Decision On Food Still Confusing

This is the normal position of Heidi and Stella every night. Stella will start by being curled up like Heidi but each time I get up out of my seat on the couch she will gradually stretch out. It will get to the point that I am sitting right up next to the arm of the couch and have to lift her head to slide into a small spot on the couch. They make the rules.

This is from this morning right before Stella and I took off for our morning walk. She knows it's not spring no matter how bad I want it to be. She knows that yesterday's 71° was only a tease and is not to be believed. She never changes her morning routine.

When Stella and I stepped outside around 11pm for her last trip of the day to pee, it was cold, about 30° colder than when we took our walk in the late afternoon. The hot weather was nice while it last, still nothing like those in Colorado have experienced. I think the wind we had last night and this morning is part of that storm which is heading to the east coast today.

I did not notice the wind last night and I was up until almost 1am. Yet, I saw a lot of these sizes of tree limbs not only in my yard but in the field. It's rare to see them in the field. When the mood hits me, I'll have a lot of these types of limbs to pick up all over the yard and add them to my burn pile.

Stella could tell the path was mushy with a saturated ground covered by wet slick leaves. I was just happy I could move back to hiking boots instead of the snow boots, but there would not be a difference in weight since both pairs are light.

It was windy from the SW and that wind was bring cold air. A sock hat and gloves were part of the walk today. The camera had a re-charged battery and it is Friday and that always feels nice. I'll be receiving my new Sony Blu-Ray player sometime today. After that I will head to the grocery store to replenish my food supply and also make some slight changes because I am changing direction on what foods I put into my system.

I have a lot more reading to do right after I post this. As you know there is so much information once you start digging for answers on the internet. One website leads to others, and those have new links for information and the number of tabs opened multiple like compound interest.

Without going into a lot of detail, I am moving back to higher carbs, lower fat and lower protein type of eating. That would be moving away from what Keto and Paleo suggest. I know over the past two to three years I have gone back and forth. I also know I always make slight modification by adding "moderation" in there somewhere. I am not sure that I will make a lot if any moderations with these changes.

The camera didn't capture the fast movement of those clouds heading NE. If it wasn't so cold in the mid 40's you would have thought that more rain was on the way. The wind was making those howling sounds as Stella and I walked.

I did start to read the book by Dr. Fuhrman yesterday. A lot of what I read came back from my memory vaults 15 years ago. I had forgotten some of the basics he talked about.

Stella moves out in front of me but it's not because she has found a scent to track, it's because I was standing looking at the fast moving clouds and the tops of the trees.

I am going to read more about it but right now it looks like I will eliminate olive oil and seafood, as well as poultry and of course beef.

It was good to see Stella do a little "wandering" this morning. She doesn't do anything fast nor is she an intense tracker like Sadie was .... she is just a "wanderer."

It's 1:45pm and I was at this point of the post THIS MORNING and was just about to finish this post and post it. My friend from college called and we have been on the phone ever since, covering every topic possible. It's been such a long call I had to take my watch off to charge the battery.

I did feed the hounds at the normal time while we talked, Stella was howling and Heidi was barking with excitement.

I've lost my train of thought and I had a lot more to say ... maybe later.

It's still be a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

From Storms To Sunshine

When the radio pre-game show was interrupted a little before 12:30pm to let me know there were tornado warnings southwest of my location I would have never guessed that Stella and I would be taking a walk under blue skies and bright sunshine by 4pm, but we did. As you can see there, with the strong wind from the south, it was raining inside my carport. Normal, nothing I haven't seen before in strong thunderstorms.

I took that downspout apart on Monday and made sure it was not blocked by wet leaves that had made their way down into the spout. It was all clear and like I said then, there wasn't a leaf anywhere in the front gutter. So that water coming out of the seam and over the edge of the gutter is just too much water for the space available.

About an hour later I stepped outside because I was seeing patches of blue sky from my seat on the couch. The storm was heading NE, in the direction of that power tower. The sky was brigher as the sunshine was working it's way through the clouds.

By 4pm I glanced at my watch to see that it was 71° and I couldn't let that pass by without an afternoon hound walk. In fact as I stepped outside I could tell I was overdress with my long sleeve rugby shirt on. Heidi was happy with hot sun on her side and Stella was not sure if what she was seeing and smelling was real.

I put on my North Face snow boots that I use for rain boots. I knew the path would not be operational with all the rain we had today and I planned on walking just off the path in the thick grass. Stella had other ideas ... she took off along the return path. Her new routine this week.

In different pictures you will be able to tell that the grass is blowing a little more than it normally does. The wind was really strong and a few times moved me just about the time I took the picture.

We were not quite to the first turn when I caught myself saying "its hot out here", then remembered that by tomorrow we will be back in the low 20's at night and no more than the 40's as high daytime temps. I enjoyed the heat for the rest of the walk.

No sounds of cows today but Stella had to check to see if they were around.

Wind is from the south between 20-25 mph.

I had to turn my camera off on the way back home. That battery icon was flashing red again so I knew I had a battery that could only take a couple of pictures before it died on me. It was too windy anyway as Stella and I walked directly into the headwind.

I don't know if Heidi was happy about the hot weather, or that we had return or did she want back inside ... she was barking nonstop once she saw we were back. Right after this photo, she turned and sprinted up the steps all the way to the couch as I opened the door.

After my wild "Un*******believable" blog post title yesterday, things have calmed back down. I only had a couple of interesting emails yesterday. The kinds of emails that I download into a file and print them out in case I need them in the future.

In my online selling days I had a customer that threatened me after buying a small display case for his diecast NASCAR. Even though I had written in big blue capital letters "Car Is Not Included", he seemed to think I had decievied me and he knew where I lived from his home in Arkansas. What he did not know was my friend that works for the State Police in the Internet Crime Division ... There's a lot of crazies out there so you never know.

Overall from those that comment or send me emails agree with what I say when I go down the political path.

That does NOT make me the expert though.

I admit I am enjoying sitting back looking in at the circus in D.C. ... Pelosi and Maxine are my favorites this week. I also like hearing about the latest testimony from the FBI that has been released for the public to see. I can describe all of it, from 2012 - 2016 in one word .... CORRUPT !!!!

You thought I was going to say Collusion didn't you??  :) IF and it's not a sure thing that Trump gets re-elected in 2020 but if he were what are all of these anti-Trumpers going to do for another four years ... waste eight years of their life bitching and moaning???

Well as I sit here the wind is howling outside. That should be about finished later tonight and we can get back to some winter weather. I think it was last year on this day that it was so warm I guessed wrong and planted some new grass seed on my bank in the backyard only to have a light snow the following weekend. Bye bye grass seed.

I heard something about the Keto Diet on a short two minute video for Dr. Oz a while ago. He said one thing that makes him hesitate in recommending the diet and made me think again. He said if you fall off the strict Keto Diet and have that bun with your hamburger or a day of pancakes or toast with jam and butter ... then not only are you eating high carbs but with keto you are adding high fat and high protein ... eating those three things in high quantities is not a good thing.

Back to more reading. I found this article interesting and backed scientifically.

I'm really thinking of going back to a book I bought in 2003, "Eat To Live" by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. He is a cardiac specialist who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. I remember having good results when I followed his plan and it was not hard to follow. He had a 8 week plan to get started if I remember. I was not eating a lot of fat and proteins ... just the required amounts for healthy living.

It was a great day today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, except for the results of the IU basketball game.

From Sunshine To Storms

Just like anywhere else in the USA, weather can change in an instant. I know my weather changes from yesterday afternoon to this morning are nothing compared to those having severe weather up in the Dakotas, Montana, and the Central Midwest yesterday. I caught some of the national weather stories last night. My worst weather of the day is not suppose to start until around noon, about the time I tune into my IU game. How will the satellite signal do in high winds and thunderstorm conditions? I am hoping the forecast is wrong

So anyway, back to yesterday. It was beautiful. It got up to 72° and as you can see Stella and Heidi were in shock. They couldn't move, they couldn't think clearly to figure out if this was a dream or was spring really here. Stella and I did take an afternoon walk but it was without the camera because it was a spur of the moment ... I didn't know I was going for a walk when I went outside with her. She decided we were.

Heidi heard me ask if she wanted her toenails cut. I wasn't sure if I was going to have to pick her up to take her to the backyard for that task or if she would eventually agree with me that her nails were way past due. I thought I'd give her time to decide, I didn't want to force anything on her. She is the best of all the hounds I've had when it comes to trimming her long nails. Winston was the second best, and Sadie was 0 on a scale of 1-10.

I was a little surprised that neither hound sprinted to the backyard and head dove into the grass with excitement. They acted their normal slow, analytical self, deciding just where they were going to go. I decided I'd walk around the yard enjoying the warm sunshine, maybe they would follow me.

By the time I returned Heidi has almost decided it was time. I went inside and traded my camera for the nail clippers. Without me saying a word, she followed me to the backyard, laid down and rolled over on her side ... true story. Within a few minutes all of those extra long nails were trimmed back to where none of them touched the ground when she was standing. She sprinted for the door because she knows a dog bone is always her reward after getting her nails trimmed.

Stella was not as cooperative. She use to like having her nails trimmed but after three of them she decided she had enough. I had to get a few more while she was sleeping on the couch last night but even that woke her up. I have two more paws to do today, someway.

They say we will get high winds today with our thunderstorms, but in our area that is only 20mph - 30mph. That will still make a howling sound up here on the hill though. That sound is what woke me a little after 2am.

You can see from the rain we received last night there is some flooding starting to show. He installed a huge drainage system a few years ago that starts behind that corner of trees on the left, diagonal in that low area to the trees on the right ... but by this afternoon that will be flooded as if his drainage system is not working.

The crushed egg shells continue to get whiter as it rains more. We are currently above the average for rain/snow this time of year and will add another inch to that surplus today. I better get my lawn mower ready for a lot of work this spring.

This shows why I am filling in all of the worn, low spots of the carport floor this spring. 44 years of wear will do that to concrete I guess.

A sure sign that all hound walks are canceled for today. The field was still soft from underground saturation yesterday, it will be muddy today. Stella doesn't like getting her paws wet and I don't like water running up the sides of my boots either.

Yes, these low spots will be filled in and repaired this spring.

As you can see my blog design has changed again this morning. I like the format, I just can't decide what colors to use, header image or no image. I even changed my computer back from Apple's "dark mode" to "light mode" and both desktop photos ... I put their desktop picture of Yosemite on my other monitor. I think it was the National Geographic channel a few weeks ago that was showing the movie "Solo" for free ... quite a movie and quite a climb for "free climbing."

I was in the mood to watch some movies late afternoon yesterday. Inserted the first DVD, the player changed my tv input to the blu-ray player input as it should. Then the screen went blank. After trying many things, reading the owners manual for the dvd player, I finally went online and found out that it was a common problem with Samsung DVD players ... I had just been lucky the past few years, having no issues.

By the time I tried their troubleshooting steps a second time ... my remote for the dvd player would not work. NOTHING worked. I went to the Best Buy website, put "Sony Blu-Ray Player" in the search and had a few to choose from. With $40 in rewards that I had forgot about and an expiration date of March 23rd ... I guess it happened for a reason.

I bought a Sony 4K Blu-Ray player with a lot of stuff I won't use for a pretty low price after my $40 discount that they showed at the final step for checking out. Instead of driving to Bloomington to pick it up I took them up on their offer for free shipping and a delivery for tomorrow. (Friday) That was the second Samsung dvd player that has stopped for the exact same reason.

I use to have a Samsung tv, so I bought the Samsung dvd player at that time.

I can hear the wind and rain off and on outside while I write this. About all I can tell is that I will be watching basketball at 12:30pm hopefully without signal interruption, and explaining to Stella why we are not taking any walks today. She will figure that out soon enough when she goes outside this morning. Heidi may not get off the carport at lunch if she sees and hears the rain and wind.

While I tried to post this at 9:30am, I lost my HughesGen 5 satellite internet signal.  :)

I added these recent photos after I posted this morning. This is right after their lunch, and Stella was not interested going out into the yard. Luckily she dumped her tanks first thing this morning before her breakfast.

At least it is not snowing and single digit temps here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Un*******believable !!!!

A MUST listen .... The Brains Behind AOC Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Plus THE PLAN of the "Justice Democrats". Amazing stuff, don't miss it and listen to THE COMPLETE video.