Blog Plan & Internet Addiction

Blogging is such an interesting thing. I stopped one of my blogs this week after two years of posting, getting followers, having comments and a long blog role that was full of information and photos. I decided, instead of changing the blog title and writing about other topics entirely, I would leave that blog 'actively' closed to be used as a reference when people found it on internet searches. Instead I would start this new blog.

In the past month I've seen two people announce they were giving up blogging after a few years of daily writing. I've seen many others recently, myself included, that talked about giving up blogging all together, yet continue. One of those bloggers did what I did, left his older blog open as a reference and went to a new blog with different topics ... such as everyday living, similar to a journal. The other is on the side bar of this blog where he announced today that his blogging will definitely slow down and unsure of any future plans after his trip this summer.

Blogging can be addicting, whether you are writing one or reading a lot of them every day.

Even after a few short days I have caught myself thinking of what to write for my readers, where I may not have that many readers if any at all on this blog. I have a few from the comments I've received and a couple of people added my blog to follow. That is a common problem with people that blog. Most start one to record their own journal, or keep their family and friends updated with what they are doing. Others do it for business, by building a following and making income with affiliate links or advertising. This one is more of a journal for me.

This blog is not going to be about building an audience and I stated that in the very first post. This is more of a personal journal that I can look back on, instead of doing this in Microsoft Word or iMac Keynote.

So, the blog is pretty plain and simple and I think after a starting it this week, it is serving its purpose ... a place for me to write. If someone finds it enjoyable enough to read, then I'm fine with that and enjoy the following. I'm not a big fan of Google+, so I deleted the 2nd account I ad for this blog. Of course by doing that, it also doesn't give people an option to follow this blog using their Google+ accounts.

For those readers that want to follow this blog, you can follow by email (upper right corner), join with your old blogger profile (Google Follower) or use the free program that will give you notice when I update this blog and that program is called Feedly, at http://feedly.com.

It's going to be another hot day here in the 'tropics' of southern Indiana. I woke up later than normal this morning after getting up early to let the hounds out. I heard a familiar "rumble" sound outside and was happy to hear it. The field behind my house is owned by my neighbor a couple of houses down, but he leases it out to another farmer to bale hay. The "rumbling" I heard was their tractor cutting the hay. That's a big deal because now the daily dog walks can start again. The hay gets 4'-5' tall and thick enough in most places where the bassets are not interested in doing any recon missions, Sadie could care less as she will walk anytime, anywhere, in any temps.

I will show photos tomorrow of a "considerate farmer", in comparison to the last man that baled it who seemed to be angry at the world every time I talked to him.

I decided to start doing some different backups for my computer. That might include a trip to Best Buy in Bloomington to pick up a new external hard drive. The one I have currently I bought when I bought a new iMac, 4 years ago this October, and that is almost filled up. I use that hard drive for Apple's Time Machine, which will backup your files every hour and it has done that without a hitch. What that does not do is back up your hard drive system files and updates. That is what the other hard drive will be for, like a startup drive when needed.

I could buy a larger external drive, then partition it off where I can do both, Time Machine and backing up the HD system files. Since I already have the one external drive now, I'll reformat that and use it for the system backup and use the new external for the Time Machine.

I must say after a little less than 4 years of using my first Mac, I've had zero problems. (knock on wood). Whereas the ~15 years of a PC, I had more issues than I wanted to contend with. Due to needing the ability of linking a cell to another spreadsheet, I ended up buying Microsoft Office for Mac so I could use Excel, for that purpose. Open Systems and Mac's "Numbers"  in 2010 did not do that feature in their software. That was 4 years ago so maybe they have changed and if they have, I still will not convert all of my spreadsheets to those two programs, simply because I don't want to mess up the format of those spreadsheets that have the linked cells. Those Excel spreadsheets go back a lot of years and I don't want to take the chance of messing them up.

Well I need to get off of here and do something. I've noticed recently that I am falling more and more into a rut of not really getting anything done, nor doing anything. The days go by extremely fast but too much computer time. I am a true computer/internet addict. I do a lot of reading on the internet, some research, check on blogs and forums ... but really too much seat time in front of the computer. My internet provider is having a little customer appreciation day that will be from 11-1 today. They have a drawing that I hope to win, 6 free months of internet service. That would be a $240 savings for service that recently has been intermittent more than it has in the 6 years of service. They are still a good local company, family owned and will do anything to get your issued repaired as soon as possible. They have a number you can call and get a response 24/7.

The hounds will be staying home on this trip.  It's way to hot for them to stay in the FJ while I mingle at the luncheon and they would prefer to lay next to the floor vents where the A/C comes from and sleep all day. After all, dinner isn't served until 3:30-4:00pm every day, that gives them plenty of time for an all day siesta.

The Fire Still Simmers

I am finding it hard to stay away from the blog and others. Sadie turned 6 years old today.

Sadie The Bloodhound is 6 Years Old Today

My bloodhound is 6 years old today and in a way I am surprised she has lived that long. Why? She will eat anything. At times she has broken into the container of dog food and helped herself to a lot of pounds of dog food, which could lead to bloating. That is a death call in large breeds.

Other than being the most obnoxious hound I have ever had, she also is one with the greatest personality and the funniest. I would have thought by now she would have grown out of some of her puppy habits. She has stopped some of them but on occasion will remind me what she use to do.

She was bought locally at the age of 13 weeks. I didn't pick her at first out of a litter of 8 puppies, but she was going to be a Red and that was what I was wanting instead of a Black and Tan. I took my basset hound who was 4 years old at the time, out to see the litter and Sadie was the only puppy that followed him everywhere he walked. So I changed my pick to her. I found out later from a different breeder, I may have thought that was nice she was following Winston but what that really meant was she was strong in tracking. That trait of a strong tracker is what makes her bored, especially when I use to be away from home during the day. A bored bloodhound will find something to do and in her case it was chewing. Just like the picture.

Now in that picture she is chewing a stick. Her thing is not to eat the stick but chew them off into 1" lengths and spit them out. Similar to one of her past favorite things of breaking into my closet and chewing off just one plastic tip on the shoestring ... per shoe. Should wouldn't chew the shoes, nor both shoestrings ... just one shoestring tip per shoe and spit that out on the floor.

Needless to say as a puppy she was destructive and there was nothing I could lock her out of. I was amazed at what she could get into and with her strong nose, it was amazing the things she could find around the house that I had lost and couldn't find.

She is a great hound though. Always has been a house dog. Kennel trained at first and then slowly migrated to a dog bed on the floor in the bedroom. While in her kennel one day while I was at work, she actually bent the strong black steel rods that I couldn't bend back with a pair of pliers. Her kennel were the ones you see that are black and the largest size. With her jaws had squeezed two of those black rods almost together, trying to break out.

She doesn't like change, of any kind. Don't raise her food or water bowl, they must be on the floor and they must be in the same spots or she will not eat nor drink. She is not aggressive, has never gotten into any dog fights with my other two basset hounds ... but will growl and drink water at the same time if one of the bassets wants to share her water bowl. She and the basset's have their own water bowls.

So at the age of 6 today, June 19, she is still the big old clumsy puppy. Who else could come running for her food, clip the edge of the water bowl with those big paws and see 5 quarts of water and the bowl flipping airborne? LOL

She really has only one bad habit that she still does and it consistently happens when I am in the shower. Some way she can remove two 20# dumbbells that sit on the food container lid at each corner to keep her out. Ill see the dumbbells on the floor, the lid tore off and a nice container that holds up to 40#'s of dry food available for her to scarf ... until the shower water is turned off. By that time she has snuck into the bedroom and is laying on her dog bed as if nothing has happened.

It's funny but in her case dangerous because of the chance for bloating if she eats a large amount of dry food. Yes, I have put the container inside the closet and she will slide the doors open to get to the food. I have tried a baby gate to keep the doors shut and she will get that out of the way someway, slide the doors open to get to get to the food.

Otherwise she is a great bloodhound. She is in great shape, has never been sick and still has the energy of a puppy.

Happy Birthday Sadie

Retirement Life Observations

On April 8, 2014 I decided to take vacation days up to my corporate exit interview two weeks later, so I guess my retirement really started then because every morning after I would wake up with my own schedule. It's been a little over two months since I have retired. Some things in my lifestyle such as my diet have changed considerably while other changes have been subtle if they have changed at all.

For those that are retired maybe we can compare our changes in lifestyle since retired while those that are considering retirement may see something they can consider in making their decision.

In my case I didn't feel there would be a lot of change because I've always lived a pretty simple lifestyle being single. There isn't a lot of drama in my life. My health is good, I'm active and have a few interests such as cycling, my hounds and reading. There have been some notable changes though even in the two months being home.

One thing I have noticed is the number of people I am around. I never socialized a lot in my non-work hours when I had a job because most of the people I worked with lived in other towns in opposite directions than where I live. Another reason is most of them have families and they are busy with all of their kid's activities with sports and school. So less people is not a surprise for me. I actually like the solitude that comes with being single.

Another, is my diet changed drastically and with that change I have lost 16 pounds since I walked out of the office on April 7, 2014. These changes were basic. I was no longer around Pepsi machines at work, no longer around the daily pastry that would be brought into work by different co-workers and no junk food available that I ate a lot of. Now, I think a lot of the junk food intake and my addiction of Pepsi Cola were job stress related. My diet now consists of a lot of fresh veggies and fruits...a lot. I occasionally have fish with rice and a vegetable or black bean burritos. I supplement beans into my salads for a little extra protein.

I am riding my bikes more than before but not as much as I want. I want to ride more and with the heavy humidity and high temps, my riding is going to take place early in the mornings until fall. It will be just like the old days when I was doing a little racing and all of our training rides were very early in the morning with a possible afternoon ride. Once I start a regular regiment of riding 5x/week, even more pounds will disappear. My 45 minutes of mowing my yard with a push mower is good exercise because of the heat but also my front yard is on an 80' incline. So I get some good leg and cardio workout while mowing.

Years ago I started an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to track all of my income (different sources) and expenditures to get control of my money and my spending. I categorized each expenditure and then formulated a monthly average. As years passed I link those previous year's monthly averages so I can see where I might be spending more in different categories or where some prices are increasing since last year because I am buying the same amounts.

This spreadsheet was a key factor in deciding if I could retire or not and if I could survive financially.

Besides that spreadsheet on income and expenditures, when I thought of retiring I made a different spreadsheet just for retiring options. I listed all income and expenses buy the current monthly averages.

I will make a separate blog post just on this spreadsheet, because it showed me all the different options whether to retire or not and options if I were to retire and what the financial bottom line would be. It was quite shocking what some of those options showed once it was seen laid out on paper.

I do not plan on giving "expert" financial advice on this blog but maybe some basic things that all people can use. One would be the spreadsheet to track income and expenditures and two, a spreadsheet showing before and after retirement options with the incomes different due to your change in income sources once you retire.

I will say that since retired I am spending less and not making an intentional effort to do so. Sure, I made some adjustments. I sold my old Chevy Pickup that was never driven more than 300 miles per year and put that money in the savings. I sold my Kia Sorento that was never driven and decreased a car payment and insurance reduction. I sold a Class C RV that I was not going to use, that also eliminated a payment and insurance reduction. I got my 'herd' of vehicles down to two. A Mini Cooper for great gas mileage and local driving and my Toyota FJ 4x4 for winter driving, camping trips, dog trips to the vet and any other trips where I would have to haul something from a store.

I started downsizing my possessions two years ago more than I would with the annual spring cleaning because I was planning on changing my lifestyle to RV living and possibly full-time. So I downsized a lot of things. Sold a little of it, gave a lot away to goodwill and the local library. When I had the thought of selling my house and hitting the RV road, I continued this downsizing to the point of getting down to possessions that I did not want to get rid of. I knew then it was time to stop as I was in my "downsizing comfort zone".

I am not living in a skeleton house of things but I will say my house is not stuffed with anything that is not used, read or worn. For instance my table place setting was reduced to 4. Thats only 4 forks, knives, small spoons and large spoons, 4 plates, 4 bowls. I could probably even reduce that to only 2 and may do that. My suit and ties and dress shoes were all given away last year when I saw I no longer had to wear them at work and I had not worn them in years.

For those that are considering downsizing, I will tell you that there is nothing that I have missed not having. That includes the trucks and cars I have sold, even the RV. I still have things I want to sell, some things I will give away but I am pretty close to be downsized to just the things I need. Even the hounds were involved as I got rid of all their extra bones, kong balls etc that they no longer chewed on...threw some away and gave the kong balls to other friends with dogs.

So ... after two months of retirement I can say I am thrilled with my decision and that I had the guts to go through with it. I knew I would miss the income I was making but I would not miss the drama at work and constant changes for the worse. They had made it almost impossible to do your job by the time I left. My schedule if there is one, is wide open and I love that freedom.

One last thing, that constant heartburn I lived with thinking it was diet related and some of it was, is gone.

Good luck if you decide to retire and good luck to those that have.

Comments

{Editors Note} It looks like the comments link showed up with this post and should work.

It looks like I have a bug in the comment settings. My first post a few days ago shows the link for you to make comments. My post from yesterday does not show that link. My settings show that anyone can make comments without word verification nor approval by me. It also shows in settings that all comments made will be sent to my email.

Last night a comment was made under the tab "Contact" but I did not receive any email notification. They also could not find a way to make a comment under the post.

This post is to let you know I am working on it and it will also show me if there is a link for comments.

I was having internet connection problems yesterday and again it is perfect this morning. It is possible when I was setting up this blog yesterday that something may have been hung up in the blogger system during the times I lost internet connection.

Thanks for stopping by.

Summer Has Arrived in Indiana

After a great spring and an early summer of cool temps and low humidity, summer arrived yesterday in the form of 'sticky' humidity and high temps. I don't mind the high temperatures but the humidity is a killer. I don't like it, the hounds don't like it. I've decided this summer all yard work will take place in the am before noon. That will be easier this year since I am now retired and not at a job all day during the week.

I'll also have to get any of my bike riding in early in the morning if not doing the once per week yard work.

I've thought of leaving the area for a few months to escape the humidity and do a little camping along the way but I hate paying the high prices for mowing my yard while I'm gone. I only have 3 neighbors around me with only 1 of them having a teenage son, that doesn't mow. Plus I have an older basset, Winston, that is a little gimpy with a bad lower back. It comes with the breed and at 10 years old it will only get worse. He is having a hard time getting up the two steps into the house right now. I can't imagine being lifted in and out of a Toyota FJ 4x4 would help his situation much. I have to ask myself sometimes of those two reasons alone are enough to keep me and my three hounds from traveling to some states with cooler temps and lower humidity.

It's times like these I miss those mild summers up at Whidbey Island, WA northwest of Seattle. I remember playing golf some days in July wearing a sweater. I read the other day in the Whidbey Times the problem with theft has now moved to stealing mail from mailboxes which leads to identity theft. Last winter the theft epidemic was people having things stolen from their barns and separate garages. Times have changed a lot from the time I lived out there between 1984-1994. It's still a beautiful place and one I consider at times of making a move back to the area.

With that location, besides the great fresh seafood, great roads to bicycle on I would have the ability to fly 'standby' for all flights out of NAS Whidbey. I haven't checked the current cost since I do not have that ability from my location in Indiana but it use to be $10 and show your retired ID card. It was an easy way to fly to San Diego for the weekend, Las Vegas or even up to Alaska.

Along with that Indiana heat, my internet connection has been acting up. I am not sure if it is heat related. Due to my location I am only able to get two types of connection. DSL through a local provider that uses AT&T phone lines. (What I use). The would would be Hughes Net with their satellite pointing to the southern sky like my DirecTv dish. I have great reception with DirecTv even through the thunderstorms and winter snow. I am not sure that Hughes Net would be that reliable and it comes with a 2 year commitment once they install their equipment.

So internet connection problems are ongoing. I put a call in last week with plans of the AT&T repairman to check the lines. Of course when he came this morning everything was working perfectly and the internet signal was quite strong. He checked all the wiring anyway and came to the same conclusion.

About 5pm tonight it started disconnecting just like it has since June 9th.

I'm am kinda lost starting this blog. I've been blogging for the past 2+ years on a different topic and years before that when I was running my online sports memorabilia business. I have to remember from what I said in my first post, this blog is mostly a personal journal which has other people reading it. A little strange.

Analysis With Open Eyes - This Blog is Finished

As many of you know, I am constantly thinking, analyzing and lately I have been asking myself “Why”. The most asked question was “Why have you been sitting here and not on the road where with a little effort you could be?” When I analyzed to find an answer to that question, I remembered that just little over a year ago in March 2013 I deactivated this blog, moved all of my RV bookmarks out of sight and stopped reading anything about RV’s, traveling or RV blogs. At that time I wanted to see if it was something I really wanted to do or not. It was not until 2 months later where I reactivated the blog, let followers know I was back blogging and soon after started looking for something to travel in. Most of the summer I was looking at and close to purchasing small trailers due to the amount of weight my tow vehicle could handle. At the time that tow vehicle was a H3 Hummer that couldn’t tow thin air if it had to! The blog continued on as well as my search continued up to and past my retirement date.

Too many times to count I have asked myself why have I not made a decision. After my trip to Arkansas with the hounds last September 2013, I stated on this blog that my plans of traveling were on hold if not canceled. At that time I explained it was best for the hounds to stay where we were. I still feel that same way today. That thought has always lingered in the back of my mind. See, out of all the blogs I follow where people are traveling with dogs … NONE of them are of the hound breed. Until you have one of the hound breed you may not know what I am speaking of. They are not like the herding breeds, terriers, greyhounds, mixed breeds and others I’ve forgotten. They MAY walk next to your side or near you on a walk through the field but once they pick up a scent of a deer or rabbit … they are gone…gone as fast as a Kentucky Derby winner. You can train them all you want and call their names over and over but once that scent hits their nose … its bye bye ... they move into a state of unconsciousness until the rabbit or deer are caught. They are never caught but the hounds run forever and out of sight.

Would that work well out in the desert? Or anywhere else in a State or National Park, even leashed?

I’m not putting the blame on the hounds though. I just mentioned those issues as a personal concern for their own safety.

No, I have other things I like to do and some of those are borderline addiction. The game of football is the one borderline. Recently I have found myself with the help of the Facebook groups I follow, reminding me just how many weeks it is until kickoff for the 2014 season. I found myself more interested in that dateline than which area of the western United States I would be traveling in. Sure, I can put a DirecTv dish on top of my trailer or a portable dish outside the trailer and watch all the games I want. So I guess that is not the reason for not traveling is it?

I think things changed recently when I decided during the process of prepping my house for sale, that I wanted to keep my house and not move. I knew then the most I would probably travel would be 4-6 months out of the year. That still has a very good chance of happening just like it may not happen at all. That is just me. I rarely make plans ahead of time and most of my trips even for a day or even the times I decide to attend a football game in person are strictly impulsive. I decide that day and then I’m on the road.

No, I don’t know why I am that way.

So, these thoughts, doubts, whatever, they are have always been in the background. Something happened recently that brought all of this to a head so to speak. It took a stranger to say something that stung me a little bit. I disagreed with what was said and sent their thoughts to a friend of mine. When a close friend that has many years experience of traveling with dogs and cats, mostly in small trailers, said “he might be right” … that took the stranger’s sting out of their words and had me doing an honest analysis of me. Not the hounds, no followers, no local friends … just me. I came to realize that whatever the need(s) I have for filling up my life of retirement, no matter how nice it seems nor how great everyone’s photos are of their travels … that lifestyle may not be what I am truly looking for. Not only would that be an expensive mistake financially but also a mistake for my hounds. Otherwise I really think I would be on the road by now.

Through this analysis and further discussion with my close friend, those old reasons from March 2013 and last September 2013 came back into view. Add in new information and I was pretty sure this idea of the hounds and I even part-timing in any sort of RV was not going to take place. I think all of my indecision these past 2+ years prove that. Such as, how can you buy any kind of RV or trailer when deep inside, maybe subconsciously you really don’t want to, for various reasons. How I ever thought that 3 hounds and I could live a lot of days and nights in a truck camper just showed that I might have been really confused on what I can and can’t do. Some would say delusional.

So come this fall, most likely I will be where I have been for the past 17 years and that will be enjoying the cool fall weather with a morning bike ride on my vintage Romic or the newer Giant Road Bike and watching football later in the day. I think when it comes time for the Midwest winter, that for the first time in 17 years, the hounds and I will head to SW Arizona or boondock in Borrego Springs for a few months. I believe tents would be used and when the high winds or bad weather hit, it would be all of us in the Toyota FJ Cruiser or a nearby motel room. For the rest of this summer in 2014, I’ll sit here most days complaining about the humidity, not the temperature, drinking iced tea and wondering how my online RVing friends are doing, where they are at.

At the same time I will continue keeping a very close eye on my old basset Winston. His back has been bothering a lot recently, more than a couple of months ago. I know what it is. Every old basset hound I’ve had has the same bad back. It comes with the breed. Having experienced bad backs myself, I know for a fact it doesn’t matter if I had a ramp to walk up instead of stairs, the back would still hurt enough that walking was nearly impossible. He along with the other hounds will enjoy spending the day sleeping in their favorite spots and I know they would find new spots if they were traveling but I’m not sure they would be as clean as they are here. They really enjoy their green grass mixed with broad leaf weeds to lay on, along with their Mexican blankets. All except Heidi because she is the “Queen of the Couch”.

I have no doubt that I will think about this decision, but it was time to face facts with open eyes. In retirement I wanted to spend more time riding my bicycle, getting more miles on my legs while getting in better physical shape, play a little tennis, catch some live baseball and football games or at times pile everyone into the FJ and take a short trip somewhere. I am not sure I would enjoy traveling or camping everyday week after week.

So to end this never ending post I have decided to stop blogging on this blog. I thought of changing the title but it has too much internet history, people still find it useful while they are searching for RV information. So now it will now turn into a library for the information I have found within my 2+ years of research. They will also find more information from your blogs that are listed on the left side.

I will tell you it was a joy and brought me a lot of satisfaction, and fun reading all of your blogs, seeing your photos and reading your comments. I will miss that part of this blog the most. Keeping up with your blogs is just too hard to read though. Between your stories and the photos you post, they only lead me to daydreaming of traveling that way when I know it’s really not really possible in my life right now. I will travel some, as I always planned on during retirement but I am not sure what type of travel that may be. When I pictured travel recently I see loading the hounds up in the FJ 4x4, and retracing my route that I took in 1976 on my bicycle cross country. We could camp on the way, and in bad weather hang out in some dive motel along some of the older highways I rode.

In October the current domain www.houndsandrvs.com will expire and will not be renewed. This blog will go back to it’s original blogspot domain of: www.bhounds.blogspot.com

I still have the urge to write and I am told I like to talk about almost anything. So I am starting my new blog “Retirement Life With My Hounds” at www.soloretired62.blogspot.com  There will not be any specific topic blogged about, just anything going on with the hounds or me....Minus any discussions on politics or religion.

Goodbye everyone and thanks for all of your encouragement and comments over the past 2+ years. It's been fun.