my readers, Ed Frey, made a very good comment on my weird blog post I made yesterday. It mainly pertained to me but then I starting wondering how many other bloggers fall into the same trap that I sometimes do? We start blogs for our own journal, maybe to keep family and friends updated with traveling or just a document that we can come back to later on as reference. Then unexpectedly we have a few followers that for some reason find what we write or the photos we take, are interesting enough to come back day after day.

Interesting enough, they keep coming back to read your blog even when you are not traveling, blogging regular or even writing a lot about nothing. Without trying to, over the years a feeling of an obligation may develop where the blogger starts thinking they have to write, even when they don't feel like it. The feeling of obligation to their readers finally hits them up the side the head when they post they can't come up with something to blog about. If you were writing to yourself you wouldn't say that. Still it's nice to let your following know that you are taking a day/night off from blogging. Some people may shut their blogs down temporarily, and/or may feel like they don't want to blog anymore and disappear without a word.

With my background of online sales between 2005-2010 I use to analyze my websites traffic. It was a requirement to help maximize your websites visitors, that hopefully turned into an increase in sales. It became a habit, with an eBay Store, an Amazon Store plus a couple of additional websites. So I have always enjoyed looking at the blog traffic stats seeing where people are from, or why I am getting visits from Russia or the Ukraine when they are busy doing other things, plus a curiosity on which posts are the most read by the visitors.

I made a comment wondering if blogging was worth it with a decrease in traffic. Ed pointed it out to me, why would that matter and if that was the reason to blog he would have shut his blog down years ago, due to lack of traffic. I had to agree. Blog traffic numbers were not the reason I started this blog. I never have had nor have plans to monetize it, so traffic numbers don't matter. I guess it may have been the old habit I had of analyzing site traffic that made me think that way.

So with Ed's comment, that made me think on why I really blog. With my 1st cup of coffee in 5 days and headed for a 2nd cup, and thinking on why I like to blog, I feel much better about blogging in the future. Granted when I started this blog in October 2011 I did not think I would be sitting here taking photos and writing about daily life of a single retiree ... and three hounds that keep him sane. I thought I'd be many miles away. Yet, taking photos of my daily life and the hounds is the direction the blog has taken. It will change eventually but it's where it is right now.

I want to write about Heidi's health update and Sadie's experiment of being "off leash" but it would make this post too long. So I'll add another post today covering both of them. Winston is cool and laidback as always. He will have his 11th birthday on May 18.

For those that came back to this blog day after day ... thanks for stopping by and reading.

I've Been in The Twilight Zone

This week has been nothing short of weird. It's been great weather with sunshine, cool temps and no humidity. It has also been a time of me having zero motivation to do anything. I have a lack of interest for most things this week and really no reasons for causing it.

Yesterday I grabbed the camera and took off in the Mini Cooper for a drive south. I ended up driving about an hour to I-64, then 40 miles west to I-69 and came home. After a couple of hours of driving, I had taken zero photos, fed the dogs and took a siesta.

I had thought about watching tv each night but there was no interest for that. Picked up a book to read and lasted a few pages before putting the book down not really remembering what I had read.

I see that most of my blog traffic that has decreased 50% in the past few months, is from people searching "Lil Snoozy Trailers". The post that I talk about that trailer in 2013 is the #1 post all time on my blog and 2nd place isn't even close.

Those used trailers for sale are still hard to find.

Looking at the numbers of blog site visits I wonder at times when is it not worth blogging due to lack of interest. I live a pretty quiet, consistent life of boredom to most people. My daily routine does not have much variety. My mood swings are more like a roller coaster thus periods of no blogging.

I even passed up the chance of going up to the Indy 500 track to watch them practice this week with beautiful weather and then rain predicted for the next four days. I was just too lazy to make the trip and it's not bad of a trip from where I live.

I've hit a sudden rut and am now back to analyzing dog food ingredients.

So basically nothing to blog about at this time.

Storms Have Finally Passed

It was not as bad as the forecast for Sunday and Monday, but after a full day and night on Sunday of one storm after another it was nice to see Monday have nothing more than an early afternoon rain ... then sunny clear skies as far west as you could see on the map.

With it raining most of the day on Sunday I didn't find a lot of motivation and agreed with all three hounds the best thing to do was sleep. Nothing finer than the windows open with it raining outside. Luckily like a basset hound I had in the past (Harry), none of the three hounds are afraid of thunder or lightning. In fact it doesn't matter how loud or severe the storm is, it just doesn't bother them.





It had rained so much on Saturday and Sunday morning that my backyard was growing exponentially and I didn't see any way that I could wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to mow it. I'd leave the front yard for mid week since I mowed on Friday. So in between rains in the late afternoon on Sunday  there was a period of sunny skies and the grass was dry enough to mow it.

Don't ask me why but I decided to lower my mower a notch and cut it lower. I even pulled out the measuring tape to confirm the height of the grass after making one lap around the yard. Of course with me, any picture I see crooked has to be straightened, therefore I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing the back yard was cut an inch shorter than the front yard ... so I mowed the whole yard at the shorter length. It looks even better when it is cut short.

That's just the way I am wired.

About 10 seconds after I had put all the tools back into the shed along with mower and had latched the door, the skies turned black and the thunderstorms were back on stage with strong SW winds.

Another reason for cutting the grass besides the back yard being tall, I have been trying to apply Scott's Weed and Feed. The hardest part about that is, you don't want to apply before a lot of rain because the seed will wash off the weed. Yet, you need to apply it to wet grass per the website and not have any rain for the next 24-48 hours.

So I was trying to fit that grass feed in at the right time. That time was tonight around 6pm. The grass was still wet from the rains today and the new forecast shows no rain until Thursday.

I know some are asking about the hounds and yard chemicals. I don't feed my yard annually, just on gut feelings. I don't plan on having any hound on the grass for the next 48 hours. How did I come up with that number? How will I do that?

First of all there is a slight problem with answers, so I went with the longest time possible. The sources of information are:

1. Scott's Lawn website product page
2. Scott's Lawn FAQ per product type 
3. The back of the bag

ALL THREE SOURCES SAYS SOMETHING DIFFERENT!!!!

So, I took a little of all the sites and the bag. I set my feeder at 3.5, I applied it to a wet ground with no rain predicted for 48 hours. I will not mow it for 48 hours. The most important thing is I will not let any of the hounds even near the grass for 48 hours.

As per pets, for example ... those 3 sources had the following suggestions for pets getting on the grass after the lawn food was applied:

1. As soon as the grass with product applied, has dried
2. Wait 48 hours after the application
3. No answer

Yet, the Scott's product page for my zip code listed a new or new to me, product ... Scott's Lawn Feed with Pets.  So that tells me the "real" stuff can do damage to pets if directions are not followed. Any chemical engineers out there can tell me different if they choose. They gave different directions ... so I chose the longest suggestion.

I will do that by putting Winston and Sadie on their 6' leashes and keep them in the gravel driveway when they want to go out. That should give us plenty of practice with the leashes as if we were traveling ... I guess. Heidi never goes out when they do and she only goes in two places ...the gravel driveway and the yard in front of the flowers .. where I did not apply any lawn feed.

Sadie will have some real "cabin fever" without our daily walk through the field (non rain days) and the hours she spends tied to her tether patrolling "her" field. Still 48 hours is 48 hours. Maybe it would be easier just to head out on a roadtrip for a couple of days.

Heidi has a vet appointment for tomorrow. Two reasons. One I want the vet to look at her legs before I buy the next 10ml bottle of RESPIT. We are day 97 of treatment and am not suppose to see any final improvement until day 140. There has been improvement but not as good as I would like. Those hocks on her rear legs are nothing short of ugly. She also looks like she has lost a lot of weight.

The second reason is she has decided after the 3+ years I've had her that she doesn't want me to cut her nails. Before she would lay there relaxed, knowing that after 10 snips, she'd get a treat. Yesterday during the 1st of 10 snips, she snapped at me ... then wagged her tail. I'll take her word for it and let someone else cut her nails.

As per the vet's recommendation back in February, Heidi has been eating Taste of the Wild blend of duck, duck meal and sweet potato. I can't say if it has helped with her allergies. I will say that the coats of all three hounds are the best condition they have ever been in as far as softness and very little shedding. Still based on his research into skin problems he feels that her allergies are not food related (3%) but environmental, thus the Immunity Therapy ... RESPIT.

RESPIT has shown a 75%-85% rate of success with no long term damage.

So not much else going on ... even though it's May and hot at times, I've had an urge for beans and cornbread. So the beans soaked for 24 hours then slow cooked starting this morning. It was my last bag of beans so not only did I want to see if beans caused Acid Reflux, I wanted to use the bag instead of throwing them away.

I have had a couple of slips off the diet. No junk food unless you call those waffles junk food. No ice cream (terrible withdrawals), no bread, no sandwiches ... 10 days of no indigestion / acid reflux and NO TUMS.

For an ending to a boring post, I thought I'd include a short story of my very first basset hound with an AKC Name of "Harry Gonso of Indiana". He answered to either Harry or Gonso. He was named after a Quarterback at Indiana that led the Hoosiers to their first and only Rose Bowl against OJ Simpson and Southern Cal in January 1968.

Winston's laidback personality is a lot like Harry's. One big difference, Winston stays home when he is outside and Harry would be gone the second you took your eyes off of him. Harry was a "roamer" that added a lot of funny stories to his life. Luckily Harry died of natural causes instead of running out in front of a car.

After moving to Indiana, I had a neighbor in Bloomington that was a photographer for a local advertising agency. He had a greyhound that use to love to play with Harry, tormented the hell out of him with his speed and quickness .. but Harry never stopped chasing him. Anyway I was asked by this neighbor if "he could borrow Harry for a couple of hours one day this week?" 

I'd heard nothing like that request before so to say the least my curiosity was raised. Come to find out they wanted to borrow Harry for a photo shoot they were doing. Harry was paid with a check at the end of 3 hours, which included a lot of breaks for him and the photographers, different sets, the huge umbrellas for the perfect lighting and was done at a house in one of the richest sections of Bloomington.

Harry was a hit with everyone as he was everywhere he went. He loved getting his picture taken and also loved to attend parties. The girls that lived at the house wanted to keep him, the agency wanted to use him again and I was hoping Harry would share his commission with me.

So here is the final product of that photo shoot. That is not me in the photo but Harry is the basset hound in the photo.

Old Hound Photos on a Lazy Saturday

I must say it's been a really lazy Saturday ... too lazy. Basically I will have to take the blame for wasting this day away. I had nothing really planned but I thought I'd at least do something. The day started by falling off my diet wagon after 8 days and loading my body up with some waffles, butter and peanut butter spread over the top then buried under too much maple syrup. I knew I was headed for trouble, but they tasted great. As usual the hounds shared plain waffles made from the leftover batter.

That resulted in a carbohydrate overdose and within approximately ten minutes I was back in bed for an early morning nap that lasted way too long. That's never a good way of starting a day.

By the time I woke up Intellicast radar online was showing major storms heading my way. Nothing like the states in the midwest experiencing tornadoes but it was looking like some pretty heavy thunderstorms headed our way. Yet, what happens a lot, those storms come from the southwest and by the time they get to the western state line of Indiana they split and follow I-70 and the Ohio River 100's of miles south.

That seemed to be the highlight of my day ... watching radar movement on Intellicast.com

The afternoon had dark clouds of in the distance but here it was dry with some overcast skies ... enough that the farmer across the highway decided he would squeeze in some liquid fertilizer on that planting he did yesterday. Evidently he knew that rain was coming later today.

The hounds and I decided to spend some quality time outside. The temps were just right, nice breeze from the SW. Winston and Sadie got their normal nose exercises while Heidi spent her time inside on the couch. As you can see from her picture she had chewed a nice new red spot on her leg. Sadie ran leash free and enjoyed running through the field, while Winston obviously was looking for a little more action than just laying in the yard and was looking at me for suggestions.

By 4:15pm the storm was blowing in but it never had the force that the red, orange and yellow colors were showing on radar. It turned into nothing more than light rain.

Since I didn't do anything today, I thought I'd post some old photos of the hounds over the past 10 years.

Winston at 2 months old

Winston with no gray hair

 The one thing that Winston has always loved to do ... is go for rides. When he had the urge to ride he would go sit out by the VW bus or later the Chevy truck and just wait for me to finally get the keys and take him somewhere. He usually got his way if he sat there long enough.

1963 VW Panel Van - Winston wanting to ride

Winston wanting to ride 

Sadie's nose is going 100% of the time

Deep in thought today

First day home after 4 hour drive from the Guardian Angel Basset Rescue

I don't know what stung or bit Sadie but Benadryl fixed it.

Sadie 2 years old 

Sadie spitting sticks out 1" at a time.

Well that is it from the "tropics". There is still time for me to recover, do some house cleaning and give myself a feeling of accomplishment I guess .. LOL

The Tulip Train Trestle

This is one place I've been wanting to go see again for only my 2nd time in 18 years. Before I could finish my 2nd cup of coffee this morning and seeing that any rain was at least 12 hours away, I had the strong urge to find this Tulip Train Trestle or "the viaduct" as it is referred to locally.

I didn't bother to look it up on the map or get any directions. I knew the general vicinity and about the time deep in the hilly countryside I thought I might be lost, a sign around the next corner was pointing me in the right direction.

This train trestle was built in 1906 and is still active today.





After looking at the trestle I drove out the opposite direction and that proved to me just how more amazing it was and how hard it must have been for the construction company transporting all their equipment and materials needed to build it. All the terrain was steep hills with rarely a flat spot of land. The year 1906 would not have given them the option of heavy duty trucks.

For all the facts and specifications about this trestle you can click here.

In my younger days I would have been tempted to climb to the top and stand in the middle of the train tracks but I know my limits now. I can tell when I lose my balance at times just getting out of bed, it's probably not a good idea to climb to the top of those tracks just to give you a picture from a different angle. I guess my name will not be painted on the side right below the tracks.

I did take the trail up the side of the hill to almost the top of the train tracks and was able to descend back to the road without hurting myself or the camera. It was pretty steep at times.

I'm close to the top

Steel that was installed 109 years ago, in 1906.

To give you some idea how hilly this surrounding land is, this photo was taken without any zoom and I was still not to the top of the hill. That blue speck is my Toyota FJ.


















If you want to see all 60 photos I took while I was there today, then click here.

Besides the interesting information about this train trestle I found it amazing that it is one year shy of 110 years old. I find it even more interesting that even today in 2015 the railroad is still used and takes approximately 10 minutes for a train to get completely move across the trestle. That must be quite a view the conductor has from his seat close to 200' above ground and no railings on the side.

Of course it's almost impossible to keep the graffiti off the steel structure. I also found it somewhat ironic ... out in the quiet country, not a sound, and the sign shows I can follow them building the observation deck on Facebook.

Be sure to click the link above for all 60 photos taken of the Tulip Trestle (the Viaduct). Let me know if you have any problems viewing the 60 photos on the link to Flickr.

It Happens Sometimes in Retirement

Like I use to tell my co-worker when she would complain about a "paper cut" on her finger ... "you knew the job was dangerous when you took it".

Retirement really isn't dangerous depending on what kind of hobbies you pursue. One thing that can happen when you are retired, even the best laid plans can change at the drop of a dime. You might wake up with a list of things  you want to get done today, but that doesn't always mean they will happen.

Such is the case for today, Thursday, May 7.

I stated yesterday today was going to be filled full of excitement, giving three different hounds a bath, manicure, clean ears .. all the dog maintenance. Like I said earlier in the week there are times my mind plays games with me and has something entirely different on the schedule.

Such was the case for today, Thursday, May 7.

During my first cup of coffee I told Heidi "today is bath day" ... so MY plans were still on time. While walking back to my computer with my 2nd cup of coffee, I glanced at my property tax bill due by May 11. It was at that point in time that "my brain" decided I would be on it's schedule and their schedule did NOT include baths for the hounds.

I threw on some clean clothes, brushed my teeth because I was headed for town to the courthouse to pay my property tax instead of doing the normal annual payment online. With the free parking on a side street, I'd save a whopping $2.95 in online fees for processing the payment.

Plus it gets me out of the house ... so I was feeling pretty good about the short mile or so trip to town. On the drive it felt like a Friday, then I saw on the iPhone it was Thursday. I thought that would mean a short line at the courthouse treasurer's office.

The line was short ... but it was also the slowest line I may have ever been in .. and I mean ever. Things move slow in Greene County in general but this was unbelievable. I even walked by the two people in front of me so I could see into the room and confirm there were live bodies behind the counter. There were, so that was at least a good sign.

Once again my eyes, just like this morning, caught some red print on the "Cash Only" sign on the corner ... It basically told me if I paid with a credit or debit card I would be charged a processing fee of $2.95 just like last year online. I guess my debit card isn't like cash after all.

So, just like that I walked back to my car and headed home to pay the property tax online including the fee. Of course I find out the Greene County Treasure's office never told anyone they had changed their website URL. The bookmark I had didn't work nor did the web address on the paper bill.

It was easy to find the new address, I just backspaced back to the .com part of the address and hit the enter key and wala ... the new website. Payment was fast and smooth and I had to wonder if I would have still be standing in line downtown?

BTW ... the fee online this year to process the payment had increased 85.4% and was now $5.47 this year. I figure that additional $2.52 I had to pay was worth not standing in a line that never moved.

By the time I finished that led into lunch, then Heidi and Sadie "demanded" to be fed their meal of Taste of the Wild's no grain duck and sweet potato blend. While spending time outside after their meal on such a nice day ... the three hounds and I voted to cancel the baths until further notice.

We didn't do one thing the rest of the day but hangout and enjoy the sunshine, the heat and drinking water.

Unless my eyes catch something off to the side and I can remained focused, I think we have a really good chance of getting those baths for  the hounds tomorrow, one day before the weekend, rain or shine.

This is what is nice about retirement ... it didn't matter what did or did not get done.