CRAIG AND I WERE THE TWO NUMBSKULLS THAT.........

While waiting for a burgundy-colored van to pick me up this morning I took a few pics around our front yard.

SOME OF OUR HOSTAS ARE BEGINNING TO TAKE ON A RATHER HAGGARD LOOK

It was just short of 9:30 when the van rolled slowly up to our driveway.  It was my good buddy Richard of course and we were off again on another one of our country road coffee tours.  Our travels this morning took us up to and around Goderich.  We demolished our usual coffees and carrot muffins.  Richard had me back home shortly before noon.  In a couple weeks we'll do it all over again:))

'HARK, A BURGUNDY VAN SLOWLY APPROACHES FROM THE EAST'

 AND WHO SAID FREDDIE FLINTSTONE WASN'T ALIVE AND WELL AND RESIDING IN GODERICH ONTARIO

 A LONG FAIRWAY AT THE MAITLAND GOLF COURSE IN GODRICH'S NORTH END

It's the annual Zurich Beanfest today and that means one of my good old Tavistock buddies from many years ago dropped in late this afternoon to say hello.  It has become a yearly tradition for Craig Wilker, after attending the Beanfestival to pop in before heading back to Kitchener Ontario.  We always have a good old catching-up chat to see who of us is still around, what kind of shape are the ones in who are still here, and what latest medical issues have cropped up in our lives.  Craig and I both had prostate cancer at roughly the same time a few years ago.  He dealt with his surgically, and I chose the radiation path.  We both came out of it with excellent results and it's always interesting comparing notes on how we are doing.  Craig and I were the two Numbskulls that climbed up the Tavistock water tower one dark Sunday night way back in the early 60s and wrote our names on it.  Brilliant eh:((

 OUR CONE FLOWERS ARE NEARING THEIR END OF DAYS

Al's Music Box:)) You Don't Mess Around With Jim by Jim Croce from the album, 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim'.  1972  The lyrics are set around an underground pool hall on 42nd street in New York City. "Big" Jim Walker, a pool hustler who is not too bright but is respected because of his tough reputation, his considerable strength and size, and his skill at pool, has formed a sort of gang of "bad folks" who regularly gather at night in the pool hall. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Saw a great product advertised -- it was a hearing aid made to look like a Bluetooth headset. It's for people who are embarrassed about wearing a hearing aid but not about wearing a Bluetooth headset.

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After eating, do amphibians have to wait one hour before getting out of the water?

How can there be self-help groups?

If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi?

If someone has a mid-life crisis while playing hide and seek, does he automatically lose because he can't find himself?

If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?

Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?

Is there another word for synonym?

Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

When sign-makers go on strike, is anything written on their picket signs?

When your pet bird sees you reading the newspaper, does he wonder why you're just sitting there, staring at carpeting?

Where do forest rangers go to 'get away from it all'?

Why isn't there a mouse-flavored cat food?

Why are builders afraid to have a 13th floor but book publishers aren't afraid to have a Chapter 11?

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NOT MUCH GOING ON

 AN IRRIGATION PATH WANDERS THROUGH A RIPENING CORN FIELD

Not much going on today folks................

UNDERNEATH THAT BLACK BUSHY DOGGY TAIL IS MY CAMERA SOMEWHERE

Al's Music Box:)) Wedding Bell Blues by the Fifth Dimension from the album, 'The Age Of Aquarius'.  1969 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( There was a poor old Irish cobbler whose shop was next door to a very upscale French restaurant.  Every day at lunchtime, Mike, the Irish gent, would go out the back of his shop and eat his soda bread and maybe a kipper or piece of Irish blue cheese while smelling the wonderful odors coming from the restaurant's kitchen.  One morning, the Irishman was surprised to receive an invoice in the mail from the adjoining restaurant for “enjoyment of food”  Mystified, he marched right over to the restaurant to point out that he had not bought a thing from them.  The manager said, “You're enjoying our food, so you should pay us for it.” The Irishman refused to pay and the restaurant took him to court.  At the hearing, the judge asked the restaurant to present their side of the case. The manager said, “Every day, this man comes and sits outside our kitchen and smells our food while eating his. It is clear that we are providing added value to his poor food and we deserve to be compensated for it.”  The judge turned to Mike and said, “What do you have to say to that?” The old Irishman didn't say a thing but smiled and stuck his hand in his pocket and rattled the few coins he had inside.  The judge asked him, “What is the meaning of that?” The Irishman replied with a mile-wide grin, – “I'm paying for the smell of his food with the sound of my money.”

SHE HEADED STRAIGHT TO HER ROOM FOR A BIG REST

 A FEW HORSES NORTHWEST OF LONDON THIS MORNING

We were out the door and on the road to London by 7:35 this morning.  With a slight mist in the air, we left a tad earlier than usual and the closer we got to London the heavier the mist became with a few drizzly showers along the way.  It was 8:45 when Pheebs and I dropped Kelly off at University Hospital for her 9:15 Ultra Sound appointment.  From there Pheebs and I headed north back out of London to our first stop at the Ten Mile Road cemetery.  

 IT WAS A MISTY MORNING IN ONTARIO'S OLD LONDON TOWN

 AT THE TEN MILE ROAD CEMETERY AND DID YOU SEE THE LITTLE PHEEBER FACE PEEKING AROUND THE SHRUB

From there we headed northwest to Ilderton where I grabbed a small decaf coffee at Tim Hortons.  Knowing Kelly's Ultra Sound would not take too long we slowly made our way back toward London and sure enough, before too long my cell phone rang and she was ready to go.  Picked her up at 9:50 and with two and a half hours to kill before her next appointment at Victoria Hospital on the other side of the city, we headed over to Masonville Mall.  Kelly picked up a couple bath mats at Marshalls Homesense.  We also split a twelve-inch ham-based Subway Sub.

 NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL A TRUE COUNTRY BREAKFAST

 PICKING UP KELLY AT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

 I SHARED MY SUB WITH PHEEBS

From the Masonville Mall area, we headed east across the city on Fanshaw Road to Highbury Ave and hung a right heading for Victoria Hospital in London's South end.  We still had some time on our side so we headed for the Westminster Ponds area where Pheebs and I wait while Kelly is in having her plasmapheresis treatments.  Kelly had never seen that area before so Pheebs and I were able to show her around.  We stopped at a parking lot and took ourselves for a wee walk around as well.  It was about noon when we drove Kelly over to the hospital for her 12:30 appointment.

 KELLY'S FIRST TIME AT THE WESTMINSTER PONDS AREA

Back at the Westminster Ponds area again Pheebs and I went for a walk on the old paved roadways around where only concrete foundations of old buildings are left.  We couldn't walk any of the trails because recent rains had turned them into soup.  Back to the car I spent most of my time reading with the exception of another short walk.  When Kelly phoned at 2:35 Pheebs and I were sitting outside of the car.  I always carry a lawn chair in the back.  We picked up Kelly ten minutes later and made fast tracks for home except they were slow tracks most of the way out of London due to some temporary construction areas.  It was 4:30 by the time we finally rolled into our driveway.  Kelly hadn't had a good night's sleep and by the time we got home, she was so beat that she headed straight to her room for a big rest. 

 SOME OF THE OLD RUINS HERE ARE OVERGROWN WITH GOLDENROD

 DEFINITELY AN ACORN I'D SAY

 SPOTTED THIS HELICOPTER FLYING OVER AND NO IT WAS NOT THE USUAL AIR AMBULANCE

SITTING IN MY LAWN CHAIR BEHIND THE CAR AND IN THE BACKGROUND IS A RARE AND VERY BRIEF PATCH OF SUNLIGHT

 PHEEBS IS DOING A BIG UPSIDE-DOWN SQUIGGLE

 PICKING UP KELLY AT VICTORIA HOSPITAL

Al's Music Box:)) On Broadway by the Drifters from the album, 'Under The Boardwalk'.  1963

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A woman announces to her friend that she is getting married for the fourth time.  "How wonderful! But I hope you don't mind me asking what happened to your first husband?"  "He ate poisonous mushrooms and died."  "Oh, how tragic! What about your second husband?"  "He ate poisonous mushrooms too and died."  "Oh, how terrible! I'm almost afraid to ask you about your third husband."  "He died of a broken neck."  "A broken neck?"  "Ya, he wouldn't eat his mushrooms."

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WE'LL BE ON THE ROAD EARLY THURSDAY MORNING

 GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE

Predicted overnight rains missed our area but caught up with us earlier this morning bringing thunder, lightning, and lots of rain.  Pheebs and I headed off to Goderich.

 SOMETIMES WE HAD RAIN THIS MORNING

 AND SOMETIMES WE DIDN'T

I noticed last week that the Solo gas bar in Goderich's south end was undergoing some kind of renovation.  It has been my favorite gas bar for years because the Gal gas attendant there liked Pheebs and always gave her a treat.  The gas bar is transitioning to an ESSO station and it was a different attendant today.  Despite Pheebs having her head out the back window looking for her favorite person with a treat.....attention and a treat were not forthcoming.  Pheebs was so depressed when we left the gas bar that she laid down in the back seat for the next ten minutes.  Maybe it won't be our favorite gas bar anymore.  With a McD's coffee in hand, we followed our windshield wipers down to the harbor and out to Rotary Cove.  A quick stop at Walmart and we were soon on our way home splashing through a few water puddles along the way.  

 A LARGE LAKE FREIGHTER AT THE GODERICH GRAIN TERMINAL

 DECK HANDS PROBABLY DISCUSSING THE GRAIN LOADING PLAN.....AND HEY, ISN'T THAT ONE GUY UP THERE POPEYE'S NEPHEW??

 I THINK THE ALGOMA NIAGARA IS OVERDUE FOR A GOOD CLEAN-UP AND NEW PAINT JOB

 THE CAPTAIN AND OFFICER'S QUARTERS ARE LIKELY AT THE TOP LEVELS WITH THE CREW QUARTERS KITCHEN AND CAFETERIA ON THE LOWER LEVELS

Needless to say, without much of anything of interest to write about I snuggled into my sunroom recliner with my Kindle and promptly fell asleep for an hour or two.  Tomorrow we have a bit of a long day.  We will leave here early in the morning and not return until later in the afternoon.  Kelly has two different appointments in two different London Hospitals................  

 A ROADTREK CAMPER VAN DRIVES OUT AROUND THE ROTARY COVE AREA THIS MORNING

Al's Music Box:)) Muskrat Love by The Captain and Tennille from the album, 'Song of Joy'.  1976  According to Toni Tennille, who formed Captain & Tennille with her husband Daryl Dragon, the duo had added the song to their nightclub set list a few years earlier after hearing the America single on their car radio: "I said to Daryl: 'Did you hear that? I swear they're singing about muskrats.'

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A farmer was driving along the road with a load of fertilizer. A little boy, playing in front of his house, saw him and called, "What've you got in your truck?"  "Fertilizer," the farmer replied.  "What are you going to do with it?" asked the little boy.  "Put it on strawberries," answered the farmer."You ought to live here," the little boy advised   him. "We put sugar and cream on ours."

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The husband and wife were playing on the ninth green when she collapsed from a heart attack. "Please dear, I need help." she said.  The husband ran off saying "I'll go get some help." A little while later he returned, picked up his club and began to line up his shot on the green.  His wife, on the ground, raised up her head and said, "I'm dying and you're putting?"  "Don't worry dear, I found a doctor on the second hole who said he can come and help."  "The second hole??? When in the hell is he coming???"  "Hey! I told ya not to worry." he said, practice stroking his putt. "Everyone's already agreed to let him play through."

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