IT WILL BE A MAMMOTH OVERALL CLEAN-UP THIS YEAR

BECAUSE OF THE COLD OUR CROCUS FLOWERS HAVE NOT YET BLOOMED

At 9:15 Wednesday night I slipped out the door, hopped into the Subaru, and headed east out of the Park.  The night sky was clear with a myriad of stars overhead.  My iPhone made a familiar noise, and I knew it meant the International Space Station was in the area somewhere high above.  By the time I got to Whys Line on Bayfield River Road and stopped to get out, my phone told me I had missed it by four minutes.  But, that was okay because I was out there to look at the stars and the ISS would have simply been a bonus.  I saw a few Constellations with Orion being the highlight.  Also visible were the Gemini Twins 'Castor and Pollux,' as well as the Pleides, Ursa Major, (Big Dipper) and Leo the Lion overhead.  Because of the night's cold, I didn't stay standing long on the country road very long and soon beat a hasty retreat back into the warm car and headed for home.  A nice little brief outing. ..... Sunshine through the morning Pines earlier today and temps were on the rise.  Might even be worth venturing outside I thought to myself so Pheebs and I headed off to Goderich.  I must have accidentally turned the unlimited data off on my iPhone so I popped into the Bell store and the fella there showed me how to turn it back on.  My second stop was at the bank then down to the harbor for a look-see.  Following that it was a quick stop at Walmart before heading home..... I spent most of my afternoon working at cleaning up and re-organizing stuff in our carport's storage area.  I have it about a third done.  No small task I can assure you.  In the grand scheme of it all I have hardly made a dent in what is actually left to do.  It will be a mammoth overall clean-up this year that will probably last well into the Fall and then some.  A big job that's got to be done.  

 I THINK I MIGHT JUST PAINT THIS FLOOR WHILE I'M AT IT

A Blast From Our Past It was one year ago today that a temporary 6-week hold on my driver's license was lifted after my hip surgery a month earlier.  To say I was a happy camper to be back on the road driving again would be an understatement. "Yahouie Louie" Pheebs And I Are Back On The Road Again:))  

Al's Music Box:)) The Rain, the Park & Other Things is a pop song with music and lyrics co-written by Artie Kornfeld and Steve Duboff. It was recorded by the pop band the Cowsills, and included on their 1967 self-titled debut album. Released as a single, the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts. It was kept from the No. 1 spot by "Daydream Believer" by the Monkees. The single cemented the group's international popularity and sold some three million copies over the years. It ties with 1969's "Hair" as the group's biggest hit, as both reached No. 2 in the US. In Canada, "The Rain, the Park & Other Things" reached No. 1 on the RPM singles chart.  The song was written by Kornfeld and Duboff specifically for the Cowsills; Bob Cowsill said Kornfeld told him they had written it in two hours.  The Cowsills did not play on their earliest recordings. Studio musicians were brought in to provide the music for this song and many of the earlier singles. For this record, the arranger was Jimmy Wisner, musicians included Gene Bianco on harp, Vinnie Bell, Charles Macy and Al Gorgoni on guitar, Joe Macho on bass, Artie Butler on organ, Paul Griffin on piano, George Devens on percussion, and Buddy Saltzman and Al Rogers on drums.  Kornfeld had planned to use the sound of a rainstorm as the song's intro, but recordings of real rain proved to be too faint to hear on record; instead he used a stock sound of sizzling bacon to emulate rain.  Originally recorded in late 1966, with Bill Cowsill on lead vocals, the backing vocals of his mother, Barbara, were added onto the finished product after the initial sessions, at Kornfeld's suggestion. The song was originally recorded at A&R Studios in New York with Brooks Arthur engineering the session. The song is known by many as "The Flower Girl". That was its original title, but MGM Records president Mort Nasatir suggested that the title be changed in order to avoid confusion with Scott McKenzie's contemporaneous hit single, "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) The new title was coined by Kornfeld.  In the song, the narrator states that he saw a flower girl sitting in the rain, said hello, and took a lovely walk in the park until, when the rain stops and the sun breaks through, she disappears. However, the narrator still feels happy about the flower girl, and asks in the final verse: "Was she reality, or just a dream to me?" The song was used in Lloyd's fantasy scene in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Eight-year-old Sally brought her report card home from school. Her marks were good…mostly A’s and a couple of B’s.  However, her teacher had written across the bottom: "Sally is a smart little girl, but she has one fault. She talks too much in school. I have an idea I am going to try, which I think may break her of the habit." Sally’s dad signed her report card, putting a note on the back: "Please let me know if your idea works on Sally because I would like to try it out on her mother."

Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 KELLY TRIES OUT HER NEW RECLINER LAST SUMMER

 PUTTING ON SOCKS AND SHOES FOR HER MORNING WALK WITH PHEEBS

 AT DEER PARK LODGE AND THE DOG'S NAME IS GUINNESS .....KELLY WAS THE MANAGER HERE AND THIS IS ONE OF THE OWNERS TWO DOGS

Al's Art Gallery