A BLUNDEROUS MORNING LEAVES ME SHAKING MY HEAD AT MYSELF AGAIN:((

ON LAND AROUND HERE OUR ICE AND SNOW ARE ALL BUT GONE

BUT ON WATER IT’S A WHOLE DIFFERENT STORY

Glorious Sunshine all day need I say more……..Well yes I guess I do.

HERE’S A PHOTO FROM THE GRAND BEND YACHT CLUB’S WEB CAM EARLY THIS MORNING SHOWING A TOUCH OF FOG IN THE HARBOR…..NICE TO SEE THAT RIVER FREE OF ICE

ANOTHER LOOK AT A COUPLE LAKE FREIGHTERS IN THE HARBOR….THEIR EXIT TO LAKE HURON IS THAT NARROW  ICY CHANNEL TOP LEFT

THE FREIGHTERS COME AND GO THROUGH THIS CHANNEL AND THAT’S THE SALT MINE ON THE NORTH SIDE

NO PROBLEM FOR THE FREIGHTERS PLOWING THROUGH THESE FLOATING ICE CHUNKS

A SALT MINE REFLECTION

Had it in mind this morning to load up the Pheebs and head on off up into Mennonite/Amish country and see what the folks of yesteryear were up to.  Well that is until a series of blunders on my part changed our plans.

THIS CANADA GOOSE WAS DEFINITELY NOT HAPPY WITH THIS YELLOW PIPE BEING HERE!!

GEESE AMONG THE ICE FLOES

DID YOU NOTICE THE SEA GULLS??

First blunder occurred a few days ago when I picked up a package of 9 Carrot muffins at a supermarket nearby.  Second blunder occurred when I made a ‘to-go’ coffee this morning.  We weren’t far on down the road when Pheebs and I got into the muffin.  ‘Oh-Oh’, didn’t care for it at all then I had a sip of coffee and it was ‘Oh-Oh’ again.  I must have screwed something up because the coffee tasted like weak tea. Yuk!!  Really had my mind set on a muffin with coffee this morning so decided to detour through Goderich and slide around by McDonalds.  The stage was now set for 3 more upcoming blunders in a short 20 minute span.

A PAIR OF MALLARD DUCKS ALONG THE SHORELINE IN THE DOGGY WALKING AREA

A MALE MALLARD CHASES OFF A SUITOR

STILL CHASING HIM

THE CHASED MALLARD LANDS

AND THE CHASER LANDS IN HOT PURSUIT

RUFFLED FEATHERS ARE SOON SOOTHED AND THINGS RETURN TO NORMAL BLISS IN THE DUCK WORLD

I now had a full cup of crappy coffee sitting in a holder beside my seat and knowing I was going to need that space for my upcoming McDonald’s coffee I decided I had better get rid of it.  Smart thing would have been to pull over and simply dump it out.  I had already convinced myself it would not be hazardous to the environment.  Now I said the ‘smart’ thing to do didn’t I.  Well I’ve never been known for my smarts so decided to wind the window down and pour it out.  Did it occur to me to slow down??  Of course not so at about 40 mph I reached out the window and tipped my travel cup.  I know you know what happened next.  I’ll let the photo below speak for itself.  I’m too embarrassed to talk about it…..and the plot thickens!!

With a smeary coffee infested driver’s side window I had no choice now but to make another plan change and with that we headed for the car wash…..and hear comes blunder number 4.  The 5 minute car wash came off without a hitch until after I left tht is.  Because of other folks lined up to get their cars cleaned up I had myself in a big hurry to free up the bay for the next person.   So much of a hurry I forgot my 2 front seat floor mats which I had hung up spray.  I was back to the car wash in a flash and luckily my ‘dirty mats’ were still hanging there.  Geezzzz am I going to get anything right this morning I thought.  I was about to find the answer to that question was ‘no not really’.

THERE’S A DOGGY IN THIS PHOTO SOMEWHERE

LOOKING SOUTHWEST TOWARDS SARNIA/PORT HURON AND WINDSOR/DETROIT

LOOKING OUT ACROSS THE LAKE AND LOOKING INLAND BELOW

McDonalds is a short distance from the car wash so Pheebs and soon had ourselves in line.  “One small coffee with cream and a carrot muffin to go please.”  The lady in the voice box said. “that will be $1.88 Sir’.  Hauling out and dusting off one of my coveted $20 dollar bills I rolled up to the window.  With change in hand Pheebs and headed off to resume our travels that is until we rolled up to a red traffic light a short distance away and stopped.  I reached for my muffin……

Did you catch blunder number 5??  My muffin wasn’t where I normally put it and here’s the kicker……nor was my coffee!!  ‘Awwwww’ Nuts it was blunder number 6!!!!  I had blissfully driven right by the second pick-up window like a glazed tourist totally forgetting to pick up my coffee and muffin.  Two quick left turns had me back through the ‘drive-thru’ and up to the second window.  A young girl with a big grin on her face like a Cheshire cat stood there with arms outstretched holding my coffee in one hand and a paper bag with my muffin inside in the other.  I embarrassedly mumbled something about it being tough to be a Senior and pulling away I think I heard her holler something about ‘never wanting to get old’.

A FLOCK OF INBOUND CANADA GEESE DESCENDING IN A LANDING PATTERN

I debated with myself trying to decide if maybe going home and locking myself in the woodshed for the rest of the day would be my next best option.  Well that wouldn’t be fair to Pheebs of course but by this point I didn’t feel much like heading for Amish/Mennonite country anymore anyway.  It wasn’t just ‘not feeling’ like not going I think now it was more a fear of going and setting myself up for blunder number 7 whatever that might have turned out to be.  Instead we chowed down on our muffin and headed for the south harbor and beach area.

ONE LONE GOOSE SKIMS IN JUST OVER TOP THE ICE FLOE

Parked the Jeep at the doggy walking area, strapped on my cameras and off we went for a quiet relaxing and thankfully uneventful walk.  No wind to speak of and oh now nice it was walking alongside Lake Huron’s still frozen watery shoreline.  Despite the vast amount of ice and snow on the water it didn’t feel cold at all and there was no snow and ice on the ground.  In fact I’d say about 98.735% of all the snow is gone in our area.  A few skiffs here and there in some roadside ditches and an occasional patch near a bush line maybe.  All roads were bare and dry.

NOT FAR BEHIND THE LEAD GOOSE CAME THE REST OF THE GUYS AND GALS

‘SPLASHDOWN’

SIMULTANEUS LANDINGS

Pheebs and I were home around noon and I spent the next hour and a half enjoyably raking and cleaning up our front yard.  Tonight my lower back and leg muscles are aching so bad it’s an effort to move.  But it’s a good kind of ache knowing the exercise is good for me.

Now here’s one for the books.  Believe it or not but unbeknownst to me Pheebe actually took this candid photo of me this morning and I didn’t know she had taken it until I sat down this afternoon to edit my photos.  In fact she took a total of 11 photos.  We had just parked at the dog walking area and I had walked around to pick up something on the Jeep’s passenger side floor.  My cameras always sit between the seats and the only explanation I have is that she must have rested her paw on the shutter button of my one camera.  The odd thing though is that I did not hear the camera taking the photos and I was only about 2 feet away.  And here’s the really odd thing, that particular camera and wide angle lens is not set to fire continues exposures.  She would have had to press that shutter button 11 separate times.  I guess my only logical explanation is that she has watched me take countless thousands of photos over the years and finally figured it out for herself.  Hey she’s a very smart little dog and I’m sticking to my theory:))

AND BY GOLLY THERE GOES THE LITTLE DARLIN NOW:))

I have thrown the rest of the store bought carrot muffins out, re-assessed my coffee making skills, disconnected the Jeep’s driver’s side power window and nailed the floor mats to the floor.  I’ve also signed up for McDonald’s ‘Help A Senior’ program whereupon they will come out and drive my car through the ‘drive-thru’ making sure my ‘coffee and muffin’ is securely aboard before giving me a wee pat on the head and sending me on my way.  Thought that was right nice of them to do that for me from now on.  I am so much looking forward to my life getting much easier from here on in:))  And a Guest in our Shout Box asked this question…..How long does it take you to write your post for each night?  Seeings how tonight’s post is already long I’ll try answering that question in tomorrow nights post.

I GUESS THEY CALL IT ‘DUCK SNORKLING’

Some readers may have noticed I switched the blogs title back to ‘Travel With’.  I thank folks for their comments and do agree with the consensus regarding the ‘travel’ aspect of our lives.  We may not be in the Motorhome traveling but our lives continue to travel down life’s highway as we like others navigate the many twists and turns along the way.

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer are all given identical rubber balls and told to find the volume. They are given any tools they want, and have all the time they need.  The mathematician uses a measuring tape to record the circumference. He then divides by two times pi to get the radius, cubes that, multiplies by pi again, and then multiplies by four-thirds and thereby calculates the volume.  The physicist gets a bucket of water, places 1.000000 gallons of water in the bucket, drops in the ball and measures the displacement to six significant figures.  The engineer writes down the serial number of the ball and looks it up online.

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Q: If there is H2O on the inside of a fire hydrant, what is on the outside?
A: K9P.

Q: What does it mean when the flag is at half mast at the post office?
A: They're hiring.

Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
A: Frostbite.

Q: What's a cat's favorite breakfast?
A: Mice Krispies.

Q: How does a lion like his steak?
A: Medium roar.

Q: What do frogs eat with their hamburgers?
A: French flies.

Q: What's the definition of mixed emotions?
A: When you see your mother-in-law backing off a cliff in your new car.

Q: How do you get a Kleenex to dance?
A: Put a boogie in it!

Q: Did you hear about the man who lost his whole left side?
A: He's all-right now!