USING A SCREWDRIVER TO GET THE BLOOD OUT

Felt more Novemberesque than Octoberish this morning but with a warm jacket and the Jeep's heater on, Little Chief Crazy Beans and I were off and running.  Coffee to go in Clinton and over to the Hullet-Marsh we went.  Hearing gunshots I knew hunters were afoot so we stayed close to the Jeep and didn't venture off into the forest or down any trails.

ON OUR WAY TO THE MARSH

OFF THE PAVED ROAD AND INTO THE MARSH WE GO

LOOKING IN THE DIRECTION OF A GUNSHOT NEARLY HALF A MILE AWAY I SAW A SMALL DARK OBJECT IN A FIELD....ZOOMING IN I SPOTTED THE HUNTER AND GOT THIS SHOT AT 714mm OR 2000mm IN 35mm FILM (ISO 800 F/6.5 125/S  PROGRAM MODE COOLPIX P900) HAND-HELD)

'

NO, PHEEBS ISN'T FAT!!  IT'S THE ANGLE OF THE SHOT

A TREE FULL OF STARLINGS

Other than a stop in the Marsh it was our usual slow cruise around a dozen country roads or so simply enjoying soft music on our Sirius Satellite Radio and taking in all of Autumn's colorful nature rolling by.  And feeling rather cozily warm on a crisp early October morn I may add.

SOME FARMERS HAVE BEGUN THE CORN HARVEST

LOOKS LIKE THE COMBINE MISSED A FEW STOCKS

THESE DRIED BEANS WILL BE HARVESTED ANY DAY NOW

Needing to get some more blood work done but not wanting to have to stand in a long rainy line-up I waited till mid-afternoon before heading to Goderich's Dynacare lab.  Well, there was no line-up at all with only a couple people ahead of me in the waiting room and I was lucky enough this time not to have the same person take my blood who took it the last two times leaving me feeling like they were using a screwdriver to get the blood out.

AWAITING MY TURN WITH THE NEEDLE HOPING IT WOULD NOT BE ANOTHER 'OUCHY'

ANOTHER LONG DISTANCE SHOT AT 728mm

I was very apprehensive about stepping on my weight scale Thursday morning.  Having had several close encounters with a few tim-bits (donut holes) last week as well as half a dozen slices of raisin bread and a big feed of fish and chips, etc. I was worried my descending 193 pounds was going to end up being on the discouragingly ascending side of things.  Imagine my surprise when the scale numbers topped out at 190 pounds.  Of course with the way my mind works, I immediately thought, 'oh-oh' why did I just drop 3 pounds so fast.  I would really like it someday if my mind would just simply take a rest and agreeingly accept things as they are and quit asking itself 'why' all the time.

GROANER'S CORNER:((    A customer walks into a restaurant and notices a large sign on the wall, "$500 IF WE FAIL TO FILL YOUR ORDER!"  When his waitress arrives, he orders an Aligator's eyeball on rye. She calmly writes down his order and walks into the kitchen where all hell breaks loose!  The restaurant owner comes storming out of the kitchen. He runs up to the customer's table, slaps five $100 bills down on it and says, "You got me that time buddy, but I want you to know that's the first time in ten years we've been out of rye bread!"

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"What's that piece of cord tied around your finger for?"  "My wife put it there to remind me to take a letter to the Post Office."  "And did you mail it?"  "No, she forgot to give me the letter."

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BUT WE STILL LOVE YOU AMERICA

It was a few minutes shy of 9 a.m. when the expected burgundy van rolled around the corner and picked me up.  Yep, it was Richard alright and it was his turn to drive for a twice-monthly country road coffee tour.  Wasn't long and we were armed with two Tim Horton coffees with a couple carrot-cake muffins to go and heading north out of Clinton.  And what a beautiful early Autumn day it was for the first day of October.  Another couple hours well spent as we leisurely cruised around over hill and dale through our beautiful rural countryside.  Just a great time of year to be out and about.

Taking a few bird pics through our sunroom windows I noticed the photos appeared a little drab.  Had a closer look at the windows and 'yep' they needed cleaning.  Forty minutes later the windows were sparkling as well as the living room windows.  Cleaning windows is not one of my favorite things but sometimes we just have to do things we would rather not do.  Actually, I'm not very good at doing that either.

THIS LITTLE NUTHATCH WAS JUST TOO FAST FOR ME

Despite a cool breeze it was a nice sunny afternoon to head out for a walk and once again Pheebs and I took ourselves around some of the Park's new roads back through the forest.  Sections of our trails are still here so we walked a few of them too.

THIS SECTION OF TRAIL WAS ONCE PART OF OUR OLD WALKING PATH THROUGH THE FOREST UNTIL THE BULLDOZERS CAME AND NOW IT IS ALL GROWN IN....BUT WE WENT THROUGH HERE ANYWAY

THAT CLUMP OF PURPLE ASTERS ARE THE SAME CLUMP OF ASTERS BELOW

AT LEAST THIS PART OF OUR MAGICAL FOREST HASN'T BEEN DESTROYED YET

With the gathering storm south of the border quickly gaining strength by the day I am sure thankful to be a Canadian living in Canada.  When we were kids we always wanted to be Americans living in America because America was where all the really neat stuff was like  Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, Ozzie and Harriet, California girls, and the bright lights of Las Vegas.  America had all the neat-o army tanks, ships, and airplanes.  Arizona was where all the Cowboys and Indians were.  Nashville for music, Hollywood for movies.  They had palm trees, long beaches, and Sea Hunt in Florida.  How about all the hot rod guys, monster magazines,  Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Benny Goodman, Jack Benny, Laugh-In, Bonanza, and Gunsmoke.  Hey, even Hop-A-Long Cassidy lived there, and let's not forget about the Beverly Hillbillies.  It was the land of wild imaginations, hopes, and dreams for many of my younger years.   But alas, the reality of time marches on and here we are today.  And oh my how things have changed.  I sure feel lucky all these years later living right here where we do.  It's not that I don't like the United States anymore because I do, and I still think of the good old USA as our second home after all our wonderful RV Snowbirding years there.  Lots of great places, unforgettable memories, and scads of very fine people.  But I'm just glad we're not living there now.  We greatly enjoyed our house and property in Arizona years ago but we had a feeling when the political field changed four years ago that there was a very likely possibility of serious trouble ahead for America.  I foresaw the possibility of closed borders and what is now the gathering storm.  That concern was one of half a dozen determining factors in the sale of our house nearly five years after we bought it.  I'm sure glad we sold it when we did.  But we still love you America and we'd love to come back someday if and when you get all your troubles sorted out.........

GROANER'S CORNER:((  At the urging of his doctor, Bill moved to Texas.  After settling in, he met a neighbor who was also an older man.  “Say, is this really a healthy place?”  “It sure is,” the man replied.  “When I first arrived here I couldn't say one word. I had hardly any hair on my head. I didn't have the strength to walk across a room and I had to be lifted out of bed.”  “That's wonderful!” said Bill. “How long have you been here?”  “I was born here.”

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A pig and a chicken were walking by a church where a charity event was taking place. Getting caught up in the atmosphere, the pig suggested to the chicken that they each make an offering.  “Great idea!” the chicken replied. “Let's offer them ham and eggs!”  “Not so fast,” said the pig. “For you, that's an offering. For me, it's a sacrifice.”

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