COUNTRY ROAD COFFEE TOUR, OLD TAVISTOCK FRIENDS DROP BY, AND SOME TREE CUTTING

The burgundy bus picked me up at 8:20 a.m. and we were off on another country road coffee tour.  By we I mean my good friend Richard and I.  A beautiful early October morning to be out in the countryside.  We even managed a gravel pit walk along the way under clear blue sunny skies.

HERE COMES MY BURGANDY BUS RIDE

THAT THERE IS RICHARD IN THE GRAVEL PIT

ALL THE SCENIC PHOTOS IN TONIGHT'S POST WERE TAKEN IN THE GRAVEL PIT

A LOT OF REALLY NEAT ROCKS IN THIS PIT

On line Kelly and I had spotted a couple nice Class B+ motorhomes for sale in our area but neither one had the floor plan we are looking for.  Our search continues.

WE WALK BACK TO RICHARD'S VAN

Felt the rumblings of an energy surge coming on early this afternoon so I didn't waste any time and ran outside to grab my swede saw and cut some trees down.  Gotta strike while the iron is hot eh.  No they weren't big trees of course and maybe only four inches round.  Weed trees we call them.  While doing this one of the tree cutter fellas came by with the big tree cutting machine and it was decided to take down a couple large pine trees as we well so work started on that this afternoon.

ME AND MY TRUSTY SWEDE SAWS TAKING DOWN SOME SMALL TREES

NEIGHBOR GORD AND PART TIME TREE CUTTER CUTS OFF THE STUMPS I LEFT

GORD GAINS SOME ALTITUDE HEADING UP INTO THE TOPS OF THE PINE TREES......MOST TREES HERE ARE CUT DOWN FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM

It was early afternoon when I noticed familiar 1976 Camero pull into our driveway.  I knew that car to belong to an old friend of mine.  Craig Wilker and I grew up on the same street in Tavistock.  Noticed Craig had someone in the passenger seat and by golly it was another old friend from our Tavistock days.  Been years since I had seen Ken Seyler who once owned and operated the supermarket in Zurich Ontario near here.  All three of us grew up within half a mile of each other from the late forties to the early sixties.  Needless to say we three had ourselves a grand old time on our porch this afternoon reminiscing mainly about a lot of the stupid things we all did years ago.  There was a lot of "hey do you remember this" or "did you know so and so died" "who married who" and "where did so and so go after he/she left Tavistock??  And of course we all talked about our Senior ailments.  Craig's in the same boat I am and Ken has survived double bi-pass heart surgery and a heart attack 6 months after that.  We had us a bunch of enjoyable old memories and some great laughs to go right along with all the memories too.  Really glad Craig and Ken dropped around today.

KELLY LINES UP THE TAVISTOCK BOYS FOR A GROUP PHOTO

HOW COME I ALWAYS END UP BEING THE SHORT ASS IN ALL THE PHOTOS

CRAIG WILKER ON THE LEFT, ME, AND KEN SEYLER ON THE RIGHT

BY GOLLY WE OLD TAVISTOCKIANS STILL LOVE OUR BLUE JEANS

DUE TO HEALTH CONCERNS CRAIG RECENTLY LOST HIS PILOT'S LICENSE AND HAD TO SELL HIS BELOVED GRUMMAN AIRPLANE....BOTH KELLY AND I HAVE FLOWN WITH CRAIG BEFORE

TIME TO GO AND I HOPE TO SEE THESE FELLERS AGAIN

CRAIG BOUGHT THIS BRAND NEW 1976 CAMARO IN THE STATES 43 YEARS AGO.....'ADIOS AMIGOS'

Fellow RV Blogger and friend George Yates from Our Awesome Travels is in the Stratford Ontario hospital at the moment after experiencing abdominal pains.  He's currently on pain meds.  After tests, liver and pancreatic cancer has been mentioned.  George has a very popular blog and a whole host of RV friends from coast to coast.  George and Suzy were planning on leaving for the Southwest in a week but it looks like their travel plans are now upside down.  If you happen to drop by George's blog I'm sure George and Suzy could sure use a few words of encouragement.  And you can find George's blog on our side bar anytime.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A widower who never paid any attention to his wife while she was alive now found himself missing her desperately. He went to a psychic to see if he could contact his late wife. The psychic went into a trance. A strange breeze wafted through the darkened room, and suddenly, the man heard the unmistakable voice of his dearly departed wife. "Honey!" he cried. "Is that you?" "Yes, my husband." "Are you happy?" "Yes, my husband." "Happier than you were with me?" "Yes, my husband." "Then Heaven must be an amazing place!" "I'm not in Heaven, dear."
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Wife: "Look here Mike. See how Mary's husband takes her to movies and dinner every week end. Why can't you do that".
Mike: "Sure dear, anything you say. Just make sure that Mary is free on the next week end."
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A SLOW WEDNESDAY

Aside from a morning walk with Pheebs in the Hullett Marsh and a short Park pond walk in the afternoon there wasn't much going on today.  I'm still feeling a bit on the slow side. 

HURON COUNTIES BEAN HARVEST IS WELL UNDER WAY

THE HULLETT MARSH WAS SO QUIET I NEVER HEARD A SINGLE BIRD CALL ANYWHERE

MILKWEED SEED PODS OPENING AND BELOW RIGHT ARE PODS THAT HAVEN'T OPENED 

PHEEBS CHECKS THE SHORELINE FOR FROGS

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Marriage...A childs perspective

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY? (written by kids)

- You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.

Alan, age 10

- No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with. -- Kristen, age 10

- WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED? Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. -- Camille, age 10

- HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED? You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. -- Derrick, age 8

- WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON? Both don't want any more kids. -- Lori, age 8

- WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE? Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough. -- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure) On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. -- Martin, age 10

- WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR? I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns. -- Craig, age 9

- WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE? When they're rich. -- Pam, age 7

- The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that. - - Curt, age 7

- The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do. -- Howard, age 8

- IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED? It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. -- Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

- HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED? There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there? -- Kelvin, age 8

- And the #1 Favorite is........ HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK? Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck. -- Ricky, age 10

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Read more on page: http://www.jokesoftheday.net/

GUESS WHO'S BIRTHDAY IT WAS TODAY:))

If you folks guessed it was my Birthday you would be wrong but if you guessed it was Pheebs Birthday you would be right.  She turned 10 today:))  We've had Pheebs since August 8th 2011 and her and I have been together every single day since.  The longest we have been apart in all that period of time was 7 hours once.  All of our dogs starting with Max, Checkers, and little Cora (Motormouse) have been special with Pheebs being no exception.  It's her gentle manner, sheer intelligence, friendly disposition, devotion, and unbridled love that has brought Kelly and I so much happiness these past 8 years.  I have never had a closer 'Best Pal' in my whole life than Pheebs.  Us guys are inseparable:))

And speaking of Birthdays I was surprised yesterday morning to see Kelly had posted my birthday on her Facebook page.  I'm generally low key about my birthday but now that it's out there I would like to say thank you to all the kind people who responded to her post and wished me a Happy Birthday.  I was surprised at how many people popped up from days gone by. I thought some of them had dropped my blog years ago.  Nice to see those old familiar names again.  Thanks guys.  And a phone call from my Aunt Jean in Florida too.  Also a big thank you to D7200 for a very kind email:))  Yes I'm 75 now and that's a little hard for me to comprehend.  There are parts of me whereupon some days I feel about 105, sometimes 75 and other times 25 and 15.  I am quite a mosh of ages alright and I seem to live them all on an irregular basis.  Sometimes it's agonizingly slow for me to haul myself out of my recliner and other times I can leap over tall buildings and out run speeding freight trains:))  Okay maybe not so much the buildings and trains but I do have my days when I almost think I can:))

NICE SUNNY MORNING DRIVE TO GODERICH THIS MORNING

YES AND EVEN MANY OF THE DITCHES ARE MOWED HERE IN HURON COUNTY

SPOTTED MY FIRST JEEP TRUCK LAST WEEK AND I LIKED THE LOOKS OF IT BUT CHECKING THE INTERIOR ON-LINE I DID NOT LIKE THE LOOKS OF THE DASH AT ALL

So there was Pheebs and I driving around this morning with expired license plate stickers.  I had no idea about that until we got home and Kelly came walking out with some papers in her hand.  They were the license plate renewal papers.  We had both totally forgot to re-new our annual license plate stickers.  Having a few errands to run in Goderich anyway Kelly headed off to get the stickers.  No she didn't take her bicycle she took her car......with expired stickers.

CANADA GOOSE

My 1 p.m. appointment with Dr. Bukala (Urologist) went fine and it was decided to wait until my bladder had settled down before he goes after the last kidney stone still in my kidney.  Told him about constant running to the washroom so he gave me a prescription for Sandoz-Solifenacin (30-10mg pills) which should help with my bladder problem.  I am hoping this will work and if it doesn't I'll just have to try a few other things suggested by readers.

Another really nice Autumn day.  In my opinion it's the best weather time of the entire year.  Not too hot and not too cold and no bugs.  Too bad it wouldn't last forever.

SAW THIS STRANGE LOOKING VESSEL A FEW MILES OFFSHORE HEADING NORTH ALONG THE LAKE HURON SHORELINE.....ALMOST LOOKS LIKE A CRUISE SHIP OR SOMETHING

SECONDS AFTER TAKING THE ABOVE PHOTO I TOOK THE PHOTO BELOW

SO IF THEY DIDN'T FLY AWAY WHERE DID THEY ALL GO??  I SUSPECT THEY MAY HAVE BEEN SITTING ATOP A SCHOOL OF SMALL FISH AND WHEN THE LEADER BLEW A WHISTLE THEY IN UNISON ALL DIVED UNDER AT THE SAME TIME AND WENT FISHING

I BELIEVE THESE BIRDS TO BE CORMORANTS

I am one of those people who sometimes has a habit of keeping things way too long.  I'm not a hoarder but there are things I do hang onto for way too long.  Clothes are a good example.  I have decades old tattered shirts hanging in my closet, pants that go back 30 years or more and don't even ask me about socks and underwear.  For some reason I don't much care for going out and buying clothes so I try to stretch the ones I have to well past their limit.  As often as not if I have to buy something I go to the Thrift store.  Just bugs me to no end to see those high prices for new shirts and pants.  I never was much of a clothes horse anyway.  Oh, and I'm the same way with shoes.  I wear them till my feet drop through the bottom of them.  Now, after saying all that I just remembered there was a 4 year period in my life where I did have to dress differently.  I wrote a paragraph about it one time referring to it as my 'pink' period and you can find that paragraph in my Saturday October 30th 2010 post entitled, Journeying Between Two Planets.  You will find some of my earlier RV thoughts in this post as well.

DON'T KNOW HOW MANY YEARS I HAD THE WALLET ON THE LEFT BUT I FINALLY SPLURGED AND BOUGHT A NEW WALLET AT WALMART FOR $14.95

AND IN A FIT OF MADNESS I ACTUALLY REPLACED THESE BLUE JEANS WITH A 'NEW' PAIR LAST WEEK

BUT OH NO IT'S NOT TIME TO GIVE UP MY FAVORITE PAIR OF JAMMIES YET JUST BECAUSE THE COLLAR'S A LITTLE FRAYED....AND NO YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO SEE THE BOTTOMS

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two wise guys were flying to Miami from Cleveland. Fifteen minutes into the flight, the captain announced "One of the engines has failed and the flight will be an hour longer. But don't worry we have three engines left". Thirty minutes later, the captain announced "One more engine has failed and the flight will be two hours longer. But don't worry we have two engines left". An hour later the captain announced "One more engine has failed and the flight will be three hours longer. But don't worry we have one engine left". One impatient wise guy looked at the other wise guy and said "If we lose one more engine, we'll be up here all day"------------------
Why is it if your Hispanic and you get angry, people say you have a Latin temper but if you are a white guy and get angry people say you are a jerk.
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WE SURE DO LIVE IN A BEAUTIFUL PARK

In a change of routine we had breakfast with good friends Gayle and Richard at Bayfield's Renegades Diner this morning. Always lots to talk about when we get together.  Richard and I will be heading out again this coming Thursday morning on another one of our yacky-doodle coffee runs.

WE SURE DO LIVE IN A BEAUTIFUL PARK

THE PARK'S POND IS A ONE MINUTE WALK FROM OUR FRONT DOOR

Beautiful early October morning with sunshine and temps in the high 50's.  Wished I would have had the energy to head outside and get a few things done but it felt like my get up and go had got up and went. Have to keep reminding myself to be patient.  

WE ARE SURROUNDED BY BIG GORGEOUS PINE TREES

Did manage an afternoon walk with Pheebs and snapped a few pics.  Looks like we have a nice sunny week coming up.  And that's about it for another day.  

BAMBOO GRASS WITH PURPLE TASSLES

GROANER'S CORNER:((   What I Want in a Man, Original List
1. Handsome
2. Charming
3. Financially successful
What I Want in a Man, Revised List (age 32)
1. Nice looking (prefer hair on his head)
2. Opens car doors, holds chairs
3. Has enough money for a nice dinner.
What I Want in a Man, Revised List (age 42)
1. Not too ugly (bald head OK)
2. Doesn't drive off until I'm in the car
3. Works steady - splurges on dinner out occasionally  
What I Want in a Man, Revised List (age
 52)
1. Keeps hair in nose and ears trimmed
2. Doesn't belch or scratch in public
3. Doesn't borrow money too often.
What I Want in a Man, Revised List (age 62)
1. Doesn't scare small children
2. Remembers where the bathroom is
3. Doesn't require much money for upkeep

What I Want in a Man, Revised List (age 72)

1. Breathing

2. He doesn't miss the toilet.

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Q: How many Toronto Maple Leafs fans does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: None - they're quite happy living in the shadows.

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