A SNOWY FIRST DAY OF SPRING AND A TRIBUTE TO MY BEST FRIEND, RICHARD

ON THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING I FOUND SOME EARLY SPRING FLOWERS IN GODERICH

It was Thursday morning and I had figured out it was my turn to drive for another one of our coffee and muffin country road coffee tours.  I'm talking about my long-time best friend Richard of course.  Regardless of who drove, we always picked each other up a 9:30 a.m. twice a month.  But alas, it was only me with a coffee and a carrot muffin this morning with Richard having passed away a week ago.  On my way to Goderich with Pheebs in the passenger seat instead of Richard this morning, I thought a lot about him and our many, many, long conversations over the past 50 years.  Never a dull moment between us as our conversations flowed effortlessly like a fine-tuned Swiss watch.  So many times this past week I have found myself saying aloud and in my head, "Talk to me Richard, talk to me.  Below are a few excerpts from previous posts that I have written over the years about our country road coffee tours.......On July 06 2017 I wrote this.  "It’s about a 5 second drive from Richard’s driveway to our driveway so I was waiting for him this morning.  It was his turn to chauffeur me around on our 2 hour plus country road coffee tour.  Blue sunny skies with warm temperatures made it a perfect time for we two manic Magpies to be out and about.  Pretty much ran the gamut of just about everything again.  Can you imagine two half-stubborn and half-memory-challenged old Senior guys aged 79 and 72 respectively trying to convince each other that it would be a very wise move to ditch our archaic rotary phone mentality and truly get hip by getting ourselves into the ‘Smart Phone’ world.  No I can’t imagine it either but but that’s just one of the many topics that taxed our cobweb-challenged brains this morning.  Richard with his old frayed straw hat and me with my 12-year-old underwear on backwards."..........  I wrote this one on Sept 13 2018 after Richard and Gayle had sold their home kitty-corner from us in our Bayfield Pines Mobile Home Park.  They were leaving for Georgia and other unknown destinations in their Class A Georgetown motor home.  Here were my thoughts......Despite this being the last of our routine coffee tours our non-stop conversation never skipped a beat with our attention towards the end settling more around our age factors and the relentless march of time quickening the uncertain future.  Memories over the past 43 always bring us a few laughs and sad thoughts about those we knew who are now gone.  Always light-hearted, humorous, interestingly serious, and educatingly prophetic, all wrapped up in each and every one of our conversations every time we meet.  Been like that ever since we met many, many, Moons ago.  I will greatly miss my best friend, our coffee tours and all the things we talked about over the years.  But here’s the neat thing.  Where and whenever we meet next we will just pick right up where we left off as if a day hadn’t passed between us.  Until next time."......  Here's one from August 02 2019.  "I picked up my good friend Richard at 9:30 this morning and we were off on another one of our bi-monthly country road coffee tours.  How can two guys have so much to catch up on in only two weeks.  I don't know either but we always manage to enthusiastically get things up to speed right quick.   We even managed a walk in a scenic hilltop countryside cemetery southeast of Hensall Ontario.

MY BUDDY FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS

 ON ONE OF OUR  OCCASIONALMORNING WALKS NEAR THE MAITLAND RIVER

 RICHARD'S VAN AND MOTORHOME

THIS IS THE DAY WE WENT TO LOOK AT THE MOTORHOME HE BOUGHT IN PARKHILL ONTARIO

 DIAGNOSING A PROMBLE WITH OUR 'TRIPLE EEE 'MOTORHOM

 RICHARD TAKING A SCREEN DOOR OFF THE TRIPLE EEE THAT I HAD BENT

 TAKING THE DOOR BACK TO HIS PLACE ACROSS THE STREET TO FIX IT

 RICHARD, GAYLE, AND KELLY

 THE ONLY TIME I EVER SAW RICHARD TAKING A PICTURE OF ANYTHING

 RICHARD, GAYLE, ME, OUR GOOD NEIGHBOR MONICA, AND KELLY AT THE BAYFIELD BERRY FARM

 BEST PALS FOREVER AND BEYOND

Richard Robert Gregory ...... Passed away peacefully with his family by his side at Clinton Public Hospital on Friday, March 14, 2025 at the age of 87.
Loved husband of Gayle Gregory (nee Dilamarter). Proud father of Hayden Gregory and Sally Gregory. Fondly remembered by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and many dear friends and acquaintances.
As per Richard's request, cremation has taken place. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions to the Heart and Stroke Foundation would be appreciated.
Arrangements entrusted to Falconer Funeral Homes, 153 High Street, Clinton, Ontario. Messages of condolence for the Gregory family are welcome at www.falconerfuneralhomes.com.

 I CAN ONLY IMAGINE HOW UNCOMFORTABLE RICHARD MUST HAVE BEEN HERE WEARING A SUIT

With Wednesday's 70F temps I figured all the snow would finally be melted off Stirling's Line where I go to sit under the stars.  This road has been our morning walk road for Pheebs and I as well.  Hopped into the Subaru  last night and took a drive out there.  Except for a small blurb of snow, the road was clear.  But, like the previous night, the sky wasn't.  No matter, I did get to see the Big Dipper clearly and I was able to try out the star map app on my iPone to see through the cloud cover where the Constellations were located.  And as I stood there in the night's inky black darkness the words kept coming to me, "Talk to me Richard, talk to me".........

 ONLY THIS SMALL PATCH OF SNOW REMAINED ON STIRLING'S LINE LAST NIGHT

Pheebs and I headed off to Goderich this morning and amazingly enough we never even went to Walmart.  Nope, dropped into Zehrs Supermarket, picked up a few things and headed down to the harbor.  So nice to finally see all the ice and snow gone from Lake Huron's waters.  From there we stopped at A&W where I had a mess of bacon and eggs, toast and coffee with Pheebs helping me to eat it.  Pheebs ate her portion in the car of course.  Home again, with it spitting rain all the way I decided it was a good day to begin working on the carport's storage area.  This will be a different clean-up than other years just as it will be for the two sheds and the house.  Kelly and I accumulated way too much stuff over the years and it is my intent to get it all down to a manageable level.

 NO SNOW LEFT AT GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE

 AN ICE-FREE SHORELINE FINALLY

 FISHING BOATS ALL IN A ROW

 TWO LARGE SHIPS STERN TO STERN IN GODERICH'S ICE-FREE HARBOR

 SO NICE TO SEE AL THE ICE AND SNOW GONE OFF LAKE HURON

As the day wore on and with temperatures falling, the drizzly rain turned to snow and the snow kept coming.  Kind of depressing of course but then a bundle of sunshine rolled into the driveway in a little burgundy VW Tiguan.  It was Woodsy:))))))  She had driven through the falling snow from Stratford and said it wasn't as bad as it looked.  I knew she was coming, just not  sure when she was coming'.  I am a happy camper that she is here:))  Luckily, I had Dysoned all the carpets and Swiffored the kitchen and hall floors.  I cleaned up the washroom real good, did the dishes, and straightened everything up because I knew when Woodsy got here she would be walking around with her clipboard and pencil in her ear checking on my efforts.  I passed the inspection by the way:)))))  

 'YAAAAAAY, WOODSY IS HERE AGAIN':))))))))

Al's Music Box Do It Again is a 1972 song composed and performed by American rock group Steely Dan, who released it as a single from their debut album Can't Buy a Thrill as its opening track. The single version differed from the album version, shortening the intro and outro and omitting the organ solo.  Released in 1972, the song debuted on the Billboard Hot on November 18, 1972, and reached number 6 on the US charts in 1973, making it Steely Dan's second highest-charting single.  "Do It Again" features an electric sitar solo by Denny Dias. The "plastic organ" solo by Donald Fagen was performed on a Yamaha YC-30 with a sliding pitch-bending control.   David Palmer fronted the band during their live show, and sang "Do It Again" when the group played The Midnight Special in February 1973. Donald Fagen sang the vocal on the album version.  CashBox described it as a "fine commercial effort with plenty of potential as a hit record", going on to say that it "is highlighted by some fine vocal harmony and superb arrangement."  Record World" called it a "gentle rocker" that "has a bit of the Latin rock sound" and "solid production by Gary Katz."

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Complaints Received by "Thoma Cook Vacations" from Dissatisfied Customers!!

1. "They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax."

2. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food."

3. "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish."

4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price."

5. "The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room."

6. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow."

7. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallartato close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."

8. "No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared."

9. "Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers."

10. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

11. "The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun."

12. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair."

13. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends' three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller."

14. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the resort.' We're trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service."

15. "When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners."

16. "We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning."

17. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."

18. "I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes."

19. "My fiancée and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 ON A MORNING WALK KELLY CHECKS THE WAY AHEAD

CHECKING OUR DELORME GPS TO SEE IF IT KNOW WHERE WE ARE

 IN TOMBSTONE ARIZONA

Al's Art Gallery