AND THERE SPINS THE MERRY-GO-ROUND OF LIFE

DARK AND COLD LAKE HURON WATERS UNDER A BROODING SKY

Pheebs and I followed the Jeep's windshield wipers around for a while on this cold and damp cloud-shrouded Saturday morning.  Managed a short walk between sprinkling showers and kept the Jeep toasty warm inside as we listened to the soothing melodic tones of Will Ackerman, George Winston, and Andreas Vollenweider.  Their sultry music fitted my morning's mood perfectly beneath an ominous sky.  I readily welcome these kinds of thought-provoking mornings whenever they happen to pass my way.

SATURDAY MORNING FISHERMEN ON BAYFIELD'S TWO PIERS

PERHAPS A LAST BOAT RIDE FOR THE SEASON

I LOVE THOUGHT-PROVOKING MOODY SKIES LIKE THIS

DO YOU SEE THE BIG EYES STARING DOWN

ON THE RIGHT SIDE IS A BIG TEDDY BEAR'S HEAD SNUFFLING ABOUT IN THE TREES ON THE HORIZON

IT WAS A GREAT DAY FOR KEEPING ONE'S EYE IN THE SKY......' EYE IN THE SKY' ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS FROM THE EARLY 80'S AND HERE'S THE LIVE VERSION OF THAT SONG

CAN YOU SEE A MAN'S PROFILE LOOKING FROM RIGHT TO LEFT

AND EVEN A PATCH OF BLUE

Home again I cranked up the fireplace in our sunroom, nestled into my big old overstuffed recliner, opened up my Kindle reader, and promptly fell asleep for a while.  I don't know when the Sun emerged from the cloud cover and tapped me on the shoulder but around 2:30 Pheebs and headed out the door and across the road past the Park's pond into the pine forest.  Nice to feel a touch of warmth still remaining in Old Sol's early October rays.  

I noticed today there weren't any sounds of nature anywhere as we walked.  No chirping birds or peeping frogs and there was nothing moving in the air either.  No flies, mosquitoes, butterflies, dragonflies, gnats, or birds of any kind.  Everything was so still, not even a slight breeze to rustle October's colorful Autumn leaves.  It is the prelude to Winter as creatures and critters begin making their yearly adjustments for the coming cold and snow.  Most, if not all our summer birds have already flown south for warmer climes.  Blue Jays, Cardinals, Black-Capped Chickadees, Mourning Doves, and some Finches and Sparrows will stay and tough out the winter.  Dark-Eyed Juncos will soon return from their Arctic haunts followed later by fleeting flocks of Snow Buntings.  In the meantime, we Snow Birding RV'ers will bide our time waiting to see if the Canada/US border will open allowing we Canucks to make a run for somewhere in the American south this winter as well.

SATURDAY MORNING WALK BETWEEN RAIN SHOWERS

I wrote a paragraph here in this space Saturday night that I re-thought about a couple hours later and decided to remove it.  It was just one of those afterthought things at the end of my post I really didn't need to write about so I deleted it, all except the last line...........

And there spins the Merry-Go-Round of life.......

GROANER'S CORNER:((    A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch. "I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret for a long happy life?"  "I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I also drink a case of whisky a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise."  "That's amazing," said the woman, "how old are you?"  "Twenty-six," he said.

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What do you call a woman with one leg shorter than the other?
Eileen

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A woman meant to call a record store but dialed the wrong number and got a private home instead.  "Do you have 'Eyes of Blue' and 'A Love Supreme'?" she asked.  "Well, no," answered the puzzled homeowner. "But I have a wife and eleven children."  "Is that a record?" she inquired.  "I don't think so," replied the man, "but it's as close as I want to get."

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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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