BRIGHT IS GOOD

 SHORELINE ICE AT GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE

Although no blue sky today, the thin cloud cover made for a brighter day, and at this time of year, bright is good.  Not much in the way of wind either so all and all it was an acceptable 37F winter's day.  Despite not having any prescriptions to drop off or pick up, Pheebs and I headed to Goderich and back anyway.  And, that's about it for another day........

 HARBOR TUG OCEAN A. SIMARD MANEUVERING ICE FLOWS AROUND IN THE HARBOR'S NARROW CHANNEL

 I BET THAT DOGGY IS HAPPY TO WALKING ON GREEN GRASS AGAIN INSTEAD OF ICE AND SNOW

 IT WILL BE A WHILE BEFORE SWIMMERS ARE BACK IN THE WATER HERE AT GODERICH'S SOUTH BEACH

 AND, HOW NICE TO SEE GREEN FARMER'S FIELDS AGAIN EVEN IF IT IS ONLY TEMPORARY

Another Facebook memory from this day in 2009 when we were boondocked alongside the Charleston Road between Sierra Vista and Tombstone Arizona.  We were in a small parking area along the banks of the San Pedro River.  We Didn't Find The Ghost Town But We Had To Move Today  Incidentally, it was the next day we found the Ghost Town......Today We Found The Ruins Of Charleston Arizona.   

Al's Music Box:)) Great Balls Of Fire is a 1957 popular song recorded by American rock and roll musician Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records.  It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer.  The recording used three personnel: Lewis (piano/vocals), Sidney Stokes (bass), and a session drummer, Larry Linn instead of the usual Sun backups Jimmy Van Eaton (drums) and Roland Janes (guitar). Lewis was quoted in the book 'JLL: His Own Story' by Rick Bragg, as saying "I knew Sidney Stokes but I didn't know him that well, and I don't know what happened to them people. That's the last time I ever seen 'em. That's strange isn't it?" Great Balls of Fire was released as a 45 rpm single.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Some "Senior" personal ads seen in Florida and Arizona newspapers:

FOXY LADY: Sexy, fashion-conscious blue-haired beauty, 80's, slim,5'4" (used to be 5-6), searching for a sharp-looking, sharp-dressing companion. Matching white shoes and belt are a plus.

MINT CONDITION: Male, 1932, high mileage, good condition, some hair, many new parts including hip, knee, cornea, and valves. Isn't in running condition, but walks well.

LONG-TERM COMMITMENT: Recent widow who has fourth husband looking for someone to round out a six-unit plot. Dizziness, fainting, shortness of breath not a problem.

SERENITY NOW: I am into solitude, long walks, sunrises, the ocean, yoga, and meditation. If you are the silent type, let's get together, take our hearing aids out and enjoy quiet times.

WINNING SMILE: Active grandmother with original teeth seeking a dedicated flossier to share rare steaks, corn on the cob, and caramel candy.

BEATLES OR STONES? I still like to rock, still like to cruise in my Camaro on Saturday nights, and still like to play the air guitar. If you were a groovy chick, or are now a groovy hen, let's get together and listen to my boss collection of eight-track tapes.

MEMORIES: I can usually remember Monday through Thursday. If you can remember Friday, Saturday and Sunday, let's put our two heads together.

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- Just think, in a few million years Barney will be motor oil.

Q: Why do farmers put bells on cows?

A: Their horns don't work.

- What should you give a man who has everything? A woman to show him how to work it all!

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FROM DULL AND GRAY TO SUNNY BLUE:))))))

THIS PHOTO NEEDS NO WORDS:)))))

It was the sound of rain on our steel roof that aroused me out of a light slumber sometime in the night and it was still raining when we woke this morning.  Better than snow I thought to myself.  And, how delightful when I pulled back our living room curtains to see most of our driveway reappearing through the ice and snow.  Yes, we still have over two months of snowy weather ahead of us but this January thaw certainly has been one big huge welcome break.

 HOW GREAT TO SEE OUR DRIVEWAY EMERGING FROM THE ICE AND SNOW

 AND HOW NICE TO WALK ON BARE GROUND AGAIN INSTEAD OF SNOW

Under gloomy rain-soaked skies, Pheebs and I ventured east on Bayfield River Road, turning around at the T-intersection and headed back towards home taking a few pics along the way.  

 THIS WAS OUR MORNING JEEP RIDE

 WITH ALL THE RAIN AND SNOW, WATER IS POOLING IN THE LANDS LOW SPOTS

 HARVESTED CORN STALKS ARE EMERGING FROM THEIR SNOW COVER

 AREA CREEKS ARE AGAIN FLOWING

At one point passing by a stand of trees, I thought I saw the Jeep's instrument panel light up and flicker.  It took me a couple seconds to realize that a lone ray of sunshine had passed through the trees and into the Jeep's window from behind and tumbled over my left shoulder to alight ever so softly on the Jeep's instrument panel.  What an enlightening feeling came over me at that moment.  Sometimes it can take a simple ray of sunshine to make one realize how truly depressed one has been.  Glancing back out my window I could see the cloud cover thinning and the landscape beginning to brighten toward the southeast.  

 A FAINT RAY OF SUNSHINE ALIGHTS ON THE JEEP'S INSTRUMENT PANEL

Shortly after arriving home, we were under clear blue sunny skies.  Yes Toto, sometimes clouds do have silver linings.  I wasn't long in grabbing my snow shovel and moving some slush around.  Anything to stay outside for a bit and feel the warm touches of the Sun.  Used my leaf rake to rake up a lot of birdseed husks under the feeders, and took a few sunny blue sky photos.  Oh, how I love the color blue in the daytime sky at times like this.  Later, with sunshine flooding through our sunroom windows, I relaxed in my recliner and contentedly watched the antics of our front yard birds and squirrels.

HOW WONDERFUL TO SEE SUNSHINE CASTING SHADOWS ACROSS OUR DRIVEWAY AGAIN

 AND THERE IS EVEN A PATCH OF SUNLIGHT ON DOGGIE'S NOSE

 SUNSHINE ON OUR STREET AGAIN

 NEIGHBORS OUT FOR A SUNNY MORNING WALK

By late afternoon skies had again clouded over but no matter, we had reached 41F today and The Sun, while it was here, had worked its healing magic upon me and left me with the promise that it would return to lift my spirits again in a few days:))))     

 STANDING IN OUR DRIVEWAY SOAKING UP THE BLUE

 LOVE THE LONG STRETCHING SHADOWS

 OH AND HOW GREAT TO SEE SUNLIT BREEN FOLIAGE AGAIN IN OUR FRONT YARD

Al's Music Box:)) All My Loving is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, from their second UK album 'With the Beatles' (1963). It was written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon-McCartney) and produced by George Martin. Though not officially released as a single in the United Kingdom or the United States, the song drew considerable radio airplay, prompting EMI to issue it as the title track of an EP.  The song was released as a single in Canada, where it became a number-one hit. The Canadian single was imported into the US in enough quantities to peak at number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in April 1964.  According to journalist Bill Harry, McCartney thought of the lyrics whilst shaving: "I wrote 'All My Loving' like a piece of poetry and then, I think, I put a song to it later".  However, McCartney later told biographer Barry Miles that he wrote the lyrics while on a tour bus and after arriving at the venue he then wrote the music on a piano backstage.  He also said "It was the first song where I'd ever written the words first. I never wrote words first, it was always some kind of accompaniment. I've hardly ever done it since either."  McCartney originally envisioned it as a country & western song, and George Harrison added a Nashville-style guitar solo.  John Lennon's rhythm guitar playing, utilized back and forth strummed triplets similar to "Da Doo Ron Ron" by The Crystals, a song that was popular at the time, while McCartney plays a walking bass line.  In his 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon said, "It's a damn good piece of work and I play a pretty mean guitar in back." The Beatles recorded the song on 30 July 1963 in eleven takes with three overdubs.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  The shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read BEST DEALS.  He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right, and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, reading LOWEST PRICES.  The shopkeeper was panicked until he got an idea. He put the biggest sign of all over his own shop-it read…Main entrance.

- What do you get when you mix a Christmas tree and an iPad?  A pineapple.

- The next person that asks me for a pineapple juice, a cranberry juice and some lemonade with a slice of orange all in the same glass ... is gonna get a punch.

- Why was the pineapple all alone?  Because the banana split.

- A person was hit by a bus after he claimed pineapple goes with pizza.  Also, I lost my bus license today.

- I once put rum and pineapple into CERN’s particle accelerator.  Discovered the Piña Collider.

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'KER-UMPNG' SOUNDS IN THE NIGHT

 THESE RASCALS ARE AT IT AGAIN:((

The few 'ker-umping' sounds I heard in the night told me that temperatures were still above freezing and chunks of heavy wet snow were breaking off and sliding down over the edge of our roof.  'Ker-ump'.

 GLAD TO SEE THE SNOW MELTING OFF OUR ROOFS AGAIN

 MY LONG SNOW RAKE FOR PULLING SNOW DOWN AND NOTICE THE BARE GROUND ALONG ONE OF OUR PATHWAYS

 IT TOOK ME A BIT OF DIGGING TO OPEN THIS PATH TO THE ROAD ON OUR EAST SIDE

My turn to drive as I made my way over to Richard's house on a foggy Thursday morning.  Despite the mist, we were able to find ourselves a coffee shop okay so we weren't denied our coffee and muffins.  It's not good for anything to get between two older fellas and their muffins and coffee.  Our travels this morning took us through Tim Hortons in Clinton and then south down the Morrison Line, west through the south end of Exeter, and then north back to Bayfield.  Fog most of the way but it wasn't a 'pea souper' and it was okay for driving.  

 WE STILL HAVE TOUCHES OF CHRISTMAS HANGING AROUND

 THE BIGGER OUTSIDE NUMBERS ARE IN CELCIUS AND THE SMALLER INNER NUMBERS ARE IN FAHRENHEIT

By mid-afternoon I still didn't have any photos for today so I slipped on my boots and took a walk around the outside of our house looking for some color etc.  The photos are rather dull but it's all that I ended up with on this late gray overcast January afternoon.

 MY AFTERNOON GOAL WAS TO FIND SOME COLOR

 I AM SO MUCH LOOKING FORWARD TO WARM SPRING DAYS WHEN I CAN DECLUTTER OUR SHEDS AND GET ALL OF OUR SUMMER STUFF OUT AGAIN

Since re-configuring my bird station last summer I haven't had any squirrel problems with them getting onto the station.  Well, until yesterday that is after Arrowhead Gramma in Monday's comment section, asked this question....  Al, have the squirrels given up on trying to get the bird's feed or did you finally outsmart them? Missing their antics this winter though I am sure you are not.    Of course, squirrels have a way of knowing what is going on in my blog and they obviously decided it was about time, after reading Arrowhead Gramma's comment, to cause me some stress because Wednesday afternoon I looked up from my computer desk to see a squirrel on the bird station!!!!

 THIS SQUIRREL IS HAVING HIMSELF A FEAST OF BIRDSEED

 HE MANAGED TO SHINNY UP THE BLACK POLE FAR ENOUGH TO GRAB ONTO A BIRD FEEDER I HAD HANGING FROM THE BIRD STATION PLATFORM

 THEN THE LITTLE SMARTY PANTS SWUNG HIMSELF RIGHT UP ONTO THE BIRD  STATION PLATFORM ITSELF.....I HAVE SINCE TAKEN THE HANGING BIRD FEEDER DOWN...PROBLEM SOLVED FOR NOW

Al's Music Box:)) Move It On Over is a song written and recorded by the American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams.  It was recorded on April 21, 1947 at Castle Studio in Nashville, Hank's first session for MGM is the same session that produced "I Saw the Light," "I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep," and "Six More Miles to the Graveyard." Nashville had no session men during this period, so producer Fred Rose hired Red Foley's backing band, one of the sharpest around, to back Williams.  As biographer Colin Escott observes, Rose probably felt the instrumental break needed a touch of class to smooth out Williams' hillbilly edges, and the band, especially guitarist Zeke Turner, was likely too fancy for the singer's taste.  The song is considered one of the earliest examples of rock and roll music. Though many claim the song "Rock Around the Clock," released in 1954 by Bill Haley & His Comets, was the first rock and roll single, it resembles "Move it On Over", as both feature the same twelve-bar blues arrangement with a melody starting with three repetitions of an ascending arpeggio of the tonic chord, which Williams had partially derived from an old Mardi Gras riff, "Second Line."  "Move It on Over" was Williams' first major hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart and getting him a write-up in The Alabama Journal. The revenue generated by the song was the first serious money the singer had ever seen in his life. It also earned him a spot on the coveted Louisiana Hayride, the training ground for the Grand Ole Opry.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Fifteen minutes into the flight from Kansas City to Toronto, the captain announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, one of our four engines has failed. There is nothing to worry about. Our flight will take an hour longer than scheduled."  Thirty minutes later the captain announced, "Our number two engine has failed and the flight will take an additional two hours. But don't worry ... we can fly just fine on two engines."  An hour later the captain announced, "Our number three engine has failed and our arrival will be delayed another three hours.  A young woman passenger turned to the man in the next seat and remarked, "I hope that fourth engine keeps working, or we'll be up here all day!"

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Why are elevator jokes so good?
They work on many levels!

Why are nurses always running out of red crayons?
Because they often have to draw blood.

Why was the woman afraid for the calendar?
Its days were numbered.

What did the police officer say to his belly-button?
You're under a vest.

Why is Peter Pan always flying?
Because he Neverlands.

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