I DON'T MEAN TO IMPLY THE SURGEON IS A 'HIP' GUY

 A PEEK AT FUTURE DAYS TO COME

I've been over-using the word 'beautiful' these past months in describing our morning weather patterns.  So, let me just say what a marvelously swell start to the day we had.  I think Mother Nature must have got wind of my Wednesday post about me not feeling the magic in this mid August air yet because that magic was definitely in this morning's air in Spades:))

Managed to get our back yard grass cut and the weeds whacked before the #!!%&## mosquitos drove me back into the house.  There will be no afternoon walks for Pheebs and I until those miserable mosquitos are finally eradicated for another year!! 

 A BIG SPISH-SPLASH IN OUR BIRD BATH THIS AFTERNOON

 BY GOLLY IT'S A GRACKLE

 AND A VERY SOGGY GRACKLE AT THAT

A call from my nurse practitioner's office today saying an appointment has been set up for me on November 16th to have a chat with a hip surgeon at Sarnia's hospital in Sarnia Ontario.  Now,  I don't mean to imply the surgeon is a 'hip' guy as in kinda cool.  This is a surgeon guy who does all that slicing and dicing and makes the blood go flying stuff.  Oh wait, maybe he will turn out to be a kinda cool hip guy too.

IT WAS A NICE MORNING FOR A DRIVE OUT TO GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE

"COME ON HONEY BUNS FASTER FASTER FASTER I SAY"!!!!

 AND GOING BY I'M SURE I HEARD HONEY BUNS MUMBLING SOMETHING ABOUT !!#%**##!!!!&##

Al's Music Box:)) Memories by Elvis Presley from the album 'Elvis'.  1968  This song is one of two favorites of mine by Elvis.  The song was written by Billy Strange and Mac Davis specially for Presley to perform on Elvis, his comeback TV spcial that would air on NBC on December 3rd 1968.  Mac Davis later said " They had asked for a song about looking back over the years and oddly enough I had to write it in one night.  I stayed up all night at Billy Strange's house in Los Angeles.  He had a little office set up in his garage.  I wrote it right there".

GROANER'S CORNER:((  I went to the doctors with hearing problems.  He said, "Can you describe the symptoms?"  I said, "Homer's a fat bloke and Marge has big blue hair!"

- My dog ran off in the park last night.
I walked around for 30 minutes but could not find him.  The missus said I should look harder...So I shaved my head and got a tattoo.  I still can't find him!

- A drunk was walking down the sidewalk with a limp. A man coming in the opposite direction notice that he only had one shoe on. The man said to the drunk, "hey buddy, what's the matter, lose a shoe"? The drunk replied, "Nah, found one".

- A visitor to a certain college paused to admire the new Hemingway Hall that had been built on campus.  "It's a pleasure to see a building named for Ernest Hemingway," he said.  "Actually," said his guide, "it's named for Joshua Hemingway. No relation."  The visitor was astonished. "Was Joshua Hemingway a writer, also?"  "Yes, indeed," said his guide. "He wrote a check."

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SEASONS CHANGE HAS BEGUN IN OUR MID AUGUST AIR

I'M GUESSING OF COURSE THAT THESE MIGHT BE YOUNG FEMALE ROSE BREASTED GROSBEAKS OF WHICH WE HAVE FOUR IN OUR FRONT YARD

Many times over the years in my posts I have talked about looking forward to the middle of August when I felt a subtle change in the air to indicate that slight beginning of change between seasons.  One of those changes actually began a couple weeks ago and that has been the coming of cooler nights.  However, I have not yet felt the magic in the air.  Thc Crickets have not yet begun to chirp, foliage has not yet taken on that ragged edge end of summer look, and there are still mosquitos and flying bugs about.  But any day soon now I will no doubt feel that welcome stillness in the air as a prelude to choirs of Crickets as they gather together in farmer's fields and along country roadsides to herald in the coming of my favorite time of year.......Autumn.

In our RVing years it was about this time in August when the first inklings of Winter's travel thoughts began to stir and I always so much looked forward to that.  How nice that shifting of thoughts to future travel adventures.  And adventures they were too as thoughts of known and unknown destinations lay ahead.  Our travels from home here in Ontario to the Great American Southwest were for us like traveling to a different Planet where so many things were unlike here in Ontario.  And it was that very significant change that I found so appealing.  Totally different scenery was always a biggy for me as well as the almost complete change in lifestyle of living on the road.  Yes, we were always glad to get home in the Spring but it was this time of year I loved best when my thoughts began looking forward to that much anticipated change of boondocking lifestyle.  Oh how nice it was being away from our freezing cold winters for at least four to six months each year.          

Rain began Tuesday evening, kept up through the night, and stayed with us all day.  Aside from a drive into Bayfield and back this morning, Pheebs and I didn't get too far today.  We did see Libby sitting at the Bayfield Garage awaiting her 'not starting' diagnosis.

A DULL DRIZZLY MORNING AT BAYFIELD'S BEACH

 NOT A GOOD DAY FOR THESE SAILING OF BOATS

 BAYFIELD'S VERY SOGGY MAIN STREET

 THERE'S LIBBY AT THE BAYFIELD GARAGE THIS MORNING

Al's Music Box:)) Blowin' In The Wind by Peter, Paul, and Mary from the album 'In The Wind'.  1963

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A farmer purchases an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields are grown over with weeds, the farmhouse is falling apart, and the fences are collapsing all around.  During his first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!"  A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the farmer. Lo and behold, it's like a completely different place--the farm house is completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there are plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows.  "Amazing!" the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished together!"  "Yes, reverend," says the farmer, "but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone!"

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- Everyone says your 20s are all about finding yourself.  If that’s true, your 30s are about wishing you’d found somebody else.

- ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?

WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Ohio!
Ohio who?
Ohio Silver!

- A Recently Spotted Bumper Sticker:  "Never drive faster than your angels can fly."

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I'D REALLY LIKE TO GET ANOTHER WINTER OUT OF IT

 HONEY BEE ON A FLOWER

Kelly had to come with the Subaru and rescue Pheebs and I this morning.  Returning to the Jeep from our  our country road walking spot I loaded Pheebs up then went to start the Jeep.  But, it wouldn't start.  Totally dead.  This same thing happened four or five months ago one morning at Richards but after maybe twenty minutes it started.  It happened one time about four years ago with the same results.  It's not a dead battery problem, it's something else.  I finally phoned Kelly to come and get us because we had to leave shortly for London's Victoria Hospital this morning.  The Jeep was safely off the road so there was no urgent need to move it.  Figured I'd try to start it again on our way back from London this afternoon.

 AN EARLY PEAK AT THE COLORS THAT IN ANOTHER MONTH WILL BEGIN TO DOMINATE OUR LANDSCAPE

It was 10:45 when we all climbed into the Subaru and headed for London.  Dropping Kelly off at Victoria Hospital at 12:15 Pheebs and I headed over to our usual spot at Westminster Ponds.  We had ourselves a walk along the north shore of Walkers Pond snapping a few pics along the way.  Back to the car I did a bunch of reading while Pheebs had a snooze.  My cell phone rang at 2:15 and ten minutes later with Kelly aboard we headed north out of London on our way home.

 A MINUTE AFTER DROPPING KELLY OFF I SAW THIS ON THE HOSPITAL GROUNDS....NOTICE HOW THE TIM HORTON COFFEE DRINKERS ARE PAYING NO NOTICE TO THE MAN ON THE GROUND

 OUR AFTERNOON PATHWAY LED THROUGH THIS FIELD OF QUEEN ANNE'S LACE

 SAW THIS YOUNG ROBIN ON THE TRAIL WITH IT'S MOTHER NEARBY

 A BUZZY BEE APPROACHING A PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE STALK

 THERE ARE STILL A FEW POND LILIES ON WALKERS POND

 HEY IT'S THE COFFEE LADY....NOTICE THE BANDAGES FROM TODAYS PLASMAPHERESIS TREATMENT ON KELLY'S RIGHT ARM

Stirling Line was on our way home and that is where Pheebs and I had left the Jeep this morning when it wouldn't start.  We stopped on our way and I tried to start it again, but it was a no-go.  From there we headed the short distance home and Kelly called our roadside service provider, Coachnet.  They in turn called the Bayfield Garage to send out a flat-bed truck to pick up the Jeep.  To make a long story short, Sandy from The Bayfield Garage said that garage owner Don would head out our way with his flat-bed truck and pick up the Jeep keys from me at our Park's entrance.  So, that is what we did.  Maybe sometime tomorrow or in the next couple days we will find out what the starting problem is with the Jeep.  We talked a bit this morning on our way to London about replacing our aging rusty Jeep but I would really like to get another winter out of it before driving it across the Rainbow Bridge to the great Auto Junkyard in the sky.  We'll see..........   

 MANAGED A FEW QUICK  RURAL 'DRIVE-BY' PICS ON THE WAY HOME WEST OF WHALEN CORNERS

 A NICE WEATHER DAY FOR FARMER'S TO BE OUT ON THE LAND

Al's Music Box:)) Summer Rain by Johnny Rivers from the album 'Realization'.  1968

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A couple was delighted when finally their long wait to adopt a baby came to an end.  The adoption center called and told them they had a wonderful Japanese baby boy, and the couple took him without hesitation.  On the way home from the adoption center, they stopped by the local college so they could each enroll in a Japanese language night course.  After they filled out the form, the registration clerk inquired, "What ever possessed you to study Japanese?"  The couple said proudly, "We just adopted a Japanese baby and in a year or so he'll start to talk. We just want to be able to understand him".

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- I now know how it will end for me...One of my kid's will unplug my life support to charge their phone.

- Susie: My husband is a great handyman. He can repair almost anything.
Jane: My mother always taught me to beware of the man that can fix everything. You'll never get anything new.

A teacher was taking her first golf lesson.
"Is the word spelled 'put' or 'putt'?" she asked the instructor.  "Putt' is correct," he replied.  "Put' means to place a thing where you want it. 'Putt' means a klutzy but unsuccessful attempt to do the same thing."

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SEE Y'ALL IN A BIT

Time for a blog break folks.  See y'all in a bit.

I LIKE WHAT THESE FOLKS HAVE DONE WITH THEIR FRONT PORCH AND YARD

Al's Music Box:)) Don't Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin from the album 'Simple Pleasures'.  1988

 CHICORY FLOWERS IN A CORN FIELD

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A little girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Bible class. As she ran, she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late! Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!"  As she was running and praying, she suddenly lurched forward and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress.  She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again. Again, she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!...And don't shove me either!!!!"

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TWO COFFEES AND TWO BLUEBERRY MUFFINS TO GO

 A BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY MORNING FOR A RELAXING DRIVE THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE

It was my turn to drive this morning so under partly sunny skies I picked up my good buddy Richard at 9:30.  Breezed through Bayfield's Tim Hortons and snagged a couple coffees and two Blueberry muffins to go.  Our travels took us around Bayfield and then East to Varna and North through Holmesville, East to Auburn, and South to Ben Miller, before returning home around 11:30.  An enjoyably stimulating conversation as always.  Good stuff:))

 A FEW CONE FLOWERS ALONG THE WAY

 A PUDDLE OF FARAWAY DUCKS

 A LONE INUKSHUK STANDS SENTINAL OVER THE MAITLAND RIVER'S PASSING WATERS

 A YOUNG GAL QUIETS HER SKITTISH HORSE AS WE SLOWLY DRIVE BY

 RURAL SOUTHWEST ONTARIO ON A SUMMER'S MORN

Al's Music Box:)) Woodstock by Matthews Southern Comfort was released as a single in 1970

PROBABLY THE LAST DAY LILY OF THE YEAR IN OUR FLOWER GARDEN

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A girl was given a tea set for her second birthday. It became one of her favorite toys, and when her mother went away for a few weeks to care for her sick aunt, the toddler loved to take her father a little cup of tea, which was just water really, while he was engrossed watching the news on TV. He sipped each "cup of tea" he was brought and lavished generous praise on the taste, leaving the little girl immensely proud.  Eventually, the mother returned home and the father couldn't wait to show her how his little princess had been looking after him. On cue, the girl took him his "cup of tea" and he sipped it before praising it to the heavens.  The mother watched him drink it and said: "Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?"

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- My doctor told me I have high blood pressure and short-term memory loss.
At least I don't have high blood pressure.

- My wife yelled, "Are you even listening to me?"  I thought that was a weird way to start an argument.

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A man was just coming out of anesthesia after a series of tests in the hospital, and his wife was sitting at his bedside. His eyes fluttered open, and he murmured, "You're beautiful."  Flattered, the wife continued her vigil while he drifted back to sleep. Later, her husband woke up and said, "You're cute."  "What happened to 'beautiful?'" she asked him.  "The drugs are wearing off," he replied.

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