I Finally Get Out Of The House

That title means I actually got in the FJ, took a drive, took some photos and visited a place I've never really explored after living here for 18 years. I've been getting out of the house with the hounds but only in the yard and taking the daily walk. I even took days to buy some groceries ... but lately nothing more than that. A rut? Maybe ... maybe not.

It was a great day to take a drive. As you can see the leaves are not turning bright like they normally do. As I drove around the countryside there was still a lot of corn to be harvested, yet some farmers had already harvested their beans, corn and had disc'd their fields to be ready for next spring planting.

The hounds started out the day with their normal routine of a little yard and field snooping first thing in the morning. Right about the time I finish my first cup of coffee, Sadie is always by my desk giving me the look to go outside ... then she and Stella play most of the time. Winston will search and Heidi only comes out if the temps are 70°.

Since the temps were in the high 50's by the time we got outside, Heidi stayed in bed sleeping, not waking up until she heard the dog food being poured out into the stainless steel bowls sometime after 1pm.

Winston started out refereeing the wrestling between Sadie and Stella but became bored and headed out on his own little trip.

I decided somewhere during that first cup of coffee that I was going to drive to one of the local small rural towns just to take a drive. The leaves do not have any color anywhere this year so I didn't get any photos besides holding the camera on top of the steering wheel while driving.

Before I headed north out of town I stopped somewhere I had been inside just a couple of times in the 18 years I've lived here. I was never there long, once to fax and once to check their computers. Today I wanted to explore inside, see what they had and sign up for a library card.

I got more than I bargained for. This small town library was connected to a large statewide network where any book I am interested in, I can check out, have transferred to my local library or just download it into my iPad to read electronically. Besides that they had a huge collection of DVD's and CD to choose from.

I may have grown pretty naive about modern day libraries over the years from my lack of use, so my excitement may be over the top to some readers here. I was still surprised with all that was available. I didn't go overboard on my first trip, I checked out a new book I wanted to read and a new James Taylor CD.

Once I was home I set up an online account, set up the Overdrive app and added a lot more books to my reading list along with audio books, DVDs and CDs.

Some might be asking why I never take the hounds with me on these short trips in the FJ. They all love to ride but they all have one thing in common when riding ... within minutes all the hounds are sound a sleep. I guess I could take them, but they would only be sleeping while we drove somewhere.

When I got back we headed outside to enjoy the sunshine. Winston found a great spot, gave me a look  that said don't bother me ... then laid down in the grass and slept for about an hour, or until I went outside to call him inside before the baseball game started.

This is one of the best times to live in southern Indiana. The days are sunny and the temps are cool.

I'm not sure if Winston is losing some of his hearing due to old age but he does seem to be ignoring me more than I can remember. He has a bad habit of eating something so I have to keep an eye on him most of the time he is "roaming" with his nose to the ground. Today I caught him in one of those periods he was in the ignore mode as I was calling his name.

I really got lucky when I got Stella. I was really expecting some sort of issues, some bad habits, do something wrong .. like a typical bloodhound ... but she has been nothing short of perfect since arriving August 30, 2015.

This is about all the color I have around the house right now. Last year I had a lot of bright colored leaves along the drive ... so things are running a little late this year, but the leaves are not staying on the trees very long after they start turning colors.

I was surprised the farmer across the highway was able to harvest any beans out of his field that was underwater last May. I couldn't tell at the time in May what was planted but he was able to get a couple of truckloads of beans out of that field.

Heidi finally came outside after dark ... a couple of different times, but I think she is getting a head start on her strategy for El Nino this winter ... a lot a lot a lot of sleeping.

Ballgames Make Me Hibernate

With all of these MLB playoff games on tv at the same time as NFL and College football it's hard to see all of them of course. The college football games I'll sit on the couch and watch every play, game after game. The MLB games I'll have on tv in the background but will go outside at times, take the hounds for a walk but will always sit and watch when there is some sort of action going on.

This past weekend, including today, about all I have done is sleep, eat, watch games, walk the hounds and take just a few photos of them. With that type of schedule there is really not much to blog about.

Here are some photos of the hounds Saturday and Sunday.

Heidi decided to get out of the house Saturday morning. Her skin continue to look better, yet by 8pm at night there is enough redness you wonder if something inside the house is the cause of her allergies.  By the first thing the next morning her skin looks great. She sat outside for almost an hour by herself, in the sunshine on Saturday.

Sadie and Stella play quietly in the house, almost in slow motion ... yet when they get outside it was full speed. They seemed to have their seating figured out this past weekend and understood that no matter what ... I was allowed my seat on the couch.

Winston didn't do much besides telling me he wanted to go outside about a million times per day. He would spend most of this time laying in the sunshine when outside and would sleep every minute he was inside.

Back to the baseball game and a Monday Night Football game. Great weather today here in "the tropics" ... cool, windy enough some of my tree leaves were blown out of the yard.

Hounds Warm Up Before MLB Baseball

I was wrong yesterday when I said that MLB was taking a day off so I would have time and room on the tv to watch two different football games on Thursday night. Right after I posted yesterday's blog I saw that one game was already completed and another to be played last night. I caught last nights game between commercials of the Indianapolis Colts game.

I decided to tape the Washington - USC game while the Colts game was on. I also decided NOT to look at the game at anytime, stay off my twitter sports and Facebook sports so I would not see the score. I didn't want to know who won before watching the tape.

After the surprise victory by the Colts, the hounds and I went outside for them to do their final job of the day ... while I look into the sky for stars and airplane traffic flying into Indianapolis 70 miles away.

The hounds headed to bed and I turned on the Washington game. It was after midnight but I knew with fast forward during commercials and halftime, that 3+ hour game on tv would be a little over an hour long. Another surprising victory by the Dawgs ... so my night ended with both of my teams winning.

The problem, I was wide awake and these past few days I have been back to staying up late (3-4am) and sleeping late (10:30am). I don't care for that routine but that is what's happening.

Winston and Heidi decided to call the day off today due to overcast skies and have been only awake to eat and to go out one time. Sadie and Stella are both sleeping next to my desk chair but as you see they had a good workout this morning, sprinting, running in the yard and field, some wrestling and then final a break.

I need groceries but with 4 MLB games back to back to back today and tonight ... I'll sneak out of the house Saturday morning to replenish supplies before college football starts at noon.

Here are the bloodhounds playing at full tilt ... but their sudden burst of energy didn't last long.

Stella In Full Sprint Mode

I Think Sadie Has A New Friend

Headed Back Inside To Sleep

I do remembering posting in various posts over the years on this blog that I am a "sports addict" ... this time of year proves it, living in "the tropics" and cool weather on the way.

It Took A Lot Of Hours But Finished

Sorry I don't have much to blog about today and only have 3 photos of the hounds. Those were taken today ... maybe I'll go back into the photo archives and post some past photos of the hounds down below.

Anyway I found out just how much work and how many hours it takes to update things when you make the decision to change your home email address ... an address that you have used for a lot of years. I almost changed it in April 2014 when I retired, kind of a 'fresh start' kind of thing. I then realized by looking at my list of passwords and all of the different emails I receive daily because they have that email address ... that in April 2014, I decided not to change it.

For some reason this year, that email address was sold obviously by some website(s) where I had used it. The amount of junk mail coming to that account was amazing and never stopped. I did all I could to block them. I had a pretty good idea of the cause just based on the increase in junk mail after I would list something to sell on Craig's List or the times I would sign up for a new newsletter from someone. I'm not positive it is the reason, but it was a fact that junk mail increased tenfold during the times I had things for sale on Craig's List..

The junk mail seemed to happen more and more, even with the business websites where I had used the address. So I decided last night I'd start the long process of changing everywhere that old email address had been used and then delete the account.

Honestly, it took me almost 7-8 hours of solid work to get those updates done, including rechecking those sites where changes were made to make sure I could enter them again with the new email address. I also wanted to make really sure that I received email notices from my banks, credit cards, internet company, cell phone company, and electric company if nothing else.

Who knows, just by doing that I may start receive a new batch of junk email ... hope not.

So I'll not keep boring you with the details ... but just to let you know, if you ever decide to or have to change your home email address it is very time consuming to update before you pull the plug on the old account.

The hounds did their normal daily stuff inside ... a lot of sleep, the bloodhounds played, shared bones, found a new bone that was hidden somewhere and all were very interested in the lunch I fixed ... even Heidi.

For the first time Stella "whined" to me about the time I normally put their food out. I guess she has decided to start acting more like a bloodhound and has adjusted to the move.

Here are some photos from today ... while I'm off to find some older photos to post that you haven't seen yet.

Early this morning Stella didn't even want to go out into the field to snoop around. She sat there and stared at me the whole time we were outside this morning.

 Winston did his normal early morning search for any yard moles that he never tries to catch but seems to smell a lot around the yard.

Sadie decided she was going to do her normal morning routine and it didn't matter if Stella came with her or not. She didn't go too far and was back in the yard looking bored. So we all went back inside and I went back to the computer.

 I lost the first two years of photos for Sadie due to my own mistake, thinking I had my hard drive backed up. I am not sure how old Sadie was in this first photo but she was letting me know that chair was hers.

She has always been able to sleep anywhere but usually preferred no blanket of any kind. She is about 3 years old in this photo.

This is Heidi after we had spent all day driving down to Arkansas to pick up the Lil Snoozy Trailer before I changed my mind in the middle of the night. She really liked that grass lot but it wasn't a few minutes later she snuck off out of sight and a feeling of panic made me forget about the 98° and humid evening.

When I brought Winston home at 8 weeks old in 2004, he wasn't much bigger than a bottle of Pepsi.

Stella's previous owner use to dress her in a polo shirt and take her to work on Fridays. I could tell by these photos she was a laidback bloodhound. That last photo is Stella's first night here, probably really confused and shy ... it didn't take her many days to move from that spot on the floor to the couch every night.

I have a college football game to watch tonight, with my Dawgs playing down in smoggy Los Angeles starting about an hour after the Indianapolis Colts kick off for their game in Houston. That means one game will be taped on the DVR but will be looked at during the commercials of the other game. Thankfully MLB has the night off. I always say I need a few more tv's mounted on the wall.

Overcast in 'the tropics' this morning but it never rained ... then the sun popped out for another great day of retirement.