MOSTLY DANG WELL

 KELLY PICKED UP A COUPLE MORE POTS OF HANGING PETUNIA FLOWERS 

Rain came in the night and nicely washed all the yellow pine tree pollen off everything leaving us once again with vibrant Spring colors here in our Park.  Thank you Mr. Rain.  However, the ensuing cloud cover stayed with us for the rest of the day, and by the looks of our weather report, we might be in for a rainy week.

 THE HANGING PETUNIAS THAT CAN BE SEEN IN THE TOP LEFT OF THE PHOTO

 OVERNIGHT RAINDROPS ON A DAY LILY LEAF

 AND YES, THIS FROG WAS EVERY BIT AS GREEN AS THE PHOTO SHOWS

It was not far Pheebs and I ventured on this slightly drizzly morning.  I knew the country roads would be muddy and had just hosed off the Jeep late Saturday morning so I didn't see any sense in muddying up the Jeep all over again.  A drive into Bayfield and a solemn walk in the Bayfield Cemetery turned out to be our only exercise for the day.  

 THERE IS STILL PLENTY OF ROOM FOR MORE BOATS

 THIS CHAP HASN'T GOT HIS MAST UP YET

 THIS LOVELY SHAPED TREE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE COLORFUL HAD THE SUN BEEN ON IT THIS MORNING

 COLOR CAN ALWAYS BE FOUND IN A CEMETERY EVEN ON A DULL AND DREARY DAY

Home again I spent the afternoon in my sunroom recliner reading.  I finished the second book in the Emily Of New Moon trilogy and am well on my way into the third and final book.  I love the pictures in my mind that the words of author Lucy Maude Montgomery paint for me.  

I have the free version of a program called Grammerly which is helpful to me by correcting spelling mistakes and punctuation.  I've had this program now for about four years.  It keeps trying to get me to upgrade to it's $Premium$ version whereupon it would correct all my writing errors and suggest corrections to my sentence structures, etc.  In other words, it would strive to make me sound like a perfect magazine-type writer with absolutely no writing errors.  I do not want my posts to sound grammatically perfect.  I want my posts to sound like me because if my posts don't sound like me, they would sound like a professional writer's writing.  And I am not a professional writer!!  I enjoy bending my words, phrases, and thoughts, away from the ordinary norm.  And that is what very much mostly dang well makes me, ME.  And, I like when that happens:))

 KELLY'S PETUNIAS

It will be only Subie and I rolling out in the morning heading for Sarnia Ontario's Bluewater Hospital.  I have my fingers crossed that this will be the 'last' X-ray on my right hip replacement.  I thought the last X-ray was supposed to be the last one!!  I haven't had any pain or soreness in my hip area since about three weeks after the surgery.  I'm hoping he won't say, after looking at the X-ray, 'Oh nuts, I've put it in backwards and it needs to come out and be turned around'!!

Al's Music Box:)) I Can't Tell You Why is a song by the American rock band Eagles that appeared on their 1979 album 'The Long Run'.  It was written by band members Timothy B. Schmit, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley. Recorded in March 1978, it was the first song finished for the album and the first Eagles song to feature Schmit on lead vocals.  It was released as a single in February 1980. Timothy B. Schmit provided the song title and composed the nucleus of "I Can't Tell You Why," which he then presented to Glenn Frey and Don Henley and they completed the song together. Henley described the finished song as "straight Al Green" and said that Frey, an R&B fan from Detroit, was responsible for the R&B feel of the song.  Frey said to Schmit: "You could sing like Smokey Robinson. Let's not do a Richie Furay, Poco-sounding song. Let's do an R&B song."  Schmit describes the song as "loosely based on my own experiences." Schmit said: "I had some writing sessions with Don and Glenn and I threw out a bunch of my ideas and that one "I Can't Tell You Why" stuck. I had composed a pretty good part of it, not a huge part but enough for them to think 'That could be good' and go with it. So Don, Glenn, and I finished it over a few all-night sessions."  He also said, "When it was being developed in the studio...I knew it was a great song. I [thought] 'Yes! This is an amazing debut for me.' When we finally mixed it, we had a little listening party at the studio. As people were hearing it, Don turned to me and said, 'There's your first hit."  Schmit sang the lead vocals, with Frey and Henley singing counterpoint. Schmit also played the bass on the track, which has a distinctive riff believed by Schmit to have been devised by Frey.  According to Henley, Frey wrote the counterpoint part.  In 1980, the band promoted the song with a music video featuring Schmit on bass guitar accompanied by Frey on the electric piano, although Frey recorded the guitar solos on the recording, with Henley on drums, Don Felder on electric guitar, Joe Walsh on organ and Walsh's touring sideman Joe Vitale on ARP string synthesizer. Live versions of the song were released on the 1980 album Eagles Live and 1994's Hell Freezes Over.  Schmit also performed "I Can't Tell You Why" while on tour as a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1992. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting.  “Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?” he asks. The two Americans just stare at him.  “Excusez-moi, parlez vous Francais?” he tries. The two continue to stare.  “Parlare Italiano?” No response.  “Hablan ustedes Espanol?” Still nothing.  The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted. The first American turns to the second and says, “Y'know, maybe we should learn a foreign language.”  “Why?” says the other. “That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him any good.”

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- "Confucius Say: "Never argue with a fool...he may be doing the same thing."

Confucius Say: "Man who drive like hell bound to get there."

- "Confucius Say: "Adults are just wrinkled kids who owe money."

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I KINDA GOT MYSELF OUT OF SORTS

I saw on the Friday 6 o'clock news that there might be a chance of another Aurora Borealis so about 10 o'clock Friday night I loaded my camera, tripod, and binoculars, into the Subaru, opened the Moon roof, and headed off out into the darkened countryside.  I had intended to take a tilt-back gravity chair with me but forgot.  I stayed out there about forty minutes but did not see any coloring in the north sky.  However, I did see four airplanes and two satellites. Two of those planes were high-flying jets and two were lower-flying propeller planes.  I did notice something odd about one of those prop jobs.  Usually, airplanes have red, green, and white lights but one of those planes had a strong flashing amber light on it.  I don't ever recall seeing a flashing amber light on a plane.  But here's the oddest thing I saw.  I was just leaving the dark country road spot when I glanced up through the open Moon roof and saw a faint satellite traveling northeast.  Picking up my ?? binoculars I stopped and glanced up again and immediately saw a brighter second satellite seemingly in a lower orbit traveling southeast.  I quickly got my binoculars on it and that's when I saw something different. Every single satellite I have seen over the years has had the same silvery-white color to it.  Every satellite, no exceptions......until tonight.  I had this brighter satellite in my binoculars for about 5 seconds and it was definitely a solid light blue in color.....and no, I was not looking through the Moonroof's glass.  The Moon roof was fully open.  And no, it was not an airplane with flashing lights.  I sure wished we lived out in the country with an open sky overhead where I could nightly renew and revive my interest in an old Astronomy hobby I so much enjoyed a couple decades ago.   

 CORN'S UP ABOUT TEN INCHES NOW

 THIS FARNER IS OUT IN HIS FIELD KICKING UP SOME SATURDAY MORNING DUST

 PHEEBS AND I FOLLOWED THIS FELLOW FOR A WHILE THIS MORNING BUT IT WAS OK BECAUSE WE WEREN'T IN A HURRY

 ON THE COUNTRY ROADS I ALWAYS PULL OVER AND LET THE BIG FARM MACHINERY GUYS GO BY

 AND SOMETIMES ON THE HIGHWAYS WE JUST HAVE TO GET OUT THERE AND GET AROUND THESE BIG GUYS

 HERE'S KELLY ON HER iPHONE FRIDAY AFTERNOON ON OUR WAY HOME LOOKING UP BIG DOCTOR WORDS ON GOOGLE THAT APPEAR ON HER ENDOSCOPY REPORT

Not much going on today.  A routine run to Goderich and back for Pheebs and I this morning.  I kinda got myself out of sorts this afternoon so I retreated to my sunroom recliner and stuck my nose in my book hoping it would make my world go away.  And, for a few hours, it did.

 OUR ANNUAL PINE POLLEN MENACE IS UPON US 

 THIS PINE POLLEN HAS THE CONSISTENCY OF BABY POWDER AND IT GETS INTO ABSOLUTELY EVERY THING

It's finally official.  New and refurbished lots in our Park are now being listed for people interested in putting a mobile home on a land lease lot.  Anyone interested in living in what we consider to be the absolute best mobile home Park in this whole area can find additional information here at this link....Bayfield Pines.  Unlike many other Parks, we are not rammed, jammed, or crammed up against each other and that along with all our Pine trees and forest setting, makes this Park so unique.  And, we now have good owners.

Al's Music Box:)) Black Water is a song recorded by the American music group the Doobie Brothers from their 1974 album 'What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits'. The track features its composer Patrick Simmons on lead vocals and, in mid-March 1975, became the first of the Doobie Brothers' two No. 1 hit singles.  Simmons completed "Black Water" during a subsequent Doobie Brothers' sojourn in New Orleans; a lifelong aficionado of Delta blues, Simmons had first visited New Orleans for a 1971 Doobie Brothers gig: "When I got down there it was everything I had hoped it would be...The way of life and vibe really connected with me and the roots of my music." Simmons cites the song's opening section as "my childhood imaginings of the South from reading Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer" while the lyrics subsequent to the first chorus draw on his actual experience of New Orleans: "going down to the French Quarter as often as possible and going into the clubs and listening to Dixieland": the lyric Well if it rains, I don't care/ Don't make no difference to me/Just take that street car that's goin' uptown/ was jotted down by Simmons while riding through the University District on the St. Charles Streetcar Line en route to the Garden District in Uptown New Orleans to do laundry: "the sun was shining while it was pouring rain the way it does down there sometimes. And the lyrics just came to me there on the streetcar."  "Black Water" is distinguished by its melodious a cappella section, whose lyrics are likely the song's prevalent hook lines: "I'd like to hear some funky Dixieland/ Pretty mama, come and take me by the hand." These lines are also featured in the Train song, "I Got You" (from Save Me San Francisco) on which Simmons received a co-writing credit. Producer Ted Templeman said of the a cappella section of "Black Water": "I stole the idea from my old producer", referencing his stint as the lead singer of sunshine pop act 'Harpers Bizarre' whose 1967 hit rendition of "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" had featured a harmonic a cappella section (Harpers Bizarre had been produced by Lenny Waronker).  Despite his encouragement in regard to writing "Black Water" and his meticulous arranging of the track, Ted Templeman said: "We never thought of it as a potential hit single" - "I put 'Black Water' on the B-side because I figured it was an acoustic thing.

 I JUST KNOW THERE IS A LITTLE ALIEN CREATURE HIDING UNDERNEATH THIS LEAF

GROANER'S CORNER:(( It was the end of the day when I parked my police car in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me.  "Is that a dog you got in the back seat there?" he asked. "It sure is," I replied.  Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the car. Finally he said, "What'd he do?"

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- I'm not a complete idiot….Some parts are missing.

Q: How many divorced men does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: None, because they never get the house!

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After weeks of getting the cold shoulder from his wife, the unhappy husband finally confronted her.  'Admit it, Linda. The only reason you married me is because my grandfather left me $10 million.'  'Don't be ridiculous,' she replied. 'I don't care who left it to you.'
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IT WAS ENDOSCOPY TIME FOR KELLY AT LONDON'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL THIS MORNING

 A FEW MORE PICS OF YESTERDY'S CANADIAN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY

An early start today.  Kelly's endoscopy appointment at London's University Hospital was set for 10:30.  Normally it would be all three of us in the Subaru with Pheebs and I dropping Kelly off at the main door.  However, the hospital has tightened up on some of its rules.  Anyone driving a person who is to undergo an endoscopy is now required to be present in the hospital!!  They sent us that notification yesterday.  So, it was just Kelly and I heading for the hospital this morning while Pheebs remained at home.  We felt she would be alright for the time we were away.  (And she was)

 HOW NICE TO SMELL NEW MOWN HAY

 I THINK THERE ARE A LOT OF SEEDS GOING INTO THE GROUND HERE

It was 8:35 a.m. when we rolled out of the driveway on this cold 37F sunny clear morning heading for London.  Here we are less than 24 hours from the first day of June and we were only four degrees above freezing!! 

A nice drive to London and we were soon parked on the cave-like fourth floor of the hospital's parking garage.  We were early of course so at the Endoscopy desk, Kelly was taken right in.  The basement waiting room is small, silent as a tomb, and had half a dozen sullen-faced people sitting in it.  I lasted about five minutes and had to get out of there!!  Up to the main floor I went and grabbed a Horton's coffee, a carrot muffin, and feeling a little confused went back to the basement's edoscopy waiting room.  What was I thinking!!  There was no table to set my coffee down, so juggling my Kindle, my carrot muffin bag, and a hot cup of coffee I wasn't doing well.  I knew if I were to set my muffin bag down somewhere it would be snatched up, or worse yet if I tried to take it out of the bag I would immediately be mobbed and lose my Horton's coffee too.  The eyes of everyone in that small gloomy room were upon me, my muffin, and my coffee.  I realized instantly my mistake on returning to that room so I quickly sprung from my chair, goodies in hand, rocketed around the corner, and down the hall.  I went back up to the main floor to see if I could find myself a seat at a table in the lobby.  Nope, it was a full house of chattering humanoids everywhere.  On the wall was a sign saying 'For Seniors Only'.....In case of Confusement, break the glass.' So, grabbing the little hammer right next to a glass-covered indent in the wall, I did just that.  In that indent was a pad of paper with writing.  I peeled off the top sheet which said, Go to the Third floor Dummy, the cafeteria with chairs is there.  Back to the elevators again I lumbered onto an elevator going up and landed in the basement.  Before I could figure out where I was, (remember confusement) a lady got on and pressed level 5 and I was off to the top floor.  I quickly in desparation pressed the wrong button and ended up in the lobby again.  At this point, I had no idea where I was or where I was going.  Several people got on and I saw one guy press level 3 and that rang a bell.  Not wanting to embarrass myself further I quickly darted out the door expecting to be in the cafeteria.  Nope, I was in the hallway again and not thinking to look for signage to tell me where the lost cafeteria was I headed west down the hallway for about 10 seconds, until the fear set in and I raced as fast as my nearly eighty-year-old bones would take me, back to the familiarity of the elevator.  Then, I had a flash of brilliance.  I remembered a nice quiet area on the fourth floor that I had seen one time when on the floor with Kelly for one of her liver appointments.  But, faster than my fast flash of brilliance was a green-garbed nurse who knew exactly where she was and where she was going and pressed the number two button, and down I went.  Knowing better now how those buttons worked I unhesitantly smashed my thumb onto the four number and I was soon on my way upwards again.  The doors opened, and 'Walla' there was my quiet Shangri-la' waiting for me right across the hall where I remembered it.  And, best of all....there was nobody there in that cozy-looking alcove.  I quickly snagged a padded chair (no not a padded cell) in the corner with a big round table in front of me so I remained there for the best part of an hour quite contentedly reading 'Emily Of New Moon' on my Kindle.  And, nobody else came and sat down, leaving me undisturbed all by myself.  'Shangri-la' indeed:)))))

TIM HORTONS COFFEE IN THE LOBBY OF LONDON'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

 THE SMALL ENDOSCOPY WAITING ROOM WHERE I HAD TO ASK THE PEOPLE TO GET OUT OF THEIR SEATS SO I COULD TAKE THIS PHOTO.....HEY, YOU DON'T THINK I REALLY DID THAT DO YA,  NAW I DIDN'T THINK SO.

 I TUCKED MYSELF INTO THAT QUIET CORNER AND BURIED MY NOSE IN MY KINDLE READER 

 REMEMBER, FOURTH FLOOR ACROSS FROM THE ELEVATORS IS WHERE YOU CAN FIND A QUIET SPOT

It was about 11:30, when after playing elevator games again I finally landed myself back in the basement at the Endoscopy waiting room.  Ten minutes later a nurse brought Kelly out feeling a little wobbly.  We made our way up to the hospital's main level and outside and over to the parking garage.  We retreived Subie and with Kelly feeling hungry we headed over to the Subway Shop near the Masonville Mall.  Kelly insisted on going in but this time I went with her.  I could tell she still wasn't a hundred percent steady on her feet.  With Tim Hortons being beside Subway we popped in there where Kelly got herself a coffee and a donut.  With her safely back in the Subaru, we were soon headed for home.

 I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE THREE FOOD TRUCKS PARKED OUTSIDE BETWEEN THE HOSPITAL AND THE PARKING GARAGE

 WELL, SOMEWHERE IN THIS PARKING GARAGE IS OUR LITTLE WHITE CAR

 AHHHH, THERE'S SUBIE NOW

 KELLY DECIDES ON A SUB

 YUP, SUB SAUCE ON MY CLEAN SHIRT OF COURSE

 HEADING HOME ON A BEAUTIFUL SPRING DAY

So, here's what the Doctor told Kelly about her endoscopy procedure this morning......She needs to go back to the hospital shortly for an iron infusion.  She has portal hypertensive gastropathy in her stomach and small varices in her esophagus.  Kelly has to double up on some of her meds to lower her blood pressure. The doctor was surprised she didn't have a blood transfusion last week but also knows that a blood transfusion would not bode well for Kelly's already compromised anti-bodies count.  In this area of things, she is between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  Aside from feeling tired and slightly weak by the time we got home, she's doing Okay.

Pheebs and I made it out for our afternoon walk around the Park's pond but it was slow going for both of us and our aging bones.  We saw two Green-Backed Herons, four Painted Turtles, two Dragonflies, one Giraffe, a wild Buffalo, and a whole wandering band of lost Swawhili Warriors.       

 PHLOX

 A SINGLE LILY GROWING IN THE PARK'S POND

Al's Music Box:))  Blue Canadian Rockies by Jim Reeves.  I couldn't find any info on this song.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( It’s my wife’s birthday soon and she’s been leaving jewelry catalogs all over the house.  She'll be happy to know I got the hint.  I got her a magazine rack!

I just spent the whole morning brushing all the powdered sugar off the donuts.  Diets are hard!!

The reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day.

What do you call a Chicken staring at lettuce?? 'Chicken Sees A Salad'.

Son: "Dad, did you go to Church when you were little?"  Dad: "Yes son, every single Sunday."  Son: "I thought so. Bet it won't do me any good either.

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