WE ARE NOT REALLY AS FAR ‘UP HERE’ AS MANY MAY THINK

It was all three of us in the Jeep this morning as we headed off to Goderich with A&W breakfast coupons in hand.  Quick stop at Walmart to pick up a Western Digital 1-Terabyte external hard drive then over to the local Thrift store to outfit Al with some spiffy shirts for the coming winter months.  I was able to get half a dozen shirts for the price of one new shirt so that worked out fine for me.  My current fleet of winter shirts are well over seven or eight years old and have about as many rips, holes and tears in them as Nelson's sails after the Battle of Trafalgar.

SPOTTED US A HERD OF WILD TURKEYS ON SOMEBODY’S LAWN HALF-WAY TO GODERICH

WHAT’S YOUR FIRST CLUE THIS IS THE A&W MANAGERS CAR??

HERE’S A COUPLE BEST PALS OUT FOR BREAKFAST AT A&W THIS MORNING

Finally after about a month's careful research Kelly has finally decided on a new cell phone.  She looked at iPhones and Samsungs but has decided once again to go with a new Blackberry to replace an older version Blackberry her daughter Sabra had given her a few years ago.  Her decision was based on price, phone plans, and what she needed or did not need the cell phone for.  I think the GPS feature may come in handy while a higher end camera in a cell phone was not a necessary option, etc.  Me, well I'm still trying to figure out how to put a message band on the carrier pigeons leg.

A MONTH FROM NOW THERE WILL BE A LOT OF HUSTLE AND BUSTLE GOING ON AROUND THE BIG EEE

A short reminder about my Facebook account again.  Due to being hacked several times a few years ago I no longer accept 'friend requests' and haven't done so for a long time.  If you have sent me a 'friend request' and I have not responded do not take it personally.  I am not a big Facebook person and only use the site to drop my daily posts in each night for those of you who prefer the Facebook feed. 

I’M THINKING THOSE ARE ‘BEAN HEADS’ ON THOSE COMBINES…(NO NOT THE DRIVERS)

MORE AND MORE FARMS ARE TURNING TO SOLAR ENERGY

I know I blather along incessantly about the weather at times but hey I guess that's what makes me a true Canadian.  We do like to talk about the weather up here.  Just another gorgeous warm 71F sunny Autumn day.  Actually for anyone looking at a map you will see we are not really 'up here' as far as many may think.  The Southern most part of Ontario is actually on the same latitude as Northern California and about a quarter if not a third of American States are North of where we live here in Bayfield. 

A SMATTERING OF PHOTOS FROM THIS PAST WEEK’S TRAVELS

  

A NEWER TYPE COUNTRY HOG BARN NEARS COMPLETION

NO COMMENT

“DA BIRDS BOSS, DA BIRDS”!!

DESPITE IT BEING MID SEPTEMBER OUR HOSTAS ARE STILL STAYING VERY GREEN

ON OUR MORNING JEEP RIDES I CAN ALWAYS TELL WHEN LITTLE MISS SLEEPY HEAD IS READY TO GO HOME

Not a lot happening around our place today.  A relaxing afternoon simply enjoying the day before an approaching weather front carrying rain showers with possible thunder boomers and lightning reach us possibly sometime tonight.  Hopefully Pheebs and I can squeak out for a bit first thing in the morning before the storm gets here.

ON GOLDEN WATER UNDER GOLDEN SKIES

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Did you know a man will pay $2 for a $1 item he wants. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't want.
- A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
- A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
- To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot & love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot & not try to understand her at all.
- Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to die.
- Any married man should forget his mistakes-there's no use in two people remembering the same thing.
- Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.
- A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change & she does.
- A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
- There are 2 times when a man doesn't understand a woman: before marriage & after.

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A pastor, known for his lengthy sermons, noticed a man get up and leave during the middle of his message. The man returned just before the conclusion of the service. Afterwards the pastor asked the man where he had gone. "I went to get a haircut," was the reply. "But," said the pastor, "why didn't you do that before the service?" "Because," the gentleman said, "I didn't need one then."

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(And just a short note about Groaner's Corner folks.......if some of the jokes seem familiar it's probably because I have forgot that I used them before.  Hopefully it doesn't happen too often)

OH TO FEEL A YOUNG BOY’S HONESTLY INNOCENT EXCITEMENT AGAIN

SPOTTED THESE AUTUMN CROCUS FLOWERS ALONG ORCHARD LINE ON MY HOME FROM GODERICH EARLIER TODAY

I don’t know if I would call it very cool or slightly cold but I did have to turn around and go back into the house this morning to put on warmer clothes.  Thermometer outside our sunroom said 49F and that was invigorating enough for me to clean a couple windows right off the bat…..but only a couple.  Windows are definitely not my favorite thing to do and I can only take cleaning them in small doses.

ALONG THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON THIS MORNING

My Toshiba Satellite laptop only has 42 Gigabytes left on it’s hard drive and with 252 Gigabytes in just photos alone in the Toshiba I knew I needed to do something before heading off to the Southwest next month so Pheebs and I headed off to Goderich to price some 1-Terabyte external hard drives. (One Terabyte equals1,000 Gigabytes)  I plan to transfer the 252 photo Gigs from the laptop to the external hard drive then delete my laptop photos freeing up a lot of space.  From there it was down around the harbor to the south end of Rotary Cove.  No other people at the dog walking area with their dogs so Pheebs and I headed off for a walk on the heavily dew laden grass.

Lake Huron was calm with wave heights not exceeding half an inch.  A soft faint swish as waves eased in and tickled the sandy pebble laden shore.  Just an absolutely beautiful September day again with the morning sun soon coaxing me out of my warm outer layered flannel shirt.

It was another marathon coffee blow-out for my good Buddy Jim (Lifetime Sentences) and I this afternoon at Clinton’s Time Horton coffee shop.  Bringing it in just under five and a half hours we both agreed that had to be pretty close to one of our all time blow-out records.  We didn’t skip a beat as we sailed through all the things needing to be caught up upon after our last session maybe a month and a half ago.  Always lots in common so always lots to talk about and by the time we meet again next April we will undoubtedly have even more to talk about.  Could very well turn out to even be an 8 hour blockbuster:))

Browsing through TV channels Wednesday night trying desperately to avoid the rough and tumble political minefield of our neighbor to the South on most channels I blundered into a real blast from the past, my boyhood past to be exact.  I had clicked on Turner Classic Movies and there was one of my favorite movies from 60 years ago.  'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'.  As a kid the movie was so funny, so scary, and all so real at the same time.  Watching it for awhile last night it was unfortunately not really any of those fun things to me anymore and I felt sad about that knowing my innocent young boys mind had so long ago left me to the harsher realities and logics of an adult mind.  Oh to feel a young boy's honestly innocent excitement again………………………

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A little old lady goes into the store to do some shopping. She is bewildered over the large selection of toilet paper.  "Pardon me, sir," she says to the store manager, "but can you explain the differences in all these toilet papers?"  "Well," he replies pointing out one brand, "this is as soft as a baby's kiss. It's $1.50 per roll."  He grabs another and says, "This is nice and soft like a bunny, strong but gentle, and it's $1.00 a roll."
Pointing to the bottom shelf he tells her, "We call that our No Name brand, and it's 20 cents per roll."  "Give me the No Name," she says.
She comes back about a week later, seeks out the manager and says, "Hey! I've got a name for your No Name toilet paper. I call it John Wayne."
"Why?" he asks.  "Because it's rough, it's tough and it don't take crap off anybody!" 

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A retired man who volunteers to entertain patients in nursing homes and hospitals went to Walton hospital in Liverpool and took his portable keyboard along. He told some jokes and sang some funny songs at patients' bedsides.
When he finished he said, in farewell, "I hope you get better." One elderly gentleman replied, "I hope you get better, too."

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Two attorneys went into a diner and ordered two drinks. Then they produced sandwiches from their briefcases and started to eat. The owner became quite concerned and marched over and told them, "You can't eat your own sandwiches in here!"  The attorneys looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and then exchanged sandwiches.

MORE OF A HELP TO ME THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW

Old habits and routines can be hard to break sometimes but if one enjoys those routines and habits why bother breaking them at all so with that thought in mind Pheebs and I headed ourselves on over to the Marsh.  During my working years I've had my fair share of driving jobs whether it be delivering area packages for Purolator, passengers to the Toronto airport for the Stratford Airporter, delivering freight in Vernon BC for CP Transport, furniture and appliance deliveries for Bennett's Hardware in Vernon, wheelchair folks in a mobility van for Town and Country out of Clinton, driving taxi in Bridgeport Ontario or driving school bus for Murphy bus lines out of St. Marys and Clinton.   My working routine was often up early and out the door into a vehicle of some kind with a place to go.  Though retired now I am still in the habit of routinely getting up early and heading out the door, jumping into a vehicle and heading off somewhere.  Thinking about that on our drive this morning I asked Pheebs what she thought about it all and she heartily agreed with me that  some old routines and habits are best left unbroken:))

EARLY MORNING DARK SKIES

Could see what appeared to be a heavy cloud cover through the pine trees when I stepped out early today but upon leaving our forested Park we were greeted by the prettiest morning sky I've seen in a long time with multi-layered clouds in rolling shades of moody gray bordered by fringe patches of blue sky to the West and a golden pink back lit glow low in the East.  Mysterious, mystical and magical.......my favorite kind of sky reminding me of a darkened murky background in a Rembrandt painting.

CLEARING SKIES

Some country road construction diverted us to a different section of the Hullett Marsh so we parked at the end of a dead end road and headed off on foot to have a look at an old iron bridge a short distance away.  Despite a pleasantly cool morning I was surprised, disappointed, frustrated, angered and absolutely annoyed by the swarms of !!#&%%!!!! mosquitos in the air.  Had not expected that as I swatted and cursed my way to the bridge and hastily back to the Jeep again.  From there we headed on back home.

THIS WAS A COUNTRY ROAD YEARS AGO WITH MANY LOCAL VEHICLES TRAVELING EAST AND WEST OVER THIS BRIDGE

PROBABLY HASN’T BEEN A VEHICLE OVER THIS BRIDGE IN NEARLY 40 YEARS

THE VIEW SOUTH FROM THE BRIDGE

LOOKS LIKE A BIG STRAW BALE FARM TO ME AND I NOTICED A LOT OF BIG 18 WHEELERS HAULING TRAILER LOADS OF BALES OUT OF HERE

BULL RUSHES HAVE POPPED THEIR FUZZY CONES

Trimmed and cleaned up more trees around the property and it wasn't long before Pheebs and I had us another utility trailer load of brush for the Park's compost area.  Skies began clearing by late morning and with humidity levels on the rise I headed for the coolness of the house and called it a day.  No need for A/C and I'm hoping we will never reach the point where we have to use it again this year and wouldn’t it be just super if we didn’t have to use it all of next summer too.  Our Autumn days right now are similar to winter months in the South-west.  Cool to cold nights with moderately warm days. 

‘IF I DON’T KEEP AN EYE ON DAD HE WILL TRY TO SNEAK THAT WHOLE MUFFIN FOR HIMSELF’

“JUST KNOW THAT I AM KEEPING AN EYE ON YOU DAD” !!

“HEY!!”

“I SAW YOU SNEAK THAT!!”

“HEY DON’T FORGET ABOUT ME THE PHEEBS OVER HERE EH”

“YAAAAAY ‘HIGH FIVE’ FOR MY MUFFIN SNACK DAD”:))

A note to Geogypsy::  Gaelyn, I tried to leave a comment on your recent post 'Where to go for Winter' but could not input two of the three required fields so I will leave my comment here in case your reading this......"I can feel your indecision Gaelyn and understand your desire for change and a new focus.  Maybe when in Yarnell the wise old warm Sonoran desert winds blowing up the Yarnell hill will bring you the answers you seek.  All the best to you and if we end up boon-docking our way around the South-west this winter we too will be looking for warmer places".

SOME BEAN FIELDS STILL HAVE ALL GREEN LEAVES AND SOME FIELDS ARE ALREADY HEAVY WITH YELLOW LEAVES WHILE OTHER FIELDS HAVE NO LEAVES LEFT ON THE STOCKS AT ALL….MUST BE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BEANS I GUESS

And once again a big thank you to all my blog readers out there for giving me the opportunity each and most every day for these past 10 years to share my love of writing, photography, and travel with you.  All you folks have been more of a help to me than you will ever know.

A SURE SIGN OF AUTUMN

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Adam was walking around the Garden of Eden feeling very lonely, so God asked him, "What is wrong with you?" Adam said he didn't have anyone to talk to.
God said he was going to give him a companion and it would be a woman. He said, "This person will cook for you and wash your clothes; she will always agree with every decision you make. She will bear your children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them. She will not nag you, and will always be the first to admit she was wrong when you've had a disagreement. She will never have a headache, and will freely give you love and compassion whenever needed." Adam asked God, "What will a woman like this cost?" God said, "An arm and a leg." Adam asked, "What can I get for just a rib?" The rest is history....................