A Late Start To A New Week

Things seemed to have changed ever so slightly the past couple of nights. I've had a solid night of sleep and sleeping much later than those 4am and 5am wake-ups from a few weeks ago. Yet, my sleep app is telling me I am not getting enough sleep but it let me know yesterday, based on their data the best time for me to go to bed was 11:45pm because I get what they call "Best Sleep Rhythm" ..... Evidently the hounds approve waking up later because Stella isn't whining to wake me up nor has Heidi. With both of them taking their late night trips outside they are good until I wake up. I did not have my first sip of coffee until 20 minutes after our normal time for starting the walk.

I had a nice article this morning in my Feedly app about taking landscape photos with my iPhone. The times I have tried using it on my daily walks last winter, the performance was not stellar compared to the fantastic photos it takes inside at night in low light conditions. This article not only helped with some good ideas, to the point  I will try landscape photos with my iPhone again soon, but it basically covered the basics of photography. It's those things we know but take for granted after a while and become lazy, at least I have. So this morning I tried some of their suggestions with the Canon G9 X on this morning walk.

While I was  busy looking at the sky, into the woods, and at the treeline ... Stella was on the walk wondering what I was doing, when I was coming and what was going on?

The gully I mention from time to time is very steep just past that fallen tree. You can see the other side of the gully and possibly how steep it is to get out of it. Out of all the hounds I've had here in the last 20 years, only Sadie and Winston decided they needed to see the bottom of the gully. Stella may have during the times she disappeared on our walks but that was always the first place Sadie and I would check. She was never seen and never found by either of us. She would just show up like magic as we were going back to the house. Sometimes Sadie and I would look for her almost an hour.

The skies tell me there is a lot going on to the north of us. It's going to be a pretty weird week in weather. It was 40° this morning but felt much colder with the winds coming out of the west. The high on Wednesday is going to be -1° they say but since we live in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana that will be much warmer than my friend that lives in the Chicago area. She let me know this morning their Wednesday high is to be -24° ... that is not a windchill factor but the temperature itself. Then ... a few days later my high will be over 50°. I can live with all of that because no matter what the weather does, the days keep passing by and Spring will be here before we know it!!!  :)

Each time I have looked at my blog since midnight on Saturday, I am really happy that I stuck with this blog design. Out of 308 themes WordPress offers me, this theme (design) is the only one that has photos 10" wide on a screen that is viewed at 100% or normal size. I like that. The other blog I tried for an hour or so on Saturday night had photos 1" less in width. I am stating those dimensions in inches instead of pixels on purpose just because they are easier to understand the difference in size. The blog title, the post titles and content are currently set at the default fonts chosen by the theme designers. I might change them back to what I had before. If any of you are having trouble reading these fonts on any device you are using ... let me know.

The last of the snow may be washed away this afternoon or more might be added. How's that a possibility? At 40°? "Snow showers" are in the afternoon's forecast. Should be interesting and there might be some nice photo opportunities. If it is more snow than rain, Stella and I will do an afternoon walk. If it is raining .. the walk will be postponed just like a baseball game would be.

I did make the tree with the light-colored leaves my focus point but what stood out to me after downloading the photo to the computer, was the bright red vines which will produce wild blackberries hopefully next summer.

Stella's new routine for the next few days or weeks is following the path most of the time. She likes to change what she does every three to four weeks. Is it scent related? Mentally related?

Whereas the past couple of days she was in the right corner of the field after trotting way ahead of me, this morning she decided to ask for permission before she headed that direction, just around that bush on the right. Sadie use to have Stella up in that area all the time because off the picture on the right side is what I call the entry ramp for the deer highway down into the gully or is it the other way around? ... an exit ramp for when the deer come up out of the gully into the field?

She understood the word 'no' this morning ... something she doesn't pay attention to most of the time when I say that word ... but today she did.

Stronger scent ... intense walk.

The wind was stronger and colder than this photo could capture. I could almost hear it blowing, coming from the west.

At first I thought I had a smudge on my screen on back of the camera, then thought something might be on the very small lens that is hard to touch ... but it was only a cloud.

With the winds stronger than normal a lot of scent was airborne today. She stood and sniffed the air many times on this walk.

You might think I was looking at those tall towers and those huge high power electrical wires when I took this photo ... but it was the contrast in color with those blue plastic covers over all of his palletized bagged mulch. "My" Cyprus mulch is somewhere under those blue covers. I've put 20 of those bags in my Countryman at one time. A great multi-purpose vehicle.<

When I saw the flashing battery icon on my screen as I took this photo I didn't know if we would make it back home taking the normal photos we take all the way to the end. It was the first time the Canon G9 had a low battery warning, so I wasn't sure how much time I had. I found  out later, there wasn't much time after that blinking icon.

I've always thought Stella was the slowest walking hound I ever owned. That she was the only hound I ever owned that took forever to finish the walk on the same path I have used for 21 years in March. Then I remember she wasn't the only one. Remember this 'guy' ?? ....

Winston use to lag way behind us and with short legs his stride wasn't that long anyway. I'd let him do his own pace but once he saw I was getting close to the yard or out of his view, he would always come trotting to catch up with me. Many walks on a nice day he would also 'stroll' one paw at a time.

So, Stella might be slow on the walks we take ... but she just joins a small infamous group of hounds that have walked the same speed as she does.

No matter how cold it is, or how windy it is or if I have something I need to get done ... she always has time to stop and smell things along the way.

I wanted to see what this field looks like from Stella's point of view. She stood next to me confused as I kneeled to take this photo.

More airborne scent.

A split second after snapping this photo, a beep and the screen on back of the camera went black as the lens retracted back into the camera ... the battery was dead.

I'm not sure what lies ahead for us today. That is what is great about retirement, you don't know what will play out most of the time but have all the time in the world for it to happen. If nothing happens, that's okay too. I am also not sure what I am in the mood for. I might have to make a short grocery run since I am now completely out of food I eat for breakfast. I alternate between oatmeal with blueberries or eggs with bacon, scallions, roma tomatoes, mushrooms and sometimes cheese. Long gone are the days of pancakes and waffles until the batter was gone. Long gone are the days of donuts and coffee or those huge cinnamon rolls I use to have at work. It was a good week for food intake, and little to no indigestion.

With the weather planning to be so cold on Wednesday that will be the day I finally post my review on the Apple Watch I bought on the 4th of January. I will discuss that free app "SleepWatch" in-depth, along with the Apple Health app. It has a lot more information than what I was getting with the Garmin Connect app, which is a good app to use if you have a Garmin Activity Monitor/watch.

Another fine morning here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Sunday Ends On A Lighter Note

The bright sunshine today made the day seem much nicer. A little snow did not matter to me as long as the sun was out. That didn't mean we did a lot. The hounds slept most of the day away. I took a drive for a couple of hours and the good news was, Stella did not break out of the locked bedroom with a third  option to prevent her from getting out. I propped up a chair against the baby gate, both on the outside of the door. The cord was used again and everything was as I left it. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Right after their lunch they had interest in only one thing. They wanted back inside the house as soon as possible and both were asleep within minutes of getting inside.

A few minutes before 5pm Stella and I headed out for the afternoon walk. A lot of the snow had vanish with the bright sunshine all day, still it was never higher than 30° today. I drove over to Bloomington for the drive itself more than anything else. I needed to wash away some of the 'cabin fever' I've been feeling. It makes it extra nice when the highways and streets were clear of any snow, sand or salt. I thought about a run to 5Guys Burgers, or a pizza at Mother Bears but the urge was gone after I drove for the 30 minutes it took me to get there. I ate dinner when I got back home. How's that for some discipline?

I can't remember the last time the Mini Countryman had been on a high speed run. Not so much breaking the speed limit but just Interstate driving at highway speeds. The Mini purrrred like a kitten.

As we approached this part of the walk I kept an eye on Stella to see if she would take off, although I doubted she would. She was on her 'afternoon pace' and that means very little trotting, very little veering off the path and it's almost like she crawls around the loop back home.

She didn't forget that ice was still there, hidden under the light snow. She lined herself up early enough to take the left side of the path and missing any possible melted snow.

With no wind it was a perfect afternoon to take a walk. It felt warm and not nearly as cold as the 28° the weather app was showing me.

Unlike this morning or past mornings, she had no interest to explore the fence line, ignoring my calls ... instead she turned when the path was getting ready to head home and led the way.

Walking directly into the sunshine I knew there wouldn't be many, if any pictures taken until we got back to the yard. I posted this one just to show but it was a lot brighter than this photo shows. I could  barely see without my hand blocking the sunshine like the bill of a cap.

She hears the St. Bernard barking from the house across the highway. Neither has attempted to meet each other at the edge of the front yard.

Once back inside, she curled up behind my desk chair so I couldn't move. Heidi was sunbathing on the couch as the whole room was lit up with bright sunlight. With no plans of changing blog templates, it will be a night of watching tv. I think this is the last night for the show called Valley of the Boom. I can't remember if the other show I found last week, Project Blue Book is on tonight or on Monday night. Whatever I don't watch will be automatically taped on the DVR. Otherwise Sunday will be over for another week.

A very relaxing Sunday in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Sunday Morning Ranting

You might want to buckle up this morning, I have a lot to talk about. Unlike yesterday when I was almost speechless early in the morning and for most of the day, this morning  was an entirely different story. Luckily I wrote down what I wanted to talk about in my Apple Notes program so I could remember everything.

That is nothing but ice in that field, formed by the creek just past those trees that floods when there is too much melted snow and too much rain in a short period of time.

This amount of snow arrived Saturday afternoon within an hour after Stella and I finished our walk. She hesitated at first  this morning and I thought for a split second the windchill of 16° was going to make her turn around.

She just had to scratch ... even in the snow.

Some of you may have noticed late Saturday night that the blog looked a lot different. I got a late start because the thought to "do it" didn't hit me until after 9pm or later. I looked through a lot of blog designs like I always do but even with 308 to choose from there are always a couple of new ones to consider.

I debated with myself before I clicked that 'publish' button sometime after 11pm. The other template had what I was looking for. On my 27" monitor the photos were only an inch difference in width, I could live with that. It also had a nice sidebar, which was the main reason I was wanting to change the design.

So I published the change and almost instantly had a comment from Tom, who I have driven crazy over the years with changing my mind on everything a million times at least. There were things I liked about the new design but at the same time there were a few features I didn't like better than what you see today. I was going to bed, so I turned off the computer, turned off the lights and called January 26th over for this year.

Do you know how something might 'bug' you sometimes, enough that you cannot sleep. The brain cells started sorting blog data, thoughts started flashing in high electronic speed as I lay there in the dark and before I knew it ... I was up turning the computer back on. At 12:06am I was changing the blog template back to what you see this morning.

To interrupt my story ... this picture is the start of something pretty amazing on this walk this morning. It took NO LONGER than ONE minute and 29 seconds!!!!

By the time I finished taking this photo of a fresh deer hoof print and looked up ...

Stella was GONE!!!! Looking at the photos tells me from that picture of Stella walking to  this photo ... only a 1:29 seconds elapsed. I glanced to the left, then squinted my eyes to look in the tall grass that matches her color and saw nothing ... no movement of any kind.

So as I took a few steps past the first turn and zoom'd the Tamron lens to 200mm ... there she was in the 'upper right corner' of the field doing ONE THING ... eating deer scat.

She heard me when I yelled her name from a distance because se raised her head. Then she ignored me and went back with her head lowered into the snow.

As I got closer to her, continuing to yell her name, she decided she would meet me at the path like nothing happened ... then trotted up ahead of me.  LOL ... she is so funny sometimes. How did she cover that much ground in one minute twenty-nine seconds? What made her run or trot that far that fast?

Back to my blog story ... but there will be MUCH more discussed before I am through this morning.

Luckily due to cache files when I clicked 'publish' to bring this current template back, most of the links were in the right order, font size changed to what I had, format was spaced correctly. All I had to do was add the feature photo back to the most five recent posts because I deleted them when the other blog did not use 'featured image'. Within minutes I was done and back in bed for a solid night of sleep.

Every blog template, or theme as WordPress calls them, has at least one feature that you like, every one of them. Yet, none of them have everything you want or like. So you have to decide what you want most, what you can live without and most importantly ... what looks good to you ... the blog owner.

The look of the blog is only one of two reasons I deleted the links in the footer of this blog. One of those links was a list of the Top Posts and Pages viewed, the other was a list of Favorite Link where some of your blogs might have been listed. But the thing is ... on both of my blogs totaling over 8 years of blogging, those links were rarely clicked by the readers.

That was especially true on this blog because of the design. There were no options for a sidebar, only in the footer or at the end of each blog post. I didn't like the way it broke up the section for comments by sliding it further down the page, after the post.

Plus a list of links or my top posts didn't look right in that location. When they were in the footer they were rarely viewed because on a tablet or a phone it takes too long to scroll to get to the bottom of the screen. I know, I tried it on my iPad Mini and iPhone and didn't finish.

So because of lack of clicks (not used) because the location for those lists are terrible and because I like the look of the footer as it is now ... I deleted that list of linked blogs and my list to Top Pages or Posts this morning.

Because I deleted my list of websites ... I am asking those that want to be aware of what is going on in this country right under your noses with little to no coverage by the mainstream media ... to bookmark or add as a favorite on your computer these next TWO links.

Fraud - Crooks - Criminals

Creeping Sharia Law in the USA

If you think it's bullshit, that's fine. If you might be interested or concerned ... follow those websites to keep you updated and/or AWARE !!!

In my past work we had to be 'aware' of what was going on and what our surroundings were. I'll not go into details because that requirement spanned over many years in different work environments. So call me paranoid if you want, or crazy too ... it doesn't matter to me. I know how close I was in November 2016 to feel some of this "overflow" that those two websites speak of. Right here in this small rural redneck town in the middle of nowhere Indiana. How could that be? Surprise ... surprise!

Within the last five years a crime was commented more than once nationwide, only to find out the accused was a speaker at a mosque in Bloomington Indiana. He also spoke at other mosques throughout the state. For years it has been known and listed by the FBI, that a mosque in Plainfield Indiana is one of the most terrorist oriented in the USA. Those are just a few miles up the road from me.

Many are unaware of the Islam "20 Year Plan". That period is almost over as they move into the next decade of their 30 Year Plan. They have checked off milestones right on time, one by one. All without you even knowing what's taking place.

I have no fight in this because within the next 20-25 years I'll be dead as doornail anyway ... why care? One, the thought of my country possibly changing drastically in a bad way over the next 25-50 years makes me sick to my stomach. Two, when I think of my niece, nephew, their kids, kids and grandkids of my friends ... it scares me for what they MIGHT have to live with.

I can hear some of you in your desk chair reading this, or in your kitchen with a phone or tablet in hand going "what in the hell is this guy talking about today, God he's nuts". That is what some thought that had classified information months before 911, telling them exactly what was going to happen. That's what some thought over 50 years ago when they had information about Pearl Harbor in advance .... "That will never happen here"

So ... Being Aware ... is the theme this morning.

Like I have said before ... if you need an example of what those two links speak of and proof of what I say ... search on the internet with your favorite search engine for "Dearborn Michigan" ... it's totally unbelievable what has happened there. That is not the only place that has had drastic changes.

In that second link I listed you can look on the right sidebar of that blog and click the drop-down menu to see ALL activity listed by state over the past few years. Their latest post is a review of 2018 but with so much information it is only the first part of two. Some of it was reported on the mainstream news but most of it you will never hear about.

Take a look at what has happened in your local area or your state and see if there is anything there you didn't hear about on the news or if you might be concerned about it.

Do you want your children or grandchildren living in an Islamic ruled country in 50 years? What about 30 years? ... That's their plan, a slow but sure infiltration of government and schools. Locally and nationwide. Be Aware!

I know ... white people, black people, brown people ... we all commit terrible crimes, murder etc. It's just not Muslims or Islamic terrorists. It's the young kid in Louisiana that just shot his parents and three other people, still on the run. It's the two white trailer trash white boys that killed people inside a church a few years ago or the blacks killing blacks in cities across the nation every day. Every race of people gets DUI's or kills people while drunk driving, not just illegal immigrants ... it's just normal shit right? "They" are just like us .... not really.

Blacks, Mexicans and white trailer trash don't have a plan to take over the whole country and install their laws. So if you want to keep justifying reasons why the USA should be a dumpster for the world's trash ... go ahead. I'll keep being aware of what is going on around me.

If you don't think that it can happen here in the USA, in different states you would never expect it to or those small towns scattered throughout the USA ... look what has happened in Europe, London, small towns in Germany. Ask those people how much their country, city or town has changed. Ask people in Minnesota or Michigan or even small towns in Nebraska. That's just a few places you rarely hear about what's going on.

As you see, Heidi was in her normal morning routine. It looks like that left leg has been licked on a lot in the last few hours or in the dark before I got up. She does that in the winter more than any other time. I remember when her legs and all four paws looked that way a few years ago.

To close on what I have been saying ....

Indianapolis is home to the largest and single most influential Muslim organization in the United States. For 36 years, the Islamic Society for North America has been hiding in plain sight on a spacious, well-tended campus on South County Road, just west of the Indianapolis International Airport in Plainfield, IN.

According to its own telling, ISNA was created by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1980 “to be a nucleus for the Islamic Movement in North America” and has been run by a succession of senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders who have turned it into the largest and most powerful Muslim Brotherhood organization in the country.

Back to my own words ... When they speak of an "Islamic Movement", they are not talking about boosting attendance at the local mosque.

If you believe all refugees or immigrants deserve a chance in the USA to take advantage for free medical, food stamps, welfare payments, etc .... then contact your local refugee/immigration center and tell them you would like a single male with no wife or kids to live in your home. That you will 'host' them as they acclimate to living here ... then blog about your experience or changes to your life in 6 months.

I guess I am about all talked out. What a range of conversation that was but it was what was on my mind this morning so I "let 'er rip" as they say. All is good this morning .. the sun is out even if it's cold ... it's quiet ... and soon the hounds will be bothering me to feed them lunch. Rest assured this blog design is staying as is but we've heard that before so I am not saying the word 'never' ...

That all this morning from 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.