A Bloodhound Surprise

Starting this post I have only been up less than two hours but I have seen more change and surprises than I have in a month. What is in store for us today for the rest of the day? Will sitting on the couch duplicating yesterday afternoon and last night be a factor? I can't imagine seeing as much as I did this morning in less than an hour ... I hadn't had my second cup of coffee yet !!!!

It didn't matter the bedroom was filled with bright sunshine. Heidi was on her dog bed in the far corner of the room where the sunshine through the east window streams right on her. I may have had a different schedule this morning but she didn't.

I can tell it is spring, even if it's only been official for a couple of days. I can see it in the field across the highway and I can see my yard turning green from front to the back. It's time to drag the lawn mower out of the shed and make sure everything is ready for the first mow. Do you notice the two Sassafras saplings are not in the lower part of the picture?

I had not stepped off of 'Winston's Patio' when I knew immediately that the world had slipped off its axis and Stella was going to dictate what was going to take place. I cannot remember how many months it has been since he started her morning walk and did not take the path into the field.

When she kept ignoring my calls I knew there was no hope today. All I needed to do was 'buckle up' and enjoy the ride because Stella was behind her wheel of stubbornness and anything I said wasn't going to mean a damn thing.

She did stand at the property pole at the corner of the yard before she took off down the return path. She turned to look at me as I stood on the normal path, soft with a lot of saturation. She looked proudly at me, acknowledging my "get over here" ... then turned and walked away ... as you see here.

As I slowly walked back into the backyard toward the return path I wondered what the hell was going on today. With Stella's new ideas for the walk this morning combined with all of those very weird dreams that kept waking me up last night, I could tell the earth was having its own case of vertigo.

By this time I had stopped saying a word to Stella because I knew from past experience, when she gets this way it will not matter what I say or do. I could have gone back into the house and she would have continued on like nothing was off schedule. I am sure you have picked up through all of my drivel since December, that I like things in order. I don't like change that much ... well when you start walking the opposite direction taking the return path first ... how much change could I handle ??

As I walked up the path, I see Stella now meandering back to the middle of the field between both of our worn paths I really wondered if our walk this morning would amount to anything more than just walking in circles. I wasn't sure we would get to the first corner, let alone finish the half mile path. See how I like things to remain the same ??  LOL

My one cup of coffee at this point had done nothing to calibrate my brain cells. I had gone back to bed as the hounds were eating their breakfast kibble. Watching basketball games, sometimes two or three games at once on the split tv screen evidently wore me out. I was out of March Madness shape. I had a problem though.

During the day, I before the games, and on the way to buy more food, I stopped by the library to pick up the two books I had ordered through the state library system by Dr. Michael Greger. "How Not To Die" and his recipe book that went along with it.

Off of the "New" shelf I took a book named "The End Of The Myth" by Greg Grandin.

After reading a few pages of each, both books were so good I couldn't put them down. So I turned off the sound on the tv and would glance up from my book on occasion to check the scores or any action I needed to watch. IF it was a close game, I'd put the book down, turn up the sound, bring that game to the full screen and watch the last five to seven minutes of the game.

I was wrong to suggest the other day that Dr. Greger might have been influenced with bias, stressing a plant-based diet is the way to eat because of his position as the director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the US. He loves animals just as much as I do but he has the scientific proof that the plant-based diet is the way to eat. He also has proof that eating that way DOES reverse heart disease and many other diseases. To me, scientific data to back up his recommendations is the key factor in all of this.

It was his grandmother who influenced his diet thinking and his career path. I'll not go long on this because you can read her story in the first two pages of the preface in the book. Basically she is released from the hospital at 65 years old in a wheelchair, told by surgeons she has weeks to live and there is nothing more they can do for her. She has already had by-pass surgery. She signs up for the Pritikin's Study and showes not only signs of heart disease reversal ... but lived another 31 years to the age of 96 !!!

It's a book you will find hard to put down once you start reading it.

While going the opposite direction, not quite to the first corner, Stella turned and looked at the neighbor's house like she does every morning on 'the way back'.  LOL ... funny hound.

The other book is a great lesson of US History, something I wish I would have spent more time studying in college. I've only read the first 75 pages of the book but WOW ... what a story. Was I taught all of this in past history classes and forgot how this took place?

It starts after 1750, describing in detail the strategy, the famous men in charge and the movement west in the USA. Early in the book there were hints describing how our country got to all the racial tension today, the polarization that pushed Trump to the presidency. The last comment on the book sleeve, just inside the cover states ...

"The border wall may or many not be built, but it will survive as a rallying-point, an allegorical tombstone marking the end of American exceptionalism."

I highly recommend this book and that is based on reading only a few pages.

As you can see Stella decided on her own that taking the walk backwards was not good for brain cell health. She made the short crossover to our normal path, then over to the edge of the wooded area like always. Even I felt better after she moved back to our normal routine. Whew ... close call.  :)

Can you tell between these two pictures which is on my manual settings and which one is taken with the automatic setting? Which one do you like?

With underground water seeping up the sides of my hiking boots, Stella was also aware of the wet path and walked along the edge of it in the taller grass to keep her paws dry. Rain, snow, sleet or ice ... she doesn't like her paws getting wet. Sadie would have charged through just to show me how high she could splash the water.

I surprised myself yesterday at the store and how I felt throughout the day and night with my changed eating habits. With March Madness it use to be sandwich material, liters of Pepsi, huge bags of tortilla chips and large jars of salsa. Not yesterday. My 36 oz jar held cold water. I munched on carrots and broccoli with no salad dressing to dip into. Later when I ate dinner it was another large salad and two cups of 15-bean soup.

Was that the cause of my weird dreams last night?

Stella wasn't done wandering ... I let her go. She knew what she was doing and where she was going ... I followed the path while keeping an eye on her. She hasn't run off to the north woods since the time that Sadie decided it was a good time to lead her to new frontiers. They sprinted away from me that day in a playful run, hopping up high enough to see over the tall hay as they ran north.

What's this ??? She is going to cross in front of me while I follow the normal path ?? I couldn't believe she was in the same area of the field as I was after all of the changes she had this morning. I glanced at my watch and it was hard to believe, we were on time for the walk. It had not taken any longer than following the normal way. Once again I think Stella is trying to remind me to 'lighten up' it just life ... relax. Go with the flow.

Of course with the change of direction in my eating, the fat content has dropped a lot. I am alway below my recommended 1,850 calories per day although both Dr. Greger and Dr.  Fuhrman say counting calories is not important eating a plant-based diet.

So is it Vegan or Vegetarian? I would have thought it would be one or the other. Last weekend I could not figure out where the term "Whole Food Plant Based" diet came from. I had been a Lacto-Vegetarian for 8 years many years ago, I had never heard of that term until recently.

After reading the past three to four days on this diet plan I finally figured it out and it was something that Jeff over at Respectful Living told me this past weekend in an email.

To many Vegans and Vegetarians still eat processed food, bags of chips, sugary sport drinks, pastry with tons of sugar, candy, etc ... all because it was meatless, possibly dairy less. The Whole Food Plant Based way of eating does not include any of that type of eating. Basically it is fruit, vegetables, beans and legumes.

I am still not getting enough protein. Taking my weight x .4 tells me how many grams of protein I need per day and with this meatless diet I am not getting anywhere close to that. I AM seeing more positive results in the nutrient content of the food I am eating. Like both doctors say it is not the quantity of food you eat but the quality of food, optimized nutrition. Cronometer tracks your food intake right down to the very last mineral.

>Unless I shock myself, I still think there will be times I'll grab a pizza at Mother Bears in Bloomington or a strom at Nick's, even a Five Guys cheeseburger. The neat thing about Five Guys, I no longer have to fight traffic to drive to the other side of Bloomington, then south out of the way just to get to a cheeseburger, because they have built a new store next door to Nick's on Kirkwood Ave ... perfect.  :)

Right after I took this picture my camera's battery icon started flashing red at me. With a morning like this mornig why was that not a surprise? I knew it would be touch and go the rest of the way if I was to finish the walk on film as we usually do. I started turning the camera off and on to nurse it back home and still get a few pictures of Stella as she finished her walk ... like nothing out of the ordinary happened today.

This time last year I had already mowed my yard once. Not a chance to mow for weeks from now unless some hot sunshine shows up and makes it grow faster. I look at this picture and thank my lucky stars for what I and the hounds can walk through every day. Compared to the current pictures of Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska with water up to the roof line of all the houses ... two different worlds. I feel for the people going through all of that.

I have wondered about my recent blogging activity. Twice per day ??? Really ?? I know it has only been a few days but I like doing that early evening post of Heidi's afternoon activity with just a short paragraph and all pictures. This morning post seems to have evolved into a step by step narrative of Stella's daily walk. I find it hard to decrease the number of photos since there seems to be some sort of story following her through the field. Her post doesn't look right with few pictures.

It doesn't bother me blogging twice per day. Jon Katz at Bedlam Farm, posts multiple times per day but has only one photo each on each post. So each blogger has their own way, which is fine.

With my late start this morning I have not taken the time to look at the news online nor have I turned on the tv. By the time I finished my first cup of coffee and read all of my email, Stella was whining to get started. She is a great house dog, minus her occasional bouts of anxiety when I am gone. It is hard to believe that both hounds will be ten years old this summer.

I forgot to mention one interesting thing about following the recommendations from both doctors ... if I were to follow the amounts of fruit and vegetables to eat, I would have to go to the store to buy more fruit and veggies everyday and no longer than every other day. I tried eating the recommended amount of vegetables yesterday and could not do it ... I was full and didn't have any hunger cravings at any time.

Probably this weekend, after the NCAA field will be reduced to 32 teams from 68 teams, I'll spend one morning raking and picking up all the loose tree bark, sticks and a couple of limbs from the yard and add to the burn pile. My huge bonfire is scheduled for early April. It might be my biggest fire ever.

Stella may have started her walk off entirely different this morning but that didn't mean she would end it that way. Right after she passes that last tree on her right, she veers down the slight incline toward the house and follows the edge back to the carport. How long will it be before she changes that routine ??

A beautiful day this morning in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi's Short Workout

With 'March Madness' starting today there wasn't much going on around the homestead. I picked up my two books about a plant based diet from the library, plus another off the 'New' shelf. Heidi got in a short workout after her lunch by climbing the steps, dive bombing off the other side. She followed that up with some hill climbing, down the hill and a little trotting to the door.

That dirty bumper you see on the Mini Cooper is from Stella. She feels she either has to go for a ride all the time or inspect all groceries before they are unpacked and brought inside. That dried drool will be harder than hell to clean off.

It's Thursday Morning Rambling !!

That little 'puddle' of water in the field always gives me an idea just how wet the field will be when we take our walk. You'd be surprised how accurate it is. As the title says this morning I'll be rambling while you take a look of Stella's
FridayThurday morning walk.

It is what happens during a day of bad weather when I cannot get outside for some fresh oxygen. I'll be covering sports, news, scrambling brain cells thoughts and for those few that like to send me emails ... politics. You always show back up on Politics Day here on the blog.  :)

With it being fairly warm this morning I was a little surprised to see Stella not moving. I thought I felt a few drops of rain but my jacket sleeve didn't show anything. Would Stella decide not to walk?

As we slipped and slid over the wet leaves with a slick wet ground underneath I was back to internally listing what I wanted to blog about. I could tell that Stella was going to be in the eating deer scat mode this morning and I can't stop her nor can I watch ... so I hid inside my mind while we walked.

I was reminded yesterday that the DNC and the RNC are NOT government agencies but private 'clubs', with their own rules, policies and plans for 2020 election. The blog I read, which I cannot find the link because I don't want to dig back through my internet history from yesterday to copy it, feels that the DNC is pushing all of the democratic candidates out into official announcements TO GATHER DATA !!!

The serious candidates will announce sometime in April or May. I found that interesting because based on a poll on CNN yesterday (yes I watch both CNN and FOX but nothing else). It showed someone who has not even announced his candidacy, leads with 28% and Bernie coming in second at 20% ... all the others are nothing more than a rumor when it comes to popularity .... But that is where all of the 'funny stuff' is coming from.

I admit it is enjoyable to watch. I just saw this morning that an advisor for Biden suggests he choose Stacy Abrams as his Vice-President running mate. She would check the democratic box for "a woman of color" since it is most likely Harris' past is going to be ripped to shreds before the first democratic debate.

Some people have accused me as an idiot with 7th grade level education, possibly inbred, so maybe those readers can help me out on this next political dream .... Senator Gillibrand wants ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS (not from space) to get Social Security payments. WTF is that about? Currently Social Security should be flat broke by 2039 ... let's speed up the process and pass out the f****** checks as they cross the border !!!! Add in a "Welcome Aboard" packet too.

Out of all of the wild ideas the democratic candidates have proposed, including the 'dingbat AOC' Green New Deal or is it the New Green Deal ... I have never heard any way to pay for all the free money and free services they are going to give away. They don't care if you are a US LEGAL citizen or not ... EXCEPT TAX THE RICH ... TAX GOOGLE ... TAX AMAZON ... TAX FACEBOOK ... TAX f****** TAX .... tax the shit out of anyone successful, it's not their money, it's the democrats !!!!

So when I saw Andrew Yang last night on tv telling me and millions of others he want to give us a $1,000 per month spending money for FREE , I admit I was pretty damn excited. That buys a year supply of dog food for the hounds and a little left over for me to buy broccoli and sunflower seeds. WHO IS GOING TO PAY THAT $1 TRILLION PER YEAR ???

Well if you look at his website it has some pretty good ideas about who will foot the bill .... BUT ... hold on ... NONE of those points were on his tv interview last night when he said ... TAX Yahoo, TAX Google, TAX Microsoft, TAX Apple ... I'll look again at the link here to see if those companies are mentioned. They are not listed anywhere on his website. :)

Getting back to those illegals, I see they are now stealing the barbed wire off of the border wall down in Tijuana. Is that a tax write-off for the US government? Are they using it for their own protection on their properties? Recycling it? Selling it for pesos like copper wire?  LOL ... unbelievable.

This next bit of illegal immigrant or alien news ... I don't know if I should laugh my f****** ass off or puke .... Illegal alien arrested for having sex with A COW ????

Is that real or fake news???

Since I have gone back to checking in on the news either on tv or surfing the internet, it's good to see this next bit of info. It's not new. The CNN ratings or lack thereof are announced every quarter so their stockholders will have a nice 'warm and fuzzy' when they go to bed at night. I HAVE tuned into CNN at times and within minutes flip the channel because they have stopped being a news channel and are nothing but anti-Trump.

I am not saying everyone has to like Trump but give it a break. Almost two years in and we are seeing the same CNN reporters, analysts and guests bitching and moaning that Sleazeball Hillary didn't win the election ... LOL ... NO WONDER YOUR RATINGS ARE SHIT !!

I don't watch everything Fox either. At least on their news and business channel you can see news that is never reported on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, MSN ...

The closing of the GM plant in Ohio has to have the democrats just jumping for joy. After all it's Trump's fault that people don't or didn't want to buy the Chevy Cruze. It's his fault that everyone wants to take out a MORTGAGE LOAN to pay for their new SUV or Pickup Truck. Just remember democrat readers, in less than 2 years that idiot Trump has brought in 500,000 new manufacturing jobs. The economy has improved in less than two years what Obama did to tear it down in his eight years.

Oh yes ... Obama is the reason the economy is so good now. It started before Trump was elected. Have you ever heard that? Well in a way they are right but they just have the period of time wrong. YES, during Obama's term the economy did improve but that was from a starting point in 2008 to 2012. It was on the downward slope a few years BEFORE the 2016 election.

The further back in the field we walked the wetter it got. I still have not figured out why land at a higher elevation is more saturated than the land behind my house that is approximately 47' lower. Remember though, I am not a smart blogger ... :)

In today's world of YouTube, and social media ... anything you film, or say, or post, or type is there FOREVER. For those famous people who have deleted their tweets or posts after they decided to be the meanest baddest f****er in the world because they are on a keyboard, was a bad idea ... well within a minute when I see something like that I can do a quick 'Shift, Command, #4 and then slide that x around the tweet or facebook post and it instantly saves to a photo on my hard drive ... FOREVER !!!!

I don't do that much and never tweet them out because I don't have a following in the millions, thousands or hundreds of people. I let the other big tweeters, social media posters do that for me. Even some news agencies will help me out.

My point is ... the closer we get to the Presidential Election in 2020 most of those if not all of those democratic candidates will be destroyed by past things they have said in the Senate, in a Town Hall meeting, tweeted as a teenager, yearbook photos from high school or paid informants, etc etc.

For example ... this morning they were showing Joe Biden speaking in the Senate about the Supreme Court in 1983 !!!!! ... 36 YEARS AGO !!!!

The democrats are in the process of spending $2M to get 200,000 new people registered to vote, I believe in Florida. They are trying to get illegals registered in California and Texas. They are trying their best to steal the 2020 election and will continue to push for non-citizens votes to count like they have done since the Reagan years in 1980's.

But the fact is ... people will vote once again for Trump because "He has delivered", even against a stacked Congress, people in his own party that are against him. If you think the polls are going to be accurate this time ... think of all of those millions of 'silent' voters that shocked the world when Trump was elected. They will remain silent this time too. They don't care about poles ... they're deplorable remember.

Even if you hate the guy, you have to admit he has passed some bills and did some things that are good. He has helped the people of all beliefs and colors, it just depends on which tv channel you watch. There are a few things I have never liked about him but I understand him and his ways. Like I stated in pasts posts ... I use to work for a boss/owner of a small family owned business, that acted just like he did. He did things or said things on purpose to get things done.

Just remember those that doubt or bitch and complain ... while you sit and stew, cry or moan about what is happening and how Congress is stopping Trump's wild ideas ... that wall is being built every day ... EVERY DAY and has been since he was elected. The wall building business is good !!! Especially if they have to replace the stuff that is being stolen.

Last week I mentioned that a 13 year contract for #$330 million dollars was utterly ridiculous and that comes from a baseball fan. Well for those that don't know, that contract was beat this week by the Los Angeles Angels. They didn't want their superstar to return home in two years when he is a free agent and signed Mike Trout to a 12 year contract for FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY
THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS !!!

He will be 40 years old when that contract is up.

Yet, it kept him from going to the Philadelphia Phillies to join the $330M man Bryce Harper, who had been illegally, and publicly, recruiting Mike Trout to join him.

Those kind of contracts never work out ... Alex Rodriguez and the Texas Rangers were the first to open the door on that type of contract many years ago ... 10 years for ONLY $250 million.

Stella had to shake a little to get the cobwebs out of her ears.

A few weeks ago when I was losing data thorough some kind of leak, or whatever, I changed from Google Chrome to Safari. I never liked Safari as a browser on my iMac that much because it was slow. Plus the bookmark tabs were not in separate tabs with color, nor even separated. They have done some updates that proved valuable.

It is much faster and has all the built-in security features as well as automatically blocking advertisements and keeps from videos on sports or news websites from playing automatically. I have never stuck this long with Safari as my default browser on my iMac.

This diet stuff doesn't seem to be over with me ... I continue to read information and think about what I am doing. Yet I am a little surprised that I don't feel hungry like I have in the past when trying a plant-based diet. Before I was hungry all the time. I've been overloading myself with fresh fruit and fresh raw veggies. I eat those as much as I want.

I gave my cooked chicken breast to Heidi and Sadie, no bones of course. They loved it and Stella must have set an all-time record for the longest drool ever seen. I swear it almost went from her jowls to the floor. (where's that drool rag?) Sorry but I couldn't take a photo of it, some things are best not seen .... like the illegal immigrant and the cow.

My life will slow down now for the next four days. The NCAA tournament really starts today at 12:15pm and the last game will not start until 9:57pm my time. I'll use DishNetwork's feature with four screens on my tv at once to keep an eye on the four games being played at the same time. For the first time in 30 years or more, I'll not have even a dollar bet on these games or the brackets. I will not be one of the 8 million viewers betting over 45 BILLION dollars these next three weeks.

I will still be blogging though. Stella and I will still get in our two walks per day as long as it is not raining. We hope Heidi will continue her explosive aerobics every other day and join us.

Where did those thoughts on my diet go ... you know just a few sentences back?

The blue skies are trying their best to break through.

I started RE-reading all the information I had on Keto and Paleo. Do they plug arteries? Do they cause heart attacks? Fat or no fat? Which one to try? Fad or not a fad? What is the best diet? Vegan, Plant Based, Keto, Paleo, Dash, or Mediterranean ???

See what I mean? I've read so much over the past week I have paralyzed myself and still wonder which direction to go. Yet in the short time since my change I can see a slight difference and feel a slight difference. I wonder how much water weight I will lose by no longer putting good old salt on my food? Just in the last two days I have radically reduced the grams of fat and protein in my diet. I believe low FAT percentages is the key to good heart health.

I had forgotten that Paleo says NO DAIRY and but a lot of fruits. Keto says FAT, and Dairy are good but not many fruits. I honestly do not know how Keto followers stay below 20 grams of carbs every day. Amazing.

My desert last night was 1c of Silk Almond Milk Unsweetened, with frozen blueberries, raspberries and blackberries ... I tossed in a handful of fresh spinach. Good stuff.

It was just two days ago after I spent a short time cutting saplings down, shoveling wet gravel and climbing around the bank along the driveway ... that I was going insane for my first Dairy Queen medium size cone with plain vanilla, for 2019. As I fought through that craving, Stella was drooling as she was looking at me. She must have known I was thinking of a Dairy Queen trip ... or did I say something out loud?

Honestly I still don't know how strict I will be with this diet change. No matter what I will always track my food on Cronometer so I can see the nutrients breakdown. I will say with the change a lot of those bars in red (not good) are now green (good) but one thing that was surprising since I stopped using salt ... the amount of sodium in the fresh food I have eaten. It might have been the brown rice and lentils I added last night ... but throughout the day of eating meatless meals and no salt ... ~1,800 mg of sodium showed up.

That is below the recommended limit of 2,000 mg and way below the 3,000 I use to get daily.

I still think it's not a bad thing to have some fresh caught halibut or salmon with a meal. Or an occasional Saturday morning 'pig out' with a stack of pancakes, with real butter, peanut butter and maple syrup. What about a pizza if I were to change from ordering a large to a small?? What about having a nice New York Strip steak once or twice per month??

Does it even matter?? I honestly believe no matter what I do or eat ... I'll be checking out of Hotel California (Eagles song) when the time is right. I have had just too many close calls with death over the years to think otherwise. How many??? My friends have told me I have more lives than a cat. I just think I have one underpaid overworked guardian angel.

It was over an hour ago, around 10:20am when Heidi started barking, which got Stella to start howling .... THEY WANTED LUNCH !!!! Before 11am ??? Sorry but that is NOT going to happen. I say that now because it's 12:04 pm and Stella just quietly walked into the room and snuck up next to my chair .... ah there it is ... the signal it's time for their lunch ...

She nudged my arm with her nose ...

So with that I am going to end this rambling, and feed the hounds then move into the next phase of the day.

I don't think there is anything better than a cleaned, spotless kitchen.

For those Anti-Trumpers that always show up when I ramble about politics ... I want to assure you that your emails sent to me bypass my junk folder and go right to my inbox so I don't miss a word you send me. I enjoy your bullshit ... it is laughable at best. How do you show up all of a sudden? Are you notified by the Tags on my blog?

How???

It has felt like Friday all day today and I just see it's Thursday as I glanced up at the right corner of my monitor. I turned in my 32 gallon of recycled material. All mixed up as allowed. They sort it all out in Indianapolis from what the local recycling center told me a few years ago. I wonder how much is really recycled and how much they put in their landfills???

I can't stop thinking about that extra $1,000 per month Andrew Yang wants to give me ... I could do a lot of damage for the economy with that. OR .... I could play more craps at the French Lick Casino, the hometown of Larry Bird, Boston Celtic fame.

What would Stella do with an extra $1,000 per month, or Heidi???

I ALMOST FORGOT !!!  One more story.

Since it felt like a Friday, on my way back from the recycling center I turned on the radio up loud for some good old rock and roll. I remembered that yesterday was the first day of spring but that did not make any of my memory cells come to the forefront of my brain. This morning was a different story ... it was a song that threw me back to the first day of spring in the early 80's ... Carlsbad California ... right on the beach living on Carlsbad Blvd.

The song was Billy Idol's "White Wedding" and the time was our annual first day of spring bash. It started with a few friends and went only for a couple of days. Each year it became more popular, bigger and longer. Where we started with cases of beer with our first party  by the time I moved to Whidbey Island, WA, the last party I attended it was many KEGS of beer ... delivered by Carlsbad Liquors when we called for more.

It built up to more than a few days ... nonstop partying around the clock. While sitting in the front yard looking at the Pacific Ocean across the street, the crowds filled not only that part of the yard but the large patio area in back. That was surrounded by two other small apartments. Eventually my friends built a cabana, installed electric for the blenders and plenty of room for multiple kegs of beer.

Basically ... a bar.

Isn't it funny how just one song can make a memory clear as day ... even when I can't remember what the day of the week it is???  LOL

It's warmer, overcast and "feels like a Friday" here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Basset Hound Battles Rain

The light rain did show up about an hour after it was forecasted. It was never heavy rain but enough to prevent us from taking any afternoon walks. I think you will see by the photos each hound had a plan to survive an afternoon of "Seattle Weather", low 40's and light rain. Heidi felt I was keeping the living room a little too cold today so she requested the sleeping bag be brought out to her big leather chair in the living room.