WINTER SURE CAN PRETTY ITSELF UP WHEN IT WANTS TO

 ON OUR WAY INTO BAYFIELD THIS MORNING

A continuing overnight heavier snowfall once again left us with a morning's winter wonderland.  With no wind to blow the snow off trees, pine boughs were bent low in majestic display.  A nice scenic way to start the day despite our cold 27F temps which actually rose to 32F later making today's snow crunchy.

 THIS FIRST GROUP OF PICTURES ARE FROM OUR FIVE SEASONS ESTATES PARK

Our travels didn't take Pheebs and I too far this morning.  Took a few photos right here in our Park then rolled into Bayfield.  As much as I don't care for winter it sure can pretty itself up when it wants to.  It's always especially nice in our Park where the wind doesn't get in and pile up the snow.  And when it does snow the flakes just come straight down as a rule.  

 THAT BLUE LOOKING SKY WAS ACTUALLY A DARK GREY

 ROADS WERENT AS BAD AS THEY LOOKED

 A MONDAY MORNING WALK ALONG BAYFIELD'S SOUTH PIER

 ONLY ONE LONE FISHERMAN OUT TODAY

I think the Bayfield bridge builders have maybe shut things partially down for the winter.  I'm not seeing a lot of activity going on around the construction site since a week before Christmas.  No big machines moving around and only a few scattered workers here and there.

 BAYFIELD'S WATER TANK

 AND WE EVEN GOT SOME BOOTS AND PAWS ON THE GROUND IN THE CEMETERY

Winter in Bayfield is very quiet compared to the summer's bustling tourist traffic.  I kinda like the quietness of winter and the cozy slumber of a once quaint little fishing village.  There is still much of old Bayfield to be found with its older main street buildings and tree-lined back streets.  Numbers of small original cottages mix in quite well with newer million-dollar homes.  They all seem to go hand in hand with each other making Bayfield a well sought out hamlet for many retired folks from the bigger cities.  I've been familiar with Bayfield for most of my life and have always liked it.  I think my earliest memories here were from back in the 50s.  Even if I tried, I don't think there is one thing I could find fault with about this little town.  It doesn't even have a traffic light and how nice is that eh:))

 PROBABLY ONE OF BAYFIELD'S MOST ICONIC HOUSES

 I WONDER HOW MANY PEOPLE REMEMBER THE OLD 50'S TUNE GREEN DOOR

Home again I grabbed my snow shovel and moved a little bit of snow around.  Keywords there were 'little bit'.  I basically walked along behind my shovel clearing the half-inch of fallen snow along my pathways and around the birdfeeders.

 MY LAST PHOTO OF THE DAY TAKEN AT THE END OF OUR DRIVEWAY SHOES A PATCH OF BLUE SKY OUT OVER LAKE HURON......AND THAT'S THE LAST BLUE SKY I SAW FOR THE REST OF THE DAY

My Oncologist Doctor called today to say he was pleased with my PSA numbers and we'll do the next test in 6 months.  So far so good:))    

Haven't mentioned this for a while but just a reminder.  Due to being hacked twice on Facebook a few years ago, I do not accept 'Friend Requests'.  Nothing personal, I just don't trust Facebook to protect me from being hacked again.  And, I'm not a big Facebook user anyway.  I drop my blog in it at the end of each day and that is about it.

GROANER'S CORNER:((   Farmer John lived on a quiet rural highway. But, as time went by, the traffic slowly built up at an alarming rate. The traffic was so heavy and so fast that his chickens were being run over at a rate of three to six a day.  So one day Farmer John called the sheriff's office and said, "You've got to do something about all of these people driving so fast and killing all of my chickens."  "What do you want me to do?" asked the sheriff.  "I don't care, just do something about those crazy drivers!" So the next day he had the county workers go out and erected a sign that said: SLOW--SCHOOL CROSSING.  Three days later Farmer John called the sheriff and said, "You've got to do something about these drivers. The 'school crossing' sign seems to make them go even faster."  So, again, the sheriff sends out the county workers and they put up a new sign: SLOW: CHILDREN AT PLAY.  That really sped them up. So Farmer John called and called and called every day for three weeks. Finally, he asked the sheriff, "Your signs are doing no good. Can I put up my own sign?" The sheriff told him, "Sure thing, put up your own sign." He was going to let the FarmerJohn do just about anything in order to get him to stop calling every day to complain.  The sheriff got no more calls from Farmer John. Three weeks later, curiosity got the best of the sheriff and he decided to give Farmer John a call. "How's the problem with those drivers. Did you put up your sign?"  "Oh, I sure did. And not one chicken has been killed since then. I've got to go. I'm very busy." He hung up the phone.  The sheriff was really curious now and he thought to himself, "I'd better go out there and take a look at that sign... it might be something that WE could use to slow down drivers..." So the sheriff drove out to Farmer John's house, and his jaw dropped the moment he saw the sign. It was spray-painted on a sheet of wood:  NUDIST COLONY GO SLOW AND WATCH OUT FOR THE CHICKS

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Q: Why do men prefer intelligent women?

A: Opposites attract.

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"Sir," said the timid employee to his boss, "my wife says I'm to ask you for a raise."  "Fine," the boss replied. "I'll ask my wife if I can give you one."

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A VERY UNUSUAL PHOTO OF MY SON SEAN AND I

With snow falling from the sky it made for a much prettier landscape this morning.  Nice change from dull and grey.  Pheebs and I wandered around come country roads northeast of Bayfield and the further north we ventured the more snow we encountered.  Prevailing northwest winds were bringing streamers in off the lake.  Roads were a little slippery in places but not too bad.  The small snow squalls were sporadic and it remained clear for most of the day.

 STARTING OUT THIS MORNING ROADS WERE SLIGHTLY SNOW COVERED

 THIS HAY WAGON PATIENTLY AWAITS BUSY SUMMER DAYS AHEAD

 ABOVE AND BELOW ARE TOUCHES OF COUNTRY COLOR ON A SNOWY SUNDAY MORNING

 A TYPICAL SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO FARM IN OUR AREA

 SO NICE TO SEE A TOUCH OF GREEN

 IT'S REALLY TOO BAD WHEN PEOPLE DUMP THEIR TRASH IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

My PSA numbers are in and I'm happy to say they have dropped again.  From 15.6 before my prostate cancer radiation, they have dropped to .17 from .26 three months ago.  I can't say enough about the new SABR (Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiotherapy) treatment I received nearly a year and a half ago.  And two thumbs up for the London Health Sciences Center Cancer Clinic as well as my Oncologist, Dr. Mendez and his fine radiology team.

 ROADS WERE A WEE BIT SLIPPERY IN A FEW PLACES

 SNOWING HEAVIER NOW

 DO I HEAR CHRISTMAS CAROLS IN THE BACKGROUND .....SLEIGH RIDE

It was time to change my face mask today, it was getting a little too discolored.  Guess I just tried straining one too many bowls of soup through it.  And my Son Sean sent me a composite black and white photo of him and I together.  Thought it was kinda neat.  He had been going through some old photos recently.

 BOTH MY SON SEAN AND I ARE IN THIS SAME PHOTO....LOOK CLOSELY

 I WAS QUICK TO REMIND SEAN HE MAY HAVE MY LOOKS, BUT LUCKILY HE HAS HIS MOTHER'S SMARTS:))

A LOT MORE SNOW ON THE ROAD NOW AS WE APPROACH THIS RAILROAD TRESTLE

It was the dullest of afternoons with a few flakes of snow now and again making their way lazily to the ground.  Pheebs and I didn't even make it out for an afternoon walk.  My fault, not hers.  We are now into the dog days of Winter:

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A woman was trying hard to get the catsup to come out of the bottle. During her struggle, the phone rang so she asked her four-year-old daughter to answer the phone.  "It's the minister, Mommy," the child said to her mother.  Then she added, "Mommy can't come to the phone right now. She's hitting the bottle."

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A wealthy investor walked into a bank and said to the bank manager, "I would like to speak with Mr. Reginald Jones, who I understand is a tried and trusted employee of yours."  The banker said, "Yes he certainly was trusted. And he will be tried as soon as we catch him."

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'BLOGGERS ANONYMOUS'

A slightly brighter grey day meant a thinner overhead cloud cover.  Brighter is good.  Temps hovered around the freezing mark but at least we didn't get the expected overnight snow.  It's another one of those days I can't seem to drum up anything of interest to write about.  Took a few pics on our morning Jeep ride and that's about it.  Oh, except for this which is something I wrote on this day back on January 16th of 2011.  It is based on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. (which I happen to know about first hand)  I call my version....'Bloggers Anonymous'

Step One:  "We admitted we were powerless over Blogging - that our free time has become unmanageable."

Step Two:  "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to a simpler time before computers."

Step Three:  "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Spouses as we understand them."

Step Four:  "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our Blogger thoughts & Blog archives."

Step Five:   "Admitted to our Spouses, to ourselves, & to another Blogger person the exact nature of our blogging woes."

Step Six:  "Were entirely ready to have our Spouse remove all nasty posts from our Blogs."

Step Seven:  "Humbly asked Her/Him to remove our shortcomings, our spell checkers, & our publish buttons"

Step Eight:  "Made a list of all fellow Bloggers we had commented to, and became willing to make amends to them all."

Step Nine:  "Made direct amends to such Bloggers wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them, their Blogs, or their Blog followers ."

Step Ten:  "Continued to take personal written inventory and when we were wrong promptly didn't blog about it."

Step Eleven:  "Sought through humbleness and fear to improve our conscious contact with our Spouse as we understood Her/Him, begging only for knowledge of Her/His will for us and maybe our keyboards back to carry that out."

Step Twelve:  "Having had a Blogger's awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to all fellow Bloggers, and to practice these principles in all our restructured Blogging affairs."    10-4!!

Hi, my names AL & I am a Blogger:)) 

 THIS ICY ROAD IS NOT MAINTAINED IN THE WINTER

 YES, IT WAS A GREY DAY ALRIGHT

 A BIT OF COLOR IN THE CORNER OF THIS BARNYARD

GROANER'S CORNER:(( How to be Politically Correct when talking about Men:: 

He does not have a beer gut...
He has developed a Liquid Grain Storage 

He is not quiet...
He is a Conversational Minimalist.

He is not stupid...
He suffers from Minimal Cranial Development.

He does not get lost all the time...
He discovers Alternative Destinations
or gets temporarily misoriented.

He is not balding...
He is in Follicle Regression.

He is not a cradle robber...
He prefers Generationally Differential Relationships.

He does not get falling-down drunk...
He becomes Accidentally Horizontal.

He is not short...
He is Anatomically Compact.

He does not constantly talk about cars...
He has a Vehicular Addiction.

He does not have a hot body...
He is Physically Combustible.

He is not unsophisticated...
He is Socially Challenged.

He is not a bad dancer...
He is Overly Caucasian.

He does not hog the blankets...
He is Thermally Unappreciative.
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"Did you tell her that what you said was in strict confidence?"  "No, I didn't want her to think it was important enough to repeat."

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