Rain And Windy For 48 Hours

I knew rain was headed our way by noon on Tuesday so I went out on my bike two days in a row and covered a little over 28 miles on each ride. I've gotten spoiled by SE Arizona weather and although it will be my first winter here and much more warmer than back in the 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, I can't wait for spring and then the hotter than hot summer. I did plenty of research before making the move so I know what to expect and the thing is, the hounds can take their walks and I get ride my bicycle outside year round.

You would have never known on Monday what would change so drastically by 12:30pm on Tuesday. About the time I thought the rain would stop, it was start again, or the wind would get stronger. The temps were also dropping fast. I found out that Heidi doesn't like the rain here any better than she did in Indiana and even Stella had no urge for the morning walk when the sidewalk and streets were wet. They both slept late or went back to bed as soon as the morning kibble was eaten.

Seeing Stella relaxing in the backyard on Monday I decided to leave them both outside while I took my late morning bike ride. Temps were barely over 70° and I wasn't planning on being gone more than a couple of hours. It is just amazing what she does once she figures out that I am not home. It freaks her out most of the time. She spent a lot of time trying to dig under the patio thinking that could be her escape route. She no longer stays outside when I am gone.

Heidi on the other hand is just like a cat ... totally independent and nothing bothers her. She is the perfect house dog and can be left alone inside for many hours at a time.

Monday night looked like the storms were going to get here a day early when I looked toward Bisbee.

In the southwest it looked even worse.

Tuesday morning it didn't look safe enough to take off riding my bicycle but the hourly forecast kept showing no rain until after 12 noon. I decided to take off around 9:00am and would have plenty of time to get home before it rained.

Stella continues to listen to the now 10 week old puppy next door howling for attention, but no one is home.

I had just changed from bike clothes to normal clothes after a shower when I glanced outside to see this. It was a little past 12:30pm on Tuesday and I had just made it back home in time. That rain is in the area I was riding just an hour earlier.

This morning I was hoping it would dry out enough make the roads clean enough to ride. The hounds had not taken a walk in two days and were getting restless if there is such a thing of a hound getting restless. They are not always couch potatoes.

Standing with Stella at the patio door I could see again this morning the hound walk was canceled until later today. We have taken the short walk to the mailbox every day between the breaks of rain. I was also getting restless. Once your body gets in better shape from riding a bicycle, it wants to ride all of the time until it gets tired and then feels like taking a day off. Today I was wanting to ride.

I had tried riding indoors on the trainer the other day but became bored after 15 minutes, plus my friend showed up a few minutes later. I wanted to ride outdoors sometime this afternoon. Would 47° be too cold? It wasn't when I rode on Whidbey Island 25 years ago so I should be okay today. The hounds? They were only interested in sleeping ... it's winter and they know it.

I pulled out the mountain bike, threw on a jacket and left my jeans on. I wanted to ride downtown to the bike shop and see if they had any winter bicycle gloves because starting next week I am going to need them if I still plan to ride outside ... and I do.

I rode for about 5 miles and got a ride back home from Mark the bike shop owner. He wanted to test drive a truck he is thinking of buying and I needed a ride because it was raining again. 47° and rain is not a great time to be riding a bicycle outside. The rainbow was a pleasant surprise when I got home and shows that sunny days are right around the corner, although they might be cool temperatures.

Monday and Tuesday was the first time I rode my bicycle back to back days for over 28 miles each day and for more than two hours per ride. At no time did I feel any hip pain or soreness and the next morning after each of these long rides the new hip felt normal. In fact unless I remind myself on purpose, I have forgotten all about the hip being replaced. I feel very fortunate for the quick turnaround with little pain.

The winds have finally died down. There are some breaks in the clouds with blue skies and the sunshine trying it's best to show itself, so good weather is just around the corner again. I was told today that this is the 'windy season' so to expect it every time I go out to ride.

Sorry that I don't have a trip to write about or more photos of the hounds but the hounds are pretty inactive during rains plus some of the trips we would like to take is affected by flash flooding if I were to drive off pavement.

I have a friend coming down from Phoenix tomorrow so I can install my truck bed cover on her Tacoma TRD Off Road pickup. Then after a short tour of the great little town we'll have some lunch at The Diner. I am in the mood for some of their extra hot chili and this time I'll take a couple of Tums tablets with me so I can get an early start combating what the chili will do to my stomach. Jalapenos I love, my stomach doesn't. LOL

A lot of the photos in today's post were taken with the Nikon D3500 and the 18-55mm lens. Just a few were from the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

BIG NEWS TODAY ... I almost forgot ... the replacement vertical blinds came in today. I picked them up and installed everything. That's it for the 'freebie' so from now on, Stella has to pay for them.

Winter has arrived here in the 'Wild West'.

A Good & Busy Weekend

Heidi finally got over her intestinal issues but it was not the combination of food I fed her that fixed it, it was the 10mg of famotidine that did the trick. Within two days ... back to normal. A vet gave me a handwritten note in 2015 when she was having the same problem, to buy that in a generic brand. One dose every 12 hours for a hound that weighed 45 pounds. So it was pretty nice last night to get a whole night of sleep for the first time in weeks, instead of opening the door for her every two hours.  Our weekend started 4:30am Saturday morning and didn't really stop until mid-afternoon Sunday.

The sun keeps rising later in the day, and with temperatures in the low 40's, Stella and I wait a little longer before we take our morning walks. It was still nice to sit on the patio with a jacket on and a hot cup of coffee watching the sky and listening to all the birds.

A few weeks ago when I was asked if I would be interested in taking water, gatorade and lemonade along with carb loaded food to the top of Carr Canyon Road to support a bike ride, I told him I would definitely be interested. I totally forgot how much 5 gallons of water would weigh until I woke up Friday morning. It dawned on me that I needed some assistance to load the truck, unload the truck and set up a table for riders to stop and get refueled. I called him to let him know about my mistake.

By Friday afternoon I had someone that could assist me. Saturday morning supply pickup at 6am was going to come earl. Wakup time was 4:30am and that would give me time to feed the hounds, and get ready to leave by 5:30. I had a different plan though for Stella. I knew Heidi would be okay staying by herself all day long if needed but the length of time I would be gone was too much for Stella ... inside a crate or outside in the yard.

I decided she was going with me. She would love the attention she would get, I could keep an eye on her plus Mark had told my assistant Anny that she would have a bloodhound to hug if she accepted the assignment. I did not know that at the time I decided to take Stella with me.

We were at the top of Carr Canyon by 7am, 42° parked just before entering the campground. This pull out was perfect for us to park, set up a small table for the foods and drinks as well as room for any passing traffic to get by that was not affiliated with the bike ride. If you have a Facebook account you can check out the ride and a lot of photos of the last two days at #thegreatchickchallenge in your search box.

Stella wandered on her own WITHIN MY SITE checking out at least a million different scents. I could tell soon after we arrived and Anny had unpacked the truck that Stella was going to have fun day. Little did she know just how many people wanted to pet her.

That is us on the right side. We thought it was in perfect view of the riders as they crested a climb and turned a corner to see us. By the time they had climbed the 6 miles on dirt, gravel and washboard rock with no guard rails and 4,500 ft of climbing ... they would have ridden a total of 47 miles of the 70 miles for the first day, climbed to the top of Montezuma Pass, Miller Pass and Hunter Canyon before Carr Canyon.

With the warmest part of the camp being in the sunshine, Stella wanted to remain in the shade and on the rocky dirt. I had laid out a Mexican blanket for her but she has never been a fan of blankets, so she lay there anxiously waiting for the first rider to stop at the table. With the group of riders starting their ride from Ramsey Canyon Parking lot at the Brown Canyon Trailhead at 7am, we didn't expect out first rider earlier than 10:30am.

I didn't think of bring my two camping chairs until Saturday night when I was back home and my hip was telling me "you should have taken the two camping chairs to sit in." I could have sat on the tailgate I guess but standing out away from the truck in the sunshine was the warmest of all. A camping chair would have been nice t sit in for 15 minutes and then get up and walk around.

Our first rider appeared sooner than we had estimated. The mother of 4, started riding an hour earlier than the group did in the dark because she was going to attempt to finish the two day requirements in one day of riding ... 150 miles, 4 major climbs, 2 laps around the Lower Brown Canyon Trail and 14 Repeats from the parking lot to the top of Ramsey Canyon. When she stopped next to the table she was not even breathing hard and I could see the two day requirement in one day was a possibility for her.

Most of the bikes that made it this far were mountains with "one by" chain rings, meaning that small sprocket where the crank arms connect to the bottom bracket. That is such a small chainring and only one instead of two or three, matched with a large sprocket in back makes for a gear that is at least 1:1 ratio if not more. That bike had 29" wheels instead of the normal 27.5", making the ride more comfortable.

The man riding with the rider that had the 29'er above ... told us to be on the look out for his 13 year old son who was following them riding with a group from his school along with an adult rider. Jackson (Jack) showed up not long afterwards with kids in his school but much older. Yes, that is right, this young rider had ridden all 47 miles, including the four major climbs for a total of over 8,000' of climbing up to this point.

If you remember last June I drove up Carr Canyon, check out the roads this young rider conquered here.  and in the past three months have taken different vehicles over the top of Montezuma Canyon ... will Jack climbed both of them before noon on Saturday and still had to descend the 6 miles to the bottom over rough road. It took me 45 minutes to do that in a 4x4 truck.

When asked he told me he was in the 6th grade !!!

As I turned to see what Stella was doing with all the riders starting to show up, she had stood up and put her paws on the tailgate. Anny wasn't taking any chances of me lifting something heavy so she helped Stella get up in the back of the truck for some relaxation.

She even found time to take a nap between riders.

You will never see her much more relaxed than this. She loved all the attention she was getting.

We stayed a little longer than our 10am-1pm assigned time. We wanted to make sure that we didn't miss any riders that expected us to be at the top of the mountain with food and water or gatorade for them. On the way down around 1:45pm we stopped for 3 different riders on their way up with 3-4 miles still to go to the top.

We headed back to the parking lot to unload our supplies and talk to any riders that we had seen at the top of Carr Canyon and had finished their two laps around Lower Brown Canyon Trail. 70 miles done for the day and 80 to go on Sunday.

I was not the only one that needed a nap soon after we got home. It wasn't even 4:30pm yet and Stella had passed out next to my bed. She had a rough day getting all kinds of attention. Later Anny told me she had snuck some pieces of beef jerky to Stella and I let her know that giving food to Stella made it a 100% friendship in Stella's eyes.  "You are friends for life now"

I was not assigned to do any kind of support for Sunday. I knew the ride started at the same parking lot we were at on Saturday morning. Soon after our morning hound walk, where Heidi joined once again, I drove out to see how the "14 Repeats" were going ... it a steep short hill climb and 14 times in a row was going to be a gut buster.

I had plans on Sunday of meeting a friend for some hiking. With the Brown Canyon Trail filled with mountain bike riders I thought it would be best to head the opposite direction and check out the San Pedro River trails again. We hiked for over 4 miles in a little over 2 hours. I can get a lot of good walking in because it is generally flat. Someone asked if I took the dogs but there would be too many distractions ....

On our hike we ran into two different dogs, one rude mountain bicyclist and three horses. That is too much to keep Stella under control. Plus Heidi would never be able to finish 4 miles or even a mile. She is usually dragging at the end of our morning walks which is roughly .55-.60 of a mile.

We had a nice visit, some good food at Jersey Mike's Subs and over four miles of walking.

As I was preparing my backpack, water, trekking poles from the truck to the car this morning, Stella knew I was going somewhere and she was pretty sure she would not get to go today. She found a shady place in the corner of the yard and was asleep by the time we left. Heidi kept her company for the next couple of hours. I still have a hard time putting her in a crate when the weather is so nice outside. The patio door though was shut and locked this time, so my vertical blinds were safe.

I met a lot of good people this weekend that are into bicycling. We traded a lot of stories, talked about some past injuries and future rides. I see a busy schedule ahead once I get in better shape. My friend also told me of some fantastic hiking outside of my area that I would need to check out. I've added that to my list of places to go. I still want to take a day trip to Ajo and back ... the hounds will be included in that trip.

Hard to believe that not one football game was watched on Saturday. I'll watch the IU game later where they cut out the commercials and halftimes. A 3.5 hour games suddenly turns into just an hour. Imagine that !!!

I rode almost a 100 miles this week and feel fine. I plan on riding the same this coming week with Monday as the first day of their Strava week. I'll take off two days at least, maybe three depending how I feel.

For those freezing or wondering about cold November weather ... I not only forgot the camping chairs to sit in yesterday but my ball cap. About 6pm Saturday I realized my head and face were sunburned, extremely sore and I was saved by packing Aloe Vera Gel on my head and face .. things were much better this morning.

Sorry for the lack of photos, sometimes there is too many things going on to take all of them.

It was a great weekend in the 'Wild West.

No Surprises Just A Few Changes

There is one thing you can always count on with this blog, just like life, there is going to be changes. Sometimes those changes are not announced until after they are completed, others in the past were thought about outloud and sometimes they never happened. It's only been a couple of days since my last post but there have been a few changes taken place. Some of you will see them on my sidebar if you are not reading this from your phone. Nothing major, just put all the blog archives in a dropdown menu format. Moved some things around. Added a 'Followers" gadget.

It wasn't until I was clicking different links in the dashboard behind the scenes that Blogger told me to take a look at "the new and improved" blogger under the Stats section. I am assuming over these next few months they will complete their changes to Blogger without any announcement to blog users. It will be interesting to see what the new improvements offer. Maybe a blog design that I really like?

Doesn't bother me, I'll stay and float the way Google wants me to. Speaking of Google, I decided in my retirement years they could not find out much more of where I go or what I do on the internet. I have been stumbling around the 'world wide web' since the mid 1990's when I bought WebTV. I exported all of my bookmarks from Safari to my desktop in an html file, then made Google Chrome my default browser and imported the bookmarks from my desktop. Yes, I know I could click the link "import from the browser name" but that has never worked out as well as the way I do it.

I told you the other day how tired I felt on Sunday after riding my bike Saturday morning then hiking on Saturday afternoon and I would stop doing that. I'd do one or the other in one day but not both. I have followed that this week and feel good. Of course that cuts down on the blogging and "Other Adventures" because my thing is riding a bicycle. I enjoy that more than anything and as my fitness improves the further and longer I ride. You can read about those on my bike blog which is located on the sidebar or click here.

You have to look up in the upper left corner for the drop down menu to the sidebar choices and where the rides are captured in detail by a free app called Strava.

We are into the 4th morning of the new black lab puppy next door. Stella is still somewhat confused by what she hears. I've caught her a few times over by the fence sniffing the air and pulling in that smell of a puppy. He is adapting to spending his days outside. They have decide to keep their old pug outside with him and the doggie door locked shut. He is getting better but man that is a lot of alone time for a 8 week old puppy.

Another thing that has changed for most of you but not me ... is Daylight Savings Time. We in Arizona do not change time and although my longtime Phoenix resident friend tells me I am now on Arizona Standard time but all I know is when I look for game times on the ESPN website that equates to my games starting on Mountain Time. I also know that our walks in the morning are much later than sunrise. We need to get to warm up first, as the hounds no longer do cold weather.

Games?  You would not believe how much my tv viewing of games has changed since I moved here. Just as I suspected my addiction to watching game after game after game on weekends is basically over. The great weather almost every day, having sunshine, pulls me outside every day. Thus I find it hard to take the time to watch games live on tv as I am also finding it harder to blog every day at a certain time. So the "blog when you feel like it" is in full force and a great idea from blog readers.

Most to the times when I go out riding my bike which is now up to one and a half hours, or when I have errands in town to do, I have left Stella in her crate. But when it's perfect weather outside why not let her stay there with Heidi, put their water in the shade and they can enjoy outside instead of being inside. Then hope she doesn't howl to long or bother the neighbors that might be home as there are just a couple nearby.

When I left Stella this morning around 10am she was sound to sleep in the sunshine. I was gone for almost two hours and by the time I returned, Heidi was sleeping in the corner of the fence in the shade and Stella was standing at the door waiting for me to open it for her.

She had not only been sleeping, it got to hot for her and she did what all dogs do when they want to cool off ... dig until they hit dirt, circle around it then lay down and sleep. I am going to sweep off the patio but I am going to let that patch of dirt stay where it is. That is one spot that is always cleared out to sleep even when a dog bed or blankets are left in the shaded patio. As I walk behind the hounds along my fence line the majority of dog owners leave their dogs outside or they have doggie doors.

The water bowl did show that they had plenty of water to consume while I was gone. So again, a little change here and there. My sleeping habits have changed this past week. Heidi is having an upset stomach waking me up every two hours to go outside. It's good exercise for my hip to move quickly in the dark in the middle of the night to spring out of bed and catch up to her walking down the hallway. I need to get to the patio door first to let her out.

She hears the lab puppy next door.

I tried the old white rice and cottage cheese. That didn't work this time. Then I tried white rice and plain unflavored yogurt. That didn't work this time. I tried 50/50 kibble/white rice. That didn't work this time. I remembered back in 2015 my vet shocked me by writing "Famotidine 10mg" on a piece of paper and telling me to buy the generic brand at the drug store. THAT WORKED THEN AND IS WORKING NOW!!!

After a lot of thought I sold the road bike I crashed on. I did not sell it because I wrecked it in fact I tried selling it on Craig's List before I moved because I have never liked it. It always felt too big. Consequently I was never enthused too much about riding it. It didn't take long once I mentioned I was selling it on a bicycling Facebook group here in this area. I had offers that night. Monday I took it for a ride out to the roads I used before my surgery to see if I felt like keeping it.

Wednesday morning I had a gentleman stop by to pay me and also give me a letter to show the IRS of my additional donation to his non-profit disabled vets group here in town. We had a great 30 minute talk, swapping bike stores and injury stories. He has 11 bikes, is still happily married and has had a knee replacement on the same knee that had an ACL surgery 30 years ago. Still rides more than I have this year and will as soon as he recovers from his recent shoulder surgery.

I have a group of new friends in my age range, all have had hip or knees replaced, a cancer survivor and another older than I riding with a pacemaker. So slowly but surely I am coming out of my 'loner' shell and meeting new people with the same interests and increasing my group of friends. It's happening but not quite as fast as I expected it would.

While I was flipping through Twitter today catching up on all my sports news, OSDaily had a photo of the new watch face now available for Apple Watches. I picked up my iPhone and added this watch face to mine. I changed the four corner with what I wanted ... heart rate, temperature, strava icon for my bike rides and an activity icon to start my hound walks. It's also cool to see how much daylight I have left, which might come in handy on bike rides or late afternoon hikes. BTW I fixed the heart icon to where it shows my heart rate at all times.

The red dot at the top is letting me know I have new email or a new text.

Checking Heidi's bed the other day for any signs of her being sick I found this laying on top of her bed in the open. It didn't fall out of her blanket because she had that rolled up into ball. She doesn't have long hair so it's not something she picked up outside. The strange thing is, between the time I spend picking up hound poop and the number of laps I did during hip rehab I know my yard pretty good ... I've seen nothing like this in the backyard.

Any ideas? To me it looks like a bullet. Did she try to eat it and bring it back inside without me seeing her do it? I don't know.

Without taking hikes and not able to carry a camera with me on the hound walks because now Heidi goes with us almost every day. (another good change) .. I find that I don't have a lot of photos to use for the blog posts. So today I tried something different. Since I am a organizer freak and within my 100,000 photos in my Apple Photos Library file ... I have separate folders for each dog, each trip, each car past and present, etc ... you get the picture. (no pun intended) ... for each of of the categories every day I name the first photo of each ... such as Heidi and Stella ... yyyy mmm dd. IE: 2019 Nov 14

So when I do a search for just Nov 14 it pulls out 196 photos taken on that day in any year. So tonight to fill in some photo space, possibly bring up some past memories or favorites I have posted those photos below in no special order. I will say the range between the years 2012-2018, all taken on November 14th.

I admit that after September 15, 2018 the field in back never seemed right with just one bloodhound no matter how many walks Stella and I took.

Heidi has changed a little with the move to Arizona. She walks DAILY now that the temps are cooler. She had three favorite spots in the house that she likes to spend time sleeping and she loves the new bed I bought her. She likes to sleep in the sunshine on the patio and is exploring the yard more. Change has been good for her.

The doctor told me on October 22nd that I would start feeling better every day. There would be a bad day mixed on on occasion not because of something I had done but just part of the healing process. So far 22 days later that has been the case and this morning was the best I have felt yet. That comes after my longest bike ride since the surgery yesterday afternoon. I see him again on November 20th, hopefully for the last time until my year anniversary.

It would not be right not to tell you that I have too many cars but just the right number for me. So with a two car garage and two spaces in the driveway, things are pretty tight if I don't want to put two cars inside the garage. So I play what I call "Musical Cars". Today I moved the Mini Cooper out and put the FJ back inside. The new car sits out in front of the house at the curb like my neighbors do with the truck in the driveway.

I'll be using my truck on Saturday to load tables, 15 gallons of water, Gatorade and Lemonade in separate 5 gallon containers. There will be food for the bicyclist that make it to the top of Carr Canyon ... I'll take photos once I get up there. This two day ride totals 150 miles, three major mountain climbs then riding the gradual climb I talk about sometimes on Ramsey Canyon Road 10 TIMES for each rider .... It's a dedication to a young rider that was killed last December when the truck she was driving hit some black ice over by Elfrida AZ.

So all the bikes and all the cars are being used just as I planned. The hounds are happy where they live, love their residential walk, love their stone yard and the sounds of coyotes in the early morning hours before dawn. Yet Stella didn't know what to do about that owl sitting on our fence staring at her as he walked out this morning. By the time I grabbed the camera to get back outside the owl had flown away.

Things have or are changing for the better here in the 'Wild West'. 

(Late tonight I redirected my old domain name "houndsandotherstuff.com" to this blog.) You should NOT have to change any bookmarks but let me know if www.bhounds3.blogspot.com does not work for you. That should automatically redirect to the domain name. Since it is always good to have the Blog Title matching the domain name ... I'll be changing the title to his blog back to where it use to be and will change my "parked" blog on Wordpress to it's original name ... if I don't delete it.