FINALLY TYING UP SOME LOOSE ENDS TODAY:))

A SPRING STREAM RUNNING NEAR OUR HOUSE THIS AFTERNOON

So nice to hear Peeper Frogs out around our front yard pond & nearby forest Monday night. Temperatures have come up & the frogs have come out. They are tiny little fellows & it's rare to see them. But every year we sure can hear them & I always look forward to that welcoming nocturnal Frog concert on these warming Spring nights.

MAMA GOOSE STRIKES A LOW PROFILE AS WE QUIETLY PASS BY ON OUR MORNING WALK

AND 4 NICE GOOSE EGGS IN MAMA’S NEST

It was a mild rain we awoke to this morning & that was OK because the key word there was mild. Like many, I spent time in front of the television early this morning watching news reports coming in about the Boston Marathon tragedy. Man's inhumanity to Man. It has been with us from the beginning of time & will be with us to the end of time. So very, very, sad..........................

COLTSFOOT IS ALWAYS AN EARLY SPRING WILDFLOWER

First order of business this morning was to drop off our Sunseeker at the BAYFIELD GARAGE for it's mandatory safety inspection prior to it's Canadian registration. We are in the final stages of having this whole 'importing' thing behind us. Final step will be putting our license plates from the Damon Motorhome back on the Sunseeker with a new 2013 sticker. {Update} As expected, the Sunseeker past it's safety inspection. Kelly headed off to Clinton with the paperwork & we now have the license plates/tags on the rig with this year's updated sticker. It is done:))))))))

 

A PAIR OF GRACKLES DROPPED IN THIS AFTERNOON 
For me, it was Kelly's Eulogy at Uncle Harry's funeral service Monday afternoon that carried special meaning & I will always remember that. Despite the weather-people earlier predicting a 60% chance of rain, the day held, temperatures came up & a warm breeze made our time at the Stratford's Avondale cemetery easier. The warmer temperatures were especially nice for Aunt Jean who was already struggling through the day without having to deal with rainy damp cold temperatures as well. Power has been restored to Jean's Motel in Shakespeare & I'm sure she finally had herself a restful night's sleep.  But her pesky tough luck still follows her.  Feeling a little hungry late Monday afternoon she decided to drive to a Shakespeare diner she had seen near her Motel.  It was out of business.  Oh well she thought, I’ll just drive the 3 short miles to Tavistock & see what relatives Mary Ann & David were doing for supper.  Nobody home.  Ok, I’ll slip up to Quehls Restaurant in Tavistock.  Closed on Mondays.  However, not to be discouraged, Jean knew there is always one place in Canada open 24/7.  Tim Hortons coffee shop & that is where she contentedly sat herself down & finally had herself a mighty big bowl of soup:))

<<< PHEEBS & i GOT OURSELVES OUT FOR A PHOTO WALK AROUND THE PARK POND THIS AFTERNOON

Aunt Jean plans to remain in that Shakespeare, Tavistock, Punky Doodles Corner area until the week-end visiting friends & then come up our way for a quiet week by the lake near us. We would have Aunt Jean stay with us but we do not have a guest room. Aunt Jean & I are much alike so I know she will be looking forward to spending some quiet independent time by herself. For some of us it is the best way we re-charge & energize our tired, weak, & depleted batteries.

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A PAIR OF COOING MOURNING DOVES

OOOOOOOOOOO YOU SAY THE NICEST THINGS SWEETY

The bulk of what seemed an unending list of difficult tasks just a week & half ago are now already behind us.  Still some formalities with Uncle Harry’s estate but for the most part things have remained steady & well organized.  Screwing the license plates onto the Sunseeker this afternoon brought a final end to that ordeal.  With everything smoothly falling into place it didn’t take Pheebs & long to get ourselves into one of our old routines at lunch time.  We Jeeped ourselves off to the Sub shop in Bayfield for a 12” Cold Cut Combo:))

 

 HI-HO HI-HO IT’S OFF TO THE SUB SHOP WE GO

AW COME ON DAD HOW’S ABOUT GIVING ME THE REST  

Our cool drizzly morning finally gave way to a change this afternoon.  About 2:15 old Sol popped out of the clouds & 10 minutes after that Bayfield AL popped out of the house.  Sunshine has a habit of doing that to me.

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Haven’t been keeping tabs on my Blog Followers list on our sidebar lately but did notice today we had a new blog follower.  We welcome Chris from THE LAZY DAZE COMPANION.  I think Lazy Daze RV owners will find this site particularly interesting.  Appears to have a lot of tips & good info on Lazy Daze Motorhomes.

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Airhead Airlines, Flight 101, is coming in for a landing, and the pilot is freaking out. The sweat is jumping off his brow.  The planes lands and screeches to a halt. He turns to the co-pilot, and says, "Man, that is the shortest runway I ever landed on."  The co-pilot says, "Yeah, and so wide." (might have to think on that one for a second)

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

MY THOUGHTS ARE LOST

Been sitting here a long while at the keyboard tonight waiting for today’s words to come.  My mind fails me.  The day’s memories are sharp but my thoughts are lost, my feelings scattered.  It was a day of sadness, a day of hope.  It was a day of reflection, a day of remembrance.  I saw tears & I saw laughter.  And we all said good-bye to Uncle Harry.

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OH THOSE WONDERFUL BLUE SKIES:))

SO NICE TO SEE SUNNY BLUE SKIES FROM OUR BACK YARD AGAIN:))
WOW, what a pleasant surprise we had this morning....Sunshine:)) Talk about a wonder drug or magic elixir.   Sunshine after a long period of gloomy cloud shrouded & rain drenched days works for me every time. Like getting injected with a big dose of happy. So nice to see those first tell tale sunrise rays filtering through our Pine trees. Now, Mother Nature, if your reading this could you just crank the temperatures up big time please:))

ONLY FLOWER I COULD FIND IN OUR FLOWERBEDS TODAY WAS THIS VERY TINY CROCUS
This mornings sunshine instantly recharged both my mental & physical batteries enough to log in about 4 hours of yard work today.  That’s a fair few wheelbarrow loads of pine needles raked up.  Also a preliminary clean up of our front yard frog pond.  Cold enough to see my breath for much of the morning but with the sun shining through the Pines I didn’t mind the cold.
 
MAYBE IF I WERE TO GET A CAMPFIRE GOING HERE IT MIGHT BRING THE OUTSIDE TEMPERATURES UP
Not enough power in the Motorcycle battery again today so think I may be in need of a new battery.  Have had the bike for 6 years now & who knows how long the battery was in the bike before I bought it.  The bike is a 2002 Honda Shadow Aero 1100 & the battery in it now is a Yuasa YTX14-BS Honda.  Maybe it’s still the original battery.

A MALE ROBIN & A MALE MALLARD DUCK
Still no power restored to Aunt Jean’s Motel room so the only things there are her belongings as she continues to stay with cousin Mary Ann 3 miles away in Tavistock.  In fact there are still thousands of people without power since Thursday night’s storm.

NEVER FAR FROM MY SIDE WHEN WORKING OUTDOORS IS MY LOYAL COMPANION & BEST HELPER
Put out a couple more bird feeders out this morning but other than a couple Blue Jays, a few Dark Eyed Juncos, a Black Cap Chickadee, 2 Red Wing Blackbirds & 1 Mourning Dove there hasn’t been a lot of bird activity in our front yard yet.  One shifty eyed Squirrel cruised through eyeing the feeders but Pheebs put the run on the Varmint.
 
Darn right leg & hip have been giving me a lot of grief these past couple days since working around outside.  Same problem I had most of the winter in Arizona during & after the big property clean-up.  Seems like the problem is not going to clear up on it’s own so looks like I’ll have to make a Doctor’s appointment to see what’s going on.  Hate having to do that but I was told by my Doctor last Fall to get a PSA test soon as we returned from Arizona anyway so might as well get that all done in one fell swoop.  I’ll get that underway next week.  In the meantime I am having to stick pretty close to my temporary cane again.  And I am also using up some of the pain meds concerned readers sent me this past winter in Congress.  Thanks again folks:))

PHEEBS KEEPS A WARY EYE OUT FOR RASCALLY SQUIRRELS
We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow with Uncle Harry’s funeral at 2 p.m. so I may or may not put a post together when we get home.  I’ll just see how it goes.  As I have said several time before, writing is therapeutic for me & it always helps when I sit down & write about how I feel.  It is not often I can talk about how I am feeling but it is often I can write about how I am feeling…………………………


A PAIR OF DUCKS ON THE POND THIS MORNING
GROANER’S CORNER:((  Two persons are discussing whether the state of Hawaii is pronounced 'Havaii,' or 'Hawaii.'  There they stood arguing and arguing, until they decided to ask a person walking by.  'Excuse me sir, is Hawaii pronounced 'Hawaii' or 'Havaii?''
The gentleman said, 'Havaii.'   Looking at each other, and as the gentleman was leaving, one of the two said to him, 'Thank you.'  The gentleman replied by saying, 'Your velcome.'
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

DRAB:((

ALWAYS NICE SEEING BLUE JAYS AT OUR FEEDER STATION

Afraid I’m having myself another one of ‘those’ days. Couldn’t seem to get my blogging mind into gear again. Happens to me every Spring upon returning home. Just kind of get myself into a blogging funk until I can get myself re-interested in where I am & what I’m doing.

  

LOOKS LIKE WE MAY HAVE SOME BABY GEESE ON THE POND THIS SPRING & IF IT EVER WARMS UP SOME DAY AROUND HERE THESE DAFFODILS MIGHT EVEN BLOOM

Power is still off over a wide area east of us from Thursday night’s ice & wind storm & that includes Aunt Jean’s Motel in Shakespeare Ontario. This afternoon she ran into snow squalls driving her newly rented car from Stratford to Tavistock. Looks like she will have to spend another night on Mary Ann’s couch & she told Kelly on the phone this afternoon this will definitely be her last time in Canada!!  I remember last year at this time the flowers were blooming, buds were out on the shrubs & trees & everything looked & felt so nice.  Right now our front yard looks like it would around the first week in March.  Drab:((

 
IT WAS JUST A YEAR AGO AROUND NOW THAT PHEEBS MET A BABY:))

We barely made 40F today but at least the rain stayed away. Just a few drops followed by some lost snow flakes. Amazingly enough we even had ourselves half a dozen brief sun splashes later this afternoon before the cloud cover solidly socked us in again. I was able to make a dent in the outside yard clean-up today taking a trailer load of pine needles & branches to our yard waste recycle area.  Tonight I am hobbling around like a really old Geezer.  And that happens every Spring as well when unused leg & back muscles are once again pressed into service.  Seems to get a little harder every year now though…………:((

NEARLY GOT THE JEEP ANCHORED HERE THIS AFTERNOON 

Had meant to include a couple photos in Fridays blog & forgot.  The Sunseeker undergoing it’s ‘Import’ inspection at Canadian Tire & getting the bike started after 5 months in storage.

  

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GROANER’S CORNER:(( A college boy takes his girlfriend to a football game. It's the first football game she's ever seen, and afterwards he asks her how she liked it. "Oh, I really liked it," she says, "but I just couldn't understand though why they were killing each other for 25 cents." "What do you mean?" "All they kept screaming was: Get the quarter back. Get the quarter back."
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

OUR SUNSEEKER PASSES THE FIRST OF 2 MANDATORY ONTARIO VEHICLE INSPECTIONS

NICE TO SEE OUR ANNUAL PAIR OF NESTING CANADA GEESE BACK ON THE POND

A better day. Not weather wise of course but nonetheless, a better day:))  Numerous pine branches & twigs on the ground in our Park this morning after Thursday night's big winds. Ice coated tree limbs & trees down blocking roads just north of us.  County crews have been busy with chainsaws. Power out in some areas but amazingly enough our little corner of whatever survived the power outages.  That is usually not the case.

SPRING FLOWERS??  NOPE, JUST SOME PLASTIC ONES I STUCK IN THE GROUND TO MAKE MYSELF FEEL BETTER ON A GLOOMY DAY

When importing a vehicle from the U.S. to Canada one has to have that vehicle inspected & a document stamped & sent of to the 'The Registry Of Imported Vehicles'. In Ontario, 'Canadian Tire' has the Government contract for doing those inspections & that was our first Sunseeker stop this morning. Kind of hated to take the rig out on such a sloppy morning but we had to get that inspection done in order to get our proper Canadian ownership & plates back on the Sunseeker. Our temporary Arizona license sticker runs out in a couple weeks. The inspection took about 10 minutes & didn't cost us anything.

<<< OUR FRONT YARD IVY IS REAL:))

The next inspection is Tuesday morning at the Bayfield Garage. Here in Ontario a safety inspection has to be done on every vehicle sold. Without a safety certificate one cannot get the ownership changed. Prices vary for inspections but are often in the area of $75. Plus of course whatever a garage finds wrong with a vehicle that has to be repaired. There is a good & bad side to this. Good side is it keeps junky unsafe vehicles off the road & protects the buyer from getting ripped off by a seller because of undisclosed repairs. Bad side is that it opens up a Pandora's Box for unscrupulous garages to replace a lot of parts that are not necessary. Fortunately for us we have two positive things going for us. We have a reputable garage here in Bayfield & we have a new vehicle with only 6,000 miles on it. As soon as we receive that safety certificate we can register our American bought RV in Canada & everything will be done.

WITH A SUPER GOOD IMAGINATION YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO MAKE A TURTLE OUT OF THIS CEDAR STUMP IN OUR FLOWER BED

A grocery store stop along with Walmart, Home Hardware & TSC for a 50 pound bag of birdseed completed our errands in Goderich this morning. Sure is nice zipping in & out of parking lots with our smaller 23 foot RV size now. Really noticed how flexible we were when on the road last week as well. Especially popping in & out of small gas stations. And speaking of gas, we spent $931 for gas to drive the 2,167 miles home. Figured that was about $250 cheaper than our Class A 33’ Damon Motorhome. Had a tendency to drive the Motorhome about 55 mph on the Interstates & the Sunseeker about 60 mph. Biggest problem with the little Class C was holding it under 60. It just wants to get out there & go like nuts.

THIS PATCH OF WINTER HARDENED PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS IN OUR BACK YARD SEEMS SO SMALL COMPARED TO WHAT WE ARE USED TO IN ARIZONA

The rains finally did temporarily let up by late morning & I was able to get the battery installed back in the Motorcycle which has spent the winter in a neighbor's garage. Five good cranks & the Honda was running like a clock. Hondas have a habit of doing that ya know. I had warmed the engine with a heat lamp first to get the cold & dampness off the spark plugs & I'm sure that helped. I now have the bike in our carport. And Monica, your car started right up with the first turn of the key again:))

Placed some birdseed on our feeder station late this morning & it wasn’t until later this afternoon I finally saw our first bird of the season dropping in for some eats.  I’m guessing it was a Dark Eyed Junco.  It seems our weather is just too dreary for even the birds to fly.

<<< SPRING BUDS ARE PATIENTLY WAITING FOR WARMER WEATHER

Had a phone call from Aunt Jean today confirming she had flown in from Sarasota Florida Thursday but all was not exactly well.  Relatives Mary Ann & David from Tavistock had picked her up in London & driven her to a pre-booked Motel in Shakespeare Ontario just north of Tavistock.  All was fine until the big ice storm rolled in overnight knocking power out to the whole area including Aunt Jean’s Motel.  She woke up very cold in the night & cold is not a nice four letter word in Aunt Jean’s world.  She phoned this afternoon from Mary Ann’s place & they were hoping the power would be restored to the Motel before she heads back there for the night.  Jean will be renting a car & staying in the Stratford/Tavistock area until after Uncle Harry’s funeral Monday before coming up to our neck of the woods for a wee stay at Deer Park Lodge on the shores of Lake Huron.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A monastery in the English countryside has fallen on hard times, and the monks decide to open a Fish-and-Chips restaurant. The establishment soon became very popular, attracting people from all over. One city fellow, thinking himself clever, asked one of the brothers standing nearby, "I suppose you're the 'Fish Friar?'" "No," answered the brother, straight-faced. "I'm the 'Chip Monk.'"

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

VERY MUCH MISSING OUR ARIZONA SUNSHINE:((

Rain let up long enough this afternoon for me to get out a few garden tools & begin scratching away at our Spring clean-up. A few snow flakes in the air, a few sleet pellets, & the rain was back.  We sure are missing our warm sunny Arizona days.  Turned out to be a quiet day sorting through Uncle Harry’s belongings.  Better blogging days ahead but for tonight…..just a short post.

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GROANER'S CORNER:(( A sweet young thing who has just been shopping is pulled over by a traffic cop and given a ticket for speeding. Rather than fight the ticket, the woman writes a check for the amount of the fine and puts it in the mail.
However, the young woman is anxious. Her husband always examines her checkbook carefully, and she doesn't want him to know about the incident.
Then inspiration strikes, and she scribbles on the check stub: "One pullover, $125."
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.