LONDON’S ‘UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL’ WAS OUR DESTINATION FIRST THING THIS MORNING

We were up a tad earlier this morning because we had to be at London's University Hospital for Kelly's Specialist appointment at 9:45. University Hospital is in London's North end & when driving for Town & Country a few years back it was a place I drove wheelchair folks to for various medical appointments. It's a big hospital complex but my Town & Country trips there over the years gave me a good idea of where it was we had to park & where it was we had to go. We were on the on the road headed for the hospital by 7:45.

RAINED PRETTY MUCH ALL THE WAY TO LONDON & BACK
Rained most of the way to London but that’s alright at least it wasn’t snow.  Took us about an hour & some to reach the hospital & as expected the parking garage was our main obstacle when we got there.  Round & Round we went trying to find a parking spot………… Aha at last!!

SEEMS LIKE WE DROVE AROUND & AROUND THE PARKING GARAGE ABOUT 846 TIMES BEFORE WE FOUND A SPOT
Ten minutes later found us on the third floor of London’s University Hospital seated in an outer waiting room.  We were a good half hour early & that’s the way I like to time things.  Right on que at 9:45 Kelly was called into an examining room & I went with her.

WE ONLY HAD ABOUT A 20 MINUTE WAIT IN THE OUTER WAITING ROOM
As per what seems a standard procedure a student Doctor comes in first & does all the preliminary work like asking questions, taking notes, etc.  He goes out, confers with the specialist Doctor & they both re-enter the room.  Kelly had already researched Dr. Levstik on the internet & found good reviews about him.  Patients held this fellow in high regard.  Bit of an older chap than a lot of the younger medical people we had been accustomed to seeing.  ‘Older’ works for me because one gains the irreplaceable wisdom, knowledge, professionalism, & vast experience only age can sometimes bring to the table.  Dr. Levstik had good news for Kelly.

KELLY COMES TO HER APPOINTMENTS WELL PREPARED WITH TEST RESULT COPIES & A LIST OF QUESTIONS…WHEN I GO TO SEE THE DOCTOR I’M LUCKY IF I REMEMBERED TO TIE MY SHOES
Her liver is fine & she does not need another bi-opsy.  She is to stay on her current medication but take it all at once at supper time & not 3 times a day as previously instructed.  What Kelly does have however is Primary Biliary Cirrhosis which is an Auto-Immune disease that attacks the bile ducts.  No damage to her liver yet but it is something that will have to be periodically monitored to prevent future problems.  He sent her to the lab for blood work before we left & said for her to return in 3 months which will be early August.  And that was that, we were on our way.  Our total time in the hospital was slightly over an hour.  Tim Hortons has a spot in the lobby so it was 2 coffee’s to go & we were on our way.  (Kelly does have an appointment with her Stratford Internist in 3 weeks & has to have another bone scan for her Osteoporosis)                  

SHEDDING A HEAVY SWEATER BEFORE HER WEIGH-IN WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE 115 POUNDS…WHEN MY DOCTOR WEIGHS ME HE MAKES ME STAND ON THE TRUCK SCALE NEAR THE HOSPITALS LOADING DOCK
Our drive home was again under cloudy skies & rain.  No stops anywhere just straight back to Bayfield.  With damp temperatures in the mid to high 40’s I had no desire to be outside so it was another snoozy inside recliner afternoon alternating between the television set & the computer.  Same weather for Saturday again…….cold, cloudy, & wet:((

DON’T TRY TO IGNORE ME RALPH I KNOW WHAT YOU TWO WERE UP TOO!!!!!!!!
Oh, & I did take our Kindle along this morning & was able to sit quite contentedly in the hospital waiting room with my easy to see screen reading more of my UAP/UFO (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena/Unidentified Flying Object) book by author Leslie Kean entitled, ‘UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials go on the Record’ .  I am about two thirds the way through now & happy to say my thoughts over the years on the UAP/UFO phenomena are as expected……'definitely confirmed’.  Anyone reading this factually concise book cannot help but arrive at the same accurate conclusion.  (not unless you belong to the ‘Earth is Flat’ society that is) There are unidentified craft in our skies being operated by an obvious intelligence of some kind.  What these craft are, who or what is operating them, & where they are from is still unknown. The hard & fast evidence is documented & it is not a question of ‘are they real or not.’  Of course they are real.  And why is it of all the leading countries in the world it is only the United States Of America that repeatedly debunks the reality of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UFO’s as they are commonly referred too.  This is a no-nonsense book & the author goes to great length to answer that as yet unanswerable question.  If you really want to find some answers & have an interest in knowing what is actually going on I suggest you first read this REVIEW of Leslie Kean’s book & then the book itself………………… 

TODAY WAS RED WING BLACKBIRD DAY
GROANER’S CORNER:((  We took the family to one of those restaurants where the walls are plastered with movie memorabilia. I went to see the hostess about reserving a table.
When I returned, I found my 11-year-old daughter staring at a poster of Superman standing in a phone booth. She looked puzzled.
"Doesn't she know who Superman is?" I whispered to my husband.
"Worse," he replied, "she doesn't know what a phone both is."

I WAS REMINDED OF ORSON WELLES ‘THE WAR OF THE WORLDS’ THIS MORNING

JUST A RUNNIN ON THE BEACH TODAY

It was the color blue that saved me this morning.  Up until 9 a.m. we were under a damp heavy overcast & I had resigned myself to another long boring day inside.  Finally, with sunlight beaming through our Pine trees Pheebs & I hustled our buns outside.  Kelly was already off running errands in Goderich.  Cranked up the Jeep, threw the cameras in, loaded up the little Bugs & off we went in search of whatever.  And whatever is just what we found.

SURE WILL BE NICE TO SEE ALL THESE BARREN TREES LEAFED OUT AGAIN WITH ALL THEIR VARIOUS SHADES OF GREEN

Our travels rolled us south out of Bayfield.  About 10 minutes after we left home I thought we had driven into Orson Wells, 'THE WAR OF THE WORLDS'.  First saw a tall crane boom way off by itself in an open field. Thought that an odd place for a farmer to construct a barn. Another mile down the road I saw what appeared to be large arms reaching into a cloudless sky above a forested horizon. It was here my ‘War Of The Worlds’ thoughts quickly took shape. In that movie flashes are seen on the Planet Mars & a short time later meteorite like objects strike the Earth. From those impact points grew large metal Alien machine like Monsters standing up over the horizon. And that is what I saw this morning. Large metal Monsters looming on the horizon where large metal Monsters had not been when I last drove through the area. I was a bit startled by what I unexpectantly saw. Of course the word Monsters depends on which side of the rural fence one is standing on & for many in our area they truly are Monsters indeed.

 

WHAT COULD BE GOING ON WITH OUR NORMALLY PEACEFUL COUNTRY ROADS & WHAT’S THAT STICKING ABOVE THE HORIZON IN THE RIGHT OF THE TOP PIC?
Of course it is large wind turbines I am talking about. Those ones you typically see stretching for miles upon miles down in the wide open spaces of Texas & other States in the area. Our scenic Huron County landscape is quickly being transformed into something that has turned farmer against farmer, neighbor against neighbor & friend against friend. I counted 6 turbines completely finished & standing.  Over the next half hour or so criss-crossing some country roads (Centennial & Pavilion) I saw another dozen Monster machines in various stages of construction.

 

LOOKING SOUTHEAST FROM THE GOSHEN LINE

  

  

 

THE DARKER BLUE LINE ABOVE THE HORIZON IS LAKE HURON

On these quiet country back roads I also became suddenly aware of increased traffic. Dump trucks, heavy equipment haulers, numerous white pick-up trucks, a heavy duty tow truck, road graders, Terra Gators, Backhoes, a large fuel truck, men in orange suits, safety cones, flagmen, & outdoor blue portable washrooms. These usually peaceful picturesque serene farm fields were abuzz with human activity. New gravel roads crawling across muddy fields ended at large turbine construction sites. And I have a feeling this is only the beginning of the massive & controversial wind turbine project in our area. For sure our beautiful South-Western Ontario countryside here in parts of Huron County is not going to be the picture postcard it once was. .

WATCHED THESE FELLAS WORKING AWAY AT GETTING THEIR BACKHOE OUT OF THE MUD

  

WINTER FROST COMING OUT OF THE GROUND & RECENT RAINS HAVE MADE A REAL QUAGMIRE OF ROADS & FIELDS

  

USING A CHAIN SECURED TO HIS HYDRAULIC BUCKET A SECOND FELLOW WINCHED THE OTHER GUY OUT

  

TERRA-GATORS HAULING HEAVY SPOOLS OF CABLE & A CRANE HEADS INTO A SITE TO DO SOME HEAVY TURBINE LIFTING

CAME ACROSS WHAT APPEARS TO BE A BASE OF OPERATIONS…NEVER SAW ANY OF THIS WHEN LAST THROUGH HERE IN THE FALL
From the wind turbine surprise Pheebs & I headed ourselves down to the lakeside town of Grand Bend. A wave to Winnie as we passed Ron's RV lot & headed for Tim Hortons.

BY GOLLY I CAN SEE WINNIE IN THE FRONT ROW AT THE FAR END

  

A small coffee to go & we headed down the Bend's main drag to the beach. I had brought a Morning Glory muffin from home & we sat in the Jeep watching Lake Huron's waves rolling in breaking against the pier.

 

COFFEE & MUFFIN WHILE ENJOYING THE GRAND BEND HARBOR VIEWS
I knew where Pheebs & I could walk on a quiet stretch of beach just north of Grand Bend so that's where we headed. Pheebs loved running through the sand dunes & along the beach beside the water being very, very, careful not to get her paws wet. Despite wind coming in across Lake Huron it was a fine morning with sunny skies & a warming sun.  Pheebs just raced around a hundred miles an hour all over the place.

I HAVE LOTS OF OLD MEMORIES & STORIES FROM THE LATE 60’S HERE IN THESE SAND DUNES ON THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON

 

 

  

Another 5 miles or so north up the lake I knew of another spot where Pheebs could get out for a second run. Both these beach stops brought back a flood of memories for me. This was the area we sometimes hung out as young teen-agers in the early 60's & young adults in the late 60's & early 70's although the way many of us lived our lives didn’t have a whole lot to do with being adults.  The second beach stop was one of the first places I brought Kelly when we met back in the summer of 93 & it is the memories from that time forth I prefer to remember.

SLOW DOWN, MEMORIES AHEAD

 

LAKE HURON IS SLOWLY ERODING AWAY THE SHORELINE

 

OH THE CRAZY STUFF THAT WENT ON ALONG THAT SHORELINE OH SO MANY YEARS AGO

Noticed a weather front coming up from the South-West so we headed for home. By the time we reached Bayfield we were again under overcast skies but no matter, we had already had ourselves a nice sunny morning Jeep ride ambling our way through the countryside followed by a Tim Horton's coffee & a walk along the beach. It was just the Spring tonic Pheebs & I were needing & the 3 hours of sunshine we had sure went a long way into picking up my spirits & re-charging my tired batteries.  We even managed to get another utility trailer load of yard waste back to the recycle area before calling it a day.

SURE HAD ME A TIRED LITTLE BEACH BUM ON THE WAY HOME

I like TIOGA GEORGE'S attitude about his changing future. Not looking back & lamenting the fact Miss Tioga & the majority of his possessions are no more he has seized the opportunity of change to look ahead & embrace the positive aspects of a new lifestyle. Atta boy George, keep the wind in those sails.............

TOM figured the best way to deal with one of his long time fears was to step right up to it & strap it on. He hadn't planned on that but after riding a roller coaster named The Hulk 11 times in a row he later found himself standing in front of 2 tall towers. A decision had to be made……………. And a rough night for RETIRED ROD as he used a Purell spray bottle to do battle with an unseen enemy in a sometimes darkened no electricity strange No-Tell Motel room.

Back in the 60's Johnny Horton had a song called, 'North To Alaska' & many folks have since heeded Johnny's words & done just that. Latest adventurers currently in the process of pulling plans & equipment together to make that very journey are Montana's very own Mike & Janna from TIN TEEPEE/LOG CABIN.

WITH A WHIRR OF MALLARD WINGS

A few reader questions from Wednesday night’s post regarding our soon to arrive Triple E Commander.  No problem getting into any of the boondocking sites we have ever been to over the years with a longer 36 feet.  Our problem will be squeaking through McDonalds, Cracker Barrel, & smaller gas stations.  We didn’t have too many problems with our 33’ Damon in most of those places but our length did tangle us up a few times here & there.  With the usual amount of hollering & swearing from me we were always able to untangle ourselves unscathed.  I can’t answer the question yet about enough power on the mountain grades with this rig but we always have the option of unhooking the Jeep if we run into any problems.  No matter what engine size, length, or how fast I am peddling, the Diesel bangers still blow our shorts off going up hill.   And yes we are seriously considering leaving earlier this year & traveling across Western Canada before dropping south to Arizona. 

GROANER’S CORNER:((  An 18th-century vagabond in England, exhausted and famished, came to a roadside Inn with a sign reading: "George and the Dragon." He knocked.
The Innkeeper's wife stuck her head out a window. "Could ye spare some victuals?" He asked.
The woman glanced at his shabby, dirty clothes. "No!" she shouted.
"Could I have a pint of ale?"
"No!" she shouted.
"Could I at least sleep in your stable?"
"No!" she shouted again.
The vagabond said, "Might I please...?"
"What now?" the woman screeched, not allowing him to finish.
"D'ye suppose," he asked, "that I might have a word with George?"