Day Cancelled Due To Rain

It actually started last night with different periods of hard rain. At times it sounded as if I had a metal roof on the house. Directv signal was knocked out for short time as well as the Exede satellite internet.

That didn't matter. I was deep into my newest book, a novel by John Grisham called The Summons. I'm liking the large print. It's an older book and hard to put down so it was another night I had to force myself to stop reading to get some sleep ... it was 3am.

I was out cold and never heard another drop of rain the rest of the night, in fact I didn't hear anything. No weird dreams, no waking up in a sunlit room ... just solid sleep. You can always tell how much rain and how windy it was during the night by looking at the floor of the carport then next morning, to see it was pretty active.

It was good to see the car cover was still on the Z4. Halfway down each side of the cover are two grommets where I connect each with a bungee cord that goes under the car. That keeps the cover from blowing off when the wind speeds are extreme. Ask me how I know that.  LOL

Sadie and Stella went out this morning for just a short time. Stella did not have any hesitation in returning to the house after she took her bathroom break. Sadie in the meantime was trying to figure out the mole traffic which has destroyed not only my backyard this year, but the front yard this winter. I'm killing the grub worms in March, chemicals and all.

Stella normally has her tail lowered, rarely up and curled like Sadie so when she had her tail up and pointing out I couldn't believe how long it was. When you see the bottom half of her tail is black from a parent being a 'black n tan' bloodhound, it is pretty easy to see why the original owner named her "Dipstick". Plus there is a story from the couple I got her from that she did get into some oil in the garage while they were at work.

Once back inside the house, it was time to continue the book with Heidi and Stella exemplify what kind of day it's been. I've been keeping my house between 60°-65° but today is one of those days it might be 62° outside and inside the same but it feels much colder. Heidi needed the Marmot sleeping back to keep her warm.

Later we took a short break outside but it was lightly raining, the sky to the west didn't look any better. It might be 62° but the weather experts say it will be a high of 28° by Thursday. Where's global warming when you need it?

Lately when thinking about my spring to do list, I've change my mind about planting grass along the old 75 year old wire fence and hill at the corner of the house. Due to keeping the hill from moving I'd like to keep all of the roots of the trees in the ground, along with the concrete blocks the Amish house builders threw into the hill 40 years ago.

I have enough problem with 'ground swell' as it is besides pulling up all the roots and planting new grass. I don't think just planting grass on this hill would hold it. All the underground water in that field leads right to my backyard.  I might throw a few handfuls of wild flower seeds over this area to mix in with what grows back to give it some color.

After posting the pictures of the Mini Cooper yesterday without the stripes here and on the Mini Cooper forum, I have had a surprising number of emails and forum replies. Everyone has some pretty good ideas on how to move forward.

One interesting idea was to put two solid wide stripes only on the hood in dark gray and on each outside edge a very thin red strip. The majority of Countryman owners on the forum suggested keeping the red mirror caps and the brake inlets, then doing a couple of mods to accent the red.

I originally thought of making it black as possible. Now remember all the ideas I speak of, have pictures online or on the Mini Forum showing me what it would look like before I make changes. I also thought of putting on door handle caps that are black. They sell those along with the chrome trip around the headlights and brake lights. Many paint those chrome trim pieces.

One forum member even suggested painting the thin piece of chrome around the car called the 'belt line' red.

Interesting about the color black. I thought it would be quite easy just to order a set of mirror caps in black and then sell my red ones. I was wrong. Even the official Mini accessory site does not list black caps as an option. So I guess from the pictures I saw online, those were special ordered at the time they bought the car or were painted later.

The thing is I am still a fan of chrome and to me there is just enough chrome there to make the car look good. Until I was looking through 5 different sites last night that sold Mini accessories, I didn't realize those red brakes you see behind the black wheels cost almost $1,500.

I also found the exact stripes I took off, in a kit for $117. Some have suggested putting them back on, only on the hood and rear hatch door. Some think only on the hood would look okay while others say forget the stripes and make it as black as possible.

Speaking of cars, I noticed the Toyota dealership that took my blue FJ in trade back in October still has it on their lot for sale. They just had their 3rd price reduction and it is now priced the same as what they gave me for a trade in. I'm surprised it has not been sold yet, since they installed new OEM catalytic converters plus fixed anything they found to replace.

The hounds probably miss riding in it. But I like the Cooper Countryman and it still gives me all the room I need plus better gas mileage. It's quite comfortable.

Well I am headed back to my book. I think I can finish that tonight. Thanks to all that have suggested books to read the past few days. I have included every one on my list of books to read and have found a few of them available in my library. If they are not available I can have them sent here within the state library system.

I see just a little blue sky trying to peek outside the clouds but it's way too wet to take a hound walk today here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

A Rare February Outdoor Activity

The hounds and I survived Super Bowl Sunday yesterday. I did not deviate from my diet, had no urges for a junk food or a chocolate shopping trip.

But a little over an hour before the start of the game I decided to start something I had been thinking about doing for over a month because my curiosity got the best of me.

I guess it was one of those times that hit me, where I am either changing blog templates, building a new blog, maybe even trading cars ... yet I didn't want to do any of those things. Over the past three weeks I've been thinking of removing the red stripes from my Mini Cooper S Countryman.

Before we get into that story, lets move to the hounds. Their normal activities were not canceled because of the work I got done today. In fact by the time I finished with the car at 1:15pm, all the hounds had been fed twice and the bloodhounds just completed their second walk of the day.

Don't let this picture fool you. It's not taken after I had my daily two cups of coffee. This is Stella and Sadie looking at me first thing in the morning wanting to go on a walk. I needed some coffee first.

They were not happy about my decision but they eventually started down the path to the house. By the time I had poured my first cup, both of them were laying down in one of their many favorite sleeping spots.

I wanted about an hour so the temperature would move to over 40° by then. As you can see, Stella is ready for another new week. Will she have any routines change? They usually last only a few weeks before she moves to a different routine.

The walk starts at like all the the others. It's fairly warm but I wore a light pair of gloves, my jacket and ski cap. It was suppose to be pretty warm today and I wanted to start and finish my car project today. Looking at the sky though I did not see any way we were going to get into the 50's like they predicted.

Sadie and I continued our walk, leaving Stella behind.

As I glanced back to see Stella I realized I had forgot the 6' standard leash this morning. Maybe I could get by without it, plus I knew I wasn't walking back to the house just to get the leash.

The weather forecast shows 3 of the next 7 days the temps will be warmer than mid-50's and one day may reach 62°. I'll take weather in February any day of the week.

Sadie was at a good pace and was covering a lot of ground. I turned around one time to find her, thinking she had gone into the deer area on the right side and out of sight. I called her name and didn't see her anywhere on the horizon ... because she was standing right behind me.

Stella was in her normal position and I could see her moving in the direction of the woods. I yelled her name a few times but she kept her slow pace toward the neighbors.

As I approached her, she glanced up and started walking toward me. The leash was not needed since she walked right beside me all the way to the house. Too close for pictures and too slow for my pace but I was happy to see she had the motivation to head our way.

It was warm enough to do what I wanted to do with the car. I had spent weeks looking at pictures of other Mini Cooper Countryman owners on a forum. Many of them had taken the stripes off of their car. I talked to a couple of guys that did it and it did not sound like there would be any problems to the paint underneath the stripes, if I chose to do it.

All I needed was a heat gun, some 'goo-be-gone' and patience. The slower I peeled them off the less sticker residue would be left behind. I also checked the original window sticker list of standard equipment along with the specification for the car in that specific year and model to make sure the the red stripes were not listed as standard equipment.

Like I said I started last night right before the Super Bowl but I didn't complete all of the hood. I had enough off to where I could tell if I liked the change or not. So I wanted to start this project today by 10am and figured it might take me all day to take them off, use the goo-be-gone and then wash that off. One way or another I was going to get everything done today.

In a way the red stripes do look good against that black background but a lot of the times I thought there were just too many of them. It was the first thing you saw instead of the body design of the car. Also all of the Countryman's I had seen without stripes, no matter what their color ... I liked the look of those.

Here is a before picture when I bought the car in early December 2016.

After ...

As I was taking pictures during and after the process, I realized that it might have looked okay if I had taken off only the stripes on the doors, leaving the ones on the hood and rear door. But the more I looked at it the more I liked having no stripes.

By the time I washed it and dried it with a chamois I was sold on the look. Those red mirror covers might be changed to black ones in the future. The problem is, they are more than I want to pay, $200 for the set. I am not a good 'spray painter' if I were to paint these or buy the generic OEM where I can paint them at $55 a piece. So the red mirrors and brake cooler intakes may stay red. 

I sat and looked at it for a while before doing the back door. I decided it would be best with "all or nothing" with the stripes. I had seen a picture of one on the forum for these cars, where they had left the stripes on the back door while removing all the other strips on the doors and hood. That looked good on the white car with black stripes.

Here you can see those red brake cooler intakes. Another thing, I never cared for was the design of the front hood stripe. If that had been two solid stripes then they might have stayed on.

Well the hounds are sound to sleep. I have a John Grisham book to start and a full stomach from the pizza I had for a mid-afternoon lunch at a local establishment. I even had enough left over to bring home with me for a snack later on.

It is suppose to rain later today and tomorrow but knew that when I washed the car. I wanted to get all of the goo-be-gone solution off of the car. That stuff worked fantastic in getting all the sticker residue off. Plus I wanted to see if any of the stripes had caused the paint color change under the stripes.

All the paint and clear coat looks perfect. When it's warmer than 45° I'll give it a hand wax. I wonder how many drivers thought I was crazy as they drove by and saw me washing my car with rain on the way and a cool 43°.

You didn't think I could do all of this work without some supervision and final approval of my job did you? Sadie inspected it gave me her approval of the job and let me go to lunch. Stella of course had to touch the car with her nose leaving a long string of bloodhound drool. I was able to wipe that off before it dried ... it's the worse stuff once it dries, totally amazing stuff.

You have to admit here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana, washing a car by hand is a rare outdoor activity in the month of February.

Super Bowl Sunday

I finished my book around 1am and headed for bed expecting great weather today. I woke up to a bright sky full of sunshine, mild temps headed for the 50's so things were off to a good start.

Same routine as always. Sadie decided to check the air temp with her tongue. Not many can touch their nose with their tongue, but she finds it quite easy.

It's Super Bowl Sunday but I cannot say the excitement I had years ago is there today. I have not listen or read about any of the pre-game hype for the past two weeks. I'll not turn on the tv until right at kick-off. As far as the food plan for today and tonight ... wow, that has really changed in the past couple of years. It use to be an eating feast.

It was my own personal decision to change my diet and non-stop eating during ballgames. I needed to lose some pounds but wasn't obese. I mainly wanted to stop the constant indigestion and stop my addiction to straight original blend Pepsi. In the past Super Bowl Sunday's it would have been non-stop eating starting with a breakfast of a 3 egg omelet loaded with cheeses, mushrooms, a little onion and cilantro. While I would eat that my first large waffle would be cooking.

I'd have at least two them and most likely three, heavy on the butter, peanut butter and thick syrup. Although my hunger would be gone that didn't mean I'd stop eating. By noon college basketball games would be on with the Super Bowl to be later in the afternoon and then evening when the NFL decided they could make more money by showing the game later.

So even with a full stomach from the large breakfast, a walk with the hounds and for me ... I would move into the lunch mode a few hours later with all the chips, dips, meats, breads, baked beans, potato and macaroni salads I could set out on the kitchen island. It was a constant eating fest during the afternoon.

By late afternoon and getting closer to the main attraction I would start thinking about the dinner menu even though I was stuffed to the gills. I may have had a siesta to prepare for not only a 4 hour game but more eating throughout the evening. The grill would be fired up with plans of steak or salmon, sometimes both. It was a full day and night of food consumption.

Plus I couldn't watch a game without chips, salsa, cheese dip along with Pepsi throughout the afternoon and night. I would also eat that way every Saturday watching college football in the fall.

But in May 2015 I made a self imposed drastic diet change and eliminated my indigestion problems immediately. I also lost 20 pounds, 3" off my jean size and the mucus that was always a constant sinus issue was gone. So compared to all I have just listed for meals in the past, this year it looks like I will do what I did last year.

An egg, one slice of wheat toast for breakfast along with my normal two cups of strong coffee. A large salad for lunch and then dinner before the kickoff will be either baked chicken breast, brown rice and salad or salmon instead of chicken. Pepsi is no longer a staple in the refrigerator and drinking ice cold water seems to have filled in nice as a substitute.

Overall we had a great morning walk this morning. The weather was great. Sadie got a lot of running in, more than she normally does. Of course Stella wasn't around. Today Stella ended up going to far and put herself on double secret probation.

As I glanced back toward the house I saw Stella had moved out to her new normal spot. I continued to walk, Sadie continued to run back to me and then circling the middle of the field. She was having a great time.

It changed for Stella though and something I wasn't happy with but not surprised. I knew eventually she would head for the wooded area behind the neighbor's house. It may not seem like much different but if she goes that far, she will gradually move that limit out further and further.

I called her name while I walked. She would look up at me and then back to the ground. But today she kept walking slowly toward the woods and she looked like she was further away and closer to the highway but not even close to the highway. I guess I want to say, she was further away from me than she usually was.

I was pretty sure when I saw her migrating to the woods that I would have to attach the leash to her. It was folded inside my pocket.

As we walked toward her I wasn't happy about this situation. Especially as she would look up at me, hear me calling her and then keep walking more toward the woods.

Sadie and I veered toward her, still calling her name. Believe it or not, she started walking toward me slowly. I was beginning to think the leash was not going to be needed and that she would walk right up to me ... yea right.

Then typical Stella ... actually somewhat funny ... about the time she walked up to me with the leash still inside my jacket pocket ... she turned and started to walk away.

That is when I pulled the leash out, connected it to her collar and dropped it to the ground. She walked beside me all the way back home. Sadie in the was on her own and made it back home before I did.

I am going to start another book and probably read until the Super Bowl. It's hard to believe it is the 51st game. Time flies I guess when you are having fun.

Headed for warmer weather here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.