A Little Rambling Today

I decided I'd turn this blog post into one of my 'rambling' posts today. In the past some readers have swore I am crazy and even a few decided to let me me know by making comments or emailing me.

My theory has always been "you have to be a little crazy to keep from going insane".

I may ramble today but I will not be talking about current news, politics or religion. I woke up early today and immediately wondered what they hell was going on? It wasn't suppose to be this cold. The problem with that thought was, I wasn't even out of bed yet.

I called it Officially Spring in my last sentence yesterday. I threw out a little more grass seed yesterday on the bank that I am trying to cover and even thought of taking a Z4 drive with the top down today. Something was wrong. All three of the hounds were not only still sleeping, they had all curled up as close as they could next to each other to keep warm. Inside !!!

After I glanced at the temps on my iPhone I took a quick glance for the day of the week. I had Tuesday and Wednesday mixed up. I knew it wasn't Thursday yet because the NCAA games were not on yet, that I could remember.

That did not bother Sadie though. As soon as her eyes open she his hopping up and down to get outside. I'm never getting dressed fast enough for her and she will hop up and down until I open the door to let her outside ... then sprints to the field.

Stella? As we all know she is on her own time ... slow time ... nothing is fast with her unless she sees some deer to chase.

It took me a while to figure out why I was feeling cold today. It was bright and sunny outside, not a cloud in the sky anywhere but cooler than I liked. The winds out of the north was taking away any of my motivation to stay outside and do some things ... like get on the roof to clear off some small tree limbs and check to see if the gutters were clear. Too cold for that.

My obsession I spoke of yesterday has taken an immediate stop. The big old university sent out their social media experts and told a few insiders "enough" with publishing the leaks on their coaching search. Who knows whats real or fake information but it sure was interesting while it lasted.

That wasn't the only reason I stopped living on that message board. I lost the urge to sit hour after hour hitting the refresh button on that site, or checking the latest 28 new tweets on another open table while I had tuned into sports talk radio ... I've always been able to multi-task, even after retiring.

About the time I was about to step away from the computer this morning, I got a text from my old friend from my days in college, telling me he had tried to call but no answer. I had turned off my phone when I walked into the library yesterday but failed to turn the sound back on.

We are like two old people sitting around at the park in the sunshine solving all the worlds problems. The only thing is in of our worlds, current events and politics are not part of them. We had so much to discuss that my iPhone batter went from 100% to 39% charged ... hard to believe that was worth 3 hours and 13 minutes of pure BS. We both like to talk if you hadn't guessed.

The hounds and I had already missed the window for the first walk, so we didn't hit the trail until after 1pm. They still had their two meals in on time. I guess that 2nd walk of today will have to be a late afternoon walk ... wow, it's already late afternoon as I write this at 4:10pm and I have a lot more I want to type.

The reason I have been feeling cold all day is a sweatshirt is not enough when it's 42°. I had no idea it was that cold. That put Heidi back into MY sleeping bag for the day, only to rise long enough to eat.

Speaking of Heidi ... on our 2nd walk yesterday I told her that we were going for a walk and would be right back, as I always do. She immediately jumped off the couch and headed for the door. I was only taking the 25' retractable leash for Stella so I did not have the camera to catch the historic event on digital film.

She moved out front of all of us pretty quickly and led the pace until the 2nd half of the walk. Her skin is looking really good, she's heavier and seems more like her old self than she has been in the past year.

Not to change the subject but I thought I was about to see a nice eagle or large bird nest up ahead.

It was looking pretty promising at this point. As I zoomed in for a closer look I didn't see any birds. Yet, the nest still looked intact.

The hounds right below it didn't care and I could see why as I got closer ....

The nest was not usable, at least at this time.

Ed from "Ed's Blog" up on my left sidebar under "Other Interest" has to watch his data usage, even more than me. I track mine at all times with the Apple Activity Monitor. That has saved me at times with large files being automatically loaded that I was unaware of in the past. Now, none of my updates are automatically downloaded and installed. They can tell me I have updates but I decide when to click the key.

Since I like to use large size pictures and post around 20 per post (until today) I wanted him to tell me if my blog was using to much data to load. I had the setting to load only two posts per page.

He found out that my blog did use a lot of data to load but also different results when using his data saver when looking at a Wordpress blog. It's too confusing to understand so I will not say anything more about the tests we were doing ... but what I was getting at ... does my blog load to slow for you on your computer, tables or phones? Too many large pictures?

To help Ed out I changed the settings back to ONE post per page and that will cut the number of large pictures in half. Thus, the blog site should load faster after I post this today.

While in the area of blogs ... when I logged in yesterday Blogger was telling me they had added new themes (templates) to use. I forgot to blog about it yesterday. I haven't taken a look at them yet but plan to after the hound walk that will happen right after I post this to the blog. Sadie is already giving me her stare down.

I am NOT going to be changing the template to this blog. I like the color, the design, the fonts, etc. I'll leave this as is. I have already made too many changes to this blog by changing the subject matter, changing domain names, plus moving it back and forth between Wordpress and Blogger ... to the point I have lost 90% of my traffic these past 18 months.

So to try the new themes I think I'll start a new 'test' blog just to try the different themes and see what they look like out of curiosity. From the thumbnail pictures of the templates they look really nice and almost as nice as the ones I can choose from on Wordpress.

Maybe I'll become an 'anonymous' writer and write about "off the wall" stuff. Or after looking at the new themes, just delete the new blog.

I don't have Verizon internet service for my home computer. I have been "living" on the internet the past few days since there are no basketball games on tv from the NCAA's but there are games from the NIT (not interested) ... but after spending a lot of hours on the internet, I am not using more than 400Mb of data within the 24 hour period. I would have thought with the number of hours on here I would be close to 1Gb of data ... although it's all reading, no videos or games.

I want to thank Kelly over at the Bayfield Bunch for the suggestion many months ago to try McDonald's coffee. Their bagged ground coffee has great taste and it has slowly taken over as my #1 brand anymore. Starbuck's and Seattle's Best Coffee don't taste the same anymore. I still have to try Arbuckle's and Tim Horton's is alway a possibility ... it's the shipping that keeps me from buying them. It's just easier to buy coffee off the shelf while grocery shopping.

I just glanced at Wunderground weather and I am happy to see 7 straight days of temps in the mid to high 60's starting tomorrow .. I am sad to see that 5 of those days have a very high probability of rain and/or thunderstorms. I'd better get my mower ready for the summer of 2017.

I am sure there is something I forgot to write about and I'll remember it while I am walking the hounds. But this is enough ... quite boring I'm sure. Why I wanted to write about all of this is beyond me.

One last question .... I am thinking of taking out the Yews in front of the house and replacing them with potted shrubs or flowers. I have decided the it would be best to take no chances with their roots messing with my septic tank system. I was told it was more in front of the carport but found out last year when I had an old diagram, the tank was under that window and the Yews covered much of the tank and two inlets for pumping it out.

If I take them out on one side of the porch I feel I have to take them out of the other side of the porch too. Otherwise it would not look right. When a friend suggested planting them in front of the house a few years ago, when I asked for suggestions ... I had no idea they would get as big as they have.

This is the size of them when they were planted a few years ago. I do like having the Directv dish hidden. I am up for any suggestions on what to do about the Yews. I also don't have anywhere else I would replant them.

Or maybe their root system is NOT long enough and NOT strong enough to mess up a septic system. Anyone have thoughts on that?

The hounds and I are outta here for our 2nd walk of the day in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana. Sadie has begged long enough.

The Hounds Asked If Spring Is Really Here

I needed a break today from spending so much time outside, it's that nice. So I guess it's time for a little update on nothing in particular.

It really does make a difference to my mental state to be able to open the door first thing in the morning to let the hounds outside and not be hit with a blast of freezing air.

I am not a fan of the winter months but I try my best to find something good in them and get through the best I can. Having another mild winter definitely helped. With the warmer weather, there are more birds on the ground when we first open the door. That means Sadie starts off her day with a full out sprint from one step out the door to the yard chasing away any birds in her area.

They both wanted to take that first walk early this morning but I had to have at least one cup of coffee. It took some convincing this morning to get them to head back to the house with it being so nice outside so early.

Once that walk started, Sadie was so happy she took off running out into the field and down the edge along the wooded area. It was a rare time that she didn't try to grab my left hand with her mouth to lead me to the field, like she usually does.

The plan with Stella was once again, 'escort' her past the first turn and then let her do whatever she wanted. I am feeding her a lot more kibble per meal and I think you can tell she is starting to gain some weight back. I don't know the reason for the loss of weight this winter but she was getting too thin.

You can almost feel the warmth from the sunshine in this picture and it's still pretty early in the morning when these were taken.

Stella stopped to checkout the same location she stayed in yesterday while Sadie and I walked. She was about to enjoy another feast when I said "come on Stella" and shockingly she followed me and Sadie.

I don't know what it was but every time I called her she followed us today. There were even a couple of times she walked over to look over the small fence into the corn field, then turned around and caught up with us.

I was somewhat surprised that both of them kept up a pace returning home. I expected them to stay out in the field at different spots with the weather so nice today. They only stopped a couple of times and then trotted toward the house.

I always say that Heidi has a 70° threshold before she is interested in coming outside for any length of time. Yesterday I was almost certain she was not only going to stay in the yard for a while but might join us on our 2nd walk of the day.

I was wrong ... she had other plans and headed the opposite direction.

Today was a different story though. Their lunch kibble was fed a little later than the normal time today. I'll discuss the reason why down below at the end of today's post. The older thermometer propped up in the corner of the carport had the needed slightly above 60° ... Weather Bug app was showing 62° ... when Heidi walked straight out the driveway instead of heading for the front yard.

For those that are interested in how much my ground shifts due to the 7 acre field slanting toward the corner of the yard with underground water ... the top of that tree stump to the right of Heidi's head use to be at ground level just a 2-3 years ago.

As far as Heidi I think you can tell she is gaining her weight back. There is new hair growing on all four legs and paws. Her front paws are almost full of hair for the first time in almost 3 years. The edges of her rear shoulders have new hair and more trying to grow. All of those bare spots are very soft and supple skin.

This is the most improvement I have seen with her in 3 years. I am still feeding her the SPORTMiX lamb meal and rice that I posted about a few weeks ago. All the hounds are on the same food. It is manufactured by Earthborn Holistic Pet Food.

She was headed for a bath and shampoo right after these pictures were taken today. All the hounds will get their nails trimmed and ears cleaned while we are outside. They seem to be more cooperative outside when ears are cleaned and toenails are trimmed rather than trying to do it inside.

As I came back from the mailbox with my camera in hand, Sadie was almost positive we were headed for a walk, so she came running full steam ahead. Stella ... lol ... she was on a different mission.

She has that attitude this afternoon where "you guys can walk all you want, I have things to do"

As I walked around the yard today picking up some stray sticks, I thought that I have never seen my yard in worse shape as is in right now. I know the winter just passed but it was a mild winter. I know there will be some damage to the yard but always seems to recover after it is mowed a few times and is hit by the spring rains.

Due to major mole damage in the front yard for the first time in 19 years I am going to apply some grub worm killer at least in the front yard. With the field running into the backyard, it's an impossible war to win against the moles.

Since there is so much damage I am very very tempted to apply so Scotts Turf Builder. I have always hesitated in the past due to the hounds. I know that if I apply that right before it rains I will have to escort them and lead them with a leash to the front yard for 24-48 hours until that Scotts fertilizer is absorbed into the ground.

Or ... is it even worth it?

My neighbors have much nicer, flatter yards than mine and all have the same mole problems that I do. They have not found anything to keep them under control or kill the mole traffic. I have tried everything advertised over the years without much success.

So maybe I'll keep doing what I am doing ... mow and let the spring rains heal the yard.

I am pretty sure the freezing temps killed the grass seed I planted those few days earlier in the month with the temps in the 70's. So I tossed out the last of the grass seed I had today and watered it. There was enough to cover the bare bank in the backyard that I am converting from wild growth to grass that can be mowed and trimmed ground level with the weed eater.

This next part will be of little interest to any reader here if you are not into sports. It is my explanation why the lunch kibble was served a little later than normal, though. Plus an old obsession has come back.

With my team firing their basketball coach only five days ago, social media, basketball fan forums and message boards have seen traffic at an all time high. If you are the owners of those message boards, they are loving it because of all the increase in traffic to their websites. Believe me these fan message boards are popular nationwide for all college teams and are huge money makers. They are probably making about a half a cent per click paid to them by advertisers. Yes ... some huge amounts of money is made when only ONE thread that I am following about the search for a new coach just went past a million visits since last Thursday. That is only one of the many IU fan sites.

So I have been a 'little' pre-occupied following all the rumors, discussions and of course those small tidbits of information by those that have
'inside' sources close to the decision makers. Huge amounts of money are involved, power struggles by rich boosters and/or board of trustees, wanting "their man" to be the next coach.

Needless to say, time passes quickly hitting the refresh button all the time for the latest news. In a matter of minutes a 100 new posts can happen or 100 new tweets can happen from the few people that I follow on Twitter.

The old obsession I spoke of that has returned is the amount of time I spend in 3-4 different IU sports forums reading the latest. I use to pay $9.95 per month for what they call premium information but stopped that a few years ago. Can you imagine the amount of money made at $9.95 per month and thousands of paying members?

Through all of this excitement the hound's schedule does not change from any other day. They get their 2, now 3 walks per day with great weather, they get fed twice per day with an occasional 'treat' if I need to bribe them.

Yet, today time flew just a little faster than normal while on the IU message boards. Since I did not have the warning of Stella howling for food, I lost track of time and the lunchtime kibble was served an hour late. I couldn't believe that Stella and Heidi had slept through lunch.

The hounds must be happy this afternoon because they are all in a deep sleep and it's quiet enough in here to 'hear a pin drop'. Oh and yes I thrilled that the past IU coach was fired last Thursday. A nice man but a poor coach in my opinion.

I am concluding this by saying that Spring is OFFICIALLY here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana ... now back to those message boards.

The Hounds Love The Warmer Temps

For those readers that follow a strict diet, I wish I had your discipline. I do most of the time but when I crash and burn ... it's an ugly reminder never to shock your system.

Getting ready for the final game of the night last night that was going to tip-off at 9:55pm I had this idiotic brain flash of needing something to eat. I guess the fresh trout, steamed broccoli and carrots was just a memory by then. My brain cells kicked in and were moving so fast I knew I was down the path of no return and trouble.

After spending weeks of great eating, low carbs, fresh veggies, fresh fruit for the sweet tooth and chicken breasts, salmon or trout for meals ... I told Stella to watch the house "I'll be right back" ... and drove to the store minutes before it closed to get my meal for the 9:55pm start time of the UCLA game.

So you really want to know how ugly it was??

Frozen pizza, a Qt of Pepsi for $1, a 11.4 oz bag of M&M w/peanuts, and a Qt of Eddy's ice cream. Let's just keep the story there, only to add I did not get out of bed until 11am feeling sicker than s.....

NO, I didn't eat all of the ice cream and I didn't eat all of the M&M's but half the Pepsi was gone and with help from the hounds that terrible frozen pizza was gone.

Soooooo .... I decided on the late morning walk today that I would 'escort' Stella at least to just past the first turn. Once I get her past that point I have never seen her head for the neighbor's wooded area if left alone. Once I had her make the turn with Sadie I did not care if she came or not ... she could enjoy doing her own thing.

Maybe it was the warmer temps from from the start but Stella had 'a little hop in her step'. She cruised right along with us and very few times did I have to say 'come on'.

Sadie's instincts were in full speed ahead this morning. She was locked and loaded and was nothing but serious on this walk. Such a different personality from Stella's happy go lucky attitude. I like both of their personalities. Lots of humor.

I was pretty sure when I saw Stella's muzzle deep in the grass that she would not be moving. In fact I was pretty sure that on my way back that I would have to walk over to her and show her the 6' leash. Just showing it to her anymore will get her to move.

Sadie on the other hand had places to go. She got a lot of running in and she is headed to the far right corner of the field while Stella stayed behind. She is never a problem so I let her run.

I knew in this picture she had locked onto something very strong but didn't think she would run off.

As I turned to check on Stella I hear the sound of breaking twigs, loud movement through the wooded area behind me.

When I turned around Sadie was nowhere in view. When I called her, she came running up out of the valley in the wooded area, charging through the stems with thorns and sharp sticks. She ran all the way back to me, nudging my knee with her nose to let me know I needed to relax ... cool it.

Right before I clicked the shutter, Stella had raised her head and looked right at me ... then back down into the grass. That didn't bother me, she was enjoying what she was doing plus she wasn't by the neighbor's getting in trouble. On the show Dr. Jeff, the vet in Denver ... he said on Saturday that "dogs will eat anything" after he surgically removed a rock from a bulldog's stomach.

Sadie still focused on what is in her field this morning.

This gives you the actual view I see without the camera. She is pretty far away but as long as I can see her ... things are fine.

Sadie was ready to head back home. Although their breakfast kibble was really a 'brunch' kibble, I knew they would probably be expecting their lunch at noon. They will not win that discussion today. Lunch will be fed mid-afternoon today.

At this point in time I start my walk toward Stella ... while saying "Come on Stella". I said it as I walked toward her, over and over. The pictures will show just how well she obeys commands. No one ever said the bloodhound breed was obedient.

Notice her response as I said "Stella come on" a little louder ....

Again ... "Stella ???? .... S T E L L A ????  S    T    E   L   L   A ?????

While standing right next to her !!

I had to pull the folded up leash out of my pocket for her to see and sniff to get her to move away and head back to the house with us.

Sadie was going to get as much running on this walk as possible, all the way to the yard.

Stella decided her slow walk would be good enough.

See some of those clumps of green grass ... more than tall enough to mow.

It never rained this morning but I was sure I was hearing thunder during the time I was trying to sleep this morning. We should be able to get another walk in today but most of those afternoon walks has Stella on the 25' retractable leash anymore. It would be nice to make a short drive in the Z4 today but with the chance of rain I'll hold off on that drive for a few more days.

Many, if not all, will find this amazing but that washer and dryer I spoke of in a reply on yesterday's blog post is an very very old Sears Kenmore 7 Series Model 110. My sister got that set as a wedding present in 1979 and it was used daily at times as the number of kids increased.

Even after all of that use, 16 years later she gave it "away" to me. I thought I'd use it for a couple of years and then buy a new set when something broke. Nothing ever broke, except for a heating element in the dryer 9 years ago. Here it is 22 years later after I started using it and I will probably have to replace a belt so the spin cycle will work correctly. That's only two repairs in 22 years that I have owned it.

I am sure they probably had some repairs to it during the 16 years they used it ... but no matter what, it had been working for 38 years with very little problems. That washer has cleaned a lot of Mexican blankets full of dog hair, dirty clothes from working outside in the summers and all of my winter jackets.

Now ... let me jump back on that diet wagon I was on ... I've learned my lesson.

This Monday is better than last Monday here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.