BEFORE I CAME TO MY SENSES

It was 6:45 a.m. when I was aroused out of my sleep by a 'Ping' followed by half a dozen fading pings.  What the heck was that I thought.  My laptop was not sitting on me because I had remembered to shut it off last night and set it on a small narrow table to my left.  Soft music was on the TV so I knew it wasn't that.  Oh-Oh, Aliens??  Nope:((  A-ha, could it have been the iPhone sitting on a table to my right.  I don't remember turning it off.  I tapped a single tap on the screen and 'Walla' there was my answer.  A notification on my Astronomy app had let me know that the International Space Station would be overhead in five minutes.  I didn't even know the free app program had that feature.  Bonus:))  Ok, so did I go racing outside in my PJs in the early morning freezing cold winter's air and stare blankly up through the Pines??  No way Jose' was I doing that and besides by the time I got the cobwebs cleared out of my head and figured things out, the ISS would have already gone by and probably flown halfway around the world already before I came to my senses.............No wind and no snow in the morning's cold grey air so Pheebs and I took a short ride down Bayfield River Road and back home again.  And that was about it for me.  No way was I going back outside again.  Made sure the birdfeeders were topped up and that was it.

MAILBOXES AND WINTER SNOW PLOWS ARE GENERALLY NOT COMPATIBLE.....GOOD LUCK GETTING MAIL EITHER INTO OR OUT OF THIS ONE

Al's Music Box:)) Lean On Me is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. It was released in April 1972 as the first single from his second album, Still Bill. It was a number-one single on both the soul and Billboard Hot 100 charts, the latter chart for three weeks in July 1972. Billboard ranked it as the No. 7 song of 1972.  It was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone's's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2010.  In 2007, the 1972 recording of the song by Bill Withers on Sussex Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.    Bill Withers' childhood in the coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, was the inspiration for "Lean on Me", which he wrote after he had moved to Los Angeles, and found himself missing the strong community ethic of his hometown. He had lived in a decrepit house in the poor section of his town.  Withers recalled to Song Facts the original inspiration for the song:  "I bought a little piano and I was sitting there just running my fingers up and down the piano. In the course of doing the music, that phrase crossed my mind, so then you go back and say, 'OK, I like the way that phrase, Lean On Me, sounds with this song.'  Withers stated in the same interview that he made an effort to keep the lyrics simple.  Several members of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were used for the recording session in 1972. A string section was also included.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( An older, tired-looking dog wandered into my yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home and was well taken care of.  He calmly came over to me; I gave him a few pats on his head. He then followed me into my house, slowly walked down the hall, curled up in the corner and fell asleep.  An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.  The next day he was back, greeted me in my yard, walked inside and resumed his spot in the hall and again slept for about an hour. This continued off and on for several weeks.  Curious I pinned a note to his collar: ‘I would like to find out who the owner of this wonderful sweet dog is and ask if you are aware that almost every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'  The next day he arrived for his nap, with a different note pinned to his collar: ‘He lives in a home with 6 children, 2 under the age of 3 – he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'

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After reading the morning headlines about the recent stock market downturn, a high-powered executive trying to impress a client in his office, flipped on his intercom switch and barked to his secretary, "Miss Hunter, get my broker!"  The client was impressed until he heard the secretary's clear voice saying, "Yes, Sir, stock or pawn?"

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Did you hear about the ninety-two-year-old man who married a woman of eighty-four?
They spent their entire honeymoon getting out of the car.

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- Accept misfortune as a blessing. Do not wish for perfect health or a life without problems. What would you talk about?

- Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

- Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.

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Jerry was sitting down for breakfast one morning when he was astonished to see in the paper an announcement of his own death.  He called his friend at once, "Jim, have you seen the announcement of my death in the paper?"  Jim replied, "Yes, and exactly where are you calling from?"

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kellys Corner

LOOKING FOR CRYSTALS ON CRYSTAL HILL SOUTH OF QUARTZSITE ARIZONA

Al's Art Gallery

MANY WILL KNOW AND UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT

Woke up to another foot of newly fallen snow on top of all the snow we already had, so it didn't take me long to get onto the end of my snow shovel and clean out my front yard paths to the birdfeeders and Pheeb's path to her woodsy area.  We didn't go for a car ride this morning because I still had the backyard paths to do before they filled in with more snow.  So, it turned out to be an uneventful inside day and fortunately, we didn't get any more snow.  Thanks to neighbor Frank for blowing out our driveway again. Can hardly believe it is February 9th already.  Seems like just yesterday it was only November.

I miss Kelly and I think about her a lot and especially so when I put 'Kelly's Corner' together in each post.  I am reminded of all the good times and great memories we shared together over the years.  Had Kelly's death been sudden I would probably still be in a great state of shock but as her chances for a liver transplant became less and less we both knew that nothing short of a miracle was going to save her.  And when she gave up the fight after being told she was being taken off the liver transplant list due to her extremely weak condition it was clear her time was quickly running out.  It was something we had to deal with and we talked about things.  She wished the best for me and had our situation been reversed with the sick one being me, I would have wished the best for her as well and encouraged her to get on with her life and not be sad or carry grief with her.  Both Kelly and I were always realists who saw things for the way they were.  The end of life was something we faced head-on with no misconceptions or delusions........  In 1980 I had a profound life-altering spiritual experience that left me with a strong feeling inside that there is life after death. That feeling has grown much stronger in me these past few years and these past few months.  My experience was real but it's difficult to try and explain.  I feel deep inside that what I felt that night was much larger and grander than any religious things I have been told over the years.  What is out there is far beyond man's religion.  I had a brief awareness, a glimpse of something and it is where I feel Kelly is now.  She has gone home and I am happy for her.  She is the lucky one after her last few years of suffering here on earth finally came to a peaceful end.  I do not mourn Kelly's passing, I am happy inside for her new life.  I've only told a few people about my experience years ago and maybe someday I will try to write about it.  Although there are no words to describe it, I'm sure many will know and understand exactly what I am talking about and feel the same way.   

Al's Music Box:)) Girl is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon-McCartney. "Girl" was the last complete song recorded for that album.  "Girl" is considered to be one of the most melancholic and complex of the Beatles' earlier love songs.  McCartney claimed that he contributed the lines "Was she told when she was young that pain would lead to pleasure" and "That a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure."  However, in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, Lennon explained that he wrote these lines as a comment on Christianity, which he was "opposed to at the time". Lennon said: "I was just talking about Christianity, in that – a thing like you has to be tortured to attain heaven ... – be tortured and then it'll be alright, which seems to be a bit true but not in their concept of it. But I didn't believe in that, that you have to be tortured to attain anything, it just so happens that you were".  Author Ian MacDonald describes "Girl" as "Lennon's answer to McCartney's 'Michelle': another Euro-song, replacing his partner's suave mock-French with a decadent German two-step crossed with Mikis Theodorakis's music for Zorba the Greek.  Performed by Lennon and George Harrison, the acoustic guitars on the track were played with capos, lending an extra brightness to their sound. Musicologist Walter Everett comments that one of Harrison's guitar parts has the capo positioned so high up the neck and is played by him in a manner that creates a "nasal,sitar-like 'bouzouki' sound".  Lennon's lead vocals were initially overdubbed and featured a characteristic unheard before on a Beatles song. In McCartney's description: "My main memory is that John wanted to hear the breathing, wanted it to be very intimate, so George Martin put a special compressor on the voice, then John dubbed it. … I remember John saying to the engineer (Norman Smith) when we did 'Girl,' that when he draws his breath in, he wants to hear it." Following the Beatles' request, the engineer added more treble to the vocal, which, in Everett's description, matches the sound and timbre of the brushed cymbal played by Ringo Starr.  In the song's middle eight sections, McCartney and Harrison sing the word "tit" repeatedly as vocal harmony. McCartney stated that this part of the vocal arrangement was influenced by the Beach Boys. He recalled: "The Beach Boys had a song out where they'd done 'la la la' and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it, but not use the same phrase.  In early 1966, "Girl" was issued as the B-side of "Michelle" in several European countries, reaching number one in Finland.  It was also released as the A-side of a single in Italy, backed by "Nowwhere Man", which reached number seven on the nation's Musica e Dischi singles chart.  John Lennon said“Girl” is real. There is no such thing as the girl, she was a dream, but the words are all right. It wasn't just a song, and it was about that girl – that turned out to be Yoko, in the end – the one that a lot of us were looking for.  The song's instrumentation has specific similarities to Greek music, as with "And I Love Her" and "Michelle".  As for the inspiration of the song's lyrics, Lennon stated that the "girl" was an archetype he had been searching for and would finally find in Yoko Ono.  In an interview for Rolling Stone magazine in 1980, Lennon said of his song "Woman": "Reminds me of a Beatles track, but I wasn't trying to make it sound like that. I did it as I did 'Girl' many years ago. So this is the grown-up version of 'Girl'."  In November 1977, Capitol Records scheduled the United States release of "Girl" backed with "You're Going to Lose That Girl" as a single (Capitol 4506) to accompany the release of Love Songs, a Beatles' compilation album that contains both of these songs. However, the single was canceled before it was issued. Promotional copies, which featured "Girl" on both sides—one in stereo, the other mono, along with a picture sleeve, were issued. (All copies of this promotional single were pressed on black vinyl.)

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Four old Catholic women sit and brag about their sons. The first Catholic woman tells her friends, "My son is a priest. When he walks into a room, everyone calls him 'Father'."  The second Catholic woman chirps, "My son is a bishop. Whenever he walks into a room, people call him 'Your Grace'."  The third Catholic mother says, "My son is a cardinal. Whenever he walks into a room, he's called 'Your Eminence'."  The fourth Catholic woman says, "My incredibly handsome son is 6' 2 with broad, square shoulders, good manners, and impeccable style. Whenever he walks into a room, women say, 'Oh my God!'"

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Ted walks into a bar and shouts out, "So... who's the strongest person in here?"  The toughest guy looks at him and says, "I am the strongest person around these parts!"

Ted politely asks, "Can you help me push my car to the gas station?"

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Knock Knock
Who's there?
Owl!
Owl who?
Owl Aboard!

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A young woman, pursuing a graduate degree in art history, was going to Italy to study the country's greatest works of art.
Since there was no one to look after her grandmother while she was away, she took the old lady with her.  At the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, she pointed to the painting on the ceiling. 'Grandma, it took Michelangelo a full four years to get that ceiling painted.'  'Oh my, 'the grandmother says.  'He and I must have the same landlord.'

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN CHRISTMAS DAY NEAR CALIFORNIA'S OCOTILLOW WELLS WHEN KELLY PHONED HER MOM AND DAD BACK IN SPENCERPORT NEW YORK

 KELLY AND PHEEBS ON ONE OF OUR MORNING ROCK SCRAMBLES

 ON ONE OF OUR BELOVED DESERT WALKS

Al's Art Gallery