Stella Escapes AGAIN !!!!

Anyone want a bloodhound??? An EXPERT in getting out of any kind of confinement. She can open doors with lever handles or round. If she ever gets outside the house, she will sit and wait for your return. Her funny personality and being a great bloodhound 99.99999% of the time keeps her from any animal shelter or me giving her away. Don't panic and don't scream at me .... I'm kinda joking here and need some space to vent as I tell the story from today. Thank you.

When I left at 10:42am to drive 27 miles to Best Buy, I was using the tested proven security of a tight, a very tight, cord tied around the bedroom door (she is behind that door), stretched tightly to another door handle that goes to a closet maybe 10 feet away.

The theory being ... if she pulled the doorknob from inside the bedroom, the tension from pulling would tighten the cord from the opposite direction and prevent her from opening the door. This has worked many times since her last escape almost a month ago

This is the other doorknob the cord is tied to. I double checked both doors before tying the cord to make sure their latches were in place and would prevent either door from opening.

When I arrived home at 12:53pm .... around 2 hours and 11 minutes later .... I saw that top photo, Stella standing next to her LAST apple out of five of them. I bought some great Red Delicious apples just yesterday morning. I was in total shock about her standing there, a lot more than the damaged fruit.

For those that read the post this morning you may remember it was suppose to start raining at noon. When I walked out of the store it sure didn't look like rain nor did it rain at home ... so that isn't what made her want to escape. Maybe she was hungry since I was almost two hours late serving her lunch??? Who knows???  LOL

All I could think about was HOW DID SHE GET THAT DOOR OPEN  ?????? God Almighty she is good!!!!! Anything I have tried the past 3 years and 4 months with a 18 month gap of nothing in the middle ... she has figured out ways of escaping !!!! I cannot tell you all that she has destroyed in those first 22 months ... but to give you an idea I'll mention the word "drywall."

Today, she had opened the bedroom door just enough to chew the cord in half, thus getting out. I guess by her pulling inside with her mouth and jaws around the door knob, it popped the closet door open releasing the tension on the cord. THEN she probably chewed the cord in half.

I glanced to my left and saw what was left of a new bundle of 7 bananas. Obviously from all the small brown marks on the floor, she had not only eaten them but had walked on soft bananas and the peelings, with sigs of her paws on the floor.

She has not been sick today, in any way. This isn't the first time she ate all of my fruit sitting in bowls on the kitchen table or on the counter. The first week I had her in September 2015, I was outside mowing the yard while she ate all of my bananas, apples, half of a whole pineapple, three mangos minus the pits (which are poisonous), and four kiwi. She didn't get sick then either.

Like I said I was in shock. At least there was no damage in the bedroom like in the past. She did not touch my desk and probably never walked in the computer room. She walked up to me slightly cowering, slowly wagging her tail. She knew she had done something she shouldn't have. When she looks up with those eyes of hers, any frustrated or angry feelings I have are always gone instantly. She really is a great bloodhound.

For new readers, I was her 4th owner in her first 6 years of life.

Seeing that she had escaped took away any excitement I had about buying the Apple Watch. Here I am just starting to set it up, getting ready to change the face and move the information to where I want it on my watch face.

With Stella's escape I was mentally stymied again, slightly confused on what do I do now? Will I ever be able to leave my house again while she is living here? Am I a prisoner in my own home? She had 18 months of perfect manners, never trying to escape with just a closed door. There were times during that 18 months that I was gone 8-10 hours visiting friends.

Later in the afternoon she had a second change ... a short test. I had to go buy some dog food. I had two choices ... take her with me for the half mile trip to the store or leave her at home in the same set up ... only this time I would add the baby gate right next to the door in case she opened the bedroom door again.

In the afternoon test I was gone for less than 10 minutes, in and out with a new 40 pound bag of kibble. I was relieved when I pulled into the driveway to see she was not outside waiting on me. (that happened in 2015) I was thrilled as I looked in the kitchen door window to see the bedroom door still closed. I didn't care that I was only gone for 10 minutes at the most ... I was just happy she had not escaped.

As she walked out with Heidi wagging her tail, I praised her like I was training an 8 week old puppy again ... then gave her a couple of grain free, bacon flavored (what a combo that is) dog treats. I will continue that positive reinforcement no matter how long I am gone, IF she is good. She went almost a month since her last escape.

I am still learning all about the Apple Watch Series 4. In the few hours I have owned it, it is awesome !!!! In fact it might be the BEST Apple product I have bought in the last 10 years. It is that good.

I did my first ECG (EKG and was told my heart rhythm is normal. Of course I will have to get used to charging the watch every day or at least every 18 hours. It came 100% charged. I will write a review about it after a few weeks of using it or a month at the latest.

Since Stella figured out I was not going to hang her from the highest rafters, give her away or keep her outside as punishment ... she was more interested in finding a car door that was opened or one she could open for a ride around town. Or, she was smelling the bag of dog food in back of the car, locked up.

I had another toy show up in the mail today. It's a Canon G9 X Mark II, with a 1" sensor and from I have been told by a friend that recommended the camera to me, it will do just as well if not better than my Nikon D3200. I am anxious to use it on the morning walks as soon as the rain stops. Maybe by tomorrow morning. In the meantime I'll take some photos with it in the house, low light conditions, so I can compare those with my iPhone 8+ photos.

To say the least, it's been quite a day. From being very happy, to pissed off, to laughing as she looked at me with those crazy eyes of hers, then feeling busy again while I read about the watch and the new camera.

No worries .. I just had to add a little flavor of honesty to the story about Stella's escape.

I will continue to think of a Plan C for securing her when I am gone and I am always open to suggestions. Just remember, she is an EXPERT, not a normal dog you may have experienced with separation anxiety ... plus she is strong as an ox.  :)

Friday night in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, exciting times!!

Brain Is At Warp Speed Today

It might have started a few minutes or seconds before I opened my eyes this morning but I could tell as soon as they were, my brain was in warp speed mode. Thoughts were coming so fast I couldn't write them down fast enough, even if I had pen and paper next to the bed. So you might want to buckle up on this one. It's Friday and it feels like old times, where I feel just a little off center leaning in the direction of insanity.

Stella started her walk again this morning with some stretching ... better known as scratching.

See this photo? It's times like these I'd like a macro lens. I remember though the times when I first bought the Nikon D3200 that had two lenses in the package, an 18-55mm and the 55-200mm ... I needed both ranges and didn't want to carry and change lens while walking the hounds. There is a solution though and a surprise later for that close-up shot.

Stella wasn't going to wait for me this morning ... she had other plans ... I would find out that I would have a lot of verbal herding to do this morning. I'll let the photos explain the walk as I get back to my brain cell activity I talked about. Four hours later that scrambling inside my head is still going on. Luckily the sun is out until noon, when it will start raining for the rest of the day and night.

Unless you are a sports fan, you will not understand what I am about to say. It dawned on me that my new blog design had turned into the school colors of my college's biggest rival and a team that I cannot stand. Yes, the word 'hatred' is used without guilt, or apologies. I'll not even mention the name of that piece of shit school ... let's just say the colors hit my thought process before my first cup of coffee .... DO I CHANGED THE BLOG DESIGN AND COLORS AGAIN ??????  :) ... just because of the hatred rival?

I really like my blog the way it is ... I mean I really like it ... until I see all of those white backgrounds on sports and news websites. Hmmmmm ... more thinking is needed ... but I'm busy today.

I mentioned the other day I had decided after a lot of research that I did not need the Apple Watch Series 4 even with the new features of EKG reading and a fall detection program ... both proven by science and doctors to be very accurate. Both features would be very valuable to a single old man, with two hounds needing attention IF something were to happen to him unexpectedly.

Those two features overwhelmed the early morning thoughts of the blog colors. In fact, if not for the morning walk with Stella and putting this blog post together for a regular morning publishing, I MAY HAVE been already in the Best Buy parking lot waiting for them to open at 10am so I could buy the watch.

Add to those two features, other skeptical young techies have been writing positive reviews, very positive in fact ... after they have wore the watch for two weeks or a month. They were all sold on it, claiming it was worth the cost even if you didn't buy the cellular model. I have one reader that bought her's last year, the Series 3. She said she needs it for heart alerts. She has given me a lot of data, good and bad, over the past year.

Personally even at 66 years of age and fairly healthy I never see myself getting extremely ill that surgery or hospital stays are needed. I don't see myself falling down where I am incapacitated, where 911 would be called automatically. I see myself living into my 90's whether I want to or not. So why do I need those two features the watch has???

There was the only time, and sober, while on the phone around 1990, where I passed out while standing talking on the phone. JUST LIKE THAT ... I was out. If it had not been for a friend in the house watching a ballgame I am not sure I would have revived myself. A trip to the emergency room and additional tests proved nothing was wrong. But ... it did happen, in a split second.

With a family history of heart problems, I have always had that in back of my mind. Not to where it is constant nor do I ever worry about it. Let's just say I am "aware" what could happen. So for most of my last 45 years I have watched my diet, spending many years as a strict vegetarian. I've always had plenty of physical sports activity until these past 10 years. I have a very low resting heart rate today ... but in 1988 my EKG was off after getting a physical for work.

In fact it was so far off the grid that I was called to see a doctor that put me on the 18 minute treadmill test. He told me over the phone that I wasn't going anywhere until I took that treadmill test.

Luckily I maxed it out and during those 18 minutes my heart rate never got above 70% of the capacity. YET ... at that time I was riding a bicycle 5-6 days per week with a 100 mile ride every weekend and 40-50 mile rides after work during the week.

Now those bicycles are leaning against the wall collecting dust and I'm 35 pounds heavier than I was then.

So I am aware that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AT ANY TIME !!! We don't know.

It would be nice to know that if something did, the automatic phone calls would be made, I could get medical emergency care, friends would be automatically called based on the SOS Apple program in my iPhone with the phone numbers I've listed ... and the hounds would be taken care of. That is the most important thing to me ... if something happens to me, Stella and Heidi NEED to be taken care of.

This Apple watch would be like an insurance policy for me ... AND ... an addition to the emergency plan I have in place.

>So we will see what happens with that ... but I will say, the thought of buying that watch for medical emergency reasons is stronger than ever today.

Yesterday's trip to Lake Greenwood proved to me I NEED TO GET OUT MORE and take photos. Or even take drives just to enjoy the beautiful country that surrounds me. This location is taken for granted by me too much. I have lived here longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life. That includes on Whidbey Island, NW of Seattle and across the street from the Pacific Ocean in Carlsbad California ... on Carlsbad Blvd.

I did some changes to the blog yesterday with the help of WordPress Chat and a fellow blogger/reader/friend. They gave me the code I needed to put a border around my images. Does that help the images stand out more with the dark background?

I played with the picture size on the front page late last night, trying to make them the same size so all of those posts would line up evenly. I realized an easier fix for that. Make the feature photos ONLY taken from my regular camera photos ... no photos that were taken with the iPhone and no photos that I have cropped should be a feature photo.

I wanted to keep the land dark in this photo for a contrast to the beautiful morning sky.

Fresh new deer tracks right on the path again today ... that put Stella's nose in overdrive ... and me increasing my 'verbal herding.

With all of this 'great' weather the past December and now into January, I couldn't resist taking a look at the month ahead. I was somewhat surprised that this weather will continue. Meaning, in the 20's at night to the high 30's or low 40's as high temps during the daytime for the rest of January.

There were some snow icons showing the last two weeks of January but nothing predicted more than POINT 2 of an inch. That is roughly 3/16" of snow ... barely ground cover !!!!!

I have yet to wear any thermal underwear this year, but I do wear a thermal shirt and lined jeans almost every day. The house is also feeling almost too warm at 65° to 68°. Will I ever need that nice pair of Carhartt Coveralls my friend sent me as a free gift??

So what did I do this morning to kind of head off that urge to change anything on the blog????

I changed the background of my browser and Apple screen back to the 'light mode' ... LOL Then I turned on Google Chrome for my browser today, maybe longer. Yet I had to add the search engine DuckDuckGo to Google Chrome since it wasn't listed as a search engine choice, just to piss them off and make me feel better with some kind of security ... I LOVE that search engine!!!

Don't worry ... I like the way the blog looks enough that no changes will be made.

Well this post is about to be published.  I have about a 45 minute drive from the driveway to the Best Buy front door, with some added heavy traffic on a Friday. I'll get in and out of that mess as fast as possible. I need to get back home before the rains start ... just to make sure that Stella is okay. Heidi can only babysit Stella for so long.  :)

If you start your daily exercise with scratching why not end your daily exercise with scratching. It's just like stretching isn't it??? Is it just a habit with her since it takes place in the exact spots each day???

For those that are interested in cameras or the Apple Watch ... I will be writing reviews on each within the next few weeks or a month.

Brain cells ... still very active ... perfect time to take a drive so I can think.

Good times here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

Lake Greenwood

As I pulled into the parking lot of the marina I had an unexpected welcoming party. They totally caught me off guard as the two adults and one fawn walked slowly in front of my car. I forgot I had my glasses on. I never take photos with my glasses on. I didn't know whether to grab the iPhone or the Nikon D3200 that I had brought with me. Luckily they were not afraid of me nor were they in a hurry ... I still acted fast, too fast so I could catch them on camera before they ran away.

I grabbed the Nikon, while forgetting to roll down the passenger side window. The window was dirty but not bad photos considering I was rushing around, a little panic, excited and my ballcap bill in the way when I tried to use the viewfinder.

I wasn't able to catch the three of them with one photo but I did catch the last two.

They stood and watched as I drove slowly away to park my car in a vacant parking lot.

One last glance to see who and what I am. Stella and Heidi would have loved this. It's one reason I never bring them down to this area. These mule deer are very common at all hours of the day or night. They fear nothing.

By the time I parked my car down by the boat ramp, walked across the parking lot and up to the restrooms (locked), they were within arms reach it seemed as I glanced out from behind the building.

They finally realized I was standing there taking photos of them and took off

Some of you have seen photos of this lake before. I've taken photos here and posted pictures on my other blog in May 2015. Click here to see more photos of the lake and area in Spring.  I also came back in October 2016 to take more photos. You will have to scroll much lower in the article to see the fall colors surrounding the lake. Click here for that article.

Today all the rental boats, canoes, kayaks are put away for the winter. Offices are locked and basically I had the whole 800 acre lake to myself. It is a man-made lake, surrounded by 108 square miles of some of the prettiest land in Southern Indiana.

At 38° there were a few still around but it was totally silent, no cars, no people, no traffic, no jet noise ... nothing ... just quiet.

This is my poor attempt at a panoramic photo moving from right to left in the next four photos.

That land is full of campgrounds, mostly tent camping. There are buildings for cookouts and if you have 4-wheel or all-wheel drive you can take single track dirt/gravel roads back into those woods as deep as you want to camp.

When I was writing the post this morning I knew I was going to have to go to the grocery store for fruit and almonds if nothing else. It dawned on me that if I went a different direction not only could I shop but also visit Lake Greenwood and take some photos. I've never been down there in the month of January before.

One thing that is very nice about this facility, is that it is semi-private. Unless you have a government employee badge or a military ID card (active or retired), you will not get inside the 108 square miles. I might be wrong on that ... it changes depending what the security level is, so at times a government employee or military personnel can bring civilians on base. As far as coming alone, not going to happen without a government ID.

This government facility is the 3rd largest Naval installation in the world ... not the USA. Yet, there isn't a naval ship anchored anywhere near this land locked base. In fact, five years ago it had less than 80 active duty military personnel out of 6,000 - 8,000 employees.

Over the past 50 years it has evolved from being the largest bomb producer in the Viet Nam War, to high-tech development for all branches of service, ships or aircraft. Only government employees or government contractors work at this facility.

So you are probably asking yourself the same question I asked myself before leaving this morning ... would this facility be open during the current government shutdown? I thought the grocery store might be closed but the lake area would be accessible. I'd take that chance.

As I stopped at the gate to show my ID card, to my surprise, the security officer told me the base was not closed. In fact this facility for some reason was not affected by the government shutdown that is currently going on. I remember when I worked here in 2013 I was sent home between 10-14 days during a shutdown. (can't remember) But not now??? Interesting.

I admit I did a little editing to make the sky bluer and that automatically helped with the color of the water in the panoramic photos. Otherwise you wouldn't see much color, even with the sunshine.

I've sailed, paddled a canoe and a kayak on this lake for as far as the eye can see ... then further. The shelter is nice for cook-outs and it's always quiet due to the accessibility or lack there of, to the general public.

It was nice to get out on such a bright sunny day. No signs that Stella attempted any escapes today while I was gone. Heidi must have kept a tight leash on Stella and well under control.  :)

I felt much better when I got back. It's a nice drive to and from. Perfect weather for the month of January. While the hounds slept their afternoon away after they ate lunch, I answered some emails, replied to comments, added a border around all the images and listened to an old favorite band of mine ... Jethro Tull.  LOL ... I know.

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