MOODY MORNING BEACH WALK

I THINK THIS BLUEJAY MAY HAVE A SLANTED VIEW OF LIFE

Our usual routine first thing in the morning is to kick on the TV and watch a half hour of CBS news before I gain control of the television and flip on my nature channel shows.  Well not so this morning. I didn’t get control of anything.  Kelly wanted to watch the Royal Wedding so I had to dig out my headphones and crack on my laptop computer music.  Occasionally I would glance overtop the screen and of course my question to myself is always the same with those kinds of English functions.  Where do all those women find those crazy circus hats and why would they stick them on their heads like that and go out in public.  Are they not aware how silly they look.  And I wonder why a bride would wear a dress so long it drags on the ground and takes two small boys to follow along behind holding up the veil.  Oh I am such a sod.  At one point I glanced up and saw Queen Elizabeth riding along in a car which of course reminded me of a post I wrote over a dozen years ago.  It's called Me and Queen Elizabeth.

ON OUR FRIDAY MORNING SHORELINE WALK IN GODERICH I SPOTTED SOMETHING COLORFUL IN SOME GREEN GRASS AHEAD….IT WAS A FEMALE BALTIMORE ORIOLE

I THEN SAW A FLASH OF ORANGE COLOR ABOVE THE FEMALE ORIOLE AND SAW THE MALE ORIOLE KEEPING WATCH OVER HER

THE MALE FLITTED ABOUT KEEPING CLOSE WATCH OVER HIS FEMALE COMPANION WHO WAS BUSY GATHERING NESTING MATERIAL

AT ONE POINT THE MALE LANDED ON THE GROUND CLOSE TO HER THEN FLEW BACK UP INTO A NEARBY SMALL TREE

 

WITH NESTING MATERIAL IN HER BEAK SHE FLIES UP INTO A SHRUB NEAR THE MALE

  

NOTICE THE FLARED TAIL

SHE LOOKS BACK TO MAKE SURE I AM STAYING PUT

THEN OFF SHE GOES FOLLOWING HER MATE HOME

Our day started off with a light drizzly rain which of course I'm sure was a big disappointment to the thousands of cottage and boat owners, merchants, tourists, and camping people.  Local merchants especially count on this big long week-end to kick start their coffers.  Luckily for Pheebs and I the rains stopped moments before we left and resumed only minutes after we got home about an hour later.

HERE’S KELLY RELAXING WITH HER LUNCH TODAY….SHE EATS THE WEIRDEST STUFF LIKE FRUITS AND VEGITABLES….IF I HAD TO EAT THAT I WOULD HOPE SOME KIND SOUL WOULD SAY TO ME, ‘WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT SIR’

Our favorite Bayfield ‘Charles Street Market’ coffee stop of last year has morphed into a Bistro and moved on down the street.  However not far away is located Shopbike Coffee Roasters and it is here where we have been occasionally stopping in for a coffee to go.  I don’t do muffins anymore but they do have tasty muffins and other pastries.  Imagine my surprise when I stopped in for a coffee to go and it was ‘free’.  What??  Locally owned Bayfield Electric in conjunction with Shopbike Coffee Roasters had graciously opted to buy each customer today a coffee:))

NABBED ME A FREE CUP OF COFFEE HERE THIS MORNING

We traveled ourselves a few miles south of Bayfield along highway 21 and turned right on Pavilion Road heading for the shores of Lake Huron.  It’s maybe only a mile to where the road ends.  Parked the Jeep and headed for a set of long weathered wooden stairs leading down to the beach.  The stairway is old and wobbles a wee bit but I’m sure it has another half dozen years left.

IT’S A LONG WAY DOWN TO THE BEACH SO WE STOP HALF WAY FOR A 6 SECOND REST

OF COURSE IT’S GONNA BE AN EVEN LONGER WAYS BACK UP AND BY THE TIME I GOT TO THE BOTTOM PHEEBS WAS ALREADY ON THE BEACH CHECKING THINGS OUT

WE DECIDED TO HEAD SOUTH ALONG THE SHORE

IT WAS KIND OF A MOODY LOOKING DAY

 

‘HEY DAD WHY DON’T YOU COME BACK HERE AND SHOW ME HOW YOU FELL OVER THIS LOG AGAIN’

OVER YON HORIZON LIES THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

In regards to my Motorhome waxing project commenter Vern asks, ‘Al do you apply the wax with the buffer or just buff it off with the machine’?  The 10 Inch Simonize Polisher I bought on sale for $39.95 comes with 2 polishing cloths, a foam wax applicator and a standard wax applicator.  I chose to put the wax on by hand and and use the machines polishing cloth to buff the wax off.  Works like a charm and I never would have started this waxing project had I not bought the 10 inch Simonize polisher.  I also purchased 2 additional polishing cloths which incidentally are machine washable.  In an email from reader Steven he wondered what wax I am using on the motorhome and if it is safe on the vinyl graphics?  To be honest Steven I never thought about the graphics so I waxed and buffed right over top of them.  So far everything seems fine but I certainly have been known for my dumb mistakes in the past.  Should note though that it is Meguiar’s ‘Marine’ wax I am using which is especially for fiberglass surfaces like boats and RV’s.

 

SNIFFING HER WAY THROUGH THE BEACH’S FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

LIKE A GIANT DINOSAUR BONE THIS WATER WORN TREE TRUNK LIES ON THE BEACH

COTTAGE AND HOME OWNER’S BOATS

A HOMEOWNER’S ROOFTOP IS VISIBLE TOP LEFT WHILE THEIR STAIRS ACCESS TO THE BEACH IS VISIBLE BOTTOM RIGHT

WATER RUN-OFF FROM HIGHER LAND  POOLS BEFORE WASHING INTO LAKE HURON

FEARLESS PHEEBS FORDS A MIGHTY STREAM

ALONG MANY STRETCHES OF BEACH ARE THESE  JUTTING STEEL WALLS TO HELP PREVENT BEACH EROSION AND BELOW YOU CAN SEE HOW THEY WORK

WE BEGIN OUR ASCENT UP THE LONG SET OF STEPS FROM THE BEACH

‘OH NEVER MIND THE SILLY SELFIE DAD JUST FOLLOW ME I KNOW THE WAY TO THE TOP

We were back home about an hour after we left and I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up our carport.  Dark cloudy skies were looking ominous and I didn’t want to get into more Motorhome waxing then have the skies open up and dump a load of water on the rig.  Made use of my time cleaning up our carport which had lately become kind of a catch-all for everything. 

FEMALE BALTIMORE ORIOL ON OUR SUET FEEDER

‘OH GOOD SHE’S ASLEEP’

‘OH NUTS’

BLACK CAP CHICKADEE

A fellow well known RV Blogger has passed away.  Lynne Braden from Winnie Views lost her battle with cancer May 16th.  Lynne knew she wasn't going to make it and I found her thoughts and writings near the end of her struggle thought provoking, insightful, and sincere.  Despite sometimes traveling in the same areas we never did meet this fine lady.  You can find her quality writings and photos on my side bar.

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Hey Norma and Jim here’s one for you guys to think about next winter:))  Ski season is almost here! Hence, the following list of exercises to get you prepared:

16. Visit your local butcher and pay $30 to sit in the walk-in freezer for a half an hour. Afterwards, burn two $50 dollar bills to warm up.

15. Soak your gloves and store them in the freezer after every use.

14. Fasten a small, wide rubber band around the top half of your head before you go to bed each night.

13. If you wear glasses, begin wearing them with glue smeared on the lenses.

12. Throw away a hundred dollar bill-now.

11. Find the nearest ice rink and walk across the ice 20 times in your ski boots carrying two pairs of skis, accessory bag and poles. Pretend you are looking for your car. Sporadically drop things.

10. Place a small but angular pebble in your shoes, line them with crushed ice, and then tighten a C-clamp around your toes.

9. Buy a new pair of gloves and immediately throw one away.

8. Secure one of your ankles to a bedpost and ask a friend to run into you at high speed.

7. Go to McDonald's and insist on paying $8.50 for a hamburger. Be sure you are in the longest line.

6. Clip a lift ticket to the zipper of your jacket and ride a motorcycle fast enough to make the ticket lacerate your face.

5. Drive slowly for five hours - anywhere - as long as it's in a snowstorm and you're following an 18-wheeler.

4. Fill a blender with ice, hit the pulse button and let the spray blast your face. Leave the ice on your face until it melts. Let it drip off onto your clothes.

3. Dress up in as many clothes as you can and then proceed to take them off because you have to go to the bathroom.

2. Slam your thumb in a car door. Don't go see a doctor.

1. Repeat all of the above every Saturday and Sunday until it's time for the real thing!

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Baby 1: I'm a boy.
Baby 2: prove it.
Baby 1: Not in front of the nurse.
Baby 2: Okay The nurse just left
Baby 2: Prove it.
Baby 1: Okay look at this………’blue socks’.

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PLANTING MORE DAFFYS AND TULIES, THE MOTORHOME WAXING CONTINUES AND YES WE GOT NO BANANAS

BALTIMORE ORIOLE SEEN ALONG THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON THIS MORNING

So hard to keep track of days and especially week days.  When one is finally out of the work force days just kind of blend into each other.  No place to be at any particular time, no work routines and no schedules.  For all I knew today was Saturday.  I don't know when it finally dawned on me it was Friday.  There was a time in the work years when week-ends were always very much looked forward to.  Now it just doesn't matter.  Week-ends are the same as week days.  Nothing special going on and if Tuesday comes after Friday and Sunday is the day before Wednesday, well so be it and that's alright too.

‘HEY HERE COMES PETEY THE NEW GUY AND  HE NEVER BRINGS ANYTHING WORTH WHILE WITH HIM’

‘OH YA I GOTTA STICK’……..’OH GEEEEZEEE, D’YA BELIEVE THIS GUY’

FEMALE ROSE BREASTED GROSBEAK AT TWILIGHT

A McDonalds coffee to go with a matching breakfast burrito seemed the right thing to do so Pheebs and I scooped our goodies and headed down to the harbor.  No vehicles parked at the doggy walking area so away we went along the parallel trail overlooking Lake Huron.

THE RADCLIFFE R. LATIMER WAS DOCKED AT THE GODERICH ELEVATORS 

LOOKS LIKE THIS GREAT LAKES BULK CARRIER COULD USE HERSELF A NEW PAINT JOB

THE CLEAR WATERS OF BEAUTIFUL LAKE HURON

BEAUTIFUL AQUA COLORS AS WELL

MALE MALLARD DUCK

A stop at Walmart fetched us 3 pots of daffodils and 2 pots of tulips.  It's the end of the season for them so they were on sale very cheap.  I planted them in our front flower bed and they will hopefully be looking good next Spring.

‘UM WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THESE TULIPS AND DAFFODILS DAD, DID YA GET THEM FOR MOM’ ………. ‘WELL DID YA’??

HEADING HOME

A SLEEPY LITTLE FACE

Pheebs and I were home about 11 and I started right away on the Motorhome again.  I now have all the passenger side bins waxed.  Next will be the top two thirds of the coach on that side then I will back the Motorhome out, turn it around, and back it in whereupon I will begin on the driver's side.  I am so glad I noticed a week ago or so that the Canadian Tire Store in Goderich had 10 inch Simonize electric buffers on sale and that has made a world of difference.  So much easier doing all that buffing with a buffer machine rather than by hand.   It's the first time I've ever used a buffer and it has me wondering why I didn't get one of those things years ago'.

 Some may be wondering if I'm spending all this time shining up the Motorhome to sell it.  Nope, just had me an urge to clean and wax it earlier in the week so that's what I'm doing.  Maybe when I get it done we'll head out for an overnighter somewhere.  Just the Motorhome and not the Jeep.  It would be nice to sit outside at night under the stars again.  Just gotta find some quiet unpopulated places to do that......................

Sometimes we don’t communicate so swell here at home or is it my memory that just don’t work so good no more.  I had forgot Kelly said she had some errands to run in Goderich this morning and that usually means a stop at the grocery store.  Of course while in Walmart picking up the 5 pots of tulips and daffodils I decided i had better pick us up a bunch of bananas too.  Of course when Kelly got home later she also had picked up a bunch of bananas plus daffodils and tulips.  I have the 7 pots of flowers planted now but in order to eat all the bananas we have we are going to have to get ourselves a whole herd of Monkeys!!

GROANER'S CORNER:((  The US standard railroad gauge (space between the rails) is 4 feet 8½ inches.  That is a very odd number. Why was that gauge used?  Because that's the way they built them in England and the US railroads were built by English expatriates.  Why did the English build them that way? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.  Why did they use that gauge? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that were used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.  So why did the wagons have that particular spacing? If they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England because that was the spacing of the wheel ruts.  So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe (including England) were built by Imperial Rome for their legions and they have been in use ever since.  And the ruts in the roads? The ruts, which everyone had to match for fear of breaking their wagon wheels, were first formed by chariots. Since the chariots were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the manner of wheel spacing.  The US standard railroad gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches was derived from the original specifications for the Imperial Roman war chariot.  Specifications and bureaucracies live on forever!  So, the next time you are handed a specification and you wonder what bureaucratic horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two horses.  There we have the answer to the original question but now for a new twist to the story.  When we see the space shuttle sitting on its launching pad, there are two booster rockets attached to the side of the main fuel tank. These are solid fuel boosters that are made by Thiokol at their plant in Utah.  The engineers who designed the boosters would have preferred to make them larger in diameter but they had to be shipped by rail from the factory to the launch site. The railroad from the factory had to pass through several tunnels in the mountains that are, you guessed it, just slightly wider than the railroad track which is about two horse butts wide.  Incredibly, a major design feature of what is currently the world's most advanced and technologically sophisticated transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.  Don't you just love engineering?

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THURSDAY MORNING COUNTRY COFFEE TOUR AND MORE WAX ON THE MOTORHOME

MONICA’S MANY MAGNIFICENT MAGNOLIA BLOSSOMS

What an absolutely beautiful Spring day we had.  How nice it is when all weather elements are in perfect harmony.  My turn to drive this morning so Richard and I had ourselves another great country coffee tour heading south along highway 21 between Goderich and Bayfield turning into half a dozen roads leading about a mile to Lake Huron.  At the end of each road along the lake are cottages and houses atop bluffs overlooking the lake.  Always interesting to see the many housing styles whether old or new, rich or poor.  Of course anyone with lake front property certainly can’t be poor.  Our semi-monthly drives generally last about  two and a half hours and this morning was no exception.  We were back shortly after 11.

ON OUR WAY TO GODERICH THIS MORNING RICHARD SPOTTED SOMETHING IN A FIELD SO I STOPPED AND BACKED UP….NEITHER ONE OF US COULD TELL FOR CERTAIN WHAT IT WAS BUT LATER TODAY WHEN I ENLARGED THE PHOTOS I SAW IT WAS A SNOWY OWL

 

I IMAGINE THERE HAVE BEEN MANY A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET WATCHED FROM THESE LOCATIONS

AND THIS IS HOW THEY LOWER SAILBOATS INTO THE WATER AFTER THEY ARE LIFTED FROM A BOAT TRAILER

FELLOW ON THE LEFT AT THE CONTROLS EASES THE BOAT DOWN

FELLOW ON RIGHT THEN TAKES THE BOAT OVER TO IT’S DOCKING SPOT ALONG THE RIVER

Didn't take me long to slip into some work clothes and get myself back to cleaning and waxing the Motorhome.  Finished up about a third of the coach starting from the front passenger side working my way towards the back.  By 1:30 temperatures were coming up to the point where I called it a day and retreated inside to cool off by my fan.  I wisely learned a long time ago not to push myself in hot weather anymore.

REMAINING PHOTOS ARE OF OUR FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR MONICA’S MAGNOLIA TREE NOW IN IT’S LATTER STAGE OF BLOOMING

Here in Canada we celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday every third week-end in May.  Commonly known as the ‘two-four’ week-end it unofficially kicks off the summer season and here in our area along the shores of Lake Huron things get very busy as in-landers flock to the lake.  Beaches, boats, cottage owners, party goers, it all comes together for this week-ends celebrations.  We have learned over the years to stay close to home and off the roads.  Any groceries we need we make sure to pick up a few days before all the week-enders roll in.  Of course that traffic problem doesn't apply to area country roads so Pheebs and I are always cleared to head out any time we want and of course our Five Seasons Park is far enough from the highway and beaches that we never really notice much of a difference in our countryside pine forest area anyway……………………….

MY NOBLE PHOTO ASSISTANT IS ASLEEP ON THE JOB AGAIN

WELL WELL LOOK WHO JUST WOKE UP

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Religion as Baseball::

Calvinists believe the game is fixed.

Lutherans believe they can't win, but trust the Scorekeeper.

Quakers won't swing.

Unitarians can catch anything.

Amish walk a lot.

Pagans sacrifice.

Jehovah's Witnesses are thrown out often.

Televangelists get caught stealing.

Episcopalians pass the plate.

Evangelicals make effective pitches.

Fundamentalists balk.

Adventists have a seventh-inning stretch.

Atheists refuse to have an Umpire.

Baptists want to play hardball.

Premillenialists expect the game to be called soon on account of darkness.

The Pope claims never to have committed an error.

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Diner: How do you explain this twig I found in my rice? Waiter: It stands to reason, sir. Our restaurant has branches everywhere.

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A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, "This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you." The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, "Which do you want, son?"   The boy takes the quarters and leaves. "What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns!"  Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. "Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?"  The boy licked his cone and replied, "Because the day I take the dollar, the game is over!"

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