ALIVE AT SEVENTY FIVE -- KELLY'S BIRTHDAY TODAY:))))))

 OUR SPRING MOONBEAM MUSHROOMS ARE DOING WELL:))

Today is Kelly's birthday and this is what she posted on her Facebook page this morning.

This picture is of my brother Peter  & I celebrating a birthday many years ago.    Maybe it was my 5th birthday, because now that 70 years have been added I feel fortunate and sad at the same time.   It seems like I am on a threshold of a transition when we stand betwixt and between one state and another.  Maybe I should add "The Alzheimer's Prevention Program", and "Keep Your Brain Alive" to my reading list now.  I guess I feel ready to cross the threshold into the next liminal stage, ("Liminal stages are psychological thresholds, times of transition. the biggies are birth, marriage, death --( cultures develop splashy rituals around these transitions to ease the anxiety they provoke.")  So we will go to my daughter's house for a party. 🥳 𝐓𝐨 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞.

Not a cloud in the sky but we had a skiff of snow on the ground.  With the temps barely above freezing, we knew we had warmer days ahead so it was onwards and upwards.  After washing the Jeep at the Bayfield carwash, Pheebs and I headed off to the cemetery for a walk around the perimeter.  I made it three-quarters of the way before the pain in my right leg set in.  Popped in to see Richard and Gayle on the way home but they were out.  

 QUITE AN OUTSIDE COFFEE KLATCH AT BAYFIELDS MAIN STREET SHOPBIKE COFFEE ROASTERS THIS MORNING 

 FISHERMEN FINALLY HAVE ACCESS TO THE TIP OF BAYFIELD'S SOUTH PIER AGAIN

Despite today's cold icy wind, I was able to slip outside and do some puttering with my wheelbarrow, leaf rake, and pitchfork.  And, I'm seeing some mid-50F days coming up next week.  I said to Kelly this afternoon that it has been five long months since we were last able to go outside in short sleeves and feel any warmth in the air.  

THIS  GREEN PERIWINKLE ISN'T LETTING YESTERDAY'S SNOW KEEP IT DOWN

 SPRING IS BUSTING OUT ALL OVER

 OUR WHITE MAGNOLIA BUDS ARE COMING OUT

 RETURNING FROM THE LIBRARY, KELLY BACKS THE SUBARU INTO OUR CARPORT

Al's Music Box:)) Harvest Moon by Neil Young from the album 'Harvest Moon'.  1993  This song holds a special place in our hearts for Kelly and I.  Harvest Moon was released in 1993 and that was the summer we met in a little coffee shop near Doon Ontario.  Early on we found out we both liked the same kinds of music and Neil Young's song quickly became 'our song'.  Within a month of meeting, Kelly had procured a couple tickets to a Neil Young concert at Toronto's CNE stadium.  When he sang that song, we had our arms entwined standing in the bleachers swaying side to side to Neil singing Harvest Moon:))  It was a special moment and one I will never forget.  Backing up Neil Young that night was Booker T and the MGs. (think Green Onions)  Over the next couple of years, Kelly secured tickets for 'The Rolling Stones', ZZ Top, Pink Floyd, and the Eagles.  Had I not met Kelly, I would not have seen any of these groups.........Here is a paragraph from a post I wrote in 2016 about the day Kelly and I met for the first time.  (We met in a little coffee shop near Doon Ontario south of Kitchener.  I have been carrying a pen and a little black notebook in my shirt pockets every day for 33 years and in September of 2009 I wrote a post about how that pen and notebook nearly sunk my chances that very first day I met Kelly.  (I carry notebooks to write everything down I need to do each day) Here is an excerpt from that post……..”As helpful as my little black (yes, it's actually black) book has been over the years it did very nearly cost me a second date with a very good-looking blonde I had just met in a coffee shop one afternoon in Doon, Ontario. (we had previously talked by phone after I put an ad in a few local papers via a dating service saying I was looking for a girlfriend....and Kelly still has that ad) It was my first time meeting Kelly & I had pulled out all the stops. Wore my very best-used Thrift Shop shirt and Sally Ann jeans, my newest pair of old running shoes and I even think I remembered to wash behind my ears and comb my hair that morning.  To put the icing on the cake I even bought her a coffee as I recall. My pen & notebook were securely in my pocket and I never gave them a second thought. Everything went well (I think it was that free coffee I bought her that made the big impression) & we agreed to meet again later in the week for a movie. It wasn't until a few years later that she told me when she came into the coffee shop that day & saw the pen & notebook in my pocket that she had me pegged for a nerdy type guy & she definitely was not looking for a nerdy type guy. (good thing I had taken my glasses off & stuck them in my back pocket) Well, somehow me, my pen, & my notebook all survived the close coffee shop encounter that day & we have all been a part of Kelly's life ever since. Who would have ever thunk it huh. Now, how's that for a happy ending to a story between a man, a woman, a pen, & a nerdy notebook)   

 MOONBEAM MUSHROOM??  NAW, THAT'S JUST THE GLOBE FROM OUR OLD STREETLIGHT

GROANER'S CORNER:(( "Did God make you, Grandpa?"  "Yes, God made me" the grandfather answered.  A few minutes later, the little girl asked him, "Did God make me, too?"  "Yes, He did," the older man replied.  For a few minutes, the little girl seemed to be studying her grandpa, as well as her own reflection in the mirror, while her grandfather wondered what was running through her little mind.  At last she spoke up. "You know, Grandpa," she said, "God is sure doing a lot better job lately, isn't he?"

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My bloody rude neighbor came over banging on the door at 2 a.m. last night....Luckily I was still up playing my drums!!

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Patient 1: 'Why did you run away from the operating table?'
Patient 2: 'The nurse was repeatedly saying 'don't get nervous', 'don't be afraid', 'be strong', 'this is a small operation only', things like that.'
Patient 1: 'So what was wrong with that? Why were you so afraid?'
Patient 2: 'She was talking to the surgeon!'

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