July 02, 2018

The Blog Is Back In Action


I guess maybe I only needed a break from blogging. It's been around 37 or 38 days since the last post here where I announced the blog was over. It might be time consuming but I enjoy writing and I enjoy taking photos of the hounds. My problem is only internal as I fight my own demons of obligation and 'all or nothing' type of feelings. So we will be back to posting again, maybe only photos for a while, may not be every day ... we will see how it goes.


These are photos from as far back as May 28 and in order they were taken if Blogger placed them as they usually do, in sequence from the oldest to the newest photo. I have rebuilt the blog sidebar and re-labeled it as just a reading list since there are some websites mixed in that are not blogs. A new site I have added is Fact Checker ... a legit site that seems to be honest and can separate what is fake news and the actual facts.


If you think of other blogs I have had there that you followed but don't see them let me know. I know that I am missing some of the old ones. Maybe my memory cells can align later and I can remember them.







Sadie did some 'sparrow chasing' ... but Stella is just taking it easy and trying to survive the heat.


















My friend's Mini ... named "Boogie" ...


All the hounds are good. Sadie turned 10 years old in June. Heidi is back to her hot summer hibernation and only goes out long enough after a meal to relieve herself. Stella loves the AC and Sadie doesn't care how hot it is, she wants to walk twice per day.

I'll catch up more later in the coming days ... nothing major has happened. All is good in retirement.

June 13, 2018

Just A Few Pictures

I have basically stopped blogging but felt like posting some photos of the hounds from the past few weeks.

May 26, 2018

This Blog Is Going Out Of Business


I've gone back and forth on this decision a lot in the past months. It probably shows in my writing and photos that this blog has ran it's course. There are a couple of reasons I am going to stop blogging, from being bored with writing the same kind of posts each time and posting photos of the hounds in almost the same positions, the same areas of the field as before ... more importantly I want my time back.
I started enjoying the days I did not post on the blog a lot more than the days I sat down to put a post together. It's amazing how much time you have when you are not blogging or spending time on social media. I now have time to ride my bicycle in an attempt to get back into some really good physical shape. I can sit outside reading a book without wondering if I missed a great photo for the blog. The hounds roam freely while I am outside.

There is also more time for hound maintenance for three of them. Things like trimming toenails, giving them a bath or combing their undercoats out. I also found the walks to be more enjoyable without the camera, then being able to come back inside and do other things besides moving in front of my computer to download, edit photos and put a blog post together.

I guess I am just tired of doing the same thing on this blog over and over. It is more like work than being fun.

This blog would be 7 years old this October. I have quit numerous times in the past and even deleted it a couple of times. In fact over those 7 years I have gone from a paid domain to two different blogspot domains.

I'll still take photos of the area and the hounds. I don't need a blog to look at them. They are all on my computer in specific folders for quick access. I know that is selfish in a way but really what was life like before the internet. I'd like to get part of that life back, especially in reading books and riding my bikes. In the winter I will ride my road bike indoors setting on a 'trainer'.

I made a comment a year or two ago when I quit this blog. At times blogging is like me standing down by the highway passing out pages of my life and that of the hounds to passing cars and strangers I don't know. Being a private person and one that likes solitude living wins out in this case.

I have spent time thinking about all the options of blogging, maybe some new ways of blogging that I thought I might want to do but the bottom line was I did not want to do any of it.

I want to thank all of you that stuck it out to the end. Believe me there have been a lot of inconsistent activity written here, sometimes even changing my train of thought in the middle of a paragraph. So you had your chances to leave many times. Thanks again for taking your time to stop by and see what was up.

Thanks for all the comments, all of the emails and becoming online friends with some of you.

So with this post I will officially announce that the hounds are retiring from blogging and we will continue to enjoy living in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Good luck to you all.

The Hounds Battle Hotter Weather


As the temperatures get hotter every afternoon this week, our routine didn't change much. Fewer photos were taken and there was less interesting things to write about. I continue to be on the fence on deciding a few things. So here are a few photos from the last few days that I didn't blog.


Every day after her lunch Stella likes to take a 30 minute nap in the sun. Heidi sprints back inside as soon as she relieves herself and Sadie roams the field. While Stella wanders the field during the morning walks, Sadie will get her running in as the grass gets taller and taller all over the field.


Each time Sadie finds Stella over by the neighbors house. I've been letting her do what she wants since our last post here. I have been basically lazy and haven't done anything besides two walks per day, nibble food during the day only when I feel hungry, without fixing what you would call a meal. Then every night I watch Reds baseball on tv and while the hounds sleep.


With my food supply very low it was time to find some groceries and the perfect time to get serious about what kind of food I was going to start eating. I went back to logging all my food intake on Cronometer.com It will break each food down into the micro nutrients and track your protein, fat, carbs and calories plus all the vitamins and minerals. If you click on one of those topics, it will list from the highest to the lowest food in that category. I can see now why my weight was starting to creep upward while I ate less food before this recent change.


So far I am losing a pound per day after three days. Most likely that is just water weight. I can make it from breakfast to the time I go to bed without feeling hungry. Basically no grains, no pasta, no beans, a few nuts or seeds and dairy is allowed but not much because that kills your required low carbs count.


On the Friday morning walk I didn't see Stella anywhere on the horizon and she wasn't near the edge of the woods behind the neighbor's house. So I told Sadie "go find Stella" and she took off with her head in the air as high as she could get it.


She stopped once looking in all directions, then moved left toward the last place I saw Stella. About the time I started walking that direct she turned completely around and started running toward the neighbor's backyard.



Sure enough, there was Stella right next to the woods in their yard where they throw food scraps out for the field cat. Stella was scarfing down food as fast as she could. I couldn't take any photos of that because I was trying to get to her as fast as I could. That included jumping over their small drainage ditch that goes along the edge of the yard.

Sadie headed her back in the direction of the house ... the afternoon walk I had Stella on the retractable leash to keep her near us.


Late Thursday night I logged into my two week old Instagram account and deleted it. Then I logged into my Facebook account and deleted that. All in the name of downsizing my internet footprint and spending time on this blog and my private blog whenever I feel like writing.

I still have a Twitter account which I will keep. I use it as a reader mostly for all my sports teams. I do follow James Woods, the actor, because he comes up with some great stuff to remind people just what the truth is in this time of constant manipulated information.

For some reason the Z4 has not left the carport for the past three days. I had a big workout mowing the yard on Thursday afternoon late. It was hotter than I had planned on and 52 minutes later I finished and then stood in front of a fan to cool off as fast as possible. My highest pulse rate during that time was 82% of my max and for the past week my resting pulse rate has averaged 49. I think that shows  have a healthy heart. Now to get rid of some of this gut.

When I put some gas in my FJ the other day it was the highest prices I had paid but was still not higher than prices were in 2013 based on my checkbook register entry that I do on a spreadsheet. I have done that on a spreadsheet since 1997 when Lotus 1.2.3 was the spreadsheet to use.

I did think about starting a blog where I could rant yell and scream about anything that made me mad. Plus I would talk about life in general, ask questions I wonder about at times. I even talked it over with a friend of mine that is also thinking of downsizing his blog activity and social media.

The more I thought about what he said and what I felt, I decided I did not want to have a blog like that. I want my life as simple as possible, the fewest conflicts as possible and computer time online the least amount possible. That might change next winter when it's single digits outside.

I'll be prepared this winter though. That same friend I was talking to me, mailed me a full length Carhartt Coverall that fit me perfectly since I am two inches taller than he is. Last winter at times on the walks I found out that high quality ski underwear and jeans were not enough to stay warm during that half mile walk. The Carhartts should change that drastically.

Sunday will start with the daily hound walk, then back home in front of a tv by 9am for the F1 race at Monaco. After that I will flip over to ABC to watch the Indy500 at noon with the hounds being fed and out for a pre-race pee. I will not watch all of the preliminary pre-race stuff loaded with commercials.

I am thinking of stepping out on the 'thin ice' and expanding the "Other Stuff" part of the blog title and possibly bring some life to this boring blog where no topic will be left behind.

All is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana because I LOVE hot weather.