OUR SUNSHINE DIDN'T LAST LONG BUT IT WAS SURE NICE WHILE IT WAS HERE

Didn't have to shovel any snow first thing this morning so I take that as a plus.  Temps sat on the freezing mark and that too was a plus from recent cold record braking temperatures.  Snow was again crunchy under foot and a few hours later snow had the consistency of a good snow ball fight or the making of a snowman or six.

COUNTRY ROADS WERE IN GOOD SHAPE TODAY

THIS IS BASICALLY WHAT OUR COUNTRYSIDE LOOKS LIKE NOW

Pheebs and I headed off to Clinton and stopped into Huron Tire.  Not anything to do with tires but while there Monday to have snow tires put on one of the counter fellas asked if we were heading south this year.  "Likely not" I answered telling him we sold our Motorhome but were looking for a smaller one.  Bob said a friend of his 'might' have a small Class C for sale.  Our phone still isn't working so I stopped in to see if Bob had been trying to get a hold of us.  He hadn't but said he'd be talking to his friend with the Class C Saturday so we'll see what happens.  I'm not getting my expectations up and I'm certainly not unrealistically optimistic about anything.

AT THE BANNOCKBURN CONSERVATION AREA

HEAVY WET SNOW ON THE BOARDWALK

HEAVY WET SNOW IS VERY EASY TO GET STUCK IN BUT WE WERE OKAY WITH SNOW TIRES AND FOUR WHEEL DRIVE

Slowly took the scenic country road route back to Bayfield with a stop at the Bannockburn Conservation area.  With Pheebs window down I managed a few photos along the way and amazingly enough I began seeing patches of blue sky to the west.  Wasn't long before we had sunshine pouring through the windshield.

HEADING SOUTH ON BANNOCKBURN LINE

Rolling into the southeast end of Bayfield it looked and felt like a Spring day so I wheeled right into the carwash and hosed nearly a weeks worth of ice, snow, and corrosive road salt off the Jeep.  Looked like a new vehicle.  
Right next door to the carwash is the Tim Horton coffee shop constructions site so I was quick to have myself a looky see if there had been any progress from a few days ago.  Yes there had and I was happy to see workers on the roof.  If they keep this up they just might make that April 2025 opening day after all:))

ENCOURAGING TO SEE SOME PROGRESS ON TIM HORTONS COFFEE SHOP

Home around ten I decided to stay outside and move some snow around.  Didn't have to but it was nice to be outside for awhile.  As temps moved a couple digits over the freezing mark and with periodic bouts of sunshine it was sure nice to hear the sounds of dripping.  Temps will drop significantly overnight freezing everything but by Sunday and maybe all next week temps are predicted to be near 40F.  Would be nice to lose most if not all of this snow we have sitting around.

CAN'T HELP IT.....I JUST LIKE THE LOOKS OF THIS HOUSE

NICE TO SEE BLUE SKIES OVER BAYFIELD AGAIN

STILL SOME LEAVES ON A FEW TREES

Our landline phone still isn't working and it was a frustrating comedy of errors today as Kelly tried to deal with Bell telephone via some far East call center.  If we were smart, which we sometimes aren't we would drop Bell Telephone altogether and simply go with just our cell phones like so many others have done.  Maybe this fiasco will finally push us over the edge.  

We had us a strange happening here Thursday morning.  When Kelly woke up she could hear something machine like running and wondered if there was a problem with our furnace.  Sound was coming from our spare bedroom and when she walked in the ceiling fan was going full tilt.  We have not used that ceiling fan since having our central A/C installed maybe 5 or 6 years ago.  Kelly thought I had maybe turned on the fan.  I had not.  One has to physically pull a chain to turn the fan on.  So if I didn't turn it on and Kelly didn't turn it on then who turned it on and how.  No memory lapse on my part.  The last time I turned that fan on was half a dozen years ago.  How can things like that happen.  Drives my logically thinking mind into a tizzy trying to come up with a rationale explanation.  And there has to be a logical explanation, right??

And 12 years ago yesterday we were hiking around in Bryce Canyon, Utah:))  Bryce Canyon.  While re-figuring out how to put photo albums together recently I came across a bunch of photo albums I thought I had lost.  I vaguely remember putting some of them together over the years and many are totally new to me which I guess is one of the up-sides of a forgetful memory like mine.  Seeings how we may not make it to the Southwest this year I am going to periodically have a little feature at the end of my posts and call it, 'Memory Lane'  I'll throw a photo album in there with a brief description of what it is about and where it is.  Could be right here at home or it could be somewhere way off in southern California somewhere.  These will be albums of our earlier home and travel years with photos I have not seen for a very long time.  You may find some of the photos interesting...……………….

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A cowboy, who just moved to Wyoming from Texas, walks into a bar and orders three mugs of beer. He sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.  The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, "You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time." The cowboy replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Arizona , the other is in Colorado . When we all left our home in Texas , we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself."  The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.  The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn.  One day, he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. It is obvious what has happened.  When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on the loss of one of your brothers."  The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in his eyes and he laughs.  "Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains, "It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking."  "Hasn't affected my brothers though."

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“I have trouble liking brass bands. They are all made up of a bunch of blowhards.”
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SOMETIMES THE HARDEST PART OF WRITING A BLOG IS THINKING OF A TITLE

WE DO HAVE SOME STRANGE WINTER BIRDS HERE IN OUR PARK

It is increasingly tempting on these cold cloudy and snowy mornings to simply stay inside but I've been trying my best not to fall into that state.  To stay in just seems to lengthen the already long wintery like gray days.  Stepping out the door I could tell temps had come up a bit to the point where snow was crunchy underfoot.  Another couple degrees and we'd be up to the freezing mark.  Downright balmy I'd say.

I SPOKE TO SOON IN WEDNESDAY'S POST ABOUT 'LITTLE RED' BEING IN HIBERNATION

LITTLE RED WAS FLYING AROUND OUR YARD LIKE A RICOCHETING BULLET THIS AFTERNOON

MORE STRANGE CREATURES IN OUR PARK

Aside from a swing through Bayfield and a short jaunt around a country block we really didn't get ourselves too far again this morning.  One of the country roads we frequent didn't have any tire tracks on it yet and with the snow being slightly heavier I decided to forego being the first one to blaze a trail through.  I have not only got too soon old but I've got almost too late some smarts too.  We went back to Bayfield's cemetery and blazed some tracks around the roads in there.  I guess they only plow the cemetery roads if there's a burial.

LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE PUTTING IN SOME STEEL GIRDERS FOR BAYFIELD'S TEMPORARY BRIDGE AND I ACTUALLY SAW 3 WORKERS ON TIM HORTONS ROOF

BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION TRAILERS WITH SAILBOAT MASTS BEHIND THEM

SPOTTED A WHOLE HERD OF BAYFIELD POLL WALKERS

WITH LAKE WATERS PREDICTED TO RISE EVEN HIGHER BY NEXT SUMMER BAYFIELD'S SMALL BEACH WILL BECOME EVEN SMALLER

MAKING TRACKS IN BAYFIELD'S CEMETERY

I THINK THOSE FAINT TIRE TRACKS AHEAD WERE PROBABLY MADE BY PHEEBS AND I A COUPLE DAYS AGO

NO TIRE TRACKS AHEAD BUT I DO KNOW IT TO BE A ROAD SO WE LAID SOME TRACKS DOWN MAYBE MAKING IT EASIER FOR ANYONE COMING IN TO VISIT ONE OF THE GRAVE SITES

Home again I did the usual snow shovelling thing and came in.  Spent the rest of my day in the sunroom watching a wee bit of TV, bonking around on the computer and watching the zany antics of the furry and feathered wildlife in our front yard.

YEP BLACKIE WAS KEEPING AN EYE ON ME TODAY

BLACKIE SIZES UP ONE OF THE FEEDERS WHICH IS ACTUALL 'SQUIRREL PROOF'

BLACKIE TRIED MANY TIMES THIS AFTERNOON TO GET INTO THE FEEDER BUT THE RESULTS CAN BE SEEN BELOW AS HE TUMBLES A SHORT DISTANCE TO THE GROUND

I DO PUT SEEDS OUT FOR THE SQUIRRELS BY THE WAY

It's a real challenge trying to get even a few half decent bird photos with the low light drabness outside.  And shooting dark colored birds against a stark white snowy background doesn't help.  Can't use any fill-in flash either because I am behind glass.  And I have to try and get a handle on the graininess (noise) in my photos as well.  Birds in flight photos were much easier at our Congress Arizona house years ago.  Lots of sunlight, colorful birds, and no contrasting white background.  I really must make an effort to get all those bird photos of mine rounded up and put into an album or two.

Our landline phone hasn't been working for a couple days so Kelly on her cell phone called in to Bell Telephone Wednesday to let them know.  Said they would be here today sometime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. but they never showed up.  Kelly phoned back tonight and was actually able to contact a real live human being although that human being was rather hard for her to understand.  I 'think' they might be sending a technician from India tomorrow.

MOURNING DOVE

GROANER'S CORNER:((   One day, an elderly woman was walking along the street, coming home from the supermarket. Her bag of groceries was especially heavy that day, and as she passed Nathan Hale's Used Cars, she got an idea that she could drive herself home and save a lot of shoe leather, time and aching muscles. She walks into the car dealership and, as it just so happens, gets the owner himself. He asks her what kind of car she wants and she replies,  "Well, sonny, I can't remember the name exactly, but it has something to do with hate or anger."  The owner replies, "Well, let's see... Oh yes, you want a Plymouth Fury! We have a couple on the lot.  What color do you prefer?"  The lady has some trouble explaining the exact color to him, so she reaches into her shopping bag, takes out an ear of corn, strips down the shucks and says, "I want this color."  To which Nathan replies, "Ma'am I'm sorry, but we don't have any in this color. Could I show you a nice blue one?"  "No son, I want this color."  "But ma'am, they didn't make that color! Maybe a cherry red one would suit you?" says the owner, obviously worried about losing a sale.  By this time, the old lady gets mad, and starts throwing things at the owner, thereby chasing him out of the office and into the lot. One of the salesmen, coming into the office from the back door, notices the disruption and asks the secretary what the old woman was so upset about.  The secretary replies, "Apparently, Hale hath no Fury like the woman's corn!"
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My wife is incredibly smart. When I called her from my buddy’s phone she answered, “Hey love!” She already knew it was me.
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