NOT MY FAVORITE THING TO DO BUT IT KEPT ME BUSY

No sun this morning and we were back down to the freezing mark again.  Pheebs at first wasn't anxious about going for a ride but she came outside anyway.  I have to lift her up into the car every time now and she sometimes has difficulty maneuvering around in her seat.  Unlike sitting up and watching where we are going, she now mainly lays down and sleeps.  She is sleeping a lot more in the house too.  Driving along slowly this morning with her quietly asleep on the seat beside me I again had to accept the fact that as she nears the end of her days there are fewer and fewer things we can do together and that includes are car rides.  At some point, I will just have to get used to the idea of going out in the mornings without her.  And, I might as well understand and accept that now before she is gone........ I had forgotten to drop a few 'Goodwill' type bags of stuff off at a place in Goderich yesterday so that was the mission for this morning.  That done, we picked up a Hortons drive-thru coffee and headed back to Bayfield.  Stopped at Bayfield's Village Clippers and made a haircut appointment for next Thursday.  Also stopped at the Bayfield Garage and topped up the Subaru.  From there it was over to the Porters Hill Wild Bird Seed Company for 3 twenty-pound bags of birdseed.  At some point in our morning journey, Pheebs had thrown up some bile and I hadn't noticed it until we got home.  It wasn't much and it was an easy clean-up.  I spent the rest of the afternoon house cleaning.  Not my favorite thing to do but it kept me busy.  I will resume my outside clean-up when the air warms up.  And, in last night's post, I may very well have misidentified those green shoots coming up out of the ground as Crocus's.  A reader in the comment section suggested they might be daffodils....and I think that reader just might be right.  Well hey, at least I know the difference between a blade of grass and a tall Oak Tree.  Oh really??

 BARE AND DRY ROADS THIS MORNING AND NOT A STITCH OF SNOW TO BE SEEN ANYWHERE

 SPOTTED THIS DOGGY DOOGANS IN THE TIM HORTONS DRIVE-THRU LINE-UP

 OUT FOR A COFFEE WITH DAD I'M GUESSING

Al's Music Box:)) Too Much Heaven is a song by the Bee Gees, which was the band's contribution to the "Music for UNICEF" fund. They performed it at the Music for UNICEF Concert on 9 January 1979. The song later found its way to the group's thirteenth original album, Spirits Having Flown. It hit No. 1 in both the US and Canada. In the United States, the song was the first single out of three from the album to interrupt a song's stay at #1. "Too Much Heaven" knocked "Le Freak" off the top spot for two weeks before "Le Freak" returned to #1 again. In the US, it would become the fourth of six consecutive No. 1s, equaling the record set by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles for the most consecutive No. 1 songs. The six Bee Gee songs are "How Deep Is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "Too Much Heaven", "Tragedy" and "Love You Inside Out". The songs spanned the years of 1977, 1978, and 1979.  Robin Gibb reportedly said on the Bee Gees' interview for Billboard in 2001 that this track was one of his favorite songs of the Bee Gees.  Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, and Maurice Gibb wrote this track with "Tragedy" in an afternoon off from the making the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie; that same evening, the Gibbs wrote "Shadow Dancing" for Andy Gibb (but that song was later credited to all four Gibbs) The recording process was the longest of all the tracks on Spirits Having Flown as there are nine layers of three-part harmony, creating 27 voices, though the high falsetto voices are the most pronounced in the final mix:  Imbued with their falsetto style, it is also notable for being one of two songs on the album featuring the Chicago horn section (Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, and Walter Parazaider) "Too Much Heaven" was released nine months after "Night Fever". The single "Too Much Heaven" was released in the late autumn of 1978 and started a slow ascent up the music charts. In the first week of 1979, the single first topped the charts in both the United States and Canada. In the United Kingdom, the single peaked at number three late in 1978. In the summer of 1978, the Gibb brothers announced their latest project at a news conference at the United Nations in New York. All of the publishing royalties on their next single would go into UNICEF, to celebrate the International Year of the Child, which was designated to be 1979. The song earned over $7 million in publishing royalties.  The Bee Gees were later invited to the White House, where President Jimmy Carter thanked the group for their donation. At the ceremony, the brothers presented Carter with one of their black satin tour jackets.'  Cash Box said the song is "gentle and silky with the famous falsettos rising upwards." Record World called it a "flowing ballad, with [the Bee Gees'] trademark falsettos and a light touch." Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys spoke positively of the song, stating, "I was really loved and impressed with the harmonies they achieved on that record. I'm very very proud of those guys; they're exceptionally good at harmony. They’re a very heavy duty harmony group."

 PHEEBS SAT UP WHEN WE REACHED THE HORTONS DRIVE-THRU WINDOW

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A fellow tries to cross the Mexican border on a bicycle with two big bags balanced on his shoulders. The guard asks, 'What's in the bags?'  The fellow says, 'Sand!'  The guard wants to examine them. The fellow gets off the bike, places the bags on the ground, opens them up, and the guard inspects... only to find sand. The fellow packs the sand, places the bags on his shoulders, and pedals the bike across the border.  Two weeks later, the same situation is repeated...'What have you there?'  'Sand'.  'We want to examine.'  Same results... nothing but sand and the fellow is on his way again.  Every two weeks for six months the inspections continue. Finally, one week the fellow didn't show up. However, the guard sees him downtown and says to the fellow, 'Buddy, you had us crazy. We sort of knew you were smuggling something. I won't say anything - what were you smuggling?'  The fellow says, 'Bicycles.'

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What is the difference between dogs and marine biologists?  One wags a tail, and the other tags a whale.

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A woman goes into the local newspaper office to see that the obituary for her recently deceased husband is written. The obit. editor informs her that the fee for the obituary is 50 cents a word. She pauses, reflects and then says, Well then, let it read "Fred Brown died."  Amused at the woman's thrift, the editor tells her that there is a 7 word minimum for all obituaries. Only a little flustered, she thinks things over and in a few seconds says, In that case, let it read, "Fred Brown died: 1983 Pickup for sale."
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Al's Doggy World

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Kelly's Corner

BURGS AND FRIES AT 'FIVE GUYS' IN LONDON

KELLY AND HER FIVE LITTLE ONES YEARS AGO

Al's Art Gallery

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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

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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