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| QUITE A CLUSTER OF COWS ON THIS LOVELY LATE OCTOBER DAY |
Friday:: It was the light pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof this morning that had me quickly outside in my jammies, hastily carrying my gardening tools into the carport. That rain didn't last, and it wasn't long before I was outside hooking up the utility trailer for another partial load of yard waste to our Park's recycle area. Quite a surprise when I arrived there. Where did the recycling area go?? The rest of the gloomy-looking day didn't amount to much, but I was able to finally catch up on some reading. Since Kelly's passing nearly a year ago already (December 10th) I have tried several times unsuccessfully to revive my beloved reading hobby. I just downloaded Whitley Strieber's latest book called 'The Fourth Mind', and I'm hoping its subject matter will grab my mind's attention and bring me up to speed and back into the loop of strange things that interest me.
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| EVEN OUR PARK'S RECYCLING AREA HAS BEEN GIVEN A FACELIFT |
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| FIERY RED SUMAC LEAVES |
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| I LOVE THESE EVENING COUNTRY ROAD CRUISES AT DUSK |
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| FROM THE SAME SPOT AS THE ABOVE CAR PHOTO I TOOK THESE LONG TELEPHOTO SHOTS TOWARDS LAKE HURON A COUPLE OF MILES AWAY |
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| IN THE FOREGROUND CAN BE SEEN THE YARD LIGHTS OF DISTANT FARMS |
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| ON BAYFIELD'S MAIN STREET, THIS IS WHERE WE SOMETIMES EAT OUR ICE CREAM CONES IN FRONT OF THE PINK FLAMINGO |
Saturday:: A surprising turn in the weather. Expecting a cool, cloudy, and maybe rainy day, I was heartened to see sunshine streaming in the window first thing this morning. And our daytime temperature went well up over 70F. Needless to say, it was an unexpectedly lovely walk this morning with a southerly breeze packing some warmth to it. Had a few things to pick up at Goderich's Walmart, so after my walk, away I went. From Walmart, it was a Buddy Burger and coffee to go at A&W before heading myself on down to the harbor.
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| SPOTTED THIS LARGE HERD OF COWS ON MY WAY TO GODERICH THIS MORNING |
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| I THINK THIS IS THE KINDERGARTEN SECTION |
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| HERE'S WHERE THE TEEN-AGERS HANG OUT |
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| THE LARGE VESSEL BRANT WAS AT GODEERICH'S GRAIN TERMINAL |
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| BY THE SOUNDS AND MOVEMENTS OF THE WINCH LINES, I THINK THEY WERE MOVING THE SHIP EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD |
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| A CREW MEMBER TALKS TO SOMEONE ON THE OTHER END OF HIS TWO-WAY RADIO |
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| HIGH ATOP THE BRIDGE, THIS MIGHT EVEN BE THE CAPTAIN WITH WHAT LOOKS LIKE MAYBE AN iPAD |
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| CREWMEMBERS ALSO WORKING THE WINCH LINES AT THE BOW OF THE SHIP |
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| SPOTTED THIS WIND SURFER OUT AT ROTARY COVE |
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| AND 'ZOOP' HE'S IN THE WATER |
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| I THINK HE'S GETTING A LITTLE SWAMPED |
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| OH NO, COULD THAT BE SUBMARINE SURFACING BESIDE HIM |
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| NO, THAT IS THE BOTTOM END OF THE KEEL UNDER HIS SURFBOARD |
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| HMMM, I WONDER IF THESE TWO COULD BE HAVING A SERIOUS TALK |
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| DETERMINATION |
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| A COUPLE OF HARLEY BOYS STOP FOR A REST OUT AT GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE |
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| A GREAT DAY AT THE BEACH FOR THESE CANADA GEESE |
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| OUR TWO BICYCLE BIKE RACK |
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| THE RACK FOLDS BACK TO ALLOW ACCESS TO THE SUBARU'S BACK HATCH |
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| OUT FOR A SPIN ON SOME PRETTY CHALLENGING ROADS AT THE SOUTH END OF OUR PARK |
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| THAT'S THE PARK'S REVAMPED RECYCLING AREA IN THE BACKGROUND |
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MODERN CANADIAN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come the winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. The CBC shows up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. Canadians are stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Then a representative of the NAGB (The national association of green bugs) shows up on The National and charges the ant with green bias, and makes the case that the grasshopper is the victim of 30 million years of greenism. Kermit the Frog appears on the Nature of Things with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when he sings "It's not easy being green. "Jean Chretien makes a special guest appearance on the CBC Evening News to tell a concerned public that they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the Reagan/Thatcher summers. Sheila Copps exclaims in an interview with Peter Mansbridge that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." Finally, the Liberals draft the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act," retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. John Turner gets his law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal hearing officers that Chretien appointed from a list of single-parent welfare moms who can only hear cases on Thursday's between 1:30 and 3 PM.
The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him since he doesn't know how to maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
And on the TV, which the grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, they are showing Jean Chretien standing before a wildly applauding group of liberals announcing that a new era of "fairness" has dawned in Canada.
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