KELLY HEADS FOR KITCHENER WHILE PHEEBS AND I HOLD DOWN THE HOME FRONT

BAYFIELD'S FISHERMAN PIER TUESDAY MORNING

Okay, Christmas is finally behind us now so let's get the pedal to the metal for Spring shall we.

HERE'S PHEEBS LOOKING DOWN THIS BUSH LANE TO SEE IF SHE CAN SEE SPRING COMING

RIDING ICE FLOES ON THE BAYFIELD RIVER

Looking out our living room window around 6 a.m. I could see a light haze in the air and later on our weather station a fog advisory had been issued for our area.  Temperatures were coming up.  Kelly planned on heading to her daughter Rebecca's house in Kitchener today so Pheebs and I went out for a short toot to check on how bad the fog was.  Visibility was good for half a mile so no problem and about ten after ten with her car loaded with goodies Kelly headed out.  She plans to stay overnight visiting Rebecca, Ricardo, and little Ella.  She might stay a second night depending on how she feels. 

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Some may wonder why I didn’t go along to be part of the Christmas celebrations.  Main reason is in regards to Pheebs.  Would never leave Pheebs home by herself from midday Monday to after midday Tuesday and taking her along would be too disruptive for everybody plus I know Pheebs would not be comfortable with all the noise and commotion of kids flying around all over the place.  She’s like me, she can take a little bit of that stuff but not a lot…………………

KELLY HEADS FOR KITCHENER

WITH A WAVE AND A HARDY 'HIGH-HO SILVER' KELLY WAS AWAY

With our thermometer hanging around the freezing mark and a horizon to horizon cloud cover making the day feel cold and damp Pheebs and I stayed inside for the rest of the day.  Took the opportunity to clean out and re-organize our sunroom's computer desk.  A tangled set of electrical cords needed attention so did that too.

On our Tuesday morning Jeep ride Pheebs and I were able to do a good deed for a farmer.  Wandering along a gravely road south of Bayfield I noticed something on the road ahead that looked out of place.  It was a cow and it was on the wrong side of the fence.  Spotted a second cow in the ditch grazing on some grass.  Eased on by them and went a short distance to a farm, pulled in the driveway and with a couple short horn toots the farmer came roaring out the door with a shotgun.  Well Okay he didn't have a shot gun and ambled out on his porch in red socks.  I hollered out the window, "cows on the road".  He gave me a wave and with shout, "Ok thanks" his wife hauled him back into the house by the scruff of his neck.  Wait a minute I might have got that part wrong too.  Oh well we were quite pleased with ourselves that we had been able to do us a good deed.

COW BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

THAT'S THE FARM WE WENT TO TOP RIGHT

PHEEBS KEEPS AN EYE ON THE COWS TO MAKE SURE THEY DON'T FOLLOW US HOME

NEARLY JANUARY AND THERE ARE STILL A FEW STANDING CORN FIELDS AROUND

A FEW PATCHES OF DIRTY SNOW AS WELL

::Al's Musical Favs:: Gravity by Merge Of Equals.  Liked this one the first time I heard it.  Others I have sometimes had to play a couple times before they hooked me.

A FEW OF OUR NEIGHBOR'S CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

::Foibles and Fumbles::  'Numbers On Our Bin Doors'   I have found that RV storage space & traveling is a good example of theory & practical application.  The trick is in keeping your theory practical.  Coming from a 5th wheel trailer to a Motorhome  in the Spring of 2007 we were overwhelmed by all the extra storage space suddenly available to us.  Seemed like acres & acres of room to lose every imaginable thing you could think of.  I could see right off the bat that the rig had a far bigger capacity for storing things than my brain did.  I knew there was no possible way I was going to ever remember where everything was.  In my younger days I had worked for a few stores like Eatons & Sears in warehouse capacities so knew the importance of inventory, labeling, & organization.  Figured I would put that knowledge to use. First thing I did was to get some of those small sticky-back numbers & starting from the first bin on the passenger side I gave each bin a number from 1 to 13.  Thirteen was the bin closest to the front on the driver's side.  I then got myself a 3 ring binder & began recording everything I put into each bin.  I even inventoried the toolbox so I knew what was inside without having to open it.  I was pretty pleased with myself for being so orderly & my system worked flawlessly............ for about a week!! Everything looked well & good sitting at home in the driveway but within a dozen days of traveling my whole inventory was pretty much upside down.  Didn't take me long to forget about making changes to the inventory book as I rearranged things.   Going from a nice neatly organized  stationary bin arrangement in the driveway to the reality of the road with it's many last minute overnight stops, weekly campsites, & monthly stays, it was inevitable I would forget to record the dozens & dozens of changes along the way.  I was already behind the 8 ball after the first week & despite my efforts at trying to update my changes I just fell further & further behind until I finally didn't even know where my inventory book was anymore.  So much for my logical theory!!  For full timers this isn't as great a problem because they live with their stuff each & every day but for we Snow Birds it's kinda difficult with that long 5 & 6 month dry stretch in between travels.  Just when I'm getting my head wrapped around to knowing where things are while traveling it's time to head home in the spring again.  Six months later when it's time to hit the road once more I'm lucky if I can remember where I've even left the Motorhome!!   And, one last thought about storage.  That first year with the motorhome we jammed anything & everything into the rig's bins we could think of.  And why did we do that?  Because the space was there & we felt we had to fill it with something.  I am still mentally inclined that way & have to keep telling myself, "no, you do not have to fill that space!!"   This past year heading south we probably had a good 25% of our storage space empty with nearly the same percentage numbers coming back.   We're getting better:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((      An Israeli doctor says: "Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him looking for work in 6 weeks." A British doctor says: "That is nothing; we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in 4 weeks." A Canadian doctor says: "In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in 2 weeks." A Nigerian doctor, not to be outdone, says: "You guys are way behind...... We just took a man with NO brain, made him President, and now the whole country is looking for work.
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