A Snail's Pace Today

If this morning is any indication for the rest of Friday, we are in for a long long day. That's not a bad thing and may not even been any worse than a normal day in retirement but today just feels different. Is it the weather, baseball, dog food, or a brain that can't make a decision?
It's one of those deals where you feel hungry but have no idea what you would like to eat. I mean not even close to finding anything of interest. Or you feel like going somewhere but can't make up your mind where to go. Although the day was just a couple of hours old before the first hound walk of the day, I could tell things were working so much slower than normal ... except my fast computer and internet connection.

Everything and everyone may seem slow around here so far ... except Sadie. She has never had a slow day in her life since she was born June 2008. This morning was no different. She has moved up the time to start the walks lately to a little past 9am and today was no different.

As soon as I told her "go get the rabbits", she took of running up the path with her nose to the ground.  Maybe it's just the words "go get" is what sets her off because bloodhounds are not bred to hunt or catch rabbits. They are bred for search and rescue, along with flushing deer out of the woods or finding the deer that has been shot. We are neither hunters nor SAR, so her tracking instincts are for her own pleasure.

The focus of both hounds this morning seemed to be about a foot inside the brush that is getting thicker by the day. With that growth is the increase of razor sharp thorns, that mean nothing to a bloodhound that has locked into something interesting.

I gave Stella some 'semi' freedom. She basically went her own pace, trotted one time to catch Stella and I never said "over here" but a couple of times throughout the whole walk. I did have to backtrack to walk over to her twice, to get her moving. I don't leave her behind anymore because I cannot afford to have her make a mistake following that drainage ditch to the highway.

It is interesting how her coat has changed since last year. For the first 12 months her color was a lot like Sadie, a light tan. Her tail was course with the bloodhound 'black and tan' from one of her parents. Over the winter I noticed her coat was becoming a little more course like her tail and also the color was changing by becoming more dark like the 'black and tan' on her tail.

I spied this bird out in the middle of the field and zoomed in on it with a 200mm setting. I was almost sure that Sadie would see it and take off after it because that is her favorite aerobic activity ... chasing all and any kind of birds of any size. For that reason bird baths and bird feeders are nowhere in the yard. The bird was sitting as quiet as a statue so we would not notice.

Yet, with a bloodhound nose that can hear things 4x more than the human ear and a nose that is already setting at 200x more powerful ... Sadie smelled the bird that was sitting so quietly, like a statue. Sadie didn't move a muscle, just analyzed ... then turned and continued her walk.

Stella was lagging way behind us and just like Sadie was about a foot into the heavy thick brush. I was totally ignored and there was no way she was leaving unless I walked back to where she was and give her a nudge to come on.

It didn't matter that I was standing right next to her calmly saying "come on Stella" over and over. It didn't matter that I had time to hold my camera, focus it precisely to where I wanted it ... I had all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted ... because she was not moving ... nor acting like she is hearing a word I am saying.

I can't remember any of my past basset hounds being as stubborn as a bloodhound. The AKC writeup says they are but their stubbornness is nothing compared to a bloodhound. After the nudge, Stella took off trotting to catch up with Sadie. I wasn't going to head toward the far right corner today, so all I had to say was "over here" and both hounds veered left and headed toward the back of the field.

It was slow moving this morning. This walk felt like it was taking forever, just like me trying to make decisions. It looked and felt like rain with nothing on the forecast for days. A nice aroma from some sort of flowers and a constant noise from a tractor at the farm behind us, but still to wet to work this cornfield to the right of us.

Sadie was the first to find some fresh natural protein and was willing to share it. But if that stuff is anything like peanut butter, then Stella will push herself into a position to hog all of it and not share with anyone. Had Stella lost track of where I was? There was nothing to see in the direction she was looking.

For the 2nd time I walked over to both Sadie and Stella and explained to them the benefits of moving on and continuing the walk. They both moved with me along side and then trotted out in front of me.

As it happens every year with spring rains alternating with sunshine, the field is growing fast and it will not be long before I am back to the point of seeing nothing more than a tip of a tail and maybe the tops of their backs when we walk.

Stella would sure like to check out that drainage ditch or the middle of the field between my house and the neighbors. She will always try to escape but will turn my direction if I yell "over here".

She is not going to speed up just because I want to get home. She will continue her own pace, then follow her own routine once inside. Her next big thing of the day will be having lunch. I am considering buying some dog food for her that has the highest protein and fat percentages I can find, with hopes that helps her to gain her weight back.

They eventually make it back to the house to finish the first of three walks today.

After trying all of the different dog foods, grain free and back to rice for Heidi, nothing happened for her until this past February when I switched to the current food I feed all three hounds. She had regained her 13 pounds lost in June 2015. I don't know what caused her recovery.

Will it take that long for Stella? That's the million dollar question.

Sadie will search right up to the concrete carport floor, she never slows down once she is outside.

I read where Jon Katz's dog tested positive for 4 different tick related infections in upper state New York. You can read about that here. I went to look at Stella's vet receipt from a few weeks ago and confirmed she tested negative for those 4 same infections. I wonder if he every used Nexgard for his two herding dogs? I've had great results for the 2nd year in a row with that product.

I have a lot of plans today, some that know me would say they are nothing but dreams. LOL Some may happen, some may not. With the day slowed down, that will give me more hours to give myself a haircut (been doing it for years) with clippers, give Stella a bath, vacuum the house and maybe a little grocery shopping.

All achievable ... then again it will depend just how well I can make a decision. With the Reds playing on tv in San Francisco, there will not be any sleeping until almost 1am for the next few days. Is that late night last night watching them win, the cause for slowness today. My weird dreams during sleep continue.

Another week has passed here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... the rain is gone, sunshine is on the way. The pace is hard but someone has to do it.

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.