I’M SHORT ON WORDS AGAIN

LAKE AND OCIEAN GOING FREIGHTER RADCLLIFFE L LATIMER DOCKED AT THE SIFTO SALT MINE IN GODERICH SUNDAY MORNING AS STORM CLOUDS GATHER
Not much to say so I’ll just leave you with a smattering of photos from Saturday night and Sunday morning.


Readers may have noticed the 'Shout Box' is missing from my sidebar.  After having to remove over 50 spams from it this afternoon I decided enough was enough.  A few spams now and again can be tolerated but these last few days the spam bots have been bombing my Shout Box.  I could get myself into a big nasty rant about how I feel towards these spammers but what's the point it's never going to stop them. 

IT’S RARE WE GET TO EVER SEE A SUNRISE AT OUR PLACE BUT THIS MORNING WAS AN EXCEPTION


I QUITE UNEXPECTANTLY CAME ACROSS A DODDLE OF DUCKS THIS MORNING



THE OCEAN GOING RADCLIFFE R LATIMER HAS QUITE A CHEQUERED PAST HAVING BEEN INVOLVED IN 2 COLLISIONS OF WHICH ONE RESULTED IN THE DEATHS OF 2 POOR SOULS ABOARD A TUGBOAT

WHEN I SUDDENLY SAW THICK BLACK SMOKE BELCHING FROM HER STACK I CORRECTLY ASSUMED SHE WAS ABOUT TO GET UNDER WAY

LOADED WITH SALT THE RADCLIFFE R LATIMER IS UNDERWAY AS SHE CLEARS THE HARBOR


HEADED STRAIGHT OUT INTO OPEN WATER BEFORE MAKING A WIDE TURN

SATURDAY NIGHT ICE CREAM IN BAYFIELD AND THAT’S MY CONE ON THE RIGHT KELLY HAD JUST SET OVER THERE WHILE I TOOK THIS PHOTO
 
THIS LITTLE GIRL AND HER DOG WATCH AS KELLY USES 2 HANDS TO CARRY THAT BIG CONE OVER TO ME
  
PHEEBS KNOWS SHE IS IN FOR A SATURDAY NIGHT ICE CREAM TREAT
   

HARBOR GRAIN ELEVATORS


HEADING OUT INTO LAKE HURON

CURIOUS TO SEE IF SHE WOULD GO UP THE LAKE OR DOWN I WATCHED UNTIL I SAW HER TURN TO THE RIGHT (STARBOARD)…..AND HEAD NORTH UP THE LAKE


BON VOYAGE MY FRIEND AND HAPPY SAILING
GROANER’S CORNER:((  Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.  The woman apologized to the young girl and explained,"We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days." 
The young clerk responded,"That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.  But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But,too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.  But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.  But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.  But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.  But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then……………………….

‘OH NO’ DID I JUST GO AND PUT A NOVA SCOTIA-FLORIDA EAST COAST TRIP IN MY HEAD FOR THIS FALL……………………….

When we rented an old farm house in the country way back in 1995 I got in the habit of burning much of our paper product garbage in big old steel drums.  That habit stayed with us when we moved to Bayfield so we’ve gone through a few good burning barrels in the past 20+ years.  The barrels generally last about 4 years before finally disintegrating into a pile of crumpled rust and that is just about where our old 4 year burning barrel was when Kelly spotted someone selling a brand spanking new steel barrel. 

Kelly’s always spotting things for sale in the ‘buy and sell’ ads she frequents so this morning we headed off to Exeter Ontario with an address in hand.  The steel barrel was $20 and by 9 a.m. we were headed back out of Exeter with our new barrel aboard in the back of the Jeep.  Knowing there would not be much room back there we had the forethought to leave Pheebs home.

SPOTTED THESE FOLKS HEADING NORTH ON PARR LINE AND NO THEY ARE NOT AMISH AND CAN YOU TELL WHICH ONE IS OUR NEW BURNING BARREL BELOW:))

Kelly had a couple A&W breakfast coupons so we popped into Exeter’s A&W…..and found out something.  Little did we know not all A&W’s are the same.  We had just assumed they were.  The $5.99 coupons we had from our stack of flyers were only good for the Goderich area and in fact the A&W area coupons for the Exeter area were $4.99.  In Goderich it was 1 coupon for 1 breakfast but in Exeter we could have had two $4.99 breakfasts for 1 coupon.  But here’s the thing I like about the Exeter A&W the best……no loud ram jam jarring bee-bop noise coming out of overhead ceiling speakers.  Loud distracting music (if you can call it that) in restaurants has always been a big pet peeve of mine!!!!

LOOKING WEST FOLLOW THE HORIZON LINE JUST RIGHT OF CENTER AND YOU CAN SEE THE CARLO ANTIQUE STORE….BIG WHITE BRICK BUILDING

Well Merikay's latest post had my aging mind in overdrive this morning digging through a thick fog of heavy cranium matter searching my brains cobwebbed archives for the name ‘Wayne’.  Here is an excerpt from Merikay’s post which read, “A funny thing happened to me at a gas station in Whycocomagh, NS: (Nova Scotia Canada) Craig was driving the Alfa, and as is our routine, I hopped out when he pulled into the station to verify where the diesel pump was and to guide him in. There were other cars at the pump, so I was just waiting our turn when a gentleman in a red shirt, who was filling up at the other side of the pump island, said: “I’m glad you enjoyed the Hopewell Rocks.” What? Who was he? I quickly ran through my memory of people I had met in recent parks and at the Rocks, and came up empty. I did not recognize him, so I asked: “Who are you?”His name was Wayne. He explained he had read my blog, and knew Al from Bayfield!  Wow, small world!  What are the odds that I would meet someone who had read my blog, at a gas station in Nova Scotia?  Small world.  Love it”!……..Well after reading Merikay’s post you can imagine how many times I have been trudging through the morass of still functioning brain cells trying to switch on a lightbulb memory of someone named Wayne.  Was this person a reader of my blog or have I actually met him at some point in my life.  I did know a lot of guys in my mid 60’s Navy days on the East coast but also knew it wouldn’t be anyone I met on my solo VW camper van journey to the east coasts New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island sometime in the mid 80.s  I never met or spoke to anyone all the time I was down there with the exception of the very helpful garage fellow in Bridgewater NS who replaced a long broken gas line linkage line in my VW van one day.  In fact I think I wrote a post about that but of course it too is buried somewhere deep in the vaults of my blog archives as well.  Did a ‘word’ search but couldn’t come up with anything.  So Wayne, whoever you may be……..I send you a big Hello tonight:))

Here’s a question we have been asked a number of times over the years and just a few weeks ago we were asked it again,…… “how come you don't do any Canadian side trips in the RV from Bayfield during the summer”??……….(this is an excerpt from a past post of mine) Several reasons for this with the first one being financial.  We came to the conclusion several years ago that expensive travels in Canada during the summer would stretch us too thin.  Unlike the South-western United States with it's large availability of free BLM lands to stay on for RV'ers like ourselves Canada has no such thing or if they do they are very few & far between.  Traveling in Canada during summer months means expensive & crowded RV Parks & neither Kelly or I have any interest in traveling that way.  Back in 06 when we first ventured out traveling down into the States we realized within a month on the road that our RVing dream was going to be over before it barely got started if we couldn’t figure out a way to travel cheaply & not have to stay in costly crowded RV Parks.  In 08 we went solar, embraced the boon-docking lifestyle & have never looked back.  If we could comfortably travel in Canada using our favored boon-docking ways we would definitely have us a second look at some summer travel plans.  Where would we like to go??  Kelly has never seen Canada’s East coast so I’m thinking if we could somehow swing it some day we would head for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island and the Cabot Trail, Prince Edward Island, and maybe Newfoundland.  I myself have traveled to all of these places except Newfoundland.  Oh noooooo……… did I just go and put an east coast Nova Scotia/Florida travel idea in my head for this Fall………………… Oh Geeeezzzzz

BAYFIELD PIER

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Once there was a little boy that lived in the country. They had to use an outhouse and the little boy hated it because it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter and stank all the time. The outhouse was sitting on the bank of a creek and the boy determined that one day he would push that outhouse into the creek. One day after a spring rain, the creek was swollen so the little boy decided today was the day to push the outhouse into the creek. So he got a large stick and started pushing and quickly toppled it into the creek and watched it float away. That night his dad told him they were going to the woodshed after supper. Knowing that meant a spanking the little boy asked why.  The dad replied, "Someone pushed the outhouse into the creek today. It was you, wasn't it son?"  The boy answered yes. Then he thought a moment and said, "Dad, I read in school today that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and didn't get into trouble because he told the truth."  The dad replied, "Well, son, George Washington's father wasn't in the cherry tree."

IT WAS 6:30 A.M. AND THERE I WAS IN THE JEEP HEADED FOR THE HOSPITAL AGAIN

ALONG ORCHARD HILL LINE

Another early start to my day as I found myself in the Jeep well before 7 a.m. heading for the emergency entrance at the Goderich Alexandra Marine and General Hospital but this time I at least did not have on my red plaid pajama bottoms.  My abdominal ultra-sound scan appointment just up the hall from Emerge was for 7:15 and of course I was customarily early and as sometimes happens I was taken in early.  When it comes to appointments I have learned it is always best to grab the earliest appointment of the day possible.  In fact I was seated in the ultra-sound waiting room before the staff was even there to turn the office lights on.  I was the only one in the waiting room so how nice is that eh:))

Shortly thereafter I was taken into a dimly lit room by a young female attendant and told to take my shirt off and lay on my back atop a high narrow raised bed sort of thing.  I was beside one of those Mossmagator machines with a bunch of colored light dials on it.  She proceeded to put a gob of something on my chest which felt cold and gooey and immediately began spreading it around with some sort of gizmo like device which I thought sort of resembled a microphone.  Well after all it was an ultra-SOUND procedure I was having done.  From my eyes to ceiling vantage point I didn’t have the greatest visual advantage to see just what it was she was using.  And I don’t recall hearing any whirring, beeping or clanking sounds coming from the machine either.

The last ultra sound I can remember having done was at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson Arizona back in December of 2011 and I remember it took awhile as the technician kind of went around all over my abdomen up and down and side to side.  At that time it was large kidney stone I was having a problem with.   When I looked up my post about that hospital visit in 2011 I was surprised to see a few photos of me in the hospital with red plaid pajama bottoms on again)  AL Spends The Night In A Tucson Hospital 

DESPITE A HOT SUN OVERHEAD OUR FRONT PORCH ALWAYS REMAINS SHADED

However I wasn’t having a problem with anything this morning but was still surprised to be back up off that table in less than 5 minutes and on my feet headed out the door.  It was 7:15 and I was already finished with my 7:15 appointment and into the Jeep setting a course for home.  Only reason I had this mornings ultra-sound and Monday’s bone density test was due to the fact I have a new nurse practitioner now and she suggested I have these things done because of my age.  Being assured they were painless procedures I readily agreed to her suggestions.

DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE PIRATES IN THE BAYFIELD HARBOR

WELL APPARENTLY WE DO

SPOTTED THIS COUPLE IN BAYFIELD’S PIONEER PARK AND I THINK SHE IS TAKING THAT SIGN QUITE LITERALY

What a nice drive it was through the early morning mid summer countryside between Bayfield and Goderich both coming and going.  When I had left the house earlier Pheebs was standing at the door with her sad little face wondering why she wasn’t going with Dad in the Jeep.  Soon as I was back from the hospital I scooped the Scoobs and off we went.  Heat and humidity were building fast and it was already uncomfortably oppressive by 8:30 so we didn’t go too far for too long.  Through Bayfield then south-east for a few miles enjoying the scenery.  Not many photos again and we were back home before 10.  Pretty much stayed inside from there on in.

WILTED FROM THE HEAT

  

DROOPY

Will sure be glad when this current heat wave passes and we get us a good soaking rain.  Un-watered lawns are brown and looking out our windows today we could see plants, flowers, tree leaves and shrubs drooping from the heat.  I ventured outside for about 10 minutes this afternoon then quickly retreated inside again.  Phone rang later in the day and it was the Maitland Medical Center calling to say my morning’s ultra sound was fine:))

AN OLD ABANDONED RAIL LINE

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A doctor enters into a patient's room and informs the patient that he has good news and bad news. He then asks the patient which news he would like to hear.  The patient responds, "Doctor, give me the good news."  The doctor says, "Well we are gonna name a disease after you."

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Jack has died. His lawyer is standing before the family and reads Jack's last will and testament:
"To my dear wife Esther, I leave the house, 50 acres of land, and one million dollars. To my son Barry, I leave my big Lexus and the Jaguar. To my daughter Suzy, I leave my yacht and $250,000. And to my brother-in-law Jeff, who always insisted that health is better than wealth, I leave my sun lamp."

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“I used to work at a knife factory, but then it got dull.”

SOME DAYS JUST AREN’T ALWAYS MEANT FOR SAYING MUCH

It was Richard's turn to drive this morning so we headed off to Goderich, grabbed a couple coffee's to go and motored on out of town for a two and a half hour drive and chat.  Always refreshing, always interesting and always enlightening.

Tonight’s Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly photos were taken through my bedroom window Thursday afternoon.  The Butterfly is a bit blurry in some of the pics due to it’s fast fluttering movements.

Hot, hot, hot, so Kelly and I curtailed all outside activities and simply took advantage of our A/C again by staying inside today.  Same thing we'd do in the winter if it was cold, cold, cold outside.  Whether it's the extremes of heat or cold it's always nice to have the option of being in a controlled environment.

Nothing particular on my mind tonight so think I'll keep my post on the short side.  Not that there isn't anything to say, it's just that some days aren't always made for saying much..........:)) 

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a palm tree when one turns to the other and says... "Slim, I'm 83 years old now and I'm just full of aches and pains. I know you' re about my age, how do you feel?"  Slim says, "I feel just like a new-born baby."  "Really!? Like a new-born baby!?"  "Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants."

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A red head goes to her doctor and says that every time she drinks a coffee her eye hurts. The doctor prepared her a hot, fresh cup of coffee to see what really happens. She took a sip of the coffee and screamed, "Ouch, that hurts!" The doctor said, "I know your problem." The red head asked, "Is it bad, doctor?" The doctor replied, "No, you just need to take the spoon out of your cup before drinking your coffee."

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and then He rested. Then God created man, and then they both rested. Then God created woman, and since then neither God nor man has ever rested.