LIKE I SAID TO PHEEBS, I THINK MOM'S PLAYING TRICKS ON US GUYS AGAIN"

Due to medical appointments and circumstances in both our lives, my good buddy Richard and I had not made it out for one of our twice-monthly Thursday morning coffee runs for a month or more.  However, the stars finally aligned again and I picked Richard up this morning.  It didn't take us long to cruise through McDonalds in Goderich and grab a couple coffees and carrot muffins to go.  We had a lot of catching up to do because there had already been a lot of water under the bridge since the last time we were out. However, not missing a beat we picked up right where we left off last time with our in-depth conversation.   Our travels on this cloudy 34F winter's morn took us northeast of Goderich over around the Ben Miller area and northeast of Bayfield. 

 DRIVING CONDITIONS WERE GOOD THIS MORNING WITH BARE DRY ROADS AND UNLIMITED VISIBILITY

I was home again close to noon.  With slightly milder temps upon us, I grabbed my snow shovel and headed out into our backyard to open up some paths to both sheds and the burning barrel.  I sure needed the exercise and it took me close to an hour to get that heavy wet snow moved but at least now the pathways are finally shoveled in and it will be easier for me to keep them open unless we get another big overnight snow dump like we did in early December.

I WISHED WE WOULD HAVE A BIG THAW TO MELT ALL THIS SNOW SO I COULD GET A JUMP START ON THE SPRING CLEANUP BY GATHERING UP ALL THESE BROKEN BRANCHES FROM THE BIG SNOWSTORM THREE WEEKS AGO

I've been kind of ignoring the iPhone 15 here because I knew it was going to cause me frustration in trying to learn stuff with it.  No, it's not a negative attitude, it's a realistic attitude because I know how difficult it is for me to learn new stuff these days. But, despite that, this afternoon I sat down with the phone and a couple YouTube tutorials by Rich Bowlin.  I spent probably 40 minutes trying to understand something, anything.  But, no luck.  I was just as much in the dark at the end of that 40 minutes as I was at the beginning.  I might just as well have spent that time with a hammer, a few nails, and a couple pieces of wood trying to build a rocket ship to fly me to the Moon.  I had an idea I would end up frustrated with all this new smartphone technology, and I did.  I just don't seem to have enough brain cells left in the technology department to understand even the simplest basics of getting started.  The nice lady at the Bayfield Library last week made things look so easy but by the time I got home, I was mired in a techno fog.  I think I'm flogging a dead horse here with this iPhone idea.

Another sign from Kelly.  We have a slightly elevated doggy stand that holds two metal dishes.  One for food and one for water.  I prefer a porcelain bowl for water so that sits beside the stand.  I use one metal dish for Pheebs food and the other dish sits empty.  At the kitchen counter yesterday I glanced back over to Pheebs dish stand between the kitchen and living room to see if she had eaten all her breakfast.  She had.  But I noticed immediately there was only one metal dish in the stand where moments before there had been two as per usual.  What!!  Where was the other dish??  Had I taken it to the sink to wash?  No!!  Had I set it on the kitchen counter or table?  No!!  Looking all around I could not locate the missing dish anywhere.  I was convinced Kelly had something to do with this:))  Later in the afternoon, I went over to pick up the remaining dish to put Pheebs supper in and guess what.  The missing bowl was sitting inside the other bowl and that is why I didn't see it and couldn't find it.  I was convinced more than ever that it was a sign from Kelly because I would not have, and did not set that metal bowl inside the other bowl.  I had absolutely no reason to do that.  Zero, Zilch, no reason!!  Like I said to Pheebs, "I think Mom's playing tricks on us guys again":))

 THIS IS PHEEBS DISH STAND

TWO METAL BOWLS 'ALWAYS' SIT SIDE BY SIDE

 AND, THIS IS WHAT I SAW.....THE MISSING BOWL IS SITTING INSIDE THE BOWL ON THE LEFT AND 'I DID NOT PUT IT THERE' AND I'M QUITE SURE PHEEBS DIDN'T EITHER

Al's Music Box:)) Early Morning Rain by Peter, Paul, and Mary sometimes styled as "Early Mornin' Rain," is a song written, composed, and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. The song appears on his 1966 debut album Lightfoot! and, in a re-recorded version, on the 1975 compilation Gord's Gold.  Lightfoot wrote and composed the song in 1964, but its genesis took root during his 1960 sojourn in Westlake, Los Angeles. Throughout this time, Lightfoot sometimes became homesick and would go out to the Los Angeles International Airport on rainy days to watch the approaching aircraft. The imagery of the flights taking off into the overcast sky was still with him when, in 1964, he was caring for his 5-month-old baby son and he thought, "I’ll put him over here in his crib, and I’ll write myself a tune."  "Early Morning Rain" was the result.  

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Tony had just finished reading a new book entitled, 'You Can Be The Man of Your House.' He stormed out to his wife in the kitchen and announced, 'From now on, you need to know that I am the man of this house and my word is Law. You will prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I'm finished eating my meal, you will serve me a sumptuous dessert.  After dinner, you are going to go upstairs with me and do as I say. Afterwards, you are going to draw me a bath so I can relax. You will wash my back and towel me dry and bring me my robe.  Then, you will massage my feet and hands. Then tomorrow, guess who's going to dress me and comb my hair?'  His Sicilian wife Gina replied, "The funeral director would be my first guess."

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"I hope you didn't take it personally, Reverend," an embarrassed woman said after a church service, "when my husband walked out during your sermon.""I did find it rather disconcerting," the preacher   replied.  "It's not a reflection on you," insisted the church goer. "Ralph has been been walking in his sleep since childhood."

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Knock Knock
Who's there?
Vivaldi!
Vivaldi who?
Vivaldi books, there's nothing to read!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Vlad!
Vlad who?
Vlad to meet you!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Voodoo!
Voodoo who?
Voodoo you think you are!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Waddle!
Waddle who?
Waddle you give me if I go away!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Wade!
Wade who?
Wade till next time!

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My girlfriend asked me for something that goes 0 to 200 in 2 seconds for her birthday.
Apparently, she wasn’t asking for a bathroom scale.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kellys Corner

 OUTSIDE OF LONDON'S VICTORIA HOSPITAL A COUPLE SUMMERS AGO

KELLY AND CORA SLIDING DOWN A SAND HILL OFF OGILBY ROAD WEST OF YUMA ARIZONA

I THINK THAT IS IVAN'S CAT HAILY CORA AND KELLY ARE TALKING TO NEAR BOUSE ARIZONA

Al's Art Gallery

I THINK WE HAVE ALL FALLEN INTO THAT ONE BEFORE

 CHRISTMAS DAY IN OUR PARK

It was the quietest of Christmas morns for Pheebs and I and that quiet part was quite alright.  We lazed around until well after nine before heading out in the Subaru for a short jaunt down Bayfield River Road to where it makes a T-intersection with Parr Line.  We made a U-turn  and headed slowly back in the direction of home snapping a few pics here and there along the way.  Yes, not a creature was stirring, not even a house.

 SOMETIMES EVEN THE BIG SNOWPLOW BLADES DON'T SEE THE RURAL MAILBOXES CLOSE TO THE ROAD

I try to get a little something constructively done each day here at home.  Yesterday my project was to clean the fridge.  Today, I finished that up.  Got some laundry done and had it been a few degrees milder outside I would have slipped out and moved some more snow around.  Maybe tomorrow.  

I'm getting myself into the habit of opening our online banking site pretty well every day now to look things over and familiarize myself with its workings.  Repetition works best for me in situations like this and I don't want to fall behind again and then not remember how to do things.  The key to all this of course is to regain control over my life as a single person and that means doing things and making decisions on my own and not always leaning on someone else.  Geeezzzz, I even sometimes answer the phone when it rings now.  Imagine that....me answering a phone, or even stranger than that....me picking up the phone to call someone.  And mentioning phones, I have a landline phone, a cell flip phone, and now a smartphone.  Each of these has its pros and cons and payment plans, but surely I don't need all three of them.  

Being over 80 years old I now find myself befuzzled between two technologies.  The challenges of newer tech and the familiar comfort of old tech.  Do I have enough brain cells left to learn all (even some) the new stuff.  Or, am I better off with the old comfortable familiarity that I know.  I guess I had just better give it all time to settle in.  My old track record reveals that in the past I have too many times made poor decisions based on an unnecessary 'rush to judgment.'  I think we all have fallen into that one before.

Kelly's daughter Sabra phoned me from Florida this afternoon to say 'Merry Christmas' and to touch base with how things are going.  Nice of her to call.

 I WILL BE SO HAPPY WHEN MOTHER NATURE PUTS THE LEAVES BACK ON THE TREES AGAIN

ABlast From Our Past:)) It was a Saturday morning in December of 2007 when Kelly and I got ourselves into a little bit of trouble in Mexico.  Close Call In Mexico.  The following day we received a few reader's responses to our Close Call In Mexico......Update To Yesterday's 'Mexico' Blog

CHRISTMAS EVE 2007 SITTING AROUND OUR CAMPFIRE IN THE DESERT AT THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED NEAR BORREGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA

  HAVING MY CAMERA ON A TRIPOD WITH A LONG EXPOSURE SETTING AND A FLASHLIGHT IN MY HAND I TRIED TO LIGHT PAINT 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' ON THE SIDE OF OUR MOTORHOME

Al's Music Box:)) Do You Hear What I Hear by Bing Crosby is a song written in October 1962, with lyrics by Noel Regney and music by Gloria Shayne. The pair, married at the time, wrote it as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crises. Regney had been invited by a record producer to write a Christmas song, but he was hesitant due to the commercialism of Christmas.  It has sold tens of millions of copies and has been covered by hundreds of artists.  "Do You Hear What I Hear?" tells a story loosely based upon the story of the Nativity of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Matthew, incorporating fragments of the annunciation to the shepherds from the Gospel of Luke, though Jesus is never mentioned by name or explicitly identified. A "night wind" tells a lamb of a star, following which the lamb tells his young shepherd that he also hears a loud song. They are each led to a "mighty king," whom they tell of a child in the cold and ask to bring the child silver and gold (much as the Biblical Magi, which in tradition with prophecies in the Book of Isaiah and Psalm 72 are often characterized as kings, did with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh).  The king proclaims a prayer of peace and announces that the child will "bring goodness and light".  Regney wrote the lyrics for the song, while Shayne composed the music in October 1962.  This was an unusual arrangement for the two writers. Usually, it was Shayne who wrote the lyrics for their songs while Regney composed the music, as they did when they wrote a song based on the classic children's song "Rain Rain Go Away.  Regney was inspired to write the lyrics "Said the night wind to the little lamb, 'Do you see what I see?'" and "Pray for peace, people everywhere" after watching babies being pushed in strollers on the sidewalks of New Your City. Shayne stated in an interview years later that neither could personally perform the entire song at the time they wrote it because of the emotions surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis: "Our little song broke us up. You must realize there was a threat of war at the time".  "Do You Hear What I Hear?" was released shortly after Thanksgiving in 1962. The song was originally recorded for Mercury Records by the Harry Simeone Chorale, a group that had also popularized "The Little Drumer Boy", and released as part of the album The Wonderful Songs of Christmas with the Harry Simeone Chorale. As a 45 rpm single, it went on to sell more than a quarter-million copies during the 1962 Christmas holiday season.  Bing Crosby made the song into a hit when he recorded his own version of it on October 21, 1963, with the record being released as a single on October 26. Crosby also performed the song on a Bob Hope Christmas television special on December 13 of that year. Over the years, Crosby's recording of the song has been widely played on the radio and has been available on numerous compilation Christmas albums and compact discs put out by Capitol Records.

 YUP, THAT LOOKS LIKE OUR HOUSE ALRIGHT

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A group of tourists was being guided through an ancient castle in Europe.  "This place," the guide told them, "is 600 years old. Not a stone in it has been touched, nothing altered, nothing replaced in all those years."  "Wow," said one woman dryly, "they must have the same landlord I have."

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TEACHER: Young man, you've been late for school five days this week. Does that make you happy?

PUPIL: Sure does. That means it's Friday.

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My boss was honest with me today.  He pulled up to work with his sweet new car this morning and I complimented him on it.  He replied, "Well, if you work hard, set goals, stay determined and put in long hours, I can get an even better one next year."  

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Paddy and his missus are lying in bed listening to the next door neighbor's dog barking. It had been barking for hours and hours.  Suddenly, Paddy jumps out of bed and says, "I've had enough of this," and goes downstairs.  Paddy finally comes back up to bed and his wife says, "The dog is still barking. What have you been doing?"  Paddy says, "I've put their dog in our yard - now we'll see how they like it!"

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- If you have an opinion about my life, please raise your hand. Now put it over your mouth.

A 6th-grade teacher posed the following problem to one of her arithmetic classes:
“A wealthy man dies and leaves ten million dollars.One-fifth is to go to his wife, one-  fifth is to go to his son, one-sixth to his butler, and the rest to charity.  Now, what does each get?”  After a very long silence in the classroom, one little boy raised his hand.  With complete sincerity in his voice, answered, “A lawyer!"
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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 HERE'S PHEEBS TRYING TO GET PHEEBS UP FOR BREAKFAST IN OUR BIG E MOTORHOME

KELLY CARRIES LITTLE CORA ON A MORNING WALK NEAR THE HICKIWAN TRAILS RV PARK IN WHY, ARIZONA

 WE LOVED OUR MORNING WALKS IN THE DESERT NEAR OUR CONGRESS ARIZONA HOUSE

Al's Art Gallery