KEEPING THE BIRD FEEDERS TOPPED UP

 A NICE TOUCH OF COLOR ALONG BAYFIELD WINTERY MAIN STREET

With overnight temperatures dipping to 11F, it was the coldest night of the Winter so far. Next week I see five days above freezing with a few chances of Sun.  That will be our annual January thaw and then in all probability, we will head back into the deep freeze again.  Pheebs and I fired up the Jeep and took a short run into Bayfield to see if we could scoop a few photos.  With Kelly, we had planned to later head off for Goderich to begin rounding up a few of the medical aids I will need for my hip surgery next month.  However, with snow falling and high winds blowing it all over the place I decided it was not the best day to do that.  Thursday morning Kelly has an appointment in Exeter at the dentist again so we're hoping for a good driving day.  Hopefully that will be the last of the dentist appointments for a while.  Our next trip to Exeter will likely be about a month from now when I begin physical therapy for my post-hip replacement.

 THE BAYFIELD RIVER IS NOW FROZEN OVER

 ICE FORMATIONS ALONG THE NORTH SHORE NEAR THE HARBOR MOUTH

 BOTH PIERS ARE BECOMING CAKED IN ICE WHILE SHORE ICE IS BUILDING ALONG THE SHORELINE

Kelly found her latest chair from the Austin and Taylor Furniture Store in London not as soft and cushy as she had hoped, so today a softer and cushier chair was delivered and the other chair headed back to London.  If this chair doesn't work out I am going to suggest a lawn chair of which we already have two out in the shed.  Hmmm, maybe I had better re-think that suggestion if I know what's good for me.

 THIS CHAIR IS A STEP UP FROM THE OTHER ONE AND DEFINITELY MORE COMFORTABLE....FINGERS CROSSED THAT IT IS 'A KEEPER'

After finishing my book, 'Two Years Before The Mast' I next took myself to France in June of 1940 and read the plight of an RAF pilot shot down near Saint-Omer.  His harrowing escape, twice recaptured, and twice more escaped, made for a rivetting read. With many nail-biting twists and turns, he finally made his way to Spain three months later.  Great book but I can't think of the name of it now.  It was a free Kindle book from Amazon Books, but exchanging it for my latest free book, I forgot the title and author's name.  Anyway, my latest read right now is,  Somewhere In The Skies by Ryan Sprague.  In the interim, I had also downloaded, 'Inside the U.S. Government Cover UFO Program' by James Lacatski but I found it tough slogging, and dry.  I only made it a quarter of the way through.  Lots of good info no doubt but I get bogged down with all the Government twists and turns, paperwork, and bureaucracy, etc.  Those types of books require a good finely tuned short-term memory to follow all the confusion and lots of patience to stick with it and sort out that confusion.  I have neither a finely turned short-term memory nor the patience to go along with it.  Sometimes, when my reading efforts get me too heavily involved with the subject matter, I have to sit down in a corner and pick up a 'Dick and Jane' book for a while until I am grounded again.

 A GRAY MORNING ALONG BAYFIELD'S MAIN STEET

BUT HEY, THE WARM COZY LOOKING COFFEE SHOP IS OPEN:))

 SPRINKLING THE SHRUBS ON A COLD WINTER'S MORN

 EVEN CAPTAIN HARRY IS LOOKING RATHER DISTRAUGHT ABOUT THESE COLD DAYS

This freezing cold snowy weather has really brought a lot of birds to the feeders which is normal.  I'm a busy guy keeping the feeders topped up these days.  And then there's the squirrels and bunnies.  It's not only air traffic control we need here in our front yard but also ground control as well.  

 THE MAJORITY OF OUR FRONT YARD WINTER BIRDS ARE DARK-EYED JUNCOS

 AND THE MAJORITY OF THE FOUR-LEGGED CRITTERS ARE SQUIRRELS

Al's Music Box:)) Baby Hold Onto Me is a song recorded by American rock singer Eddie Money. It was written by Money and guitarist Jimmy Lyon and released in 1977 as the first single from Money's debut album Eddie Money. The song was a big success and has since been considered one of Eddie Money's best songs. It still gets frequent airplay on classic rock and adult contemporary radio stations.  James Halliday of Rolling Stone magazine gave the song 4/5 stars in 1977. 

 THERE IS STILL A SMATTERING OF CHRISTMAS IN BAYFIELD

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The Reverend Francis Norton woke up Sunday morning and realizing it was an exceptionally beautiful and sunny early spring day, decided he just had to play golf.  So... he told the Associate Pastor that he was feeling sick and convinced him to say Mass for him that day. As soon as the Associate Pastor left the room, Father Norton headed out of town to a golf course about forty miles away. This way he knew he wouldn't accidentally meet anyone he knew from his parish.  Setting up on the first tee, he was alone. After all, it was Sunday morning and everyone else was in church!  At about this time, Saint Peter leaned over to the Lord while looking down from the heavens and exclaimed, "You're not going to let him get away with this, are you?"  The Lord sighed, and said, "No, I guess not." Just then Father Norton hit the ball and it shot straight towards the pin, dropping just short of it, rolled up and fell into the hole. It WAS A 420 YARD HOLE IN ONE! St. Peter was astonished. He looked at the Lord and asked, "Why did you let him do that?"  The Lord smiled and replied, "Who's he going to tell?"

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Research shows that drinking coffee in the morning helps others live longer.

There are so many scams on the internet nowadays.   Just send me $19.95 and I will tell you how to get rid of them.

When I was young I was scared of the dark.  Now when I see my electric bill I am scared of the lights.

I let my blind friend borrow money the other day.  He told me he was going to repay me the next time he saw me......'Hey', wait a minute!!

If you get a big loan at a bank you will be paying it back for 30 years.  If you ROB a bank, you will be out in 10 years.  Follow me for more financial advice...........

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