Some Early Humor, Ranting and Rambling

I'll warn you, with cold temps, severe right jaw pain worse than any toothache, 2 cups of strong coffee and little sleep after doing the latest macOS beta update starting after 2am when I get 'free' data of an extra 50Gb per month added to the 20Gb I pay for ... I am feeling a little ornery this morning ... so be ready.

As you can see once the inside of the house temperature dropped below 70°, in fact getting down to 64° since I left the windows open last night ... Heidi requested she be covered up with her favorite Mexican blanket before Sadie, Stella and I took off for our morning at with fog and 46° outside.

To be 'politically correct' this morning and plans of making a 'safe room' somewhere in my downsized very small house, I have not mentioned the words 'scat', 'drool', 'glue' and have tried my best to take photos of the hounds from the front of them or their side ... no butts. I also request that as you read this post from the first word and those last few sentences all the way through this post ... know it is all written with a smile on my face and a strong flavor of humor ... I pray to god almighty I don't step on anyone's toes this morning. LOL

After forcing myself to stay up past 2am so I could take advantage of my free 50Gb data period to upload the latest Apple 'beta' version of their macOS I was wired wide awake as I tried to go to sleep at 4am. So I knew things might be a little foggy in my brain this morning the first time I opened my eyes but I didn't expect fog outside. I knew something was different though ... for the first time since last winter there was condensation on the inside of the bedroom windows ... on the only one I had shut.

With all the shade outside in the field I knew it was going to be wetter than normal. The picture above doesn't show it nearly as much as my eyes saw, with leaves saturated with morning dew. Stella charged into the first part of woods or brush ... but came back out when I called her name.

Sadie was on her own mission and was waiting for neither of us. She was practically around the first turn before I could get the camera focused. I thought long and hard about posting this photo because it was taken from behind Sadie, not the front or side ... requirements I told myself this morning had to be followed.  LOL

Stella showed her burst of energy early. When you see her ears laying flat on top of her head you know she is at high speed. Both photos were out of focus but I am thinking that it was from photographer error more than the speed of the hound. I've noticed lately that auto focus for 'single point' is not nearly as sharp as before, if it is even focused at all. I'll dig into the lens owner's manual right after my unexpected 'board meeting' early this afternoon.

The hounds have requested a meeting this afternoon to decide which direction this blog is going. It's been only a week since they came back online with new intentions of being more open in our discussions, not hiding thoughts, locations of where we are/were, along with no approvals from the 'higher ups' before publishing the blog post. After all it's their blog ... I'm only a low paid employee with no benefits and no savings plan.

As Sadie and I marched through wet grass and weeds, getting the mid calf of my leg wet (never a good thing) I glanced back to check on Stella and could see that she had her own plans. That was fine with me, Sadie and I could catch up with her on the way back.

As Sadie and I made the turn along the back edge of the field, it certainly felt like a fall day. It might have been the cargo shorts I forgot I had on in 46° that made it feel that way, but most likely it was the Golite insulated down jacket I was wearing. I'm being honest here and not funny ... I am not looking forward to winter and colder temps. I'll get through it without complaining as usual but I'll not be jumping up and down with excitement that we are doing our walks in single digit temps.

As much as it looks like it's going to be a beautiful day today ... the fall colors just are not happening so far this year. It needs to be drier and I'm not sure the heavy dew every morning is a good thing for developing bright vibrant colors in all those trees in front of us.

What I wouldn't do for some of those 800mg of Motrin I use to get years ago from our squadron doctor at no charge. Then it was for a bad back and an old baseball pitching shoulder that had too much scar tissue grinding away ... today it's my jaw. The 4 measly Ibuprofen tablets 200mg each are not working.

The closer we got to the 3/4 point of the walk I could already see Stella had wandered over to the right behind the woods next to my neighbors house. I have not seen that huge blonde cat over there in almost a year. Nor have I seen that regular size black cat but the one time in the yard,  yet with my zero mouse traffic inside my house (is it okay to say that? Ha) ... I assume the field cats the hounds and I never see, are doing their job of finding field mice at night and keeping the mice traffic under control.

With Stella not moving I asked Sadie as I always do in this situation "where's Stella"?

You would think with a nose 200x better than a human nose, testing out when she was a puppy to be a strong 'tracker', hearing 4x better than a human ... that it would be no problem for her to find Stella standing still just to the right of her. Yet she was confused ... she didn't find Stella anywhere as she sniffed the air and scanned the field.

I started my slow walk through taller grass, getting my legs wet again (never a good thing) and saying "come on" ... the favorite words of Stella. She finally moved and headed my direction ... but ....

Only about 20' where she had to stop again.

Notice how well I am following my 'new rules' this morning with this string of photos from the front or side of the hounds ... plus not mentioning certain irritating words that make some sick? LOL

For some reason as I was walking the path I looked down. Were these eggs of some sort? Not by the way they looked as I bent over for a closer look. I had to take a photo fast because Sadie noticed them and of course anything strange looking in 'her' field she has to sniff it to be identified. I touched them after this photo and they felt like mushrooms. I left them there instead of taking them home for further testing.

Well another week ahead. With the gutters clean, branches on the roof tossed into the yard and moved to the burn pile, the lawn mowed twice in two different directions, leaves mulched, house cleaned, laundry done as well as the dishes ... the hounds and I have NOTHING on the agenda today. There will be a MLB playoff game tonight along with the Colts on Monday night football but through out the day ... an open schedule with a lot of possibilities.

If I don't die and sleep a little in the late afternoon after 3 hours of sleep last night ... the hounds might fit in a 3rd walk later. It's really amazing how accurate the Garmin VivoSmart 3 is at tracking my sleep ... right down to the minute, showing me the time I fall asleep and the time I wake up. When I look at the time when waking up it's right on the money for accuracy. It even tells me how much of my sleep is 'deep' and if I get up in the middle of the night.

With the hounds leading the way to end the walk and slowly entering the wet grass of the backyard with new leaves to rake or mow ... I lifted my camera up for a picture but remembered the new self-imposed rules of no pictures with the hounds ahead of me showing their butts. After all this blog is turning more to 'political correctness' so we can get on schedule with the rest of this messed up world.

As I tip-toed back into the yard to keep a few of the blog readers happy and not stepping on any one's sensitive toes ...  iswhen I saw the local utility company trucks. I hoped I had electrical power inside the house. I wanted to get a fast start to this this blog post and as soon as I ripped off my wet hiking boots, heated another cup of strong coffee I could have my fingers tearing my keyboard with words flying out of my mouth to this blog.

Since they have told me that my house electric is now on the 'new line', I was a little concerned when I saw someone working on those lines while the hounds and I were almost to the corner of the house. It was all good though with the power. As I stepped inside I looked at the microwave stove and saw the clock ... so I had plenty of power awaiting me after I sprinted to my computer to get this irritating, possibly abrasive to some, non-humorous- bs blog post written.

Just remember with me at the controls of the 'dashboard' I can weaken or strengthen what this blog does or doesn't do. I will never lock out comments because I like reading them no matter what they say. I don't care who looks at the blog, nor do I care what country they live in nor what color they are ... everyone is welcome.

I only have a setting that comments will be (about this time I was typing the next word I heard a truck coming up my driveway. It was the electric company telling me for the last time I would be losing power soon while they completed their disconnect of power lines from the older setup. 3 hours later the kitchen light came back on letting me know that power had been restored. So here I am) monitored after a post is two weeks old. That gives me a chance to look at any comments on older posts before I publish them. What that does is cut down on all the spam hacking comments that usually attack older posts or closed blogs that are still online.

I've lost my train of thought after the 3 hour gap. I am to the point of applying ice to my right jaw. The hounds have been fed lunch with the bloodhounds wanting their walk, Heidi wanting her siesta.

Later the hounds and I, at their request, will hold a board meeting (isn't that what Monday's are for?) and decide if the blog will turn toward a flavor of "political correctness" with the author "tip toeing" on eggshells not to hurt the feelings of some ... or do we open it more than ever and 'let it rip' with ranting, complaining, voicing opinion about life in general, the world in general, hounds in general, crap in general?

I would just like to keep it where it is with commentary and photos of the hounds and life here in 'the tropics' while staying away from world news or events, sports opinions, ranting or complaining about things. If I wanted that I'd find a job and go back to work. I'll let the other bloggers do that on their blogs. This is what I will recommending to the blog owners, Sadie, Stella and Heidi.

They will give me the 'yes or no' on using words like dr***, or sc**, or talk about a wild imagination of a picture sprinkling d*** sc** on top of Ben&Jerry's ice cream but sliding the bowl over to the hounds for them to enjoy. Besides I like my Ben&Jerry's ice cream plain with nothing sprinkled on top.  LOL

All is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Here's hoping the comment sections below will be filled with numerous responses with honest opinions, thoughts, complaints or approvals ... all of us, hounds and readers alike love reading the few comments posted after some of our blog posts.

It's now time for our 2nd walk of the day with the camera in tow.

As Usual Sadie Wins

They proved once again they know what to do before the rains come and delay their harvest by a week or more until the fields dry out. I had started my 'thorough' detailed house cleaning Saturday morning to burn off some nervous energy I had for the football game kicking off at noon. The farmers had moved their equipment into position sometime Friday night. With a chance of rain today they were going to finish picking the back half of the cornfield that they replanted in May after the flooded area dried.


Depending on the direction of the winds, there is always a chance of dust from the corn picked and loaded into truck trailers might blow my direction. That's never good when I have all the windows open. Luckily as I glanced at the first load of corn being loaded I could see the wind was blowing north, parallel to the house ... all the windows stayed open while I cleaned.

By the time I was finished and was ready for 14 hours of football on tv, they had completed their job. The field that I can see from the house is only the far end of the field. It curves right behind the trees and goes for almost a 1/4 mile behind the houses of my neighbors.

So after a bright sunny day on Saturday ... this morning had other plans with gray skies, rain off and on and those temps in the upper 70's yesterday had dropped to the low 60's for a high today.

All of that doesn't matter to Sadie. She doesn't want a lot in her daily schedule but food, sleep and a few walks. So after the strongest storms blew through around 8am, with little rain for us, Sadie sat in the doorway of my computer room giving me the stare down to let me know it was time for the fist walk of the day.

It was raining lightly outside by the sound of it hitting the leaves. I waited a little longer while she didn't move and kept her eyes locked in on me in front of my computer. I'm not sure she even blinked the whole time she stared at me.

She won ... just like she always does. Those eyes of hers and persistence are pretty convincing. The map of the weather radar had our location pinned right in the middle of greens, yellows and some oranges showing us it was rainy or could rain. I slipped on my snow boots that double up as rain boots, a light rain jacket ... hearing Stella howl and see Sadie hopping up and down when they saw me put my ball cap on. That's cap is confirmation their walk was going to happen.

As with any time after a rain there is a lot more exploring by both hounds. Heidi had already cancelled her day with the mention of the word rain or the sound of rain outside the open window. She was stretched out as far as a basset hound can stretch, on 'her' leather couch sleeping. With a look at me that I was to wake her when lunch is served, but in the meantime she was sleeping.

Stella didn't feel like wandering this morning and stayed either close behind me or with Sadie.

With the raindrops getting larger and more frequent but no more than a light rain ... I cut our turn short in back of the field and took the recent path created by the ATV traffic from the neighbor. There really isn't a lot of difference in distance of our walk by doing this but always feels like a shorter walk.

Stella was almost positive with decision to take this path meant she and us were going straight ahead ... where she ran off to last Thursday, back into those woods up ahead. She is hoping for that anyway.

When I said "no, over here" she immediately walked in front of me pouting like she does when she doesn't get her way.

My camera was barely able to catch the high speed ATV on Friday afternoon but this gives you an idea of who and what has made the new worn paths that may be a thing of the future next spring and summer. We cut our walk short when we heard the sound as I can't afford an accident to happen with the hounds and a speeding ATV. Especially since Stella and Sadie show an interest in chasing that new unidentified vehicle.

This morning though as the rain increased they were just happy to jog to the house with a few stops in between.

I wouldn't have taken a picture of my boot and this leaf until I saw how bright and colorful the leaf was. It might have the most color we see this fall unless we get a string of days with bright sunshine.

As the sound of the rain hit my jacket, Stella walked slower toward me in no hurry. Then looks at me as if to question why am I trying to get her to walk faster.

It's because these clouds are west of us, coming our way and the rain drops are now starting to fall faster.

Sadie was also walking slow not wanting her walk to end. Yet, within minutes of returning inside, she was sound asleep protecting her water bowl from Stella sneaking in and drinking 'her' water. Stella and Heidi share their own water bowl in a different room.

It's very very rare when both hounds lead me back to the yard at the end of the walk so I had to take a picture of this historic event.

It's feeling like a quiet Sunday is ahead of us with a few NFL games scattered around a siesta later this afternoon, a couple more hounds walks and food. I might even read my owners manual on the Tamron 18mm-200mm lens I use to see what I have forgot or to find something I have missed with hopes of better quality photos in the future.

Hard to believe it's the middle of October here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Changed Their Strategy Today

With the upper right corner of my computer monitor showing me it's already Friday, I have only 7.5 hours to get anything finished today before my life stops for another weekend college football marathon. Throw in the MLB playoff games, and the NFL games, the hound walks between games or at halftimes, eat a little ... there isn't much time for sleep or house cleaning until early next week. The hounds never are pressed for time ... ever.

While I am always changing my mind or never coming to a firm decision on things, the hounds always know what they want to do ... eat, sleep, take walks and repeat. So our morning started out normal with hopes of sunshine today so I can mow the lawn. Due to the recent rain and overcast skies with cooler temps ... it has changed from "mowing the leaves" a week ago to "mowing the yard and leaves" this afternoon ... the grass has grown a lot this week.

It might look like it was a pretty easy walk for me today after getting some unexpected running in yesterday afternoon as I chased the disappearing Stella. That was not the case this morning as the pictures do not tell the whole story 'behind the scenes'.

I think I would have rather been running after disappearing bloodhounds than doing all the 'verbal herding' I had to do this morning. I guess they do change some of their routine ... after a week of very little deer scat eating this morning it's all they did. No need to track new ATV tracks or new deer scent ... it was time to add a protein supplement to their diets and ignore all of my calls to "come on".

Herding usually is required when Stella goes in one direction while Sadie and I are going in a different direction. Yesterday proved it's best to try to keep both hounds in viewing range of my eyesight ... otherwise, I am jogging slowly after them as I feel every organ bouncing inside of me. Does a heart move because yesterday it certainly felt like it was coming out of my chest as I jogged then ran after Stella.

This was a key point in the walk this morning ... Stella wandering further away while Sadie had made the turn for home but still looking for more to eat. My friend told me a few weeks ago that scat has molasses in it thus why the hounds are addicted to eating it ... it's sweet, much like my addiction to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

It wasn't my voice that got them together, yet as I made the final turn home ... their desire of not having the other hound getting all of the good stuff, they merged into one area to share what Sadie had found. Luckily that was near my path as I walked home.

This picture shows the real definition of the word "ignore" ... Webster's Dictionary has it all wrong, Stella has the definition correct ... that is ignore me saying "come on", and eat as fast as possible before I try to lead her away by her collar.

Of coarse with that gentle tug of her collar and a lecture on the pros and cons of listening to "your owner" ... she and Sadie tear off into a 'happy-go-lucky' jog toward a new spot they know of way in front of me toward the middle of the lower field. So much for that lecture on obeying commands. I doubt that the bloodhound bred does well in any kind of dog obedience classes. I am too cheap to find out plus I like that they can have the freedom to do what they want ... so why am I complaining?  LOL

Only in my dreams would these two 'partners in crime' be running straight for the backyard and wait for my return.

No ... since their noses are some of the best of 70+ dog breeds, they already know where their next snack is and it's far enough away from me that they can eat as fast as possible before I get there. At first I thought they might be heading all the way to the neighbor's drainage ditch, that is always a favorite of Stella's after some rain.

Sadie was faking Stella out ... she led her toward the neighbors only to turn fast and run to a spot left of me, leaving Stella way off the pace. So once again I have two hounds in totally opposite directions with the house in view.

See what I mean about this walk being hard?

Stella was back to eating so fast that even my Nikon D3200 couldn't pick up the speed of her mouth and forehead moving as she gobbled as fast as possible. There is much more to the picture than meets the eye. It does not pick ups the sound of her gobbling.

As I stood in the yard finished with my walk ... I didn't yell since they were close but kept saying those infamous phrases of "come on" and "over here" ... then a few words that would require me to changed the settings of the blog to 'adult content'.

They become more interested in heading to the house when I mentioned 'we' had to mow the yard today after "Lunch" ... I have a feeling the words 'mowing the yard' wasn't what they heard. They know what "lunch" means.

I thought of waiting to post this and then add some afternoon shots to the post and more commentary but honestly I find it hard to post like that, plus I end up with too many photos for just one blog post. So I'll edit the photos and recheck the spelling before posting ... not a lot of time as Sadie and Stella are standing just to the right of my desk chair with drool hanging from the sides of their mouth ... because it's minutes away from noon and they haven't had lunch yet.

Pressure's on to finish this.

For those that have asked me this past week since restarting the blog on why I chose to go back to Blogger instead of Wordpress ... Using the free version of Wordpress lets them post advertising on my blog posts when I don't want advertising nor are those going to make me any affiliate income.

The main reason is, I wanted to keep the 6+ years of posts, comments and photos of the blog. I could upload the backup file into Blogger with no issues. If I were to try importing that same file to the free Wordpress blog, the different platforms don't play well together and a Wordpress Tech would have to edit the code to over a 1,000 posts for Wordpress accept the posts and photos.

If I were to pay for my own web hosting and use the Wordpress.org platform then there would be no issues importing the 1,000+ posts, along with comments and photos into that platform. But building that site would take more work than I am interested in doing and I can't see paying over $100 per year for website hosting where the blog is making me zero income. Nor do I want to have a blog for making income.

So ... I went back to blogger last Sunday, or first went to Google to establish a new email address for the blog log in and contact email ... then started the rebuilding process.

I added my own email address to follow this blog because I want to see what shows up in followers emails when I do any kind of corrections or changes to the post after I post it for the first time. I have a suspicion that every time I go back to correct spelling errors and click the update key, all of the email followers are getting a new email ... that's not good.

The sun is out so there's a good chance to mow this afternoon. I am going to try something new for the first time in 20 falls seasons at this house ... I am going to mow blowing the leaves and grass in just one direction toward the highway instead of mowing in a back and forth pattern or even in a square while blowing the leaves and grass to the center of the yard. It will take longer but should clean the leaves up better than just mulching them. In the back I will go one direction blowing mowed leaves and grass toward the field.

Can you tell I am trying to find a way to get out of raking leaves this year?

By the time I finish mowing and putting all the stuff backing my small shed, I'll be ready for another hound walk, some dinner and the MLB playoff game before watching the Washington State Cougars start their game at 10:45pm my time.

Well I have to go. The hounds are still staring at me and the drool is getting longer ... like glue.

Everything is fine in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.