OK OK SO I GOT PHEEBS TO TAKE A PICTURE OF ME TODAY:))

  

NICE TO SEE SOME EARLY AUTUMN COLORS

Couldn't resist the call of a big bright & blue sunny sky this morning.  Despite living under shady Pine trees I could see lovely patches of clear sky overhead when I looked up through the branches.  Only takes us about 30 seconds once we leave our driveway to be clear of our forest so without further ado Pheebs & I were off.  Kelly had gone to Goderich.  Not a big tour this morning but we did manage to snag ourselves a Hortons coffee & muffin in Clinton plus a turkey salad sandwich in Zurich.  One back road stop between a couple bean fields with one more stop atop a grassy cliff overlooking Lake Huron north of Grand Bend.  Just another one of those mighty fine mornings to be out & about conversing with Mother Nature.  We were back home shortly after noon.

 

SOME DAYS WE JUST STOP TO SMELL THE BEANS & PHEEBS HAS A BIG YAWN

  

UM,,,YOUR GETTING A LITTLE CLOSE TO THE DITCH HERE DAD

FROM THIS BEAN FIELD VIEWPOINT I COUNTED 24 WIND TURBINES ON THE DISTANT WESTERN HORIZON

A bit of puttering around the rig & that was about it for the day.  Hopefully in another week or two I will have more to write about & some changing landscapes for my camera.  Looking forward to that.  Even I get tired writing about the same old things & often taking the same old photos but it does give me something to do & keeps my days from drying up on me.

 

I HAVE MANY MEMORIES AT THIS SPOT BEGINNING BACK IN THE LATE 60’S

AT THE EDGE OF A GRASSY CLIFF TOP

 

LOOKING SOUTH ALONG THE SHORELINE TOWARDS GRAND BEND & SARNIA ONTARIO & HOW WOULD YOU LIKE A WIND TURBINE IN YOUR BACK YARD

Hadn’t occurred to me about taking a photo of my beard trim Monday.  I did however remember reader’s requests today when Pheebs & I were at the lake so I coaxed Pheebs to jump up on the Jeep’s engine hood & take a picture of me.  And no I am not going to admit to a selfie here:))

NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY NOT A CLOUD IN MY HEAD SO LETS JUST ROLL ON & LET IT BE SAID……….WE HAD US A NICE DAY:))

Thought this afternoon, ‘aw what the heck why wait till we get west of the Mississippi before donning my big brown Tombstone cowboy hat’ so later today I grabbed that wide brimmed Mossmagator, squashed it down on my head & pulled it down over my ears.  Figure if I can sleep with it on all night it should have my head squeezed back in shape by morning.  D’ya figure I’m figurin right…………… Just in case anyone was wondering what that squashed down idea made me look like I have included a photo below which I took earlier this evening………Awwwwww yes, the Shadow Cowboy is back:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( TO:  AN ALL USERS SUBJECT: VIRUS ALERT!
There is a very dangerous virus going around and it is propagated through the email system.  If you get an email message with the subject: "VIRUS ALERT!" do not open the mail message.  If you do, the virus scrambles the second half of every text file on your system.
VERY IMPORTANT:  If you do get this virus, the first thing dlkfjaid dfdjas nairb gfdq40wt yaj  asdfsdg  dluog av da agj asdfajpg as dflasidffnm asd difvu asdfa vgoiae  vdsofj we dasdf 9efm sd dag0 g adf as dg 0vbwe  ads gwefawe ads vewerwe dsf!

MY COMPUTER SWALLOWED ME UP FOR A FEW HOURS TODAY

Well it turned out to be one of those uninspiring days.  Cold, damp & cloudy.  One of those days one just wants to stay inside & keep warm.  Our weather forecast is calling for sunny & warmer this week so we'll be right back in the mood for readying the rig for travel.  But for today the cold & damp really seemed to stiffen my arthritic legs so am anxiously looking forward to warm & dry desert walks next month:))

I learned something from my old Buddy Jim whom I had coffee with last week in Seaforth Ontario.  Jim has one of those always neat & trimmed looking beards.  For years I have wondered how guys keep those beards looking so uniform all the time.  Any time I ever grew a beard & tried to keep it trimmed by hacking & chopping away with a scissors or electric razor I always came away looking like a character off the old TV show Fraggle Rock.  On the topic of beards last Thursday Jim told me how he keeps his beard trimmed.  Well have I ever been in the dark for the past 50 years or so.  He said he has a simple attachment for his electric razor that makes it easy to have that close cropped neat looking look.  He explained how it works & with a few hand gestures around his chin he had the table next to us in the coffee shop staring nervously.  Remembering what he said I tracked down & finally located the case my electric shaver came in a bunch of years ago.  Dusting off half an inch of dust I opened the case & sure enough there were a whole bunch of attachments & stuff inside.  Even a never used instruction manual on how to use the shaver & it's attachments for, well of all things…….trimming beards.  Fancy that eh.   Well to make a long story short I did manage to get one of the plastic comb looking things attached to my shaver.  With thoughts of totally cutting a swath through the remaining bunch of hairs on my chiny chin-chin I took a careful slow swipe at my goatee & holy smokes it worked.  All these years of teetering in front of a mirror with an electric shaver in one shaky hand while steadying myself against the counter with the other hand finally came to an abrupt end.  Whacking away with a free wheeling shaver carving large uneven chunks of long facial hair are now a thing of the past.  Oh how nice it can be learning new things sometimes.  I now have a much shorter & neater looking goatee.   I thank my Buddy Jim for that neat-o shaving tip & it reminded me of another line out of a Beatle song, 'I get by with a little help from my friends':))

An arrest has been made in the fatal shooting at the Hullett Marsh 9 days ago.  He was apprehended as he stepped off a flight at Pearson International Airport.  The suspect was brought to Goderich today where he appeared in court.  It will be interesting to see what his motive for the shooting was.

Haven't worn my big 45 gallon brown Tombstone cowboy hat since returning to Ontario early last April.  Popped it on my head the other day & I could tell right away it had lost it's fit.  Either my head swelled or the hat shrunk.  Well neither one actually & I think the hat just naturally lost it's inner head circumference.  No big deal & I'll just have to begin wearing it daily again to get it back into shape.  After wearing my smaller straw hat all summer my big 22-10 ton cowboy hat feels like I'm wearing something about the size of a large military parachute on my head.  No matter, once we get west of the Mississippi I'll feel right at home again & my cowboy hat will feel about as natural as wearing a good pair of shoes.  Say have you ever worn a good pair of shoes on your ears??  Nawww I didn't think so. 

I'm not one to play games on my computer.  Don't spend a lot of time reading things or watching You Tubes.  I write my daily posts, occasionally have look at Google Earth & look up some info on areas we may travel too.  I don't read nearly as many blogs anymore as I once did & the only newspaper I ever check is the Stratford Beacon Herald’s obituary column.  Don't spend any time on Facebook or any of the other social media sites.  But today my computer swallowed me up & this is how it happened.............Sitting quietly in a corner of our sunroom reading a biography on the life & times of singer/songwriter Neil Young I decided to check out another one of his songs mentioned in the book, 'Expecting To Fly'.  Clicked on a You Tube version.  Well that led me to a couple other songs by the Buffalo Springfield.  Noticed on the sidebar another You Tube for the 30 greatest guitar rifts of all time.  Of course that led to half a dozen groovy boogie woogie piano rifts as well & soon I was watching the last days of Buddy Holly.  Don't know how I landed on the Big Bopper's autopsy results but I was soon back to more musical You Tubes with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash & Eric Clapton singing something about something.  John Lennon’s 'Imagine' & then it was a video of Paul McCartney & Neil Young on stage.  Think I saw some You Tube bloopers along the way & where did Ozzie & Harriet come from anyway.  Breezed through a Jeep video & read a UFO article.  Half a dozen Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young You Tubes later I was suddenly aware of a little doggy paw resting on my leg.  Looked at my watch & it was on the far side of 3 o'clock.  Pheebs was reminding me it was past our afternoon walk time.  My computer had totally swallowed me up for a couple hours.  Not too often that happens but what else was a feller to do on a cold, damp, day eh. 

Well tis the last day of summer & Autumn will officially be upon us within hours.  This is my favorite time of year.  Forecast is calling for a warm sunny week with temps in the low 70’s.  After today’s 54 we welcome that.  When my blue jeans feel cold on my legs I know it is time to head for warmer climates & that just may be the week after this:))     

GROANER'S CORNER:((  An elephant was drinking out of a river one day, when he spotted a turtle asleep on a log. So, he ambled on over and kicked it clear across the river.

"What did you do that for?" asked a passing giraffe.

"Because I recognized it as the same turtle that took a nip out of my trunk 53 years ago."

"Wow, what a memory" commented the giraffe.

"Yes," said the elephant, "turtle recall".

PHEEBS & I WENT TO HAVE US A LOOK AT SOME TUG BOATS

GODERICH HARBOR AS SEEN FROM THE NORTH SIDE LOOKING SOUTH

We actually toyed with the idea of taking the Big EEE over to Cambridge for a couple days earlier this week.  Kelly has 4 of her 5 children in that area.  Well can't call them children anymore I guess because they now all have children of their own.  Kelly thought it might be easier to see everyone if we parked the Motorhome just south of Cambridge in an RV friendly county Park.  I thought that was a good idea but after thinking it over Kelly decided to just drive over herself & spend a few hours today rather than a couple days in the rig.  She rolled out at 8 a.m. this morning in the rain.  Luckily our skies were already in the process of clearing & the day turned out just fine.  Kelly saw 2 out of 4 families & was home again by 4:30. 

PHEEBS & I HEADED UP TO GODERICH TO HAVE US A LOOK AT SOME TUGBOATS

 

DONALD BERT’S WHEELHOUSE

 

TUGBOAT ALLEY

 

I stayed home with the Pheebs & ended up taking her for a drive up to Goderich again.  This time we slipped down the North side of the harbor.  Saturday we were on the South side.  Being Sunday the harbor was quiet except for a lake freighter loading some grain or something.  Spent part of the afternoon cleaning the rig's outside windows.  Seems every time it rains we get these black streaks down the glass & I do not like dirty windows.

 

MISSISSAGI…THIS GREAT LAKES FREIGHTER BUILT IN 1943 WAS TAKING ON A LOAD AT THE GRAIN ELEVATORS

Still no idea when we are leaving for the South-West or which route we will take.  We'll see how the weather shapes up along our 2 proposed routes for next week.  I'm guessing we may roll out sometime after next week-end.  Original date for the Chicago-South Dakota-Utah route was this coming Saturday but if that's the route we chose we may put it off till the following Saturday.  If we take the Lake Superior-Manitoba-Saskatchewan route I'm guessing we'll leave maybe a week from this Tuesday or so.  Either way we are getting down to 'crunch time' & I imagine we'll get a little more serious this week about our packing:))

FISHING BOATS DOT THE HARBOR

 

GODERICH’S SIFTO SALT MINE DOMINATES THE HARBOR ENTRANCE…IT’S MINE SHAFTS RUN FOR MILES OUT UNDER LAKE HURON

 

I’M GUESSING THAT IS SOME KIND OF FISH CLEANING MACHINE & NETS CAN BE SEEN IN THE PLASTIC BINS

  

I can't explain how it's done but the Bayfield Garage did some kind of smoke test on the Jeep a few days ago.  The mechanic called me in from the waiting room to show me slight puffs of smoke emanating from around the gas cap.  Said that is how they knew the gas cap was the problem.  We have full confidence in the Bayfield Garage & if that's what they said is the problem then I trust that is the problem.

AND LOOKING OUT FOR MARINERS SAFETY IS THE COAST GUARD’S ‘CAPE DISCOVERY’…SEE MY POST ABOARD A VERY LARGE LIFEBOAT…I HAD PHOTOS FROM INSIDE THIS VESSEL UNTIL GOOGLE+ TOOK OVER EVERYTHING A FEW YEARS BACK & SCATTERED ALL MY PHOTO ALBUMS TO WHO KNOWS WHERE….:((

My Son Sean had some photos of his oldest daughter (my Granddaughter:)) Erin on Facebook.  Looks like she is doing well for herself & could be well on her way to a successful modeling career.  Disregard our Bayfield Bunch watermark on the photos below.  Only one I took was a younger Erin in the purple sweater years ago.

 

HAIR & MAKE-UP BEING TWEAKED

 

SEAN ON THE LEFT & THAT’S ERIN WHEN SHE WAS AT OUR PLACE BACK IN 2002

ERIN TODAY

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Three mischievous boys went to the zoo one day for an outing, since they had been at school all week. They decided to visit the elephant cage, but soon enough, they were picked up by a police officer for causing a commotion.
The officer hauled them off to security for questioning. The supervisor in charge asked them to give their names and tell what they were doing at the elephant cage.
The first boy innocently said, "My name is Gary, and I was just trying to throw peanuts into the elephant cage."
The second added, "My name is Larry, and all I was doing was just trying to throw peanuts into the elephant cage too."
The third boy was a little shaken up and said, "Well, my name is Peter, but my friends call me Peanuts."