I LOVE SCHMOOSHY SO I ATE THE WHOLE DARN THING:))

HEADING TOWARDS DARKENING SKIES

I heard three distinctive metallic buzzing bangs.  It was high noon & our power went out.  And it stayed out.  Winds were gusting in off the lake waving tree branches around, there was thunder in the sky & I had a feeling it was probably raining somewhere nearby.  It was.  My guess at the power outage was a blown transformer.  Power company said power would be restored in about 3 hours.

Had been a nice morning on the mild side.  A few more things into the Motorhome, a few more things off the porch into storage for winter.  Kelly was over at neighbor Monica's helping with a computer problem when the power went out.  Of course that just made the problem worse when they lost all the progress they had made. 

SIGNS OF AUTUMN ON SOME OF OUR ROADSIDE TREES

 
Elections for Mayor coming up in Bayfield next month so Kelly headed into town to attend a candidates meeting at the town hall.  She was curious to hear the candidates speak.  With no power in the house & no interest in politics Pheebs & headed off to the beach in Goderich.  Besides, who wants to sit around in a stony silenced music-less house anyway.

With today's winds & stormy skies I figured Lake Huron's waves would be up & maybe I could grab a few photos while Pheebs has a romp on the beach.  And that’s what we did.  Picked up a coffee & a carrot muffin at Tim Horton's on the way & we were soon on the beach.....in the rain.  Luckily that water falling from the sky didn't last long.  Watched a couple fellas trying to launch a big wind surfing sail.  Try as they did they only got it into the air once & the fella hanging on to it immediately fell off his surfboard.  That put a damper on the day for them.  Packed up their gear & headed home.

 

TRY AS THEY DID THIS FELLA JUST COULD NOT GET AIRBORNE

PHEEBS & I WATCH FROM A DISTANCE

FINALLY ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH AS ONE FELLA HEADS INTO THE WATER TO RETRIEVE HIS SURFBOARD & THE OTHER FELLA CARRIES THE SAIL BACK UP THE BEACH
Nice to feel a warm off shore breeze rolling in.  Always nice to hear waves coming ashore as well.  Pheebs was very careful not to get her paws wet.  I was very careful not to drop my muffin crumbs all over the place.

   

Pheebs & I were home by 2 & happy to see the power back on.  Soon replaced that stone cold house silence with several sources of groovy music.  But it didn't last long.  About 4:45 our cable TV & internet went out.  Stony silence again.  Out to the Motorhome & retrieved my headphones, plugged into my laptop & soon had my ears a-rockin again.  Our internet remained out till about 6.  Luckily Kelly had just picked up a DVD at the Library Friday.  Called 'The Fault In My Stars' she finished the book a couple days ago.  I watched it for a bit but just couldn't get myself into the movie.  Back on with my headphones & cranked up some Saturday night country music.  Laptop on the top side of my lap as I tapped out tonight's post. Internet back on sometime around 6.  All is right with the world again:))

 

Kelly baked a blueberry banana bread loaf & I have had to eat the whole darn thing.  Seems it didn’t bake all the way through despite Kelly’s attempts to get it to do so.  Center part ended up all kinda schmooshy.  I love schmooshy.  It was like blueberry banana bread  pudding.  Kelly wouldn’t eat it.  It was the most best blueberry banana bread of my whole darn life.  How could I not just schmoosh it all down:)))))))))))))))))

GROANER'S CORNER:((   When asked by a young patrol officer, "Do you know you were speeding?" this 83-year-old woman talked herself out of a ticket by stating, "Yes, but I had to get there before I forgot where I was going!"

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A middle aged woman was driving through a school zone when a policeman pulled her over for speeding. As he was giving her the ticket, she said, "How come I always get a ticket and everyone else gets a warning? Is it my face?"  "No, ma'am," explained the officer, "it's your foot."

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The police officer got out of his car as the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window.  "I've been waiting for you all day," the officer wisecracked.  The kid replied, "Well I got here as fast as I could."  The officer, knowing he had been outwitted sent the kid on his way without a ticket.

JEEP’S ENGINE LIGHT ON BUT IT DIDN’T KEEP PHEEBS & I FROM OUR MORNING COUNTRY DRIVE

IT WAS A NICE MORNING IN THE HULLETT MARSH

Our morning walks have been a little chillier as of late so we have had to add an extra layer of clothing.  Flying insects do not have that option so we win they lose.  Nice to walk without flailing away at biting & stinging airborne annoyances. 

A TINY SINGLE LEAF FLOATS LEISURELY ON THE WATER’S SURFACE AS LONG REEDS OF YELLOW GRASS ON THE CREEK’S BOTTOM GENTLY BEND IN THE UNDERWATER CURRENT BELOW…OVERHEAD TREES ARE REFLECTED IN THE CREEK’S CLEAR WATER
With rain in the forecast for Saturday & Sunday I figured Pheebs & I had better slip out this morning while we still had sunny skies overhead.  Headed over to the Hullett Marsh & drove by the area of last Saturday's fatal shooting.  Nobody around & all was quiet.  Police held a press conference this morning saying they are looking for a suspect & a blue Toyota.  No motive for the shooting yet.

THESE ARE BUSY DAYS FOR BUZZY BEES

Pheebs & I didn't stay out as long as usual because the Jeep's engine light had come on earlier.  Checked the manual & it said not serious unless the engine light symbol is flashing.  Wasn’t flashing.  Slipped around to the Bayfield Garage anyway & they said it wasn't serious & to return at 2 this afternoon for a diagnostic test.  Did that & it turns out we need a new gas cap.  They will have that gas cap in next week.  Glad we had this little problem now rather than later while on the road traveling.

From time to time I receive questions about my photos & the free PICASA photo editing program I use.  I have done a few posts in the past with suggestions for people but sometimes I feel I may have confused some folks more than helped them.  Of course some things are just not easily explained but I’ll try in the future while I’m editing my photos to choose some now & again pics & explain how I edited them.  Let me just say one thing up front while I’m thinking about it though.  I edit my photos manually which means I do not use Picasa’s ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button.  When I first came across Picasa years ago I used that button a lot & now whenever I go back to my early Picasa photos & want to use one of those ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ pictures I have to completely re-do the photo my way which is manually.  These are the Picasa tools I frequently use….Crop-Straighten-Auto Contrast-Auto Color-Retouch-Fill Light-Highlights-Shadow-Color Temperature-Sharpen-Saturation & Graduated Tint.  There are others such as Black & White etc. which I also use sometimes but those first 12 are my main manual tools.   It’s not that Picasa maybe doesn’t do an Ok job on ‘some’ photos it’s just that after working with my editing tools over the years I can now do a better job myself than Picasa’s ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button can.  You can too ‘if you have an interest & a desire to improve your photos’.  Just a thought:))

I remember someone asking a week ago or so if our Congress AZ house was in the flood zone with all the heavy rains in that area recently.  Far as I know it wasn’t but also do know we will see evidence in our back yard of where water has traveled across the back of our property.  I’m sure some firewood I had piled back by our fence will be scattered again.  We have neighbors keeping an eye on things for us & I’m sure if we had any leaky roof problems or water reaching our house they would have emailed us.  I think it’s a case of ‘no news is good news’:))

AN OLD CONCRETE BARN SILO REFLECTING IN OUR PARK’S POND

GROANER'S CORNER:(( You know how hard it is to talk to your dentist when your teeth are being cleaned or you are getting a filling? Well, I decided I would make up a sort of sign language that you could use to express yourself without having to mumble.  Below are 10 common things you might wish to say, numbered 1-10. These would be printed on a poster and mounted on the ceiling above the dentist chair. It would give you something to read since procedures can be boring. When a phrase seems appropriate, you would just hold up the corresponding number of fingers to express yourself. The dentist would not need to stop to ask you to repeat yourself and could fix the problem right away.
1. Everything is fine, but my nose itches.
2. When you get a chance, there seems to be spit running down my neck.
3. So, I guess you had garlic again for lunch today?
4. You realize that wasn't my tooth that you just poked with that incredibly sharp tool.
5. I would REALLY prefer you didn't do that again.
6. Could you please suction the chunk of debris that you missed before I gag?
7. Remember how I said I was numb? I think I may have been mistaken.
8. Wait a minute -- maybe I am allergic to latex.
9. Just so you know, if I don't get to take a break soon, I may bite you.
10. Please stop asking me stupid questions about myself or I will rip that paper mask off your face.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY KELLY:))

I was totally determined not to write a post tonight & wouldn't you know it, here I am again.  Will I ever get away from this hobby I so enjoy.  Am having to take Pheebs for her walks earlier each night now as old Sol hurries to tuck himself in earlier & earlier every evening.   Always just a little puff of steam on the horizon as he quite daintily dips himself into Lake Huron.  

It's a wonder we never got ourselves thrown out of a Tim Horton's coffee shop today.  Despite Tim's investing a lot of money in the engineering of their their rock hard bench coffee shop seats designed to ache anyone's buns after 20 minutes, one of my best friends Jim & I parked our equally hard old buns on one of those seats for a straight five & half hours.  Good example of getting our blue jeans caught between a rock & a hard place.  Had been over a year since our last coffee shop meeting so of course we had a lot of catching up to do.  We met at 10 this morning in the little town of Seaforth Ontario & we never rolled out of Seaforth till 3:45 this afternoon.  I think the staff even went through a shift change while we were there but nobody hassled us.  Two teetering white haired guys slumped in the corner…………with muffins.  The entire Tim Horton's staff looked like they should all still be in school somewhere.  Now what Kid is going to come over & tell two shabbily dressed life hardened genuine crusty old cantankerous Curmudgeons to leave eh.  Jim & I have known each other for 35 years & I have posted about our marathon coffee blow-outs several times in my posts.  He & wife Barb celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this past Tuesday.  I was best man at that wedding.  We talked today of how we seem to see less & less of each other as years go by.  We simply had to chalk it up to our Seniorly reclusive ways.

About 5:30 Wednesday night I heard Kelly talking to someone outside by our porch.  A few minutes later she came in with the words, "well that's a scam for sure".  With a brochure in hand regarding 'water heater rentals' she immediately headed for the computer to type in a company by the name of National Home Services.   Twenty minutes later she came back saying, "it's a scam alright."  With those words she affixed a piece of tape to the brochure they had given her, slipped on her coat, climbed on her bicycle & pedalled on over to the Park's mailroom whereupon she taped the brochure to the chalkboard with a warning & signed her name.  But she wasn't through with the Spammers yet.  She had spotted them not far from the mail room having a smoke break.  Approaching them she asked if they had permission to be soliciting in our Park.  She also asked if they had signed anyone up & where did they get a list of people living here.  They hummed & hawed around.  Kelly then told them she was a member of the Park's management team (she's not) & asked them to leave the property.  They headed for the Park's entrance & Kelly watched to make sure they had left.  Here's what the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU had to say about National Home Services.    Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Kelly:))))))
ALL THE LITTLE SPECKS YOU SEE IN THIS PHOTO ARE NOT DUST ON MY LENS, CAMERA’S MIRROR OR MY CAMERA’S SENSOR….THEY ARE A WHOLE HERD OF GNATS FLYING AROUND MY HEAD
I don't know what 4 centimeters equals in inches but the weather channel said they had 4 centimeters of snow in Wawa Ontario.  Wawa is on the Trans-Canada highway which in turn is on the route we are hoping to take in a few weeks.  Needless to say we are beginning to keep a close eye on the weather patterns north of Lake Superior.  Whenever temperatures are low enough to have snow it is very likely salt could be spread on the roads to prevent ice & I don't think there is anything more damaging & corrosive to vehicles than rock salt.  Our Big EEE has never been on salt laden roads & we intend to keep it that way.  We do have our fingers crossed for warmer weather along our route in a few weeks.

AUTUMN CROCUS
Been quite awhile since we have heard from Debra over at FIND AN OUTLET and she hasn't lost any of her feisty fine writing abilities.  Many will identify with what she has written in her latest post.  Here is Debra's opening paragraph...."What kind of term is Human Resources anyway? Doesn’t it evoke images of exploitation? Fine, if that’s what you call employees, I’m a human resource—a good one—but it doesn’t matter how reliable, ethical, or conscientious I am, I wouldn’t fit into your corporate culture".

THIS WAS THE LAST PHOTO I MISTAKENLY PUT IN MY WEDNESDAY NIGHT POST….I HAD FORGOT TO ‘SAVE’ MY CHANGES TO IT IN MY PHOTO EDITING PROGRAM

THIS IS THE SAME PHOTO AFTER REMEMBERING TO ‘SAVE’ THE CHANGES I HAD MADE TO IT IN MY PICASA PHOTO EDITING PROGRAM

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Back before he became an instantly recognized celebrity, when Albert Einstein was first making the rounds of the speaker's circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur that he was tired of speechmaking.
"I have an idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give this speech so many times. I'll bet I could give it for you." 
Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!"   When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few questions expertly. Then a supremely pompous professor asked an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool.
Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, "Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me."

A FEW PHOTOS TONIGHT

SAW THIS SEAGULL JUST HANGIN OUT AT STAPLES TUESDAY MORNING

 

  

   

 

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A man was wheeling himself frantically down the hall of the hospital in his wheelchair, just before his operation.  A nurse stopped him and asked, "What's the matter?"  He said, "I heard the nurse say, 'It's a very simple operation, don't worry. I'm sure it will be all right.'"  "She was just trying to comfort you. What's so frightening about that?"  "She wasn't talking to me. She was talking to the doctor!"

TIRED TONIGHT & NOT TOO WORDSY

After several days of cloudy cool rains it was nice to wake up to clear sunny skies.  Pheebs & I didn't waste any time in getting ourselves into the Jeep & off down the road.  Had a coupon for an A&W breakfast so that's where we headed first.  Picked up some gas, some peanut butter, & we were off for a little ride in the countryside.  Nice morning with big white fluffy clouds.  It was another windows down with the heater on kind of day.  We found our way home by noon.

Added some water to the rig's fresh water tank & decided it was probably a good day to shut off our units outside water for the season.  With some new ROXUL insulation I re-insulated the main water pipe where it come’s out of the ground & enters our house.  Just another check mark on my long 'to do' list before we hit the road.  Seven months from now it will again be on my ‘to do’ list when I once more turn the red tap the other way to start our outside water flowing for the summer.

Talked to Aunt Jean in Sarasota Florida Sunday night & she has had to shorten up her morning walks a bit.  Had to sit out a few holes on the golf course as well last week but she is determined not to let her aging 87 years get her down.  Aunt Jean has always been an extraordinarily determined person.

Again tonight I am feeling tired & not too wordsy so think I'll call it an early night.  Maybe try spending a little more time with my Kindle……………………….

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Instructor: "Isn't it remarkable how quickly the kids learn to drive the car?" Parent: "Yes, especially considering how slowly they catch on to running the lawnmower and operating the vacuum cleaner."
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A man is giving a speech at his lodge meeting. He gets a bit carried away and talks for two hours. Finally, he realizes what he is doing and says; "I'm sorry I talked so long. I left my watch at home."  A voice from the back of the room says, "There's a calendar behind you."