I’M SHORT ON WORDS AGAIN

LAKE AND OCIEAN GOING FREIGHTER RADCLLIFFE L LATIMER DOCKED AT THE SIFTO SALT MINE IN GODERICH SUNDAY MORNING AS STORM CLOUDS GATHER
Not much to say so I’ll just leave you with a smattering of photos from Saturday night and Sunday morning.


Readers may have noticed the 'Shout Box' is missing from my sidebar.  After having to remove over 50 spams from it this afternoon I decided enough was enough.  A few spams now and again can be tolerated but these last few days the spam bots have been bombing my Shout Box.  I could get myself into a big nasty rant about how I feel towards these spammers but what's the point it's never going to stop them. 

IT’S RARE WE GET TO EVER SEE A SUNRISE AT OUR PLACE BUT THIS MORNING WAS AN EXCEPTION


I QUITE UNEXPECTANTLY CAME ACROSS A DODDLE OF DUCKS THIS MORNING



THE OCEAN GOING RADCLIFFE R LATIMER HAS QUITE A CHEQUERED PAST HAVING BEEN INVOLVED IN 2 COLLISIONS OF WHICH ONE RESULTED IN THE DEATHS OF 2 POOR SOULS ABOARD A TUGBOAT

WHEN I SUDDENLY SAW THICK BLACK SMOKE BELCHING FROM HER STACK I CORRECTLY ASSUMED SHE WAS ABOUT TO GET UNDER WAY

LOADED WITH SALT THE RADCLIFFE R LATIMER IS UNDERWAY AS SHE CLEARS THE HARBOR


HEADED STRAIGHT OUT INTO OPEN WATER BEFORE MAKING A WIDE TURN

SATURDAY NIGHT ICE CREAM IN BAYFIELD AND THAT’S MY CONE ON THE RIGHT KELLY HAD JUST SET OVER THERE WHILE I TOOK THIS PHOTO
 
THIS LITTLE GIRL AND HER DOG WATCH AS KELLY USES 2 HANDS TO CARRY THAT BIG CONE OVER TO ME
  
PHEEBS KNOWS SHE IS IN FOR A SATURDAY NIGHT ICE CREAM TREAT
   

HARBOR GRAIN ELEVATORS


HEADING OUT INTO LAKE HURON

CURIOUS TO SEE IF SHE WOULD GO UP THE LAKE OR DOWN I WATCHED UNTIL I SAW HER TURN TO THE RIGHT (STARBOARD)…..AND HEAD NORTH UP THE LAKE


BON VOYAGE MY FRIEND AND HAPPY SAILING
GROANER’S CORNER:((  Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.  The woman apologized to the young girl and explained,"We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days." 
The young clerk responded,"That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.  But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But,too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.  But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.  But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.  But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.  But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then……………………….