A BIG ‘YAAAAAAAY’ TO THE PEOPLE WHO GOT LIVE WRITER UP & RUNNING AGAIN:)))))))

SEEN ALONG THE ROAD TODAY

How nice to turn on the computer this morning & read that Microsoft's Live Writer problem has been solved & LW is once again working.  A lot of happy smiling Live Writer faces out here today.  Don't know who or how the problem was resolved but a big 'yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay' to the people responsible for the fix.  Not thinking a solution to the problem would be found it is time's like this that I am happy to have been proven wrong with my prediction. 

MOM & THE KIDS IN A BIG HURRY TO GET AWAY FROM AN APPROACHING JEEP LIBERATOR
With cool temperatures rising & sunlight pouring through our Park's tall pine trees I couldn't resist the urge for a good old fashioned gravel run this morning so it didn't take long for Pheebs & I too get Libby's wheels rolling.  Couldn't even remember the last time we & had been out on a back roads run.  Must have been 3 or 4 days ago at least.

ALTHOUGH I HAVE NEVER EVEN SO MUCH AS SAT IN A KAYAK I ALWAYS THINK OF KAYAKING WHENEVER I COME TO THE HULLETT MARSH

LIFE IS A TWO WAY HIGHWAY IN THE MARSH

PLACID MARSH WATERS WITH NARY A RIPPLE

We didn't cover a lot of miles today.  Feeling our morning's air a tad on the cool side I figured the mosquitoes & biting flies would not be airborne until at least mid to late morning so with a coffee & carrot muffin to go from Clinton’s Tim Hortons Pheebs & I headed straightaway for the Hullett Marsh just a short 10 minutes away.  With no humidity in the air it was what I would call a perfect morning to be outside doing anything one's little heart desired.  For Pheebs & I it was a walk to an old forgotten iron bridge hidden deeply away in the marsh.  Country roads had once traversed the area of the Hullet Marsh & a couple old overhead iron bridges still remain hidden away with long ago waterways still flowing under them.  Only tranquil bird songs wafting on wisps of a quiet June morning's pristine country air.

 

PHOTO TAKEN FROM ATOP THE OLD IRON BRIDGE LOOKING SOUTH…I THINK THIS WOULD BE A NICE PADDLE WAY

A ONE TIME BUSY COUNTRY ROAD TRAVELS THIS WAY NO MORE

 

With today's sunshine charging my batteries I was able to spend some more time cleaning the outside of our Motorhome.  Using a product called Mirage 2000 which I had picked up at Bayfield's Stormrunner RV Sales & Service last summer I was able to remove a lot of water spotting from the rig's last wash job a few weeks ago.  It also removed some black streaking as well as leaving behind a nice shine.  Cleaned all the outside glass too.  Kelly busied herself with a bunch of interior cleaning so the rig is just about ready to go somewhere & get dirty all over again just so we can spend more hours cleaning it once more.  Seems to be a never ending carousel of cleaning with these big mobile Dinosaur Monsters.

MY REFLECTION IN THE BROWN PAINT AT THE REAR OF OUR COACH >>>

Last year a man was purposely shot dead by another man somewhere in the Hullett Marsh & this morning I was surprised to stumble on a what appeared to be a recently erected wooden cross with a plaque on it.  I don't know if the case has gone to trial yet but it would be interesting to see what the motive for murder was.  The shooter, an acquaintance of the victim has been in custody since shortly after the shooting last September.  Hullett Marsh Shooting September 2014.  The cross stands near a parking area where the group of avid horse riders & dog trainers had embarked on a day’s ride before one of them was shot.

 

My post tonight is once again coming to you from my Live Writer writing platform & I'm so happy I can size & place photos more creatively again.  I will miss Blogger's faster publishing speed of course but it is the way it is.  I'm thankful to Blogger for being there when Live Writer went down & it's nice knowing Blogger will still be there as a back up if Live Writer hits another roadblock sometime in the future.  Again, good stuff & a big 2 thumbs up for the Google/Microsoft techie folks who readily resolved this dilemma for so many of us loyal Live Writer fans out here.  You know maybe there is a shred of hope left for humanity after all……………………….:))

In my Monday post I spoke about the passing of a fellow RV Blogger named Wayne Scott.  Wayne’s wife has written an informative, personal, & heart warming tribute to her dear husband & you can read her fine tribute here at Bon Voyage, Captain.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( There was a man driving down the road behind an 18 wheeler, at every stoplight the trucker would get out of the cab, run back and bang on the trailer door. After seeing this at several intersections in a row the motorist followed him until he pulled into a parking lot.  When they both had come to a stop the truck driver once again jumped out and started banging on the trailer door. The motorist went up to him and said, "I don't mean to be nosey but why do you keep banging on that door?"  To which the trucker replied, "Sorry, can't talk now, I have 20 tons of canaries and a 10 ton load limit, I have to keep half of them in the air at all times!!"

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- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

SADLY TODAY WE LOST ANOTHER FELLOW RV BLOGGER

A VERY BUSY LITTLE BEE IN A FUSCIA FLOWER THIS AFTERNOON OUTSIDE OUR SUNROOM

 

I headed out first thing this morning with a T-Shirt underneath a warm flannel shirt.  That's how cool it was but within a couple hours I was out of that comfy combination & into a short sleeve summer shirt.  The day just kept getting better from there & it sure was nice being outside in the sunshine again.

Spent my morning puttering with yard work.  Dug up a few plants in the forest & transplanted them to our side yard.  A leisurely walk around the property with our weed whacker took care of most fast growing weeds.   Half a utility trailer load to our recycling area & that was about it.

SUNDAY'S WET FRONT YARD

OUR BACK YARD IS FILLING IN NICELY

It was Kelly who noticed the 'white windows' at the bottom right of our task bar this morning.  I could have a flashing fluorescent Dinosaur sitting on my computer & probably wouldn't notice it.  That 'white window' icon announces the soon to arrive Windows 10 giving computer owners the option of upgrading for free to Microsoft's latest program Windows 10.  Although not actually ready to install just yet it has each user confirm a reservation for when it does actually arrive on one’s computer.  We have confirmed our reservation but when it does arrive we decided we will wait & see what the feed back is from other ordinary folks like ourselves who decide to upgrade to the newer Windows.  It's always easy for the techie types to say there is nothing to it which is of course true for them but I think we'll just wait & see what the general overall Joe has to say regarding Windows 10 is before we take the plunge.  I have a feeling this Win 10 upgrade will make a lot of frustrated Windows 8 users happy.  We luckily have Win 7 which we are quite happy & comfortable with for now.  So we'll see..................

 

I’ve been in the habit lately of writing & publishing my posts earlier in the evening.  This gives me a chance to do a little Kindle reading plus take Pheebs for a drive around Bayfield stopping in a few choice locations to check out a few sunsets over Lake Huron.

PHEEBS PATIENTLY WAITS FOR SUNDAY NIGHT'S SUNSET IN BAYFIELD'S PIONEER PARK

WHILE THIS LADY ALSO WAIT'S FOR THE SUNSET HER 2 DOGS ARE WATCHING & WAITING FOR THE PHEEBS TO COME OVER & PLAY WITH THEM

BAYFIELD'S PIER

CANDID PHOTO OF A COUPLE ENJOYING A SUNDAY NIGHT SUNSET

It was with sadness today I read in our Shout Box about the untimely passing of another fellow RV Blogger.  Wayne Scott of Turn When The Road Does passed away this morning due to complications from pulmonary fibrosis.  I had never met Wayne although we did comment on each other's blogs occasionally.  Our paths did nearly cross this past winter when Wayne & Rhonda were at the Caliente RV Park in California & we were about 50 miles away in Borrego Springs.  Schedules didn't quite line up & our paths never crossed.  We had read Wayne's last few posts & I don't think we understood how serious his medical situation was.  He was a fellow who presented a positive face to his condition.  Again it just brings it home how fragile this thing called life really is.  This is Wayne's Last Post written Friday May 22nd.  Our condolences to his family.

GROANER’S CORNER:(( My daughter is going to middle school and I thought I should start talking to her about some serious stuff, such as the meaning of life.  Her response: "My meaning of life is to please Mommy."  So then I asked: "What about Daddy?"  She said: "Your meaning of life is to please Mommy, too".

And hey, how about some used car prices from yesteryear.....................

A 24 HOUR RAIN & HAPPY WITH MY BLOG'S NEW 'STAT-COUNTER'

It began raining Saturday afternoon & continued steadily through the night.  Woke up to rain Sunday morning which in turn just kept coming down non stop until mid day.  Not necessarily a heavy rain but a steady rain.  Looking out our sunroom window one would think we are living in a jungle.  The lushest period of the season is now upon us with everything growing like gangbusters.  In our part of the country I always see June as the greenest month & it is all this fresh new foliage which in turn will set our forests afire with Autumn reds & golds come September & October. 

Been a couple weeks since I switched my blog's statistics info from Sitemeter to StatCounter & must say I do like StatCounter better.  Like their combination colored bar graph plus numerical counter showing daily page views, unique visits, as well as return visits.  Of course it does much more than that but it's that feature I have on my desktop which gives me an idea of how my blog is doing whether it's gaining in popularity, holding it's own, or sinking fast.  Stats can help a blogger determine if their posts are finding favor with readers.  I can generally tell when I've a written a clunker or a series of clunkers just by a drop in numbers.  To me stats are an important guide in encouraging one to continually try to do better.

Thanks to Retired Rod & Steve for the feedback to a question I had about Bloggers font size & color.  Although knowing about how to use it I had forgot to even  look in the template area for making the changes to Blogger.  It's a good example at this age of forgetting how to do things when you haven't done them for a long while.  This technically overloaded computer world is a classic example of that.  Like the majority of people & having not made a career of computer learning it is always a real challenge trying to hold all that information in one's head.  And of course with the passing of years it is not getting any easier either.  Not only is it harder to retain things in one's memory I find it is also harder to learn new things.  Where one used to pick up on new things reasonably well I find now an overall sense of confusion often seems to slip in quickly & envelope one's keen interests & learning abilities in a kind of fog.  Of course some days are a little less foggy than others & of course those are what can be hailed as 'good days'.

Well, we Windows Live Writer folks are still holding our breath out here & of course grasping at straws with every little murmur coming out of Blogger & Microsoft about a possible fix soon.  I'm still on the pessimistic side with it all though & sure hope I am proven wrong.  The Blogger format is working for me but it sure isn't as slick & fast as Live Writer when it comes to smoothly inserting & precisely sizing photos.  Had Live Writer never come along years ago I wouldn't know the difference & would probably think Blogger was just the cat's meow.  But it isn't & for those of us having used Live Writer over the last bunch of years that is where the real bite comes in for us.  Arrrrggghhhh!!

Weatherman is calling for sunny days ahead & warmer temperatures.  Today sitting in the sunroom reading & bouncing around on the computer I had not only our gas fireplace going but a small electric heater under the computer desk throwing out wispy thermals of warm air to dispel the day's mid 40's cold dampness.

Sad to read of a tragic aircraft related death in a fellow Blogger's family.  Stewart, who goes by his blogging name 'The Furry Gnome' is author of Seasons in the Valley & has written a fine tribute to his son.  William, 1977 - 2015.   Stewart's son William died a week ago flying a water bomber fighting a forest fire at Cold Lake, Alberta Canada. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Here is the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting medical studies.
-The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than do the British or Americans.
-The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
-The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
-The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
-The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
CONCLUSION
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what causes heart attacks & kills you.

AN ARCHIVE POST TONIGHT

A FAMILY OF RED SQUIRRELS IN AN OLD BIRD HOUSE I HAD ON A PINE TREE A FEW YEARS AGO

Headed off to my well of writing ideas tonight & found it empty.  Not wanting to bog you all down with a lot of my day's nothingness I decided to dig into my archives & re-post a post I wrote back on June 18th of 2012.  It's just a little bit of history about our very early RVing days with some pics of the rigs we had over the years.  In this post I write a bit about our then RV dreams, thoughts & ideas.  I also mention a couple long time full timers by the name of Peggy & John McDonald.  John died a couple years ago after losing his battle with cancer.  Not sure where Peggy is now but maybe Woodstock Ontario.  In June 2012 I wrote,  Peggy & John McDonald...27 Years Of Full Timing Comes To An End

 

GROANER’S CORNER:(( I put some turnips, his least-favorite vegetable, on my eleven-year-old son's dinner plate and instructed him to eat everything. He cleaned his plate, except for the turnip.  I pointed out to him that if he'd eaten it earlier, he wouldn't have been left with its taste in his mouth at the end of the meal.  Thoughtfully, he replied, "I guess I was just trying to delay the inedible."

---
A cowboy went to buy an insurance policy. The agent asked, "Have you ever had an accident?"  "Nope," replied the cowboy, "last summer, a bronc kicked in two of my ribs ... and a couple of years ago, a rattlesnake bit me on the ankle."  "Wouldn't you call those accidents?" quizzed the puzzled agent.  "Naw," the cowboy replied. "They did it on purpose!"

IS IT POSSIBLE BLOGGER & LIVE WRITER COULD BE TEAMING UP TO SOLVE A BIG PROBLEM FOR WE BLOGGER FOLKS??

Accepting the very real possibility Windows Live Writer could now be gone forever I have spent some more time re-acquainting myself with the Blogger format because basically that is all there is left for an impatiently simple mind like mine.   I have no interest in burning out my precious few remaining brain cells trying to figure out Word Press so Blogger it is until something better comes along.   I do have a question for knowledgeable & regular Blogger users though.  It seems every time I compose a new post I have to pick my font size , font color, & background color.  Is there anyway I can save these preferred settings so when I open up a new draft all my sizes & colors are ready to go & I don't have to always start from scratch??   I am finding a few things about Blogger I do like better than Live Writer though & the biggy is with the speed my posts publish now.  When I hit the publish button my post is instantly published.  Live Writer often took a long time to get itself on-line taking anywhere from a couple minutes to a couple hours depending on our internet speed & location.    This particular paragraph I typed in Blogger.

This paragraph & the next one I am typing in a Hotmail email format & will copy & paste it into Blogger just to see how that works out. 

I'm certainly grasping at straws for something to write about tonight.  Aside from Pheebs & I slipping up to Goderich this morning for a few things there sure hasn't been much going on here.  I did take her for a little spin around Bayfield after supper Thursday night looking for some photos but I came home photoless.  Not that there wasn't any photos of course, just that I didn't seem to have myself in photo mode.

Ok, this paragraph is being typed in my Windows Live Writer program.  I will copy & paste it into Blogger & see what happens.  Live Writer still works for composing a text post but photos cannot be copied & pasted.  Photos still have to be inserted in the Blogger program itself & that’s where the sticky point is with me.  In Live Writer it takes about 2 seconds to load photos but with the Blogger program photos can take up to a minute each to load into the post.  Not so swell for we photo folks!!  Anyway I do hear through the Blogland grapevine that both Blogger & Live Writer people are teaming up to solve this issue.  Well I hope that’s true.  Always nice to see old competitors & adversaries team up for the common good of everybody's well being & piece of mind.  Now why can't the rest of this troubled world do that...................................

WE SURE DO HAVE SOME INTERSTING CRITTERS IN OUR FRONT YARD

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A tourist on his way to Tuscaloosa came to a fork in the road and stopped. There was no sign indicating which route went where.  Spotting a boy by the road, he yelled out, "Hey, kid, does it matter which road I take to Tuscaloosa?"  "Not to me it don't," replied the boy.

--- A turtle is mugged by three snails. When asked by police to give a description of what happened, he replies, "I don't know, it all happened so fast!"

GETTING MY BLOGGER BLUSTER UNDER CONTROL

Well Okay I'm slowly getting my 'Blogger' bluster under control & after spending some time with the Blogger format today I've managed to work out a few of the bugs that were adding to my bluster.  I still much prefer 'Microsoft's Live Writer platform because of it's ease & control but if it's gone forever I guess I will just have to live with it & adapt back to Blogger's format again if I want to keep my Bayfield Bunch post going.  Imagine how frustrated I was Wednesday night when I published my post & only saw the photos & no printing.  Had to turn the air in our sunroom half a dozen shades of blue before I was able to  figure out the problem & correct it.  Unfortunately I corrected the text in a bright yellow but hope tonight's toned down color will be easier on the eyes & I'm hoping tonight's text turns out to be  a tad larger as well.


OUR FOREST WALKING PATH IS FILLING IN NICELY AGAIN THIS YEAR

How nice to have ourselves a cooler day going on.  My good friend Richard picked me up at 10 a.m. & we headed off on a backroads coffee tour this morning.  Hadn't done that since last summer sometime & of course it was a couple hours very well spent again.  With both Richard & having reclusive introverted personalities it's amazing we ever get out at all.  We did agree to get ourselves another coffee brew-up going again in a couple weeks. Still more of the world's ills to be resolved.  Richard & I have been good friends for 40 years now & I have written about our friendship a few times before over the years.

Sent an email to Forest City Motorhomes with a photo of the broken part on the Big EEE's hydraulic leveler pump last night & they answered this morning saying 'Good Morning Al and Kelly. Yes, this is definitely something we can take care of here at the dealership. This piece looks to be the actuator valve that has come apart. I have never seen one do that before. We do keep that part in stock, so it “should” be a relatively quick fix, provided we can get the old valve out.'

We will probably combine this repair with Kelly's next appointment at London's University Hospital on June 18th.  Will take the rig & tow the Jeep leaving the Motorhome at Forest City Motorhomes while we slip over to the hospital.  Hopefully repairs will be done & we can pick up the rig a few hours later & head back to Bayfield.  Well that's the plan anyway.

Well I'll keep tonight's post relatively short just in case I have it all Bloggered up again.  Like I said before I am not at all optimistic Google will rectify the Live Writer problem.  Why would they??  Let's just hope I'm wrong about this.............but I doubt it:(( 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Needing some clothes cleaned in a hurry, a man searched the small Georgia town in which he was visiting until he found a sign which read: "Cleaning and Pressing, 24-Hour Service."  After explaining his needs, he said, "I'll be back for my suit tomorrow."  "Won't be ready until Saturday," replied the proprietor.   "But I thought you had 24-hour service," the customer protested.  "We do, son," the proprietor said reproachfully. "But we only work eight hours a day. Today's Thursday - eight hours today, eight hours Friday, eight on Saturday. That's 24-hour service."
---As an engineer in an upscale hotel, I was asked tAs an engineer in an upscale hotel, I was asked to repair or replace the television in a guest room. When I arrived, the couple was watching a picture one-third the size of the screen.  I knew all our spare sets were in use, so I figured what the heck - I struck the side of the TV with the heel of my hand. The picture returned to full size.  "Look, honey," said the wife to her husband. "He went to the same repair school you did."