DAYS AND NIGHTS WILL SOON BE COOLER AND I WILL HEAR THE CHIRPING OF CRICKETS

RURAL SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO

Pheebs and I followed the Jeeps windshield wipers out the driveway, down the road, and into Bayfield for a little drive around the village.  Not much going on but did notice progress on the gas bar canopy at the Tim Horton coffee shop site.  

Kind of a gloomy morning so we turned around planning to head home until I noticed a small patch of blue sky out over the lake.  Soon more patches of blue appeared and the rain stopped. We quickly switched course and set sail for the Hullett Marsh.  No sooner there when morning's Sun really began heating up the already moisture-laden air making it too hot and sticky for me.  Wasn't long before we turned around for the second time this morning and made tracks for home.

ONE OF MANY BEAN FIELDS IN THE AREA

A QUIET MORNING IN THE MARSH

I BELIEVE THAT TO BE A WHITE EGRET ON THE LEFT AND A BLUE HERON ON THE RIGHT

No sooner back when I noticed the sky clouding over again so that allowed me, with less humidity in the air, to head outside and resume my cleaning and waxing project on the Winnie.  Got an hour in before having to retreat inside and throw my old soggy sack of bones into the shower.  The passenger side is now done with the back cap nearly being done as well.  Next, I will tackle the driver's side but not until this miserable humidity backs off some more.

A LARGE FLOCK OF CANADA GEESE GLEANING A HARVESTED WHEAT FIELD

It was early afternoon when all three of us piled into our Winnie Spirit and took her for a needed run around our big country block.  It's important to keep that engine battery charged up.

OUT FOR A SHORT TOOT AROUND THE BLOCK

Sometimes after supper, we all pile into the Jeep and take a short drive around on the Park's newer roads to see how they are progressing.  Monday night we noticed how much one new section of road had almost been washed out where it crosses a creek.  This torrent of rain happened Friday night and Saturday morning.

FAST FLOWING RUN-OFF WATER HAS ERODED A PART OF THE NEW ROAD AND DID YOU SEE KELLY TOP LEFT??

HAD IT KEPT RAINING THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE START OF CANADA'S OWN GRAND CANYON

A BEND IN THE ROAD

I am so much looking forward to the change of seasons this year and with any luck, the very first signs of that change should begin very shortly.  For years I would first notice those signs around the middle of August with the exception of the last couple years and especially last year when it stayed hot right through September.  With global warming, it's possible the weather patterns have now changed but I'm hoping not.  With luck, I will shortly notice a change in the air.  Hopefully, the humidity will soon be gone as daytime temperatures slowly drop.  Nights will be cooler and I will soon begin to hear the chirping of Crickets.  And oh how I love that sound.  As days become noticeably shorter and forests quieter flying insects are no longer an annoyance.  There will come an early touch of Fall in the air.  A feeling of calmness, a feeling of slowing down. I like this time as we edge toward September knowing we are about to slip into my favorite season of the year.  The sheer magic of Autumn.....I am counting the days:))))

GROANER'S CORNER:((   While sports fishing off the Florida coast, a tourist capsized his boat. He could swim, but his fear of alligators kept him clinging to the overturned craft.  Spotting an old beachcomber standing on the shore, the tourist shouted, "are there any gators around here?!"  "Naw," the man hollered back, "Ain't been any for years!"  Feeling safe, the tourist started swimming toward the shore. About halfway there he asked the guy, "How'd you get rid of the gators?"  "We didn't do nothin'," the beachcomber said. "The sharks got 'em."

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“When the hockey season was suspended our Zamboni driver went missing. We weren't worried as we knew he would resurface.”

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So a burglar broke into my house...
I put the red dot on his chest and my cat did the rest!

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I DO WELL UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THE SERIOUSNESS OF IT

 

Our heat and humidity have returned again and that, of course, has me grumbling but I'll try not to burden you with too much of my grumble so let's move on shall we.

Okaaaaaay, alrighty then, where do I go from here??  Oh Dear......well it was up to Goderich for Pheebs and I 'again'.  Quick stop at Walmart and another one at the Canadian Tire Store.  Say, didn't we just do that same thing a couple days ago?  Down to the harbor and Cove beach area we went to savor a few shady minutes in the cool breeze coming off Lake Huron's placid waters.  Homeward bound there were no windows down to enjoy cool air swooshing through the Jeep.  Just didn't have any cool air to swoosh.  We rolled along with windows rolled up tight and the A/C maxed out.  Pulled into our carport and quickly transitioned from cool Jeep air to cool house air.  And that was it for the day as far as getting anything outside done.  

WE DO HAVE A LOT OF PINE TREES AROUND OUR HOUSE

OUR SUNBURST LOCUST TREE STANDS GREEN AGAINST OUR DAY'S BLUE SKY

The house beside us has been sold with new owners taking possession at the end of this month.  We now wait with fingers tightly crossed that the owners will be older, mature, and quiet respectful people.  It is the way our Park is supposed to be and for the most part, almost always has been.  'PLEASE'.......no noisy neighbors with loud music, slamming car doors, and late Saturday night parties.  Come October 31rst we will have been living here in our little Park for 18 years and we'd kinda like to stay for a few more years if we can.  And mentioning our Park.....as far as we can figure it is no longer for sale.  There was a deal on the table a year ago but it fell through.  A marriage split up between our Park's owners blew everything sky high and when the dust settled it seems the male side of the marriage split has taken over sole ownership of the Park.  Work continues on the new Park roads back through the forest with the proposed intention of 'someday' adding new units to the Park.  Keyword there of course is 'someday'.  As far as we are concerned......the longer the better.

So I go into the Canadian Tire Store this morning with my little notebook in hand to look for a few items.  I have one of those items in my hand when I notice a store customer walk by me with a mask on.  Then I see another customer down the aisle with a mask on as well.  But it wasn't until I saw the third masked person that my mind clued in.  I put my hand up to my face and sure enough, I didn't have a mask on.  I had totally forgotten to do that.  Well, I felt like I might just as well have been standing there without my pants on.  I quickly returned the item I had in my hand to the shelf and hustled myself back out the door before I became the rather obvious center of unwanted attention.  Retrieving my mask from the Jeep I re-entered the store, resumed my shopping, and quickly got the heck out of there so I could once again resume my normal breathing.  Just two short days ago Kelly did the same thing when she accidentally entered two stores without her mask on too.  This mask-wearing is taking a bit of getting used to but I do well understand and accept the seriousness of it.

A LONE SUNBURST LOCUST LEAF HANGS MOTIONLESS IN THE SULTRY AFTERNOON AIR

GROANER'S CORNER:((   10 Reasons Why God Created Eve::
10. God worried that Adam would always be lost in the garden because he knew men would never ask directions.
9. God knew that Adam would one day need someone to hand him the TV remote because men don't want to see what's on television, they want to see WHAT ELSE is on television. 

8. God knew that Adam would never buy a new fig leaf when the seat wore out and therefore would need Eve to get one for him.
7. God knew that Adam would never make a doctor's appointment for himself.
6. God knew that Adam would never remember which night was garbage night.
5. God knew that if the world was to be populated there would have to be someone to bear children because men would never be able to handle it.  

4. As 'Keeper of the Garden' Adam would never remember where he put his tools.
3. The scripture account of creation indicates that Adam needed someone to blame his troubles on when God caught him hiding in the garden.
2. As the Bible says, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He only ends up getting himself in trouble.
AND the #1 REASON WHY GOD CREATED EVE is ...
When God had finished the creation of Adam, He stepped back, scratched his head and said, 'I KNOW I can do better than THIS!!'

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“The butcher asked if I wanted my meat measured in pounds or kilograms. I said either weigh would do.”

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OF COURSE MY PUTTER POWER IS LIMITED BUT I DO LIKE TO DO WHAT I ENJOYABLY CAN

 

OUR PASTORAL NEIGHBORHOOD

Thunder boomers packing lightning and bouts of heavy rain came in the night drumming on our roof and waking up the inhabitants.  Naturally, and of course, our power went off again just long enough to screw up three indoor digital clocks and all five outside light timers.  By morning light puddles in the driveway told us a fair bit of water had fallen from the sky.  According to Rick Kaptein at Tulip Lane Farms less than a mile down the road from us, we had 5.5 inches of rain in under 4 hours.  (Rick's the guy with the Highland furry face cows) Some flooding here in our Park I hear.  And for a while after daybreak, it just kept coming and coming even as Pheebs and I took ourselves for a sloshing drive around a big country block and back home again.

LAKE HURON WATERS CONTINUE TO CHIP AWAY AT WHAT'S LEFT OF BAYFIELD'S BEACH

Rains finally let up about 9:30 and not wanting to waste our cooler morning air I got myself right back outside to continue with the Winniegator's waxing.   Well 'Duhhhhh', the rig was all wet from the rain so there was no waxing anything.  Now as odd as it may sound I got the water hose and dish soap out, mixed me up a pail of suds and washed and scrubbed down the whole driver's side in preparation for applying some wax later when it finally dried.  Or at least I seem to recall doing something like that anyway.  Although a lot of elbow grease goes into all this shining and polishing stuff I'm glad I have a project to work on and constructively focus my too often idle attention on.  I'm also relieved by the fact I can still physically do the work and look at the multiple trips up and down my ladder as good exercise.  Plus, for a guy, how great to have a nice vehicle to putter around with.  Of course, my putter power is limited but I do like to do what I enjoyably can.  

And, regarding my Saturday post.....I totally forgot to put a link in for my good buddy Jim's blog.  You can find him at Lifetime Sentences.  He's most always got himself some clever humor going on over there.  He might have you chuckling before you even knew you were mad at yourself:))

OUR PARK'S POND IS FULL

PATHWAY FROM THE POND TO OUR HOUSE

Waiting for the rig to dry I dozed off in my sunroom recliner and when I woke up an hour later around 1 p.m. the Sun was shining.  So, it was back outside again I went.  The rig was already drying off nicely and parts that weren't I squeegeed.  Kelly worked away at getting some sticky plastic privacy stuff of the side door's window.  The passenger side clean-up is 90% done, the back is about 60% done and the driver's side is about 20% done, so I've got a ways to go yet.  And I am finally seeing shiny results beginning to appear:))))

GROANER'S CORNER:((    The European Union commissioners have announced that an agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).  In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy.  Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.  There will be growing public enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replased by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 persent shorter.  In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the language is disgrasful, and they would go.  By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v".  During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud, of kors, be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.  Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German lik zey vunted in ze forst plas.

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JUST TWO OLD GUYS SITTING IN THE PARK ON A NICE SUMMERY SATURDAY MORNING

TWO OLD GUYS CHAIRS WITHOUT THE TWO OLD GUYS IN THEM....JIM ON THE LEFT, ME ON THE RIGHT

Had myself on the road by 8:30 this morning grabbing a Horton's coffee to go on my way through Clinton to Seaforth.  Met my good buddy Jim in a nice shady Park at the east end of town.  Like Richard, Jim's another long time friend from forty years ago.  We unfolded our lawn chairs and sat ourselves down for several hours under a flock of large maple trees.  Nearby, a sizeable well-groomed baseball diamond hosted 6 opposing sets of teams over a course of 3-hours.  Lots of cheering, baseball hoots, and the clinking of baseball bats knocking out half a dozen home-runs that landed in the area where Jim and were sitting.  Having more energy than me for a younger fella Jim retrieved two of the balls and tossed them back over the fence into the infield.  We had ourselves a 3-hour chat dusting off most of the usual suspects and topics we usually discuss.  We were just a couple old guys sitting in the Park on a fine summery Saturday morning keeping a wary eye out for stray home-run baseballs making their way over the nearby padded outfield fence.  A relaxing way for two old friends to spend a few hours together.

FOLLOWING THE SILVER GREY ROAD TO SEAFORTH ONTARIO EARLY THIS MORNING

SPOTTED THESE TWO PALS ON MY WAY INTO THE PARK

THIS WAS OUR VIEW

THIS PURPLE TEAM WILL SOON BE DOING BATTLE WITH THE WHITE TEAM BELOW

HERE COMES JIM BACK AFTER TOSSING A COUPLE HOME RUN BALLS OVER THE FENCE

SEAFORTH'S MAIN STREET IS SURE A MESS WITH SOME MAJOR CONSTRUCTION GOING ON

GROANER'S CORNER:((  At a bar, Tom said to Bill; Uncle Felix tried to make a new kind of car. He took the wheels from a Cadillac, the radiator from a Lexus, and the tires from a Ford.  What did he get? asked Bill.  Two years, Said Tom.

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I like nice long walks...... Especially when taken by people who annoy me.

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A cowboy was walking down the street with his new pet dachshund. The passerby asked him why a cowboy would own that kind of dog.  The cowboy answered, "Well, somebody told me to get along little doggie."

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HAD TO BACK OURSELVES OUT OF A MCDONALD'S DRIVE-THRU THIS MORNING

 

WATERS OF LAKE HURON WERE ALMOST AS SMOOTH AS GLASS THIS MORNING

Hardly a cloud in the cool morning sky as Pheebs and I made our way to Goderich.  A quick Walmart stop then over to the Canadian Tire store where I paid for a small razor paint scraper thingy with the last $5 bill in my wallet.  From there it was off to McDonald's with the intention of using my new 'tap' debit card for a coffee and a burrito to share with Pheebs.  Well wouldn't ya know it....their debit machine was down and there I was sitting there without enough cash in my pocket for even a cup of coffee.  Had to back myself out of the line-up along with another poor soul in the other line-up who was obviously short on cash as well.  I had never used my debit card to buy a coffee before and this was my first attempt.  Using a debit card to buy a cup of coffee has never seemed quite right to me but I guess I have simply slipped too far behind the times.  So anyway, it was a coffee-less trip down to the harbor and beach area.  I really don't need that second cup of coffee in the morning anyway.  It's just a habit of mine like a carrot muffin every morning was.  But at least the sugarless cup of coffee never had the same fattening effect those muffins had on me.  By the way, I've managed to lose 10 pounds so far since being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a couple months ago.  Now if I can just lose another 10 pounds and get myself down around 185 somewhere I'll be getting closer to where I really would like to be.  Of course, when I look at myself sideways in a long length mirror I still see a man standing there who looks to be about 9 months pregnant.

A productive day as my energy returned from wherever it had gone Thursday and I was able to put a few more hours in shining up our little Winnebago.  I'm about a third done.  Coffee break over at Richard and Gayle's where Kelly was able to help Richard out with a few computer things.  All and all a good day all way round.  'Except'......I was unable to caption the above photos due to a Blogger bug.  Had spacing problems again as well.  Hope they get these bugs fixed soon!!

I'll be heading out all by myself in the morning to meet my good buddy Jim from Stratford for a coffee.  We too shall slice and dice many current events and problems in the world and come away from our meeting feeling we haven't even accomplished a one darn thing that will matter or help anyone anywhere.  Jim and I have been doing this for about 40 years now and we are still the best of friends.  Imagine that eh:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  During his physical, the doctor asked the patient about his daily activity level.  He described a typical day this way: 'Well, yesterday afternoon, I waded along the edge of a lake, drank eight beers, escaped from wild dogs in the heavy brush, jumped away from an aggressive rattlesnake, marched up and down several rocky hills, stood in a patch of poison ivy, crawled out of quicksand and took four leaks behind big trees.' Inspired by the story, the doctor said, 'You must be one hell of an outdoorsman!' 'NAH,' he replied, 'I'm just a crappy golfer.'

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Little Johnny was caught swearing by his teacher.  "Johnny," she said, "you shouldn't use that kind of language. Where did you hear such talk, anyway?"  "My daddy said it," he responded.  "Well, that doesn't matter," explained the teacher. "You don't even know what it means."  "I do, too!" Little Johnny retorted. "It means the car won't start."

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WE BOTH SEEM TO COME OUT THE OTHER SIDE OF OUR CONVERSATIONS A WEE BIT THE WISER

MY ONLY PHOTO TODAY.......AN ELDERLY MAN SITTING ON A NEW BENCH ON THE NEW BOARDWALK ALONGSIDE THE ROAD TO GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE

It was shortly before 9 a.m. when a familiar and expected burgundy van came slowly around the corner and pulled into our driveway.  It was Richard of course and we were soon off on our first of two country road coffee runs of the month.  A couple carrot muffins to go with two McDonald coffees to wash the crumbs down and we were soon off around the town of Goderich and out into the countryside.  Lots to talk about with many things to bend and twist in an effort to make some kind of sense out of everything.  In this day and age, it grows tougher by the day to keep our reality-based common sense and logical thinking at the forefront of our discussions without being bowled over by today's increasing illogical madness.  But somehow, and I'm not sure just how, we both seem to come out the other side of our conversations a wee bit the wiser.  Well,  it sometimes seems like that anyway.  Not much else going on here today.  Temps are once again going up and the humidity is slowly creeping back in.  Did a little more polishing on the rig but soon tired out and came inside.  Must have used up all my Thursday energy on Wednesday.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A pastor who was badly overworked went to the local medical center and was able to have a clone made. The clone was like the pastor in every respect--except that the clone used extraordinarily foul language. The cloned pastor was exceptionally gifted in many other areas of pastoral work, but finally the complaints about the dirty language were too much.The pastor was not too sure how to get rid of the clone so that it wouldn't look like murder. The best thing, he decided, was to make the clone's death look like an accident. So the pastor lured the clone onto a bridge in the middle of the night and pushed the clone off the bridge.

Unfortunately, there was a police officer who happened by at that very moment and arrested the pastor for making an obscene clone fall.

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A man pulls up to the curb and asks the policeman, "Can I park here?"  "No," says the cop.  "What about all these other cars?"  "They didn't ask!"

A man was found guilty of overusing commas.  The judge warned him to expect a really long sentence.

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