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.

Stella Feels The Warmth

Just because the weather has changed for the time being doesn't mean that Heidi changes her daily routine. That will not happen until the temps hit the 70° mark a couple of months from now, most likely. The sound of "mid 30's" seems like a heat wave and a welcomed change even with a 70% chance of a ran/snow mix later this afternoon.

Stella and I stepped outside earlier than we had in months, before 8am. That is just how nice the morning felt. I could hear all kinds of birds as I walked from the carport to the field.

Stella could feel the difference compared to the last two or three morning and I could tell how excited she was. She turned to see if I was as excited as her and if I was going on the walk or was I just going to stand around watching her.

She was so shocked with the change in temperatures that she had to sit and enjoy it before she did anything else. I was already a few steps in the field before she moved. There was nothing for her to really look at, she was just taking in all that warm air at 28°, filtering through her nose. I thought it felt much warmer than that but three different weather apps were telling me the same temps.

Whereas the ground was extremely soft and muddy at times during our Wednesday afternoon walk it was nice to feel it hard as a rock this morning. I had overdressed by putting on my North Face snow boots that I use for rain or extremely wet fields.

Google Chrome users, I assume you got the notice from Google yesterday to update "right this minute". If not, you need to update your browser now!! To check to see if you have the latest update they are saying the version of Google Chrome you need to have is 72.3626.121

Here is a link to show you the process and why the urgency. I had been using that browser a few weeks ago because the latest version of Firefox had been crashing on me a few times every day. For some reason I went back to Safari a week to ten days ago. It was faster than normal, I knew I had security and it had the built-in "disable auto-play".

I found out this morning when I opened Chrome to see what version I had, that I had updated it the first of March with the version listed above and possibly in time to prevent any damage to my computer. A year or so ago I decided to "un" Google myself and moved all of my email from gmail to new iCloud accounts that I could get through Apple mail.

This link will show you some options to get away from Google products and still have the same kind of programs, apps or features. Since Apple had about all of those types of features many years ago, that synchronized between devices, Blogger was really the only thing I could not escape from. Thus for my one public blog and my two private blogs on Blogger, I had to keep my gmail address to access those. I don't send nor receive any email through those gmail accounts.

I know it's almost impossible to transfer a Blogger blog to WordPress due to the different platforms used. Yet Blogger will accept a transfer file from WordPress with no issues. If I could figure out a way to transfer my large Blogger blog to WordPress I'd do that in an instant.

You may have seen my earlier post this morning when I said I was no longer watching news on TV nor reading any online news sites. I still haven't but came very close to turning on the TV after our morning walk this morning. Why ??  It's a habit and one that I will need to work on for the next ten days to break.

I thought about my decision of tuning out the news while I was on the walk this morning. The question "what now" popped in my head. More along the lines of what do I blog about now, not really what do I do now in my daily routines. My life doesn't need the news but statistics show blog readers love posts on news or politics, whether they agree with you or not.

Still, my blog doesn't need the chaos and I will be more than willing to accept a lower number of visitors and a few less angry emails in my inbox by staying away from the news and then blogging about it.

I have mentioned before I have never been a 'prime time' tv watcher. I still have some shows I watch on a regular basis, usually after I tape them on the DVD so I can fast forward through the commercials. Most of these shows are not on the network channels but are on the History or National Geographic channels. The show Project Blue Book is quite interesting and is based on a true story. UFOs and Russian Spies in the 1950's is what it is based on.

I still like watching Building Off The Grid. I am always amazed what people come up with in the design of their house or cabin and what they plan to use for energy, plus food source. Homestead Rescue is another that is interesting but the amazing thing in that show is how many people are trying to live off the grid that have no business doing it ... because they did not do any research before they moved and are now asking for help. Sometimes they have put themselves in a life threatning situation.

I like Hometown, down in Laurel Mississippi. I visited there in the summer of 1969 and left Biloxi about a week before their hurricane, just after the moon landing. So I was curious enough the other day to check out online information for the town of Laurel. I'd gain about 10° on average year round in temperatures. I even looked at their history of tornadoes. The stats were very similar to where I live now but I expected that Laurel MS would have a lot more tornadoes than I have here.

Getting back to that habit of turning on the tv right after our morning walk, eating habits are another hard thing to break as I am finding out this week. I was so good last week and saw amazing results after six days of being disciplined. This week I've not only eaten more carbs every day but I added those two level tsp of sugar for each cup of coffee I have. Two cups per day, four teaspoons of sugar per day or 16g of carbs just for the sugar.

All small numbers. All within the allowances of typical medical diet suggestions. Yet I can feel a difference. My stomach feels bigger than last week. Not bloated just bigger. I also feel like I have gained the weight back that I lost those first six days. (5lbs)

As far as my diet goes, I am allowing myself 50g of carbs per day. That is more than Keto's diet plan but what the owner of Paleo suggested.  Before this week I was staying below that limit, felt better, not as hungry, more energy. This week I have more urges to eat, have taken a daily afternoon siesta and feel heavier.

I also came close to going to CNN, FoxNews, Breitbart and The Guardian while I was waiting for the photos to load into WordPress from my computer. (It's warmer ... Stella's restless and wandering around inside the house) That will be another hard thing to fight through. What do they say, ten to fourteen days to break a habit or start a new one?

With the book on Steve Jobs being such a detailed slow read I was glancing through my bookshelves this morning looking for something else to read. Maybe something a little 'lighter'. I don't mind reading some books a second or third time but I also have books on my shelf that I bought years ago but never read. There has to be one that can pique my interest enough to read.

Sometimes Stella will get tangled in the wild vines that have very sharp thorns. Before I can walk over and pull those off of her, she will just tear through them. The vine you see in front of her got stuck on her neck and she just tore through it without any kind of injury. I couldn't walk over there fast enough.

The back edge of the field had a lot of deer scent I guess. She spent more time along that back edge than she did on the walk itself.

I just received my email notice from the USPS telling me what mail they are delivering today. I have noticed since they started that service based on when I signed up for the notifications, I stopped getting mail for my neighbors in my mailbox. Still 99.9% of the mail delivered is tossed into the recycling bin after I block out my name and mailing address.

I also just got a text from my friend that lives in the Chicago suburbs. She escaped from her freezing weather to her mother's winter home in Florida on Tuesday. She is lauging as she is telling me today her weather the rest of the week will be in the 70's and 80's. Here I've been thinking how nice the 30's feel and am excited about the 50's.  LOL

Stella thought she could disappear on me but the camera found her.

I glance in the direction she is looking thinking there might be some deer to see. I saw nothing along the horizon, from one end of the north woods to the other. She must have smelled them or heard them moving through the woods.

Yes, you just witnessed a little running this morning. See, warm weather does make her feel better. I have been filling up my 'junk mail' folder lately with emails about cannabis oil. They have found one of my iCloud accounts. I don't remember signing up for anything new lately using those accounts. Apple mail automatically filters email like that so I don't have to bother with it.

The reason she is not veering off to the right like she normally does, there are a couple of mole hills of dirt exposed and before I could get to the yard she was already trying to eat the top of the frozen dirt pile like we would eat an ice cream cone. Frozen dirt !!!!

She looked for more all the way to the carport. She knows she can always eat a little frozen dirt before I can get her to stop.

That box and those cables running into the house are now antiques I guess. It's my AT&T landline telephone box and the phone lines running from that box under the house to two different locations where phones use to be located. I remember the year I bought the Sony wireless phone, 900Mhz with the built-in answering machine. It could set on a table or be mounted on the wall. Top of the line electronics.

Ah yes ... landline phones.   :)

As you can see, it was a pretty lazy afternoon here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. I guess the excitement of the day was the feeling I had for a very short time that I might be checking out that fall detection feature on my Apple Watch. I was sitting at the computer starting this blog post when I started feeling really dizzy. I seriously thought I was going to pass out. During the time I was was a little dizzy I glanced at my watch for my pulse at the time and it was only 58bpm. I did the watch's EKG test just to see if anything showed up and things were normal.

Once I realized I had not eaten any breakfast, I had some small amounts of different food by the tablespoon, hoping to get some fast absorption to where I would feel better. While I sat on the couch for a while to see what was going to happen with me, I decided the best idea was lay down, after all we were all up at 5:05am this morning.

By the time I woke up the afternoon was almost over and that sure did look like snow falling as I glanced out the window. Taking the afternoon walk was not an option for a couple of reasons. For one, in the that is Stella in the first picture sleeping on the couch taken right after I woke up. That is Heidi yawning as I walked back in the bedroom to get my shoes. I could see they had no plans of going outside for anything.

The snow fall wasn't heavy, in fact you can barely see it against the background of the trees. We are suppose to have a mix of rain and snow for the rest of the night, stopping around midnight with a possible 1" to 2" of snow on the ground when it is finished.

While I was standing outside taking those pictures of the snow, I could hear the sounds of wet pavement as cars were passing on the highway. These stones barely show there is the same amount of rain as there is snow, both very very light.

I have a fridge full of good food and I can't think of anything I am hungry for. In fact as I looked around for other options of food to eat, nothing looked good to me. I am still feeling slightly nauseous, that cannot be a good thing. I have a sneaky suspicion it was the Oikos Greek yogurt I had that has made me feel this way. I've had a hard time digesting any brand of yogurt lately.

After being up a short time the hounds have confirmed to me they are not going outside for anything. Stella woke up long enough to check out that it was me walking around the house, then went back to the couch to sleep. Heidi never left the bedroom and is back to sleep. I need to find a book to read.

Although I slept most of the afternoon away I have to admit it's been quieter than normal here today with me not reading any of the news sites nor tuning into the news channels on tv. I've looked at sports news on the computer and I did watch a show on tv that was taped last night ... but no news. No 'noise' running around my brain, no mumbling to myself and wondering what is going on in today's world.

Luckily I have an IU game to watch at 8pm, a couple of new book possibilities and plenty of time to figure out what to eat.

It's been almost too quiet today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.