LUCKILY, I FIGURED OUT THE E- BIKE'S POWER LOSS PROBLEM THIS MORNING

A wispy Sunday night cloud cover didn't make for the best sky watching, but I headed out anyway to partake in the evening's twilight glow.  So quietly peaceful in the countryside at that time of day........ Before loading my bike onto Subie's bike carrier this morning to take to 360 Bikes n Boards with a 'no power' problem, I decided to take the bike's battery off and put it back on again, just to see if maybe.........what the heck, it worked.  My bike once again had full power.  I'm guessing a bit of dirt or dust may have got onto one of the power connecting points on the battery.  Riding on the bike carrier on the back of the car does make them very susceptible to dust and stuff swirling up behind the car when going down the road.  A key is needed to get that battery off the bike, so I'll be riding with the battery key in my pocket at all times after this.  I did do a quick whiz-bang around the Park late this afternoon, and everything worked perfectly....even me.  And, by the way, Woodsy did offer to bike home, get the car with the bike carrier already on it, and come back and pick me up.  We weren't that far from home, and after all, it is a bicycle, so my decision was to simply ride it home....Which I did.  Maybe not so simply though, but at least I got it home:))

Heading down Bayfield River Road this morning to my walking spot, I noticed something odd.  On the south side of the road just west of Stirling Line (my walking road) there were seven black SUV type vehicles all parked single file where a long laneway leads south through a field, then into some trees.  I didn't see anyone around.  None of those cars were marked police cars, but still, I think something serious was going on somewhere!!  Arriving at my walking spot, I could see yesterday's farmer was back in his alfalfa field again after cutting the field Sunday morning.  This time, what looked to be the same tractor was pulling a different device that was raking the newly mown alfalfa into rows.  Then, after a bit, I saw a combine enter the field and begin to swoop up those rows.  Two more tractors towing wagons came into the field and began working with the combine.  So altogether at the same time in the same field, there were three tractors, two large wagons, and a combine working in unison.  Quite an operation. 

 THIS RED PIECE OF EQUIPMENT BEHIND THE TRACTOR RAKES UP NUMEROUS SMALL ALFALFA ROWS INTO ONE LARGE ROW MAKING IT EASIER FOR A FORAGE HARVESTER TO SCOOP IT UP NEXT

YOU CAN SEE HERE HOW CLOSE MY CAR WAS TO THE ALFALFA FIELD

Needing a few things, I slipped up to Goderich's Walmart and Canadian Tire Stores after my walk.  Nothing exciting going on, and I didn't even make it down to the harbor.  It wasn't long and I was on my way home.  Some usual outside putterings this afternoon until the heat and humidity finally drove me inside.

SOON, ABOUT HALF A MILE AWAY, I SAW MORE FARM EQUIPMENT IN THE SAME FIELD

 THERE IS A FORAGE HARVESTER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT WAGON, FUNNELING ALFALFA INTO THAT GREEN FARM WAGON

 HERE'S THE WHOLE FARM TEAM WORKING TOGETHER....WHEN THAT FIRST GREEN WAGON ON THE LEFT IS FULL, IT PULLS AWAY AND THAT EMPTY SECOND GREEN WAGON ON THE RIGHT  DRIVES UP AND TAKES ITS PLACE

 THE UNSEEN COMBINE IS TOWING SOMETHING BEHIND IT, BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS

 AND HERE COMES THAT FORAGE HARVESTER NOW

THE TRACTOR AND WAGON PULL AWAY AND HEAD BACK TO THE FARM

 THE SECOND TRACTOR AND WAGON TAKE THE PLACE OF THE FIRST TRACTOR AND WAGON

Al's Music Box:: After I Pass Away  I find the words to this song to be so true.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The Wednesday night church service coincided with the last day of hunting season. During the service, our pastor asked who had bagged a deer. No one raised a hand.Puzzled, the pastor said, “ I don't get it. Last week many of you said you wouldn't be at church Sunday because of hunting season. I had the whole congregation pray for your deer.” One hunter said, "Well, preacher, it worked. They're all safe.”

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- Dad, will you help me with my homework?" "I'm sorry," replied the father. "It wouldn't be right." "Well, " said the boy, "at least you could try."

- A schoolteacher asked her primary six class to construct sentences with the words: defeat, detail, defense. There was a pause before a pupil raised his hand and said he could make a sentence with them; "The cow jumped over defense and detail went over defeat."

- Why did the cows keep returning to the field of marijuana? It was the pot calling the cattle back.

- A man sees his buddy carrying a box.
"What's that?" he ask. "Oh, I got a case of beer for my wife." Man nods sagely, "Good trade."

- Interviewer: Would you mind explaining this 4-year gap on your resume?
Me: I went to Yale during this time period.
Interviewer: Wow, excellent! You’re hired!
Me: Thank you! I really needed this yob!

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A guy went to the cinema one day and noticed an old man with a dog in the front row. It was a sad, funny kind of film and the guy noticed that during the sad parts the dog cried his eyes out, and during the funny parts, the dog laughed its head off. This happened throughout the film. After the film ended, the guy decided to go and speak to the old man. "That's the most amazing thing I've ever seen," he said. "That dog really seemed to enjoy the film." The old man turned to him and said: "Yeah, it is amazing. He hated the book."

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery 

AND THEN, WE HAD A LITTLE INCIDENT

 BAYFIELD'S BEACH BELOW PIONEER PARK THIS AFTERNOON

Too hot for me to be out on the E-bike Saturday, so we waited for the cooler evening before heading out of the Park.  Turning east on Bayfield River Road, we were soon out into the countryside, biking to Tipperary Line and turning left.  The evening was so beautiful with its slowly setting sun to the west.  For some looney reason I had chosen to wear a loose, ill-fitting ball cap, and biking into a warm northerly breeze I had trouble keeping it on heading downhill at speed.  The first time it flew off, I caught it mid-air, but the second time I didn't and it landed on the road.  I slowed down and made a U-turn and headed back to where my hat was lying on the road, and made a second quick U-turn.  But this U-turn was too short and hasty, and I drove right over the peak of my hat! My hat was not happy!! I wasn't either!! Picking it up and hanging it over my right side mirror, I quickly powered up to catch Woodsy, a mere dot, far up the road.  Finally catching up, we continued biking as far as Tower Line Road, where we turned right onto a stretch of gravel and biked the short distance to my night sky viewing spot.  Stopping there, I was able to point out some of the distant landmarks to Woodsy, such as Clinton to the east and the faintly visible wind turbines stretching across the southern horizon. From this spot, we decided to turn around and head for home.  And then we had a little incident. As cyclists well know, when biking, dogs can sometimes pose a hazard when they come flying out of a farm's laneway to chase a passing biker.  And that's what happened about halfway back when a large farm dog came barreling out of a farmyard and went after Woodsy about ten bicycle lengths ahead of me.  The dog, barking loudly and aggressively, closed on her very fast.  Woodsy kept her cool and kept on going, but I could see the dog was only inches from her right leg.  I had to use the power setting on my bike to quickly close the gap between us and try to get as close as possible to distract the dog with my bike.  It worked, and the dog turned its attention to me.  With the dog right beside me now, I looked down straight at him and let out a big loud commanding, and very threatening yell, and that about stopped the fella right in his tracks like I figured it would, and the threat was over.  Of course when I saw him in my mirror slumpingback to the farm, I felt a little sorry I had yelled at him.  I'm sure he'll be alright though. Further along the road and out of dog range, we stopped, and Woodsy was a little shaken.  Whether the dog would have attempted to bite her is unknown, but we agreed if something like that were to happen again, the right thing to do would be to hit the bike's power button and quickly outdistance the chasing dog with a blistering burst of speed. Those electric E-Bikes have a lot of torque to them when you hit the throttle.

 COINCIDENTALLY, ON OUR WAY TO TOWERLINE ROAD, I TOOK THIS PHOTO OF A FARMS FRONT YARD, AND OUR WAY BACK, IT WAS THIS SAME FARM THE DOG CAME ROARING OUT OF

 WOODSY WAS ABOUT THIS FAR OUT FRONT OF ME WHEN THE DOG CAME ROARING OUT FROM THE LEFT-HAND SIDE OF THE ROAD EARLIER

 STOPPED TO TAKE A PHOTO OF THE SUNSET

Stepping out of the car on my walking road this morning, I was surprised to see a red tractor with two wide yellow wings on either side behind it, far off at the corner of the alfalfa field on the east side of my road.  It was headed my way along the west side of the field, and I quickly determined the farmer was just starting out to cut the alfalfa field.  I double-checked to see if my car, sitting on a flat part of the ditch right beside the field's edge, would be in his way.  It wasn't.

 THE TRACTOR HAS A CUTTER ON THE FRONT OF IT AS WELL

 BY MY COUNT HE WAS CUTTING 11 ROWS AT A TIME

Home again, I puttered about outside, pulling a few weeds and watering some grass out back.  It was somewhere around 2 p.m. when we saddled up the E-Bikes and headed into Bayfield on this sunny, not a cloud in the sky, 81F day. A nice pedal around town with a stop at Pioneer Park, Clan Gregor Square, and Rosie's Ice Cream Shop for two kiddie cones.  A lot of people on the street, but we were lucky enough to snag a picnic table in the shade on the north side of Bayfield's Virtual High School.  We had planned to bike down to the beach and out onto the pier, but it was a good thing we didn't.  Decided instead to head for home because Woodsy wanted to get back to Stratford and deal with an air conditioner she had just installed last week.  About a third of the way home, coming up a  hill, my bike suddenly lost power, and no matter what we tried, we could not restore the power despite the battery showing a full charge and my display on the handlebars showing six of six bars.  I had just recharged the battery this morning.  I told Woodsy to head home without me because I knew she still to get her stuff together before heading home.  So, away she went while I manually began pedaling my bike.  I found it not to be an easy task, despite going through all the gears trying to find the easiest way.  I did have to walk it up two short hills, and I did manage to pedal on the flat spots with no grades.  But, one stretch of road is kinda swampy bush on both sides, and only pedaling about half a mile an hour, the biting Deer Flies soon had my range, and I was unable to outrun them.  It was, 'Swat, Swat, Swat. all the rest of the way home......... Woodsy rolled out somewhere around five-thirty, and I wasn't long in popping myself into the shower to get all the sticky sweat and Deer Fly mashings off me.

 WOODSY COUNTED 12 BOATS OUT THERE AND THAT IS THE MOST BOATS I HAVE EVER SEEN AT ONE TIME

 THIS FELLA HAS SOME WIND IN HIS SAILS

 THESE PADDLEBOARDERS HAVE A ROYAL CANADA GOOSE ESCORT

 I THINK THIS MIGHT BE THIS LITTLE GALS FIRST SWIMMING LESSON WITH MOM

 WOODSY SNAPS A FEW PICS

With clear blue skies still overhead, I plan to head out and do a little stargazing tonight.  No, I won't be taking my bike.  I plan to load it onto Subie's bike carrier in the morning and head off to 360 Bikes 'n' Boards in Goderich to find out why my bike suddenly lost power today..........................

 THE FRONT YARD HOSTAS ARE BEGINNING TO BLOOM

Al's Music Box:: You Didn't Have To Be So Nice by The Lovin' Spoonful.

GROANER'S CORNER:: Mr. Jones is driving past the state mental hospital when his left rear tire suffers a flat. While he is changing the tire, another car goes by, running over the hub cap in which he was keeping the lug nuts. The nuts are all knocked into a nearby storm drain. He is at a loss for what to do and is about to go call a cab when he hears a shout from behind the hospital fence, where one of the inmates has been watching the whole thing. "Hey, pal! Why don't you just take one lug nut off each of the other three wheels and use them to replace the missing ones? That'll hold your tires on until you can get to a garage or something." Mr. Jones is startled by the patient's seeming rationality, but realizes the plan will work, and installs the spare tire without incident. Before he leaves, he calls back to the patient. "You know, that was pretty sharp thinking. Why do they have you in there?" The patient smiles and says, "I'm in here because I'm crazy, not because I'm stupid."

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Classmates at college were lamenting the cost of long-distance phone service and debating the relative advantages of AT&T, MCI, and Sprint. "I've found CTC to be the cheapest plan around," offered one. "CTC? Who are they?" "You know," he responded. "Call Them Collect."

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"As I get older he doesn't bother to look at me!" Mary cries. "I'm so sorry for you, as I get older my husband says I get more beautiful every day," replies Jane. "Yes, but your husband's an antique dealer!"

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After she woke up, a woman told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Valentine's day. What do you think it means?" "You'll know tonight." he said. That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it to find a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams"

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A defendant asked the judge to appoint a new attorney to represent him. "For what reason?" the judge asked. The defendant said the public defender assigned to him wasn't interested in his case. The judge addressed the man's attorney, "Do you have any comments on the defendant's motion?"
The attorney replied, "I'm sorry, your honor, I wasn't listening."

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery