THE BOUNCING BAYFIELD BURRITO BUMS STRIKE AGAIN

RAIN & FOG HAS STOPPED THIS COMBINE FROM PROCEEDING ANY FURTHER INTO THE WET WHEAT  FIELD (CANON SX210)
The big bad Thunder Monster came in the night & once again totally traumatized our little Motormouse.  Max was never bothered by thunder but Checkers was.  The little Motor becomes frantic & scurries about the house in a hyperventilated state looking for an escape from the loud booming Monster who I am sure she thinks is chasing her.  As a rule she generally ends up under Kelly's bed because no amount of holding & snuggling with her helps.

PLEASE DON'T LET THAT THUNDER MONSTER GET ME DAD  (CANON SX210)
Until Kelly told me this morning, I hadn't remembered that this is a long week-end for us here in Canada.  That means scads & scads of people in Bayfield & our little Supermarket would be totally overrun.  Once again that meant a hit & run raid to Goderich by the two Burrito Bums.  A gas fill up followed by a quick grocery excursion through the Food Basics store led us right across the road & into McDonald's Drive Thru line up. 

I could hardly get a word in edgeways as the Kid completely took over the ordering of 2 Burritos & a small coffee.  How the girl on the other end of that microphone knows what all that barking means I don't know but sure enough it was only minutes later when she handed me a bag of concealed Yummies out the window. Me & the Kid were off like Jack the Bear down the highway & quickly off onto a country road whereupon we got right into our cheesy Burritos.  The Kid likes the tiny meatballs & I eat the rest.  Aw yes, another lightning raid & successful mission for the two Jeep headed bouncing Bayfield Burrito Bums:))  And yes, when you drive a Jeep Wrangler, you bounce!!

OK MOTOR, JUST KEEP IT QUIET & I'LL DO THE TALKING!!
  
'BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK'.....SHHHHHHH!!
 
CAN YOU DRIVE A LITTLE FASTER DAD.......OK, OK, WE'RE ALMOST THERE
 
WHY ISN'T OUR BURRITOS READY MA'AM........OK LADY, WHAT THE HECK'S THE BIG HOLD UP,  DO I HAVE TO COME THROUGH THAT WINDOW!!!!!!!!!   (CANON AF750))
One of the absolute best ways to view the night sky is through a reasonably good pair of 7x50 binoculars.  I ordered my Bausch & Lomb binos through the Canadian astronomy magazine SKYNEWS about 15 years ago & they have proven to be one of my better investments.  Binoculars will get you out into space immediately with little effort.  Nothing to set up except for a tripod which I highly recommend.  With binoculars I can clearly see the Andromeda Galaxy which happens to be the closest Galaxy to earth.  It is actually visible to the naked eye if you have a dark night & 20/20 vision.  It will be especially visible in the clear Autumn sky soon.  7x50 binoculars will show you the craters on the moon & mountain ridge lines, but it is essential to have the binos rock steady on a tripod.  And, a full moon is not the best time to view the moon.  Too bright & the lighting is too flat.  Catch the moon in it's crescent  to half full stages for the best viewing.

IT CERTAINLY WAS NOT A MORNING FOR SUNGLASSES  (CANON SX210)
There are a lot of great point & shoot cameras on the market.  Lots of options, zoom factors, megapixels, mossmagators & just about anything else you can think of.  For the most part they do a fine job & I used two of my point & shoots for some of tonight's photos.  BUT, if you are at all serious about improving the quality of your photography you are going to have to move up to a DSLR.  (Digital Single Lens Reflex)  I would suggest either Canon or Nikon.  You need to have a camera with a viewfinder!! 

Holding a camera out at arms length, unsteadily weaving around trying to compose a serious photograph in an LED display just doesn't cut it.  I know that because my Canon SX210 is one of those cameras.  You need to get a camera snug up against yourself with your eye in a viewfinder so the only image you have in front of you is the image you are composing, nothing else.  This is essential to composition & essential to keeping your camera steady & for sure it is essential to keeping your camera safe.  Have your camera tucked in close to your body at all times & never pick up your DSLR without first hooking the camera strap around your arm.    Well, 'in my humble opinion' anyway.  IMHO:))

FLOTILLA OF CANADA GEESE  (NIKON D40 at 300mm)
One of the prettiest star clusters you will ever find with your binoculars is the Pleaides, sometimes called the Seven Sisters or Suburu.  This constellation will be in the Eastern sky soon & will remain aloft traversing the night sky from East to West through the winter.  Don't miss it.  Binoculars will open up a whole new & fascinating world for you & I suggest a good set of binoculars before moving on into the world of telescopes.  Besides, binoculars are easy to use, easy to carry around & have multiple day time uses.  Compared to telescopes, I can't express enough the ease of use that binoculars are.  They will transport you many, many miles out into space in just seconds & leave you aghast at all the shimmering diamonds in your new found world:))

NOTICE THE BEE AT BOTTOM RIGHT JUST FLYING INTO THE FRAME AS I WAS TAKING THE HOSTA BLOOM PHOTO (NIKON D90)
Continuous rainy weather I find depressing just as continuous sunny weather I find boring.  We are so fortunate in Southwestern Ontario to have a perfect 75-25 mixture of the two with sunny weather falling into the 75% category.  The 4 prominent Seasons also bring on changes in weather patterns 4 times a year & that keeps things interesting.  I find the nice mixture of lightning & thunderstorms in our area takes the edge off endless sunny days.  I love to see weather changes & all that it brings. 

A COUPLE OF OUR AREAS WEALTHIER FARMS AS SEEN THROUGH MY 300mm TELEPHOTO LENS:))  (NIKON D40)
Last nights thunder storms led to a picturesque fog this morning.  Shafts of sunlight pierced the heavy cloud cover in the afternoon & probably tomorrow we will be under bright clear sunny skies again.  I may not be to hip on the never ending changes to computer software etc but for the most part I am a creature of ongoing change & I like that.  One of these days I may even change my old well worn short sleeved summer shirt for another old well worn short sleeved summer shirt.  Of course the key word there was.........'might':))

NOTICE THE CLEVER DOCK AT THIS FARM PROPERTY ALONG THE MAITLAND RIVER  (NIKON D40 at 300mm) 
And speaking of bright & sunny you might want to hop on over to JANNA'S blog & check out what bright & sunny now means to her & Mike today after a long trip & a purchase in Boise, Idaho Thursday:))

NEVER KNOW WHAT KINDS OF VEHICLES YOU MEET ON THE BACK ROADS...FIGURE THIS OLDSMOBILE IS SOMEWHERE AROUND 1956 VINTAGE  (NIKON D90 at 18mm) 
Found a couple pieces of paper beside the computer this morning with a bunch of names on them.  It's in Kelly's handwriting & I'm wondering if this is something a husband should be worried about.  Well here, see for yourself as I scroll down the names...............Moky, Opie, Paddy Wink, Pepper Phoebe, Piper, Sage, Sassy, Storm, Chickie, Dusty, Razzel, Samara, Sammy, Toby, Snoopy, Ripley, Sadie, Samba, Mattie, Scampy, Abby Maggie, Chloe, Cinder, Daisy, Dakota, Josie, Kimbra, Libby, Lilly & Mia.  Now, d'ya think this could be a list of some former boyfriends, or could it be.........................Hmmmmmmmm:))  Say, I bet that Dusty guy could be a real concern!!

THE VERY SHALLOW BUT MIGHTY MAITLAND RIVER LAZILY ON IT'S WAY TO LAKE HURON & EVENTUALLY OVER NIAGARA FALLS, UP THE ST. LAWRENCE & INTO THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN  (NIKON D90 at 18mm) 
THE LAST PARAGRAPH:  With all the ongoing & escalating turmoil south of the border we have pretty well dispensed with any further hopes or plans of finding ourselves a quiet little winter get away place somewhere in the American Southwest.  We stay in touch with what is happening in the U.S. at a ground level & we know for a fact & understand how the overall situation is deteriorating.  None of that takes away my love & desire to live in the Southwest but we are once again drawn back to reality & made aware of how truly fortunate we are to live right here in Canada.  The most we can hope for is to Snow Bird for as long as we can & enjoy our beloved Southwest home away from home as best we possibly can while we are still able to go there & while it still lasts...........10-4.
  
THIS OLD IRON BRIDGE WAS BUILT OVER THE MAITLAND RIVER IN 1885  (NIKON D90)
GROANER'S CORNER:((  On a rural road a state trooper pulled this farmer over and said: "Sir, do you realize your wife fell out of the car several miles back?"  To which the farmer replied: "Thank God, I thought I had gone deaf!"
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EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right
now...... AL.

A VISIT WITH UNCLE HARRY TODAY

EMPTY HAY WAGONS AWAIT THEIR BALED HARVEST...ALL OF TONIGHT'S PHOTOS ARE FROM THURSDAY MORNINGS DRIVE

So nice sitting quietly this morning listening to the fall of gentle rain.  Even the air takes on a lush smell when rain mixes with dry dusty earth.  Water dripping from the eaves set up a steady pitter patter on the corner of our rear deck.  No matter, our soggy little Cardinal happily chirped in another fine start to another fine day.

 

I THINK THE GUY WITH NO SHIRT MUST BE THE FOREMAN 

Kelly, myself & the Motormouse slipped down to Mitchell this morning to see my Uncle Harry. We noticed his health had slipped from the last time we were there about a week & half ago.  At 95 years old any downturn in health is not a good thing.

A GAGGLE OF CANADA GEESE TOUCH DOWN ON A SUMMER'S POND (CLICK TO ENLARGE)  

I'm not much of a shopping guy.  Just don't seem to have the patience for that sort of thing & especially if it's for something I'm really not to interested in.  Some guys will go to great lengths in order to get out of having to go shopping with the Missus.  Check out MIKE'S blog & see how he cleverly 'used his head' in an attempt to get out of a recent shopping trip:))  

PHANNIE & MAE  are heading out on their shakedown cruise.  Mike is a flyer & talks about the importance of check lists.  I remember the first time Craig, a boyhood friend took me flying.  Taxied out to the holding area of the runway where he proceeded to read something on a small keyboard by his seat.  That unnerved me a bit because I thought he was reading the instructions on how to fly an airplane & of course that is exactly what Craig told me he was doing.  He was always quite a jokester that Craig guy was.  Mike, in his post, also talks about engine & transmission tweaking that will be of particular interest to Tiffin Motor Home owners.  Kinda glad we just got a simple old gas puffer in our rig.

Sherry & Charlie from, RETIRED, FULLTIMING & LOVIN IT have just joined us on our Blog Followers list.  Welcome aboard folks, nice to have you along:))

Our front yard is eerily calm now as we are about to slide into the month of August.  The colorful birds of Spring have long departed, our frog pond is silent & our bird station stands unattended.  Not even a Squirrel or two.  The bustling growing season is over & there are already signs in the gardens of the coming cooler months ahead.  In a few weeks there will be a barely noticeable shift in the weather.  I will notice it though because I always watch for it................Oh, & by the way, regarding last night's post.....I remembered the correct name for those pots that were under everyone's bed many years ago......chamber pots, not pee pots:))     

THE LARGE ROUND STRAW BALES ARE MEANT TO STAY IN THE FIELD, BUT SOMETIMES THEY TAKE TO WANDERING

    

AND SOMETIMES, THEY JUST FALL APART IN THE FIELD...I SEE A REPOSING LION HERE WITH A VERY ROUND & FLAT FACE 

Karyn sent me the following update this morning on the trial of the guy who was responsible for the deaths of fellow RV'ers Bruce & Margie nearly a year ago in Pismo Beach, California... OCEANO MAN PLEADS NO CONTEST

THE HOUSE OF BUZZARD......... 

THE LAST PARAGRAPH:  Many years ago I heard this saying, 'I complained I had no shoes......until I met the man who had no feet.'  That is a saying that has always stayed with me & was playing in my mind today as we left the Nursing Home in Mitchell.

 

OH OH, LOOKS LIKE I HAVE COME ACROSS A SWAGGERING GOOSE CROSSING.......  

GROANER'S CORNER:((   

A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends. They came to a muddy patch in the road and the car became bogged. After a few minutes of trying to get the car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane, driving some oxen before him.
The farmer stopped when he saw the couple in trouble and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50. The husband accepted and minutes later the car was free. The farmer turned to the husband and said, "You know, you're the tenth car I've helped out of the mud today."
The husband looks around at the fields incredulously and asks the farmer, "When do you have time to plough your land? At night?"
"No," the young farmer replied seriously, "Night is when I come back here & put more water in the hole."

 

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EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
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OUR

PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The

only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right
now...... AL.

FINALLY JEEPED MYSELF OUT ON A LITTLE PHOTO SAFARI THIS MORNING:))

IF I WERE A FROG I THINK I MIGHT LIKE TO LIVE HERE:)) 

At 6 a.m. this morning our thermometer was showing 55F & what a nice change that was from our recent sticky heat.  I was back into my warm snuggly flannel pajamas complete with my favorite warm blanket across my lap.  My recliner faces southeast & just off to my left we have a large picture window.  In the mornings I am able to watch the first rays of sunlight filtering through the Pine trees eventually touching down on our living room floor.  We have one of our doggy beds there & if the little Motormouse is asleep on the bed the sun's rays softly tip toe through the window & bathe her in a warm glow being ever so careful not to wake the sleeping little Mouse.

STOPPED ALONG THE ROAD LOOKING AT SOME LARGE ROUND STRAW BALES THIS MORNING   

Russ from TRAVELS IN THERAPY sent me an email this morning with his memories of the Disney shows years ago & his thoughts about growing up in a different era those oh so many years ago.  Of course that set my own memory banks into gear thinking & remembering days gone by.  I'm sure glad I am still able to remember many things from yesteryear.  It's my short term memory I have problems with, not my long term memory.

And this is how I remember it......Heating water on an old cast iron coal/wood stove for washing, once a week baths, bringing in water from a pump outside, coal oil lamps for when the electricity went off as it frequently did, no television, wind up clocks, buckled galoshes on cold winter feet , a hand crank phone on the wall, pee pots under the bed, wooden sided refrigerator where you put a big block of ice in the top part, no such thing as a supermarket & fish was pedaled on Fridays from a man pushing a wagon around my little home town of Tavistock Ontario, Canada.  Knives could be sharpened the same way & milk was delivered by a horse drawn wagon.  I can still see our local chicken farmer standing just inside our door with his wooden basket of freshly killed chickens.  A folded white cloth covered 2 or 3 at a time & that is how my Mother selected & bought our meat in those days.

SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO IS FARM COUNTRY   

A big old wooden floor model radio was the main source of entertainment in our house & my Mother, my Grandfather, my Uncle Fred & I would gather around it Sunday night's for 'Our Miss Brooks, Fibber McGee & Molly, the Great Gildersleeve & many other great old time radio shows. Arthur Godfrey in the mornings, Gunsmoke & Gangbusters on Saturday nights. We had a crank up Victrola with old 78 RPM records which I would constantly listen to. My Mother could play piano by ear & it was always a great treat for me to sit on the piano bench beside her as she played our favorite piece, Greensleeves. Our house always had music in it & I'm very grateful for that to-day. Whether it was the radio, the Victrola, my Mother on the piano or an old record player years later, there was always music in the house. To this very day I still surround myself with music 24/7.

Sometimes I would like nothing better than to just climb aboard a time machine to go back & turn on that big old wooden floor model radio again.  I'd like to tune in Amos & Andy &gather round in the living room with my Mother, my Grandfather, & my Uncle Fred to listen & laugh once again to a simple humor that is all but lost now. A way of life, a way of family, a way of remembering. Some day's the old memories just keep on coming & coming......and I like that:))

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PHOTO STOPS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

One of my favorite hobbies is to throw my camera gear in the Jeep & head off out into the countryside looking for a few photo opportunities.  Just haven't had the inspiration to do that this Spring & Summer until this morning.  Maybe it has been the extreme heat or maybe just the events of the past couple months.  Regardless, it was a beautiful morning & I thoroughly enjoyed meandering around the back roads stopping for a photo here, a couple photos there & just enjoying the peace & tranquility of our pastoral rural countryside.

Some of our newer readers have been inquiring as to what kind of a camera I use so I will address the next few paragraphs to that.  I actually have 4 cameras & Kelly has one of her own as well. (Canon Powershot A430)  In total, I have 2 Canons & 2 Nikons, well 3 Nikons if you consider the one I dropped & broke this past winter in Arizona.  That was my Nikon D50 which had been my work horse for the past 5 years.  Great camera & it never let me down. 

I replaced the D50 with a new Nikon D90 & I carry a 1:3.5-5.6D 18-55mm lens on that.  I have had this lens for about 5 years & have probably taken 80% of all my photos with it.  My 2 Nikons are DSLR's & the 3 Canon's are all point & shoots.  More about my 2 Canons further on.

 

NIKON D90 WITH 18-55mm LENS                   NIKON D40 WITH 70-300mm LENS 

My second DSLR camera is an older Nikon D40 which I really love for it's simpler ways & durability.  I use this camera for most of my telephoto shots.  Up until a year ago I carried a Nikkor 55-200 light weight lens on this camera & all my telephoto pics up until the early summer of 2010 were done with this lens.  I carry that lens as a spare now because I replaced it with an AF-S NIKKOR 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G lens.  Nice lens but very heavy compared to the much lighter 55-200.

It was actually this newer lens I had on my D50 when I accidentally pulled it off a table onto a cement porch floor at the Lazy W Ranch this past winter near Elfrida, Arizona.  Amazingly the lens survived the fall with the camera bearing the brunt of the crash.  Talk about an absolutely sick feeling when that happened.  But, when considered, the number of years & frequency of camera gear I've used I can't really complain.  Only other piece of equipment I damaged was back in 1989 when I dropped a Tamron zoon lens & had to have it sent back to the factory for repairs.

I carry a point & shoot Canon Powershot A720iS in the Jeep & I have a newer Canon Powershot SX210iS that I carry with me at all times either in a buttoned up shirt pocket or in a leather case on my belt.  When we are out hiking a mountain trail somewhere I am usually packing 3 cameras with me.  Probably wouldn't need the Canon but it's on my belt anyway so along it goes.  Kelly will sometimes use it to take photos of me lying on the trail unable to get up because of all the camera gear I am carrying.  

 

THE BLACK SX210iS IS THE CAMERA I CARRY WITH ME ALL THE TIME & THE SILVER ONE STAYS IN THE JEEP 

Should mention here also that I have all my cameras 'tweaked' which means I have changed the settings to my liking rather than the factory default settings.  And I do not use any of them on their 'full Auto' settings simply because 'auto' always seems to overexpose the photos.  Most of my photos are generally done at least a half to a full stop underexposed.  Picked up that little tip a few years ago from KEN ROCKWELL'S photo site.  Photos are then generally easier to work with in my free & easy to use PICASA 3.8 PHOTO EDITING PROGRAM.

HENRY'S CAMERA STORE is headquartered in Toronto Canada but I bought my 3 Nikon cameras & 3 lenses plus a tripod at Henry's London Ontario store.  My D50 was a sale special coupled with the 18-55mm & 50-200mm lens & that was how I ended up choosing Nikon over Canon that day.  The 55-300mm lens went on sale & that's why I grabbed it a year ago.  I am not a 'brand loyal' guy simply because both Canon & Nikon make excellent cameras & lenses.

Anyway, that's enough camera stuff for tonight but I'll be back in the coming days & weeks with lots more thoughts such as, why I prefer to photo alone, camera clubs, the pros & cons of taking too many photos of a single subject, when does a photo hobby not become fun, why I'm not a tech head photo guy, photo contests, natural lighting & why I watch the sky, anticipating a photo, Nikon vs Canon, why I don't normally carry a camera bag, etc. etc. etc.    

THE LAST PARAGRAPH:  I don't know about anyone else out here but if I'm not feeling up to par either mentally or physically, one of the first things to suffer is my ambition & creativity.  I have had to rely a fair bit on my file photos these past months because I just haven't felt a whole lot like picking up the cameras.   Therefore I have not been out & about like in previous summers.  I think this morning may have marked my first photo outing since being home from the Southwest.  Sure felt good to be out scrambling around with a couple cameras weighing me down again......10-4:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( 

If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented? 

Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?

.What's another word for thesaurus? 

.What do you call two Mexicans playing basketball?    Juan on Juan.

Q. How do you double the value of a Yugo?
A. You fill it with gas.

---------------------------------------------------------------
EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right
now...... AL.