EVEN YEARS LATER WHEN I WAS A 'BIGGER BOSKINS'

 LOOK CAREFULLY, THERE ARE FACES IN THIS PHOTO....FIND THE TIGER'S HEAD AND THE TROPICAL SMILING FISH ALL WITHIN THE MAN'S HEAD

Another beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies and temps pushing up over 40F by early afternoon.  Wished I could tell you I had a good night but I didn't.  And nobody to blame but myself again.  For the second night in a row, I forgot to take a Percocet painkiller before going to bed.  I'm not sure what's going on with my mind but it sure seems to work against me sometimes.  It was nearly 10 a.m. this morning after taking my my first Percocet of the day that the pain in my right leg began to subside and I started feeling half-human again.  With the pain temporarily stopped I was able to get my exercises going again and the day picked up from there.

 BLUE IS MY FAVORITE SKY COLOR

 OH HOW I LOVE TO SEE SNOW MELTING

 A PHEEBER PAW PRINT ON OUR FRONT DECK

 SUN AND SHADOW

With my overnight stay at the Sarnia Hospital a week ago tonight it got me thinking about whether I had ever spent a night in a hospital before.  Maybe as a kid once.  The only thing my memory would come up with was a night in the Kitchener Grand River Hospital in 1994 after a motorcycle accident.  But then I remembered an overnight stay in a southern Tucson Arizona Hospital as the result of a severe kidney stone attack.  Barring those two times, I have been very fortunate in my nearly 8 decades on the Planet not to have been confined to a hospital for any length of time.  I sure don't have anything to complain about.  

 A VERY LONG 600mm TELEPHOTO SHOT

And speaking of hospitals, here's an observation I made last week.  Years ago I remembered nurses and hospital staff in uniforms.  Not anymore.  I saw maybe a few uniformed people but it seems most hospital personnel coming in and out of my room were dressed in street clothes.  Blue Jeans, sweaters, frocks, and had it been summer I'm sure I would have seen tank tops and heard flip-flops.  For hats, all I saw were baseball caps and banana peels.

 DON QUIXOTE CHASING A GLASS BLUE ELEPHANT

A question from Joe in our 'Shoutbox' asked, 'When can u shower'?  The quick answer to that is 14 days after the surgery.  I have a week to go.  In the meantime, it's sponge baths daily.  Sponge baths are not new to me although it's probably been over 75 years since I had my last one.  Growing up as a small boy in the wee village of Tavistock Ontario in the late 40's we were not a rich family.  No shower in our house and not even a bathtub.  Maybe rich folks had those things but we sure didn't have anything like that.  In fact, with no running water in the house in my earliest days, we got our water from a pump and well outside of the house.  Sponge baths were the order of the day for everyone at our place.  My Mom, my Uncle Fred, and my Grandpa.  I was the only non-adult in the house and a friend of my Grandpa's who's name was 'Cowboy' always called me 'Little Boskins'.....even years later when I was a bigger Boskins.  

 NUTHATCH

A Blast From Our Past:: Looking back to late February of 2010 I see we were in Borrego Springs, California.  Facebook threw me this memory and I remember the day well. Don't forget to click the smaller photos to enlarge them when you get to the site.  Early Morning Photo Group And Wandering Willy Rides Into Town

 BOONDOCKED AT THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED NEAR BORREGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA....FEBRUARY 2010

Al's Music Box:)) The Shadows Instrumental Show.  Some readers out here may remember Cliff Richards and his backup band, The Shadows.  For you folks who have a preference for instrumentals like I do, this is a performance by the Shadows themselves.  Three guitarists and a drummer.    The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters between 1958 and 1959) were an English instrumental rock group, that dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre-Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richards from 1958 to 1968, and have joined him for several reunion tours.   The group, who were at the forefront of the UK beat-group boom, were the first backing band to emerge as stars. As pioneers of the four-member instrumental format, the band consisted of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Their range covers pop, rock, surf rock, and ballads with a jazz influence. The core members from 1958 on were guitarists Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, and drummer Brian Bennett (who has been with the group since 1961) with various bassists and occasionally keyboardists through the years. Along with the Fender and the Burns guitars, another cornerstone of the Shadows sound was the Vox amplifier.  Around 1964, the Shadows replaced the Fender with the Burns, Bruce Welch citing tuning issues as the main reason.  Hank Marvin is considered a wonderful lead guitarist. He came from an era when there really were no lead and rhythm guitarists and it would be hard to find anyone even close.  Not only that, he's also the first British rock guitarist of any note who influenced an entire generation of players to pick up a guitar. His tone and use of tremolo in the Shadows are iconic.   I doubt you’ll find any clips featuring him where he makes a mistake. What he did was incredibly difficult.

 IF YOU WERE PUZZLED BY TODAY'S FIRST PHOTO.....HERE IT IS IN PERSPECTIVE....AN ORCHID FLOWER IN OUR SUNROOM

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A sweet little old lady on a bus offers the driver some peanuts. He eats a few and asks her why she isn't having any herself.  "Oh they're too hard on my poor teeth and I couldn't chew them."  "Why did you buy them all then" wonders the driver to which she replied, "I just love the chocolate they're covered in!"

"Darling, I just called to tell you how awesome you are. You really are the love of my life…""Sir, I’m sorry, this is a brewery!"
"Oh, I know…"

I asked my friend when his birthday was, and he said, "March 1st".  So I walked around the room like a soldier and asked him again.

A man sits down at a bar and orders a double martini. After he finishes, he peeks inside his shirt pocket and then orders another. After he finishes that, he again peeks inside his shirt pocket and orders another double martini. The barman says: "I'll bring you martinis all night but why do you look inside your shirt pocket before you order a refill." The customer replies: "I'm peeking at a photo of my wife. When she starts to look good, I know it's time to go home."

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BY THE END OF THE DAY I WAS DOING OKAY

How uplifting it was to see a morning sunrise through our pine trees.  It wasn't long before Old Sol's warming sunlight brightened up not only our living room but my spirits as well.  And, my spirits did need a brightening after another not so swell night.  But, it's to be expected and I have to keep reminding myself of that.  Unable to find comfort in my chair I had to ditch the big pillow supporting my back.  Getting up to go to the washroom twice didn't help.  Waking up feeling sore, my grumpiness was soon upon me and it took me a couple hours to retrieve my patience and get myself straightened out.  As per usual, my grumpiness is more often than not directed solely at myself.

GLORIOUS SUNSHINE IN OUR FRONT YARD TODAY

I think it was somewhere around 10:30 when I decided I had better get my exercises going, so without further ado, I clomped off into my bedroom and managed to get myself and my legs up onto the bed in a horizontal position.  A touch painful at first I soon had my legs following the Physio exercises I had been shown at the Sarnia Hospital.  Feeling creative, I soon came up with half a dozen of my own little exercises which felt good.  Kelly came in and stuck a frozen bottle of water in my shorts.  Wrapped in a paper towel she positioned the ice over the hip surgery area.  Continuing with my exercises I think this helped and half an hour later I was painlessly able to get myself off the bed and resume my clomping up and down the hall.  Grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch today.

 EXERCISING WITH MY PALS THIS MORNING

  HOISTING MY LEGS UP ONTO THE BED

 LUCKILY I TOOK THE TWO WHEELS OFF MY WALKER AND REPLACED THEM WITH TWO SHOCK ABSORBER THINGYS

Soooooo nice all day to see that big beautiful Sun tumbling through our sunroom windows.  And of course, that big blue sky above.  Very encouraging for bigger, brighter, and better days ahead.  And them there bigger brighter days is just what I am a-looking fer too!!

Luckily, we have a long hallway here which we are using for walking exercise these days.  On Wednesday, Kelly has to be at London's University Hospital for another physio test check-up.  Rather than walking on the slippery roads outside she has been using our long hallway as a walking runway.  It is the same runway I am using now for my walker walking as well.  

 'CONTROL TOWER TO FLIGHT 886....THERE IS A DOG ON THE RUNWAY'

 '886 TO CONTROL TOWER....I'M COMING IN'

 HERE'S KELLY TAXING BY ON THE RUNWAY

 YUP, AND THAT'S ME GOING THE OTHER WAY

 IN THIS PHOTO I THINK KELLY HAS REACHED TAEE-OFF SPEED

By the end of the day I was doing okay and my healing process was well underway.  With my patience tested it was today that I rested.  Tomorrow I will awaken and although I'll be shakin, I'll saddle up my walker and act like a rocker as I clomp down the hall sometimes fearing a fall.  But, not to worry, I'm not in a hurry so thank you all:))       

 A GREAT DAY TO RELAX IN OUR SUNROOM

 I AM KEEPING A WATCHFUL EYE ON OUR FRONT YARD CRITTERS

Al's Music Box:)) Venus is a song written by Ed Marshall. The most successful and best-known recording of the track was by Frankie Avalon and was released in 1959.  "Venus" became Avalon's first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it spent five weeks atop the survey. The song also reached No. 10 on the R&B chart. The lyrics detail a man's plea to Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, to send him a girl to love and one who will love him as well. Billboard ranked it as the No. 4 song for 1959.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man and his wife were making their first doctor visit, the wife being pregnant with their first child.  After everything checked out, the doctor took a small stamp and stamped the wife's stomach with indelible ink.  The couple was curious about what the stamp was for, so when they got home, the husband got out his magnifying glass to try to see what it was.  In very tiny letters, the stamp said, "When you can read this, come back and see me."

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Two Hindu Swamis were in conversation.  One said to the other, "How did you like my latest book, 'The Art of Levitation'?"  His companion replied, "It kept me up all night."

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Jon's working at the lumberyard, pushing a tree through the buzz saw, and accidentally shears off all ten of his fingers. He goes to the emergency room.  The doctor says, "Yuck! Well, give me the fingers, and I'll see what I can do."  Jon says, "I haven't got the fingers."  The doctor says, "What do you mean, you haven't got the fingers? It's 1998. We've got microsurgery and all kinds of incredible techniques. I could have put them back on and made you like new. Why didn't you bring the fingers?"  Jon says, "Well, heck, Doc, I didn't have anything left to pick 'em up with."

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THAT ROAD GRADER CAME BACK IN THE NIGHT

 GOLDFINCH

That road grader came back in the night and drove over me again.  But, this time it was totally my fault.  I am to take a Percocet pain-killing pill every six hours and I had obviously forgotten to take the last 6-hour pill before going to bed.  I woke up with a noticeably sore and painful leg this morning.  Not just at the surgery site but the whole leg.  And, the leg had stiffened up as well.  I quickly downed a pain pill and within an hour or so I was feeling much better and clomping up and down our hall with my walker again.  Some exercises today too.  A commenter had suggested a walker with wheels but I am not ready for that type of walker yet.  When I am able to put full weight on my leg I will switch to the four-wheel walker type, which incidentally we have.  At the time of posting this tonight, I am feeling okay and making progress.  

 PURPLE FINCH.....I CALLS EM 'KETCHUP HEADS'

 DARK-EYED JUNCO

With snowy cold weather outside, it could not have been a better time for my hip surgery.  I have had no urge to go outside even if I could.  But, I am keeping a close eye on the 14-day weather forecast watching for any kind of warming trend which I am beginning to see for the end of the month.  We hit a high of 32F today and looking forward, that is a good sign.

Kelly had brought a movie home from the library called Yesterday and we watched it this afternoon.  Kelly liked the movie better than I did.  But then again, when it comes to movies these days, I am a hard one to please.  And, as I have said before, I much prefer watching a movie in a big theater, with big sound, and a big screen.  I prefer the whole movie theater experience.  I will never understand why anyone would watch a movie on their cell phone.  Yes, they may have watched the movie but they certainly did not experience the movie.  

Al's Music Box:)) Carefree Highway is a song written by Gordon Lightfoot and was the second single release from his 1974 album, Sundown. The title comes from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix. Said Lightfoot, "I thought it would make a good title for a song. I wrote it down, put it in my suitcase and it stayed there for eight months." The song employs "Carefree Highway" as a metaphor for the state of mind where the singer seeks escape from his ruminations over a long-ago failed affair with a woman named Ann. Lightfoot has stated that Ann actually was the name of a woman Lightfoot romanced when he was age 22: "It [was] one of those situations where you meet that one woman who knocks you out and then leaves you standing there and says she's on her way."

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Wife texts husband on a cold winter morning: "Windows frozen, won't open."  Husband texts back: "Gently pour some lukewarm water over it and then gently tap the edges with a hammer."  Wife texts back 10 minutes later: "Computer really messed up now."

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The new Ensign was assigned to submarines, where he'd dreamed of working since a young boy.  He was trying to impress the Master Chief with his expertise learned in Submarine School.  The Master Chief cut him off quickly and said, "Listen, it's real simple. Add the number of times we dive to the number of times we surface. Divide that number by two. If the result doesn't come out even, don't open the hatch."

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An enormously wealthy 65-year-old man falls in love with a young woman in her twenties and is contemplating proposing.  "Do you think she'd marry me if I tell her I'm 45?" he asked a friend.  "Your chances are better," said the friend, "if you tell her you're 90."

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