Hounds Test Winds From The NW

With yesterday afternoon having light rain off and on, we didn't do much. The hounds slept, I played Mahjong and started a new book. You'd be surprised how much faster a day like that goes compared to the days I worked. The hounds and I were in for a shock this morning and it was coming from the Northwest.

I could see by the way the hounds were sleeping last night, it was getting quite cold outside. How do they know that? Their sleeping positions change from being stretched out in the summer to curled in tight balls during the winter. Heidi is the only one that demands a blanket.

So when we glanced at Intellicast weather radar this morning, I saw that 'light blue' of snow had moved across the northern part of the state 150-200 miles north of us. We dressed accordingly and started our first walk of the day a little past 10am.

For some strange reason it felt warm, no wind as we started. In fact it felt too warm for the light gloves I was wearing. With Sadie taking off on her own and Stella veering off on her own to the left of me ... I continued to walk under skies that looked like snow was on the way. (not in the forecast)

I decided while putting my coat and hiking boots on that Stella would have free reign this morning. She took a path that was totally unexpected ... she followed Sadie and I for most of the time.

I could tell by their nose activity this morning, there was a lot of deer traffic while we slept. Both hounds stopped at numerous places to smell and identify what was in the area.

It was about right here that I felt just how cold it was. Even though the cold freezing winds were coming from the NW or left side of picture ... I had not felt anything until I got to the first turn. Had the neighbor's woods blocked the wind?

The wind a was mid-January freezing type wind. Wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago I was making this same walk at the same time of day in cargo shorts and a t-shirt??? How many days until Spring??

Sadie charges past me at a high rate of speed ... she loves this field. I've been letting her out on her own in the afternoons for close to an hour. She can explore and roam as she wishes. I do check on her by looking through my binoculars just to make sure she is within view behind the house and not in the field to the north of our house. (too close to the highway)

She never cares if Stella is with her not ... she will explore the field in detail.

Just as I made the final turn home, I could barely see Stella walking across the field heading north while we were going in a southwest direction. I just assumed I'd find her over by the neighbor's woods and kept walking.

Out of nowhere, Sadie bolted in front of me and started running to the right of me while I was looking for Stella up ahead of me. There were no birds launching from ground level. I didn't see any deer. What made her do that?

It wasn't until my camera lens focused on Sadie that I saw Stella. She was not up ahead of me by the woods but way off to the right side of me past the main "ATV Racetrack" ... I cannot remember a time she had been in that part of the field ... except the deer chase she was on last year.

Of course neither one was going to leave that spot with me just calling their names. I walked all the way over to them and about the time I reached them ... they both headed back toward our path without me saying a word.

We took the normal path home all because Stella had decided that was the way we should go today. She likes to make her own decisions.

I was not quite to the yard when I turned to see where the hounds were, possibly getting a picture of both of them from the front of them instead of the back or side of them.

Here is Sadie rolling in something but was fast enough the camera didn't catch the full roll. She jumped back up and looked at me to see if there was a chance of another roll ... luckily I saw nothing nor smelled anything that she might have rolled in. She ran up to me very proud after her gymnastics exercise and let me know she did not stink nor was there anything to wash off her soft coat.

So another successful Saturday morning walk ... freezing temps ... and a full day of college football along with another World Series game tonight. Luckily a lot of the sports channels will replay some of these games this week so I will not need to tape them while watching another game.

Here is a 'highlight' from this past week. I took this with my iPhone camera and forgot I had the 'live' setting turned on. I don't know if that feature will show up on the blog but from my computer I could not only see a 3-4 seconds of her but HEARD her licking the bottom of the ice cream container.

Sometimes when you can't get to that last drop of ice cream, you just have to dig a little deeper.

I have a cluster of good games on at 3:30pm and maybe a clear schedule for the MLB game at 7:30pm before my late night Pac12 games that start at 10:45pm. It's a typical Saturday for a 'sports addict'.

Firefox took a call third strike for me this morning and has  been put back on the self in my apps folder. Their icon is no longer on my 'dock'. It's a consistent problem I've had with them over the years and one of the reasons I always stop using them.

• Some websites do not have correct format, while those same websites show up correctly in Safari and Google Chrome. 
• Sometimes the sentences on websites run together. 
• Columns were incorrect on the football tv schedule I printed this morning. The website did not have the proper format and single lines were wrapped into three and for lines inside columns.
• This website looked correct on Google Chrome and Safari. 
• The schedule printed perfect from Google Chrome.

So I have made the full circle this morning and have gone back to Google Chrome. 

I have an insurance appraiser coming to my house next week to tell me what it will cost to fix the Z4 grill and shields underneath the car. I have a good body shop a mile away from me, one that I know does good work. Of course the insurance company tells me they recommend body shop that is 30 miles from me which will guarantee their work plus they will pay to tow the car. 

I have priced out what I think needs replaced with BMW OEM parts and the total cost is not quite what my deductible is. One way or another the Z4 will be fixed but I am interested in what cost the appraiser comes up with.

The way TV is viewed in today's world is changing rapidly. I will not list all the companies that you and I know are getting into streaming tv shows. That is all good, except when you live in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, in a rural area, all of those that offer unlimited data to do this 'streaming' is not available in my area.

I wonder what changes will be made in the next 1-2 years because in the past 3-6 months the number of companies advertising their tv services is increasing rapidly. Like "YouTube TV" ????

That is about all I have for today. I have to wonder if it is just a coincidence that after I posted pictures of my burn pile burning last week, then was reminded about the California Wildfires by someone making a comment on that post ... that my blog traffic dropped around 50% this past week, starting the day after those fire pictures.

Interesting.

Still ... blog traffic does not determine how exciting days are here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Sadie & Stella Play During Walk

We've gone from a hot bright sunny afternoon on Thursday, to overcast skies and rain this morning. The skies are here but the rain is not suppose to arrive until early afternoon. The day was so nice yesterday we had 3 hound walks, I mowed the yard/leaves and still had enough time to add a few more Mahjong games to the list of being finished under 3 minutes.

With the forecast of rain today I wanted to stay outside as much as possible yesterday. Two of our walks included the camera, the last one included just the retractable leash. With three walks and mowing the yard for 48 minutes, my Garmin told me I had a lot more steps yesterday than my normal amount.

I'm not sure if Stella tracks the number of steps she takes every day but I do know on those afternoon walks she is entirely different than her morning walk by walking as slow as possible and she has no interest in running anywhere.

We were on our way back, had made the final turn for home ... she continued to walk in slow motion, while enjoying the warmth of the sunshine at 66°.

Heidi even came outside late afternoon for her 3rd time for the day. I thought she was walking with us, but she only wanted to make a lap around the house and spend some time laying in the sunshine. She stayed outside relaxing even after the bloodhounds and I returned from our walk. That is her normal path when she comes outside.

This morning was a different story though. It was 45°, spitting a few drops of rain but not enough to cancel our morning walk. Both hounds were happy we were out and Stella decided early in the walk that she was making all the decisions today for Sadie and I.

We were about to get started when Sadie hears what I heard over in the woods to the right of our house. By the sound of it, a very tall tree cracked ... then made a sound of dropping to the ground. From the tree tops I could not tell where it was but that is the 2nd tree since the summer I have heard falling ... each sounding like a tall large tree.

As Sadie ran far in front of Stella and I ... I had to walk over toward Stella to 'herd' her back to our path. She was heading lower in the field, trotting toward the neighbors house ... ignoring every word I was saying.

Once she walked over to the normal path we take, she took off running for Sadie.

Both explored more than anything, falling behind me and then running past me to get ahead.

I am not sure what the reason was ... but Stella heading left in this picture, suddenly spun around as she walked away from us and let Sadie know she wanted to do a little wrestling this morning. It caught Sadie off guard and she was already on the defense.

Just as fast as they started, Stella then turned around and started running up the path made by the ATV, heading north woods, with a head wind providing all the scent she needed. I took off running and yelling her name because by her pace ... she was not going to stop.

Either she finally heard me yelling "No" or decided she had done what she had planned ... to get me jogging this morning ... she stopped and waited for me to catch up.

Just as I caught up with her and Sadie ... Stella took off running full speed down the path and toward the house. I had not seen her run that far for that long since her last deer chase sometime a year ago.

I didn't run this time ... I thought she would spend enough time snooping around for me to catch up and even pass her. She did not disappoint.

She had me and Sadie waiting for her to come back into the yard where I saw I had twice the amount of leaves on the ground than I mowed and l cleared yesterday afternoon. I am hoping for a weekend of high winds with hopes that the leaves blow all the way out of the yard.

I am still using Firefox for my browser. One website it does not work well with is Flickr. When I load my photos of the day into Flickr, the cursor hesitates and bounces around when I try to highlight the photos that I want to add to an album.

With having no interest in the three college football games on tv tonight, there will be no interruptions by switching channels to different games besides tonight's World Series game from Houston. I am hoping the Astros are the first team to win 4 games ... it's tied 1-1 right now.

Apple seems to be pushing out their macOS beta updates about every two days and we are up to #5 as of last night around 2:30am. They will continue to tweak things, improve and fix any reported problems ... before their make their next official release to all users. I had to sign up for the beta program.

For some reason this morning I am being hit big time on my phone with spam calls. How do I know they are spam calls if I don't answer the call?  I go to Whitepages, type in the phone number that is calling me in Whitepages 'reverse search' and it will tell me if it is a spammer. Then I add that number to a Contact I set up named 'SPAM' so when they call back in the future I can tell with a quick glance at caller ID if it is a legit call.

All of my spam email disappeared when I deleted my old old old blog gmail address 'houndsnrvs'. I was getting over 100 spam emails per day on that 6 year old gmail address.

It's a quiet Friday so far here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Battle Frost This Morning

With my iPhone weather telling me it was 30° outside I decided to try something different with my North Face jacket that is for warmer temps ... I wore a down vest under it, keeping me warm and freeing my arms to move more than if I had worn my ski parka. With the combination of frost and heavy dew I did not hear the grass and leaves crunching under my boots. Stella enjoyed some frozen green grass before she started her walk this morning.

Also for the first time I turned the heat on low last night while we slept. I keep my house temps pretty cool but I knew it would drop below our threshold since it was going to drop below freezing while we slept.

Contessa made a comment on yesterday's post that none of the hound walks were routine, that each was different. I forget that sometimes since we walk the same path in the same field and seems to be the central point of this blog anymore. I guess I need to get out and drive the local area more, taking photos of that.

This walk was started off entirely different than recent walks. From the start Stella headed north while Sadie and I walked out into the field due east. For some reason I didn't want to let Stella head that direction on her own today. I found out the reason until I came back at the end of the walk.

On the way back, taking the alternate path to the corner of the north property line, both hounds stopped and stared next door and was almost starting to run after the neighbor. He had backed his pickup truck down the driveway to pick up his trash cans by the highway and bring them back to his house. Sadie and Stella thought he might need help.

I had to yell "No" to keep them with me and herd them back toward the house. If I had left Stella on her own I have no doubt that now only would she have been next door but down by the highway once she saw the neighbor step out of his truck.

So I walked over to the middle of the lower field and told Stella she needed to come my direction. After a few steps with me back toward the path, she took off running to catch Sadie and both of them were off due to what their noses had picked up.

I had not made the first turn yet when I glanced down and my hiking boots were completely soaked. It looked like some of that dew had froze just a little. My feet were still warm and dry.

When I see a look like this from Sadie it's time to be aware of what might be in our area and I might have to take off running.

Then I see Stella in this pose and I am almost certain I am going to have to run after them this morning when I am really not in the mood to jog. I only jog to and from the fridge during a close game on tv and it's a short 30 second timeout. I only jog in this field when I am desperate in catching the hounds.

We must have missed the deer by minutes or just an hour. It didn't matter by the way the hounds acted. As far as they were concerned, deer were just ahead of them and reachable if they ran fast enough.

Consequently they were way ahead of me.

About the time I convinced myself that I would be jogging, then running along the back edge of the field heading north ... both hounds made an abrupt right turn into the far right corner where the deer scent was stronger. That was good for me as that part of the field would do the 'herding' for me.

It was at this point of the walk with them picking up their pace that I yelled "Hey" ... getting both of them to stop and let me catch up. Otherwise they were gone.

We were back in the 'walking' mode and the chase for potential deer was over. Their pace slowed to a walk, I did not have to jog or run and we were back to a leisure morning stroll in the cold air.

Stella's nose and ears were telling her there was still something within reach ... luckily she decided whatever it was it was not important enough to take off running after it. I saw nothing on the north horizon.

I have declared my Mahogany tree, a series of 3-4 trees making it look as one (red) ... the 2017 Fall Color Champion. I don't see the other trees making a comeback before their leaves fall off.

With the excitement of tracking deer scent over it was time to head back home. By the way my face felt I was sure the wet noses of the hounds were cold also. That doesn't even phase them though as they are built for cold freezing weather.

I wasn't sure how my photos of the frost were going to look on the blog as I took them, so I took a few different ones and posted them.

The hounds seem to be making the 'alternate' path the normal morning path back to the house. My Garmin VivoSmart watch tells me there is no difference in distance compared to taking the normal route.

More frost examples.

The plan was to mow the yard, mulching the grass and leaves later this afternoon when the temps are above 60°. The front yard grass needs mowing, it's tall enough but this picture made me second guess my decision. I might just rake the small amount of leaves and burn them on the burn pile, leaving the length of the yard as is.

That's the type of tough decisions you have when you are retired and doing nothing.

Could be scent from cats, squirrels, rabbits or even that ugly opossum I saw the other night across the highway as I pulled into my driveway. Whatever it was the hounds tracked it right to the end of the walk.
 

I have had no issues and good results in data use the past two days using Firefox as my browser. For someone that likes changing their mind a lot it's nice to have different browsers, different cars, and different jackets to choose from. My total data use yesterday and last night was less than 500Mb which is good to stay within my 20gigs per month.

The AT&T mail flyer told me they would pay up to $650 for me to switch from Verizon. They would let me upgrade from a iPhone 6s to the new 8's for very little money. I would then have unlimited data for my internet and streaming via DirecTv.

I had seen and heard of AT&T offers like that and already had been told in the past they did not have that service in my area in small town USA ... even with that tower you see photo'd in our walks at times being AT&T. Also, my neighbor told me his AT&T service paid for by his company that he works for, did not work well in this area but works great SW of Lubbock TX.

So I had to call them.

Same results ... they do not service my area with all of that unlimited data on internet, and streaming tv.

I am sure their internet service would never match HughesGen 5 speeds I have. It tested at 47Mbps yesterday afternoon. It's been that fast 99% of the time since I made the change 2.5 years ago.

I've done nothing to the Z4, so I can drive it to the body shop a mile away for an estimate and have them fix the damage I had the last week of September. It's all plastic under the front with a grill and air shields that need to be replaced. I just need to either take the broke pieces off or tape them with duct tap so they can see what the damage is.

A night off from the World Series will give me the chance to watch Stanford at Oregon State at 9pm. I am telling a few friends I am predicting by the end of the season Mike Riley will be fired at Nebraska and will go back home and take the Oregon State job (its open now) for his 3rd different time in his coaching career.

Sadie wants lunch but it's too early, even with her stare down right now. Heidi will come up for air from under her blankets around lunch time. Stella is not ready.

Another good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.