Stella Was Energized Today

After getting to bed earlier than normal last night, the hounds and I started our day in the dark before 7am. The days are getting shorter and reminds me of the days I would drive to work in the dark and at times arrive back  home in the dark. Retirement gives a different feel when waking up and making coffee in the dark and the hounds outside for their first trip of the day. I knew when I saw Stella running out of the carport to the left toward the field ... she was energized today.

It did not feel as humid as we stepped outside this morning and that 70° will not last long today. I have to wait for 6 more days the high temps move back to the lower 70's and high 60's. Due to that all my polyurethane work is on hold. I want to apply it and let it dry with good ventilation with all the windows open. So ... today I'll pick another task off the 'to do' list and do that today, inside, with the AC running when it decides it needs to.

This time as we started the walk ... Stella didn't wait for me like she had been doing recently. Once again a sign of energy that I haven't seen in a while.

 

I decided today to add some photos of the dying or died wild flowers or plants in the field. A sure sign of fall, plus I wasn't sure how many photo opportunities Stella would give me on this morning's walk. She would spend a lot of time walking about 3' feet behind me, barely within camera range.

It's been a few days of changes. You may have noticed that I started putting the commentary for the photo above the photo not below. Yesterday I changed the Apple and Firefox to a 'light' mode from the 'dark' mode ... this morning I changed it back to the darker mode. I've always liked the feel of a new iPhone. NO ... I didn't upgrade my 8+ for one of the new ones. I did take off my new case and decided I would try using the iPhone without a case.

I like the feel of the sleek, thin phone. Since the first Apple iPhone came out I have dropped my phone only 1 time on the concrete carport floor as I was trying to balance phone, books, cup of coffee and my FJ keys. The corner of the case probably saved the phone. So why I am tempting possible disaster with a glass back iPhone and no protection of any kind?

My curiosity always leads me to do an internet search. I have not used Google Search in many months and instead use DuckDuckGo ... it's not what Google has found but it's the principal. If I didn't have Blogger blogs I would have deleted my gmail accounts months ago. Transfer the blogs to Wordpress ???? On the free version that is a hard process but problem free if I were to use their paid Wordpress blog where I would have to buy a host server. So ... I've stayed on Blogger.

What did I search?  "How many iPhone users do not use a case" ... surveys show around 40% for all the same reasons why I want to test it without a case. I'll keep you posted what happens ... or you will hear me screaming loudly through this blog when I drop it and crack the glass black of the iPhone or screen. If that happens, believe me ... hearing me through this blog is possible, without even writing a post.  LOL

Another sign of energy from Stella ... she was actually curious about things off the path.

It's times like these I think of buying a macro lens for the camera.

Stella enjoying her morning walk. Not a care in the world ... is her world.

You see her following the path without much variation.

Here you can see she is going to follow the path and automatically turn left as the path turns left.

It is kind of funny on her walks because she walks at the same slow pace, rarely changing speeds, and rarely darting all over the field from place to place. As you know there is a lot less energy and activity on our walks without Sadie. She loved to track scent in this field.
 

She always seems to stop at the same places to scratch herself. Luckily this past week since her surgery she has not scratched the spot on her head, the stapled spot on her inner front leg nor her right eye. All three tumor spots are healing and look great.

I waited, had my camera focused and waited for Stella to catch up ... I was hoping to see her run. She RAN but ran so fast toward me that my camera was only able to catch her running in one photo. This is the fastest I have seen her run in a year or longer.

We have two choices when we are walking back toward the house. I let Stella choose which path we take. This morning it surprised me that she chose our old return path so we turned left and followed parallel to the edge of the field. She was only fooling me.

She started walking away from me toward the middle of the field. I let her go because I was pretty sure she was just going to follow other other path into the backyard, like she has before. She walked her way and I walked my way.

Again this Friday, a white flower blooms next to the return path and within 3' from where Sadie lay in the field on the 15th of September. Honestly ... this flower was not there on yesterday's walk nor any day this week.

By the way Stella was acting along in the backyard, I had a feeling she would have wanted to play if I were over with her. By the time she ran toward the house I was positive I missed an opportunity to play with her at the end of the walk.

She stood there for a while ... was she waiting for me ?

She showed some energy again as she broke into a run faster than a trot.

I barely caught her at the end of her run. She never stopped, ran around the corner of the house straight to the door, standing there waiting for me to open the door for her.

Heidi ??? .... she spent the morning in a deep sleep on the dog bed in the corner of the bedroom. I bought for her in 2011 but claimed by Sadie as hers the next day and used for the past 7 years. Heidi has been spending more time outside in the afternoon but I always catch her without having my camera in my hand.  She has not shown any interest in taking a walk with us, even with short toenails and clean teeth.

It was normal routine after their lunch but I was a little late feeding them and they let me know it soon after I arrived home with three books to read from the library. Heidi didn't hesitate to start barking nonstop with Stella raising her nose to the ceiling and howling as loud as possible.

Once they were fed and outside ... all that excitement and energy was gone ... it was hot, muggy and time for their afternoon siestas.

After a lot of book reading, some baseball on tv that is still being played now, I even took a short siesta ... as you can see the hounds were not much more energetic five hours later. They wanted to go outside but with that western sun setting it is the hottest side of the house this time of day.

Hidden in these last five photos are the top two projects of my 2019 'to do' list. Can you figure out what they are?

I am not sure what passes so close to the carport while we are either sleeping at night or inside during the day but this spot has a lot of interest from Heidi and Stella. I am guessing a cat that we never see when we are around.

The book that I cannot put down and will finish tonight is The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis.

Another great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Rain Almost Cancel The Hound's Day

The rains that kept passing us by the past few days started in the middle of the night and was very light by this morning. The mums had been moved from these blocks back inside the carport last night so the windy conditions would not blow them over. As you see, that is not a sign of a lot of rain,  but just enough to keep the hounds and I inside for most of the day.

As I was talking to Stella this morning trying to get her outside into the yard for her morning pee, it was interesting to see blue skies in the NE.

Stella was going nowhere. Even in light rain, even if it is sprinkling ... she never walks out into the yard or driveway to relieve herself. While Heidi will stay under the roof overhang ... Stella won't leave the protection of the carport until I head inside the house.

Stella finally decided to head out to the edge of the field after her lunch but trotted back to the door when she was finished. By 4:30pm when we started our walk she was happy to get outside and do some exercising. She does not whine to walk but will show some signs of excitement about going for a walk. She does know what "go for a walk" means.

You can tell by her ears that she is trotting to catch up to me or at least near me on the walk.

I still find the walks so different without Sadie.

It never got real hot today but late last night the temps didn't drop below 77° until after midnight and was bringing some heavy humidity with it. As I turned on the AC and set the temp, it kicked on immediately and each time I woke up during the night the AC was running. It was nice to have a cool house again. I see about five more days of temperatures in the mid-80's. I held off putting on any polyurethane today due to the weather outside.

Stella mixed in some slow walking, a little wandering and some trotting on the walk this afternoon. These are all afternoon photos.

Today, I let her do what she wanted, go where she wanted just to see what she would do.

Late in the walk she stopped to sniff in the same direction. I am thinking the mysterious field cat was somewhere over there in the woods. Here she gave one final look in that direction before trotting to the house.

While watching a movie, or a game in any sport I take my chances anytime I get up from my seat on the couch of losing it. Last night it happened for the first time in a long time. By the time I brought my tall glass of water back into the living room to finish watching the baseball game ... Stella had stretched out and stole my seat. She wasn't going to move and didn't move until I was turning out the lights an hour later.

I spent most of the day talking to my old friend from college about everything possible. It's good to find out I am not as crazy as I think sometimes. I am seeing things correctly, hearing things correctly and thinking things correctly ... that's all good.

This kind of weather makes me tired, non-motivated and a wasted day ... yet we had a lot of good conversation and that isn't a waste when you can talk to an old friend of 45+ years.

Things are pretty quiet today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Were Low Energy Today

After barely staying awake during the end of the baseball game that was over last night at 1:06am, all of us could have slept in late today. Only Stella decided to jump off the couch in the 8th inning and head to bed on the bed. She had slept through most of the 8 innings anyway. Heidi was in such a deep sleep during the game that I didn't think she would move even after I turned the lights out. Still, we had things to do today so we started it early.

When I told Heidi that Sadie Stella and I were going on the morning walk she started trotting to the door leading me to believe she was coming with us on, for her first walk in many months. She had other ideas.

Stella took off up the return path while I was ten or twenty feet away on the regular path. I could feel the 91% humidity early this morning. I checked my weather app before the walk to confirm the humidity I was feeling. Such a drastic change from last week's 54%. Stella seemed a little more enthused today about the walk. As the day wore on, she became less enthusiastic about everything except sleeping.

What little color changes you see on the trees, has happened the past three days.

The photo does not capture Heidi wagging her tail and barking at us, excited about our return. She is back being the basset hound that I remember, when I got her in 2011.

Today was 'staining day'. Luckily the gel stain I chose was a good match. The old window frames and sills look much better as does the old front door in the living room. I'll put a coat of polyurethane on tomorrow and a second coat on Friday with 24 hours to dry between applications.

I am not sure I can last another long baseball game tonight. The Oakland A's are in NYC to play the Yankees. A player on the Oakland A's grew up and played in Terre Haute IN, so I am assuming that a lot of tv's in the West/Southwest Indiana will be tuned into the game. Josh Phegley was the catcher at IU before someone named Kyle Schwarber that now plays LF for the Chicago Cubs. I always root for the underdogs when my team is not in the playoffs.

I could almost take a siesta today ...

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