I KNOW, BECAUSE I'M HERE, AND I SEE IT

After Saturday's late afternoon sunshine, it was so disappointing to once again wake up under cloudy skies with cold and damp temperatures.  And fog.  The only good thing about all that was the Hoarfrost the damp air left on the trees.  Pretty as it was, it would have been a magical fairyland if a morning's sunshine had turned all that icy hoarfrost into glittering diamonds.

 DID WE TURN LEFT HERE AND HEAD WEST TO BAYFIELD

 OR DID WE TURN EAST AND HEAD OUT INTO THE COUNTRYSIDE

 IT WAS OUT INTO THE COUNTRYSIDE WE WENT BEFORE HEADING TO GODERICH

As disappointed as I felt about this morning's gray skies, Pheebs and I piled into the Jeep and headed off to Goderich.  With gas, coffee, the harbor and beach areas, Pet Value and Walmart checked off my list we were later homeward bound and rolled into our driveway shortly before noon.

 ENJOYING MORNING'S SCENERY 

 A FEW TOUCHES OF COLOR ALONG THE WAY

 NO PROBLEM STAYING WARM WITH A WOOLY SWEATER LIKE THIS

 THE NARROW CHANNEL BETWEEN LAKE HURON AND GODERICH'S INNER HARBOR IS NOW FREE AND CLEAR OF ICE

 STILL SOME ICE ALONG THE NORTH SIDE OF THE HARBOR AND NOTICE A BLACK DOT TO THE TOP RIGHT OF CENTER ALONG THE ICE EDGE....THAT BLACK DOT IS THE CANADA GOOSE BELOW

Aside from topping up the bird feeders, I accomplished about the square root of nothing this afternoon.  Most of my time was again spent reading.  Some days my hip bothers me a lot and other days hardly at all.  Today was a bad hip day so Pheebs and I didn't get out for an afternoon walk.

Kelly hasn't been able to get in touch with her volunteer live liver donor for a while now and our hopes of a live liver transplant for Kelly are now fading.  Kelly has an appointment in London on February 21st for another stress test so maybe they will have some answers for her.  She is still on the liver transplant list but it could be a long time before a suitable cadaver liver is found.  In the meantime, her condition steadily worsens.  I know, because I'm here, and I see it.  

Al's Music Box:)) The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is the theme to the 1966 film by the same name, which was directed by Sergio Leone. Included on the film soundtrack as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (main title)", the instrumental piece was composed by Ennio Morricone. A cover version by Hugo Montenegro in 1967 was a pop hit in both the US and the UK.  It has since become one of the most iconic scores in film history.  Hugo Montenegro was an American composer and orchestra leader who began scoring films in the 1960s. After hearing the music from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he decided to create a cover version of the theme. Musician Tommy Morgan is quoted in Wesley Hyatt's The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits as saying that Montenegro's version "was done in one day. I think it was all day one Saturday at RCA."  Similar to Morricone's original composition, Montenegro and a few session musicians sought to recreate this record using their own instrumentation. The opening two-note segment was played on an ocarina by Art Smith; Morgan provided the sounds that followed on a harmonica. He was quoted as saying: "I knew it was live, so I had to do this hand thing, the 'wah-wah-wah' sound."  Hyatt's book states that Montenegro himself "grunted something which came out like 'rep, rup, rep, rup, rep'" between the chorus segments.  Other musicians heard on the record include Elliot Fisher (electric violin), Mannie Klein (piccolo trumpet) and Muzzy Marcellino, whose whistling is heard during the recording.  Much to the surprise of Montenegro and the musicians who worked with him, this cover of the film theme became a hit single in 1968.  

GROANER'S CORNER:((  One night a husband and wife were sleeping and suddenly the wife woke up.  "Honey, wake up! I think there are burglars downstairs, and it sounds like they're eating the chocolate cake I made!”.  Half asleep, the husband answers, "So should I call the police or an ambulance?”

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- “By the time someone says, ‘To make a long story short,’ it’s too late.” 

- “The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people.”

- “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” 

- “An optimist is someone who falls off the Empire State Building, and after 50 floors says, ‘So far so good!'” 

- “My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.”

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