Stella's Gotcha Day Anniversary

It was a year ago today, that I got up early on a Sunday morning with close to 4 hour drive ahead of me.

I had canceled the trip the week before because I had changed my mind about having a 4th hound and 2 large bloodhounds.

By the following Friday I was emailing Stephanie to see if Stella (Dipstick) was still available. You can read about our trip and see the photos of Stella the first afternoon she arrived on the post I did last year:  Stella's Arrival

A year later I am just as happy with my decision to bring her home as I was last August. She has had some separation anxiety issues to work through but seems to be getting better. She HAS tore up things, all that could be repaired or a replacement bought. Still, she is a great bloodhound.

This is the first photo that was sent to me when I asked about her after seeing the ad on a Facebook Group for bloodhounds.

Here are some photos of Stella that I did not have when I picked her up. I didn't have these until this past spring where I found them on the Facebook account of the previous owner. She had some high energy and fast dogs that kept her busy.

It looks like she still had control of the couch then just like she does now.

This black boxer jumped into my FJ when I opened the back door to let Stella in, the day I picked her up. Obviously the boxer love to ride in cars and she liked Stella.

On 'casual' Friday's Stephanie use to put a polo shirt on her and take her to the office. Looks like she didn't mind the day of work.

You can tell by the smile on her face there is no doubt that she enjoyed her last home with the boxer and herding dogs with plenty of land to run on. I am still happy I saw the ad for "a rehome" when I did and followed through with my gut instinct in making the decision.

Today after lunch all three of us decided to back away from the AC and see how nice it was outside. Heidi decided it was perfect for a little sun bathing on the sloping front yard facing west. That is one of her favorite spots.

Stella didn't get more than four steps into the backyard where she literally dropped to the ground and decided a nap under the sunshine was perfect.

Sadie is Sadie though ... rarely lays or sits in one pace for too long, unless it's after 8pm and she will sleep the rest of the night away. So with her strong generic tracking ability she decided to explore the field while the other two relaxed.

It only took me to come back outside with a ripe pear in my hand that I was eating, for her to lift her nose up from the ground and come running ... for some reason she thought the pear was hers.

Can you tell a difference in quality? These next to photos were taken this morning from my iPhone 6S.

I could tell the difference quality from the older 5S I had last year. It doesn't show it on the blog but one of the new features is each photo taken captures a few seconds before and after you click to take the picture ... so there is a mini video for each photo but it is my choice if I want to view the photo like that, just by holding down the cursor over the photo.

Last night we took a late walk, it was still pretty hot at 8pm. The heat index was still at 107° which isn't hot to those down in Texas but 'up here' it's pretty hot for that time of night.

The walk tonight is somewhat questionable for that same reason.

I've been asked how do I like getting back into a smartphone after taking 10 months off. It is taking me a little time to remember what apps I had on the other phone and to remember how things work ... the more I use it, the 'how to's, and apps, have all come back to me.

It's only been one day ... but it was a good purchase. Under the new Verizon plan, the phone will be mine once it is paid for. I guess they might have been before but by trading them in with every upgrade, it didn't seem like it.

I've remembered a few more apps that I liked but hadn't mentioned. GasBuddy is great for finding local gas stations and prices as you travel. But I like to use GasCubby to keep track of my gas in gallons, cost, and it will give me an ongoing mpg. GasBuddy does that also but I like the format better and used GasCubby before.

When I was first dieting years ago I found a free app called 'Lose It'. You log in everything you eat under each meal or snack, depending. Any food with a bar code can scanned by the iPhone camera. As each food is loaded into your day by you ... it supplies all the calories, fat, etc based on you putting the correct amount of food you have eat.

I found in the past doing a food log not only helped me control my eating habits and portions but I also lost weight. You tell the app how old you are, man or woman, how tall and how much you weight ... plus how fast do you want to get to your desired weight that is calculated by the app. Once that goal is set, the app will monitor your progress.

So I am pretty happy with my purchase, no buyers remorse of any kind. Verizon has already given me an itemized bill showing me my new costs per month even down to the small amounts of government fees that are charged.

Football season is almost in full swing here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

I Am An IDIOT !!!!

Okay ... here's the deal. It will not hurt my feelings if you admit it here on the blog, that you have been laughing to the point of almost falling down for the past 12-24 hours after you read me telling you about the $1 iPhone SE (new) that I discussed in my post last night.

Really, it has taken me this long to write this post because I haven't been able to stop laughing about it even after driving the 25 miles home with my new iPhone. It's a funny story that I will describe and it also might help someone getting ready to upgrade their phone.

I knew when I saw these two leaves hanging in midair that my day was going to be an interesting one. I just didn't realize at the time, the $1 iPhone was going to be the answer to the weirdness today.

Before I get started on the phone story, I'll narrate our late afternoon walk but it is still 90° as I write this at 7:10pm. We finished this walk about 10-15 minutes ago.

I am seeing more and more new purple flowers blooming throughout the field. They are everywhere. I have no idea what they are but they look nice.

Sadie and Stella didn't care about the flowers or the heat, all they knew, was they were on their daily walk and that was all that mattered.

While I was taking photos of flowers and the leaves that had turned colors, both of them ran pretty far away from me. They were happy to be outside today after I left them in the house for a little over 3 hours while I was at Best Buy picking up an iPhone.

For some reason today, Stella decided she would join us without any veering away from us nor hanging way back, ignoring my calls. That is always a good walk when that happens.

Lots of new spots for Sadie to check out ... nice fresh, some sort of natural organic nutrition. That's as far as I will go on what they were eating.

Stella trots along the back edge of the field, near both of us.

But she has that "I'm hot" look on her face, so I was pretty sure she would be following me all the way back to the house today.

Stella was the same way ... not many stops on the way home.

For those that read my post Sunday (yesterday) I spoke of the deal with Verizon and Best Buy for the iPhone 5SE ... $1 as long as you signed up for a 24 month commitment. Other options showed you would be paying a monthly installment of somewhere around $16 per month for 24 months for the cost of the phone.

I'm not as dumb as I look ... so the difference between those two options for the same brand new phone just didn't add up in my old brain .. circuits were evidently missing as I am trying to process this information over the weekend. I kept asking myself why is that iPhone only $1 ??

To make sure I was  "clear" on how I understood the two options I called customer service at Verizon and Best Buy ... and spoke to real people on each call, not a robot.

I find out today at the store at the time of purchase I was REALLY CONFUSED !!!!

The monthly charges were going to be for the data plan, one smart phone fee, a one time activation fee and the $1 phone.

NEITHER CUSTOMER SERVICE REP that I had called, told me that $1 was NOT the cost of the phone ... even after I told both of them "I just can't believe you are selling an new iPhone 5SE for ONE DOLLAR !!!!

So after a lot of research over the weekend, I was pretty sure I wanted the smaller size iPhone (4"), the same size as my 5S I sold last November. Luckily due to one of the regular Best Buy phone service reps leaving for lunch, someone that did not work in that department started my purchase.

Why was that lucky?

As I was bombarding her with more questions, she called the "Verizon/iPhone EXPERT" to help her with the purchasing process and answer the questions I had.

He had moved from the 5S to the 6S last year and had a lot of knowledge about the few differences between the two phones that I was not able to see when reading about them online. As I put the 6S in one hand and the 5SE in my other hand ... I was starting to change my mind. The slightly larger screen was easy on my eyes and it didn't feel that much bigger in my hand.

Long time blog readers know that I ALWAYS change my mind before the final purchase is done, no matter what I am buying ... RVs, computer, cars, trucks, etc.

As I told him ... "It's almost too hard to pass up a ONE DOLLAR iPhone 5SE for the larger 6S" ... he stopped ... he stared at me ... he had a shocked look on his face .... he started stuttering but the words would not come out !!!!!

And then .................. I was told ..... "it doesn't cost just a dollar ..... didn't they tell you about the $40 per month fee added for 24 months to pay for the phone ?????

I looked back through my hand written, notes ... I didn't see that fee listed.

So there was the REAL COST of the phone.

The interesting thing is, for some strange reason I could pick up the 6S model for $13 less per month and NO 24 month commitment, then after I added another $4 per month my 16Gb iPhone was bumped up to a 64Gb iPhone ... still under that $40 per month fee no one knows about for the ADVERTISED $1 iPhone.

It's only been a couple of hours playing around with it as I been going through the process of setting it and checking all of the settings that comes with it. I've also been downloading free apps that I had before on my other phone, all of this before our daily hound walk ... but after a short time, I can say that I am very very happy to have a smart phone back in my life.

I don't watch movies, nor ballgames and I don't play games on the  phone ... but I love the camera, the Notes program (basically my memory), the Maps that I can use as my GPS, and the free apps that help me track my diet/fat/calories and monitor my activity along with other uses.

Getting phone calls are just secondary ... I bought it for all the things it does besides being a phone.

So ... I hope you didn't spill anything while lauging about how stupid I must be to let the world know that there is a $1 iPhone available. ... it really is a good laugh and one that I enjoyed, even though the joke was on me.   LOL

All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

It Was A Scorcher Today

By the time I took the camera outside it was mid-day and HOT!!! That hot air hit me as soon as I stepped outside, telling me not much was going to get done today.

I was wrong.

The front yard needed mowing. It had been 9 days since I cut it last but I did the backyard the other night because it needed it and rain was predicted within that night or the next day. I also raised the mower blade back up one level higher ... my best estimate tells me it cuts at 3", the recommended height for my location and grass by Scott's Lawn Care.

It was near 2pm when I decided to drag everything out of the shed. What you see there is everything I take out of the shed that is stored around the mower, so the mower can roll out. The shed is only a little over 22" wide, but it all fits. Right before the photo was taken Stella was actually laying down about where she is standing ... taking a Sunday nap.

I decided today to let the bloodhounds roam while I cut the front yard. It was hot but I figured if it was that bad for them, they would be at the door wanting back inside. Instead they both disappeared into the field that they love to roam on their own. They were gone the whole time it took to mow the front yard.

In a little over 30 minutes I had finished the front yard, cut a little higher this week so there were no brown spots where the grass was cut too short last time. Sadie and Stella were standing at the corner of the house about the time I finished ... panting, tongues hanging out, wanting to go inside.

Some time last night in between football games the urge to moved back to an iPhone from my LG flip phone hit me, hard enough to look at Best Buy and Verizon websites for prices. I found out they have the same pricing and deals going on. Those deals and pricing were good enough to make the thought of upgrading again pretty strong.

We all came outside around 5:30pm. I was thinking we might take a walk but it was still really really hot and none of the hounds seemed too interested in being outside very long. After I took the photo of Heidi, they all "trotted" to the door to be let back inside.

This weekend brought a lot of dead, BROWN, leaves down to the ground. It's that time of year.

Heidi took a look around but was not interested in moving to the yard ... she likes the AC with the added feature of a fan blowing on her. How do I know that????  She always moves to sleep in front of a fan if I have one turned on.

Here are the iPhone prices that have me very very tempted to upgrade. I don't mind a two year contract, even though they got rid of them ... because I don't plan to change from Verizon.

So an iPhone 5 SE is $1.....ONE DOLLAR ... plus a 2 year contract, $55 per month for one line and 2Gb. Since I wifi off of my home internet, the 2Gb is plenty for me. I survived on 1Gb before.

An iPhone 6s is $49.95 .... total cost ... plus a 2 year contract, the same $55 monthly fee for one line.

Those are not bad deals.

In the meantime, it is still 93° and a heat index of 113° at 6pm here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Slow Saturday

Getting to bed last night in the middle of the morning, after watching live college football that didn't start until 10pm local time ... had me sleeping late today.

We woke up to unexpected rain and temps in the 70's but I could see from Wunderground that the rain was not going to last and it would be hot and sunny by 2pm. So with the day starting off a little from the normal routine, it was a little weird today and very slow. I have nothing exciting to post about.

A little after 5pm with the same weather as yesterday, the bloodhounds and I started the daily walk while Heidi lay sleeping with the AC on and a fan blowing on her ... she likes having the fan in front of her.

I had a feeling that Stella was going to do the same thing as she did yesterday, hanging back and not walking with us. I was right, in fact she did not show up for most of our walk.

Sadie led the charge as usual. She might fall behind me a few times but not for long, then she will run to catch up. She really enjoys these walks. In some of the photos I can see a line of her rib cage, which tells me she has lost the weight I wanted her to lose over the summer.

We are just past the first turn ... no Stella in sight behind us.

Sadie runs to catch me, not wanting me to get too far ahead of her.

I thought this was a butterfly at first but after the photo I saw it was nothing more than a leaf that was stuck between the green leaves.

By this time I've made the final turn for home and no sight of Stella. This is the longest time that she stayed away while we were on the walk. Then ... I can barely make out a moving object ... Stella is walking up the path in the opposite direction, coming toward me.

Even as the two partners in crime are walking with me, I had a feeling they would not follow me to the house like they use to. Whatever they decided I was going to let them do as I would head down the driveway to get my mail for the day, and check to see if the front yard was dry enough to mow. I knew they would show up at the house eventually.

They did not move from this spot. I had time to walk to the house and then down the drive a 100' to the mailbox and as I turned to come up the driveway ... both of them were standing at the corner of the house waiting for me instead of coming down the driveway after me. Just like they should do when I am in the front yard.

It's NFL pre-season, week 3 tonight with the local Colts. Luckily that game starts in little over an hour so it should not be a late night tonight, unless I watch the end of the Cincinnati Reds in Phoenix baseball game ... that went extra innings last night and was still going on after 1:30am local time.

I've played around a little with blog templates today, no changes. I've read and tried to get iMessage to work again on my computer ... I found out it's an Apple problem and everyone has been having issues with it the past week or so.

I need to start a new book and have a few on my shelves that have never been read. Not in the mood for movies and the hounds are in a deep sleep after their daily walk. All is good for them.

Nothing exciting today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.