I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL MY READERS

SUNDAY MORNING FISHERMEN ON BAYFIELD'S SOUTH PIER

What I am about to tell my readers now may be understood by many and maybe not so much by others.  A long time friend from the mid-eighties has re-entered my life after a long absence.  In 1984 as the newly installed manager of a one-hour photo lab in Stratford, Ontario, I was tasked with hiring two new employees.  One of those two employees was a gal by the name of Lorraine.  Lorraine was a single Mother with a young daughter and I was a single guy following a failed marriage.  I had already been sober nearly 5 years at this point.  To make a long story short, Lorraine and I soon became a couple for the next four years, and it was her little daughter Laurissa that I have sometimes blogged about being the only little person I ever got to know in my life.  Laurissa and I were like two peas in a pod.  At this same time, Lorraine met both my Mother and Father as well, although they had been divorced since I was a small child.  For Lorraine and I, working together every day in a very stressful environment and living together as well, the strain became too much and we agreed to split up in the Spring of 1988.  It was an amicable split and we remained friends.  We even went downhill skiing a few times after that.  As the years wore on, we weren't in contact much anymore until after I met Kelly.  Lorraine's Mother and I had really got along well and when Lorraine's Mother, dying of cancer, asked through Lorraine to see me, I drove to Listowel Ontario to see her Mother for one last time.  Shortly after that, Lorraine's Mother passed away and Lorraine phoned us at the Weenie Roast Ranch.  I was at work and Kelly took the call.  Lorraine asked Kelly if it would be alright if I accompanied her to her Mom's funeral.  Kelly was fine with that and I learned later that they actually had a long phone conversation. (Oh Dear)  I did accompany Lorraine to her Mom's funeral.  After that, years again passed until Lorraine phoned and asked Kelly if it would be alright to invite Kelly and I to Laurissa's wedding.  Of course it would be alright, so Kelly and I attended Laurissa's wedding in Listowell, Ontario.  Following that, nearly three decades passed and I never heard from Lorraine again until about 6 years ago when she found me and my blog on Facebook.  She became a faithful blog reader and we occasionally messaged back and forth with things like, 'how's it going', how's Laurissa doing, I enjoy reading your blog, etc.  Lorraine was also on Kelly's Facebook friends list and Kelly was on Lorraine's.  Lorraine was one of Kelly's unwavering supporters through the last few years of Kelly's liver illness and we stayed in touch.  Sometimes Lorraine would read things about liver disease and send them to me on Facebook and have me relay them to Kelly.   In the last months of Kelly's life and after her passing, Lorraine's unwavering moral support on Facebook helped me through those difficult times.  Also through Facebook I had previously learned that Lorraine was an avid walker spending many days walking around Stratford's Parks and Avon River.  I casually mentioned to her that maybe in the Spring when the weather is nicer I'd take a drive to Stratford and go for a walk with her around the river.  Well, that kind of got the ball rolling and a while ago we agreed to meet for a sit down face to face chat.  It had been over 30 years since we had seen each other.  Yes, we had both physically aged with me at 80 and her at nearly 71, but the old camaraderie was still there.  The laughs, the kibbitzing, the memories.  Two years ago, Lorraine retired from the LCBO. (Liquor Control Board of Ontario)  She had worked at the two Stratford locations for 26 years and also for the past 26 years has lived by herself in an apartment in Stratford.....And that dear readers kinda brings me up to now.  Lorraine, referred to as my longtime friend in a couple precious blogs, has periodically been driving over from Stratford and helping me with things like cooking, cleaning, organizing stuff, and especially with getting me up to speed with this darn fangled iPhone thing of majig.  She even cooks for Pheebs and the two of them are best buds.  Lorraine lost her little dog Tasha just over a year ago.....So, what does all this mean??  It means that if all goes well, you will be seeing Lorraine's name pop up more in my blogs in the future, as we spend some time together and maybe lay out some travel plans for the future.  At 71 and 80, time is running out for both of us so we'll see what happens.  As I said at the beginning of this post,  some folks will understand and some folks will not.  I hope you will all see this as I see it.  I know Kelly would because she was always a positive and realistic thinking person.  Had our situation been reversed with me being the one who didn't make it, Kelly would have gotten on with her life as well.  It was something we had talked about and encouraged each other about.  So, with that I now step back and let the cards fall where they may...........

 NICE TO SEE THE BAYFIELD RIVER FLOWING AGAIN

 WITH WARMER DAYS ON OUR DOORSTEP THIS LANDSCAPE OF FROZEN ICE AND SNOW ON LAKE HURON WILL SOON CHANGE

A BUSY BAYFIELD COFFEE MORNING IN FRONT OF THE SHOPBIKE COFFEE ROASTERS ON MAIN STREET

WORK CONTINUES ON THE RESTORATION OF THE ALBION HOTEL

What a beautiful day with an abundance of sunshine and above freezing temperatures.  Pheebs and slipped into Bayfield and back.  I wasn't long in getting myself outside looking for any little bit of puttering I could find.  Pulled some more snow off of the shed roof, shoveled a short path to have access to an electrical outlet, hooked up a different overhead light in the sunroom, and with shovel and rake smoothed out some semi-frozen lumps of mud at the end of our driveway.  Bird feeders needed to be refilled as well.  This kind of day was like an early Spring tonic for me with all the melting going on and snow sliding off the roofs.  How grrrreat it was just being outside accomplishing something and feeling useful today.

 VACUMING OUT THE SUBARU EARLIER IN THE WEEK

 LAST THURSDAY WAS NOT A GOOD DRIVING DAY

 SO NICE THIS PAST WEDNESDAY TO FINALLY SEE FARM FIELDS EMERGING FROM UNDER ALL THE SNOW

AREA CREEKS WERE FLOWING

Al's Music Box:)) Michelle is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was composed principally by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight co-written with John Lennon. The song is a love ballad with part of its lyrics sung in French.  Following its inclusion on Rubber Soul, the song was released as a single in some European countries and in New Zealand, and on an EP in France, in early 1966. It was a number 1 hit for the Beatles in Belgium, France, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand. "Michelle" won the Song of the Year Award for the Year in 1967 and has since become one of the most widely recorded of all Beatles songs.

 TONIGHT'S SUNSET AT BAYFIELD'S BEACH

 IN A FEW MONTHS PEOPLE WILL BE SWIMMING HERE

LORRAINE DROVE OVER FROM STRATFORD TODAY AND WE SLIPPED OUT TO WATCH THE SUNSET

 LORRAINE'S A BIT CAMERA SHY SO I WILL HAVE TO EASE INTO THIS

TONIGHT'S SUNDAY SUNSET

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man who absolutely hated his wife's cat decided to get rid of him one day by driving him 20 blocks from his home and leaving him at the park.  As he was nearing home, the cat was walking up the driveway.  The next day, he decided to drive the cat 40 blocks away and try the same thing.  As we was driving back into his driveway, there was the cat! He kept taking the cat farther and farther away, but the darn cat would always beat him home.  At last, he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then left, past the bridge, then right again and another right and so on until he reached what he thought was a safe distance from his home and he left the cat there.  Hours later, the man calls home to his wife: "Jen, is the cat there?"  "Yes," the wife answers. "Why do you ask?"  Frustrated, the man answers: "Put that damn cat on the phone. I'm lost and I need directions!"

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- Reversing the car: "Ahh, this takes me back."

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During a terrible storm, all the highway signs were covered with snow. The following spring, the state decided to raise all the signs twelve inches at a cost of six million dollars. “That’s an outrageous price!” said a local farmer, “but I guess we’re lucky the state handled it instead of the federal government.” “Why’s that?”
“Because knowing the federal government, they’d decide to lower the highways.”

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You might be a reneck if...
- Your master bathroom has the words "porta-potty" written on the side. 

- You can't take a bath in the winter 'cause the stream is frozen.

- You only bathe when it rains.
- You think "Dueling Banjos" is classical music.
- You refer to the Surgeon General's Warning on a pack of cigarettes as your medical encyclopedia.
- You go to garage sales to shop for Christmas gifts.
- You're 42 and still have clowns come to your birthday party.
- You think 'possum is the "other white meat".
- Your husband spray paints the upholstery of your car to make it look new.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 MORNING HIKE HIGH UP IN THE SAN YSIDRO MOUNTAINS OVERLOOKING BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

 IN ELFRIDA ARIZONA AND THE DOGGY'S NAME IS MATTIE

 THIS WAS THE DAY WE TOURED THE QUEEN MINE IN BISBEE, ARIZONA

Al's Art Gallery