Showing posts with label Cowboy hats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cowboy hats. Show all posts

Friday, October 15, 2010

LOOKING BACK ON A SCHOOL BUS STORY:))

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MAX, CHECKERS & I WERE BEING WATCHED ON THE TRAIL THIS MORNING

No mobility van drives so it turned out to be a day of home & Motor Home puttering.  Just a lot of small things again.  Packing this here & moving that there.  Dusted off both my cowboy hats this afternoon & put them in the rig.  Can't wear big cowboy hats around these parts or people would point & stare figuring I had escaped from a correctional center or something.  Standard head gear is a baseball hat here in the northern latitudes but down south.......Hi Yo Silver, it's cowboy hats all the way:)))))

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TOOK THIS UFO PHOTO AT SUNSET LAST WEEK WEST OF EXETER, ONTARIO.

And here's something I never thought about.

ME & MY DOG had a post Thursday regarding publishing posts, editing, re-editing etc. I sure hope this isn't happening with my posts but maybe it is because I am in the habit of re-publishing my blog if & when I find errors in it. Nobody has ever brought it to my attention yet, but........

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SEEN IN GODERICH ONTARIO......SELF EXPLANATORY  (tonight's photos are a mish mosh of pics)DSC_8507 

Now, time for a little backtracking.  I should have explained in Thursday night's blog that the fellow who's air line I stepped on was just fine.  I had picked him up at home & transported him to the hospital for an appointment.  People who have home oxygen are well instructed on the care & use of their equipment so when the oxygen hose was abruptly pulled out the fellow just simply re-inserted it & I helped put the 'over the ears' holding line back on.  He wasn't bothered by it all & I think the only one feeling bad was me for not noticing the long plastic & transparent oxygen hose trailing out from behind the wheelchair.  Good thing it wasn't an IV line eh!!

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I THINK THIS FORGOTTEN LITTLE CORVETTE HAS SEEN THE LAST OF IT'S LIFE ON THE ROAD

And to backtrack a little further to my Boondocking post, I was talking about refilling the fresh water tank while out in the desert.  RETIRED ROD suggests....."There are also some 40 or 50 gallon bladders available that you can put in the back of your truck to bring fresh water out to your site.  Some folks will take a RV water pump and rig it up so they can pump the water directly into their rig's tank.  Plug the water pump into the cigarette lighter socket and off load the entire tank!  Most folks go to town at least every other day, so running out of water shouldn't happen!" 

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GYPSY was wondering if we needed the generator on while Boondocking to run the A/C & my answer to this is, 'yes.'  In the 4 years we have had the Motor Home we probably wouldn't even have 3 hour's running time on either of our A/C's.  Hot humid days are not a problem in the Southwest during the winter.  Our windows & doors are always open so it's rare for us to use A/C 

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ONE OF EXETER'S WHITE SQUIRRELS...(only had my small point & shoot with me)

And a note regarding the AM 740 ZOOMER RADIO   site.  When you open the site just look to the top right for a large round gray button that will say, 'On the Air.'  Click that & you should be able to hear the station.   The Zoomer's club is on the site as well but you do not have to join that to hear Zoomer radio.  I should also mention in regards to my 'photo organization' blog that my main confusion is in trying to organize my photos into my Smug Mug site.  I always categorize my photos by month & year taken.  I don't break them down into categories like flowers, sunsets, family, etc.  All the pics I take in 'September 2010' are in a folder by the same name.  Someone asked about photo storage in web albums & yes, Picasa has their own web albums which I have been using since I started all this.  Just type in Picasa Web Albums to Google & you will find the site.  My Picasa Web Albums are here.....  BAYFIELD BUNCH'S PICASA WEB ALBUMS  I hope that catches me up on some of the questions.  I still have some emails to send regarding others.

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AWWWW NUTS, I RAN INTO A SNOW DRIFT WITH THE MOBILITY VAN IN HENSALL ONTARIO THURSDAY!!

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SNOW FROM THE REFRIGERATION UNIT IN THE ARENA:))

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On my way home from Exeter Thursday I followed along behind a school bus for awhile.  Watching the little kids get off at one stop I was reminded of my school bus driving days & the time a public school principal from the East Wawanosh Public School in Belgrave Ontario had to come out the bus & give me a scolding.  Before I had my own school bus run in this area I would often fill in on routes where other drivers were off on medical leaves, etc.  It was late March 2005 when I took over a bus route from an older lady who finally retired driving the same school bus route since Abe Lincoln was a small boy.  I was told she ran a totally strict bus with absolutely no Tom Foolery or shenanigans going on.  It was a quiet bus & it was a disciplined bus.  The crew was made up of about 30 small children & 5 young teenagers.  By the time I put on my Captain's hat & slid into the driver's seat I had no idea what I was in for.

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THIS WAS MY 'KIDS' SCHOOL BUS  

It was the one & only time in my entire life I had ever interacted with or been responsible for a group of children.  Never happened before & has never happened since.  I was a fish out of water & had no idea what to do except drive the bus & that's what I did for those first few quiet days.  The thought did occur to me that, how is it possible to have so many kids together without any noise.  The first few days I would say 'good morning' to the kids getting on the bus but few of them had much of a response.  I think it was about the third day when a little girl sitting directly behind me finally spoke.  She asked me who I was.  (guess I hadn't told them)  Well, with that simple little question, the ice was broken.  I basically operate with a kid's imagination at the best of times anyway so I answered her with marvelous great story of some kind.  Well, that did it.  There was laughter coming from behind me.  More questions & more zany answers.  Pretty soon the questions were zanier than the answers, the stage was set, & for the next 3 months or so anybody could have heard our bus coming from a country mile away.  It was a bus filled with laughter, kibitzing & kids just being kids.  And there was me, right in the middle of it, the biggest kid of them all.  And then.....the hammer came down:((

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DIFFERENT BUS ROUTE BUT YEP, THAT'S ME IN THE SHADOW THERE ALIGHT

I was parked in front of the school one fine spring afternoon waiting for the kids to come piling out & onto the bus.  Checked my passenger mirror & saw the young lady principal coming along the sidewalk.  She swung up into the bus with a friendly "Hello Al."  The next words out of her mouth were, "I've had complaints about what is going on aboard your bus!!" but it was the next thing she said that totally floored me.  She said the complaints were placed by the 5 teen-agers on the bus!!  She explained how those 5 teens had been riding this same bus since the day they started school way back when.  For all those years they were not allowed out of their seats, no loud voices, no acting up & no having the kind of fun kids like to have.  Anybody who has ever watched Southpark & seen the school bus driver, Miss Crabtree, will understand.  Those teens on my bus were totally resentful at what all the kids were getting away with now & having the fun they were never allowed to have.  They were resentful of the noise, the laughter, & the freedom.

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A FEW VIEWS FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT....is it any wonder we like to go south!!

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(click pics to enlarge) 

The principal was very good about it all & just asked me to quiet things down on the bus a bit & get a handle on the circus like atmosphere.  I told her 'no problem' & she headed on back into the school.  The only thing that saved me from her having to come out & talk to me about the rowdy bus problem was the fact it was only a short time until the end of the school year because you know what......right up until the last day of school, anybody could have still heard us coming a good country mile away:)))))))))

BELOW IS SOME OF MY MOTLEY CREW ON THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL (click to enlarge)

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THIS IS THE LITTLE GIRL WHO BROKE THE ICE & THAT'S 'NOISY NICK' WHO GAVE ME THE HARDEST TIME OF THE WHOLE BUNCH!!

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Say, have I blogged about the time I got called up on the carpet because of a snowball fight on my school bus.  Or the time police called the bus company about one of there unmarked cars being mooned by teenagers riding in the back of a school bus.  Yep, that was my bus alright & I was in trouble over that one too:((  And have I shown you pics of the time 'Snoopy' rode the school bus:)) 

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OH, & ABOUT THAT UFO PHOTO EARLIER....IT WAS JUST A CLOUD ANOMALY:))

GROANER'S CORNER:))  I urgently needed a few days off work, but, I knew the Boss would not allow me to take a leave.  I thought that maybe if I acted 'Crazy' then he would tell me to take a few days off.  So I hung upside-down on the ceiling and made funny noises. My co-worker (who's blonde) asked me what I was doing.  I told her that I was pretending to be a light bulb so that the Boss would think I was 'Crazy' and give me a few days off.  A few minutes later the Boss came into the office and asked, 'What in the name of good GOD are you doing?'  I told him I was a light bulb.  He said, 'You are clearly stressed out.' Go home and recuperate for a couple of days.'  I jumped down and walked out of the office...  When my co-worker (the blonde) followed me, the Boss asked her, '..And where do you think you're going?!'

She said, 'I'm going home, too. I can't work in the dark.

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

Until one has loved an Animal, part of their soul remains un-awakened.

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS

http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

HATS!!....WHO NEEDS EM ANYWAY!!

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THIS HERE HAT'S MY FAV...RIGHT FROM THE 'HIGH LONESOME' STORE IN ELFRIDA, ARIZONA.......YES SIREEEEE:))

For over 60 years I got away with not having to wear hats.  Never did like the darn things anyway.  Always figured they made people look kinda silly & what useful purpose did they serve besides making people look....well, kinda silly. 

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And, what do I mean by looking silly??  Ok, it doesn't get much more silly looking than those ridiculous things sitting on the top of Queen Elizabeth's head over there in that England place.  Coon traps, Beaver dams, old  rusting battleship gun turrets with wild paint splashed on them?  Not just her, but seems like all those royalty fluffs have their head's adorned with some kind of goofy looking foreign & lost machinery parts of sorts!!

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AWWW C'MON DAD, ENOUGH WITH THIS HAT STUFF!!

Now, back here to this side of the pond!!  I never liked ball caps & that's probably because they were always popular & all the guys were wearing them.  Curved brims, flat brims, big letters, flashy logos & whatever else could be dragged through the garden & put on them.  Never did like those Dutchman caps either.  Reminded me of some little kid standing around with his finger stuck in a dike somewhere.  And besides, they looked kind of wussy or something.  Always liked Cowboy hats though but up here in our neck of the woods in Ontario a feller runs the risk of being carted off in an unmarked white windowless van to the funny farm if he were spotted wearing a cowboy hat.  Kinda like Woody, from the cartoon character in the Tom Hanks movie, Toy Story.  Ya just kind of stick out like a sore thumb!!

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DAISIES BY DAYLIGHT

Never had to wear a hat until we started RVing a few years ago.  And, I say I had to because I sure wouldn't stick one of those clothy mossmagators on my head if I didn't have to.....but here's my problem!! 

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STOPPING TO SMELL THE BUTTERCUPS

I'm pushing 66 & still have a full head of hair & it's naturally curly.  I can quickly look like a bushy gray Brillo pad on any given damp day.  I have a tendency to grow my hair a bit on the long side because I don't care for that shaved billiard ball look that is supposed to be so cool these days.  Don't want to be thought of as 'going with the flow' you know!!

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AN OLD CROW KEEPS A WARY EYE ON THE BAYFIELD BUNCH WALKING BY

My hair problem begins sometime in the night when I'm sleeping.  I go to bed looking reasonably civilized for 65 but by the time morning rolls around my head looks like the whole Chinese Army did a route march right from one side of my left ear to the other.  And, by the looks of it they all apparently wear hob nail boots too!!!!

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BLUE SKIES ABOVE THE SUMAC LEAVES

When we are home for the summer I can get away with this because I have a shower every morning & wash my hair.  I can get it wrestled down into some kind of controlled flattened pattern of sorts & if I mousse it to death enough the pattern might hold for the day thus preventing me from scaring small children on the street & elderly folks on my mobility van drives.

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CLEMATIS FLOWER IN OUR BACKYARD

Boondocking is our preferred lifestyle while we are on the road during the winter season.  Because of a limited water supply I am unable to have that daily morning shower or even wash my hair in a bucket.  The only option I have is to plop one of those misguided monkey caps on my head to cover up the scary hair plume.

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HEY, YOU LOOKIN AT ME AGAIN!!!!!

Luckily, in the American Southwest cowboy hats are the norm & preferred head coverings for all the locals.  Big hats in a big land just seem to go hand & hand.  I blend right in with my big 22 ten ton cowboy hat & I am totally comfortable with that.  However, there are some problems here too.  We have a small car & I have a big cowboy hat.  Only room for one of us in the car at the same time.  The wide brim interferes with my picture taking as well but then again so does the brim on a ball cap unless I spin it around backwards which by the way you can't do with a cowboy hat or your going to end up looking like the east end of a horse going west.

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I tried wearing my black cowboy hat to work one day a couple summer's ago.  There isn't a lot of room to maneuver around in the back of the mobility van & it kept falling or getting knocked off while I tried to fasten the floor belts to the wheelchair frames.  The last straw came when I bent over to pull an elderly lady's wheelchair into the back of the van.  Hat fell off & landed in her lap.  She quickly beat it to death thinking she was being attacked by a giant black widow spider!!

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Now, here's the really scary part.  This winter time RVing hat habit of mine has followed me home again this year!!  First noticed back in 07 that I was beginning to wear those menacing head muffins even though we were home & I was back into my daily shower routine.  Without even thinking anymore I just automatically reach for one of my goofy ball caps before heading out the door every morning.  Guess I should mention here that girls can wear these ball caps much cuter & better than guys do.

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CLOVER

Years ago I beat an alcohol dependency & then a tobacco dependency.  Now, here I am again at 65 dealing with another dam dependency.  A 'hat on my head' dependency!!!!!!!!!  Ya, ya, I know.............get a haircut, quit my griping, & go to bed!!  Say, how about a nightcap.  A cappuccino perhaps:))

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GROANER'S CORNER:(( And remember to be extra nice to your kids because they could be the one's choosing your nursing home someday!!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UNAWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a work in progress)

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.