ELEPHANSAUCEROUSES CHASING ME

THE NEWCOMER

Bare and dry roads in our area this time of year is always a bonus and so it was this morning.  A quiet Sunday A.M. to be out and about so and out about we were.  Temps were predicted to hit 40 F. but our thermometer struggled to get above freezing.  I find weather people usually pretty good with their predictions but not so much today.  At least not for our us.

CORN HARVEST IS STILL UNDERWAY

So in Goderich I decide to get myself a Tim Hortons coffee to go so order a small decaf with cream.  Girl in speakerphone verifies that then asks if would like to donate a dollar to the Tim Hortons summer camp for children.  Without thinking about it I said 'No' then as usual I felt immediately guilty.  What kind of a Scrooge am I anyway and why wouldn't I donate a dollar to a kid's summer camp.  Well I got after myself pretty good and figured by the time I got to the pick-up window half of the staff would be over there pointing fingers at the cheep guy going by.  Imagine my surprise when that didn't happen but it didn't lessen my guilt.  Pulling around the corner of the building I had an 'Oh-No' moment when I saw the whole staff and a dozen customers all standing out in the parking lot hollering at me like a herd of chickens, 'Cheep' 'Cheep' 'Cheep' 'Cheep' 'Cheep'.  And I still had my window down so those 'Cheeps' were loud and clear...……Well Okay so everything after ordering my coffee didn't really happen except in my mind but why is it I feel guilty whenever a radio, TV, magazine, Walmart store, or any organization, person or club, etc. etc. asks for a donation.  I think I once might have donated five dollars to save a herd of green backed yellow throated Rhodesian white eyed Elephansaucerouses in Peru.  Maybe that's where I got my nose out of joint about all this donation stuff.  Thought later I should have just declined my coffee, gave them a dollar, and drove away feeling better about myself.  Next time I'll be ready and have a dollar ready.

LOOKS LIKE THE ALGOMA INNOVATOR HAS HAD A FEW SCRAPES IN HER LIFETIME

WITH SNOW THIS GODERICH HOME WILL LOOK VERY CHRISTMASY

Home again about 10 a.m. after a rather lacklustre Jeep ride I headed for my recliner to read for awhile.  Might have read a couple paragraphs and the next thing I knew it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon.  Wow, what a time warp.  My body never moved but my mind sure did.   I think I was dreaming about a herd of Elephansaucerouses chasing me across the wilds of Siberia.

MY CB900 SET UP AND READY TO GIT AFTER THEM THERE DARN SQUIRRELS

::Al's Favs:: The Island by Naoki Kenji

FROM THE OVERLOOK KELLY GAZES OUT FROM DEADHORSE POINT.....ON THE HORIZON ARE THE LA SAL MOUNTAINS AND I HAVE DRIVEN THROUGH THEM TWICE OVER THE YEARS

::Memory Lane:: November 9th 2007 found us still camped in Moab Utah.  On this day we took ourselves for a drive to and a walk in Moonflower Canyon then headed over to the Dead Horse Point State Park  overlook.  The post is here at Moonflower Canyon and Dead Horse Point and the album is here at Moab.  Both the album and post are short.  I ran out of time tonight watching our Smithsonian channel's 'America In Color'.  My kind of television watching...…………..

MAX AND CHECKERS

Our front yard was like watching a high wire act at a circus.  Four black squirrels and a gray squirrel were racing around all over the place and especially in the trees.  Maybe it's all that high energy induced corn I've been feeding them.  They are so funny to watch and I do enjoy their antics as long as they......well you know!!

THIS GRAY SQUIRREL IS A NEWCOMER TO THE GANG

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Santa Claus is a woman because:::

• - The vast majorities of men don’t even think about selecting gifts until Christmas Eve and only go for a last-minute shopping spree.
• - A man would inevitably get lost up there in the snow and clouds and then refuse to stop and ask for directions.
• - Men can’t pack a bag.
• - Men would rather be dead than be caught wearing red velvet.
• - Men would feel their masculinity is threatened…having to be seen with all those elves.
• - Men don’t answer their mail.
• - Men aren’t interested in stockings unless somebody’s wearing them.
• - Finally, being responsible for Christmas would require a commitment.
• -------------------------------------
• If you see a fat man…

Who’s jolly and cute,
wearing a beard
and a red flannel suit,
and if he is chuckling
and laughing away,
while flying around
in a miniature sleigh
with eight tiny reindeer
to pull him along,
then lets face it…
Your eggnog’s too strong!!!
-----------------------------
Saint Nicholas is the main Clause.
His wife is a relative Clause.
His children are dependent Clauses.
Their Dutch uncle is a restrictive Clause.

Santa’s elves are subordinate Clauses.

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Moab

FIRST MOON SHOTS WITH MY NIKON COOLPIX P900

I think word must be getting around in the Squirrel community that Al's got free corn for them over at his place.  Counted four black Squirrels plus a new gray one in the front yard today.  Luckily none of them have been able to get onto our bird station so far.  Not that they haven't been trying because they have and I've seen with my very own smug face their many attempts:))

NO THESE ARE NOT THE SQUIRRELS I WAS TALKING ABOUT.....THESE ARE A TRIO OF FURRY COWS

FURRY COWS WITH MUDDY FEETS THAT IS

Friday's brief heavy afternoon snow fall didn't last long and by the looks of the countryside this morning I think most of it landed in our front yard.  Pheebs and I did one of our usual Jeep routes backwards today so we had a slightly different perspective on things while rolling down the road.  Managed a walk on a dead end road near Kerr's Campground and despite it being cold there was no wind which made the walk doable.

SOME FIELDS HAD A LIGHT DUSTING OF SNOW WHILE OTHER FIELDS WERE TOTALLY SNOW FREE

ALWAYS A NICE PLACE TO WALK BECAUSE WE HAVE NEVER EVER ENCOUNTERED ANYONE

NO WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THE JEEP DOWN THERE

THIS WIND TURBINE KINDA BLENDS IN WITH THIS MORNING'S CLOUDY SKY

Home again I rearranged a couple Christmas lights, burned some trash, and filled up the bird feeders.  Heading out on an afternoon walk with Pheebs I took my Swede saw with me and cut a small pine tree up which the wind had blown down across the path near our Park's pond.  Yes I'm quite the lumberjack alright.

I CUT ABOUT THE TOP TWELVE FEET OF THIS PINE TREE OFF

JUST AROUND THE CORNER FROM OUR HOUSE MACHINES ARE BUSY WHACKING THE FOREST DOWN CLEARING LOTS FOR NEW HOMES

AND THESE ARE SOME OF THE MACHINES DOING THE WHACKING

AT SOME POINT THERE WILL BE HOMES BUILT ALONG BOTH SIDES OF THIS NEW ROAD....OUR PLACE IS WAY UP THERE ON THE LEFT NEARLY AT THE END

While out after supper tinkering with the Christmas lights I noticed a small steadily moving light in the sky and recognized it right away as the International Space Station.  It was traveling west to east in the northern sky.  While watching it cross the sky I saw another smaller and dimmer moving light and I recognized that as a probable satellite but here's the odd thing......that probable satellite was on the same track as the ISS following it about 30 degrees behind.  If I knew the ISS's phone number I'd have given them a call (okay so I would have had Kelly call them) and said, "Hey I think somethings following you guys".  Also while outside I noticed the three quarter Moon through our tall pine trees and with all our cloudy weather we've had for quite awhile it was a joy to see the actual Moon again.  Bit of haze in the air but I headed inside right away and grabbed my Nikon Coolpix P900 and a tripod.  Only had few minutes to set things up before the Moon slid behind more pine trees.  I had been looking forward to this moment ever since getting the camera.  The CP900 has a special setting for Moon shots so I simply clicked onto that, zoomed right up to the Moon and got off six shots.  Despite my clumsy fumbling around out in the freezing cold I was pleased with my first Moon shot effort with this camera.  In fact even I had a big slice of the 'WOW' factor going on when I saw what this camera can really do.  First image is zoomed right up to the Moon and is as the camera saw it and the second two images I cropped in much closer with my editing program.  Despite the crop I was 'WOWED' again when the images held together reasonably well.  With a little tweaking on my camera settings I'm sure I can get even better images so I do have to admit I am a little excited about that.  You can see my first CP900 Moon shots at the end of the post just ahead of Groaner's Corner.

HERE'S KELLY ABOUT EIGHT THIRTY THIS MORNING WORKING ON HER LIGHTS

WORKERS JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM US PUTTING A ROOF ON A PIG BARN

'BRRRRRRR' THOSE GUYS HAD TO BE COLD

::Al's Favs:: Katja by Cantoma

::Foibles & Fumbles::  From a post written April 27th 2008:: Have you ever had a pine tree sneak up on you when you weren't looking. Happened to me last Saturday morning. I had walked out to the motorhome to unplug the electric cord because I intended to move the rig ahead about 20 feet to wash it. Opened the bin door, unplugged the cord, turned around & laid it on ground. Did you just catch my mistake!! I turned my back on an open bin door therefore making it a non existent open bin door. Kelly came out of the house with the dogs for our morning walk & off I went.  Upon returning I hopped into the motorhome, started it up, took a quick glance in the mirrors (no such thing as a quick glance!!) slapped it in drive & motored ahead. There is something about the sound of crunching & tearing metal that just kind of takes your stomach out on ya. You know you have just done something bad alright & by the sound of it there is probably going to be a costly repair involved somewhere. I knew there was no need to panic because whatever it was I screwed up would be out there waiting for me. I hazarded a look in my drivers side mirror & yup, there it was alright. A pine tree had sneaked up alongside the motorhome when I wasn't looking & all but tore off my (open) bin door. Trees will do that to motorhomes sometimes. But, I never thought a tree was smart enough to open the bin door first before attempting to wrench it right off the coach. After all, I had closed it...right??
Took my sick feeling stomach with me & exited the coach, walked around behind the motorhome to the drivers side. The bin door was twisted at an upward angle with all the apparent & appropriate damage of course. Took it in my hands to try & twist it down but the whole door just came right off leaving an open & gaping electrical bin hole. The whole upper hinge mechanism was torn & twisted. Torsion bar hanging askew, body flange bent, etc. etc. Amazingly enough the bin door itself was still intact. Wasn't twisted or bent, & no paint missing but that still didn't alleviate that awful feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you've just screwed up by not seeing a pine tree sneak up on you. I remember my Dad having a brand new Honda generator years ago at his cottage, leaving it behind the car, & then promptly backing over it. The look on his face that day was the same look I had on my face last Saturday morning!!
No point in me trying to fix it because I'm still attending my 4th year night school class on how to change a light bulb. We have an auto body repair shop near us so Monday morning I took the rig over there & left it with the professionals. Picked it up Tuesday afternoon all fixed up but I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much that tree cost me. Let's just say it took a huge bite out of our income tax return this year.
Kelly was quick to point out to me that things like that don't happen to her. I was quick to point out to her that's because she never drives the motorhome or moves it around. She quickly pointed out to me that maybe it was about time she did!! Case closed:((

THIS IS THE REPAIRED BIN DOOR ON OUR 2003 DAMON CHALLENGER AND THERE IS THE PINE THAT SNUCK UP AND TORE IT OFF 

FOCAL LENGTH 571mm - 1/1000 OF A SEC - F6.5 - ISO 800

'WOWSERS:))'

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other were their looks. Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom and gloom pessimist.
Just to see what would happen, on Christmas day their father loaded the pessimist’s room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist’s room he loaded with horse manure.
That night the father passed by the pessimist’s room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly.
“Why are you crying?” the father asked.
“Because my friends will be jealous, I’ll have to read all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I’ll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken.” answered the pessimist twin.
Passing the optimist twin’s room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. “What are you so happy about?” he asked.
To which his optimist twin replied, “There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”
-----------------------------
- What do you call someone who can’t stick with a diet?  A desserter.

- When you die at 72, no matter what you die of, its natural causes. Even if you get hit by a truck, its natural causes. Cause if you was younger, you would have got out of the way.

-  “Christmas is in my heart twelve months a year and thanks to credit cards, it’s on my Visa card statement twelve months a year also.”
====================

IT HELPS ME EACH DAY TO KEEP MY AGE AT BAY

OH DARN IT'S SNOWING IN OUR FRONT YARD AGAIN

We've always had soft lighting in our front yard by the frog pond but the southwest corner of our yard has always been on the dark side.  With Kelly putting up more outdoor Christmas lights I figured I'd better get on the band wagon and help out with a few Christmas lighting ideas of my own so it was off to the Canadian Tire Store in Goderich this morning to browse their Christmas lights.  Found a couple colorful rotating Noma lights and chucked them in the Jeep.  

SPOTTED THE CANADIAN COAST GUARD SHIP LIMNOS IN GODERICH'S HARBOR THIS MORNING

THE FISHING AND TUGBOAT PIER IS STILL SLIGHTLY UNDER WATER

Next over to Walmart for a few things plus a few double AA and triple AAA batteries.  Had looked at batteries in Canadian Tire but was staggered by the price.  It seems every time I buy batteries they are about double the price of last time I bought batteries.  And here's another thing that really bugs me about those types of batteries.  There was a time when one could buy a pack of two.  But  oh-no now they have these mega-packs with enough batteries in them to lift an aircraft off the ground.  So anyway I managed to find a pack of 4 Triple AAA's and a pack of 6 Double AA Energizers.  Way more batteries than I really need for now.  I go to the cashier and she politely and in a most helpful manner suggests I could save myself some serious dollars if I were to get the larger packs on sale.  Well Okay then so back I go and sure enough there are the ones on sale I missed.  So instead of paying nearly $20 I was able to save about $4 and go home with 36 batteries instead of the 9 batteries I had originally picked up.  Now I have about 32 batteries more than I had set out to buy.  I thanked the lady cashier and told her my wife will really be proud of me when I get home and tell her about saving some big bucks.  "Of course." I told the lady, "I will have to tell my wife 'another woman' was involved in my good fortune."  I don't know who's face was redder when I left the store, hers or mine.

THIS SHORELINE RESTORATION IS TAKING PLACE AT THE NORTH END OF ST. CHRISTOPHERS BEACH ALONSIDE THE HARBOR'S SOUTH PIER

When I pulled the Jeep into Goderich's south end car wash about ten this morning it was cloudy and when I backed it out five minutes later I backed it out into sunlight.  Oh now nice when things like that happen.  Twenty minutes later we were home and I set about hooking up our new Noma lights in the front yard.  I really enjoyed feeling the warmth of today's sun beaming through our sunroom windows but just as I was about to take Pheebs for a sunny afternoon walk it was like somebody up and shook a snow globe.  Within 5 minutes our ground was white and it just kept coming down.  At the time of posting tonight all is clear.

TRUCKS ARE HAULING IN VARIOUS SIZES OF ROCK TO FILL IN AND BUILD UP ERODED SHORELINE AREAS....DID YA SEE PHEEBS?

SHORELINE RECONSTRUCTION MATERIALS ARE SHOWING UP

One of the main reasons for adding 'Memory Lane', 'Foibles and Fumbles' and 'Al's Favs' to my blog is simply to keep myself busy, to challenge my mind to rid itself of the ever advancing age related cobwebs.  Digging back through Bayfield Bunch archives, trying to find photos on external hard drives, locating old photo albums, pieces of music, etc. then pulling them all together may not sound like much for many folks but for me and my aging mind it's getting to be a real effort but it's one I must continue every day.  Repetition is the key for me.  Where once my mind could have slipped through these procedures reasonably well I now find myself sitting at my keyboard in blank mode at times completely forgetting how to do something I had just done minutes before.  As frustrating as it is at times there is an enjoyment in re-visiting days gone by whether by photos or words.  It's a form of therapy for me I suppose and also a way to keep at bay the daily weaving of new cobwebs.  Not an easy feat anymore.

CANADA GEESE HANGING AROUND THE GODERICH GRAIN ELEVATORS WAITING FOR TRUCKS LOADED WITH CORN TO COME IN AND SPILL A LITTLE BIT OF THEIR LOAD

Adding to the above paragraph I find myself leaving cupboard doors open, heading inside or outside to either do or get something.  It is regularly a challenge when I have to stop and try to remember what I'm doing or where I'm going.  I say to myself, 'Okay I know I've come outside here to get something but what the hell was it I came outside to get.  There was a time when these little slips of memory were thought of as normal, laughable, and not to be taken too seriously.  Another 'ha-ha' moment to be shared with friends.  That is not the case now.  It's not funny or laughable for me anymore and I find I am not only frustrated but angry for these continuous daily slip ups and memory lapses.  I've always been critical of myself but not as much as I have been recently.  Always something going on with all of us eh...…...

ALWAYS AMAZES ME HOW SEAGULLS CAN FLY AROUND WITHOUT THEIR HEADS ATTACHED AND STILL FIND A POST TO LAND ON

::Memory Lane::  In keeping with the Fort (Camp) Rucker and Mary Kidder Rak homestead theme from two posts ago tonight's Memory Lane takes us back to a day when I posted, We Are At The Ranch...But Our Jeep Is 63 Miles Away.  It was January 10th 2012.  I do have to apologize for some of the underexposed photos in this post but fixed the worst ones and put them into a photo album entitled Fort Rucker and Aunt Jean.  Bear with me on of this folks because some of this 'Google Photo' and Google Album stuff is either a relearning curve for me or something totally new to me.  But we're getting there and putting these 'Memory Lane' and 'Al's Favs' along with 'Foibles and Fumbles' posts together with my blog is helping me each day to keep my age at bay.

SOMETIMES I HAVE A LITTLE DIFFICULTY LOCATING MY COFFEE

::Al's Favs:: Sleep Early Rise by Weatherman.  

GROANER'S CORNER:((  The symphony orchestra was performing Beethoven's Ninth.  In the piece, there's a long passage, about 20 minutes, during which the bass violinists have nothing to do.  Rather than sit around that whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one.  After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch and said, "Hey! We need to get back!"  "No need to panic," said a fellow bassist. "I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It'll take him a few minutes to get it untangled."  A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra.  About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a bit edgy and said as much to her companion.  "Well, of course," said her companion. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."
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Hebert was being examined by the family doctor who, after carefully examining said, "Yes, it is chronic evil which has deprived you of health and happiness."  "Shh!" cautioned Hebert. "For heaven's sake doc, speak softly as the wife is sitting in the next room."
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