Hounds Enjoy The Heat Wave

Everything looked the same this morning. Windy, overcast skies and signs of recent rain. Yet there was a huge difference as we started our morning walk. It was a 29° difference and a coat, gloves and ski cap wasn't needed in the 62° weather. I am not sure if the hounds noticed or not, they were excited as usual that we were heading outside.

With it raining most of the afternoon yesterday once again they didn't stay out long after they had their lunch. It does mean that Heidi makes her appearance within camera range for her second trip of the day outside. She walked as close to the house as possible, under the overhang to stay dry, but once she headed to the yard she tip-toed one paw at a time to check how wet it was.

You can see just how close the Azaleas miss the rain for water, just to the front edge. It's like that on all four of them. I placed them in the middle to allow for growth and not having them hang into the yard when they are fully grown. I guess I'll find out my next move next spring if they survive the winter.

With all the rain yesterday and last night, Stella had some nice fresh wet grass to choose from this morning. She stretches each blade of grass out like she is using it to floss her teeth.

I could tell soon after we started that Stella would probably not be joining us this morning, then going off on her own. I was almost at the first turn when I started to wonder if Sadie was even going to come with me. As usual she started sprinting toward me when she saw I was too far ahead.

One last look at Stella had me thinking this might be a day she disappears into the woods by the time we get back. In the past I can only assume that is where she goes when we can't find her after a hour of searching and calling her name. She will always come home on her own not too long after we finish the walk. I'd rather have her in view instead of wandering.

With the strong winds behind me from the southwest I as amazed just how different the temperature was compared to just 24 hours ago. We are still looking at Sunday being above 70°.

This picture doesn't tell the story. To me that looks like freezing weather with wind and even possible snow. It is one that I will see this January when it is that cold. I am very happy at this part of the walk to feel the warm air.

Sadie doing her normal exploring ... her walks never change no matter if we take two or three of them in a day.

As I continued to walk home I could barely make out a moving object far in the distance. I lifted the camera to my eye with the lens at 200mm and could barely see it was Stella. She was moving at pretty good speed in the direction of the neighbor's woods.

I gave Sadie my normal command of "go get Stella" and she was off.

I thought I was going to catch them tap noses so I left the camera on them ready to capture a picture of that happening. Not today. In fact Sadie spent time checking out what Stella had found before leading her back to the path we take.

From the half mile walk, sometimes for Stella the last 100' is the slowest and longest of all. She will get distracted right up until the time she is standing at the door, nudging the round door handle with her nose hoping it will open. Here is an example of that slow 100' in today's walk.

You might think she is on her way to the house but when I turned around again to check on her she had walked back out into the field.

Once I yelled her name ... she headed toward the house.

But again .... sharp right turn to see what that is ... nothing is ever definite with her.

Finally she realizes it's time to come in and start that morning nap that will carry her to lunch ... life is tough for a bloodhound.

Not much planned again today but my food supply is telling me it's time for a grocery trip again. I usually stop and grab a 40# bag of dog food for the hounds on the way home even with a few days of meals left from the previous bag. That 40# lasts on average 17 days for two bloodhounds and a basset hound.

With the World Series finishing last night I am back to two sports to follow ... college football and in about ten days college basketball. My NFL time has decreased a lot this year, down from last year and that seems to be the trend nationwide.

Another great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... it's warm again.

Sadie Drags Me Out Into The Cold & Rain

I knew if I did not decide to take this early morning walk, then Sadie would not leave the doorway to my computer room and would keep staring at me for hours on end. We woke up to rain, earlier than normal and dark inside the house. I felt energized and didn't hesitate in starting the day a few minutes after 7am. When it's cold and rainy outside, is there anything better to do with a hot cup of coffee and a brain full of words to type ... than to blog?

Quite a difference from yesterday when I spoke about my mind being a black hole and finding it hard to put any words to print. Was it the early morning starting time? Hot coffee? Or the 7 hours of good sleep? I'm not sure but I found I was doing things without a lot of thought or analysis.

The hounds didn't think or analyze .... they hit that field and took off running.

Another thing I didn't put a lot of thought into was what I was going to wear in 33° weather and light rain. The weather radar looked clear at the moment but it had been raining the first two hours we were up. I didn't hesitate to grab my Columbia winter parka today and putting on my snow boots that have been doubling as my rain boots.  I wanted to stay warm and dry and didn't care it was only November 1st.

When I started the walk I knew for sure what I was wearing was perfect for this weather. I was not only warm but dry as I started hearing drops of rain hitting my parka. It was strange to me that as dreary the day looked, I felt as good as I do when it's a hot sunny summer day. Why the change in moods.

Sadie had already disappeared around the first turn. Stella was trotting to catch up with her and I was pretty sure they both would end up where they were yesterday. With the rain becoming harder I wasn't going to let Stella hang back today. We had to make this walk fairly fast in case it started to pour.

I was right. As I made that first turn they were there in the same spot as yesterday.

I kept walking and kept repeating "let's go" and was actually getting some kind of response from both of them. So it did not surprise me to see Sadie run up along the right side of me. I was even more shocked to see Stella right behind me as I turned to see where she was.

I probably have too many blurry pictures today but in a way it catches the hounds as they are running, sometimes faster than the auto focus on my camera can bring them into view.

The rain was light but loud against my parka sleeves. When you are dry and warm it really doesn't matter how much it rains. The hounds didn't mind getting wet nor did I.

It looked like Stella might decide to stay in the field all day unless I called her name. She wasn't fast but she slowly walked toward us and eventually caught Sadie and I.

Once Sadie tapped noses with Stella, they both took off in a trot heading home.

Just because we get close to the yard doesn't mean the walk is over. If either hound finds something interesting to check out further they will and it doesn't matter how hard it is raining. The little color of the leaves are gone today. The leaves have fallen but plenty are still on the trees. They will keep me busy raking them, or blowing them, or leaving them. (greg's suggestion)

Stella gave me a look as if she was telling me "yes, I know it's raining ... but" she follows her own pace as usual.

It's an old parka but it still works. It has survived heavy snow, hard rains in all kinds of single digit temperatures. Why upgrade?

I was able to do some software updates this morning before 8am. That puts me in the range of using my extra 50Gb of free data I get. I did not plan to use a lot of data today because I am very close to using all of my monthly 20gigs that I pay for. I had gone back to Google Chrome a few days ago and once again .... it nailed me with an unexpected update with Google Chrome Helper running in the background, an update you can no longer change from automatic to manual.

Just in a blink of an eye 386Mb zipped through my available data just like that. For those of you that have unlimited data that doesn't sound like much but when you pay for only 20Gb per month that is about half of your daily data budget. It didn't take me long to export my Google bookmarks to my desktop and then open Safari and import all of my updated bookmarks, using Safari again as my default browser.

Is it hard to believe it's already November 1st, it seems that summer was just here a few weeks ago.

In my post yesterday Greg suggested a new invention of "Castor Oil for Writers". Maybe that is why I feel in the mood to write.

I had an insurance adjuster show up yesterday to take a look at the damage under my Z4. He pulled out his new iPhone 8 to take photos under the car. I offered to jack up the front of the car for easier access but he didn't mind crawling on my freezing concrete floor to check out the damage. Being a fellow IU football fan we both agreed just how frustrating it was to follow IU football year after year with below average results.

I'll get an itemized list of for the repair estimate. My friend tells me that he has had great experiences with USAA insurance when a claim is filed.

I've added a couple of old blogs I use to follow on the left sidebar. I am probably back to my original list of bloggers for you to take a look at if you want. There are some that have great photography of where they are or have been. Everyone seems to be in a different place in the USA or Canada and that's what makes it interesting when reading their updated posts.

A few of you have asked where is Heidi, if she's okay ... she is, buried deep inside 'her' Marmot sleeping bag and isn't enthused to have her picture taking. She has officially declared winter is her for her. I have a surprise for her on Sunday ... it's suppose to be above 70°

The World Series will end after tonight with Game 7. If you are a baseball fan, no matter who your favorite team is, you have to admit it's been an exciting World Series ... although I am not a fan of the 'juiced' baseball ... I prefer pitching duels with games like 2-0 or 3-1 instead of 13-12 with similarities to playing MLB on PlayStation 4.

Sometimes I will turn on the tv to sports talk shows. It will be on in the background but a lot of times those shows don't last long before I turn off the tv. Why does every show in sports or news turn into having loud arguing with each other ... even if they were hired to present different points of view. Yelling and arguing does not improve viewership as ESPN has found out the last year or two, more layoffs to occur.

There were other things I was going to 'ramble' about in this post but they have evaporated in my mind ... I can't remember anymore stuff to write about.

With it raining again there will not be much planned for today besides the usual ... some internet surfing, games of Mahjong, some reading and a possible siesta ... speaking of ... maybe it was that 5 hour siesta I had yesterday afternoon that made me feel so much better today. It could have lasted longer and into the the baseball game, but the phone ringing woke me up just in time.

With Sadie and Stella wrestling inside, it's a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Don't Mind Freezing Temps

It's good to see in a few days we will have high temperatures in the high 60's four days in a row because this morning by 10am it could barely reach 31°. Quite a change from yesterday afternoon where it rained lightly off and on, to the point that the hounds didn't stay out very long after their lunch.

Is that the most boring, non-exciting starting paragraph you have ever read anywhere online?

While it rained yesterday I was more than happy hanging out inside reading books and taking breaks with games of Mahjong. I also did a lot of research online about different things on my mind. It's really amazing just how much information you can find at the tip of your fingers with the internet.

I remember before my first computer I was connected to the web with Microsoft's Web Tv sometime in 1996 or '97.

Sadie and Stella went no further than this after lunch yesterday with a light rain hitting them on their backs.

Heidi walked out to where you see the wet concrete, did an abrupt about face and headed back to the house. She decided she could hold it until later in the afternoon. There was no way she was going out in the rain even if she was shielded by the roof overhang.

But this morning was different. For the first time this fall, the grass had a crunching sound as I walked into the yard. Heavy frost covered the yard and all parts of the field that were in the shade.

While Sadie was hopping up and down, grabbing my left hand with her mouth to get me to start the walk ... Stella sprinted ahead of us, on her own schedule and with her own plans.

Once Sadie saw that I had moved about 50' into the field and the walk had officially started, she took off running to catch up with Stella. You would have thought they were headed around the corner and out of sight by the way they were running ... not today.

I didn't say a word and kept on walking. Each time I turned around to see what they were doing, Sadie would be looking up to see if I was going to stop or keep walking. I was kind of surprised she didn't follow me.

Finally she realized that I was already by the roll of hay on the back side of the field and wasn't going to wait for her ... she sprinted as fast as she could to catch me.

While Sadie slowed to match my pace ... Stella was just starting to walk to the path to meet us. As I turned toward home a freezing cold from the southwest hit me in the face, reminding me that summer was over. It felt as cold as a mid-December/January wind.

Since Stella stood in one spot for most of our walk, she always thinks that as we meet on the way back that she can then start her walk with Sadie and I following her. Once I said "we're going home", they both stopped and turned from the direction of the neighbors to the return path.

They put their noses to the ground on what I call the alternate path home and followed that all the way to the property pole on the north side. Keeping up a pretty good pace I followed them right up until the yard. I passed them to get these closing pictures.

You might be able to tell with this post and the one yesterday, I am having a hard time writing about something. I could post less frequently but I am not sure that would even help my minor writer's block. Things just get slower than normal at times in the fast paced life of retirement.

With sunshine and dry grounds, we will be taking one or two more walks today.

I can't believe it's almost noon today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.