A BLOG READER'S COMMENT

 DESPITE ANOTHER GRAY MORNING, I WAS ABLE TO FIND SOME MORE COLOR IN OUR PARK

Only 23F when we got up this morning.  I was glad I had put out extra birdseed the night before.  The little guys were gonna need some extra fuel to warm themselves up.

Despite the cold morning Pheebs and I did make it out for a spin around the Park and managed to find a few more pics along the way.

 HEY, ISN'T THAT ABE LINCOLN'S BIRDHOUSE

 PATIENTLY WAITING FOR WARMER SPRING WEATHER

 NOPE, IT'S NOT A TULIP

Kelly headed off to Goderich today to pick up a few groceries and a prescription at Walmart.  With it being so cold outside I had no interest in setting foot outside the door.  Mentally and physically my mind and body do not function well in cold weather anymore.  And, that's okay by me.  Happy to say we ended our day under big blue sunny skies:))))))   

 I NOTICED A SLIGHT MOVEMENT AT THE FAR END OF THE PARK'S POND

 DUCKS

I've decided to include an interesting blog comment from a fellow named Johnny Blogger.  Kelly came across his comment a few days ago on my March 15th post.  He touches not only on the recent passing of RV Blogger and friend John Brown, but other folks we here in the blogging community are or were familiar with over these past RVing years.  I like what Johnny Blogger had to say about our RV community, and how he caringly said it.  Here then I share with readers, Johnny Blogger's comment.........."It is always saddening when one we proverbially “broke bread,” with passes. Particularly when they too were a part of one’s RVing tribe. My condolences to the family and to you too Mr. and Mrs. Bayfield. He was one of the many that you met and appreciated on your journeys. And on the loss of our blogger “friends.”  I have followed several RV bloggers over the past decade. Some just disappear without notice. Jimbo of Jimbos Journeys being one. Yes, Jimbo had stopped RVing and he had kept up a bit writing about his new “little House” in Oregon, the loss of his dog Chica, and most recently a trip to England. Then gone.  Other RV Bloggers like RV Sue and her Canine Crew do publish that their RVing days are over. In her case, she had bought a sticks and bricks in a part of AZ that she loved. In 2021 Sue wrote to us that she was taking a break. Although Sue was very happy with her new home and those new home projects that go along with the staked down life.  As I ascertained from some of her last posts, she has never returned. I cherished the interspersed vignettes of her two little dogs Roger and Reggie.  Some bloggers who leave us are not RV’ers at all.  Some travel differently, more arduously. In fact, it was Mr. Bayfield who introduced me to a blog by Ara titled Oasis of my Soul. It was a deep blog encompassing the reflections of a man tormented by the loss of his adult son. This native Frenchman sold everything and left his SW Texas abode embarking on a decade plus unplanned, journey for a rediscovery of his soul after the sad events struck him. Life was not “normal,” anymore. He and his rescue dog Spirit traveled side by side…on his side-by-side motorcycle. Traveling through all kinds of weather, bright and frightening.  He tented. He slept on the ground and he mostly cooked by campfire. Ara’s last post although I’m not defining it as a last post as don’t know-, wasn’t a goodbye, In it he states “it is what it is.” Who knows, he may return, however his last post was enough for me to understand a new journey has begun. Ara is comfortable and at the end of the last journey: 74 and counting...(  Within the last several years I/we “lost” 2 other non-RV bloggers of note. Bloggers I have missed more than I think I would have missed people I know. John Wells of The Field Lab blog left us. He left us as he lived and blogged: Writing and Vlogging about projects. Dying was just another project. He shared what he could with the time he had. Over the past several years I watched and read of all his projects as he, after leaving NYC, turned a barren shingle of Texas high desert into a homestead for himself and the animals he loved. He left us with no real goodbyes. Well, beside a stark photo of him displaying a 2 fingered peace sign, this I suppose: “In case things go wrong tomorrow...Thanks for following along with The Field Lab journey.  This goodbye was followed by only several short posts on the logistics, the planning, and the execution of his death after his out-of-the-blue cancer diagnosis.  It is titled On to a New Adventure.  And finally, some bloggers who know and give us what they can to say goodbye. Gerald was a professional writer before retired to his childhood home in the foothills of the Sierras. He had traveled the world and spent much of his life in the professional creative circles in NYC and LA.  He returned home and reflected on life and his life. He too went unexpectedly. Fortunately, he had a good friend post for him while he was hospitalized and afterward when he was bedridden right before he died. He left us with one of his published essays from the early aughts. The next to last post is a link with lyrics to an Avett Brothers song “Further Down the Line”.  My name, “Gerard Van der Leun,” from The Name in Stone is his last post.  His second to last was this Avett Brothers song No Hard Feelings....

“When my body won’t hold me anymore
And it finally lets me free
Will I be ready?
When my feet won’t walk another mile
And my lips give their last kiss goodbye
Will my hands be steady when I lay down my fears, my hopes, and my doubts?
The rings on my fingers, and the keys to my house.  With no hard feelings”

Here's to John Brown the RV-traveling cowboy blogger and here’s to all the other bloggers who might not know that somewhere, somehow you touch someone be it in Spirit or Flesh.  And, thank you Mr. Bayfield for the tribute and for passing this other loss on with your reflections and on being to some extent a repository, a digest for the RV life and those who live or have lived it".

Al's Music Box:)) There Goes My Baby is a song written by Ben E. King (Benjamin Earl Nelson), Lover Patterson, George Treadwell, and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for The Drifters.  This was the first single by the second incarnation of the Drifters (previously known as the 5 Crowns), who assumed the group name in 1958 after manager George Treadwell fired the remaining members of the original lineup. The Atlantic Records release was Ben E. King's debut recording as the lead singer of the group.  The lyrics are loosely structured, almost free-form at a time when rhyming lines were mandatory. The accompaniment features a violin section playing saxophone-like riffs in rock and roll style. The lead voice is in high gospel style.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The Best Norm Quotes from Cheers::

'What's shaking Norm?''  All four cheeks & a couple of chins.'

'What's new Normie?''  Terrorists, Sam. They've taken over my stomach & they're demanding beer.'

'What'd you like Normie?'
'A reason to live. Give me another beer.'

'What'll you have Normie?'
'Well, I'm in a gambling mood Sammy, I'll take a glass of whatever comes out of that tap.'  'Looks like beer, Norm.'  'Call me Mister Lucky.'

'Hey Norm, how's the world been treating you?'  'Like a baby treats a diaper.'

'What's the story Mr. Peterson?'  'The Bobbsey twins go to the brewery. Let's cut to the happy ending.'

'Hey Mr. Peterson, there's a cold one waiting for you.'  'I know; if she calls, I'm not here.'

'Beer, Norm?'  'Have I gotten that predictable? Good.'

'What's going on Mr. Peterson?'  'A flashing sign in my gut that says, 'Insert beer here.''

'Whatcha up to Norm?'  'My ideal weight if I were eleven feet tall.'

'How's it going Mr. Peterson?'  'Poor.'  'I'm sorry to hear that.'  'No, I mean POUR!'

'How's life treating you Norm?'  'Like it caught me sleeping with its wife.'

'Women. Can't live with 'em....pass the beer-nuts.'

'What's going down, Normie?'  'My butt cheeks on that bar stool.'

'Pour you a beer, Mr. Peterson?'
'Alright, but stop me at one....make that one-thirty.'

'How's it going Mr. Peterson?'  'It's a dog eat dog world, Woody & I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear.'

'What's the story Norm?'  'Boy meets beer. Boy drinks beer. Boy meets another beer.'

'What's going on Mr. Peterson?'  'The question is what's going IN, Mr. Peterson?
'A beer please, Woody.'

'Can I pour you a beer Mr. Peterson?'  'A little early isn't it, Woody?'  'For a beer?'
'No. For a stupid question.'

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