Wednesday, March 26, 2025

I HAD BETTER BE OUTSIDE MAKING HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES

 THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE OUTSIDE OUR SUNROOM WINDOW THIS MORNING
A mainly cloudy (and cold) morning saw Pheebs and I take a wee drive into Bayfield and back.  Around 1 o'clock under clearing skies, Lorraine (Woodsy) headed home to Stratford and will return in a few days.  I proceeded out the door and fired up my wheelbarrow.  Two more loads of pine needles and broken branches to the utility trailer.  Maybe tomorrow I'll load up some larger broken pine branches out by the road to make up a trailer load and then haul it all down to our recycle area.  It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow but it looks like our weather is again going into the dumpster this weekend with rain predicted.  I had better be outside making hay while the sun shines these next couple of days:))  

A FEW WELCOME PATCHES OF BLUE SKY THIS MORNING
 HEADING HOME
IT'S HARD TO TELL I AM DRIVING ON A BRICK ROAD HERE
 BUT I AM
Al's Music Box:)) Running Bear is a teenage tragedy song written by Jiles Perry Richardson (a.k.a.-The Big Bopper) and sung most famously by Johnny Preston in 1959. The 1959 recording featured background vocals by George Jones and the session's producer Bill Hall, who provided the "Indian chanting" of "uga-uga" during the three verses, as well as the "Indian war cries" at the start and end of the record. It was No. 1 for three weeks in January 1960 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and the same on Canada's CHUM Charts. Coincidentally, "Running Bear" was immediately preceded in the Hot 100 No. 1 position by Marty Robbins "El Paso", and immediately followed by Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel", both of which feature a death of, or affecting, the protagonist. Billboard ranked "Running Bear" as the No. 4 song of 1960. The tenor saxophone was played by Link Davis.  Richardson was a friend of Preston and offered "Running Bear" to him after hearing him perform in a club. Preston recorded the song at the Gold Star Studiors in Houston, Texas, a few months after Richardson's death in the plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Preston was signed to Mercury Records, and "Running Bear" was released in August 1959.  The song tells the story of Running Bear, a "young Indian Brave", and Little White Dove, an "Indian maid". The two are in love but are separated by two factors: Their tribes' hatred of each other: their respective tribes are at war. ("Their tribes fought with each other / So their love could never be.")  A raging river: a physical separation but also as a metaphor for their cultural separation.  The two, longing to be together, despite the obstacles and the risks posed by the river, dive into the raging river to unite. After sharing a passionate kiss, they are pulled down by the swift current and drowned. The lyrics describe their fate: "Now they'll always be together / In their happy hunting ground."

BY MID-AFTERNOON SKIES HAD CLEARED AND OLD SOL WAS BUSY MELTING THE OVERNIGHT SNOWFALL
GROANER'S CORNER:(( Last year, when the power mower was broken and wouldn't run, I kept hinting to my husband that he ought to get it fixed, but somehow the message never sank in. Finally I thought of a clever way to make the point.  When my husband arrived home that day, he found me seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.  He watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. He was gone only a few moments when he came out again. He handed me a toothbrush. "When you finish cutting the grass," he said, "you might as well sweep the sidewalk."

- What's round and bad-tempered? A vicious circle.

Bumper Stickers......IRS: We've got what it takes to take what you've got...... Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off now...... Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs..... Out of my mind.  Back in five minutes.

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If you love something, set it free.  If it comes back, it will always be yours.  If it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with.  But, if it just sits in your living room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your telephone, takes your money, and doesn't appear to realize you set it free...
You either married it or gave birth to it.

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Al's Doggy World

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Kelly's Corner
 LOADING UP FOR ANOTHER WINTER ADVENTURE IN THE GREAT AMERICAN SOUTHWEST

 STANDING ON THE BRINK OF A WATERFALL CHECKING OUR GPS TO SEE IT IT KNOWS WHERE WE ARE
 HEY DAY, GET ER IN GEAR AND LET'S GET ROLLING
THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND
Al's Art Gallery














Tuesday, March 25, 2025

OH JOY FOR THAT HAPPY THOUGHT EH:((

Cloudy and cold with a few errant snowflakes in the air.  A short drive around a few country roads and home again for Pheebs and I.  Hey, nine months from today will be Christmas.  Oh joy for that happy thought eh:((  Woodsy and I slipped up to Goderich for a few things at Walmart, Zehr's Supermarket, and Food Basics.  It was a good shopping day for me because I didn't have to go into the stores.  I like it when that happens.  I remained in the car and caught up on my Kindle reading which I'm sorry to say I have been neglecting these past three months.

 ANOTHER FINE OLD BARN DYING A SLOW DEATH
Al's Music Box:)) Mocking Bird Hill is a song written in 3/4 time by Calle Jularbo, with lyrics by George Vaughn Horton. It is perhaps best known through recordings by Patti Page, Horton's own Pinetoppers, and the duo of Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951, or by Donna Fargo's 1977 version, but many other artists have also recorded the song. The first recording of "Mockin' Bird Hill" by an established act was made by Les Paul and Mary Ford, on January 29, 1951.  Patti Page soon recorded the song herself, believing that record buyers assumed that the Paul/Ford single was her own new release. Page first learned of "Mockin' Bird Hill" while at Midway Airport: having just completed a Chicago nightclub engagement she was awaiting a flight to New York City to stopover before proceeding to Florida to open at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach the next evening. Page received a phone call at Midway from Mercury Records A&R man Art Talmadge. At his request Page skipped her scheduled flight to allow Talmadge to reach Midway with a portable turntable, to play Page the Paul/Ford single, which Talmadge suggested Page record once she reached New York City. Page was reluctant to make a recording without the participation of her regular conductor, Jack Rael, who awaited Page in Florida; however, Talmadge had already cleared Page's recording of "Mockin' Bird Hill" with Rael and had booked studio time and musicians for Page to make the recording. Page recalled: "They had a limo at the airport [in New York City], took me to Bob Fine's studio. I cut just that one song. I was very happy with it and couldn't wait for Jack to hear it. He said 'This is really very good.' He called Art, and Art said 'I'm glad you like it, Jack, because we've already shipped 200,000 records."  The Page recording, made on January 17, 1951, reached the Billboard pop music chart on February 24, 1951, lasting 22 weeks and peaking at number 2.  

GROANER'S CORNER:(( How Many Zen Buddhists Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?

A: Three. One to change the lightbulb, one NOT to change the lightbulb, and one to neither change nor not change the lightbulb.

How Many Episcopalians Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?
A: Eight. One to call the electrician, and seven to say how much they liked the old one better.

How Many Unitarians Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?
A: The Unitarians wish to issue the following statement: "We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or against the need for a lightbulb; however if in your own journey you have found that lightbulbs work for you, that is fine. You are invited to write a poem or compose a modern dance about your personal relationship with your lightbulb, and present it next month at our annual lightbulb Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of lightbulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, three-way, long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to luminescence."
How Many Pentecostals Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?
A: Ten. One to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness.

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- Just saw a burglar kicking his own door in.  I asked: “What are you doing?”  He said: “Working from home.”

- Men don't care what's on TV. They only care what else is on TV.

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Our 15-year-old daughter, Melanie, had to write a report for school about World War II, specifically D-Day and the invasion of Normandy.  “Isn't there a movie about that?” she asked.  I told her there was, but I couldn't think of the name.  Then it came to her, “Oh, I remember! Isn't it something like ‘Finding Private Nemo'?”

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