Stella Sleeps Through Loud Storm

Welcome new readers to the blog of redundancy. Not much has been discussed lately beside weather, computers and of course the main feature ... the hounds. It has seemed to turned into that more than just 'lately' and is a blog that bores even me sometimes.

It was a few weeks ago when I noticed sparrows making their annual pilgrimage inside the carport to where they use to build or would try to build their nest ... on top of the old wall mounted thermometer. Once they figured out that I had removed that due to their nesting and bird crap on my cars ... they came up with a new place this year. I will let this one stay and will try to wash around it during my semi-annual high pressure wash of the house.

When I picked up Stella in August 2015, I knew about her severe separation anxiety before I made the decision to get her. It wasn't until I arrived after my 4 hour drive, that I was told she was also terrified of thunderstorms. That wasn't a problem because my first basset hound Harry was an expert in thunderstorm panic and I couldn't imagine hound worse than him ... once the thunder and lightning started.

Even after a great light show from the sky and a full night of rain it was somewhat surprising to see less water in the fields than I saw late yesterday. A few weeks ago, one reader was wanting to see pictures every couple of days of the "field of yellow" that I had blogged about. I guess this picture answers the question on what will happen to them.

At first Stella would moan a little, pace a little when that loud roll of thunder sounded not quite 2 years ago but would eventually go lay down once she figured out she was in no danger. Click here to see why she would react this way. Last night was different though. With all the windows open and not aware any storms were on the way ... the sound of an explosion of thunder vibrated the whole house and so much lightning I thought it was inside the house ... Stella woke up and walked over to me. Once I told her it was okay, she returned back to the couch to sleep.

I flipped the light on in the bedroom around 4:50am after getting up for a short time and she was stretched out across Sadie's dog bed on the floor sleeping soundly while the storms raged on outside the open windows. Like last year and a few months in the year before that ... I believe that Stella has lost her fear of storms.

Last night the weather radar showed a massive storm with all the color codes you don't want to see, all north of us. We were just on the southern edge for the start of it but due west that storm was big enough to hit us with the second wave. I turned all the electronics off and headed to bed around midnight with a lightning bolt outside my bedroom window that made me wonder if sleeping in my house with the windows open was even safe.

I knew the field would be really wet this morning. I was sure some of the low points of the path I walk would be under water but with my latest change to my North Face light weight snow boots, standing water is no longer a problem. As long as rain was not dropping from the sky, walk number one of the day was on. Sadie and Stella did not mind getting their legs, paws and belly wet from the taller grass.

Facebook reminded me again today with their one year anniversary reminders on photos, just how great Stella looked a year ago. She has not changed since I took her to the vet a few weeks ago. She has never lost her appetite, or her water consumption and at times her personality ... just her weight and the love or running at top speed. I have to keep reminding myself that infections with dogs never heal as fast as a human. It takes a long time for them to get rid of any kind of infection they might have. Heidi is proof of that.

As usual the rain brought the scents out even stronger than a normal day. Both hounds seemed to be on the edge of taking off on me by the way they acted. Eating "stuff" was not their major focus today ... but exploration was. They were intense in their search.

Too wet today to head to the far corner. They both were heading that way until I told them "over here". The followed me as I made the turn to walk along the back edge of the field ... at least I thought they did.

With Sadie walking just to the right of me with her nose to the ground, I turned to check on Stella. When I thought she was following me, she had turned to go into the far right corner on her own. Where Sadie won "the most obnoxious hound I've ever owned" award years ago ... Stella is a clear winner of "the most stubborn hound I've ever owned" award and no current nor past hounds are even close to winning that award. She is so head strong.

Yet, she turned and headed my way when she heard me yell "Stella, come on". I swear sometimes she is here only to drive me insane. I will admit though, retirement living would be quite boring if she was not around. There is not one day where she is doing something hilarious that makes me laugh and mumble to myself. She really is a great bloodhound and keeps things moving around here.

Sadie took off into a fast trot toward the 'no-fly zone', it was fast enough I thought she was gone. Stella didn't follow her and followed the path slowly right around the turn and headed for home.

It is not hot and humid yet, but it's one of those quiet cooler overcast days. Our routine will not change much of course but I might be giving Heidi a bath later on. She let me know she wanted one as she rolled on her back last night before I could pet her. She came with long toenails, she still has long toenails and I will cut them again as short as I can. It doesn't take much before I can see I cannot cut them any shorter.

I have a lot planned on my 'to do' list once it is hot and sunny. I high pressure wash the house and the carport floor every six months. Living close to these fields makes this the dustiest place I have ever lived, covering 4 different states. I also have my own Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and I do that every six months but only when the temps are in the high 70's and its bright and sunny outside. It dries faster in that hot weather.

Either tonight or tomorrow morning I am going to take Stella back to the vet to check her weight and hope for a few pounds difference than a couple of weeks ago. I am also going to request them to give her an in-depth blood test. If she was puking or lost her appetite, had diarrhea or was lethargic I'd request an x-ray but so far in those areas nothing has ever changed.

As we get closer to home, every walk Stella will always stop and glance over at the neighbor's wooded area to see if that big yellow field cat is around. I assume that is who she is looking for by smell or listening. She is never in a hurry to get back to the house.

I don't want to beat a dead horse and I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing about my computer, but I just wanted to say the new setup is working fantastic. I am happy with the choice I made of using the laptop as my main HD, connected to my large monitor.

To start getting those 160 Mahjong games back under three minute completion times, I ejected my two external drives and pulled the four connections from the sides of the laptop (convenient) and moved to the kitchen table to use the smaller 13" screen and the built in touchpad. I played my first 40 games and finished them below the 4 minute mark and a couple under 3 minutes.

I am also very very happy with my change to HughesNet Gen 5 satellite internet last month. It is faster than what I had, although I read yesterday that Exede is launching their new satellite into space in June. I expect to see a deal of all deals with a "come back" email in my inbox soon after that launch.

I watched my HughesNet data counter last night and exactly at 1 minute past midnight my new 20Gb of monthly data started. Their data counter has also been equal to my computer Activity Monitor count, before with Exede there were differences at times because "we haven't rebooted the system yet". Then this morning I was sent my new invoice for the billing period. After taxes it was $14 less per month for the next 12 months with more data and 4x faster upload speed.

I am still waiting to hear for some feedback from you telling me if you like multiple posts per day or just prefer one per day with over 20 photos to scroll through. When I do post more than once per day, do you see the earlier posts?

There is nothing I can complain about, life is good here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana ... except my annual sinus/allergies are back ... and it's raining again.

Hounds & I Are Loving This Weather

While it was 74° after midnight last night, the hounds were sleeping peacefully. They had a pretty active day yesterday with 3 walks, and numerous other trips outside. This morning the air was filled with the smell of honeysuckle and a cloudy sky of blue. I find it interesting that the rows of corn did not float away while spending days under water. 

I took a cup of coffee outside this morning while keeping an eye on the hounds. They have been wandering off more and more recently. It's to the point that I cannot let them out on their own anymore. Sadie is checking to see if she is the only hound being call back in or does Stella have to follow the rules too.

I didn't get a picture of Stella over by the burn pile, but I did get one of her starting her day in the normal fashion of a good deep itch relieving scratch. This is also after not finding any ticks, fleas, hot spots and anything else that could cause her to scratch like this. She stood inside the bathtub like a statue as she got a bath yesterday.

The bugs were out in formation early. I could hear them buzzing close to my ears and to me there may not be anything worse than having to fight battling insects that fly and dart fast enough to stay out of my reach ... biting me. We headed back inside for that 2nd cup of coffee.

With computer problem solved and operational, the only crisis around here was whether to go back putting the blog post content above the picture it went with instead of below. How's that for having all of the world's problems solved here in 'the tropics'?

With the morning being so nice, Sadie did not hesitate in getting me outside for the hounds first walk of the day. I had not sat in my chair 5 minutes before she was at my elbow telling me "lets go". Her mouth grabbed my left hand leading me to the edge of the field, then she took off running to get ahead.

Stella was back to her slow pace this morning and wasn't going to change much. Although she did trot to catch up with Sadie later on and was even leading the walk at one time.

The new computer set up is working out fantastic and I continue to learn new things by finding small changes to tweak it a little finer. You never know the settings have been changed with the fresh restart, until something doesn't work.

As expected with all the recent rain the field is growing at a fast rate. It might not be as thick in the majority of the field but it is getting taller than my knees. The brush along the sides is thick enough to where you cannot see through it, let alone walk through it.

Sadie was certain there had been deer in the area before the first turn.

Stella was back looking for that rabbit she accidentally stumbled on in the 3rd walk of the day yesterday. Even I heard the rabbit charging through the small brush breaking sticks as she ran to get away.

The noses of the hounds were really active this morning but that did not mean their energy levels increased along with it. I decided I'd let them go where they want, do what they want, just as long as they stayed out of the woods and out of the gully.

When they both made the turn to the far corner I decided to join them. Not only could I keep a better eye on them in case they decided to bolt out of bounds but it would give me a different angle to take some pictures.

Is this what I am smelling? If you are a plant or flower hobbyist, please chime in here to correct me or give me answers. Google images tells me that it's honeysuckle.

For these two partners in crime, there is nothing better than some fresh morning natural protein to add to their diets. They were so stubborn when I called them that I had to walk back and nudge them to get going.

Stella took the short cut again, cutting the corner of the last turn. She stood and looked into the area of the 'no-fly zone', then slowly followed behind me. I still have my suspicions that she is sick. So much change in her in a years time.

They both continued the slow walk home. I wanted to get back to fix some breakfast/brunch before loaded up the Mini Countryman with two 32gl trash containers for a trip to the recycling center. One had my recyclables and the other had bagged trash that I can drop off for a whopping $2.

They tried their best to casually veer right, walking further away from me. Lately in the afternoons, without taking my camera, they have been going too far out of their boundaries when I let them continue their wandering off.

With the recent rains, there is something in the drainage ditch that runs along the edge of the field and the neighbor's yard. Stella is very attracted to that area and it almost takes me grabbing her collar to get her to leave. She was following that ditch toward the highway Monday, so the recent afternoon walks have been without the camera and carrying the 25' retractable leash in case I need it.

I almost stepped on this guy, luckily Sadie nor Stella saw it. I don't see as many of these worms as you would expect. I see a turtle every once in a while but not every year, no snakes and lately no sign of the large blonde field cat.

The flooded water receded a lot over night. The water level can change by the hour. With my trip west of town to the recycling center, I saw a lot more flooding than I have been seeing across the highway. As it should be since the river is in that direction.

Whenever you do a major install of a new computer that you just bought or changing out one like I just did, all of those settings change. Anything from your cursor not able to move to drag and drop cells in Excel to the keyboard not scrolling to the left fast enough when I am trying to delete a sentence.

Yet there was nothing worse than finding out yesterday afternoon that when I did the migration from the iMac to my laptop, it set my Mahjong game back to a brand new start. All of those games I had spent hours playing, achieving my goal sometimes of completing the games under 3 minutes were gone !!!!

A 160 different games were all setting at different times above 4 minutes, just waiting for me to start over on my quest of under 3 minutes to complete. It's harder to play on a screen twice the size. Using the keypad on the laptop was still slower than normal with the larger monitor.

One great thing I found out how to do yesterday ... I can close my lap top and as long as it is on and plugged into my external monitor it works perfect just like a hard drive. So I am back to one monitor instead of two. I'll see how I like that change ... because the results could determine if a possibility could happen months from now.

What is that?

I remember the first time they were set out on display a couple of years ago, the iMacs with the 'retina' display blew me away. The difference in picture quality is indescribable. I told myself then and remind my self to this day ... "STAY AWAY".

So on purpose last night, I surfed the web during commercials of the baseball game I was watching, on my iPad Mini ... that has ... a ... retina display.

My brain cells scrambled, pulse rate went up, ideas, temptations, justifications, and maybe even some slight drooling took place as I looked at the clarity and perfect picture quality ... KNOWING ... an iMac with that retina display was just a 40 minute drive away.

I admit it ... after the game was over, with my Reds beating the powerful first place Yankees, I sat in my desk chair and went straight Best Buy online to take a look a those iMacs with the retina display. It was a tough fight all the way not to change my current path from what I have set up to buying something new ... with that damn retina display.

Other websites, and bloggers who talk about Apple computers almost always warn their readers NOT TO go take a look at them on display because you will never look at your computer monitor the same way again.

With some sound sleep, a bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast ... all of that "retina stuff" had evaporated from my thought process. Sometime overnight I had been drug back into reality and lectured on my lack of focus.

With the yard mowed yesterday, recycling trip this morning, days of salad cut up in advance, a fresh pineapple cut and ready to eat ... there are not any plans for today. I'll continue to live in those '5 minute' windows like a child, led by the decisions of the hounds. (ie: would you prefer I stand on the right or left side of the door as I let you out for the 100th time today?)

I love that I have gone from a work-a-holic to a full blown slacker without any transitional pain. Being 'a slacker' should have been my career path from the start.

It's too quiet in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana today ... just the way I like it.

Confirmed iMac Hard Drive Is "Failing"

Starting around lunch on Monday, it became a very long but productive day into the night until 4am. We were still able to fit in an afternoon hound walk, some breaks outside for them and me and calmness remained as I looked at my options. It was confirmed late Monday night that my iMac hard drive was "Failing" due to pending bad sectors with a reason of "old age" ... I'm serious, that's the reason they gave me.

{Warning} This post is going to be all computer talk about what happened yesterday, my options, what I did and my future computer plans. All of it is fit in-between some yesterday afternoon pictures and pictures from this morning's walk.

I sit here this morning with a better system and much much faster system than I had even before the computer crash on Thursday. Sometime around 10:30am Monday (yesterday), my repair job or a clean reformat on Sunday, started acting like it did before I erased my hard drive to start over. The computer would freeze over the simplest tasks. Open a program, hang up .. type a word, spinning beach ball .. open an Excel spreadsheet, wait forever, still might not open. All signs of a bad hard drive.

By mid-afternoon Monday my screen on the iMac and large monitor went black and froze. After shutting it down by holding the power button down, the reboot froze halfway across the progress bar just like it did when it crashed. I got into the computer the backdoor way and ran Disk Utility Repair and once again it found missing start up files and bad sectors to repair. That fixed it to where it would run.

It was during this time early Monday afternoon I started going through my options. My intuition told me last week that my 'almost' 7 year old hard drive was dying a slow death. An app sent to me called 'Smart Drive' confirmed it late last night in about a second, literally. My hard drive was failing due to pending bad sectors. I'll explain later how I got that app. I would link it but it is designed to start downloading immediately once you click on the link, so I'll not do that here.

Again on Monday I looked at computer replacements at Best Buy online, with plans of driving over and buying a new iMac that was on sale. I would have a larger hard drive more RAM and a faster processor. Once again I was steps away from leaving when I stopped to look at something else. The Mac Mini !!!

They had improved so much over the years that CNET was giving it raving reviews. It too had more RAM, a bigger hard drive and a much faster processor than my current old iMac. So I had two options I was looking at and really couldn't decide. I wanted to make sure that either one was in stock before making the 45 minute drive one-way. Still ... I had something else in mind.

I was sitting here with a MacBook Air that had a new solid state hard drive, less than two years old and had the ability to connect to my large monitor, use my wireless keyboard and trackpad. Since I had moved 262Gb of pictures to an external drive on Sunday, I knew my 62Gb of files left would fit on the laptop's 128Gb Flash Drive (solid state).

All the geeks use their laptops like that. So why not use that as an option? It was already paid for and a better faster system than the two computers I was looking at. I had bought this laptop to be my main computer when I had plans to travel full time or 6 months at a time. Since those plans were put on hold, this laptop had been nothing more than a place to play Mahjong (addicted) and look out my nice view from the kitchen table when I still was on the computer.

Now remember, I am not an official computer geek or IT specialist, but I know enough to be dangerous as they say. Everything I have learned over my 24 years of using computers is from OJT, google searches, computer forums, Apple and Microsoft support and more recently YouTube (rare). Also add in the fact that at times my memory is not as good as it use to be, unless it is sports trivia or past ballgames, so I forget at times how to do simple things on the computer ... such as:

How do I get the wireless keyboard and wireless trackpad or mouse to connect and work on this laptop instead of my iMac. I found my answer from a google search that led me to that same question being asked by someone else in Apple Support. I had to manually go into preferences and disconnect them from the iMac first before the bluetooth on the laptop would find them so I could click and add them.

Once I figured that out and had a 'new' fast system again, I was golden. I forgot about buying a new replacement computer or even the Mac Mini. PLUS ... the old iMac was still a great, new condition, computer ... all it needed was a new hard drive and some additions RAM memory sticks to be installed. I can do that and did a few times when I had PCs years ago.

But before I made the jump I wanted to make sure my intuition was right. I had time consuming work ahead of me if I decided to make the laptop my new desktop replacement computer. So another place I go to when I have any computer questions is a place for Mac owners called MacRumors Forum

When I could not find my answer by looking through other posts, I decided to write a new post telling people what had happened in detail (bullet format) and what I had done (bullet format) and what the computer was currently doing. Then I asked for opinions or answers to "Is my hard drive slowly dying"?

Within minutes I had an answer that my intuition was exactly right and they suggested opening up that iMac and installing a new solid state hard drive. Within 30 minutes of that answer someone else sent me two links to do just that, where to buy what I needed to do the install and a video on how to do it. Within the hour after writing my post someone from Australia sent me the hard drive analysis app (SmartDrive) that confirmed it was failing.

By this time it's getting close to midnight. I was energized knowing I had a great replacement system sitting right here (on kitchen table) and within a few hours time I could migrate all the files from the iMac to the MacBook via the Time Machine backup from the iMac. But, it would take hours to complete that.

Since my computer desk is the size of a door, I have plenty of room for the laptop to be sitting there connected to power, to the monitor and then having two external hard drives plugged in. One is for the automatic backup every hour and the other is the picture library that Apple Photo runs off of. Then later I had a brain storm that I could set my iMac on my other desk (regular size) to get that out of the way, until I decide to install a new hard drive.

By 3am all the files on my iMac had been migrated to the MacBook Air and things were running smoothly and fast. I had my computer system back using the same monitor, keyboard and trackpad I had used since October 2010.

Just like when you buy a new computer, you have a chance to do some 'house cleaning' of files, apps, software programs thus freeing up hard drive space and getting rid of stuff you never look at or use anymore. I tore into that process even though it was after 3am. I was thrilled with the change of speed, no hanging up, and using a computer the way it was meant to be.

I did have a 'user error' at the very end where I had a real problem. Once again a search on google that led me to the same question from someone else six years ago in Apple Support forum ... I made the mistake of disconnecting the wireless mouse from my iMac. With my wireless keyboard already connected via bluetooth on my MacBook Air ... I had NO way to move around the iMac or even shut it off.

It gets better ... and funnier .... without a lot of thinking I decided I needed to electronically disconnect the trackpad from the laptop so I could connect via Bluetooth to the iMac ... but the iMac couldn't find the signal so I could add it to the iMac. So .... to dig my grave deeper ... I disconnect the wireless keyboard from the laptop to see if the iMac Bluetooth could find the keyboard so I could add it that way.

The iMac could not find the keyboard signal either !!!  So I had two different computers and no way of using them because I (ME) had disconnected ALL of my wireless mouse, keyboard and trackpad and the only way to move around a computer. Luckily my solution was hidden on google search, all I needed to do was ask the question. That led me AGAIN to the same question by someone else asked in the Apple Support Forum.

Needless to say, I got everything worked out in a pretty short time. During these 17 hours of computer work I did not lose my cool, didn't panic, and just kept looking for answers or recommendations to find the solution. Like I said on Sunday night, in a sick sort of way I love doing this type of work on a computer when nothing is working.

For a split second I thought about pulling an all-nighter ... college lingo ... I was getting a lot done and this system was so much faster than I had before. So I had to force myself to turn out the lights and head for bed at 4:18am. I knew the hounds would be waking me up soon for their breakfast kibble but in the meantime Sadie was snoring, Stella was running in her sleep and Heidi was buried under her Mexican blankets with the windows open.

I think I fell asleep about the time my body was in the horizontal position, I don't remember anything.

I had left the computer in sleep mode while I slept instead of turning it off because the Time Machine was copying 60Gb's of backup files to the different computer. There was an option I chose that keeps the old copy in case I send it back to the iMac later one but that will not be needed if I replace the hard drive.

I did think this morning that I had other options.

1.  I could keep this the same setup and with to repair the iMac with a new hard drive.

2.  I could buy the Mac Mini as a temporary desktop replacement but a future of working next to my tv, where I could store movies, tv shows, ballgames on that drive like my DVR, then connect that Mini to the tv vis HDMI cable and use that like a DVR .

3. No matter what, I will install a new solid state hard drive and more memory sticks in the iMac. Depending on the size of the hard drive, I could basically have enough memory and space for around $300-$350.

Before I make any purchase I am gong to live with the set up I have right now and see how I feel about it two or three weeks later. The Mac Mini is nearby if I decided I want to use that. I'll move my iMac to my other desk, plug it into that power strip and continue to look and make sure I am not missing anything as far as information, old files or data before I open the front of that machine to add new stuff to it. (I know all the files were migrated and nothing should be missing) That moving process will take place after the hounds have their late lunch ... they are all passed out right now and have missed the noon howling/barking feature.

When thinking of options, I really did think of the new Windows Surface with the combine laptop/tablet and great reviews. All for the same price of the iMac I thought of buying yesterday. I also thought of going to the ChromeBook route. I've looked at those in the past and from what I do know and plan to do in the future, I just needed more computer than the ChromeBook.

I remember how hard it was, even with computer experience, to go from a Microsoft background to Apple. There was a learning curve there for a few weeks. When I was working and had only a PC at work, then I was flipping back and forth between Windows and Apple every day so it wasn't as hard.

But the fact is ... I love Apple equipment. I had almost 7 years of no problems while spending more time on a computer than a lot of people. I wish it wasn't that way but it's life in the 21st century.

Until this morning, as I typed this and doing computer stuff before our morning walk, I did not really realize just how bad that iMac hard drive was. It really does feel like I have bought a new computer since hooking up the laptop to all the main stuff like large monitor, wireless keyboard and wireless trackpad.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I also get a lot of my information on how to do things, or what to buy by looking at Google "Images" in search. How else would I know without pictures, that a Mini Countryman could really go off-road and even tow a trailer??? Or just how would that MacBook Air look connected to a large 27" monitor ... where would all the cables go? Or ... Heidi's skin condition, has there ever been another basset hound with those type of allergies.

Searching on Google Images is a good tool for information and answers to questions.

So that about does it for the computer story. I am up and running, a clear plan on the old iMac, I have a faster system that makes things more enjoyable and all without spending a dime in today's money. Feel free to email me or make comments on any questions you may have about computers stuff. I know enough to 'be dangerous' and will lead you to someone that can if I can't answer your question(s).

There is nothing such as a straight walk between point A and point B with Stella. Even when you think the walk is almost over ... she finds just one more thing to check out before it's officially finished. Right after I snapped this picture above, she did an about face turn and headed back to the field .... a yell of 'no' ... "over here" got her back in the direction of the house.

Still just 12" into the yard ... there was just one more thing to check out.

You may have saw above that the water is receding in the field ... but thunderstorms are in the afternoon forecast. I hope to MOW the yard not BALE the yard on Friday after these next few days of rain.

After a frustrating Monday, today has been fantastic here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.

It's Been One Of Those Monday's

After so many hours of good performance, my computer turned on it's 'buggy' button this morning around 10:30am. It's much like that water in the picture, where on Saturday it had receded enough to show some land out in the middle of it but those are gone this morning. About the time I am about to "yell uncle", I give up and head to the Best Buy store for a new computer .... this one starts working again flawlessly and fast.  LOL

I knew today might be interesting as early as last night when I noticed we were shutting down for the night just a few minutes past midnight. That's never a good thing because it means we will be getting up while it's dark a little after 6am. At least I can start my coffee consumption earlier than normal and take advantage of the 50Gb of data I have for the month between the hours of 2am - 8am.

All of this didn't matter to the bloodhounds, by 9am they were running up the path to start the walk and I just made my first error of the day ... not changing my shoes to prevent my feet from getting wet and today cold.

Stella was like she was shot from a cannon and was running all over the place. I was already complaining to whoever would listen, that my feet, shoes and socks were drenched with the early morning dew and by the end of the walk so were my jeans ... picture below.

By the way the hounds were acting this morning I shaded my eyes with my hand as we made the first corner turn into the bright sunshine. I was looking for deer, even though they weren't. No deer today but the hounds were highly energetic and headed to the far right corner.

By this time my mesh running shoes are wet, my socks were so wet I could hear the squishing sound inside my shoes with each step I took. Of course with the temps in the mid 40's at this time meant my wet feet were freezing!! I wasn't a happy walker.

Sadie and Stella did not care that their ears, face and stomach were wet also. They were strictly business this morning. I could follow them wet grass and all or stop complaining, my choice.

It was at this time I became much more wet because the hounds went straight into those woods just as I snapped the shutter. I took off running after them in the tall wet grass and I could feel my legs becoming soaked. That increased the water inside my shoes. I had a long way to go to be happy.

Luckily they had not gone too far into the woods and turned to run down the edge of the field toward our last turn. They were waiting for no one today. During this time I was wondering what the computer was doing. When I left I had just clicked on the red button to close Google Chrome when that spinning beach ball turned up again. I did not wait to see what the computer was going to do.

It got to the point that anything I did with just a click of the mouse, or in my case the track pad, the program would either become "non-responsive", would hang and eventually start working, or one time locked up the computer to the point I had to hold the power button down to turn it off.

Heidi came outside for a short time after lunch but it wasn't warm enough for her and she headed right back inside after doing her part to fertilize the front yard. She is the smartest one of all of us. She is still doing well on the Wholesomes™ SportMix dog food.

When I checked on the computer again, it had processed all the mouse clicks I did before the walk. It decided to open an excel spreadsheet I had tried before the walk. Everything looked good, until I placed the cursor on the cell I wanted to type a number ... that stupid spinning beach ball was back. Each click equaled the spinning beach ball. (hourglass for windows)

So I jumped on my laptop and started looking at computers again. I could tell a huge difference in performance when I started using the laptop. I only have 60Gb of data on my iMac hard drive now since I transferred my Photo Library to an external drive. You would think that would make this computer faster than ever ... yet at times it crawls. Normal operations has about 55% of my RAM being used.

Typing an email before I did this post, things were so buggy and slow that while I was typing no words were showing up ... they started appearing slowly one letter at a time. I decided I'd get a blog post out before I head to Best Buy.

Of course since that time, this computer has been working perfect.

I am going to take the hounds out for their 2nd walk of the day and mumble to myself about what to do. When we get back I'll play around with the computer a little and see if it is going to act up again. If it doesn't I'll probably not buy a computer today.

The external drive for my pictures is working perfect. I see no reduction in speed of processing pictures.

From reading different blogs on the sidebar, it looks like this flooding is everywhere in the US and Canada. So really, my computer issues are nothing compared to what many people are going through right now.

It has been more frustrating than fun this morning here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana .... how soon does college football start?  LOL

Computer Is Fixed

It took a lot of time, a lot of reading online, along with trial and error following suggestions on fixing a hard drive that was freezing (hanging up) with just the simplest tasks. I thought I had it fixed the other night after my computer had a major crash, but I was trying to see if an easier way would work ... it did not.

So after days of thinking about it and doing a little more reading to make sure I had the process down so I would not lose my 300Gb's of files, I started the process as soon as I woke up this morning. I was going to erase my hard drive and install everything from scratch.


It wasn't long on Thursday before I started seeing the "spinning beachball" that Apple has designed for when software, websites or apps are not responding. For Window PC users, its the "hourglass" that never goes away when your computer is hung up.

I tried the three major browsers, some result. I tried using different apps to clear out old files that were possibly left behind when I deleted an app or a program. I tried maintenance programs to analyze and repair the hard drive in case it was damaged. Obviously there were some gremlins deep inside my computer that needed to be removed.

So I was nearing my last resort ... make sure everything was backed up, then erase the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. After that I would reload all of my files from my backup drive. In my case 80% of those files are photos.

While the computer was doing it's thing over these past few days I realized that it could be possible my hard drive had reached it's limit and was in the process of dying. A spinning beach ball is telling you that the software is waiting for the hardware to do it's thing. Sometimes it eventually does and other times it's bad enough you have to hold the power button in to shut off the computer when it is frozen.

Another sign that it might be my hard drive on it's way to failing permanently, was when I turned off and disconnected from the internet and ran programs like Word and Excel. Just using the computer as it was designed to do before the internet, I continued to see the spinning beach ball at times when I typed only a letter or moved my cursor and highlighting a cell.

I started reading about the new iMacs. Yes, they say that desktops are going out of style but as long as I have a huge 27" monitor sitting in front of me working I am going to continue to use a desktop computer as my main platform.

So I was somewhat protected this morning when I clicked that button that said 'erase'. My hard drive would be wiped clean and the only place my files were, is on the external hard drive that is backed up using Apple's Time Machine. My protection in case the computer would not operate, was to buy a new on today.

Oh, I forgot to mention the step before that I tried this morning that told me it was time to erase (reformat) the hard drive. I tried installing a new copy of the operation system without reformatting my hard drive. It would write over the new macOS Sierra over the old copy and getting rid of any gremlins hiding in there ... it failed and told me something was wrong with my hard drive.

After I erased the hard drive and started from scratch, the new operation system loaded with no problem. Then I loaded my files, which took almost 4 hours to complete. No problems there either. It was now time for the big test ... will those spinning beachballs coming back as I used my computer?

So far the computer has been running for a little over three hours and it is fast, no hangups, no websites not loading or crashing the system. To test it and try to get it to crash I had all kinds of programs running and doing different things at the same time.

Here are some of the things I remember I had going on at the same time:

 - Opened iTunes and played music.
 - Opened ten different tabs on Google Chrome with ten different websites
         - I loaded as many sites that I knew had automatic videos playing
 - Excel and Word were opened where I worked in each one
 - Opened Photos and imported pictures from an SD card
 - Ran a back up on Time Machine
 - Opened Kindle and loaded an ebook
 - Watched a video on an IU sports blog I follow
 - Opened Notes and Reminders
 - Opened Mail and deleted over 14,000 emails
 - Loaded Maps

Through all of that .... the spinning beach ball never showed up once.

I am in the process right now of moving my photos to the external drive I used last September to make a backup copy of them. I will then changed my settings in Apple Photos to use the .lib on the external drive as it's main library file.

Once I test that with a couple of things and sees that Apple Photos works with the library file on that external drive, then I will delete that same file that is taking up 49% of my hard drive on the iMac. That should make my iMac work even better with very little on the hard drive.

Of course, like all computers new or old, anything can happen at any time and all of the good results could come crashing down if the hard drive really has reached it's life cycle and dies.

If that happens I'll get in my car and head to Best Buy so I can look at and use some different computers before I choose one. The nearest Apple store is 100 miles away and to me that is too far away just to buy the same computer at a higher price. Plus I really like to get my eyes and hands on computers before I buy them, so the ordering online option does not work for me.

The weird thing is, I have always enjoyed researching this type of work and doing the work to get a computer running flawlessly again. Even in my Window PC days I liked it but during those years I had to do it more often than once every six o seven years.

Sadie and Stella had two walks today by 1:30pm and may get a third walk later this evening. The weather is that nice outside tonight.

It has been a good weekend here in 'the tropics' of southern Indiana.