WELL, JUST A THOUGHT

BEAUTIFUL HOARFROST ON THE TREES THIS MORNING

A beautiful orange sunrise through the trees this morning explained why our temperature dropped to 0F overnight.  With no cloud cover to hold the warmer air down, the air went straight up into the atmosphere, leaving us with those well below freezing temperatures.  It reminded me of the cold desert nights in the American  Southwest  With a predicted high today of 32F it was a struggle for the temps to even reach 28F.  But, oh my how wonderful it was to see clear blue skies and sunshine right up to early afternoon.

SUNRISE IN OUR FOREST

I had an errand to take care of in Goderich this morning, so off I went under sunny skies and bare dry roads. With clear and cold moisture-laden overnight skies, it was beautiful see the Hoarfrost effect on the trees along Porter's Hill Line. 

 HEADING NORTH TO GODERICH ALONG PORTER'S HILL LINE

Heading down to the harbor, I could see two large ships along with a smaller one, which I could tell was a Canadian ice breaker with its red hull.  The two big ships were stopped in the ice, while the ice breaker maneuvered around, breaking up the ice leading to a channel into the harbor.  In that channel was the tugboat Ocean A Simard chugging back and forth, attempting to keep the narrow channel open and free of ice so that the larger ships could get into the salt dock and the grain dock.  It looked like the ice breaker Vincent Massey had its work cut out for it, as well as the Ocean A Simard did.

 DRIVING DOWN THE HILL INTO THE HARBOR, I SAW THREE SHIPS OFFSHORE

 THE TUG, OCEAN A SIMARD WAS BUSY IN THE CHANNEL BESIDE THE SALT MINE KEEPING A PATH CLEAR OF ICE

 FROM A HIGHER VANTAGE POINT ON THE BLUFFS NEAR THE LIGHTHOUSE I TOOK A FEW MORE PHOTOS OF THE THREE SHIPS

  THE BLUE SHIP LEFT IS THE ALGOMA INTREPID AND BEYOND THAT IS THE CSL FRONTENAC AND TO THE RIGHT IS THE CANADIAN ICE BREAKER CCGS VINCENT MASSEY

 THIS IS A WIDER ANGLE SHOT SHOWING THE THREE SHIPS IN THE VAST SHORELINE ICE FIELD

 TWO NARROW CHANNELS OF OPEN WATER CAN BE SEEN HERE, KEPT OPEN BY THE OCEAN A SIMARD AND THE ICEBREAKER VINCENT MASSEY

 A LAST LOOK AT THE THREE SHIPS FROM A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT LOCATION

Heading back from Goderich, I slipped into Bayfield, gassed up the car, and then headed down to the beach area to check on the restoration shoreline bank project that has been going on.  I think I have it figured out now.  The big square boulders are no longer piled up offshore; they have been placed tightly in against the shoreline, forming a heavy breakwall to stop the bank from eroding any farther.  There are cottages right there, and I think the cottage owners got together to have that wall built before their cottages one day might wash into the lake.  Well, that's my theory anyway.  And, the big boulder Inukshuk is still standing in the middle of Bayfield's beach.  Maybe it's temporary or maybe it's not.  I kind of hope it stays, and Bayfield could finally give its small beach a name.  'Inukshuk Beach'.  Just think of all the tourists it might draw once the word gets out.  People may flock from miles around to come have a look at Bayfield's 'Inukshuk Beach'.  Well, just a thought:)) 

 THE TWO YELLOW CONSTRUCTION MACHINES WERE AT REST THIS MORNING

 THIS PHOTO SHOWS WHAT I THINK IS THE FINISHED BREAKWATER WALL

 THIS LOOKS MORE LIKE ANTARCTICA THAN BAYFIELD'S BEACH

 YES, I THINK 'INUKSHUK BEACH' FITS THE BILL

Al's Music Box::  Something with a bit of a difference for the music box tonight.  We are all familiar with Michael Jackson's song Billie Jean and I think many would agree that some of the words are pretty hard to understand.  Here is that same song done with clarity as an Irish folk song....Billie Jean  And here is Michael Jackson doing it himself,  Billie Jean

A SNOWY FARM LANE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two hobbyists get into their balloon for an excursion. After a while, the wind unexpectedly picks up, and the balloon goes out of control. The two balloonists, with great effort, manage to keep the balloon stable, upright, and away from power lines. But they are lost. With more effort, they get the balloon near the ground. While floating over a country road, they see a man walking below. One of the balloonists calls down to him: "We're lost! Can you tell us where we are?" The man thinks for a while, looks down, looks up, looks down again, stares into space for a minute, and then cries out: "You're in a balloon!" The wind picks up, and the balloon floats off. After a moment, one balloonist says to the other: "That man must be a manager." "Why?" "Three reasons. First, he took a long time to answer. Second, he was perfectly correct. Third, his answer was perfectly useless!"

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- “I got into a fight with a snail. It was a real slug-fest.”

Q: Where do one-legged people eat?

A: IHOP

- The cable repairman was on my street and asked me what time it was. I told him it is between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm.

- Crazy people don't know they are crazy, I know i'm crazy therefore I'm not crazy. Isn't that crazy.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery

THE SQIRRELS BONANZA SMORGASBOARD

 SORRY FOR TWO SELFIES IN TONIGHT'S POST BUT MY EXCUSE IS THAT i WAS SHORT ON PICS...THIS SELFIE IS FROM MY FIRST SNOW SHOVELLING THIS MORNING

When I hung my main bird feeder from a tree branch several years ago, I positioned it so that I could walk freely underneath it without bumping my head.  To fill the feeder, I could simply reach up and lift it down off its hook.  I noticed a short while ago that when shoveling out my front yard paths to reach the bird feeders, I was occasionally bumping my head on the feeder. I didn't clue in until this morning,  when, turning around, I did a full face plant right into the feeder.  What the heck!!  I right away looked at the Sunburst Locust tree that the feeder was hanging from to see if the tree had sagged.  Nope, looked okay.  Looking up, I expected to see the branch broken that the feeder was hanging on.  Nope, the branch wasn't broken.  Now I had a mystery going on.  How could I have walked right into that low-hanging feeder?  Thinking as logically as possible, I considered that maybe from all my exercise biking, my legs have grown longer.  Standing there, looking down at the snow below the feeder and pondering my dilemma, and the chance my legs may have stretched, I suddenly had a light bulb moment.  Of course, the ground had risen up.  Well, I was partially right.  It wasn't the ground that had slowly risen up....it was the snow on top of that ground that had risen up.  With all the snow this winter, and with all the times I have been out around that bird feeder shoveling snow, my boots have gradually packed the snow down with my boots. Each time I did that, the packed snow gradually built up, becoming higher and higher.  So, with that theory under my belt, I figure I probably have over a foot of hard-packed snow along my paths and under and around that feeder.  'Whew', I thought to myself, another one of Al's little mysteries of life solved.

 I AM STANDING AT EYE LEVEL WITH THE BIRD FEEDER

Looking out the sunroom window first thing this morning, I noticed right away that the birdfeeder atop the bird station was missing and had been knocked to the ground.  'Squirrels'!!  Sure enough, there in the snow under the bird station lay the toppled feeder with a cluster of frenzied squirrels going bananas at the bonanza smorgasboard.  I wasn't long in throwing on a pair of boots and wading through the overnight's five-inch snowfall.  The squirrels scattered, and I retrieved the snowy bird feeder and brought it inside, took out another feeder, placed it on the bird station, then came inside and patiently waited and watched to see how the dickens a squirrel had got onto the feeder because for sure, at the urging of his buddies, that same squirrel would be back atop the feeder again.  Well, 'for sure' doesn't always happen every day, and today was one of those days.  The second feeder remained atop the bird station and remained undisturbed for the rest of the day.  We'll see what the morning brings.

 HERE ARE THREE OF SIX DELIGHTED SQUIRRELS AT THE SMORGASBOARD THIS MORNING

 LOOK CLOSELY AND YOU WILL SEE A RED MALE CARDINAL ATOP THE BIRD STATION WONDERING WHERE THE BIRD FEEDER WENT

 QUITE A BONANZA FOR THESE GUYS

Al's Music Box:: The Poor Side Of Town by Johnny Rivers.

 THIS SELFIE IS FROM MY AFTERNOON SNOW SHOVELING

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A young banker decided to get his first tailor-made suit. So he went to the finest tailor in town and got measured for a suit. A week later, he went in for his first fitting. He put on the suit, and he looked fabulous; he felt that in this suit he could do business. As he was preening himself in front of the mirror, he reached down to put his hands in the pockets, and to his surprise, he noticed that there were no pockets. He mentioned this to the tailor, who asked him, "Didn't you tell me you were a banker?" The young man answered, "Yes, I did." To this, the tailor said, "Whoever heard of a banker with his hands in hisown pockets?"

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“There was a sign hanging in the window of a dry cleaners I passed by. It read: 'So-and-So Dry Cleaners. Working on the same spot for 72 years.'”

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Dear Abby: Admitted She Was At A Loss To Answer The Following Questions Readers Had Sent In!!
- Dear Abby, A couple of women moved in across the hall from me. One is a middle-aged gym teacher and the other is a social worker in her mid twenties. These two women go everywhere together and I've never seen a man go into or leave their apartment. Do you think they could be Lebanese?
- Dear Abby, What can I do about all the nudity, fowl language and violence on my VCR?
- Dear Abby, I've suspected that my husband has been fooling around, and when confronted with the evidence, he denied everything and said it would never happen again.
- Dear Abby, Our son writes that he is taking Judo. Why would a boy who was raised in a good Christian home turn against his own?
- Dear Abby, I joined the Navy to see the world. I've seen it. Now, how do I get out?
- Dear Abby, My forty-year-old son has been paying a psychiatrist $50.00 an hour every week for two and a half years. Do you think he's crazy?
- Dear Abby, I was married to Bill for three months, and I didn't know he drank until one night he came home sober.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery