I HAVE A LOT OF BUSY MONTHS AHEAD OF ME

Another dump of snow landed on us overnight.  The way it was piled on the birdfeeder's I thought we got about a foot but walking outside later it was more like maybe 3 inches.  I made that same mistake a week ago thinking we had a foot of snow when we actually didn't.  I wonder why it builds up so high on the bird feeders.....Of course, it was another dull gray morning as Pheebs and I half heartedley made our way in the car down to the end of Bayfield River Road and back.  Would you believe when we got back my driveway was blown out again.  A neighbor just around the corner and down the street got himself a new snowblower this winter and I'm pretty sure it was Frank who slipped over and did the driveway while Pheebs and I were out.  I am certainly grateful to Frank and Randy, another neighbor.  Randy is the fellow with the big tractor and blower. 

ANOTHER SNOWY FARM LANE

 IT'S A SNOWY MORNING

Home again and aside from shoveling my paths out, I spent the rest of the day puttering about in the house.  Cleaning out more kitchen cupboards and kind of bouncing around between the kitchen, living room, Kelly's room, and the spare room.  Just so much stuff to deal with.  Stuff I didn't even know we had, and stuff  I hadn't seen in years.  Not just Kelly's stuff, but our stuff, and lots of my stuff as well.  I'd sure be in a dilemma if I ever wanted to or had to sell this place.  I think that is one of the things in the back of my mind driving me toward an end goal.  Even if I stay here for the next hundred years I want to get both the inside of the house and the outside two sheds and carport down to a manageable configuration that I am comfortable with.  I have a lot of busy months ahead of me.  I probably have enough pieces of odds and sods of wood stored in the rafters of the carport to build myself a forty-foot yacht.  Anyway, just a few afternoon thoughts on a dull grey and boring day at the midway point of another snowy cold depressing January here in southwestern Ontario, Canada.  I think the January blahs have got a grip on me........:((

 SHOVELING OUT MY PATH TO THE BURNING BARREL

Al's Music Box When I'm Sixty Four is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon-McCartney) and released on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was one of the first songs McCartney wrote; he was about 14, probably in April or May 1956. The song was recorded in a key different from the final version; it was sped up at the request of McCartney to make his voice sound younger. It prominently features a trio of clarinets (two B♭ clarinets and one bass clarinet) throughout. Paul McCartney wrote the melody to "When I'm Sixty-Four" around the age of 14, probably at 20 Forthlin Road in April or May 1956. In 1987, McCartney recalled, "Rock and roll was about to happen that year, it was about to break, [so] I was still a little bit cabaret-minded", and in 1974, "I wrote a lot of stuff thinking I was going to end up in the cabaret, not realizing that rock and roll was particularly going to happen. When I was fourteen there wasn't much of a clue that it was going to happen." The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of their growing old together. Although the theme is aging, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote. Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn suggests it was McCartney's second composition, coming after "Call It Suicide" but before "I Lost My Little Girl". It was in the Beatles' setlist in their early days as a song to perform when their amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off. Both George Martin and Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father, Jim McCartney, turned 64 earlier that year. In 1967, John Lennon said of the song, "Paul wrote it in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave' … this was just one that was quite a hit with us." Lennon reiterated his lyrical contribution in 1972, stating “I think I helped Paul with some of the words, like ‘Vera, Chuck and Dave’ and ‘Doing the garden, digging the weeds.’" Lennon's contribution of the children's names were likely made in the studio. McCartney's manuscript for the song sold for $55,700 (equivalent to US$115,000 in 2023) at Sotheby's, London in September 1994. The Beatles recorded two takes of the song on 6 December 1966, during one of the first sessions for the as-yet-unnamed album that became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Martin produced, supported by engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald. McCartney overdubbed his lead vocal onto take two without the other Beatles present on 8 December. On 20 December, McCartney, Lennon and George Harrison overdubbed backing vocals and Ringo Starr added the sound of bells. Martin made two reduction mixes (takes three and four) with the latter best. On 21 December, session musicians Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie and Frank Reidy overdubbed two clarinets and a bass clarinet onto take four. Emerick later explained, "The clarinets on that track became a very personal sound for me; I recorded them so far forward that they became one of the main focal points." Martin recalled, "I remember recording it in the cavernous Number One studio at Abbey Road and thinking how the three clarinet players looked as lost as a referee and two linesmen alone in the middle of Wembley Stadium." On the same day, Martin remixed the song for mono three times, although this was only a demo version. He made four new mono mixes on 29 December. On 30 December, unsatisfied with all of these attempts, McCartney suggested speeding up the track. Martin remembers the semitone from its original key of C major. McCartney suggested this change to make his voice sound younger. McCartney says, "I wanted to appear younger, but that was just to make it more rooty-tooty; just lift the key because it was starting to sound turgid." Martin, Emerick and Richard Lush made the sped-up remix from take four on 17 April 1967. Musicologist Michael Hannan comments on the completed track: "The rich timbres of the clarinets give the mix a fuller, fatter sound than many of the other tracks on the album." rinets (two B♭ clarinets and one bass clarinet) throughout. Paul McCartney wrote the melody to "When I'm Sixty-Four" around the age of 14, probably at 20 Forthlin Road in April or May 1956. In 1987, McCartney recalled, "Rock and roll was about to happen that year, it was about to break, [so] I was still a little bit cabaret-minded", and in 1974, "I wrote a lot of stuff thinking I was going to end up in the cabaret, not realizing that rock and roll was particularly going to happen. When I was fourteen there wasn't much of a clue that it was going to happen." The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of their growing old together. Although the theme is aging, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote. Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn suggests it was McCartney's second composition, coming after "Call It Suicide" but before "I Lost My Little Girl". It was in the Beatles' setlist in their early days as a song to perform when their amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off. Both George Martin and Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father, Jim McCartney, turned 64 earlier that year. In 1967, John Lennon said of the song, "Paul wrote it in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave' … this was just one that was quite a hit with us." Lennon reiterated his lyrical contribution in 1972, stating “I think I helped Paul with some of the words, like ‘Vera, Chuck and Dave’ and ‘Doing the garden, digging the weeds.’" Lennon's contribution of the children's names were likely made in the studio. McCartney's manuscript for the song sold for $55,700 (equivalent to US$115,000 in 2023) at Sotheby's, London in September 1994. The Beatles recorded two takes of the song on 6 December 1966, during one of the first sessions for the as-yet-unnamed album that became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Martin produced, supported by engineers Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald. McCartney overdubbed his lead vocal onto take two without the other Beatles present on 8 December. On 20 December, McCartney, Lennon and George Harrison overdubbed backing vocals and Ringo Starr added the sound of bells. Martin made two reduction mixes (takes three and four) with the latter best. On 21 December, session musicians Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie and Frank Reidy overdubbed two clarinets and a bass clarinet onto take four. Emerick later explained, "The clarinets on that track became a very personal sound for me; I recorded them so far forward that they became one of the main focal points." Martin recalled, "I remember recording it in the cavernous Number One studio at Abbey Road and thinking how the three clarinet players looked as lost as a referee and two linesmen alone in the middle of Wembley Stadium." On the same day, Martin remixed the song for mono three times, although this was only a demo version. He made four new mono mixes on 29 December. On 30 December, unsatisfied with all of these attempts, McCartney suggested speeding up the track. Martin remembers the semitone from its original key of C major. McCartney suggested this change to make his voice sound younger. McCartney says, "I wanted to appear younger, but that was just to make it more rooty-tooty; just lift the key because it was starting to sound turgid." Martin, Emerick and Richard Lush made the sped-up remix from take four on 17 April 1967. Musicologist Michael Hannan comments on the completed track: "The rich timbres of the clarinets give the mix a fuller, fatter sound than many of the other tracks on the album."

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The first-grade teacher was showing pictures of animals to her students to see how many they could name. She held up a picture of a lamb, and a little girl said, "That's a sheep!"  "That's right!" said the teacher. "How about THIS one?" she said, holding up a picture of the king of beasts."That's a lion!" answered a little boy.  "Right!" said the teacher. Then she held up a picture of a deer. No one volunteered an answer. She tried to help. "What does your mother call your father?"  Johnny said, "I know! That's a lazy old goat!" 

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- What has four legs, is big, green, fuzzy, and if it fell out of a tree would kill you?
A pool table.

- Why do Morris dancers wear bells?  So they can annoy blind people as well.

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- I recently took up yoga, and the instructor asked me how flexible I am…I said: I can only do Fridays.

- I'm trying to write this pun about yoga.  But it's just not working out. It just seems a stretch.

- What did the yogi tell his dog?  Nama, stay!

- What do you do when a yoga guru goes missing?  Nothing. They'll find themself.

- What do an ambulance and a yoga class have in common?  They both contain stretchers.

- I did an amazing yoga pose over this stream created from acidic rainfall yesterday.  I think it's called a bridge over troubled water

- Why is it easy to make an appointment with a yoga teacher?  They're just so flexible.

- Why did the yogi refuse anesthetic at the dentist?  He wanted to transcend-dental-medication!

- I got chucked out of yoga class yesterday.
Apparently, I misinterpreted the Half-Moon Pose.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kellys Corner

 UM, I THINK WE SHOULD BE GOING THAT WAY'

 PICKING UP A PARCEL AT THE HARDWARE STORE IN BORREGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA

 KELLY CHECKS THE TRAIL AHEAD ON A MORNING WALK

Al's Art Gallery

I SO MUCH MISS THOSE GREAT DAYS

ON THE WAY TO PICK UP MY GOOD BUDDY RICHARD THIS MORNING

Another in a series of mighty fine late October days.  The weather 22 years ago today certainly wasn't like this.  It was the final day for us in the old farmhouse at the old Weenie Roast Ranch near Fullarton Ontario. We had lived there for over 7 years.  It was a cold and dark rain-soaked night when we left our old haunt and moved the last load of stuff to where we now live in the Bayfield Pines Community near Bayfield Ontario.  It was Halloween night 2002 and the weather had played a 'trick' on us but it sure was a 'treat' that cold, and dark night to move into our warm cozy little place right here under the tall swaying Pine trees:))  

 FIERY SUMAC LEAVES

Coffee and muffins time for Richard and me so I picked him up this morning and off we went to cruise a few roads we hadn't been on for a while.  Always nice to change up the scenery from time to time and especially so now that we still have some gorgeous Autumn colors left in the countryside. 

 WE WERE SURPRISED BY A GOLFCART LOAD OF SCARY PARK CHARACTERS THIS AFTERNOON

 THE COMMUNITY SPIRIT IN OUR PARK IS VERY MUCH ALIVE AND WELL:))

I BORROWED THIS PHOTO FROM ANOTHER PARK RESIDENT

Kelly and I headed down to the south end of our Park this afternoon for a walk in the hardwood forest located there.  This is an area we often walked with our dogs in the earlier years of living here.  Sometimes we would make our way down a steep hundred-foot forested embankment to the Bayfield River far below.  But, that was years ago when we were younger and could do things like that on the spur of the moment without even having to worry about anything like getting back up the embankment again.  Actually, we had a purpose for being in that forest today.  We were looking for something we didn't find.  A bench.  Oh well, it was just great to be outside doing something we so much enjoyed doing in our RVing years.  We loved looking for things like old western Ghost Towns, (Charleston) lost gravesites, (Johnny Ringo and some Confederate soldiers) historical markers, old mines, Crested Saguaro Cactus, hidden trails, natural water tanks in the Kofa Mountains, the hard-to-find Mary Kidder ranch and old Fort Rucker in the Chiricahua Mountains, and Cochise's council rocks in Arizona's Dragoon Mountains.  We found the dump site for the old army Camp Furlong in Columbus New Mexico, Marshall South's homestead atop Ghost Mountain in California's Blair valley, and his gravesite in Julian California.  The endless list goes on and on and it was always one of our favorite things to do.  Get ourselves up in the morning and head out the door early to go places and find and do things we had never seen or done before.  I so much miss those great days............   

 WE DROVE SUBIE UP INTO THE HARDWOOD FOREST

 YOU CAN SEE IT WASA VERY WINDY AFTERNOON

 AN OLD FARM GATE IN THE WOODS

HEADING BACK TO THE CAR

 MAKING OUR WAY BACK OUT OF THE FOREST

Al's Music Box:)) Ghost Riders In The Sky by Geoff Castelucci is a cowboy-styled country/western song written in 1948 by American songwriter Stan Jones.  The song tells a folk tale of a cowboy who has a vision of red-eyed, steel-hooved cattle thundering across the sky, being chased by the spirits of damned cowboys. One warns him that if he does not change his ways, he will be doomed to join them, forever "trying to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies".  Stan Jones stated that he had been told the story when he was 12 years old by an old Native American who resided northeast of the Douglas Arizona border town, a few miles behind D Hill, north of Agua Prieta. Sonora. The Native Americans, possibly Apache, who lived within Cochise County, believed that when souls vacate their physical bodies, they reside as spirits in the sky, resembling ghost riders. He related this story to Wayne Hester, a boyhood friend (later owner of the Douglas Cable Company). As both boys were looking at the clouds, Stan shared what the old Native American had told him, looking in amazement as the cloudy shapes were identified as the "ghost riders" that years later, would be transposed into lyrics.............Here is an instrumental version of the same song played on a steel guitar.  Ghost Riders.  And of course, the version I grew up with....Frankie Laines version of Ghost Riders In The Sky.  And, because it's Halloween, here is Bobby (Boris) Pickett and the Crypt Kicker Five with The Monster Mash.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A car was involved in an accident on the street. As expected a large crowd gathered. A newspaper reporter, anxious to get his story could not get near the car.  Being a clever sort, he started shouting loudly, "Let me through! Let me through! I am the son of the victim."  The crowd made way for him.  Lying in front of the car was a donkey.

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[1] Regular naps prevent old age, especially if you take them while driving.

[2] Having one child makes you a parent; having two makes you a referee.

[3] Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right and the other is the husband!

[4] I believe we should all pay our taxes with a smile. I tried – but they wanted cash.

[5] A child's greatest period of growth is the month after you've purchased new school uniforms.

[6] Don't feel bad. A lot of people have no talent.

[7] Don't marry the person you want to live with, marry the one you cannot live without, but whatever you do, you'll regret it later.

[8] You can't buy love, but you pay heavily for it.

[9] Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.

[10] Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.

[11] Marriage is give and take. You'd better give it to her or she'll take it.

[12] My wife and I always compromise. I admit I'm wrong and she agrees with me.

[13] Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others.

[14] Ladies first. Pretty ladies sooner.

[15] A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

[16] You're getting old when you enjoy remembering things more than doing them.

[17] It doesn't matter how often a married man changes his job, he still ends up with the same boss.

[18] Real friends are the ones who survive transitions between address books.

[19] Saving is the best thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you.

[20] Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something

[21] They call our language the mother tongue because the father seldom gets to speak!

[22] Man: Is there any way for long life?
Dr: Get married.
Man: Will it help?
Dr: No, but then the thought of long life will never come.

[23] Why do couples hold hands during their wedding? It's a formality just like two boxers touching gloves before the fight begins!

[24] Wife: Darling today is our anniversary, what should we do?
Husband: Let us stand in silence for 2 minutes.

[25] There is only one perfect child in the world and every mother has it.

[26] There is only one perfect wife in the world and every neighbor has it!

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