Friday, March 26, 2010

BEEN SO BUSY WE'RE READY FOR ANOTHER HOLIDAY ALREADY!!

DSC_0017

THE BIG SPRING CLEAN UP BEGINS

Well, I had better start this post off with another geography lesson for Al:((  Thanks to my good friend Jim G in Stratford, Ontario I found out the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron Michigan & Sarnia Ontario crosses over the St. Clair River & not the Detroit River.  This is how it works....Lake Huron flows into the St Clair river which flows into Lake St. Clair which in turn flows into the Detroit River which then flows into Lake Erie.  The Blue Water bridge spans the St. Claire River portion.....Thanks Mr. G:)) 

Now, for another mistake I made which resulted in confusion for our good friend Dianne from Stormrunner here in Bayfield.  I had the sequence of events at our border crossing mixed up at the Blue Water Bridge on Wednesday.  The first line of booths we encountered is where you pay the toll for crossing the bridge.  We then crossed up & over the bridge & approached the second line of booths which is the Canadian checkpoint for entering into Canada.  It was at the Canadian checkpoint where we encountered the young fellow with all the questions.  In the blog I had said that after clearing the customs area we then crossed over the bridge.  I had my bridge in the wrong place.....we had already crossed it.  I will use the 'tired' defense in that case.  I really do think I should send a job application form to the The National Enquirer in the States though because with all the mistakes I have been making I'm sure they would just love to have somebody like me over there writing for them!!

DSC_0016

It has been a really busy couple of days since we have been home.  Kelly's been on the phone for hours dealing with work related issues & family matters.  We don't even have the coach a quarter emptied yet.  I was out before 8 a.m. Thursday morning beginning the huge spring clean up & spent the majority of today with my nose to the grindstone as well.  It's always a big job because we have many trees around our place & with all the various flower gardens I have put in over the years it takes many days to get things ship shape again.  But, I'm not complaining.  I always enjoy the spring clean up because it's always so great just to be outside & doing something physical.  Temperature's were barely above freezing all day but the sun was out, early spring birds were in the trees, had the campfire going burning piles of leaves, tons of pine needles, & it just felt good to be getting back into the swing  of things again. But, getting into that swing is not as easy as it used to be!!

There is a downside to living two lifestyles like we do & it involves having to re-learn things upon either leaving or returning home.  Upon arriving Wednesday we had a list of things to do to get everything up & running at home again & after being away for 5 months I was totally out of the loop.  Throw in a big pile of 'tired' & the Gremlins were just waiting for me.  Couldn't get to first base on figuring out the 3 TV remotes & if it wasn't for Kelly I would probably still be sitting here in front of a blank television screen.  The music channels wouldn't work & that sent me into a tail spin until Kelly phoned the cable company & found out they were having problems with the feed.  Couldn't remember how to get the desk top on line & after Kelly did that I couldn't remember how to activate my favorite music channel.  I should have gone right to bed for a good night's sleep but I was being stubborn.  The Gremlins knew if I was dumb enough to stay up they would be smart enough to continually trip me up.  And so they did!!

DSC_0018

They hid the leaf blower in the back of my van for 2 days knowing I wouldn't think to look there, & I didn't!!  Kelly found it.  They put a new lock on our carport storage door last fall & then hid the key on me.   They also hid the key to our neighbor's garage until Kelly found it in a 'Sucrets' box on the neighbor's sun porch.  Turned off most of the switches in our fuse box & got a big kick out of watching me try to figure out why the boombox in the washroom wouldn't work.  Kelly turned on the switches in the fuse panel to solve that problem.  You can see she's a darn good little problem solver you know.    They took one of the cables off my van's battery & howled as they watched me try to start the van!!  At this point I have no idea whatsoever where they have hidden all my outside light timers that I so carefully put away last fall in a safe place I would remember this spring.  Took Kelly nearly 40 minutes on the phone with some tekky kid in Halifax to finally determine our internet company had forgot to reactivate our internet.  My questions was......what's an internet??  And so it goes, & so it goes:((

Tomorrow I will put together some thoughts on why it's good to be back in the 'sticks & bricks' again.  Maybe got something to do with an endless hot water supply, large living spaces, speedy internet, & a real kitchen table.....D'ya think!!

DSC_0019

Question about our house plants while away.  The one you saw in yesterday's blog picture background is plastic but we do winter a bunch of plants in our sunroom which a kind neighbor looks after during the winter months.  And a big welcome to new blog follower Robert Nilsen.  Keep your Geography books handy Robert because I'm sure you will have to be doing some checking up on me!!

And lastly.....with 3 computers I am dealing with 3 separate Live Writer programs so I may not have each one set up exactly the same as the others so there may be some little differences to the blogs appearance now & again until I can get them all looking the same..........hmmmm, what's a Live Writer anyway:((

bathtime

KELLY'S SON BEN JUST SENT THIS PICTURE OF HIS 2 NEPHEWS LANGDON & KEENAN.....TWO OF KELLY'S 4 GRANDS:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  I was walking home last night when I noticed an old drunk staggering along the road. He passed a woman who was walking a young child. "Lady", said the drunk, "that's the ugliest kid I've ever seen. Damn, that is one ugly child!." As the drunk wandered off, the lady burst into tears. Just then, a mailman came to her rescue. "What's the matter, madam?" he asked. "I've just been horribly insulted" she sobbed. "There there," said the mailman, reaching into his pocket. "Dry your eyes with this tissue, and here's a banana for the chimp."

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

7 comments:

  1. It is good to see you home again, it seems that you have some of the same traits that I have. I put some things in places where I won't lose them but then again I can't find them either.
    You must be built differently than I am, when I get home after a long tough trip like you have, I find all sorts of excuses to not do the things that I know that I should do.
    Wilf Blakey

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you have your work cut out for you, but that you are looking forward to it. That's all that really matters...are YOU happy with your living 2 lifestyles. Sounds like you are and that you are loving every minute of it. Except for those pesky gremlins!

    Enjoy your clean-up work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kelly is a great little problem solver? I'd say she is Superwoman!

    That is a really cute picture of the kids.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Al. I'm sure everyone that reads your blog will forgive you the mistakes knowing you are one poor beat-up blogger.

    Pull the plug on that Inet thingy and go to bed. Matter of fact, take tomorrow off. You can tell Kelly that I gave you permission to do nothing for the day.

    Ray

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cute picture of two cute kids! Sure glad you enjoy all that clean up stuff. We'd just dry up and blow away if we had to do that! It's amazing how perspective changes things. Before you left home, you were longing to get away from home, now you are so glad to be back. You were thrilled to be getting to the desert, then you got sick and tired of the desert wind. Yup, I do it too! Can't wait to get back on the road, so anxious to get home again afterwards. By the way, in Arizona, those gremlins are called Kokopelli, and they work exactly the same way!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I know what you mean about mistakes, Al, I've renamed a couple of mountains near Desert Hot Springs and my loyal readers have promptly corrected me. Getting back home after a few months is always interesting to see what works, what doesn't and to find out why I can't find things knowing I put them in places that I would be sure to remember so I wouldn't lose them. Yeah, right!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a wonderful ride we had with you. I hope we can travel together next time too. Keep up the journal it is the best.

    Joe and Sherri

    ReplyDelete