ALL THREE OF US IN THE SUBARU HEADING EAST TODAY

SEEN IN WELLESLEY ONTARIO THIS AFTERNOON

After Thursday evening's rain, our temperatures dropped off a bit leaving us with a cooler cloudy morning.  But, no matter, any morning without ice and snow, and freezing temperatures is a bonus.  By late morning skies began clearing leaving us with blue skies and big white puffy clouds.  Pheebs and I took Subie to Goderich for gas.  Coffee to go at McDonalds, then down around the harbor and Rotary Cove we went snapping a few pics along the way.  Following that we dropped into a busy Zehrs Supermarket, picked up a few things, and got the heck out of town.  This is our Thanksgiving long week-end so people were frantically scrambling around all over the place for last-minute Thanksgiving stuff.  Pheebs and I were back home shortly before noon......but not for long.

 THIS LADY IN BLACK TOLD THIS GODERICH WORKER THAT SHE HEARD BLACKBEARD HAD BURIED A TREASURE CHEST HERE ON THE BEACH AND HE'S DIGGING FOR IT:))

 RIGHT OUT OF YESTERYEAR

 NICE CAR FOR SURE

All three of us piled into the Subaru at 12:30 and headed east to New Hamburg 56 miles away.  We met Kelly's daughter Sabra in a McDonald's parking lot there.  Sabra had a quality air purifier that she had been wanting to give us so we thought today would be a good day to meet Sabra about halfway between our place and her place in Hespeler Ontario.  Chatted with Sabra for a bit before she had to get back to Hespeler.  With a couple McD's coffees to go,  Kelly, Pheebs, and I then headed straight north to Wellesley Ontario.

 KELLY AND SABRA

 SUCH A LOVELY DAY TO BE OUT AND ABOUT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

The Mennonite-operated Schmidtsville Restaruant is located in Wellesley and Kelly had called them earlier and ordered a couple turkey dinners with all the fixins to take home for supper.  And, she ordered a third dinner for our good neighbor Monica.  We had been to this restaurant a year ago around this time and met our good friends Richard and Gayle there for lunch.  So, with Mennonite ladies in the kitchen, we knew the food was good.   We picked up our take-out food and with a pit stop for Pheebs in a Park across from the restaurant, we were soon on our way home.  Oh my, what a beautiful early Autumn afternoon it was and I noticed the countryside's leaves were finally beginning to display their colorful Autumn finery.  We rolled into our driveway at 4 p.m. and Kelly wasn't long in heading to her room for a big rest.  And, I felt a little tired myself.......... 

 SCHMIDSTVILLE RESTAURANT ON LEFT AND THE WELLESLEY FEED MILL ON RIGHT

 AS PART OF HER STRENGTH-BUILDING PROGRAM I THINK KELLY IS CARRYING BRICKS IN THAT SADDLE BAG

 A NICE PIT STOP AREA FOR PHEEBS

Al's Music Box:)) Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell from his 1968 album, 'Wichita Lineman'.  This song was written by Jimmy Webb with backup vocals by The Wrecking Crew.

 THE WELLESLEY FEED MILL

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A drunken Irishman gets on a train and asks the conductor how long the trip is between Limerick to Cork.  "About two hours," says the conductor.  "Okay," says the drunkard, "then how long is the trip between Cork to Limerick?"  The irate conductor says to the drunk, "It's still about two hours, laddie. Why'd ya think there'd be a difference?"  "Well," says the drunk, "it's only a week between Christmas and New Year's, but it's a helluva long time between New Year's and Christmas!"

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- Have you heard about Waldo? He went abroad and found himself.

- I’ve written a book about falling down a staircase.  It’s a step-by-step guide.

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Q: Why are books so afraid of their sequels?
A: Because they always come after them.

Q: What do you call 2,000 mockingbirds?
A: Two kilo mockingbird.

Q: Why was the library so tall?
A: Because it had a lot of stories.

Q: Why are writers always cold?
A: Because they’re surrounded by drafts.

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- “My fear of roses is a thorny issue. I'm not sure what it stems from, but it seems likely I'll be stuck with it.”
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HER 'B' BLOOD TYPE WAS NOT A MATCH

It was under cloudy, but warm skies that I picked up my good buddy Richard this morning and we headed over to Clinton to pick up a couple coffees and carrot muffins to go.  Our country travels this morning took us out around the Hullett Marsh and the area east of Ben Miller.  We were once again only able to partially solve some of the world's problems, but not all of them.  Too many of them are simply unsolvable, even for us guys:))

The positive talk yesterday with liver specialist Dr. Khan touched on the possibility of a live liver donor for Kelly.  He said a live liver transplant would enable Kelly to jump the liver transplant line and the transplant could be done sooner.  Two of Kelly's children have stepped forward offering to help their Mother.  This morning, her oldest daughter Sabra was tested but her B blood type was not a match for Kelly's type O blood.  Type O is the most common blood type.  Her youngest son Ben also had his blood tested this afternoon but we have not yet heard how he made out.  Keep in mind that Kelly is not officially on the liver transplant list yet.  It is only speculation on our part brought about by Wednesday's encouraging hospital visit.  We probably will not know for sure for another week or two.  

And, something else about our hospital visit.  I was greatly impressed with the genuine outpouring of happy and caring feelings expressed to Kelly by several members of the hospital staff on the transplant floor when they found out how well she had just done on her physio tests.  They knew Kelly, and I could sense their honest and sincere feelings for her.  And, one of them in referring to Kelly even quipped to another staff member, "she's a Rock Star":))))  Yes indeed, I was very, very, impressed when I saw the outpouring of love they have for her.  But, not to be surprised.....Kelly just has that kind welcoming way about her:))  

Al's Music Box:)) Up On The Roof by The Drifters was a 1962 single written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Goffin would cite "Up on the Roof" as his all-time favorite of the lyrics he'd written. After Carole King suggested that he write lyrics for the tune that had occurred to her while she was out driving, with King suggesting "My Secret Place" as the title, Goffin kept King's suggested focus of a haven, modifying it with his enthusiasm for the movie musical West Side Story which contained several striking scenes set on the rooftops of Upper West Side tenements.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A guy is at the driving range having a heck of a day.  Everything thing he tries to hit he tops, balls only going about 20′ and burning worms the whole way. Finally disgusted, he turns to the pro on the range and mutters,” If I don't connect with this one, I'm gonna jump in that lake and drown myself!”  Pro looks at him and says” I don't think you can do it.”  “Why not” He asks.  Pro says “I don't think you can keep your head down that long!”

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I changed all my passwords to 'Kenny'
Now I have all Kenny Loggins

I dreamt last night that I was a muffler...
I woke up exhausted.

Q: What’s the longest word in the dictionary?
A: Smiles. Because there’s a mile between the first letter and the last.

Teacher: Why are you late for school?
Student: Because of a sign down the road.
Teacher: What does the sign have to do with you being late?
Student: The sign said, “School Ahead, Go Slow!”

Teacher: We will only have a half-day of school this morning…
Students: Yay!!!!
Teacher: Then we will have the other half this afternoon.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Wanda!
Wanda who?
Wanda buy some Girl Scout cookies!

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A VERY GOOD AFTERNOON AT LONDON'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL:))

 NEW MOWN HAY

It was yet another unbelievably beautiful early October day.  A big blue sky with not a cloud to be seen this morning has Pheebs and I slipped out for our morning gravel road walk followed by a short Jeep ride through the countryside.  

 TWO THIRS OF THIS BEAN FIELD HAS BEEN HARVESTED BUT THIS COMBINE 'HEAD' SITS ALONE WHICH SUGGESTS MAYBE THAT SOMETHING HAS BROKEN ON EITHER THIS 'HEAD' OR ON THE MISSING COMBINE

Not knowing what time we would be back from London today it was 11 a.m. when I took Pheebs over to Richard and Gayles.  She was happy to go for a visit and they were happy to see her.

 HERE'S PHEEBS LOADED UP IN THE JEEP AND READY TO GO OVER TO RICHARD AND GAYLES

 OUR ANNUAL BIG DUMP OF PINE NEEDLES BEGAN TODAY

It was 11:25 when Kelly and I rolled out our driveway heading for University Hospital in London.  It was obvious on our drive that our area's bean harvest is in full swing and there is still a lot of construction in London's north end along Richmond Street.

 FARMER'S WERE BUSY WITH THE BEAN HARVEST ALL THE WAY TO LONDON

Kelly's appointment was for 1 p.m. and we were there fifteen minutes early.  In the outer waiting room, it wasn't long before Kelly's name was called for her physio tests, and off she went.  I comfortably settled in for the long haul with my Kindle reader.  Surprisingly, Kelly was back in about 15 minutes with a big smile on her face and it was a smile that only got bigger as the afternoon went on.  She had once again passed all the physio tests and not only passed them but surpassed them.  And her weight didn't present a problem either.  With lead weights sewn into the cuffs of her pants, steel-shanked shoes, and wearing her two-pound earrings her weight wasn't a problem.  But, to be sure, she drank 3 gallons of water before we got there.  And, if you believe any of that then I've hoodwinked you again:)) She had brought a copy along of her previous test scores and when comparing the old tests with the tests she had just done, she had surpassed them all.  And, a very encouraging bit of news came from her liver transplant liaison lady when Kelly was told the Surgeon who would be doing the transplant had already signed off on it saying she was on board to do the surgery if the transplant committee gives Kelly the OK.  

 KELLY TALKING TO HER LIAISON LADY

 NOW HOW'S THAT FOR AN ENCOURAGED HAPPY LITTLE FACE:))))

 COMPARING HER LAST  PHYSIO TEST NUMBERS WITH TODAY'S TEST NUMBERS

 YES INDEED, IT WAS A SMILING GOOD AFTERNOON FOR KELLY....ME TOO, BUT YOU JUST CAN'T SEE MY BIG CHESHIRE SMILE BEHIND THE MASK

The next appointment with a Doctor Khan (no relation to Ghengis) was scheduled for 2 p.m. but it wasn't until after 3 that we actually were ushered into an inner waiting room where we finally met the Doctor.  We both took an instant liking to this fellow.  He was impressed with Kelly's positive attitude, determination, gumption, and fighting spirit.  And, we were impressed with his positive enthusiasm.  He was also impressed with her physio numbers as well as other medical technicalities talked about.  This doctor was very encouraging and not a word was said about age.  When we walked, or should I say floated out of that hospital around 4 o'clock we both felt 99.9% sure that Kelly is going to make it onto the liver transplant list.  The liver transplant committee meets every Monday and discusses cases and decides who they will place on the transplant list.  However, this coming Monday is Thanksgiving here in Canada so the committee won't meet until October 16th and we won't probably know their decision for another week and a half or so.  I'll probably have a little more to say about today........tomorrow.

 INSIDE A SMALL EXAMINING ROOM WAITING FOR THE DOCTOR

By the time we got out of the hospital, we landed right in the middle of London's afternoon rush, but knowing an alternate way around the construction zone we were soon back out in our beloved and peacefully comforting countryside.  We were home shortly after 5 and I scooted right away over to Richard and Gayles to pick up the Pheebs.  They said she had been a good girl and they didn't have any problems at all.  Well, that's the Pheebs:))  And a big thanks to Richard and Gayle.  Richard and I will be heading out in the morning in pursuit of coffee and carrot muffins again:))

 FINALLY, WE HAVE ALL THE MEDICAL STUFF FOR THE DAY BEHIND US

 OKAY, NOW TO FIND OUR WHITE CAR

 LUCKILY, AFTER TRYING OUR KEY IN 25 OTHER GARS WE FINALLY FOUND OURS:))))

 LATE AFTERNOON FARMERS STILL BUSY IN THEIR FIELDS

Al'sMusic Box:)) Rhythm Of The Falling Rain by the Cascades from their 1962 album, 'Rhythm Of The Rain'.  The song was written by Cascades band member John Claude Gummoe. On March 9, 1963, it rose to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and spent two weeks at

number 1 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked the record as the number 4 song of 1963.

 MORNING SHADOWS

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Did you hear about the crazy Aussie scientist who decided to crossbreed a porcupine with a sheep?  He made an animal that is able to knit its own sweaters.

I returned my lizard to the pet store today as it wouldn't stop telling me jokes.  The store clerk said, "That isn't a lizard, it is a stand-up chameleon."

You are able to tell the gender of an ant just by placing them in water.  If they sink, girl ant. If the float, buoyant.

Q: Why do chicken coops only have 2 doors?
A: Because if they had 4 doors they would be chicken sedans!

I have just started a dating website for chickens.  It is not my normal job, I am just doing it..... To make hens meet.

Two doctors decided to invest in an Air BnB. Despite all their marketing, they couldn't attract even a single customer.
Eventually, they decided to call their venture "Doctors Without Boarders."

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