IT WAS TO LONDON'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL WE WENT TODAY

It was a sad furry little face looking out our living room window first thing this morning as Kelly and I in the Jeep rolled out our driveway at 7:45 heading for London's University Hospital.  Secondary roads were semi-snow covered but visibility good so we had us an Okay drive all the way.  A bonus this time of year when winter weather is so unpredictable.

There was no dropping Kelly off at the hospital's main door this time so we had to park the Jeep in one of the parking garages adjoining the hospital.  Parking garages are not one of this small town boy's favs.

CROWDED PARKING GARAGES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A TEST OF MY PATIENCE

The big hospital didn't seem as overly crowded as it sometimes is and Kelly was soon registering at the Endoscopy clinic in the basement.  They require someone to accompany the patient then remain there to wait for them.  It was an Upper Endoscopy procedure Kelly was checking in for.  

CHECKING IN

The small waiting room was not crowded yet but it was the brain jarring horrible noise of a mind numbing TV game show on the waiting rooms TV screen that swiftly drove me right out of there seeking peace and quiet elsewhere.  Slipped up to the main hospital lobby and grabbed me a small Tim Hortons decaf coffee.  Found an out of the way seat in the lobby and figured low muffled voices would be tolerable.  Well that might have been fine years ago before the advent of cell phones.  Had brought my Kindle reader with me but couldn't concentrate on what I was reading with people loudly yammering on their cell phones.  In a rather frazzled state I quickly retreated to the basement again trying desparately to find a far and away spot somewhere quiet to avoid all that impossible humanoid noise.  Best I could do was a single chair I found in a large hallway near the elevators and it was here I stayed for about half an hour until in my shirt pocket my little cell flip phone rang.  It was Kelly just a short distance away around a few corners and she was ready to go.  So go we did despite her being a little shaky on her feet.  She said the procedure went fine but due to anesthetic didn't have much recollection of it.  Nurse told us they also snipped some tissue for a biopsy.  We were soon out the door headed for the parking garage.  Weather held and we were back home shortly before noon.  

KELLY TEXTED PHEEBS TO LET HER KNOW WE WERE ON OUR WAY

Walked into our sunroom about 12:30, tipped back in my recliner for a few minutes and woke up nearly four hours later.  The thought occured to me if I were to do this every day I could most certainly shorten up this miserable winter!!  As I type this tonight it is of course cold and snowing again.

MY OASIS OF TRANQUILITY THIS MORNING IN A SEA OF EVER INCREASING HUMAN NOISE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( These are supposedly actual signs that have appeared at various locations::
- At a Santa Fe gas station: "We will sell gasoline to anyone in a glass container."
- In a New York restaurant: "Customers who consider our waitresses uncivil ought to see the manager."  
- On a long-established New Mexico dry cleaners: "38 years on the same spot."
- In a Los Angeles dance hall: "Good clean dancing every night but Sunday."
- In a Florida maternity ward: "No children allowed."  
- In a New York drugstore: "We dispense with accuracy."
- In the offices of a loan company: "Ask about our plans for owning your home."
- In a New York medical building: "Mental Health Prevention Center"
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WINTER:((

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SNOW'S MELTING SO IT WAS A TWO WALK DAY AND MY TEMPE ARIZONA IKEA POST

A PAIR OF MALLARD DUCKS ON LAKE HURON THIS MORNING

Good thing I washed off all the mud and dirt off our Jeep Friday to make way for a brand new fresh coating of mud and dirt Saturday.  I justify it by saying there was corrosive road salt mixed in with Friday's mud and dirt and it had to come off.  With yesterday's all day and overnight rains washing that salt mixture off the roads I figured today they would be salt free.  I could see country roads were a real muddy mess so we stayed of them.  I sometimes amaze myself when I am able to make correct decisions:))

IT LIFTS MY HEART TO SEE SNOW MELTING ON FARMER'S FIELDS

Any time I see snow melting I know it has to be a good day and so it was with a drizzly morning rain helping it along. I think we topped out around 36F.  Sticking to paved roads on our morning run Pheebs and I slipped up to Goderich and down to the harbor.  Drove through the construction zone to the dog walking area at the southern end of Rotary Cove.  Despite a slight drizzle we did get ourselves out for a walk to the end of the trail.  

HERE YOU CAN PLAINLY SEE THE EROSION PROBLEM

THOSE ARE SOME PRETTY NICE WHITE SKIRTS ON THEM THERE TREES

SHORELINE ICE

Almost back to the Jeep about 30 feet away and right next to the ice coated water's edge my left leg suddenly broke through the snow and down I went ker-plunk.  Little bit of a struggle to extract my leg but with Pheebs right there encouraging me along I was right back up on my feet again.  Took two steps and my other leg broke through and down I went again ker-plop.  With a few extra grunts this time I was able to extricate myself once more and seconds later I was back to the Jeep with two slightly wet feet from melting snow in my boots.

AFTER TAKING THIS PHOTO I TOOK ABOUT FOUR STEPS AND DOWN I WENT

PHEEBS STAYS CLOSE AS I GET MY LEG OUT AND STAND UP

PHEEBS SAID 'FOLLOW ME'...I TOOK TWO STEPS AND DOWN I WENT AGAIN...IN THE PHOTO BELOW YOU CAN SEE MY 'KER-PLUNK AND 'KER PLOP'

On the way back along Rotary Cove road I was able to stop and take a few better photos of the shoreline restoration work across from the Beach Street Station Restaurant  Sure is a lot of various sized rocks going in as they build up that shoreline against rising lake levels and crashing waves.  They figure maybe another couple months of work depending on weather.

RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE BEACH STREET STATION

BUILDING A HIGH ROCK WALL

A NICE SPLASH OF COLOR ON A DULL GRAY DAY

GOOSE STEPPING ACROSS A PARKING LOT

Home again I moved some heavy slushy snow out of the way at the head of our driveway, chopped up some soft ice, and twiddled around in the carport for a short while shoveling out road grunge that had fallen off our vehicles onto the cement floor.

NOTICED SOME DUCKS AMONG THE ICE FLOES EARLIER TODAY

ALMOST LOOKS LIKE A BUNCH OF RAGGEDY TOILET SEATS FLOATING AROUND

With milder temps and rain upon us these last couple days our current snow pack has gone down quite a bit making walks along the Pine Tree trail through the forest possible again.  Pheebs and I were out later this afternoon scrambling around in the oozy wet snow and mud.  And I have a feeling I wasn't the only one thinking of George Yates today.  It was Bloggerfest in Quartzsite Arizona today and George had been a moving force behind getting that organized these past four years or so.  I bet he was sorely missed at today's gathering and even though he wasn't there I bet he was well remembered in a lot of conversations.      

THOUGHT MAYBE PHEEBS AND I COULD TAKE A SHORT CUT ACROSS THAT CREEK BUT THEN THOUGHT BETTER OF IT.....I DIDN'T NEED ANY SOAKERS

'IS THAT THE WAY HOME PHEEBS'??

'NOT SURE WHICH WAY WE CAME DAD'

'I THINK IT MIGHT BE THAT WAY PHEEBS'

'YA THIS IS THE WAY WE CAME DAD JUST FOLLOW ME'

OH GREAT NOW WE HAVE TO WALK THROUGH ALL THAT MUD AGAIN

::Memory Lane::  This will finish up my little Quartzsite project and cover a couple days after leaving Quartzfest.  We have found that in all the RV's we've had the couch, tub chairs, and dinettes are never comfortable.  What we did in Quartzsite was take those three items out of our 32' Class A Damon Challenger Motorhome and sell that stuff in Quartzsite at a place called Gamblers RV.  Leaving the Q we basically only had our lawn chairs to sit on and I slept on the floor with our doggy guys for one night.  Our destination was the Buena Tierra Campground in Casa Grande south of Phoenix at the junction of I-10 and I-8.  Not sure but this campground may now be closed.  The next day, leaving Max, Checkers, and little Cora in the coach Kelly and I headed out early in our Jeep Hyundai Santa Fe to Tempe Az where we knew an Ikea Store to be.  Here is my post for the day, The Ikea Store...'WOW 'And 'DOUBLE WOW'  We were there before it opened.  Kelly had been to an Ikea store before but I had never been in one.  One word sums it up for me...'WOW'.  I was like a kid in a candy store or Willy Wonka at the Chocolate Factory.  I was so excitedly dazzled by all the colors and really super neat-o stuff.  I was doing a lot of clicking away with my camera at all the stores great photo opportunities.  We even ate breakfast at Ikea.  But why were we there??

TEMPE ARIZONA'S IKEA STORE

Well, we were there to buy some groovy Ikea furniture for our rig and that is exactly what we did.  It was the very much most funnest shopping spree I've ever been on.  Maybe Kelly too.  We bounced around all over that store for hours.  We bought a two person couch which folded out into a comfortable single bed, a computer chair, two Poang chairs, some tables I think and maybe half a dozen other razzaly dazzle stuff.   And it was almost unbelievable how we managed to fit all that into the Santa Fe but we did.  And here's the kicker...….we got more money for our older Motorhome furniture than what we bought our new Ikea stuff for:))  A very rare happening for us.  

WE FINALLY HAVE TWO CHAIRS AND A FOOTSTOOL ASSEMBLED AND HOW'S THAT FOR THE FACE OF HAPPY:))

Back to Casa Grande we went with our loot and the Ikea assembly began.  Not my favorite part of course but we did manage to get everything put together in some semblance of order that even kinda resembled the finished product we had seen at the store.  And we began another interior RV project at this time too.  Neither one of us liked the generic bland light greyish white walls in the rig so what we did was go to a Walmart garden center and picked up a standard clay flower pot.  With that pot in hand we walked over to the paint department and had them read the color with their little automatic color scanner.  That done I said, give us a couple quarts of that flower pot color please.  That's what they did and back to the rig we went.  Next morning we left Casa Grande and headed cross country to Hickiwan Trails RV Park in Why Arizona.  We had been to Hickiwan Trails before and liked it there so out came my paint brush and away I went painting our living room, kitchen, and bathroom.  My photo album today covers this period from Quartzsite to Casa Grande, Ikea in Tempe, and our drive to Hickiwan Trails in Why Arizona.  Here is my photo album, Ikea Day

THIS IS WHAT OUR COACH FINALLY ENDED UP LOOKING LIKE THANKS TO IKEA

::Al's Musical Favs:: Hawk Circle by Will Ackerman.  Another haunting guitar piece by my all time favorite guitar player.  The piano you here is George Winston one of my favorite pianists.  

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A homeless man, down on his luck, went into a Catholic church that was known for its rather “uppity” social reputation. Spotting the man’s dirty clothes, the ushers stopped him outside the church door and asked if he needed help. The man told them, “I was praying and the Lord told me to come to this church.”  The ushers suggested that the man go away and pray some more and me might get a different answer.  The following Sunday the man returned and the ushers again stopped him at the door. “Well, did you get a different answer?” they asked him.  “Yes, I did,” said the man. “I told the Lord that you don’t want me here, but the Lord said, ‘Keep trying, son. I’ve been trying to get into that church for years and I haven’t made it yet either.”
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A 2006 study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another recent study found that Americans drink an average of 22 gallons of beer a year.  That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles per gallon. Not Bad.
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