I WILL LET A FEW PHOTOS SPEAK FOR ME TODAY

SPOTTED THESE NICE RED MAPLES ON OUR WAY OUT OF THE PARK THIS MORNING

This is Part One of a two part walk along Goderich's Maitland Woods Trail this morning.  I hope to have Part Two of this walk in Friday's post........

A NEW WALKING BRIDGE HAS REPLACED THE OLD ONE ON THE HINDMARSH TRAIL

NO, THAT IS NOT A HURON COUNTY VINE SNAKE

A LOT OF CEDAR TREES GROW IN THIS MARSHY AREA

MANY DIFFERENT FORMS OF MOSES AND LICHENS ON THE FOREST FLOOR

WHY WALK ON THE WOODEN WALKWAY WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO EH

THERE HAVE BEEN SOME STRONG WINDS THROUGH HERE

IT'S NICE TO SEE MANY TREES ALONG THE WAY HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED

I NEVER KNEW THERE WAS SUCH A THING AS 'CLIMBING POISON IVY'

CAN YOU SEE THE BIG 'MOOSE HEAD' IN THE TREE ROOT SYSTEM?

NOW WHAT THE HECK'S GOING ON UP THERE??

AWWW, JUST A COUPLE TRAIL WORKERS DOING A BIT OF MAINTENANCE

STOPPING ALONG THE WAY TO TIE MY SHOE

I THINK I SEE A FACE IN THERE SOMEWHERE

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MILD MORNING WE HAD GOING ON TODAY

BEING A MARSHY AREA MANY STRANGE THINGS GROW HERE

LOTS OF GREAT SMELLS FOR PHEEBS ALONG THE TRAIL

AN OLD ROTTING STUMP

'OH-OH' A SHADOWY FOREST CREATURE AHEAD BLOCKS OUR PATH

LUCKILY, THAT SHADOWY FOREST CREATURE WAS JUST A BIG OLD STUMP BUT PHEEBS IS KEEPING A WARY EYE ON IT ANYWAY

OUR FOREST WALK WILL CONTINUE TOMORROW:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Because of dense fog, a steamboat had to stop at the mouth of the river. A passenger demanded to know the cause of the delay.  "Can't see up the river," the harassed captain replied. "Fog's too thick."  "But I can see the stars overhead," the passenger said.  "Yes," the captain growled, "but unless the engines explode, we're not going that way."

I FIGURED IF I CAN'T SAY ANYTHING GOOD.....I HAD BETTER NOT SAY ANYTHING AT ALL

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MAYBE I HAD BETTER LIGHTEN UP ON MY UFO-EXTRATERRESTRIALS BOOKS EH

A brilliant moonlit night set the stage for a sometimes bright sunny day.  I especially like when that happens after a spate of long gloomy cloud-shrouded days.  And with temperatures on the rise, there was no better place to be than outside as I hung myself off the end of my leaf rake and got to work.  In fact, I fired up the leaf-blower, got my wheelbarrow underway hauling leaves, and even crawled myself up and down my tall 12' step ladder numerous times to clean eaves troughs.  Now, why can't I have those kinds of energy levels every day instead of just once and a long while as it now seems to be these days!!

THE VIEW AT THE END OF OUR DRIVEWAY

I CLIMBED UP A FEW MILES ON THIS LADDER TODAY

LOTS OF DRIVEWAY LEAVES TO RAKE UP

Pheebs and I had slipped into Bayfield for a drive-around and were heading south out of town a couple miles when a thought suddenly raced through my mind like an electric shock which caused me to quickly get on my brakes, crank a U-turn and make a bee-line for home.  The Jeep's clock read 8:44 and I had forgotten my Urologist, Doctor Bukala was calling at 9 to talk with me about my latest Prostate Cancer PSA number.  With the pedal to the metal, I was home by 9:54.  The Doctor called at 9:06 with the good news my PSA number had dropped even more to 0.26.  He was very pleased with that and so was I.  My next PSA blood test will be in January for a late January appointment with my Oncologist Doctor Mendez at London's University Hospital.

ONE OF THE LARGER COMMERCIAL FISHING BOATS IN BAYFIELD'S HARBOR

LOOKS LIKE MA AND PA ARE HOPING TO RUSTLE UP SOMETHING FOR BREAKFAST AND NOTICE THAT PIECE OF DRIFTWOOD TOSSED UP ON BAYFIELD'S SOUTH PIER BY SUNDAY NIGHTS ANGRY WAVES

WORK CONTINUES ON BAYFIELD'S NEW BRIDGE AND THAT'S THE TEMPORARY BAILEY BRIDGE AT THE TOP 

I periodically glanced at my cable news channels today to see how things were going south of the border but I didn't let myself be drawn into sitting in front of the television all transfixed by what was going on.  Luckily, I had a good outside day to keep me busy.

NO, NOT AN ALIEN SPACECRAFT.....ITS OUR DRIVEWAY'S LAMP POST GLOBE

AND YES THAT WOULD BE A PUMPKIN

A couple strange little happenings here in the sunroom the past couple nights.  We have two light timers in the sunroom set to come on at a certain time.  Sunday night both sets of lights on separate timers came on as usual.  I left the sunroom shortly after 6 to make myself a coffee and when I came back, one of those sets of lights was out.  Checked the plugs, no problem.  The light timer light was on so no problem there.  I re-set the time and the lights came back on.  Odd.  Monday night I turned on the computer desk television and headed off to the kitchen to make my 6 o'clock.  When I came back the TV was off.  Hmmmm, maybe I had better lighten up on my UFO Extraterrestrial books eh.

GROANER'S CORNER:((   Joe and Joan were sitting down to their usual morning cup of coffee listening to the weather report on the radio. "There will be 3 to 5 inches of snow today, and a snow emergency has been declared," the weather report said.  "You must park your cars on the odd-numbered side of the streets."  Joe said, "Jeez, okay," and got up from his coffee.  The next day they were sitting down with their morning cups of coffee. The weather forecast was, "There will be 2 to 4 inches of snow today, and a snow emergency has been declared.  You must park your cars on the even-numbered side of the streets." Again Joe replied, "Jeez, okay," and got up from his coffee.  Two days later, again they're sitting down with their cups of coffee and the weather forecast said, "There will be 6 to 8 inches of snow today, and a snow emergency has been declared. You must park your cars on the..." and the power went out and Joe didn't get the rest of the instructions.  He turned to Joan, "Jeez, what am I going to do now, Joan?"  Joan replied, "Aw, Joe, just leave the car in the darned garage today."

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GOOD LUCK TOMORROW AMERICA AND I HOPE COMMON SENSE, CIVILITY, AND DECENCY PREVAIL AND TAKE THE DAY

I THINK THIS WAS OUR ONLY BLURB OF SUNSHINE TODAY

Had expected our ground to be white with snow this morning but there were only a few skiffs here and there.  Strong winds and high lake levels combined Sunday night in a record breaking storm damaging shorelines from Sarnia to Tobermory.  I saw they had Goderich's Rotary Cove Drive closed again due to damage and flooding this morning.  Business's on Grand Bend's south pier were flooded and huge concrete blocks on the north pier were shifted by pounding waves.  When I checked the Grand Bend live harbor cam this morning the Bend's piers were almost underwater.

NOT AS MUCH SNOW ON THE GROUND AS I THOUGHT THERE WOULD BE

FINALLY WASHED THE JEEP

SEEN THIS METEOR IN GODERICH BUT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YEAR IT IS....I'M GUESSING 60-ISH

Pheebs and I made a Walmart run to Goderich and back this morning and that was about it for our outside time today except for a short afternoon walk and a couple trips to the birdfeeder and back  It was a gray, damp, cold, and windy day.  Not nice, but we're warming up and might hit 60F by the end of the week.

I finished my book, Hunt For The Skinwalker, and of course it has left my head spinning.  I'm also getting caught up with the Skinwalker television series episodes as well.  My next book which I started today is called Dreamland which is an autobiography by Area 51's Bob Lazar and of course, I can already see it is another book which I am sure is going to leave me with far more questions than answers.  These books I have been reading this past week or so have worked even better than I expected in keeping my mind off the political situation south of the border.  Good luck tomorrow America and I hope common sense, civility, and decency prevail and take the day:))  

GROANER'S CORNER:((   It was three o'clock in the morning, and the receptionist at a posh hotel was just dozing off, when a little old lady came running towards her, screaming. "Please come quickly," she yelled, "I just saw a naked man outside my window!"  The receptionist immediately rushed up to the old lady's room. "Where is he?" asked the receptionist.  "He's over there," replied the little old lady, pointing to an apartment building opposite the hotel. The receptionist looked over and could see a man with no shirt on, moving around his apartment. "It's probably a man who's getting ready to go to bed," she said reassuringly. "And how do you know he's naked, you can only see him from the waist up?"  "The dresser, honey!" screamed the old lady. "Try standing on the dresser!"

Decades ago, watching late-night TV was found to be Carsonogenic.

What do you call two Mexicans playing basketball?
Juan on Juan.

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YES, ITS QUITE A SIGHT ALRIGHT

It was raining when Pheebs and I made our way from the house to the carport.  I had been teased out of the house by a slightly brighter sky to the east.  Rain had come in the night bringing milder temps and gusting winds behind it.  However, the milder upper 40's temps were only short-lived, and by afternoon that rain had chillingly turned to sleet followed by snow in the air.  Not nice.  Sure glad I'm not driving for the Stratford Airporter anymore when on many Sunday nights I would be driving in all kinds of weather in and out Toronto's Pearson International Airport.  It wasn't as bad for me at the time because being the van driver I had something to focus my attention on but I'm sure many of my passengers were sawing off their fingernails through some of those snow and ice storms.

WITH A BRIGHT SPOT ON THE HORIZON I WAS HOPEFUL FOR SOME SUNSHINE BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN

As soon as we cleared our Park's forest I could see the wind and rain had done a number on many of our colorful trees.  Windblown leaves skipped across the road in front of us as a distant bush line took on an even grayer look than the day before.  Well, it was the first day of November after all, and our Autumn's colorful beauty is only short-lived each year.  We are now officially into the dullest month of the year and November has never been a favorite of mine.  Cold, damp, gray, and stark, as well as depressing.

Country roads were soupy but the Jeep is in such a mess anyway it didn't really matter.  What's another layer of mud on top of previous layers of mud.  As long as I keep the glass clean and can see out I guess that is all that matters.  My-oh-my, how some of my priorities have changed over the years.

COUNTRY ROADS WERE MUDDY

OUR COLORFUL AUTUMN LEAVES ARE DROPPING FAST AS AREA BUSH LINES ARE TAKING ON NOVEMBER'S DULL  GRAY LOOK

AN OLD TRAVEL TRAILER IN THE WOODS

I GUESS IT WAS THE ORANGY RED ROOF THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION AND ITS NOT OFTEN ONE SEE'S TV ANTENNAES ANY MORE

Our muddy morning wanderings led us around a number of back roads southeast of Bayfield.  One short windy road-side stop and that was about it for us guys.  With Pheebs hopping back into the Jeep with muddy paws we now have some neat muddy paw prints on the console with a few mud splotches shaken onto the dash as well.  With a few corn cobs on the floor; a bucket, and a shovel in the back we are truly looking more like a working farm truck every day.  And then there's me with my laceless rubber duck boots, ten-year-old double-lined winter pants complete with rips, tears, and stains, brown vinyl replica WW2 flying jacket, and an oversized 10-gallon cowboy hat scrunched down over my head preventing me from seeing where the heck I'm going half the time.  Yes, it's quite a sight alright and it's no wonder Pheebs likes riding in the back seat more often.  If I had to ride around sitting beside somebody looking like me I would be scrunched down in the back seat feeling embarrassed too.

I THINK THERE IS SNOW IN THEM THAR CLOUDS

With gusting winds in our treetops, heavy sleeting began shortly after 2:30 today.  Any thoughts of an afternoon walk with Pheebs were scuttled.  At the time of posting tonight, we are under two weather warnings.  High winds and snow squalls.  Also, flooding is expected in some places along Lake Huron as huge waves are currently lashing the shoreline.  I expect to see the ground covered with snow when we wake up Monday morning.  

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Heaven, God went missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the Archangel found him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God, "Where have you been?God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look Michael, look what I've made." Archangel Michael looked puzzled and said, "What is it?"  "It's a planet, replied God, "and I've put LIFE on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance".  "Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.  God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth.  "For example, Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth while Southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot."  "Over there I've placed a continent of white people and over there is a continent of black people" God continued, pointing to different countries. "And over there, I call this place America.  North America will be rich and powerful and cold, while South America will be poor, and hot and friendly. And the little spot in the middle is Central America which is a Hot spot. Can you see the balance?"  "Yes" said the Archangel, impressed by Gods work, then he pointed to a smallish land mass and asked, "What's that one?"  "Ah" said God. "That's New Zealand, the most glorious place on Earth. There are beautiful mountains, rainforests, rivers, streams, and an exquisite coastline. The people are good looking, intelligent and humorous and they're going to be found traveling the world. They'll be extremely sociable, hard-working, and high-achieving, and they will be known throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace. I'm also going to give them superhuman, undefeatable, strong in character citizens who will be admired and feared by all who come across them".  Michael gasped in wonder and admiration but then exclaimed, "You said there will be BALANCE!"  God replied wisely. "Wait until you see the buggers I'm putting next to them"

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