DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT FOR AL THIS MORNING

It's not often I go anywhere without Pheebs but I had an 8:30 Doctor's appointment this morning in Clinton & not knowing how long the waiting time might be I decided to take a chance & venture out on my own.  It was cold & cloudy anyway & cloudy days rarely inspire me to do anything other than hang around the house so wasn’t planning on a Jeep drive anyway.  Doctor’s appointment was for the results of a PSA test.  Numbers are up a wee bit but the Doc says it’s nothing to worry about.  Checked my prostrate & said I’m good for another 6 months until my next check-up:))

NOTICED THIS FARMER ON HIS LAND EARLY THIS MORNING

For some unknown reason I completely ran out of energy by noon today.  Maybe our return to colder weather overnight had something to do with it.   I don't think we made it out of the 40's today.  Looking back I see it was a month ago this morning on our way home we had the driver's side front tire blow out on the Jeep just a few miles west of Albuquerque NM.  We were eastbound on I-40 towing the Jeep behind the Motorhome at the time.  'Blow-Out'  And it was a year ago today Pheebs & I took our 06 Jeep Wrangler for her last country road drive.  'Our Last Drive'  Just a couple days later on April 22 Kelly & I drove over to Elmira Ontario & brought our 07 Jeep Liberty home.  ‘Bringing Libby Home’  My how time flies.

SPOTTED A FEW FARM HOUSES ON MY WAY TO & FROM THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE

THREE PHOTOS OF THE SAME HOUSE….FIRST & LAST PHOTOS WERE TAKEN ON MY WAY TO THE DOCS & THE CENTER PHOTO WAS TAKEN ON THE WAY BACK

I remember when we had our Jeep Wrangler I thought we would never ever sell it because I liked it so much.  Of course I should have known better because I don't think I've ever kept a vehicle longer than 5 years.  I never did reach a point where I didn't like the Wrangler but we did reach a point where we both wanted a vehicle with more room inside, 4 doors instead of 2, A/C, & a smoother ride.  Exit the Wrangler & enter the Liberty. 

APRIL 22ND 2015 THE DAY WE BROUGHT LIBBY HOME:))

I was leery of the Liberty at first not knowing if it would be able to go places the Wrangler could go in the Southwest.  I needn't have worried & this past winter proved the Liberty was every bit as good at going places the Wrangler was.  And in fact it does it much more comfortably.  I like the automatic transmission as well & how nice to have power windows making it so much easier for me to take photos on the go.  A touch of a button lowers the passenger side window instead of me having to lean across the seat & hand crank the window down after seeing a photo coming up on the right hand side.  Much easier for me to get my sometimes very stiff legs in or out & how great to have a couple back seat doors for Pheebs to hop in & out of as well.  And the much bigger space behind the back seat is a real bonus for sure.  All & all I think it's a pretty swell little car & hopefully we'll hang on to this one for a few years just as we did the Wrangler.  Five to be exact:))

OH-OH LOOKS LIKE BERT LOST HIS CONTACT LENS AGAIN

Been nearly a month since we've been back home in Bayfield so am I getting antsy to hop in the RV & head off somewhere yet??  Nope, not at all.  Still happy to be back home here in Canada puttering around the yard & slipping out with Pheebs on our country road drives.  Just as in Congress Arizona this past winter it is those short outings 3 & 4 times a week that has gone a long way in keeping this restless traveling nature of mine under control. 

Hauled out my camera tripod & mounted my Nikon D-90 on it this morning.  To this camera in succession I affixed my oldest Nikkor 55-200mm lens, 18-250mm Sigma lens, & my older problematic 70-300mm lens.  Fully zoomed I focused each lens on a distant subject & took one picture.  Sharpest photo came from my Nikkor 55-200 lens so that is now the telephoto lens I will use until at some time I can get myself another Nikkor 70-300mm lens.  George in a comment question wondered about getting the 70-300 lens fixed.  I went down that road last September inquiring at Henry’s Camera Store in London about having the lens repaired.  With the way it is set up at Henry’s camera store to send the lens off to Nikon plus repair I was looking at a probable cost of about $250+ & the lens could be gone for up to 8 weeks.  I could buy a completely refurbished like new lens for that price or less so the repair route is not really my best option.  I now have my Sigma lens mounted on my D-40 & that will be my ‘at home go for a walk around the trail’ set up.  My 18-55 Nikkor lens is on my D-90 & my 55-200 lens is on my D-3100 & it will be those last 2 cameras & lenses that will travel around with me.  Okay, that’s about enough of all this camera & lens talk for awhile so let’s move on eh:))

L TO R --- NIKKOR 55-200, SIGMA 18-250, NIKKOR 70-300

Been noticing something about my aging self over these last number of years & especially this past year.  I am becoming more & more a solitary person & I am finally beginning to feel more & more comfortable with that.  When I am by myself I am a happy guy & when I am around people I am stressed.  So if & when I feel a need for a people fix I just go take a 10 minute walk around Walmart & I'm good to go again.  Nobody talks to me & I talk to nobody.  No pressure, no expectations, no worries, no stress:))

 

OOOOPS, LOOKS LIKE I FORGOT TO TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE THIS MORNING

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Some Corny Stuff:

Q: What did one eye say to the other eye?

A: Something smells between us!

Q: What is the difference between a Hippo and a Zippo?

A: A Hippo is really heavy, but a Zippo is a little lighter!

Q: What is the difference between a poorly dressed man on a tricycle and a well dressed men on a bicycle?

A: Attire!

Q: Why are movies stars so cool?

A: Because the have a lot of fans.

Q: What do you get when you cross a fish with an elephant?

A: Swimming trunks!

Singing in the shower is all fun and games until you get soap in your mouth. Then it becomes a soap opera.

TWO STRANGERS WAVE & BRING A MOMENTS HAPPINESS TO EACH OTHER

I SUSPECT A BIT OF FISHING GOING ON  HERE  (ALL PHOTOS TODAY WERE TAKEN WITH MY SIGMA LENS) With Lake Huron's placid waters brushing quietly against Eastern shorelines it was only Pheebs & I who noticed the muted gurgling sounds of ripples playing among sandy beach pebbles & smooth water worn rocks.  We were the only one's walking the hilltop shoreline in Goderich's dog Park this morning.  Needing a new 2016 sticker for my motorcycles license plate I filled out the form at home & with Pheebs checking it over looking for my usual mistakes & finding none we were off to the License Bureau in Goderich.  I was in & out of there in under 5 minutes.  Nice.  After pouring more thought into my camera lens dilemma I decided to haul out, dust off, & fire up my Sigma lens once more.  Figured I would try it out again so on the way to Goderich this morning I snapped a few 'drive-by' farm houses along the way. 
A FEW FARM HOUSES ON OUR WAY TO GODERICH….FIRST 3 PICS ARE THE SAME  HOUSE  (ALL MY FARMHOUSE PICS TODAY WERE DRIVE-BYS)


BACK IN MY ‘STRATFORD AIRPORTER’ DAYS I WOULD OCCASIONALLY DRIVE A DUTCH LADY FROM THIS HOUSE BACK & FORTH TO THE TORONTO AIRPORT……THAT WAS ABOUT 25 YEARS AGO & WE USED TO TALK ABOUT RVING…..HER & HER HUSBAND HAD A VOLKSWAGON CAMPER VAN BACK THEN
Yet another mighty fine weather day so we headed ourselves down around the harbor & along the beach to Rotary Cove.  Noticed lots of folks out strolling the long boardwalk along the shoreline.  Years ago we had an elderly neighbor lady here in the Park who would drive to Goderich every morning just after sunrise & walk that boardwalk for as far as she could.  She’s gone now but I still think of her whenever i drive along the boardwalk now.  A lot of folks stroll there in early evening & take in the sunset.  Mighty nice way to wrap up ones day. 

A MORNING STROLL ALONG THE BOARDWALK

THIS LITTLE FELLOW WAS JUST A SINGING THIS MORNING

A SIGN ON THE BACK OF THE LIFEGUARD TOWER
I saw there was nobody at the dog walking area so little Spoogers & I bailed out of the Jeep & headed south down along the shoreline.  Again it was one of those magical mornings with the air alive once again with many melodious bird songs & how nice to watch Gulls, Terns, Cormorants, Ducks & Geese arcing their way over Lake Huron’s blue waters to alight with a distant splash just somewhere offshore.
NOT WANTING TO CALL THIS A BLACK HEADED SEA GULL COULD IT MAYBE BE A ‘BLACK TERN’

DUCKS OF COURSE BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT KIND


GUESSING THESE FELLOWS AS CORMORANTS


I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS CEMENT & STEEL THING IS LYING HERE ATOP THE SHORE LINE

PHEEBS GETTING A DRINK AT THE WATER’S EDGE & TRYING HER BEST NOT TO GET HER PAWS WET

Walking the shoreline I continued testing the lens with a variety of shots including telephoto & wide angle scenics.  Everything from 18mm to 250mm & by the time we got home later I had 114 test photos to go through.  Some of the stuff is sort of Okay but the lens really falls down when it comes to those telephoto shots.  I generally have to do a lot of cropping with my long range shots as it is & with the Sigma lens those photos really begin to fall apart fast.  All of tonight's photos were taken with my Nikon D-90 & Sigma lens & you may very well notice most of the telephoto shots are just not the best.
I DON’T ALWAYS IDENTIFY BIRDS SIMPLY BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE

BUT I DO  KNOW MY CANADA GOOSES:))

Affixed the new sticker to the bike's plate then figured I'd better take myself for a cruise around the countryside to make sure I had the sticker on properly.  A fine day for a bike ride as I headed over through Varna then across to the small village of Zurich where I tore up the streets before heading home.  Well Okay the streets kinda tore me up near a construction zone before kicking me out of town.  I was back home about 40 minutes after I had left.  Kelly was in Goderich for a Dentist appointment.  Pheebs was at the window bouncing up & down when I rolled in.  Us guys are always so happy to see each other even if we've been apart for 2 minutes:)) 

WHILE TAKING THIS PHOTO EARLIER TODAY THE LARGE LAKE FREIGHTER WAS SLOWLY MOVING FORWARD TO POSITION HER NEXT CARGO HOLD UNDER THAT FAR ROBINS EGG BLUE SALT LOADER….THEN SOMETHING ELSE CAUGHT MY EYE ALONG THE SIDE OF THE SHIP

SPOTTED THIS FELLOW LEAING OUT OF THE FREIGHTER’S SIDE WAVING AT SOMEONE

LOOKING TO THE LEFT i SAW WHO HE WAS WAVING AT & WHO WAS WAVING BACK AT HIM

I DON’T THINK THEY KNEW EACH OTHER BUT HOW NICE FOR 2 STRANGERS TO WAVE & BRING HAPPINESS TO EACH OTHER…..JUST LOOK AT THOSE SMILES:))

THE ALGOWOOD BASED OUT OF SAULT STE. MARIE ONTARIO


After inserting today’s photos in my post tonight I have come to the conclusion I’m just not satisfied with the results from my Sigma lens.  Besides the obvious clarity problems I’ve had to crop out out flaring around the edges of the telephoto shots & the color seems off to me.  In my opinion the photos have more of a cheaper ‘point & shoot’ appearance.  Looks like I’m stuck between a rock & a hard place here,  I have a newer lens which works fine but I’m not happy with & an older lens that is not working fine but I was always very happy with.  Oh Dear, what to do, what to do………………. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( As we waited for a bus in the frosty weather, the woman next to me mentioned that she makes a lot of mistakes when texting in the cold.  I nodded knowingly. “It’s the early signs of typothermia" & by the way don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation.  Oh & did you know electricity is really just organized lightning.