DURING THE POWER OUTAGE I HAD COLORED STARS ALL OVER MY LIVING ROOM

 AFTER THE STORM iPhone

About 30 seconds after I posted my Wednesday blog late in the afternoon, the approaching storm was upon us, and our power went out.  And it stayed out until 9:15 this morning.  Went out again ten minutes later and then came back on again about forty minutes later.  It has been on ever since.  At the height of the storm with huge winds and driving rain, I heard what I thought was a tree come down.  Thought I heard another one but looking around after the storm went through I think it was only part of a tree that came down on the street behind us.  We were very fortunate here not to have any other damage.  Other parts of Southern Ontario were not so lucky.  There is widespread damage, especially to the southeast of us.  To what extent I don't know yet, but I'm sure it will be on the news channels today.  As soon as the storm cleared our area, I donned a rain jacket, hat, and a pair of work gloves, and hopped into the car to take a quick drive around the Park to see if any trees had come down on houses and people may need help.  After all, we are all mainly Seniors in here.  Aside from part of a tree on the street behind us, I didn't see any other damage, except for small limbs and branches down.  It wasn't long before I saw Park owner Adam's little orange Bobcat clearing away that partially downed tree.  With no power, I later drove into Bayfield and was happy to see the village still had power.  I slipped into Tim Hortons and grabbed a coffee to go.  Aside for some small branches down here and there, Bayfield looked in good shape.  Because both my TVs are on the fritz at the moment, I have not seen any of the news reports about the extensive damage caused by yesterday's severe storm.  If anyone missed my post yesterday, they can find it here at, Had Myself Quite A Schmozzle This Morning

 I CAN SEE SKIES CLEARING ACROSS THE LAKE WAY OVER THERE IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN

 ON THE WAY HOME I ENCOUNTERED THIS BLOCKAGE AND HAD TO BACK UP AND TURN AROUND

Home again, and with no power, I checked on neighbor Monica, and she was doing okay. Back in the house, I went and gathered together a few candles and a couple of flashlights.  Kelly had bought an emergency radio years ago, so I had that up and running too.  It has batteries and can be hand-cranked if the batteries fail.  For music, and with my wireless headphones on, I turned to my iPhone's music files and chose a folder named Al's Favs.  How wonderful to have my very much most soft ambient music to listen to while I continued re-reading one of my Anne Of Green Gables books.  Also, I hauled out my little plastic star projection thing, put some batteries in it, and in the darkness, I had colored stars all over my living room.  I leisurely tipped back in my recliner and magically enjoyed the power outage.

 TIPPED BACK IN MY RECLINER WITH MY MUSIC, I HAD THE MOON AND STARS ON MY CEILING AND WALLS.....IT WAS MAGIC

Of course, I was disappointed to wake up this morning to silence.  The power was still off, and my iPhone had run out of juice. But, not to be deterred, I was soon in the car with the phone charging in a charger plugged into the cigarette lighter thingy.  Although foggy, I headed straightaway for Tim Hortons coffee shop with fingers crossed that they would be open.  They were.  From there it was home again to finish my coffee.  Still no power, so off to my walking road I went, and from there, half an hour later, headed back home.  Still no power, but finally it did come back on, and I was able to start catching up on things.   

 ROLLING OUT OF THE PARK I COULD SEE IT WAS FOGGY

IT WAS A FOGGY MORNING WALK

 CANADA GEESE IN THE HARVESTED WHEAT FIELD ALONGSIDE MY WALKING ROAD

 THE STORM WINDS WERE SO STRONG YESTERDAY THAT THEY BLEW THIS CLUMP OF GOLDEN ROD SIDEWAYS

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 IT LOOKS LIKE THIS LITTLE SPIDER'S WEB, ONLY A FEW FEET AWAY FROM THE GOLDEN ROD WITHSTOOD THE STORM'S FURY

 I PARK HERE SO OFTEN THAT ALL THE LONG DITCH GRASS IS FLAT

Al's Music Box:: True Love Ways by Buddy Holly

 GRAIN WAGONS IN THE MORNING MIST

GROANER'S CORNER::My grandfather worked in a blacksmith shop when he was a boy, and he used to tell me, when I was a little boy myself, how he had toughened himself up so he could stand the rigors of blacksmithing.  One story was how he had developed his arm and shoulder muscles. He said he would stand outside behind the house and, with a 5-pound potato sack in each hand, he would extend his arms straight out to his sides and hold them there as long as he could.  After a while, he tried 10-pound potato sacks, then 50-pound potato sacks. Finally, he got to where he could lift a 100-pound potato sack in each hand and hold his arms straight out for more than a full minute.  Next, he started putting potatoes in the sacks.

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What do you get when you cross Speedy Gonzales with a country singer? Arriba McEntire.

What do you call a Mexican with a rubber toe? Roberto!

What do you call a Mexican with a lowered car? Carlos!

What do you call a Mexican drowning in mayonnaise?  Sinko De Mayo.

What do you call 4 Mexicans in quicksand?
Cuatro, sink-o.

What do you call a Mexican with a bottle of vermouth?  A dry Martinez.

What do you call two Mexicans playing basketball?  Juan on Juan.

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My very overweight wife and I were enjoying a swim in the hotel pool when a little boy of about five got into trouble and appeared to be drowning. Luckily, my wife was there to save his life...She got out to inform the lifeguard, and the water level dropped enough for him to stand up!

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A pastor was opening his mail one morning and one envelope had only a single sheet of paper with a single word printed on it: “FOOL!”  The following Sunday the priest announced, “I have known many people who have written letters and forgotten to sign their name. But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and had forgotten to write a letter.”

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery

HAD MYSELF IN QUITE A SCHMOZZLE THIS MORNING

We have a bad storm happening right now with tornado warnings so I am posting this early before the power goes out..... UPDATE::  After about 16 hours, our power was restored this morning at 9;15.  We escaped most of the damage that occurred in parts of Southern Ontario, with only a few tree branches down and part of one tree.  I do think there is a lot of damage elsewhere, though.  The storm suddenly hit last night about 30 seconds after I quickly published my post.  No reports of any tornadoes.

Finally, clear skies Tuesday evening, so I set off about 7:45.  About a mile and half east on Bayfield River Road, I saw something odd on the road ahead.  It was large and appeared to be black.  As I drew closer, I saw it was a cow, and then I saw another couple of cows making their way down into the left side ditch.   Slowing down I spotted half a dozen more cows at the end of a farm lane on the right-hand side.  They too were making for the road.  There was no oncoming traffic or anyone behind me, so I slowed right up and carefully turned into that farm lane, and headed for the house therein.  A lady was already out, so I pulled up to tell her about the cows.  She said she knew and had already called her son.  I turned around and headed back down the farm lane, thinking I had better park the car and help the farm fella wrangle those cows off the road.  I had no clue how to even begin to do something like that.  Well, I needn't have worried because up the farm lane came the young farmer in a side-by-side ATV.  He was dangling a white bucket out the side, and there right along behind him came all the cows following pretty much in single file.  With him calling to the cows, 'Koe-boss' 'Koe-boss', I instinctively knew he must have had some cow food in that bucket.  And not only that, but he obviously knew exactly what to do to get those cows quickly off the road.  Needless to say, I didn't have to throw a saddle on anything, nor hunt me up a length of rope to make a lariat out of.  Lassoing cattle isn't necessarily my strongest point anyway.  

 A QUICK SHAKY SHOT OF THE LAST COW RUNNING BY ME

 AND ANOTHER QUICK SHOT IN MY SIDEVIEW MIRROR OF THE FARMER LEADING THE COWS BACK TO THEIR PASTURE

Nice evening for a walk, a coffee to go in Clinton, and some quiet time at my stargazing spot on Tower Hill Line.     

I JUST MADE IT TO MY WALKING ROAD IN TIME TO CATCH A QUICK GLIMPSE OF THE SETTING SUN PEEKING OUT FROM BEHIND A HEAVY CLOUD COVER ON THE HORIZON

Our power went off in the night but came back on again.  However, when I woke up this morning, both the TV and internet were offline, so you can already see where I'm headed with my schmozzle.  Not knowing if it was a Tuckersmith Communications (my internet provider) problem or just my setup here at home, I decided to wait until the Tuckersmith office was open in Bayfield.  Besides, I had a prescription to drop off at Michaels Pharmasave, and it was in the same location as Tuckersmith.  The lady at Tuckersmith had me go home and unplug (reboot) the Eero modem Box thingy, then wait thirty seconds and plug it back into the power outlet on my surge protector bar.  Did that, and the little Eero light did not come on, meaning I was still not connected to the internet.  I absolutely hate having to get on the phone and call tech support, but I was dead in the water and had no choice.  I've had so many negative experiences dealing with people online whom I couldn't understand most of the time, waiting in a long phone queue to be heard, and then having to enter passwords, PIN numbers, birth dates, the color of my favorite dog, and the license plate number of my very first car.  These are the reasons I switched from my Eastlink Internet Provider based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Tuckersmith Communications, based in Seaforth, Ontario, only a twenty-minute drive from here.  And that change of internet providers paid off this morning.  Right away, I was in touch with a nice lady speaking plain English, asking only, 'how may I help you'.  She was very patient with me in getting everything up and running again.  In fact, she had more patience with me than I generally have with myself.  But still, getting everything going again was no easy task for me.  I won't go into all the things I had to do, re-do, and do all over again because of my mistakes, but it was a lengthy process. Well, at least it seemed that way to me.  And why was that?? Because I was the one making the mistakes.  But, despite all that, little did the lady or I, know that there was another contributing factor.  Unbeknownst at the time, the surge protector that everything is plugged into had been compromised.  Anyway, we did get everything up and running somehow and I was briefly a happy camper.  Except it didn't last long.  I noticed my Bose sound bar was not powering up.  So, I guess in unplugging the power cord, I somehow knocked out the internet and TV again.  It's a wonder I still have any hair left because I sure felt like ripping it out by the handful.  So, somewhere in the agonizing process of trying to get things up and running again, I made a discovery.  Some of the power outlets in the surge protector didn't seem to be working.  Or, they would work okay and then they wouldn't, and that kind of made sense as to why we had trouble earlier getting things going.  I didn't want to call tech support back and have that poor lady painstakingly guide me through everything again, so I took a chance and unplugged everything from the surge protector and replaced it with a simple power bar.  Before I introduced the power bar into the system, I plugged it into a power outlet in the washroom and then plugged my electric shaver into the seven outlets to make sure they all worked.  They did.  Back behind the TV I went and rehooked up everything.  With great apprehension, I waited for things to cycle up.  Everything did, and I was lucky enough to remember the programming procedures for getting both the TV and Internet back up and online again.  But oh my, what a schmozzle it had been!!  At least I now have a better chance of figuring this all out if it happens again.  Well, that is if it happens again within the next twenty minutes because after that, my memory will have cleared itself of al helpful instructions:((

 AND YES, THERE ARE STILL A FEW DANDELIONS GROWING ALONG THE ROADSIE

It was just too hot and humid for me to even think about venturing outside this afternoon so it was more time spent on my exercise bike watching interesting things on YouTube.

 ONE OF MY LITTLE PALS PEEKING IN THE PATIO DOOR AND WONDERING WHERE I AM AND WHY I HAVEN'T COME OUT TO PLAY TODAY

A Blast From Our Past:: Bloggers.....We're Quite A Bunch In my third year of blogging, I wrote a few paragraphs about bloggin in this post back in September of 2009, and it had to do with my thoughts about blogging at that time.  The paragraphs are near the end of that daily blog, and begin with the words, 'Had an interesting email from a fellow Blogger friend'.  Also, Facebook threw my some photos from our first year RVing to the southwest.  Due to a water pump leak in our fifthwheel while doing an overnighter at Eastern Arizona's Patagonia Lake State Park we had to head for a repair facility in Tucson, Arizona.  I was called Beaudry RV Park.  While there for a few days, we decided to take the pick up truck and head off and head off to have a look around the west side of Tucson.  One of the places we stopped at was, ?? This is where many of the old Western movies were made many years ago.  Most of the original set burned down, but part of it had been rebuilt.  Kelly and I wandered around looking at things and then all of a sudden we ended up in a gunfight on the street.  Below are the photos took of that gunfight.  

 YOU CAN SEE KELLY STANDING THERE DRESSED IN BLACK

 WE VENTURED INTO THE GRAND PALACE SALOON

 AND THEN A GUNFIGHT BROKE OUT IN THE STREET

 OF COURSE IT WAS ALL PLAY ACTING TO SHOW HOW AND WHERE THE OLD MOVIES WERE MADE

 OUR GMC TRUCK AND ROCKWOOD FIFTH WHEEL WEST OF TUCSON, ARIZONA

 IN A  SMALL PARKING AREA AT THE FOOT OF THE QUINLAN MOUNTAINS....KELLY STAYED HERE WITH THE DOGGY GUYS WHILE I DROVE UP INTO THOSE MOUNTAINS TO THE KITT PEAK NATIONAL OBSERVATORY FOR A LOOK AROUND

 IN THE FIFTH WHEEL, THERE'S KELLY AT THE TABLE WITH OUR ONLY LAPTOP AT THE TIME, WHILE RELAXING ON THE COUCH ARE CORA (MOTORMOUSE) AND MAX, WHILE CHECKERS IS STRETCHED OUT ON THE FLOOR

Al's Music Box:((  Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( While shopping in a food store, two nuns happened to pass by the beer, wine, and liquor section. One asked the other if she would like a beer. The second nun answered that, indeed, it would be very nice to have one, but that she would feel uncomfortable purchasing it. The first nun replied that she would handle it without a problem. She picked up a six-pack and took it to the cashier. The cashier was surprised, so the nun said, This is for washing our hair. Without blinking an eye, the cashier reached under the counter and put a package of pretzel sticks in the bag with the beer. The curlers are on me.

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"The Jewish people have observed their 5758th year as a people," the Hebrew teacher informed his class. "Consider that the Chinese have observed only their 4695th. What does this mean to you?" After a reflective pause, one student volunteered, "Well, for one thing, the Jewish people had to do without Chinese food for 1063 years."

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A plane hit a patch of severe turbulence and the passengers were holding on tight as it rocked and reeled through the night. A little old lady turned to a minister who was sitting behind her and said, "You're a man of God. Can't you do something about this?" He replied, "Sorry, I can't. I'm in sales, not management."

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A pious man who had reached the age of 105 suddenly stopped going to synagogue. Alarmed by the old fellow's absence after so many years of faithful attendance, the Rabbi went to see him. He found him in excellent health, so the Rabbi asked, "How come after all these years we don't see you at services anymore?" The old man caustiously looked around and lowered his voice. "I'll tell you, Rabbi," he whispered. "When I got to be 90, I expected God to take me any day. But then I got to be 95, then 100, then 105. So I figured that God is very busy and must've forgotten about me, and I don't want to remind Him!"

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Two little Morons were building a barn. While putting up the inside wall, one noticed that the other little Moron was tossing every other nail into the garbage can.He asked, "Why are you throwing those nails away?" The other little Moron answered, "The pointed end is on the wrong end of the nail." The other little Moron said, "Well, don't throw those away, we can use those on the outside wall!"

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Al's Doggy World 

 OUR VERY OWN CHECKERS TWENTY YEARS AGO

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Al's Art Gallery