Sadie Looks For The New Black Cat

Sadie was on the prowl a little bit earlier than normal this morning because I was up and making coffee in the middle of the night. A few weeks ago while the bloodhounds and I were outside right before sundown, I saw a black cat walk across the corner of the north property line back into the field. Sadie has no doubts that same cat pays us a visit during night time hours.

I remember many years ago when I would hear my grandmother telling us she would be up wide awake at 3am most of the time. I found that hard to understand as a child or even older. Why would anyone want to get up that early??? 50 some years later I am finding my answer.

When you are a night person but go to bed at 10:30pm, you can expect an early wake up call ... but 4:30am was a little ridiculous this morning. Yet I was wide awake and making my two cups of coffee and telling the hounds "go back to sleep", which they did ... I didn't.

So right off the bat our morning routine had changed a little bit. I was able to slide my data usage over into that 2am-8am time slot where I have an extra 50Gb of data allowed for the month (billing period) and the hounds were able to sleep until their normal wake up time.

Since I house trained Sadie as a 12 week old pup to go out after her meals, she has followed that training every time she eats for the past 9 years as of this June. Today was no different but that is not the same for Stella and Heidi. They go back to sleep after their breakfast, Heidi on the bed and Stella behind my desk chair.

Sadie will always take off out into the field but never past that first corner of the woods and rarely, if ever toward the neighbors house. The good thing is, unlike Stella, she will come running whenever I call her. I let her out on her own this morning but could see from the window she was no where in view inside that tall grass.

As I called, I barely saw the tip of her tail moving through the field coming from the middle of the field out toward the corner. If it was going to be like her recent routine she would come running through the wet hay/weeds at the north corner pole of the property line. She did ... but a strong scent stopped her in her tracks.

The black cat ???

She went in circles, zig zagged, then back along the edge of the mowed lawn tracking that cat scent and finally headed my direction when I said "come on".

Sorry about the darkness of all the photos but they were taken before 7am and even with a light adjustment, they did not look better with more light.

I swear the field and my yard are growing by the hour. I just mowed the yard a few days ago and it looks like I will be mowing it again today, no later than tomorrow. I am a huge Indy500 race fan but it looks like a lot of sitting time on Sunday with 75% change of thunderstorms. Another reason to get the yard mowed before Sunday.

I am betting the race will be postponed and will be ran under the sunny skies on Monday. It will not matter to me since I'll be sitting on my couch instead of at the race. I've spent more than enough time at that track during practice, time trials and one race where it rained and you waited hours for the track to dry.

Speaking of lawns, Jon Katz over at his blog Bedlam Farm is trying something with his lawn that I have thought about in the past but never had the guts to try. As tall as the hay gets near my yard in back I am not sure it's the right thing for me to do. Let me know what you think of his idea to mow around the edges a few laps but let the yard grow into a field.

I am loving this new computer with the Fusion drive. As the new computer is used, it will index itself and becomes even faster and will not reach it's optimum speed/performance until a few weeks from now. All my photos download from the camera to the computer instantly, while uploading to the blogs much faster than the normal time.

Who knows, the Retina display may add a few good years to my eyes based on the amount of time I spend on a computer reading or working on Excel spreadsheets. No matter why it's a huge improvement over a very good picture I had from the LED monitor.

I am settled again with no computer crisis. I have plans to sell the older stuff and all of my Apple 'toys' are synchronizing information as designed.

I am going to try to get Heidi out for a photo shoot later today for the blog. I might have to carry her outside since she has been pretty lazy while waiting for those hot summer temps in the high 70's, just not near 70. I'll probably post again later today even if she has other plans.

My photo from the past is May 2004. I met up with a new friend near the Arkansas Recreation area in southern Colorado to do a couple of days of camping. I was driving the tan Panel Van (just purchased) from Salt Lake City, UT to here in 'the tropics'. Dave had bought the green bus from me and converted it to a camper.

We did not know each other until the purchase, site unseen. It was sitting in a junk yard in Truth or Consequences, NM after I blew the engine a few miles north on I-25. It was my very first VW Bus purchase, off eBay in Tucson. He picked it up and towed it back over the mountains to his home, where he rebuilt the engine and told me what happened.

The weather continues to be beautiful here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Is That Rain I Feel??

I would have posted this hours earlier but Blogger has been having problems this morning on two different browsers.

The hounds and I will walk multiple times per day in all kinds of weather ... except rain or light sprinkles. You can see Stella felt the same way early this morning as we started our walk an hour earlier then normal. Of course Sadie was disappointed we got no further than the edge of the field before returning to the house ... weather does not bother her ... A lot of news today.

With light sprinkles hitting the top of my head, I stopped and thought of actually going ahead with the walk but water and cameras don't mix. Since we have returned inside, it probably will not rain although it's in the forecast. There is going to be a little 'rambling' in this post in between the photos. Some might consider a lot has happened since last Friday but that is what happens sometimes in the fast paced life of retirement here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

These two pictures are my first two pictures each day, even if I don't take another picture the rest of the day. This one above is taken from just outside my door while the one below is taken at the rear corner of my house while standing on those six stone blocks we named "Winston's Patio" years ago. They don't look like much but when you put them into their own folder, it's a nice weather recap of the year or even further than that when looking at those photos in a daily sequence.

I was so busy on Saturday and Sunday those two photos were the only ones I took the whole weekend. That had to be a first in a long time. I usually take at least 50 photos per day as a minimum and many times over a 100. The hounds still got their 2-3 walks in per day over the weekend.

Between more computer action here on the home front and the grass growing fast enough with the rain and sunshine that I have been mowing every 4 days or when I can between rains. I like the way my bank is growing in on the left side of those trees and fence post. I did the same thing as I did a few years ago with the section to the right.

I burned all of the overgrowth, pulled the roots of wild weeds out by a rake, picked up any rocks, raked it out a little and planted some grass seed with a handheld spreader. It wasn't what I'd call a professional way of doing things but it seems to have worked on the section to the right of the trees.

Since we have not taken the walk yet this morning ... btw ... I don't hear rain right now but can barely hear the wet pavement as cars and trucks pass on the highway. No, the traffic noise does not bother me. Sure I'd love to be out in the middle of nowhere without a sound of traffic but I like this location and the hounds love the field behind the house.

I have included a few pictures from this week. Stella is not running full speed but she does look like she is putting weight back on those ribs that were showing a few weeks ago. She is a lot more active on our walks and her tail is upright more than she had it last month. Her appetite has never wavered during the time I thought she was sick.

Each day has been beautiful this past week. Until this morning, the sky was as blue as it could be, which you will see in photos below. The temperatures have been perfect and the sunshine just right to where taking a siesta outside would be pretty easy ... if it wasn't for the 2017 arrival of mosquitoes.

Some may wonder what all I could be doing in the yard, where no flowers are seen or plants of any kind nor is the house falling down, but he makes it sound like he is working constantly on home maintenance or repairs. It's not that bad and it's nothing major but only things you can only do at times depending on the the weather while trying to beat the hot temps and humidity that is just around the corner.

I have not bought an Apple Watch yet but have thought about it for tracking my heartbeat, activity, workouts while riding my bikes. What I did find was what I had on my iPhone 6S that I bought last year ... it came with a health app and as long as the phone is in your pocket, hand or on your belt ... it will track time and distance along with a number of steps taken.

The problem is I've never liked being glued to my iPhone, it's not for phone calls which are becoming a rare activity as time moves on. My iPhone is for the camera, their 'note' program which really helps with my memory, GPS and a grocery shopping list. Yet, I found out just by putting the iPhone in my back pocket of my cargo shorts, it tells me our hound walks are 1/2 mile in distance ... mowing my yard is 1.9 miles in distance with enough incline in the front yard to rate 4 stories of climbing.

No wonder I feel so out of shape in April and early May after mowing the yard and being nothing but a couch potato during the winter months. If someone would have told me I would be walking 2 miles with a 22" push mower just to mow my yard ... I probably would have let it grow into a field and let them bale it twice a year. (joke)

I tried to get this picture taken when it looked like two planes were colliding but by the time I got the right setting for the camera to focus, I ended up with them crossing.

I must admit that not all of my time is spent outside or even working on the house inside. I am a computer addict and at times I fall into a phase of reading books non-stop from cover to cover. Or I might watch a set of movies or DVDs of tv shows that I have on my shelf ... non-stop. There are even times where a 4-hour afternoon siesta takes place without guilt. After all, when you are now a professional dog sitter you have to get your rest when you can.

Do I talk about Heidi now or start my computer story?

I looked back at pictures of Heidi last year to compare what I am seeing currently. May is a big big allergy month. While her paws lose hair from her licking and chewing them, my sinuses would be driving me nuts, itching as much as Stella does ... even waking me in the middle of the night because they are plugged up. Luckily Wunderground weather tells me when the bad allergy days will take place ... they have had their bar graphs max'd out this week. Not this year though for Heidi ... her paws are full of hair, no scratching and no licking non stop like in past years.

Yet, I have no answers on how Heidi improved so much since just this past winter. She hasn't looked this good since the first day I picked her up in June 2011. She has gained all of her lost weight back. She has full thick hair on her paws and front legs with it also trying it's best to grow back on her rear legs and shoulders. It was June 2015 when a vet told me, based on her skin condition at the time, he did not expect that hair to ever grow back on her rear legs.

This week she has added a little bounce to her step. Monday afternoon she took a walk with us through the tall grass where even her white wagging tail was out of view. She did not take the whole walk with us because her nose was checking every thing within an inch of her nose. We caught up with her on the way back. By the way she was wagging her tail and barking, she was happy to be outside doing whatever she wanted. She has been a lot more boisterous lately.

So after lunch yesterday, she trotted to the door, ran behind the Yews even in bright sunshine, hopped up the three steps to the porch ... jumped off the porch into the front yard to lounge, make a few rolls on the grass, scratch her nose and then sprinted to the driveway from the middle of the yard when I called her to come inside.

I would have let her stay out like I normally do but she went way outside of her boundaries last week for the first time ever, in the 6 years that I have had her. I couldn't keep an eye out for her because at the time I was in the process of changing passwords on my bank accounts and my credit cards. There is another story why I was doing that ... but that process prevented me from keeping an eye on Heidi outside, so she had to come in.

Changing of those passwords were only precautionary, I wasn't hacked. I am trying to figure out where do I start this computer story, but things have changed. I have found trading computers is much cheaper than trading cars and just as fulfilling. (hint)

It might be the 'Irishman' coming out in me or is it because I am a Taurus that makes me so stubborn at times? Maybe those stubborn bloodhounds have changed my DNA ... anyway I am aware of the consequences when I can't stop something. I have witnessed good and bad things take place because of it over the course of my life.

In this case with a 'dying' hard drive and a new computer sitting on my desk, I still could not stop trying to fix something (old iMac) that wasn't possible to fix. Why try since I had a new replacement on my other desk and fully operational?

The main reason I wanted to "wipe" the hard drive clean was all of my personal data, 7 years worth on the hard drive. Most likely, wherever this iMac ends up that wouldn't matter. But ... a real professional computer geek, if they so desired could use their knowledge and software to pull out that information even if the hard drive looks bad to me. I mean the computer still booted up and worked only so much slower each time it was turned on.

That screen might look normal but it took over 2 hours to boot up. With it sitting out of the way on my other small desk that collects paperwork, I had plenty of time to give it all the time it needed to start up. The next problem was clicking anything with my cursor put it in 'spinning beach ball' mode and more time.

All I wanted to do was get into the Disk Utility program where I could erase the hard drive and then either leave it like it would be if you bought it new out of the box or install the macOS ready for whoever to do what they needed with it.

By late Saturday night I was seeing screens never seen before ... the solid "white screen of death".

I will not go into all the details but will say when it was all said and done ... I believe my old iMac officially died. When I woke up Sunday morning it had finally got to the Disk Utility screen I had been waiting for and the Macintosh HD icon was gone!! Nothing for me to highlight before hitting the erase key.

I forgot to mention before, during the things I do to spend a day in this hectic pace of retirement ... that game app I mentioned last week '2048', told to me by a Best Buy sales rep ... IS my new addiction. So while I was drinking coffee Sunday morning and thinking of my plans for the day ... I did something I probably shouldn't have.

I plugged my MacBook Air laptop into my "old" 27" Apple LED monitor.

It has been 6 days since I had seen anything on a computer screen larger than 21.5", the size of the new iMac. I wanted to give that Retina display every chance it needed to sway me from thinking I needed that large 27" iMac 5K monitor that I passed on. It is just hard to describe how much better a Retina display looks like compared to what I thought was a great picture.

I also had forgot to take pictures when the older monitor was hooked up, so I could add them to my sales add on eBay or Craig's List when I get ready to sell it. That big 27" monitor lit up while sitting on the kitchen table connected to my laptop ... the picture looked so good that I screamed in agony. Had I made the wrong decision in my purchase? The 21.5" instead of the 27" and ~$500 more ???

I would have my answer later that day on Sunday.

The more I compared the two monitors the more I knew my answer. Working with my photos on the larger screen was so much better than the smaller screen. Still, the smaller Retina display made text look much sharper and clearer ... it was easy on my eyes. I didn't catch myself leaning closer to the Retina screen to get a sharper picture like I did with the larger LED screen.

But the new iMac had the normal spinning hard drive and not the solid state hard drive that my 2 year old laptop had. So it was slower, not a lot but noticeable. Just like the times I felt the rush of making decisions trading cars I had this same feeling about computers. I took the hounds out for an unplanned walk just to clear my head and let Stella have me focus on something besides computers.

By the end of that 1/2 mile walk I knew what I wanted and it would be easy with the 15 day return policy. I would just need another $525 for the bigger, faster iMac. Could it be that simple?

NOTHING is ever simple here in the fast paced life of 'the tropics'. That guy I have spoken about named Murphy is always in the shadows just waiting for me to get comfortable in life.

IF I were to take my iMac I purchased just 6 days prior back to Best Buy to trade it for the 27" iMac, Retina screen with a Fusion drive I would prefer, I wanted to erase my data from the hard drive instead of them. It is my paranoia at it's finest. I mean those people clean hard drives of turned in iPhones, iMacs, Window PC, etc so they can put it back on the shelf and sell it at a cheaper price called "open box".

No one would be grabbing that spreadsheet of mine that lists every password for every website, bank account or credit card that I use. Those passwords was my biggest concern. So let's get the process going. It was after 1pm, the store was open until 8pm but I had a lot to do plus one more hound walk before I left.

I start in Disc Utilities on this new computer and start erasing the hard drive ... until it stopped with a "process failure" ??? On a brand new computer???

That's okay ... I'll start over with the "repair" tab and it will fix anything that is wrong. Another ... "failure". I decided to reboot the new computer into 'safe mode' to see what it does from there ... it hangs up and doesn't load. By this time I am thrilled that I have my backup disk working automatically so my latest hard drive backup was only 15 minutes prior to this.

With my free 30 day Apple Care I made the call to see what is wrong with this new computer WHICH WAS NO LONGER WORKING. Long story short ... he tried 3 different ways of starting this new computer up and none of them were successful. I had nothing but a white screen or a progress bar that wouldn't move. It was a good thing that I could return the 6-day old computer in for an exchange ... just a 40 minute drive away.

I packed the iMac up, loaded the Countryman and headed back to the store to exchange computers. I already knew that I wanted 3 things in this next purchase ... Retina Display, SSD and a 27" monitor. The Fusion drive has just enough SSD to make it fast although the majority of the hard drive is the 'old fashion' spinning hardware. When I checked that day there were 4 in stock but I noticed they had sold out of the 21.5 iMacs in the past 6 days.

I love cruising 85 mph at 3,000 rpm in 6th gear on the fairly new interstate. My small screen inside the steering wheel tells me even at that speed the Countryman is getting 38mpg and if I let off the gas or go down a hill it reaches near 50mpg. It's times like these I love that car. Plus it is easy to get through and around "city" traffic. With the easy loading and capacity, it's the perfect vehicle for what I need.

After two of my fastest trips to and from to that local Best Buy store, I returned in less than 2 hours and enough time to take Sadie and Stella out for their 3rd walk of the day. It was an easy but time consuming set up of the new 27" iMac. These last three days with that larger screen and the Retina clarity makes it feel like it's been here 7 years and that nothing has changed in my computer world ... except it processes things much faster and the picture is stunning.

I've been told by the geeks on MacRumors forum that I can sell the old iMac as is for a couple of hundred dollars, just to be sure to let potential buyers know they need to replace the hard drive. The older great looking LED Cinema Display will bring a fairly good price. I'll try the option for 'local pickup' first on eBay and Craig's List to see if they sell. Otherwise I will take them to the UPS Store for packing and shipping.

So things are back to normal. I am up to over 30,000 points on the game 2048 and my Mahjong addition is nothing more than a distant memory. The yard is mowed, the hounds are fed, and my food supply is stocked ... all is good here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

I may start adding a single picture from the past at the end of each blog post that I do from now on. I need to change something on this blog to get rid of the bored feeling here. I am sure that some readers wonder to themselves at times why they come back. I know I do and that's bad when you are the blog author.

In the meantime ... June 2015, Stella wasn't around until a couple of months after, but Winston was. We had just arrived at our boondocking spot in the middle of 35 miles of silence somewhere in Utah. That was a great 6 day trip and a lot of driving ... something else that I enjoy doing non-stop, driving cross country.

The Hounds Feel The Heat

With the air smothered by the smell of honeysuckle and the first real feeling of 'sticky humidity' we headed out for our Friday morning walk. Allergies have been ragging through my sinus system to the point I could tell that May was officially here. Sadie is almost positive the new black cat has paid us a visit.
I can't remember the last time I used only 100Mb of data in a 24 hour period but it happened yesterday as I went full work mode here in 'the tropics'. Again this year, instead of using Roundup or another spray weed killer I am sacrificing a better look for less chemicals ... weed eating the weeds as low as possible and let the sunshine kill them the rest of the way.

I prefer a whiter gravel look to the driveway but have decided no chemicals works ok. This past week starting the walks Stella has been taking a path way to the left of the return path, yet she had been keeping our pace and before that spot she stops to scratch at every day, she will have veered back in front of me.

Every day is the same for Sadie. It doesn't matter what the temperature is, if there is rain or snow, once she hits the field she is there for only one reason ... to track scent. Our afternoon have been spent outside with me wearing a "hound mitt" brushing out all of her undercoat and letting the hair blog in the wind. It's amazing how much hair is brushed out.

Rabbits like to head into this direction. I am not sure if that is what she saw but I was just happy that she turned and headed back on the walk instead of charging into the woods. My legs were already dripping with water up to my knees and I wasn't enthused about running through brush and thorns after her.

I know lately I have been saying this almost every post, but it's strange to me. Throughout the whole walk Stella has two places, the same every walk, that she will stop and scratch. This is the first spot. Any ideas why?

With my North Face snow boots drenched, lower legs drenched, my lens hood that I installed a month or so ago for picture picture quality is now a valued protector of the lens because as the grass gets taller ... wet marks are showing up on the outside of the lens hood as we walk. I hold the camera up high while we walk but at times that will not prevent it from being hit with wet hay.

What can be so interesting at bare ground level through all of that thick grass and wild flowers?

Since yesterday was laundry day, Stella's collar was thrown in with Heidi's blankets. It came out nice and bright. I forgot it was outside drying in the sunshine until Sadie sprinted toward it right before the downpour of rain started late yesterday afternoon. At the time I thought it was strange that her first move was to the right toward the front yard and not south out into the driveway.

When I saw Stella panting yesterday I knew the inside temps were above 80°. With all of the windows open and a breeze stronger than any fan could produce I held off turning on the AC. It's about a month too early for the AC but it's temping as the humidity becomes stickier each day. The AC is like my heater in the fall, I like to see how long I can hold off before turning them on.

I would say that Stella is basically her normal self, except for her lack of running and wrestling with Sadie. Has becoming a year older had that much effect on her activity? She would eat the whole 40 pound bag of kibble if I would let her. She shows no sign of pain jumping on the couch but runs in her sleep.

Where's Heidi??? With a bath and manicure yesterday she has been recovering with solid hours of non-stop sleep. I even carried her outside yesterday afternoon to join us and as soon as her feet hit the grass, she turned and sprinted for the door. I guess she wanted to keep her nails clean as they were cut back the shortest I can remember, without drawing blood.

What ever Sadie and Stella found must have been good tasting ... I didn't catch the tongue until I downloaded the pictures from the camera today.

The pictures may not show it but there is a lot of doubling back to pick up our slowest walker. Not picking her literally but going back enough times to remind Stella that we would like to end this morning walk sometime before the day ends. She will walk at her own speed, not ours. I can't afford to leave her behind with her increased interest this week looking at the woods to the north or the neighbors house.

It might take a while on the return path but there is always a scent they may missed on the way out. Slowly they inspect every inch back to the yard.

I guess the weather experts might be right this time. As I write this the sunshine has disappeared outside of my window and that rolling thunder seems to be getting louder. The hounds are in their sleep mode until lunch. Heidi's is in Bertha's chair stretched out across the ottoman, Stella right next to my desk chair and Sadie protecting her water bowl with her nose just inches away.

I took this picture with hopes of showing you just how much taller the hay is near the yard compared to what we walk through. Each morning we take the walk, our path had been covered by night time growth.

It's been a few days since I swapped out my 27" LED monitor for a 21.5" Retina iMac. I am somewhat surprised that I have felt no buyer's remorse with my new iMac purchase and missing the larger monitor. I thought of selling the other monitor but first I want to buy an adapter so that I can hook up my old PC to it and see what is on that Windows XP professional hard drive. I turned it off after losing the war against malware in October 2007. It has been sitting wrapped in plastic, on the floor of the closet that houses my stereo.

It's too hard to mix and match Apple and Windows so I am not sure what I would do with that hard drive even after I turned it on. Yet, it would be a good computer for my old Microsoft Flight Simulators, or the Falcon 4.0 F-16, and one of my old time favorite games ... Sim City. So maybe after I take a break from working around the house ... I'll check out those possibilities.

Things I have noticed with the new computer .... the new wireless keyboard is fantastic and I swear my typing speed has increased. It was fast before but my fingers seem to float over the keys even faster. The retina display is still noticeable and not even close to what I thought was a good picture on my larger monitor. My pictures download faster and upload to the blog faster. Programs open much faster and it takes less than a minute to boot up.

I have yet to see the "spinning beach ball" known as the "hourglass" on a Windows PC. For some reason I still think there is hope for recovering my old iMac, yet it does not fail to remind me quickly that it is not healthy with hanging up at startup, or the amount of time it takes to boot up before I can use the cursor to open something ... only to see that "spinning beach ball".

I found yesterday showing some differences in a day with no computer time and the camera only taking two pictures first thing in the morning. Both hound walks were done without taking the camera and as much time as possible was spent outside. It will be a day of my "inside to do list" because the rain has just started to fall lightly.

It's warm and mugging in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

Still Alive After A Few Days Off

I guess it has already been 3-4 days since the last blog post. I usually try to take at least one day off without computer time and find it amazing just how much I can get done in one day when I am not vegging out in front of the computer. With great weather, quite a bit has happened in the past few days. I took a day off from the computer but not activity.

From the sound of that, don't expect any exciting news from the hounds. Their days most of the time are all the same. That's an early morning yard inspection, a nap for an hour or so while I drink coffee and their first walk. We have been taking three walks per day around the activity I have been doing outside and around the house.

As long as I can remember I seem to fall into the "all or nothing" category. That has followed me to the world of blogging, although when I first started, if you look on the side bar those first couple of years I did less than a hundred posts in a year. Somewhere along the line blogging became almost an everyday thing ... sometimes multiple times per day. Recently I have been noticing a change that I needed to fix.

I started off the spring fast in mid-April by burning and clearing the bank along the side of the driveway. After that, some of it might have been because of weather but the main excuse for not getting anything else done on my annual house 'to do' list was laziness. I couldn't pull myself away from the computer even on the days that had great weather. That had to and has changed these past few days.

While I ramble I will include some commentary about some of the pictures. Here you can see just how fast the field is growing near the house.  It is not nearly this tall after we leave this lower area where the hounds have spent the winter fertilizing it and all of the underground water in that field ends up on this side. I mow that path to see where my anchor is for the rope.

So as I was saying, my routine had to change. Based on what I was doing the past three days, a lot of times I was busy doing stuff outside during the hours I normally download and edit my pictures, then upload to the blog and start writing. I started noticing a trend that if I did not get away from the computer after we left for the first walk of the day ... I was there for the rest of the day.

Therefor I will probably go back to posting on my blog at the end of the day after this. That leads to the next problem I had. With a full day of outdoor activity getting stuff done, fitting in two hound meals and three walks per day ... I was tired by the end of the day. I am not in 22" push mower shape right now but getting there. By the time I fixed dinner and cleaned up afterward I would read, surf the internet, check email or watch a ball game but there didn't seem like enough time to blog.

I enjoyed a 'normal' life again as I say. Yet, I like to take all the pictures of the hounds and I like writing on the blog ... so there is a fine line when you have a personality that leans towards the 'all or nothing' policy.

I did find out it helps to get things done, if I print out my 'to do' list rather than use the lists on the computer or the 'Reminders' app on my iPhone. There is something about putting a line through a task after you complete it and see how many things you knocked out in a day. Otherwise on the computer you click something is complete and it usually disappears from view.

The thing is I have just started on a long list of things to get done this summer before it gets too hot. Usually I high pressure wash the house and shampoo the carpets once the weather gets hotter because each will dry out faster rather than doing that in cooler spring temps.

I have inspected under the house in the crawl space. My crawl space is a big 'moon crater' that the Mennonites dug when they built the house in 1975. So it's easy to walk around bent over instead of crawling with not much space. I have some new things I need to get finished under there before it gets too hot. They are both all day tasks, where the hounds might only get two walks during those days instead of three ... plus there may not be any blog posts on those days.

Sadie was flushing out birds this morning that were sitting in the field, hiding in the deep grass and wild flowers.

Even as I write this I have a few things on my mind that I want to get done today and since I did spend time away from blogging it's almost like I feel rushed to finish this and get back outside. Some of those activities is bike riding again. I've made a few trips to town on my mountain bike just to enjoy the ride and still get a good workout in. When I start riding my road bike I will be riding for at least an hour and longer after I get in better shape. In that case picture taking and blogging might move to the side.

Basically when the weather is nice outside, sometimes there isn't enough time in the day to set down and put a post together. It does take time to process the pictures, upload, write the post and then go back into the HTML side and changes those photo settings so they stay sharper and clear after they are posted on the blog. After all that is done, I like to proof read before I publish the post.

Someone asked me about cars the other day and wondered if I missed my Toyota FJ. It's only been 4 months since I traded the FJ for the Mini Cooper Countryman. That's a hard question for me because when it comes to cars or trucks, I like every one I have ever bought and traded. I wish I had them all.

I have found the Mini Countryman to be a great car. Plus the gas mileage is great, it's got speed when you want it and room to take two trash cans to the recycling center. There is room for Heidi in the passenger seat and the bloodhounds fit in the back for trips to the vet. I thought at one time of trading for another FJ but stopped for the simple reason ... when I think of my future travel plans I am not set on what type of vehicle to use. Right now I like what I have, or an FJ, maybe a Chevy truck with a truck camper or a Chevy Express cargo van.

So with that many options floating around my pool of ideas, nothing will be traded until I come to the point in time that I am ready to hit the road. That will not happen until I am down to just one hound or maybe none, depending on their situation.

Every walk, not just every day, Stella will stop at the exact same spot in the field to scratch. Is that a habit or something else?

I need to take time to take Heidi to the vet for her annual checkup and weigh her. She looks and feels like she had gained the 13 pounds she lost in June 2015 and kept off until this past winter. It's the middle of May and I have seen no sign of her allergies that bother her skin. Based on past pictures, it usually started in late April or May where her paws would be raw from licking plus she would have a lot of scratching. So far, that has not happened this year.

Stella looks like she is gaining some weight but really nothing can be confirmed until I take her to the vet 11 miles away and use their scales. She still does not run full speed but she has been trotting more and her tail is in the upright position more than it had been. Whatever she has or had, I think it will take a long time before she returns to her old self.

I guess I'll announce some big news on the topic of my computer situation.

Each time I would move my laptop from the desk to the living room or kitchen table to use, most of the time I would lose the settings for the wireless keyboard and trackpad. That meant that every time I sat down to use it I had go back into 'preferences' and reset those so I could 'drag and drop' cells in Excel or hold down the delete key to scroll and delete words or sentences fast, not one character at at a time. I was told yesterday by an computer geek that with a wifi connection that is normal.

While mowing the yard yesterday at noon because it would be 6° hotter in the late afternoon I decided I was going to clean up after that and head to Best Buy to buy the Mac Mini hard drive and move the laptop back to it's normal home ... the kitchen table. Like I said a few days ago, I had plans to use that Mac Mini with my tv later on if I decided to by a new iMac.

Luckily when I was at Best Buy yesterday the sales rep I had help me was a true definition of a computer geek and gamer. Whereas on Saturday I had a sales rep that was a college student working part time and was more interested in telling me about this MacBook Pro and why I should buy that ... instead of asking me what I was going to use my computer for or even what did I do on a computer.

So we started with "what can I help you with today", I knew I was getting a professional sales rep. He showed no favoritism to brand names, nor the type of PC or a Mac. It was all facts with him. I'll spare you all the details but I found out that what I wanted to use the Mac Mini for later with my tv was not possible.

Yes, it did have a HDMI connection but that was only for output and not downloading movies or ballgames I would be watching on my DirectTV DVR and using it as a storage unit for playback. If I was streaming shows or games over the internet, then it would. With a data limit per month on my internet service, I don't stream anything.

With that news, the Mac Mini was no longer an option. So my only two choices were 'small or large' monitor because the hardware and specs were the same thing between a 21.5" and a 27" screen on the iMac. Once you see a "Retina Display" on a large monitor it's hard to look at another LED monitor the same way again, even with a high quality picture. My iPad Mini and iPhone have retina display.

The smaller screen is a 4K. I guess that is the new buzzword that is just starting with televisions and shows, similar to the change from analog signal to HD. IF a 4K tv shows this much sharpness and clarity on a tv screen then I am in trouble and I will refuse to look at any 4K tv just for that reason.

Of course like many people I said years ago that I would never buy a CD player with all the music I had on other formats between vinyl albums and cassette tapes. Then I said I'd never buy a DVD player, why do that when I have hundreds of ballgames and movies on VCR tapes. I've ended up with both players and now have hundreds of CDs and DVDs on the shelf ... so when it comes to electronics ... never say never.

Trying to keep this story short ... I'll just say after many weeks of analyzing, researching, thinking and working on each size of computer ... I decided to buy the 21.5" iMac with a retina display just like I did in October 2010, minus the retina because they were not out yet. Sometimes a 27" monitor is just too big. I suspected before I bought it and have found out in the few hours I have been on this computer ... the retina 4K quality picture makes up for the decrease in monitor size. So far I have not missed the 27" display I had before.

What happened to the idea of installing new memory sticks and a new solid state hard drive into the old broken iMac? I confirmed with the computer geek yesterday that it was a concern that a new hard drive and memory sticks may or may not match up with a 7 year old processor. Yes, I would be buying what the company would tell me would work with my model and year of computer but no guarantees I would not continue to have problems.

Looking at the process of installing stuff inside an iMac was much different than when I did in my old PC's many years ago. With no guarantees I decided to leave the old iMac as it was and will either use Best Buy's trade in program even when they know the HD needs replaced or sell it to someone that can use what parts are usable.

So I moved the 27" Apple Cinema Display off the desk last night, moved the old iMac to my other desk and out of the way and moved the MacBook Air back to it's home on the kitchen table. The new computer set up pretty quickly without any problems. I migrated my files from the old computer to the new computer using my Apple Time Machine Backup. That took the longest amount of time of the set up.

I have more ram memory, a faster processor and a HD twice as large. This computer is just as fast if not faster than my laptop that has a solid state HD. So the computer situation is settled, the car situation is settled at least for a few more years, the hounds are happy with their dog food and my 'to do' list is printed and taped to the refrigerator door so I cans see and mark off what is done. Everything is good.

Another problem I have with blogging is my own fault. Those people that know me, know that I like to talk. You can correlate that to typing long blog posts that take longer than I like because I type as much as I talk sometimes. If I only blog once per week or per month or even every few days ... the next blog post would always be longer and more time consuming because of me trying to write about all that has happened in those days I did not blog.

I didn't care for the sale rep on Saturday. He was bored with the lack of customers since the university had ended their spring semester. The population has gone from 40K to around 10K for summer school students. While answered my questions he was on other websites at the same time. But ... he did one thing good ... "if you like playing Mahjong, then you will love the app 2048 tile game".

He was right ... I am addicted to that game.

For example about this blogging stuff. I have been working on this post since the hounds and I stepped back inside. This picture of Stella and Sadie was taken at 9:33am ... it is now 12:28pm and I am still not finished ... close to finishing but not yet ... so over 2-1/2 hours. In my eyes ... way too long. I still have to go into the HTML and change the settings on all of these pictures.

The bottom line is it's great, fantastic weather. I have a new fast computer. The hounds are ready to eat and I have a printed 'to do' list that I can see. Everything is good.

Back to the 80's today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.