It Happens Sometimes in Retirement

Like I use to tell my co-worker when she would complain about a "paper cut" on her finger ... "you knew the job was dangerous when you took it".

Retirement really isn't dangerous depending on what kind of hobbies you pursue. One thing that can happen when you are retired, even the best laid plans can change at the drop of a dime. You might wake up with a list of things  you want to get done today, but that doesn't always mean they will happen.

Such is the case for today, Thursday, May 7.

I stated yesterday today was going to be filled full of excitement, giving three different hounds a bath, manicure, clean ears .. all the dog maintenance. Like I said earlier in the week there are times my mind plays games with me and has something entirely different on the schedule.

Such was the case for today, Thursday, May 7.

During my first cup of coffee I told Heidi "today is bath day" ... so MY plans were still on time. While walking back to my computer with my 2nd cup of coffee, I glanced at my property tax bill due by May 11. It was at that point in time that "my brain" decided I would be on it's schedule and their schedule did NOT include baths for the hounds.

I threw on some clean clothes, brushed my teeth because I was headed for town to the courthouse to pay my property tax instead of doing the normal annual payment online. With the free parking on a side street, I'd save a whopping $2.95 in online fees for processing the payment.

Plus it gets me out of the house ... so I was feeling pretty good about the short mile or so trip to town. On the drive it felt like a Friday, then I saw on the iPhone it was Thursday. I thought that would mean a short line at the courthouse treasurer's office.

The line was short ... but it was also the slowest line I may have ever been in .. and I mean ever. Things move slow in Greene County in general but this was unbelievable. I even walked by the two people in front of me so I could see into the room and confirm there were live bodies behind the counter. There were, so that was at least a good sign.

Once again my eyes, just like this morning, caught some red print on the "Cash Only" sign on the corner ... It basically told me if I paid with a credit or debit card I would be charged a processing fee of $2.95 just like last year online. I guess my debit card isn't like cash after all.

So, just like that I walked back to my car and headed home to pay the property tax online including the fee. Of course I find out the Greene County Treasure's office never told anyone they had changed their website URL. The bookmark I had didn't work nor did the web address on the paper bill.

It was easy to find the new address, I just backspaced back to the .com part of the address and hit the enter key and wala ... the new website. Payment was fast and smooth and I had to wonder if I would have still be standing in line downtown?

BTW ... the fee online this year to process the payment had increased 85.4% and was now $5.47 this year. I figure that additional $2.52 I had to pay was worth not standing in a line that never moved.

By the time I finished that led into lunch, then Heidi and Sadie "demanded" to be fed their meal of Taste of the Wild's no grain duck and sweet potato blend. While spending time outside after their meal on such a nice day ... the three hounds and I voted to cancel the baths until further notice.

We didn't do one thing the rest of the day but hangout and enjoy the sunshine, the heat and drinking water.

Unless my eyes catch something off to the side and I can remained focused, I think we have a really good chance of getting those baths for  the hounds tomorrow, one day before the weekend, rain or shine.

This is what is nice about retirement ... it didn't matter what did or did not get done.

It's Getting Hot and Humid in Early May

Today ended up being a pretty busy day with no time to explore the local area. I had a few things I wanted to get done today and I ended up getting even more accomplished than I had wanted. As the photos of the hounds show, it's getting hot here in the "tropics" of southern Indiana.

When the hounds have their tongues dangling out of their mouths after zero exercise, I know it's starting to get hot. The past few days the hounds have been waking up and wanting to go outside around 6:30am ... that is about an hour earlier than I like but it's still nice with the sun just starting to rise, so I usually end up staying up.

Below I have pictures of the hounds and more pictures of that old steel bridge. Click on the photos for a larger image.

By 7:45am this morning I was pulling the Mini Cooper out into the drive and giving it a good wash, blackened the trim and tires. I didn't hand wash the FJ but the pressure of the water was enough to at least get the dust and dirt off, so I also cleaned that one up but let the wind dry it off. The weather was still cool and it was a nice time to wash the vehicles.

About 10am I realized I may have made a mistake washing those vehicles because the farmer across the highway shows up with two tractors, one towing a disc system and the other towing his planters. I knew that pretty soon the air would be full of dirt from that field as he drove through the field.

What this disc system did was not only break up the ground preparing to plant either corn or soybeans but it filled the air and my world with pure brown thick dust from the ground that was being broken up. Based on the wind I could see we were going to be engulfed with the light brown haze. I also knew then my car that had just been washed was going to end up with a (hopefully) thin and not a thick film of dust or dirt. It ended up not being as bad as I thought it would.

I guess it doesn't matter anyway because rain is in the forecast this weekend, which always seems to happen after I wash a car. That was one reason they were planting today and not his weekend ... the rain.

Between the time of finishing the Mini Cooper, the FJ and the farm work, I ran down to the landscaping establishment nearby and picked out some color for spring and summer. They are not real large but they usually grow fast. Since crimson is my favorite color, that usually is the color I pick for flowers.

With a little help from Winston and Sadie, as they have to smell anything that comes on their property, I was able to get these into the three pots fairly quick, without too much damage. I should have grabbed my camera but didn't, when Winston decided he would eat a mouthful of potting soil, probably to check out the quality. I wasn't amused.

Later in the day when the sun was on the other side of the house (west) the hounds and I went out back (east). While I watered the new lawn, they sat in the grass with their tongues out. It's been one of those days where they want out and as soon as they get out ... they want in ... back and forth. They must know that they "own " me. I retired only to be their doorman.

I asked Heidi to come out and enjoy the great weather but I think her look says it all ... By that look I knew the answer to my request. Not only does she not like temps outside below 55°, she also doesn't like it when the temps outside are higher than 80°. She "has it made" as they say ... duck and sweet potato dog food, sleeps anywhere she pleases inside and never has to go outside unless SHE wants to. She has a pretty nice deal.

Tomorrow will be more than exciting and since I have only two hands, I will not be able to take photos of the "action" that will take place. It's going to be dog bath day and one of the three dogs hates getting a bath and hates getting her toenails cut.  That leaves out Winston and it' isn't Heidi ... of course it has to be the biggest and strongest dog of all ... Sadie.

So the two "pool" loungers will get their dogs baths first ... and then the "mud wrestling" event will start with Sadie afterwards. For those that are wondering ... wouldn't it be easier giving her a bath outside???

The only difference is, outside she can run further away after she breaks free instead of being blocked by the closed bathroom door after she gets away from me and jumps out of the tub.

Cussing will be allowed tomorrow while attempting to bathe the bloodhound. As far as cutting Sadie's toenails, we may have to drive to the vet and let him/her do it. Sadie is big and strong when she is determined she isn't going to do something. It should be fun!!

Speaking again of the back area that I have burned out, tore out roots, vines etc ... I have taken photos of what is growing besides my new grass. It's okay because I am taking the long slow approach to this new "yard" and maybe the "un"professional way of doing this job. I could have borrowed a friends tiller and ground up all the area, planted grass seed and covered it with straw.

Instead I removed as much of the vine roots, small saplings and weeds the best I could then raked the area before planting grass seed, with plans of watering it twice per day.  Being right next to a hay field or any kind of field, the mole traffic is hard to control and they have made their way into the new territory.

With the long slow way, I am willing to let everything grow besides the grass and keep it mowed on a regular basis only a couple of inches high. Eventually the grass will over take the different things pictured with some help of Scott's Weed and Feed later in the fall. That theory has worked before, so we'll see.

Feel free to let me know what you see growing besides the new grass.

I have a few more photos of the bridge I saw yesterday. It still amazes me just how old that steel bridge is. As I walked out to the middle of the bridge I was almost expecting the bridge to squeak or at least make some kind of noise. I guess it was best that I heard nothing as I walked around.

That is all from the "tropics" of southern Indiana.

Photo Fixer

I talked about my Apple Photos issue after the latest Yosemite OS X update yesterday. Then last night I went to the MacRumors forum and read two pages on the exact issues I was having, finding more people were wanting the same thing I was.

There is not a fix for that at this time.

Around 5pm today I checked my computer and had the following article show up on my Feedly account. I am posting this now to get it out to readers that may have not seen it and need some free help in freeing up some iPhone space and can delete photographs in a group instead of one at a time.

Here is the link to the article:  Photo Fixer

That is not an affiliate link, therefore I do not make any money if you click the link or download the free app. I am passing this out as information only for those that need it. This lists a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.

From just a short few paragraphs I also found what takes place when taking pictures with my iPhone that causes duplicates and what they call "bursts". I take a lot of not all my iPhone photos using the HDR feature which results in duplicate photos.

I guess I should have read more in depth before using the new iPhone last summer ... but as usual I jump in from the start and use the phone like I have with the previous phone ... then learn things as I go or run into trouble.

So the article answers some other questions I had but it still will not do what I want, preventing photos downloaded from my camera to my computer from being automatically uploaded into my iPhone and iPad. I know how to prevent that but it also means I have to manually change settings each time when I download photos from my camera or from my iPhone to the computer.

I had a pretty busy day today and still am not finished. I may post later tonight or early tomorrow.

A Field of Yellow Across the Highway

With temperatures expected to reach in the upper 80's today, I decided whatever the hounds and I needed to do would be done before noon. The past few weeks as I look out my large kitchen window I kept seeing this field of yellow. I knew it wouldn't last long before they were plowed under for soybeans this year. I grabbed my camera and took off across the highway.

Before I get started I wanted to say for all the readers that are Mac users and may still be fighting with the new "Photos" program that Apple has forced on everyone, replacing "iPhotos" I have not found a way to fix some issues we are all having with automatic uploads, etc. I'll talk about that after my story/photos of the bridge.

Down at the end of this path is an old steel bridge somewhere around 70 years old at least. Under that bridge is or use to be a creek that was deep enough where as a young boy, my 86 yr old dad, his brothers and friends would jump off the bridge and spend a hot summer day swimming. You will find that story hard to imagine further into this blog when you see the condition of the bridge, the low water level and the low quality of the water.

I am not sure what kind of flowers these are or if they are just weeds that bloom. Even if I were to spend time to find the names of all of the flowers/plants I see, I would not be able to remember them anyway. I just like taking pictures of them and other blooms I see in the field behind my house. You can see the corn stalks from the harvest last fall.

The field on the right side of the lane across from the field of yellow, owned by the same farmer, has already been fertilized and yesterday they put on some anhydrous ammonia. They are both small fields maintained by small tractors and farm equipment but from what I am told produce some pretty large income per acre.

I am not sure now but a few years ago those large white tanks of anhydrous ammonia were being stolen by the meth dealers throughout southern Indiana. In this area, unemployment is over 8.5%, our county is the 2nd highest county in the state for meth labs. To prevent the theft of those tanks, State Police were having the guard those tanks over night per request of the farmers. In some cases they were parking empty State Police cars next to tanks to prevent theft.

In 1970, the spring of my senior year of high school, I was living in a rural community on the west side of Indianapolis. Large flat fields. I had zero farming experiencing but did have a desire to make some great money.

A friend's dad hired me to drive a huge John Deere tractor day and night, putting on anhydrous ammonia. I knew a lot about sports but very little if anything about the dangers of anhydrous ammonia.

During one of my trips up and down those extremely large fields I noticed the hose connection from the tank to the discs/applicator had come loose and there was a leak spraying out at the connector. As I was trying to press the hoses together to get the connection to lock, due to the pressure, that anhydrous ammonia shot out and hit me in my chest, extremely cold. I told Jack (friend's dad) what had happen but didn't think anything else about it.

A week later, an older farmer had the same thing happen to him only the shot hit him in the face/nose, killing him instantly as the large amount of anhydrous ammonia flowed to his lungs. That ended up being one of many close calls I've had over the years.

I said in my post yesterday that I did not have a water shortage here so I could water my lawn, wash cars anytime I wanted. After seeing the level of this creek today and comparing it to what I remember in June 2008, I may have been incorrect saying that. The last time I came back here to look around the water level was up to the top of the dirt bank.

There was also a large amount of flowing water rushing through a large ditch that runs along the path, coming from the pictured source into the creek. Now you can tell there is only a dribble of water from that source.

If I were to continue walking across the bridge the path would take me to the road that goes to the covered bridge that I blogged about last fall, which is to the left of this bridge a mile or so.

So today was just a short trip across the highway, not really a hike.

Great weather, interesting scenery.

Here is a photo of my house from a different angle. I took this from the path next to the yellow field. Kneeling and taking the photo barely over the tall grass, you cannot tell the house sits on a pretty good size hill.

I ended my exploration today at the local landscaping establishment that sits maybe 300-400' from the house. I have three pots and the potting soil from last year, and plan to plant some new flowers to put in front of the house. I'll get them later today after the place empties out a little.

Just another typical day in retirement where you can do what you want, when you want. I am enjoying the Nikon camera I bought last fall as the temps warm up.


Apple's new Photos program

I am sure for those readers, like myself, that have updated their Yosemite OS on their laptops or iMacs, have found plenty of frustration with the new Photo system. In my case with satellite internet and paying for a fixed number of gigs per month for data, I have to really watch what is taking place while I'm on the computer so I can limit my usage. Currently I pay $87 for 15Gb per month just for my home internet connection. That amount of money isn't much higher than what I was paying in the years prior to last summer with a AT&T land line and then DSL service.

With the new Photos program, by default, I was seeing a huge increase in data usage while downloading photos from my Nikon SDHC card to my computer. That process doesn't take any data because its only going from a card to your hard drive. Still the "data sent" graph was going off the charts. I knew exactly what was taking place because I spoke of it a few days ago.

For example today, after I downloaded 33 photos from my camera to my computer, the Photos Agent 'data sent' used 208 Mb, synchronizing  photos that I don't want on my iPhone or iPad. That is 208/500Mb's that I allow myself per day to meet the 15Gb at the end of the monthly billing period.

Under the new Yosemite update, any photos from your camera downloading into your laptop or desktop in Photos, is also being uploaded into Photo Stream on your iPhones and iPads. Personally I don't want that to happen. I also found out by error yesterday that when I went into Photos on my computer and deleted those photos from Photo Stream thinking they would be deleted from my iPhone and iMac but would stay in the computer's hard drive ... that also deleted the photos out of the master library.

Luckily I could go back to my camera card and reload them into my computer since I do not delete any photos off my SD card after uploading them into the computer. Still once those photos were downloaded from the SD card to the computer, they automatically uploaded again to my iPhone and iMac.

What is the fix to this problem?

I spent a few days reading, looking on my own, trying to figure out how to prevent the automatic upload of photos into my iPhone and iPad, which was also soaking up a lot of my memory on a 16Gb iPhone.

So far, as of today I have not found the solution to stop those automatic uploads. It's too nice outside right now to do any searching, but I'll try to do that tonight after dark and will post any information I find for blog readers looking for the same solution. If you have the answer, let me know in the comments section.

I am still having good luck with my diet changes from last Friday. Two things I have noticed, no heartburn/acid reflux and no urges for the afternoon nap I was becoming addicted to. I do have periods of intense craving for the things I am trying to eliminate. Drinking water during those times, helps.