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| ALL OF MY MONDAY NIGHT SKY PHOTOS WERE TAKEN WITH MY iPHONE |
About three months ago, when I tuned into my favorite SiriusXM Satellite Radio channel 68, The Spa in the Subaru, it was gone. Totally disappeared. In its place was a program I had no interest in. For three months, I agonized over my missing music channel, trying to get it back. I knew my favorite music channel, called The Spa, had not been cancelled, but had been moved to a different format with something to do with 'Streaming' and could be found on channel 746. But, how to get there was far beyond my understanding and capabilities. In my blog, I wrote about my dilemma again a couple of weeks ago, and as a result of that, a blog reading good Samaritan stepped forward. And, that good Samaritan turned out to be a new neighbor right here in our Bayfield Pines Park. After a few emails back and forth,nAndrew walked over last night, and within about five minutes, he had paired my iPhone with the car's satellite radio, and I happily had my favorite channel back. It was 'music to my ears' so to speak. I could hardly believe my luck. There it was, beautiful ambient music once again filling the car with what I consider, for me, meditative music. While at it, Andrew also paired my phone with the car's audio to either make or receive 'hands-free' phone calls. It's like the car answers the phone when it rings. Absolutely 'Gob-Smacked' throughout all this, I felt like I had been living in the Stone Age. A great big huge thank you to Andrew for taking the time to resolve my frustrating Satellite Radio problem for me. Yes Toto, there still are good people in this world. So, after having my ambient music back in the car again, I certainly wasn't going to go back into the house and watch television or fold laundry. No sireeee, as soon as it became dark enough, I was back in the car and headed off to my night sky spot on Tower Line Road. Soothing music wafted out of the speakers all the way, and continued to do so for the next forty minutes or so as I sat there at my spot, with my seat tilted back, staring at the wondrous sky above through Subie's open Moon roof. I had a big smile on my face like a Cheshire cat. It was an inspiring half Moon with wisps of clouds highlighting the Moon's presence. My phone alerted me that the International Space Station would be flying over in the next few minutes and sure enough, there it was, heading from west to east. The music was so relaxing it nearly put me to sleep right there in the car. Had that happened, I might have had a policeman tapping on my window, wondering what the heck I was doing. Listening to music and conversing with the stars might not have been an acceptable answer.........D'ya think:))
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| IT WAS ACTUALLY MUCH DARKER THAN THIS AND I COULD HARDLY SEE THE CAR |
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| I BELIEVE THAT BRIGHTER WHITE DOT IN THE TOP HALF OF THE PHOTO IS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION |
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| THE CLOUDS MOVING ACROSS THE MOON WERE BEAUTIFUL |
Under clear blue skies and surrounded by warm air, it was a perfect morning for a walk, and I enjoyed every footstep along the way. Little yellow butterflies are beginning to appear, and it reminds me of a few years ago when Pheebs and I would walk, surrounded by dozens of fluttering little yellow Fairies.
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| DANDELIONS ARE GOING TO SEED ALONGSIDE MY WALKING ROAD |
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| A WHOLE CROP OF DANDELIONS?? NOPE, JUST A BUNCH OF ERRANT ONES IN WHAT I THINK MIGHT BE AN ALFALFA FIELD |
Home again, it was back to my outside putterings. Planted the Hydrangea plant I had picked up on Monday in Goderich. Mowed some grass, as well as weeds, out along the road. Tossed more Oriental Bittersweet vine pieces into the utility trailer. Also, with temps pushing 80F, I decided to get out my electric power washer to see if it still worked. I hadn't used it for the last 3 years. And, to my utter amazement, after hooking up a garden hose to it and pressing the 'start' button (yes, I had remembered to plug it in), it was instantly up and working. Will wonders ever cease in this here wacky world of mine. After putting on my rubber boots, water wings, and life jacket, I got right to work on cleaning up some patio stones at the base of our back yard deck steps. Water flying everywhere, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few drops actually landed in the Bayfield River, a couple of miles to the south. Within ten minutes, I nearly had enough flying mud on myself to actually make a pie.
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| I MANAGED TO GET THE SHADOW COWBOY'S HAT IN THIS MORNING PHOTO AT THE SIDE OF A WINTER WHEAT FIELD |
Has anyone else out here ever been as confused about garbage bag sizes as I was!!!! Ever since our local garbage collector made everyone change from green garbage bags to clear garbage bags a few years ago, I've had a heck of a time finding the right size of bag to fit our garbage can. For me, an old inches, feet, yards, and miles guy, it's as confusing as blazes, because of all this centimeter & liter stuff. For example, what is this 66cm x 91cm or 26po x 36po stuff all about!?!? And 133-liter bags. What are ya going to dump in that one, an old Volkswagen!! One lady wanted us to measure the width of our garbage can, which was nineteen & a half inches. She said a 26-inch bag would fit....it didn't!! We had garbage bags coming out of our ears for years, and it seemed like none of them would fit much of anything. Whaddya do with 57,492 garbage bags ya can't use!! So, at one point, we decided to get a bigger garbage can with a lock-proof lid to keep the coons out. So what are we gonna use for bags in that one......parachutes, because we later found out the store that sold us the big garbage can, didn't have the bags to fit it. Explaining my frustration to an unsympathetic hardware store clerk one day, I finally gave up and said to the clerk, "Awwww rubbish!!" She responded with, "Isle 42 section A, sir, for the rubbish department. Ya, just as I thought.....& exited the store in a baggy confusion that still hangs over me to this very day!!
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| A SMALL SWAMPY AREA WHERE I COULD HEAR A LOT OF FROGS ON THE SOUTHEAST SIDE OF MY WALKING ROAD |
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| A FARM TRACTOR TRAVELS EAST ON BAYFIELD RIVER ROAD TOWING A SET OF HEAVY FIELD ROLLERS |
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| THIS MIGHTY LITTLE TRACTOR PATIENTLY AWAITS THE DAY'S WORK AHEAD |
Al's Music Box:: Skip A Rope by Henson Cargill.
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| IT WAS AN UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL NIGHT SKY, WHICH OF COURSE WAS MUCH DARKER THAN THIS |
GROANER'S CORNER:(( Cracking an international market is a goal of most growing corporations. It shouldn't be that hard, yet even the big multinationals run into trouble because of language and cultural differences. For example, observe the following examples.The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."
In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead."
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off."
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem - Feeling Free," got translated in the Japanese market into "When smoking Salem, you feel so refreshed that your mind seems to be free and empty."
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that "no va" means "it won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." However, the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead, the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant."
An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market, which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I Saw the Potato."
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
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- Did you hear about the man who fell in love with a psychic? He got down on one knee and asked her, "Will I marry you?"
- How many racists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None -- they don't want to be enlightened!
Q: How do you find Ronald McDonald in a nudist colony?
A: Look for sesame seed buns.
- “I wasn't originally going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind.”
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One day a college Psychology professor was greeting his new college class. He stood up in front of the class and said, "Would everyone who thinks he or she is stupid please stand up?"
After a minute or so of silence, a young man stood up. "Well, good morning. So, you actually think you're stupid?" the professor asked. The kid replied, "No sir, I just didn't want to see you standing there all by yourself."
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Al's Doggy World
Meanings::
Al's Art Gallery
