KELLY GOT MY ‘LIVE WRITER’ PROGRAM WORKING AGAIN:))

  

 

Kelly was able to make some progress on our computer problem today & I don’t think we’ll have to take it in now. Happy to say my Live Writer program is up & running again. Today's photos are from Tuesday's Jeep tour.

 

Ground had dried up enough from recent rains to take a couple utility trailer loads of recently sawed up trees & branches to our recycling yard here in the Park. Even with our 4 wheeling Jeep I do not like to mess around in muddy conditions. I remember just a few days after getting our Jeep 3 summers ago a fellow down the road took us on a little 'bush tour' out behind his place. Had recently rained & we were temporarily bogged down in mud up to our Wa-zoooooos. I remember thinking at the time if we ever get out of that mud & oozy water filled muck I'll not be doing that ever again. We did get out & true to my word that was the last time for that kind of silly muddiness for this guy. LESSON LEARNED!!

 

 

And a wee look back on a short dream we had cookin a few years back…THE LAZY W RANCH.  Click on the short ‘Slideshow’.  

 

We welcome a new Blog Follower today.  Making the leap to full time RVing on April Fool’s day of this year another young adventuresome couple has turned their dreams into realities & joined many like minded fellow RV’ers out here on the open roads of North America.  Thanks for dropping by LOIS LANE:))

Groaner's Corner:(( An atheist was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly his boat was attacked by the Loch Ness monster. In one easy flip, the beast tossed him and his boat high into the air. Then it opened its mouth to swallow both. As the man sailed head over heels, he cried out, "Oh, God! Help me!"   As the atheist spun helplessly through the air, a booming voice came down from the clouds, "I thought you didn't believe in Me?"  "Give me a break!" the man pleaded. "Two minutes ago I didn't believe in the Loch Ness monster, either!"

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

JEEP RIDE, A SWAMP SCRAMBLE & COMPUTER PROBLEMS

Ran into a computer problem with our Lenovo desktop today. Live writer wouldn’t open tonight so this post is coming from my Toshiba laptop. 

 

GREENWING POOL AT THE HULLETT-MARSH THIS MORNING

With sunrise tickling the tops of our pine trees first thing this morning I knew Pheebs & I were going to get ourselves out for a Jeep ride.  The last few days had turned out to be long & gray so knew we needed to get ourselves out & shake off those rainy day blues.  Also wanted to take advantage of this great stretch of cooler weather we are having at the moment.  56F when we got up this morning & that works for me:))

Me & Little Miss Smarty Pants were out the door & on the road before 9 a.m.  It was a picture perfect morning again with big fluffy white & gray clouds overhead.  Nice to see sun splashes traveling across acres of green & golden farm fields.  Our usual trip through Tim Hortons drive-thru netted us a shareable breakfast.  From Clinton it was a short scurry over to the HULLETT-MARSH for a swamp scramble.  The Hullet-Marsh is very large & there are many entry points.  Had been about 25 years since I had walked in around the the Greenwing Pool so that is the area Pheebs & I headed for.  Despite our beautiful morning we had to cut our walk down to about half an hour because of an armada of biting Deer Flies, swarms of Gnats, & flocks of Mosquitoes.  Don't know why I can't seem to remember to put a can of bug spray in the Jeep.

 

From the Hullett-Marsh we travelled a maze of country back roads which eventually returned us to Goderich.  Had some things to pick up at Walmart plus I had heard they were planning on moving that big old stone & brick train station today.  We slipped down around the harbor area & I could see the train station was still in place but it did have a bunch of wheels under it.  Heard they plan to pull it with a big truck but whether it will be today or not I don't know.  Big lake freighter out on the lake & lots of people on the beaches.  Another large lake freighter taking on a load of rock salt at the salt mine & rows & rows of big grain hauling trucks at the lakeside grain elevators.  A busy harbor today.

  

I’M WONDERING IF THIS IS THE TRUCK THEY PLAN TO PULL THAT TRAIN STATION WITH   

This digitalizing of slides project I am working on has had a bit of an unexpected sad side to it.  Decided a few days ago to begin the project by doing all my 'people slides' first.  This involved family members, friends, & self.  It has been many years since I have looked at these pictures & as each slide comes up on the screen I am reminded of times, places, & events of days gone by.  'The way we were' so to speak.  Some of those are happy memories & some are not so happy.  Many are just downright sad.  Most of the people in my slides are gone now just as each slide's moment in time was gone from my memory until I put each slide up on the computer screen again.  It's interesting how the day to day brain has no recollection of these long ago pictures and yet within a millisecond of them appearing on the screen the brain instantly not only recognizes each picture but accesses all the factual information about that picture.  Time, dates, locations, & circumstances.  Also, in a flash the brain triggers it's emotional side as well & with each picture comes it's own set of feelings.  It's all there in the pictures.  It's all there in the history of our short lives.  In one glance, one photo instantly transports us back in time to another dimension of our being.  To another era of our lives & one can easily be overwhelmed by all those feelings……………….

A DISTANT LAKE FREIGHTER LEAVES GODERICH HARBOR…TOMORROW I HOPE TO POST MY TELEPHOTO SHOTS FROM TODAY (they are in the problematic desktop computer right now)

Phone rang early this afternoon & I heard Kelly in the sunroom say, "is your television working"?  My first thought was it's Uncle Harry calling about a problem he is having with his TV remote.  It was not unusual for Harry to call when he was having TV problems because he did not want to be without his favorite music channel.  Took me a few seconds to remember Uncle Harry is gone.  A year ago we were in the habit of going to see him every week.  Little did we know when we headed for the South-West last October our visit with Uncle Harry would be the last time.  I still occasionally absent mindedly think what day we are going down to see him.  As Kelly said in her Eulogy this past April, "wherever you are Harry, I hope they have the music turned on for you".

LARGE STRAW BALES STACKED IN A FARMER’S FIELD

Kelly spent a good part of her day working on some kind of new computer glitch.  Had a feeling it might have something to do with Internet Explorer 9 but when we tried to open some recent un-openable files using Google's Chrome & Firefox they still would not open.  Could not get our Microsoft Security Essentials to open either nor our CCleaner & a bunch of other programs.   System Restore didn’t work either.  Imagine my disappointment tonight when my Live Writer wouldn’t even work.  Although Kelly does not have a computer background she has done really well at sleuthing out problems & fixing them.  She has an uncanny ability to think a problem through & stay with it until she has it figured out.  She plans to tackle the computer problem again tomorrow……………………..

Thanks for that Tim Horton gift card Monica.  Pheebs & I will make good use of that for sure………………:)) 

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Long ago, when sailing ships ruled the waves, a captain and his crew were in danger of being boarded by a pirate ship. As the crew became frantic, the captain bellowed to his First Mate, "Bring me my red shirt!". The First Mate quickly retrieved the captain's red shirt, which the captain put on and lead the crew to battle the pirate boarding party. Although some casualties occurred among the crew, the pirates were repelled.  Later that day, the lookout screamed that there were two pirate vessels sending boarding parties. The crew cowered in fear, but the captain calm as ever bellowed, "Bring me my red shirt!". The battle was on, and once again the Captain and his crew repelled both boarding parties, although this time more casualties occurred.  Weary from the battles, the men sat around on deck that night recounting the day's occurrences when an ensign looked to the Captain and asked, "Sir, why did you call for your red shirt before the battle?" The Captain, giving the ensign a look of experience and wisdom, explained, "If I am wounded in battle, the red shirt does not show the wound and thus, you men will continue to fight unafraid." The men sat in silence marveling at the courage of such a man. As dawn came the next morning, the lookout screamed that there were pirate ships, this time ten of them, all fiercely armed and approaching at great speed. The men became silent and looked to their Captain for direction.  The Captain, calm as ever, bellowed, "Bring me my brown pants!"
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

ENJOYING OUR COOLER WEATHER:))

I am enjoying our much cooler temperatures compared to a week or so ago.  It is usually the middle of August when our weather pattern begins to change but I’m thinking it might be early this year.  Hoping it does not heat up again……….………………………….

GROANER’S CORNER:((  When you are young, you want to be the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. When you are older, you will settle for being the master of your weight and the captain of your bowling team.
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

SILLY ME FOR WASHING THE JEEP

Turned out to be one of those slow moving days.  Sunny for a few hours this morning before a cool heavy gray cloud cover moved in & kind of put a sour damper on things.  Not one of those days I would call awe inspiring.  And certainly not much in the way of photos.  I’ll have to scratch around in my files over the past week & see what I can find for pics tonight.

<<< THIS AMERICAN GOLDFINCH HAS A BEAK FULL OF WET NIGER SEED

In Saturday night's post I had a photo of a steam locomotive. TOM from way up there in that Alaska place asked, 'Did you stand in the tracks for that pic'? I have taken many countless photos over the years & whenever I look at one of them I can generally remember taking it, where it was taken, & the circumstances surrounding the photo. Can't remember what I had for breakfast 10 minutes ago but can remember photos I took with my Mother's old Kodak Brownie camera back in the 50's. But that locomotive photo has me stumped. I recognize the background & know the train is about a quarter mile west of the Tavistock train station but I have no recollection of taking that photo. I'm guessing the photo was taken from the train station with about a 200mm lens. I never had any kind of telephoto lens till about 1977 & it was a 135mm. And if I had stood on the tracks that close to an approaching train with an ordinary camera I would surely have remembered that. I do recall the very last steam locomotive to go through Tavistock though. It was a big event & a lot of the town's people turned out to see it roll into town & stop at the train station. A friend of mine has a photo of him & I standing next to that steam locomotive. But I'm confused about the year. Thought it was well before 1977. Tom was also a bit surprised that I would remember steam locomotives. I was born in 1944 & we lived just a stone's throw from the Tavistock train station.  A Tim Horton’s coffee shop now stands on that spot.   Steam locomotives were a daily part of my life as a young boy growing up. Yep, remember the steam age very well. I talked about those memories in a post I wrote last year entitled, AN OLD DEPARTED CHUM PUT A SMILE ON MY FACE TODAY.

ED had an interesting comment about my slide project. Ed writes; "Throw the slides away after you scan them!  Why keep them? You will probably have 2-3 copies of the digitized pictures saved in various places by the time you finish scanning and editing why do you need the slides? Do you suffer from a picture hording disorder? "It's a problem that's coming out of the woodwork, especially with the older adult population," says social worker Susan Hoskins, executive director of the Princeton (N.J.) Senior Resource Center and its hoarding task force. "As a therapist I have found very few things that are as difficult to treat … and so hard for people to give up."Good Luck!" I think Ed & Susan Hoskins might be on to something about people hoarding photos. And no doubt about it, I am one of those people in the 'older adult population'.  But I think the comments following Ed’s comment are interesting & I agree with them as well.   In the end, like most everything, it simply comes down to personal choice & how one values & where one places their priorities.  Say, I wonder if their is a 12 step program called, ‘Photo Hoarders Anonymous…….just in case.

 

Silly me for washing the Jeep a couple days ago.  You would think by now I would know better.  Had a bunch of tree limbs I could have taken to our recycle area here in the Park this morning after the rain but oh no, didn’t want to get the Jeep muddy.  Could have headed out late this afternoon under rainy skies to look for a rainbow when sunshine suddenly splashed through a break in the clouds but oh no didn’t want to get the Jeep dirty.  I’ll just have to plead temporary insanity for washing that Jeep & I’ll be darned if I’ll do a silly thing like that again any time soon!!  Yep, we get too soon old & too soon not so smart sometimes:((

Just remembered someone asking if we had any covered bridges in our area.  Closest one to us is the WEST MONTROSE COVERED BRIDGE 78 miles due east of us.  Have I been across this bridge? Yes, half a dozen or so times but it was probably close to 20 years ago since I last drove across it.

NO, NOT AN OUTHOUSE BUT A SMALL CHILDREN’S SHELTER AT THE END OF A LONG FARM DRIVEWAY WHERE ON RAINY OR WINDY COLD WINTER DAYS KID’S WILL WAIT INSIDE FOR THE SCHOOL BUS…CORN IN BACKGROUND IS UP CLOSE TO 7’ TALL NOW

I like this 3 minute video of my Son Sean being interviewed last month on a TV talk show called HAMILTON LIFE from Hamilton Ontario.  Found this on his Facebook page.  A very personable & talented fellow.

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Employer: "We need someone responsible for the job."
"Sir, your search ends here!! In my previous job whenever something went wrong, everybody said I was responsible."

-----------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

ANYWAY, THAT’S WHERE I’M AT WITH MY LITTLE PROJECT

 IT’S NOT OFTEN KELLY GET’S TO WALK BAREFOOT ON GRASS

A light morning drizzle followed us around the trail this morning but no matter, we had our rain hats & rubber boots on. Even Pheebs didn’t seem to mind the extra moisture on her fur. Kelly towelled her off upon returning home anyway & she liked that.

 

A QUIET BACKYARD CAMPFIRE A FEW DAYS AGO

Fired up the chain saw & cut down some small weed trees which were beginning to lean towards a neighbor’s house. That & the following clean up took about an hour.  A bit of humidity in the air put me back into the shower for a second time in a couple hours. As I’ve said before, when I work up a sweat I turn into a sticky ball of paste.

 

THIS STEEL BRIDGE IN OUR AREA WAS BUILT IN 1885

It was Kelly’s afternoon to work at Deer Park Lodge so Pheebs & I were on our own for supper. We always do OK in the food department & it’s never a problem getting some grub together for us guys.

SOME DAYS ARE JUST PLUM QUIET AROUND OUR HOUSE

I recognized that handsome devil of a fellow in our Blog Followers list right away this morning.  It’s none other than Bob from THE CARETAKER CHRONICLES.  Bob’s a fine writer & has a tantalizing sense of humor about him.  I remember last winter in Arizona my Aunt Jean saying she likes to read Bob’s posts.  He’s been on our sidebar for a long time now.  Welcome aboard Bob.  Well, maybe that should read, thanks for staying aboard for so long Bob.  Ya, that’s more like it:))

 

TIS THE SEASON FOR ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE FLOWERS AGAIN…ECHINACEA, OR COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE CONE FLOWER  

My digitalizing slides project continues but I am running into a problem.  Nothing technical.  Copier is working fine & I have a handle on the filing system in the computer.  Problem I am having is me.  I had originally intended to simply copy each slide & throw it in the garbage.  Easier said than done I am finding out.  Something just seems fundamentally wrong about doing that yet I know there is a very slim to no chance I will ever view these slides again with a projector.  The whole idea is to digitized the photos & put them on discs, ditch the slides, & take the Carousels to the Thrift Store.  Instead of putting the slides into the garbage or back into the Carousel I have been putting them in plastic print files which I have left over from yesteryear.  Problem is I only have a couple dozen print sleeves left.  Doubt if stores sell them anymore.  But that takes me back to my original problem.  Why am I saving the slides if I will probably never view them again anyway.  Bit of a dilemma for me.  I am currently working on two carousels entitled simply ‘Tavistock.’  That’s my home town & these slides are mainly of family members over the years.  Nothing really historical & the photos are just that, photos.  I have also noticed a slight yellowing caste to the slides as well which tells me they are slowly aging.  However, I am able to improve each photo significantly with my PICASA 3.9 photo editing tools.  Anyway, that’s where I’m at with my little project at the moment.

 

 

I THINK THIS IS ONE OF THE VERY LAST STEAM LOCOMOTIVES TO ROLL THROUGH TAVISTOCK ONTARIO & IT’S EASTBOUND  

Some good news from Congress.  The gaping hole along our eaves & soffit are finally repaired.  Only took the fellow about 8 months to get the job done.  A neighbor had to go over first with his ladder & spray the hole for Yellow Jackets first though.  It was because of Yellow Jackets the 2 fellows from the water works crew first pulled those boards off in the first place the very first day we arrived at our house last year on November 1rst. 

Storm coming in off the lake so better publish this early before we lose our electricity as usual……………..

 

GROANER’S CORNER:((  One day a cat loses its ninth life causes and goes to heaven. There he meets the Lord Himself. The Lord says to the cat, "You lived a good life and if there is any way I can make your stay in Heaven more comfortable, please let me know." The cat thinks for a moment and says, "Lord, all my life I have lived with a poor family and had to sleep on a hard wooden floor." The Lord stops the cat and says, "Say no more" and a wonderful fluffy pillow appears. A few days later six mice are killed in a tragic farming accident and go to heaven. Again the Lord them and makes the same offer. The mice answer, "All of our lives we have been chased. We have had to run from cats, dogs, and even women with brooms. We are tired of running. Do you think we could fit us with roller skates so we don't have to run anymore?" The Lord says, "No problem" and suddenly each mouse has a beautiful pair of roller skates. About a week later the Lord stops by to see the cat and finds him snoozing happily on the pillow. The Lord gently wakes him and asks, "How are things since you are here?" The cat slowly stretches out his legs. "It’s wonderful here. Better than I could have ever expected.” he replies, “And those Meals On Wheels you keep sending by are absolutely delicious!!!"

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.