Christmas In 'The Tropics'

I started years ago ending each blog post with "......... 'the tropics' ....." kinda as a joke. On this blog you will not see that before December 9th because the main blog was here, from October 2011 until December 9th. Yes, it is Christmas Day but if you were following Stella around the house you would never be able to tell it. We still had a great day, I do think about what day it is and remember past years. Early this morning I decided that the hounds would take a drive with me just to see what the area looked like on Christmas Day 2018.

Where last year we had snow, and freezing temperatures, today the forecast was for rain and mid-40's. The radar showed that rain was all around us but as you will see in a photo below, the chances of it raining here were slim. I saw a little blue sky peeking through the clouds.

Stella was on a slow exploring pace today. I can never leave her behind because I don't want to end my walk by going to the neighbors backyard to get her. Also, there have been times she has disappeared totally out of sight. It would take Sadie and I sometimes up to a hour looking for her, only to see her walking back home in the field ... from where?  Who knows? We never found her on our own.

At this point I came so close of taking that chance and letting her be on her own as I would complete the walk. It's much easier though just to backtrack a little, grab her collar and lead her back on the path.

That doesn't mean she will stay in the general direction of our (my) walk. Once I get past the point of that first turn around the corner of the woods, it is usually safe to let her roam on her own. Today I decided I'd follow her instead of trying to lead her. Don't be fooled, she was just as slow as the photos show ... she is on her own clock in life.

When I saw this deer trail I decided to take that since it was in the general area as she walked north.

When we finally reached our return path, Stella looked back at me as if to say "left or right?" ... We would normally be walking this part of the path from right to left in the photo. The dark gray area is the grandchildren's ATV track from the summer of 2017. No, not my grandchildren ... the neighbor's, two doors down that owns the field.

The skies don't look like rain to me. A small patch of blue to the south, upper left corner of the photo. As you can tell Stella is 'busting ass' to get back home as fast as possible

It was an uneventful walk this morning. A very slow pace but plenty of scent to smell for Stella. The morning outside was extremely quiet. Little if any traffic on the highway. I could hear birds chirping, as they were thrilled with the warmer winter this year ... after experiencing the coldest November ever in this area just a few weeks ago.

I found another reason to log my food into my app yesterday. I'd rather not, but it provides me with a lot of good information, with a detailed breakdown of nutrients. The main thing it was showing me yesterday and even prior days this past week ... I am not eating enough food !!!  LOL Really ???

From what I have read and what a doctor told a friend, a man my age needs 2,000 calories per day. I wanted to lose some weight when I started this change in lifestyle so I set my limit to 1,500 calories per day ... a little buffer built in. More than a few days in the past ten I barely get to 1,200 calories per day ... with no hunger pains, no cravings.

Except at night usually after 8pm ... insane cravings for a junk food run for cookies, candy, soda, chips, ice cream ... crap like that. I found that a small bowl of blueberries killed that urge but my recent problem has been that I am out of berries and any kind of fruit. I need a trip to the grocery store tomorrow. Otherwise it will be a nightly nightmare losing my mind wanting junk food.

With my full day schedule focused on wasting time yesterday I decided what the hell, who cares what Google does with my personal information. So I downloaded a new updated version of Google Chrome, which use to be my favorite browser. I looked through the preferences making sure there were no surprises I needed to opt out of.

I liked the new design. I did NOT see any improvement in speed compared to Firefox and Safari. In fact it was so obvious in the difference in picture quality, ever so slightly, that I opened up Firefox to the same website ... putting Chrome and Firefox side by side, I compared the same photos as I scrolled through the same websites.

I could tell a difference. You know how I am with sharpness in photos. I was seeing it now. Also there was a little more color, true color in the faces of people .. more than the other browser. Who am I talking about? Firefox had the sharper images and color quality.

That's not all.

This glitch drove me away from using Chrome many months ago after an update and did again yesterday afternoon. Let see if any of you have noticed the same thing. Before I say what it is, I will tell you I  'googled' the problem. I looked at too many websites that talked of similar issues but not the same exact issue I was wanting an answer for.

I CHANGED settings so 3rd party websites could track my every move, thinking that blocking that tracking was making Chrome think I was someone else when I moved to a different page ... here is what I am talking about ....

Anyone else have this problem or KNOW THE SOLUTION????

• I go to my Blogger blog and in the upper right corner it is telling me to sign in
  
  
  
  • I am already signed into my blog
• When I sign in again it sends me to the 'dashboard' of my Blogger blog
  
  
  
  • It shows that I am 'signed in'.
• When I click the link to go to my blog front page it shows that I need to sign in again
  
  
  
  • I am clicking back to the blog front page so I can reply to comments made
• When I am logged in and try to comment on someone else's Blogger blog, it tells me I need to sign in


• So I click the link to sign in ... it sends me back to MY blog dashboard


• THE CYCLE KEEPS REPEATING ITSELF ... like it does not recognize a 'logged in me' is wanting to make a comment on another blog or even reply to a comment on my Blogger blog called 'B hounds and Other Stuff'. It does not recognize we are the same internet user.

I have the same exact problem if I try Safari.

I do NOT have that problem when I use Firefox.

My next problem today is the speed of my HughNet Gen 5 (only option). I have done all of the troubleshooting steps a techie would tell me to do. The last time this happened in February or March they sent the same installer out to the house. He replaced the cable from the dish to my router. Why? Because he did not install new cable when they installed the satellite dish a few years ago. At the time he was training a new installer.

All of my 'self' testing shows the dish and router are connected, no red negatives are showing up. I uses speedtest .net to test speeds when I am curious or having problems. I put that space before the dot all the time when listing a website here so there isn't a link.

I found out from Hughes Technical dept .... it is the bad weather in UTAH where my 'gateway' is located for my service. It's not related to the weather where I am located. For my trouble, they have added two free days of data to my account after giving me 15Gb of free additional data in November.  I found this hard to believe because Intellicast live radar showed clear skies for three states south of Salt Lake City, UT.

I am use to getting speeds of 40-45Mbps and today they are mostly 2.56Mbps.

The fast pace of retirement living will pick up starting tomorrow through the weekend. There are finally some good college football bowl match-ups and I will be watching multiple games day and night. The hounds will get their normal daytime sleep like always. I will fight for couch space and will always hesitate getting up to go to the bathroom or to get more food .... if I am gone and they are awake, they stretch out taking my seat.

I did go outside with Stella last night after midnight as I said I would in a post yesterday, but it was overcast and the full moon was nowhere to be found. The iPhone camera stayed inside. The last photo I took of the full moon with that iPhone camera was perfect, even without using a tripod.

The hounds and I did take that drive I mentioned. They were thrilled they could go. You could see their excitement in the following photos.

Heidi made her usual three complete circles before settling into the passenger seat. With it still be a little cold from the car sitting outside all night, she was more than happy with the heated seat option.

Unlike the 'old days' Stella did not hop up into the back like she use to. This past year I have had to lift her front legs up on the edge, then lift her rear up high enough that she will walk into the car with no problems. She shows no sign of pain when I do that.

You can tell she loves to ride. She has plenty of room to lie down in any direction.

Heidi couldn't make up her mind whether to sit down or sit up to look out the windows. Since I do not take photos while driving, I was not able to show her looking outside straight ahead. Even my iPhone shuts down and blocks any notifications or calls once it senses that I am driving.

Of course being Christmas I didn't expect any gas, stores or fast food joints to be open. I was NOT surprised to see The China House open on Christmas. I have spent a few Christmas Days there for their buffet. Stella rose to her sitting position as we passed. She obviously smelled food in the air from their exhaust fans, I smelled nothing. The car windows were closed.

The question was ... could I resist having lunch there. It took another 25 miles of driving to make up my mind and call them. I wanted to make sure they had the buffet open. If I was going to fall off my 'way of life' wagon I wanted it to be worth my time and fall as hard as I could!! I knew I'd be the only one in there and have the whole buffet to myself. I did at first .... each dish was full and was brought out from the kitchen when I got there.

I couldn't serve myself fast enough ... BBQ pork, beef and mushroom, black peppered chicken on my first trip.

Added on that first trip was the chicken and broccoli, and the szechuan chicken. On the second trip through the buffet I added that fresh fish casserole, the lower left pan. I say "fresh fish" because I know they fly in fish from the China Sea daily to Indiana ... so when my taste buds told me it was IMITATION crab .... I ignored that tiny voice inside my head. I know what "fresh fish" from the China Sea tastes like.  :) :)

By the time I returned home it was time for the hounds to have lunch. That short 25 mile drive must have worn them out as they were still sleeping when I walked in the house. Although they were both behind the closed door of the bedroom.

It didn't take too many photos with the iPhone camera before I realized the low energy hounds were wanting an afternoon Christmas Day siesta. The way that Chinese food was flowing in my blood stream I could tell that I would not be too far behind them. What a great idea ... a short siesta to help in the digestion process.

Although with weather like today, is it really a day to sleep through it??? While they slept I evaluated my idea again .... all of that sodium and MSG moving throughout my body made my decision easy .... "siesta it is."

It was another great Christmas here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Braves The Cold

It was a few minutes past 8am Christmas Eve morning when Stella and I headed out. It was one of the coldest mornings yet this winter. The ground was hard as a rock, cold breeze from the NE and too many deer scents for Stella to check out.

Christmas Eve At 4:30am

I did not plan this. I did not go to bed that early, causing me to be wide awake at 4:07am. At 4:23am I hear a loud Bloodhound whine, not quite to the level of a howl. Now I know the moon was full last night and with no clouds the field was lit up like an airport parking lot. Had Stella heard something in the darkness of "oh dark thirty" ?? Or did my wrist move enough in my sleep to light up my Garmin VivoSport, (free) waking Stella up.

Whatever the reason, I was wide awake and knew a return to sleep in the land of the most bizarre dreams was not going to happen. Shit! I turn the lights on as the hounds walk through the kitchen to the door to be let outside. Heidi has to do her morning pee, Stella just knows she is that much closer to her morning kibble. They go out, I pour dog food, they eat, I make coffee, they finish and go BACK TO BED, I sit at the computer ... daily routine.

Will the blog design change AGAIN before you even open your eyes??

Nope, I'm finished. I have migrated back to my favorite colors and I like the design. There is just something about dark gray or black backgrounds that doesn't hit me hard enough to keep them. I have three columns that now line up in perfect order and will crop the small thumbnail photo if needed, just to keep those blocks lined up. I've been told the photos look clear and sharp, even when they are about 1" or 300 pixels narrower.

So it's Christmas Eve, too early in the morning and I have yet to buy my annual Christmas gift for myself. That usually is something electronic. I can't decide what I want or even if I want anything this year. Does that sound familiar? The indecision, not the gift.

If I was really brave I'd drive over to the local Super Walmart today, grab a 64oz cola and a box of a dozen donuts (joking) and people watch. You know, those shoppers that are in a panic because they are less than 24 hours away from their holiday stress maxing out. They have either not bought gifts for everyone on their list or they may have bought the wrong one. Stress, stress, and more stress. They can't seem to find that "perfect" gift for someone.

Not only would that throw my way of eating into the ozone with a sugar buzz not felt since ... can't remember ... but it would also put my car in danger just sitting in the parking lot. Or I might get "T-boned" as I tried to leave. People drive crazy when they are in a panic and have less than 24 hours to make a decision.

Most of you cannot imagine what a Christmas is for a self-described hermit, by choice. Single, of little faith and every year doesn't know what he will do on a day that use to be filled with all the Christmas stuff. The fact is, it has never bothered me. While living out west I remember these two or three days around Christmas spent on a beach in Baja, skiing in Breckenridge, or Stevens Pass, maybe heading up Mt. Baker as far as the roads would let us.

I remember four Christmases specifically where I was in the middle of 120 days straight at sea, on an aircraft carrier. It was a 'no-fly' day on all four of them (different years) but  just enough time on two of them for a USO group of Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders to fly out 8,000 miles away to wish us a Merry Christmas. They were out to boost the spirits of 5,000-6,000 Navy personnel with their variety show, as well as dip out ice cream for the "Ice Cream Social" afterwards ... 5,000+ men ... that's a lot of ice cream.

For those of you that are not NFL fans and have no idea what a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader was then and is now, you will have to do a Google, Bing, Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo internet search, click on the 'image' link for "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader".

I don't believe their "cheer" uniforms have changed much in the last 30 years. You need to remember what they look like to really grasp where I am going with this story. Just picture 5,000-6,000 men on one large Naval vessel, who have been at sea for over two months and closer to three months straight. Then picture how long those lines must have been for 5,000+ men/boys to get a bowl of ice cream, dipped and handed to you personally by a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader .... Ha Ha.

It took hours waiting in line that weaved from the mess desk, up narrow steep stairs,  three stories up and out into the hangar bay. The lines winding back and forth for as far as the eye could see. Let just say the two to three hour wait was well worth it. I was just a table width (2ft?) away from beautiful women, "in uniform", the first female seen in person in over 90 days in some cases. LOL

When you have Christmas Eves and Days like that, it's no wonder I have no clue what I want to do today and tomorrow here in 'the tropics', is it?? No, all joking aside, there were more than a few Christmases in the past where I wasn't that enthused even when celebrating the day with others.

Although I don't send out cards, I do receive a few. Sadly a couple of them were not sent this year, just a reminder of how short life can really be. Enjoy each day and be thankful for what you have. You don't have to be religious to give thanks.

Well that's it for my holiday stories. I am now scanning my brain waves to see what else I want to say. I know there were things not written in yesterday's post because I couldn't remember.

Back to the holiday of Christmas.

I know the reasons for Christmas. I understand all of that. Greed and profit ruined it for me when I look back for the reason(s). The more the stores would fill up with Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, candy, bows, lights, etc ... earlier and earlier each year, the more I lost my enthusiasm for Christmas. It wasn't what they were filling the stores up with but it was just too damn early!!!

One thing I find interesting in this small town, that I live outside of, the few neighbors that line each side of the highway .... there is hardly any outdoor lighting compared to years ago.

Whereas every house toward town use to be loaded with outdoor Christmas lights, this year there is only ONE. They have a small display that lines the front edge of their roof. I find that in a way sad but remember I am not helping the cause either, so what can I say.

A small town that use to flood the downtown courthouse square with Christmas lights has decreased to almost nothing. The only lights shown at night are now wrapped around the lamp posts and not even around all four sides of the courthouse square. Is it budget limitations or lack of interest?

Within those four sides of the town square, vacant stores are scattered. The block west of the square are ALL vacant and rundown. That is what happens when the economy changes some will say but I beg to differ in that opinion. It is what happens when owners of those empty buildings are owned not by locals but by investors in Indianapolis and as far away as Chicago.

They don't have an interest in town development, just a profit. Like those stores clearing out their landscaping section to put in wall-to-wall Christmas decorations in October, two months before tomorrow. Money, money, money, profit, profit, profit.

So yes, the feeling of Christmas left me a long time ago. Greed and profit ...

I saw the other day that the USA had the 4th warmest November in the history of keeping records. I can look back through the blog of seven years and see that the weather comes and goes. One year it's warm like now, upper 40's and other years I showed pictures of deep snow. I remember 10 or 12 years ago, hmmm maybe more, where all I did was shovel deep snow every day just to survive another day. It was cold but it was fun.

Holiday meals also come and go. I can cook everything you would see in a family portrait on a card or tv commercial. I have in the past, but almost every time I would eat too much ... for days ... and feel terrible because it was not my normal way of eating. My portion control would be out of control, there would be no control ... thus added pounds, constant heartburn and sleepless nights.

I have thought about cooking a "Mini version" with smaller quantities and help with that portion control. Wouldn't I need some full-sized pies for desert? What's a Christmas meal without pies for desert? Or all of that fudge, chocolate or peanut butter?

I remember the last holiday meal I cooked. All the hounds felt they needed to supervise my kitchen. As they stood staring at my every move, giving me barely enough room to walk. The closer the food got to being finished, the longer their drools hung from their jowls. Imagine fighting off three or four hounds to try to eat? Even now with two hounds, I have to watch my step with a plate of food. They will trip you if they have to, anything for food.

So I guess, these next few days will be about like the other 362-363 days I've had this year. I'll read some, live on the computer some, a movie or ballgame or two. Stella and I will take two to three walks per day. Nothing much out of the ordinary.

I guess I could put the big tv sized picture of a burning fireplace and stream Christmas music thorough my old but loud stereo ... but there would be a need for candy, pies, and cooked food to really get in the groove.

2015

2016

2017

2018

Tonight as usual, a hound and I will stand outside late at night staring at the open skies. Under a full moon this year, it will only be Stella joining me this year. In the past it did not matter how cold it was, I dressed accordingly. There is something about doing that at midnight, something thoughtful and moving in a way. While Heidi will be in a deep sleep on the couch. I'll remember the people who are not here this year ... I know too many of them.

Sorry for the rambling but what else can you do at 4:30am when you feel like writing.

Can a non-religious but spiritual, non-celebrator of Christmas say "Merry Christmas" as a reply to friends???

The photos scattered throughout the post today were from past years on December 24 or 25. There are probably many more I could choose from but my search through 55,000 photos only were "Dec 24" and "Dec 25".

Every day I label the first photo of all the photos I've taken, like this "yy mmm dd" .... in different groups. Meaning, the dogs separately, the surrounding areas, the immediate area and anything exciting like deer or butterflies. Yes, Apple tries to do that for me automatically but come on??? Who can do it better, me or Apple?  LOL

I can tell it's going to be a great day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana today.

The Changes Continue With Me

It was a day of changes Saturday as I made a couple of mistakes that I mentioned in my previous post. A lot of them were blog changes but some of the small changes with me still continued into this morning. I guess it's one of those moments where my brain might be in the overdrive mode, where I cannot make up my mind what I want in the blog design. Plus I can't make up my mind on what to do on anything. No big deal, this is a common occurrence with me.

I am going to try something different on this post, let me know how you like it. I am going to put a little commentary about the photos listed and will wait until the end to write what's on my mind or as I call it ... 'rambling'.



It was still fairly dark this morning just like the past two days. I planned on waiting until 9:00am before starting the walk but Stella had other ideas. I heard her walk across the hardwood floor in the bedroom from her 'after breakfast' nap. That plan of waiting an hour was gone as she stood at the doorway of my computer room, whining. It was 8:03am, her normal time.

She was in the tracking mode again this morning. Signs of deer traffic were all over the field. I could see fresh hoof prints that had dug into the ground through the thick grass. I like these mid-40's temperatures so early in the morning, with only two days before Christmas.

This warm weather isn't something new. It was Christmas Day just three years ago where Winston sat outside looking for snow and wondering why it was so warm. He had become paralyzed from the middle of his back and rear legs just six days prior. To this day it is still a kick in the gut when I think about it.

Instead of trying to keep Stella on or near my path, I decided today I would follow her. Her nose was right on point, in the middle of deer tracks, with those hoof prints I mentioned but also a couple of other signs I'll get to.

I am not a deer hunter, nor a deer expert but I am assuming with the way the tall grass was pressed so close to the ground, that is a place where a deer might have laid down to sleep? I'm serious when I ask that because I have no clue. I know my answer is just a few keystrokes and clicks away if I asked that same question on DuckDuckGo image search. I thought I'd show just how little knowledge I have when it comes to any kind of wildlife.

Here is another more prominent 'bed', only this time the grass looked like it was almost damp compared to the grass around it. Something had been laying here an hour or two before we got there. You can see the two hoof prints, looking as if it dug in as the deer tried to stand up.

A poor quality photo but shows that Stella is on the move. That is rare for her and I can assure you she will not move that fast on any afternoon walk. Never

I tried getting as far ahead as possible  so I could possibly get a photo of her running. By the time I turned she was already running at me and she was so quick I barely got this photo and the one below.

Obviously she wanted to get way ahead of me.

As I walk on the path you can barely see on the right edge of the photo, towards home, this small path crosses both of our paths moving left to right in this picture. It is the deer path from the woods, across the field, to the woods behind my neighbor's house.

As we slowly make our way home ... Stella isn't done with her exploration. Too many scents to smell and catalog in her computer database called 'the bloodhounds brain'.

I knew something was strange when she abruptly moved from the center of the field heading to the backyard over to the path I take back home. She rarely does that, so something is up.

While taking some other photos of the woods, sky and my house roof I did not notice she had moved left of the path into the "land of burs". This is blurry but will give you some idea what those burs look like attached to her coat.

I was trying to hold her with one hand and take a photo with the Nikon D3200 in my other hand. She was covered with them on the other side. She thought she was going inside with all of them attached. :) :) :)

Just like I said I would yesterday, after the IU game was over a little after 8pm, I slid back into my desk chair to play around in the blog "dashboard", looking for that 3-column theme and photos just as big if not bigger when the post is opened up to read. At least you can sort or filter the 300+ themes to choose from by what you want. Not in detail but just some basic things. I tried this ... "3-columns, page-wide images". The number of themes to look at went from over 300 to 86.

Long story short, by 12:35am I had a theme I thought I liked. It was soooo much different from this one but it did have the two things I wanted, 3-columns listing 9 past posts on the homepage and images that were even larger than what you see here Sunday.
(as of 10:18am)
Yet as I looked it over there was just something I didn't like. Was it the all black background or that the three columns did not line up exactly perfect because some of the thumbnail photos were different sizes? Stuff like that drives me crazy, similar to a crooked picture on the wall ... anybody's wall.

With the lights turned off, computer turned off and both hounds asleep, my overactive brain was wide awake and still working at warp speed. 15 minutes later I jump out of bed, lights on, computer on .... yes, I was changing the theme back to what I had at 8pm Saturday and right now (unless I change it again Sunday). {I changed it a little after 2pm on Sunday}  Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!

With the different theme design I had to quickly edit my last nine posts, taking out the feature image, then installing the 'excerpt' so the posts would be summarized on this themes homepage. This morning with some help from the Wordpress techies I was able to install some CSS code to remove the categories that were above the titles of each individual post.

Here is the 'sick' thing with me. The blog looks good to me. It's easy to read, it's bright and easy to navigate BUT .... I still have a small urge but big enough to have me look at other blog themes (design) and possibly make changes today. Somebody take my computer away from me!!!

Oh, that is not all I can't decide on. That slight confusion of never making my mind up occurred all day Saturday. I went back to logging in all my food, at least for now. This morning I brought out the small container of granulated sugar for two level teaspoons per cup of coffee. (interesting results).

Those results were immediate and surprising. I tried the sugar again because I didn't want to wait for a month or a year to see if there was a difference. I found out something before I even finished my second cup of coffee. By adding that sugar I was feeling a little indigestion. Enough to notice the difference from the past four to five days. I'll not be using sugar anymore in my coffee, nor will I buy anymore granulated sugar nor substitutes.

I even thought about starting a new blog that was subject specific ... sports!!! What am I or was I thinking ???? It has to be the 'winter mentality' that keeps me in front of this monitor bouncing from one idea to the next while I am doing something else. I need outdoor projects to do.

At least the hounds are sane and keep to their routines without much change. They are mentally stable and know what they want, what they like, etc. They don't bounce from idea to idea. They only get confused if it is raining outside and they have to dump their tanks. Their eating habits and sleeping habits never change although the spots they sleep might.

Hmmmmm do I post this now or wait until tonight with pictures of Heidi. I can do what I use to ... post mid-morning and then include any afternoon photos on tomorrows blog. See, it's questions like that make me move in circles. Don't ask what I want to eat for lunch, I have no idea and if I did I would not be able to decide. How screwed up is that?

It's
the last daythe 16th week of 17 weeks of the regular season in the NFL. I'll watch the Colts today and all the playoffs. I have yet to watch a College bowl game because none of the match-ups interested me. It looks like I'll start watching them about every day/night starting December 26th until the final National Championship game. That will stabilize my brain a little to where I will not have time to be making blog changes but I will have time to publish a blog post.

No worries, it's all good today here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.