A FEW MISTY PHOTOS & MY THOUGHTS ON GROUPS OF PEOPLE

LAMPPOSTS IN THE MIST ALONG BAYFIELD’S SOUTH PIER

I was reminded of Jerry Wallace’s song ‘In The Misty Moonlight’ first thing this morning.  We didn’t have any Moonlight of course but we did have mist & tall pine trees.  That set the song to playing over & over in my head for the next few hours.  Changed the title of course to, ‘In the Misty Pine Trees’.

NOT MUCH ACTIVITY IN THE SAILBOAT COMMUNITY THIS MORNING

With all the recent rains spurring everything to grow like gangbusters I was on the end of my weed whacker again.  We don’t have enough sunlight to grow much grass on our property but that’s Ok I don’t miss those days of noisy fume belching gas lawn mowers.  My weed whacker is battery operated & that is a noise level I can handle.  In place of grass we just have dirt, a whole lotta moss, & a sparse crop of weeds.  Maybe don’t look so swell but awwww what the heck it works for us:))

PHEEBS & I TOOK A STROLL IN THE MIST AROUND PIONEER PARK

I much prefer to use new photos in my posts but there are occasions when I end up empty handed at the end of the day & have to use file photos.  Writing a post without photos included just doesn’t seem right to me.  Knowing I didn’t have any new pics up my sleeve I figured Pheebs & I had better do a short little drive around Bayfield this morning & see what we could see.  Tonight’s photos are from our short drive.

I have written before how uncomfortable I am in a group of people.  Can you imagine how that uncomforableness would unnerve me if I had to stand up & give a talk in front of a gathering of people.  Unimaginable to me of course but yet I’ve actually done it a few times on a small scale.  Never liked having to do it of course but do it I did.  My earliest recollection of ‘speaking in public’ was in about grade 5.  Teacher caught me writing a story in my scribbler when I was supposed to be paying attention to something else.  He made me go up in front of the class & read the story I had written.  Strangely enough the class liked it but that by no means made me want to do it again.  Fast forward about 25 years & there I am in a Church basement in Stratford Ontario up on a small stage behind a wooden podium in front of about 40 very seriously looking upturned faces.  It was my first time speaking at an AA meeting & I was a nervous wreck.  This was not my idea of where an introverted person like myself wanted to be.  Maybe needed to be but certainly not wanted to be.  Being the center of attention for whatever reason has never been something I have been comfortable with.  Except when I was drinking of course & that whole story is a totally different bag of nails & one which I am not comfortable talking about…...or writing about.

NEW BENCHES REPLACING SOME OF THE OLD BENCHES IN BAYFIELD’S PIONEER PARK

 

 

FOLKS GATHER HERE NIGHTLY TO WATCH SUNSETS OUT OVER LAKE HURON 

I have no recollection of what I said that night but I know I would have followed the suggested AA guidelines & talked about where my life had been before AA & where it was now.  AA members are encouraged to give those kinds of talks from time to time & some members take to those speaker meetings like a ducks to water.  Not me.  It was frowned upon not to accept an invitation from a group to speak but I couldn’t seem to help turning down those invitations.  Think I only spoke maybe 4 times in the years I was actively involved with AA with the last time being for a fellow AA member’s one year birthday in a Church basement in a little place called Egmondville Ontario.  I was just about physically sick with nerves over that & it was the last time I ever spoke at an AA meeting. 

One time in the late 80’s I attended a Sunday afternoon travelogue slide presentation at the Stratford Ontario Art Gallery.  Walking out of the building that afternoon I thought to myself, ‘hey I could do that’.  A few months later I wasn’t the one sitting in the audience, I was the one standing in front of a group of seated people one Sunday afternoon in the Art Gallery putting on a slide show of my own.  Again very, very, nervous as I had to start off by introducing myself & telling the audience what my slide show would be about.  I narrated my slides as I went along & at the end of the show I had a question & answer period.  Yes it was a good feeling when it was all over & things had gone well but oh how I didn’t want to do that again.  Two weeks later there I was doing another slide show…….again.  Think I did about 6 shows altogether over a period of a few months.  Best part was taking the photos & putting my presentations together.  But then it was time to stand up front & face the people.  Despite the warm reception I always received I would just get myself wound up so tight I just wanted to get out of the building & go for a quiet walk alongside the river nearby.  In later years I traveled around to several Senior Citizen Centers putting on my ‘Nature Photography’ presentations but even with the Seniors I just could not overcome my uncomfortableness in front of a group of people & I finally stopped doing that about 10 years ago.

That ‘fear of people’ thing I have has not improved over the years.  There has been several funerals where I should have got up & spoke but I simply could not pry myself out of my chair.  And there has been other funerals over the past decade I should have attended but could not talk myself out of the house to attend those funerals & walk into a room full of people I knew.  I’ve also missed other things like family gatherings, weddings, & reunions, etc.  I remember years ago going around visiting people & thinking nothing of it & yet today for me to go & actually visit someone is like pulling teeth.  Not that I don’t like the people…….it’s just me.  Put me in group of people & I can immediately feel the panic setting in.  It’s a hard thing for most people to understand but I know there are others out here who feel as I do when they find themselves in a ‘people’ situation. 

ONE NEVER KNOWS WHO ONE MAY SEE IN BAYFIELD

ANOTHER ‘DRIVE-BY PHOTO’ OF A BAYFIELD HOME

We have found RV folks to be a very socially oriented bunch of people.  Not all of course but I would say the majority.  Pressure for the most part is often on to join in events, campfire rings, happy hours, get togethers, hand shakes, hugs, hanging out together, & the telling of tall tales etc.  Nothing wrong with that for a lot of folks & I do marvel at all the people who so much enjoy that sort of thing but some of us out here are just not built that way & it’s hard for the merry makers to understand that.  Rightfully so I guess but I can tell you a little something I have learned along the way.  A number of of those merry makers are also uncomfortable in many social situations but unlike myself they are much better at putting on a happy face & masking their feelings than I am.  I can sometimes handle one on one situations & maybe just two couples visiting but add any more people to the mix & my personality just withers & withdraws inwardly & I become very quiet anxiously looking at my watch & just not wanting to be there.  “Beam me up Scotty & transport me to a quiet forest where I can be alone with the quietness of nature”…………………………….

HERE’S PHEEBS & I LATE THIS MORNING DISCUSSING WHAT KIND OF A SUB TO GET, SHE WANTED A COLD CUT COMBO & I WANTED A TUNA SUB…WE ENDED UP GETTING A  COLD CUT COMBO:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A guy named Pete gets a job as a switchman with the railroad, and undergoes weeks of training. The supervisor then takes him into the switch booth to test his readiness. The following exchange takes place:
Supervisor: "Imagine you were sitting here alone and you learned there was a train coming from the North on that track, and another coming from the South on the same track. What would you do?"
Pete: "I'd throw this switch right here and put one train on the other track."
Supervisor: And what if that switch didn't work?"
Pete: "I'd go down to the track and throw that big switch lever there, putting one train on the other track."
Supervisor: "And what if that switch lever didn't work?"
Pete: "Then I'd come back here and call the dispatcher to stop both trains."
Supervisor: "And what if the phone didn't work?"
Pete: "Then I'd go to that gas station across the street and use their phone."
Supervisor: "And what if their phone didn't work?"
Pete: "Then I'd go get Uncle Joe."
Supervisor: "Uncle Joe??? What would he do?"
Pete: "Nothing, but he ain't never seen a train wreck."