IT MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

 QUITE A CLUSTER OF COWS ON THIS LOVELY LATE OCTOBER DAY

Friday:: It was the light pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof this morning that had me quickly outside in my jammies, hastily carrying my gardening tools into the carport.  That rain didn't last, and it wasn't long before I was outside hooking up the utility trailer for another partial load of yard waste to our Park's recycle area.  Quite a surprise when I arrived there.  Where did the recycling area go??  The rest of the gloomy-looking day didn't amount to much, but I was able to finally catch up on some reading.  Since Kelly's passing nearly a year ago already (December 10th) I have tried several times unsuccessfully to revive my beloved reading hobby.  I just downloaded Whitley Strieber's latest book called 'The Fourth Mind', and I'm hoping its subject matter will grab my mind's attention and bring me up to speed and back into the loop of strange things that interest me.  

EVEN OUR PARK'S RECYCLING AREA HAS BEEN GIVEN A FACELIFT

 FIERY RED SUMAC LEAVES

Thursday night, I picked up a coffee to go at Bayfield's Tim Hortons, and headed southeast out of town for an evening drive through the countryside.  I traveled through wind turbine country and marveled at all their blinking red lights.  The turbines stood silhouetted against sunset's afterglow over Lake Huron.

 I LOVE THESE EVENING COUNTRY ROAD CRUISES AT DUSK

FROM THE SAME SPOT AS THE ABOVE CAR PHOTO I TOOK THESE LONG TELEPHOTO SHOTS TOWARDS LAKE HURON A COUPLE OF MILES AWAY

 IN THE FOREGROUND CAN BE SEEN THE YARD LIGHTS OF DISTANT FARMS

 ON BAYFIELD'S MAIN STREET, THIS IS WHERE WE SOMETIMES EAT OUR ICE CREAM CONES IN FRONT OF THE PINK FLAMINGO

Saturday::  A surprising turn in the weather.  Expecting a cool, cloudy, and maybe rainy day, I was heartened to see sunshine streaming in the window first thing this morning.  And our daytime temperature went well up over 70F.  Needless to say, it was an unexpectedly lovely walk this morning with a southerly breeze packing some warmth to it.  Had a few things to pick up at Goderich's Walmart, so after my walk, away I went.  From Walmart, it was a Buddy Burger and coffee to go at A&W before heading myself on down to the harbor.  

 SPOTTED THIS LARGE HERD OF COWS ON MY WAY TO GODERICH THIS MORNING

 I THINK THIS IS THE KINDERGARTEN SECTION

 HERE'S WHERE THE TEEN-AGERS HANG OUT

THE LARGE VESSEL BRANT WAS AT GODEERICH'S GRAIN TERMINAL

 BY THE SOUNDS AND MOVEMENTS OF THE WINCH LINES, I THINK THEY WERE MOVING THE SHIP EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD

 A CREW MEMBER TALKS TO SOMEONE ON THE OTHER END OF HIS TWO-WAY RADIO

HIGH ATOP THE BRIDGE, THIS MIGHT EVEN BE THE CAPTAIN WITH WHAT LOOKS LIKE MAYBE AN iPAD

 CREWMEMBERS ALSO WORKING THE WINCH LINES AT THE BOW OF THE SHIP

SPOTTED THIS WIND SURFER OUT AT ROTARY COVE

AND 'ZOOP' HE'S IN THE WATER

 I THINK HE'S GETTING A LITTLE SWAMPED

 OH NO, COULD THAT BE SUBMARINE SURFACING BESIDE HIM

 NO, THAT IS THE BOTTOM END OF THE KEEL UNDER HIS SURFBOARD

 HMMM, I WONDER IF THESE TWO COULD BE HAVING A SERIOUS TALK

DETERMINATION

 A COUPLE OF HARLEY BOYS STOP FOR A REST OUT AT GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE

A GREAT DAY AT THE BEACH FOR THESE CANADA GEESE

I stopped at 360 Bikes and Boards while in Goderich, and picked up a bike rack that fits onto the back of the Subaru to carry our two E-bikes.  I think the Maitland Trail just north of Goderich might be one of our first ventures if this nice weather holds on.  Home again, I tried putting my E-Bike on the bike rack by myself and by golly, despite a few flubs, I was able to remember what the fella at 360 had shown me.  But, I can tell you that taking the bike off the rack was much easier than putting it on.  I certainly do not have the lifting strength I once did.  Following my successful bike and rack hook up, I took myself for a spin around our Park and down around the south end of the Park where heavy machinery has been churning up the roads.  I am finding my balance is coming back, and I am gaining confidence in my riding abilities again.  I was pretty wobbly a couple of weeks ago when I first started out with all this E-Bike stuff.  And I'm sure glad I traded the bike's harder seat for a much softer one with a torsion bar underneath.  It made all the difference.

 OUR TWO BICYCLE BIKE RACK

 THE RACK FOLDS BACK TO ALLOW ACCESS TO THE SUBARU'S BACK HATCH

 OUT FOR A SPIN ON SOME PRETTY CHALLENGING ROADS AT THE SOUTH END OF OUR PARK

 THAT'S THE PARK'S REVAMPED RECYCLING AREA IN THE BACKGROUND

Al's Music Box Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The Ant And The Grasshopper::

THE ORIGINAL VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN CANADIAN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come the winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. The CBC shows up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. Canadians are stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Then a representative of the NAGB (The national association of green bugs) shows up on The National and charges the ant with green bias, and makes the case that the grasshopper is the victim of 30 million years of greenism. Kermit the Frog appears on the Nature of Things with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when he sings "It's not easy being green. "Jean Chretien makes a special guest appearance on the CBC Evening News to tell a concerned public that they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the Reagan/Thatcher summers. Sheila Copps exclaims in an interview with Peter Mansbridge that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." Finally, the Liberals draft the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act," retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. John Turner gets his law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal hearing officers that Chretien appointed from a list of single-parent welfare moms who can only hear cases on Thursday's between 1:30 and 3 PM.
The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him since he doesn't know how to maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
And on the TV, which the grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, they are showing Jean Chretien standing before a wildly applauding group of liberals announcing that a new era of "fairness" has dawned in Canada.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery