The Rain Has FINALLY Stopped !!

I've seen the water levels much higher than now, a few years ago, but I am not sure that was worse than now. The standing water in back of my house was more than my underground drainage system could handle. It just shows how much water is moving underground in the field, which slopes towards my property. Yet ... THE RAIN HAS FINALLY STOPPED !!

For the first time in two days, Sadie and Stella walked out into the field. It will still be too wet to take any walks today and maybe even tomorrow since it's suppose to start raining again after midnight before blowing out of the area for a few days.

Sadie didn't stay long but was able to explore a little in the field. About all she was doing was finding that one spot that all dogs look for when they have dump their tanks.

It is May 5th and this is not what I had in mind for my May weather. Wasn't it just a week or so ago where we were touching the mid 70's and thought summer was right around the corner?? I am not a fan of this kind of weather.

By last night I think we can officially say the wild yellow mustard flowers (weeds) are gone. It will be interesting to see just how long it will take to dry that field out enough where heavy tractors, and planters can work there.

That same field runs up next to the highway. All water, but it still did not crest and go over the highway like it did in June 2008. I've seen hard rain fill my culverts and flood my driveway near the highway but nothing like that happened this week.

I think it's safe to say all of that work they did early in getting their field fertilized and planted before May 1st is now a tax write off as a loss. That water also stretches to the right where the majority of the field is located.

This is from yesterday afternoon. The rain had let up enough for the hounds to take a break outside. I was going to pull out the 3-step ladder I have and reach over the top of the gutter to unplug whatever was blocking the downspout. That was not why it was flooded, the downspout was not plugged and all I heard was large amount of water flowing down from the gutter.

It takes a lot of rain to get to the point. I have 6" black corrugated drainage pipe that runs the full length of the house in back right below the edge of grass and rock/gravel toward the bank.

Again, when the top of the driveway gets this flooded, there has been a lot of rain going on.

Yet Sadie was happy to be back outside. I had to call her to come back in from the field. Stella was already standing at the door wanting back inside. Heidi was still hibernating inside her Marmot sleeping bag.

I was still having some problems with Google Chrome today. I find it's a common problem after looking on Google search ... it was freezing when I tried to scroll on a webpage and preventing any kind of curser movement. So as a test I decided to read and find out how to clean up the files inside my Safari browser. I stopped using it months ago because it was corrupted and was deleting all of my bookmarks each time I turned it off.

It was a quick fix, deep inside 'Library' system files where Apple does not want users to go. Safari is now my default browser again, not freezing my computer and not using as much data as Google Chrome based on what my Activity Monitor is showing. It is also very fast loading the pages.

Here on top of the hill we don't have it bad at all compared to other people in the local area. With one of the main rivers in the state of Indiana running outside of town, many people have had their homes flooded, bridges and roads are closed due to being under water. It's times like these that I am happy we lived about 80' up on a hill.

Hard to believe it's Friday. It's been a strange week to say the least. I hope to pull the ladder out of the shed and get up on the roof later this afternoon. I saw this morning some small sticks sticking up from inside my front gutter. That is what is causing all of that water to come over the front edge into the mulch I have in front of the carport.

It's extremely wet here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana but at least the rain has stopped.

Trojan Horse File Source Found -- A Shocker !!

I normally would have waited to post something like this instead of my 3rd post of the day but what I found out about 15 minutes ago was a shock and may help others that have had any crashing problems in the past with their computer. I didn't want to wait to post it and I didn't want to add it to a previous post as an editor note.

In the previous post today, I said I had found a possible source for the crash of my computer from a program that installed itself in my computer. I am not sure how long ago this happened. After Bitdefender ran it's deep system scan this morning, it found a file called IntallMiez.1 and quarantined it. Removed it from my system so it would not and could not execute.

Back in my PC days here at home, prior to October 2010, anytime I found a virus I would delete that file from my system manually.

So today the more I thought about it I decided I just didn't want it quarantined but I wanted to delete the file. This morning Bitdefender had given me the path of the file removed.

This afternoon when I went into the quarantined section inside Bitdefender, to remove the file this is what was listed:

S-DCDATA-00209MF-ALLIN-32BIT_.dmg

Before I ever delete a file like this, or any file in my registry I will google that file name to see if it is a required file that works making the system run. Not all files quarantined are bad files.

In this case I was shocked with what showed up on my Google search for that file name.

It is a Nikon installer file. Someway that trojan horse file IntallMiez.1 had attached itself to the Nikon installer file to make it's way into my hard drive. The major complaint on Google search along with those in a Mac Forum called Mac Rumors ... was the Nikon file would not finish installing.

The file was an update for the Lens Distortion Firmware. Many Nikon users were having problems getting the file to load. I then remembered downloading a firmware update for the Lens Distortion last fall.

How weird is all of this?

I hope this may help some people instead of confuse them. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer the best I can or point you in the right direction.

And yes, as of 6pm, it was still raining and had not stopped once all afternoon.

My computer mystery has been solved here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

The "Field Of Yellow" Is Gone !!

When we took our last picture last night around 6:15pm the 'field of yellow' was looking like it's days were numbered. More rain was predicted for the next two days and a few of those had over an inch of rain per day. Little did I know that "Murphy", infamous from "Murphy's Law" was in the corner of that cabin I spoke of yesterday ... laughing his ass off for what he had in store.

You may have read about my computer crashing last night around midnight as I was shutting it down and heading for bed. That story was my first post of today, listed right below this one. I have updated info on that at the bottom of this post.

But that wasn't the only surprise this morning when the hounds and I started our day. What looked like a lot of water last night turned into a lake today. It was raining when we shut off the lights close to 2am and was still raining this morning when I took this at 7:15am. All of those wild yellow mustard flowers were gone.

Without any chance of a walk this morning, I needed a break from my computer work I was doing even after I got it started again. I figured the hounds would hop and tip toe through the wet yard to the field and dump their tanks ... they were not interested. Sorry for the poor quality picture but it was the only one I had of them this morning. They didn't get any further than this.

I can only assume that large drainage system they installed across their field a few years ago, currently under all of that water, has prevented the water from reaching the green grass and possibly the highway. No matter if it did or not, it looks like they have lost most of their crop they planted a few weeks ago.

By the time it was 11:30 am, Stella was nudging me with her nose while I read on the computer telling me it was time for lunch. She wasn't howling yet but she would if I didn't get up out of my desk chair. Once Heidi heard me opening the dog food container she sprinted from her bed to her food dish waiting for it to be filled.

Another trip outside just after their lunch and it was still raining. Stella sat down in the carport and refused to move. Sadie snuck around the back of the house under the roof overhang to pee and then sprint back to the door to go inside. Heidi was behind the Yews, staying dry and relieving herself.

Although my computer was up and running I still wanted to check a few things and maybe find out why it crashed so hard. What were those missing files that Disk Utilities found missing and repaired?

Every week I run a virus scanner called Bitdefender. Back in November 2014, the Geek Squad at Best Buy ran that program right before they gave the computer back to me after they repaired it. It was in my App folder but I can't say for sure if the computer came with it preloaded or if they download it from the App Store.

Anyway since November 2014 I run that program on a regular basis to check for any malware or viruses. A few months ago I decided to run it every week instead of when I just got the urge. It will update all of it's latest before I choose "Scan Critical Locations". Not once since I started using it in 2014 has it ever found Malware or a Virus. Even when I chose to do their Deep System Scan.

That was until this morning. Nothing showed up when I ran their Scan Critical Locations. I couldn't remember the time I did their Deep System Scan. With it raining non stop and having more data than I would ever use until May 11, I had plenty of time to run their Deep System Scan.

After it had been running for 46 minutes checking every nook and cranny inside my hard drive, blowing out all the dust and bloodhound dog hair ... it struck gold.

Something called "InstallMiez.1" ... I typed that name into Google Search and everything was coming up ugly. It was one of the worst programs I have read about over the years. To make matters worse the first time Bitdefender tried to grab it and quarantine it, it failed. It was a fighter and strong.

This article from 2016 explains just how dangerous it is/was ... you can click here to read about it but I am NOT recommending or telling you to use their removal software they are trying to sell in any way.

It took three times for Bitdefender to grab it, quarantine it and remove it from my computer. Just to be safe, I closed all of my open files, mail, google chrome and shut off my computer in a normal process.

I wanted to restart it after that Bitdefender scan and run that program again with their Deep System Scan. It found nothing was on my computer after searching for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

I am not sure how I acquired the trojan horse. I can't remember the last time I received an email with an attachment. Even then I only open attachments if a friend tells me to expect one in email or text. I do not download free software from anywhere. I don't visit porn sites or malicious websites. I don't play any online games on any of my computers or iPad Mini.

Due to my monthly data limit I rarely watch any kind of videos but with my unlimited data with my new HughesNet service for the first 20 days, I watched sports videos on Youtube and blogs I follow. I looked at videos of different house maintenance, and car repair. I remember the day I reactivated Adobe Flashplayer so I could watch the live interview of IU hiring their new basketball coach.

So it would only be a wild guess as to how and where that file got into my computer. I have to wonder of the Flashplayer reactivation was a factor.

My friend "Murphy" wasn't done though. He must have really enjoyed me blogging yesterday about having cabin fever and sounding like I needed something to do. He also moved from the iMac through the kitchen to my Bunn coffee maker and turned it into a slot machine.

I'd put in 6 cups of cold water to make coffee and it only returned 4 cups worth of water. When I added more water to reach that 6 cup amount I wanted, it not only gave me back the water I added but also the 2 cups it was hiding somewhere and for a total of 8 cups of coffee.

Once I know the computer is fixed and clean ... as long as it is raining ... I'll put the Bunn coffee maker problem into google search and see what I come up with.

It feels like the Pacific Northwest today here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana. I'm hoping "Murphy" has had his fun and has left us alone.

My iMac Crashes For 1st Time

This story telling about my computer may help those that have Apple computers more than PC users. It would be the same process with different terminology for those that use Windows PC computers. Since I have been retired for 3 years and no longer use a Windows PC (at work), I have forgotten much of the Windows language and know nothing of their latest updates.

It finally happened ... after 6.5 years of heavy use, my almost 7 year old iMac crashed last night and crashed hard. I am saying it's the first time because when it crashed before it was my fault (user error) when I tried to activate Mac's File Vault program to encrypt my hard drive. I found out later the build date of my computer was just outside the date range for File Vault to work.

In that case I took it into the Geek Squad at Best Buy because I had that service at the time. I blogged about that terrible experience, so of you that are interested in that story, just do a search on "Geek Squad" on this blog and it will show up.

Last night my computer crashed just out of nowhere, like it happens to other people at the most unexpected time. So that is why I am calling this it's first time to crash because it was not user error. I surprised myself and remained calm throughout the many failures of trying to restart my computer.

It happened just before midnight as I was shutting it down. I was on Twitter and just clicked on the tab at the top to go to HughesNet to get my data usage for the day. It would not move from the Twitter website. It was locked up.

I got the spinning beach ball instead. (Same as Window's 'blue screen of death')

I shut it down by holding the power button in back of the iMac. Then the surprise came when I restarted it ... the start up process froze halfway across the Apple progress graph.

I shut it down again the same way so I could restart it in the "restore" mode by holding the 'command' and 'R' keys down at the same time until I heard the Apple chime and/or the Apple icon.

I was able to get into disk utilities and run the repair feature under the "First Aid" tab. It found I had a missing major file in the directory and then a few other missing files during it's search and repair process. It told me everything was corrected so I quit the Disk Utility program.

I tried starting the computer again ... same thing ... it froze at the halfway point. With my laptop I was able to get online search for possible solutions. Next was trying to start the computer in 'safe mode'. That was another restart and holding down the 'shift' key until you heard the Apple chime at startup.

It froze again almost at the end of the graph.

My computer had crashed !!!! For the first time !!!!

I had nothing to lose by restoring the hard drive from my Time Machine backup. But if I did that process, it would erase my hard drive before restoring any backed up files. Like reviews of different products you buy, there are all kinds of horror stories, negative comments and warnings of don't do it when it comes to restoring from the Time Machine backup.

There was nothing else to do though. I'm not an IT guy, I wasn't going to buy and install a new hard drive. I wasn't going to write commands on a screen that I could not get to.

So "Restoring HD from the Time Machine Backup" was my only option. If it did not work as it was designed to do then I'd go to Best Buy and purchase a new, faster, better screen iMac, a 2017 version. By clicking the 'continue' after highlighting the "Restore HD from Time Machine Backup" .... my damaged hard drive would be erased !!!!

I chose to do a restore from the 8:15pm May 3rd backup file. That was two backups before the most recent one because I was hoping to miss the problem that caused the crash and may have been caught by the latest backup ... if that was even possible.

By this time it was almost 2am. It took a lot of time to run Disk Utility twice. It took a long time trying to boot up the computer 4-5 different times. As the restore started the clock for completion kept adding hours up ... I was at 20 hours to complete when it had only done 2% of the restore.

I went to bed and let it run on it's own. I didn't know what to expect when I got up this morning. Would the program run while the computer put itself into the 'sleep mode'? Would it crash during the restore like I had read online happening to other people? At least in every instance it had booted up far enough to turn on the monitors, I had a screen to see.

One thing to remember in this process for those of us that use the touch pad as our mouse ... it won't work ... you have to use your wireless mouse that came with the computer, all the way up through the log in process in the end.

So going to bed expecting this hard drive restore to take all day today and most of the night tonight based on the time estimate ... it was good to have a backup as in my laptop and my iPad Mini to read emails, and normal internet surfing.

About 7:15 am, after 5 hours and 15 minutes of solid deep sleep, I get the bloodhound nose nudge on my hand from the side of the bed. Stella is standing next to the bed and is at eye level. She wants to not only go outside to pee but also eat breakfast.

I'm sure with her eating breakfast is her main purpose to wake me up to start 'her' day. With it still semi-dark and I could hear rain, I told her to go back to sleep ... Heidi and Sadie went back to their sleeping spots.

Then I remembered ... my computer has been restoring!!  At least I can get up and see if it crashed again or how many hours to go, if it processed at all. The hounds were happy I changed my mind within minutes, they were going to have breakfast.

It not only had finished the restore, it had restarted itself as designed, and was waiting for me to click on my user icon and enter my password to access the computer. Of course it would take a little time to go through the process because it was going to be like a new computer booting up ...

Yet, the photo file and mail file would have to be rebuilt. That is over 22,000 photos in my library and mail must have pulled even the emails I deleted years ago because it was importing over 11,000 emails back into my Apple mail system.

That gave me time to make coffee, feed the hounds, let them out in the rain to dump their tanks. Heidi was the only hound to come back inside dry because she stayed behind the Yews and under the roof overhang ... the bloodhounds are not that creative.

By the time the hounds were fed and back inside, and my first cup of coffee had been poured ... my monitor was showing me my regular bookmark icons on the dashboard and my taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

Everything looked normal.

The 'new' computer opened files faster than before since it had erased all the hidden junk from 6.5 years of use from the hard drive before restoring the files from my Time Machine backup. All of my photos and their individual folders were there. Apple mail worked.

Everything was good and working normal, just a bit faster.

My almost 7 year old iMac was back in action better than ever and good for another 7 years of use I suppose. I plan on using it until it drops. The build date for my iMac is 2010 mid-summer.

So for anyone that has read this far, whether you use a Windows PC or an Apple ... ALWAYS ... back up your files because all computers crash and you never know when it will happen !! I'd say 6.5 years of no problems is pretty good for a computer addict before it's first crash.

It started raining last night, it's still raining and I'll have some interesting photos in my next blog post around noon today ... it's good to have a working computer again ... at no cost to fix.

The morning has started off great, here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

Cabin Fever Returns ... For All Of Us

 

It was one of those afternoons that we have not had in years, really I'm serious when I say that. There was nothing that felt right and nothing that satisfied.

Even the hounds were confused when they couldn't figure out where I had gone. I had slipped over by the burn pile, a few steps further in the corner of the woods to take a picture from that angle. Sadie thought I might have gone inside, a sure sign we are going for a walk.

Stella walked around in a complete circle and still could not figure out what happened to me. Was it a sign of things to come?

Sadie did what Sadie does best ... head to the field with her own interests. She could be an outdoor hound 24/7 I believe. Yet, she does like 'her' large leather chair with the ottoman to stretch out on to nap while I watch a game or a movie.

Cabin fever had already hit so bad by lunch time that Heidi not only made it outside, she hung around long enough for a photo shoot. That did not mean she was staying out long, after all, rain was on the way.

I know, I changed the content in the middle of a post ... kind of a test I guess and typical of this afternoon. I know some will disagree but I like the content before the picture.

After watching the water rise across the highway over the past three days I decided it was time to go over and just see how close I could get to the old steel bridge. I would have loved to have got close enough to take a picture of the water level under the bridge that had decreased to the lower half of the bank.

I knew I wouldn't get far down that single path of gravel and grass ... I can only assume that bank is at more than full capacity.

I and a few other readers have been wondering about the 'field of yellow' and what the plans were. They show up every year, are plowed under and corn or soybeans are planted in their place. I guess this year they decided to flood them out.

It keeps getting worse in the field that was fertilized, sprayed and planted early this year. That's not all of the water in that field and I'm sure he has lost some major money this year because of the flooding.

This isn't close to the worse I've seen. That happened in June 2008 when both fields were flooded. The water from the 'field of yellow' covered the highway and the water in this field was up to sign frame. It was like we were living on lakefront property.

We were only hours away of being shut off from town that time, with this highway being the last of four leading to into that were flooded out. Then a water way south of us broke and the water surrounding us and the town, drained like a bath tub and was gone within an hour.

So to battle this feeling of hopelessness this afternoon, I tried food, reading books, started a movie, channel surfed, played fetch with Sadie, tried different food, tried different books, started a different movie and channel surfed on tv a little more ... all for nothing.

I wasn't hungry for what I was eating, the books were boring, the movie was not interesting, and my tv had 250 channels of nothing to watch. Besides that, Sadie who loves playing fetch made only one run to pick up her Kong ball, only to bring it back to lay down with the ball between her paws. Heidi and Stella slept ... even my siesta wouldn't kick into gear.

We were stranded with nowhere to go.

By 5:30pm Sadie decided to try one more time to take a walk but with 4 hours of constant light rain or drizzle, she had no more interest in taking a walk and getting wet than I did.

Stella felt the first drops of rain and decided to be a statue instead. There was no way she was getting her feet wet on the fresh cut lawn. After two day of partial sunshine we were back to being water logged and bored.

Sadie has sat and stared at me for so long today that she looks like one of those bloodhound end tables that were hot sells on eBay a few years ago. Stella has decide to sleep right up next to the my desk chair in back of me, so close that I cannot move and will be trapped in front of my monitor. Heidi hasn't moved from deep inside her Marmot sleeping back with it 52° outside.

The forecast is not encouraging for the next 3-4 days ... maybe a roadtrip is around the corner?

It's not a nice time today here 'in the tropics' of southern Indiana.

More Rain On The Way

This small bird did not mind Stella being about 5' away from her and Stella didn't mind the bird being on her driveway. Luckily Sadie was out in the field eliminating any chances of a bird chase.

It doesn't look good for this field with another inch of rain predicted by the end of this afternoon and even more tomorrow. Luckily the yard was dry enough to mow yesterday and much earlier than planned. I was finished by 1:30pm and spent the rest of the afternoon with ice tea and a good book.

I don't know, maybe it's because my 'free' data period has changed with the move to HughesNet to the hours between 2am - 8am. I don't have unlimited data like I did with Exede's 'free' period which took place between midnight and 5am but I do get an additional 50Gb of data per month. Whatever the reason, lately I've been asleep before midnight and up and moving by 6:30am.

With that earlier than normal wake up time, Sadie was at my desk an hour earlier this morning wanting her morning walk. Or maybe she knew the weather forecast. Stella was still asleep and Heidi is never walking that early nor with the field grass that wet. We took off a little past 8am.

Sadie took off right from the start of the walk. She wasn't waiting for me or Stella today. With it being this early, the field was extremely wet and my hiking boots were soaked only a short distance into the field.

It was nice to see Stella trotting past me up and heading up the path. It might be just my wishful thinking but I can tell a difference this week on top of her back and between her shoulders, where it is filling in where her spine and shoulder blades are not as visible as before, if at all.

She was in continues motion this morning with her nose to the ground all the way around the first turn. She only stopped once for less than a minute and moved on.

Sadie was the same way. Where she had stopped a few days ago deep in the green bushes after the first turn, she didn't today. She was on that deer path with her nose to the ground locked in.

Then they both picked up something pretty strong and they were off ... running full speed around the far right corner. I wasn't able to catch them on camera until after they made the turn.

With them moving this fast, I was concerned they were heading into the gully or back into those woods, which also drops in a steep drop off.

You have to wonder just how strong that scent is for them to take off like that and then imagine what they are thinking it is. From what I have read in different books, all of this scent tracking they do is their way of identifying what and who has been in the area.

Sadie went toward the gully and stopped, only to look back at me to see if I was coming after her. She did not move from that spot. She had found something to eat.

Stella headed the opposite direction, with both of them chowing down on some natural protein.

This morning I wanted to see what they would do if I did not go after them. As usual, once Sadie realized that I was walking away she came running full-speed to catch me.

She never stopped running and blew by me to the back edge of the field.

Stella was not moving. I thought briefly that it might be one of those days where I walk all the way home and then drive the Mini Countryman back to this location to have her run back to the house, following the car. I did that last year with the Toyota FJ.

I kept walking and used the zoom lens at 200mm to look through the view finder to keep track of her. You can barely see her in the center of the picture.

This is shot at 50mm, which is the view that my eyes are looking at. She is still there in the center of the picture next to the edge of the woods. Sadie was looking in that direction waiting for me to give her the command to "go get Stella" but I wanted to keep walking and see if Stella would run full-speed to catch us.

Sadie and I had made the last turn home and when I glanced over I didn't see Stella. I started my slow walk in that direction calling her name. It was then I saw her at the edge of the field and woods behind the tall grass.

The three pictures I took of that walk and finding her were not in focus ... so this picture shows where she thinks she is going to continue the walk in the normal direction instead of walking back with me to the path we were on.

Again, it wasn't warm this morning, mid 40's and as you can see that rain is coming from the southwest. Radar was showing the storm front was about 200 miles away when we started the walk.

That is Stella in the lead and her sly way of quietly sneaking off to the right toward the neighbor's woods as if I cannot see her. She actually thinks every time that she is going to get away with it. She seems to like the words "over here" and returns to the path when I say that to her.

Before going inside Sadie needed to checkout my lawn mowing from yesterday, one more time.

Stella slowly returned to the yard following every inch of the path and not veering off. She was back to sleep behind my desk chair within minutes after coming inside.

I am now on the clock so to speak with HughesNet. I'll still be using my Excel spreadsheet to log in my daily data use. With the graph I inserted I can tell if I am using too much data as the month progresses. After their 20 days of free data for new customers, I will get my full allotment of 20Gb for the last 10 days of my billing period.

Their webpage that shows my data is much better than I had with Exede and shows the balances on my monthly allotment and the 50Gb's I get every month between 2am-8am. It also tells me how many days/hours/minutes before the next reset.

As it gets darker outside as I type this, it looks like it will be another afternoon inside reading while the rain pours outside. It's typical spring weather with a good chance of rain every day until Sunday and then six days of nice sunshine.

I have finalized my 'to do' list on a Word Document and a lot of items will be completed once the temperature are up in the 70's. Nothing hard but time consuming, regular annual maintenance that goes with house ownership.

I am adding a new blog to the sidebar, from an online friend of mine. Who would have ever thought of pelicans spending time in Minnesota while it's still cold, but here they are ... click here.

I have realized that most of the things I put off doing around here isn't really procrastination like I thought. I looked back through my blog and found that I like doing the 'to do' items when it's hot weather day after day. The hotter the better. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

Dark and dreary this morning in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.