FIRST DAY SINCE LATE LAST OCTOBER I DIDN'T HAVE TO PUT MY PANTS ON

MALE HOODED MERGANSER DUCK ON OUR PARK'S POND TODAY

It had been a while since my good friend Richard and I had last been out for one of our morning country road coffee tours.  Picking him up at 9:30 five minutes after leaving our driveway we headed into Bayfield stopping briefly at Tim Hortons to pick up a couple coffees and accompanying muffins to go.  A bran muffin for Richard and a really finger-sticky 'fruit explosion' muffin for me. Our wanderings this morning took us south to Grand Bend and the surrounding area.  Grand Bend's main street sure is being transformed with newer modern buildings.  A big change from the early 60s when some of us young bucks hung around there at times.  Following our Grand Bend tour we were back through Bayfield to Richard's place about 11:20.  It was a positive couple hours of meaningful conversation and by the time I arrived home my spirits were lifted and my energy levels, compared to Monday, were back up to par.

 AN OUTDOOR NEIGHBORHOOD LIBRARY IN GRAND BEND THIS MORNING

With overcast skies and 55F temps I figured it was a perfect day to clean some windows.  With my troublesome right leg cooperating reasonably well with me this afternoon I hauled out my garden hose, step ladder, and glass cleaner.  I did our large east-facing window inside and outside and cleaned all the outside sunroom windows.  I also cleaned the pine needles and branch debris out of our front yard frog pond.  Cleaned both bird baths and raked up one wheelbarrow of yard waste.  I filled the bird feeders again and how nice it was to hear the Red Wing Blackbirds in our yard while I was working around in the front yard.  

 SOME CROCUS FLOWERS AREN'T QUITE OPEN YET

 HALF-OPEN

 SOME OF THE EARLIEST SPRING WILDFLOWERS ARE THE COLTSFOOT PLANTS

Pheebs and I also had ourselves an afternoon walk around the Park's pond and shortly before 5 p.m. we had sunshine beaming through our tall pine trees.  It looks like we have a rain front coming in overnight and possibly lasting most of tomorrow.

 A PAIR OF HOODED MERGANSERS ON OUR PARK'S POND THIS AFTERNOON

 A PAIR OF CANADA GEESE ON THE POND AS WELL

Oh, and about the post's title today...maybe I should have worded it to say it was the first day since last October I didn't have to put my 'LINED' winter pants on:)))) 

Al's Music Box:)) Walkin After Midnight by Patsy Cline from the album 'Patsy Cline'.  1957

 OKAY I'M READY FOR LAUNCH PHEEBS

 I DON'T THINK THAT'S A GOOD IDEA DAD

GROANER'S CORNER:((

- Did you hear about the farmer who plowed his field with a steamroller?  He wanted to grow mashed potatoes!
- What did the neurotic pig say to the farmer?
You take me for grunted.
- Q: When is a farmer like a magician?
A: When he turns his cows to pasture.
- Q: Why did the farmer call his pig "Ink"?
A: Because it was always running out of the pen.
- Q: What do you call cattle with a sense of humor?  A: Laughing stock.
- Q: Why can't the bankrupt cowboy complain?
A: He's got no beef.
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Did you ever notice?
When you put the two words
"The" and "IRS" together
it spells "THEIRS"?

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Peruvian owls are always hunting in pairs...It's because they're Inca hoots!

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COLD CLOUDY MORNING

My energy levels topped out at zero today and after a short Jeep ride with Pheebs on this cold cloudy morning I retreated into the house and spent most of the day collapsed in my sunroom recliner reading.  Just didn't feel like doing anything else and thought about how fortunate I am to still have my enjoyable reading hobby.  

Al's Music Box:)) The Road To Hell by Chris Rea from the album 'Road To Hell'.  1989

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A passerby noticed a couple of city workers working along the city sidewalks. The man was quite impressed with their hard work, but he couldn't understand what they were doing.   Finally, he approached the workers and asked, "I appreciate how hard you're both working, but what the heck are you doing? It seems that one of you digs a hole, and then the other guy immediately fills it back up again.  One of the city workers explained, "The third guy who plants the trees is off sick today."

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A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION IN HESPELER ONTARIO TODAY

I took a lot of photos today at the birthday celebration and way too many to try and fit into this post so I will only put in a few and then create a photo album with the rest and include the link in an upcoming post shortly.

 A PIT STOP FOR PHEEBS IN THE HAMLET OF NEW DUNDEE ON OUR WAY TO HESPELER

All three of us in Subaru this sunny Sunday morning rolling out our driveway at 9:05 heading for Kelly's daughter's house in Hespeler Ontario 80 miles away.  I knew all the backroads to Hespeler so we didn't have to go through Kitchener.  Our 8-mile stretch on the infamous 401 was no problem and we arrived all in one piece at 11a.m.  Besides Kelly and I there were 10 people for the birthday celebration.  Kelly's daughter Sabra and husband Derek, their two teenage boys Keenan and Langdon.  Kelly's youngest daughter Rebecca with her husband Ricardo and their daughter Ella.  Kelly's youngest son Ben with his girlfriend Giselle, and Kelly's oldest son Jason.  We had a tour of Sabra and Dereck's house which reminded me of a small castle inside with its high ceilings.  Very impressive but it was the cozy apartment in the basement that caught my attention and really appealed to me the most.  I think there was enough food there to feed a small army.  It was good to see Kelly enjoying herself with her family.  A lot of laughter and conversation.  Kelly is so fortunate to have such an all-around truly great family and in-laws.  However, by the time we left around 3 o'clock this afternoon, Kelly was really tired out.  Taking advantage of all the back roads again it was a quiet relaxing drive home under clear blue sunny skies.  Once home, Kelly wasn't long in heading to her bedroom for a big snoozy rest.  

WE REACHED OUR DESTINATION

KELLY'S POKE CAKE ALL DRESSED UP

 THE DESSERT TABLE 

 KELLY LIGHTS THE CANDLES ON THE TWO BIRTHDAY CAKES

 RICARDO'S BIRTHDAY WAS ON APRIL FOOLS DAY

 KELLY NOT ONLY RECEIVED BIRTHDAY GIFTS BUT BELATED CHRISTMAS PRESENTS AS WELL

KELLY CAUGHT ME IN A RARE BURST OF TALKING

 KELLY'S YOUNGEST DAUGHTER REBECCA WITH HER DAUGHTER ELLA

 FOUR OF KELLY'S FIVE CHILDREN,,,FROM THE LEFT -JASON, REBECCA, KELLY. SABRA, AND BEN

 THIS WAS THE LAST PICTURE I TOOK OF THE DAY AS KELLY AND I WERE LEAVING FOR HOME

Al's Music Box:))  Our Day Will Come by Ruby and the Romantics from the album 'Our Day Will Come'.  1963

GROANER'S CORNER:))  A cat dies and goes to Heaven.  God meets him at the gate and says, "You have been a good cat all of these years. Anything you desire is yours, all you have to do is ask."  The cats says, "Well, I lived all my life with a poor family on a farm and had to sleep on hardwood floors."  God says, "Say no more." And instantly, a fluffy pillow appears.  A few days later, 6 mice are killed in a tragic accident and they go to Heaven. God meets them at the gate with the same offer that He made the cat.  The mice said, "All our lives we've had to run. Cats, dogs and even women with brooms have chased us. If we could only have a pair of roller skates, we wouldn't have to run anymore."  God says, "Say no more." And instantly, each mouse is fitted with a beautiful pair of tiny roller skates.  About a week later, God decides to check and see how the cat is doing. The cat is sound asleep on his new pillow. God gently wakes him and asks, "How are you doing? Are you happy here?"  The cat yawns and stretches and says, "Oh, I've never been happier in my life. And those Meals on Wheels you've been sending over are the best!"

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KELLY'S BIRTHDAY CAKE #1 TURNED INTO A FLATLINER TODAY

 KELLY CHECKS BIRTHDAY CAKE #2 AND IT'S LOOKING PRETTY GOOD

After what I consider to be one of the worst weather days of the year so far we followed it today with what I feel has been the nicest weather morning so far.  Sunshine, blue skies, and warmer temps were upon us up until shortly after noon when it clouded over, temperatures dropped, and the windy clouds sprinkled a short spasm of cold rain on everything.  Earlier, Pheebs and I had headed into Bayfield for a quiet walk in the cemetery.  After that, we headed home because I was anxious to get at some stuff.  I had a number of things on my Spring 'to-do' list waiting for a nice day to get at them and this morning was it.  Figured I had better stroke off as many of those things while I was feeling up to doing it.  Here's my Saturday list......Wash the Suburu and clean all the glass, crawl under our unit and turn our outside water on, hook up the garden hoses, trot out a couple wheelbarrow loads of lawn ornaments, carry out 3 bins of car cleaning stuff to the carport, comb my hair, fill up the bird feeders, drag out a few heavy large dirt-filled planted flowerpots to the front deck, plus half a dozen other little things I have already completely forgotten about.  Oh, and I managed to get a load of laundry done somewhere in there too.  It's important now at this stage to take every advantage of these 'feeling good' days when they come along.  'Strike while the iron is hot' I say, and hang on as tight as you can to ride out those other 'not-so-good' days.

 THREE SMALL CRATES OF VEHICLE CLEANING SUPPLIES

 EACH YEAR NOW IT IS HARDER FOR ME TO GET DOWN  AND OUT OF THERE TWICE A YEAR TO TURN THE OUTSIDE WATER EITHER ON OR OFF

 A FEW SUMMER YARD AND DECK ORNAMENTS 

Sunday, Pheebs and I will be driving Miss Kelly to Hespeler Ontario for a birthday celebration.  With Kelly's birthday on March 30th and her son-in-law Ricardo having his birthday today on April 1st we are all getting together at Kelly's oldest daughter's house for a combined birthday celebration.  Insisting on baking her own Jello Poke birthday cake today Kelly was busy this morning.  Trying a new brand of cake mix she was disappointed when looking into the oven to see the cake had flat-lined!!  In other words, it didn't rise like it was supposed to.  Had that been me baking the cake I would have whipped it out of the oven, thrown it on the floor, and jumped on it.  Then, I would have picked it up, slathered half a dozen rather copious amounts of crunchy peanut butter on it, and promptly ate the whole thing.  But not Kelly, no sireeeee....she just up and calmly baked another cake using a Betty Crocker cake mix this time.  And, it came out of the oven perfectly risen.  No cake jumping on my part required:))  

 BIRTHDAY CAKE #2 IS DEFINITELY LOOKING BETTER THAN BIRTHDAY CAKE #1 AND KELLY IS PLANNING ON PUTTING THE TOPPING ON TOMORROW 

Al's Music Box:)) Sister Golden Hair by America from the album 'Hearts'.  1975

 YES, THIS BIRTHDAY CAKE # 1 IS DEFINITELY A FLAT LINER ALRIGHT

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Airlines:: 1."Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines."

2. "Your seat cushions can be used for flotation, and, in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with you with our compliments."

3. "As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among
the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."

4. And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Delta airlines is pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the
industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"

5. Overheard on an American Airlines flight into Amarillo, Texas, on a particularly
windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain was really having to
fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate.

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A celebrity is someone who works hard all his life to become known...And then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.

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IT WAS A YEAR AGO TODAY KELLY CAME HOME FROM A WEEK LONG STAY IN THE HOSPITAL

 ONE YEAR AGO TODAY HEADING INTO LONDON'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL TO PICK UP KELLY

From the greys of November to the whites of Winter we are now at the point where the greening of Spring is slowly beginning.  April is a vibrant and busy month for Mother Nature as she readies the landscape for her annual flurry of colorful changes.  The land slowly emerges and wakens from its long winter slumber as do we, the humans who live here.  A fresh start, renewed plans, hopes and expectations are alive once more.  A new beginning of sorts.  A feeling of confidence that things might get better now that the doldrums of winter have been left behind.  Or so it seems, and so we try for a while until the cold dark damp, and rainy days of November return once again and force us back into our dark emotional caves to once again wait with great anticipation for another glorious coming of Spring.........With a cold grey rainy day upon us, it was not a fit morning to be outside.  It was a cold rain falling when Pheebs and Kelly slipped out the door for their daily morning walk. Pheebs wouldn't even go off the porch.  Walk canceled!!  Minutes later when Pheebs and I reluctantly trudged out to the Jeep and headed off on our morning ride we were soon disappointingly home again in about twenty cold and wet dreary minutes.        

Al's Music Box:)) A Summer Song by Chad and Jeremy from the album 'Yesterday's Gone'.  1964 

 HEADING HOME AFTER A WEEK'S STAY

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Mrs. Jones was reading a letter at breakfast. Suddenly she looked up suspiciously at her husband.  "Henry," she said, "I've just received a letter from mother saying she isn't accepting our invitation to come and stay, as we do not appear to want her. What does she mean by that? I told you to write and say that she was to come at her own convenience. You did write, didn't you?"  "Yes, I did," said the husband. "But I, I couldn't spell 'convenience,' so I made it 'risk.'"

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A Sunday school teacher asked her second graders if anyone knew another name for God. She was picturing answers like 'Lord' or 'Almighty'.After a long moment of silence, a little boy raised his hand and said, "Howard." "Howard?" replied the confused teacher. "You know," continued the boy, "Howard be thy name."

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