CHEVY CORVETTES DESCEND UPON BAYFIELD....AND A SNOW MEMORY

Despite a dark overcast morning threatening rain, Bayfield's annual Vettefest in Clan Gregor Square was well underway by the time Pheebs and I took a drive through the Village earlier today. Last year they had over 400 Corvettes in attendance and with nearly a Chevy Corvette on every corner this morning, I wouldn't be surprised if they had another great turnout this time again.  Pheebs and I cruised through the festivities and contented ourselves with a few drive-by pics before heading to the Bayfield Cemetery for a quiet walk away from the bustling Vettefest crowds of people in Bayfield.  

 THE TAIL END OF A LONG LINE-UP FOR THE 'FIREMAN'S BREAKFAST' NEAR CLAN GREGOR SQUARE

Our walk was unfortunately cut short by swarms of biting Deer flies.  An hour earlier, Kelly had to cut her morning walk with Pheebs short for the very same reason.  Rotten miserable things those #%!!*!!*# useless good-for-nothing abominations of nature are!!  I wished Deer Flies and Mosquitos would declare an all-out war on each other with each side totally annihilating the other side forever!!

WIPING THE DUST OF THE WHEELS

 JOGGERS STOPPING FOR A BREAK NEAR CLAN GREGOR SQUARE

 ALONG BAYFIELD'S MAIN STREET

Despite the humidity, the day's air remained cool so Pheebs and I had ourselves a slow walk over to the Park's pond and back.  Didn't see any critters and thankfully the Deer Flies didn't bug us.

 NOT ALL FOLKS WERE AT VETTEFEST THIS MORNING

 THIS TRIANGULAR DEER FLY ADMIRES ITSELF IN MY DRIVERS SIDE MIRROR

And, Facebook threw me a memory from back in early 2008 when we were 'ranch sitting' near McNeal, Arizona about 20 minutes north of Douglas Arizona and the Mexican border.  Being RV Newbies at the time we didn't think it snowed in Arizona.  The photo below shows how wrong we were.  And, this wasn't the last time we got snowed on in Arizona either over the next bunch of winter seasons.  And that includes getting snowed on in Columbus New Mexico 3 miles from the Mexican border and Julian, California an hour's drive east of San Diego in the Cuyamaca Mountains.  Also at our former house in Congress Arizona a couple times.

Al's Music Box:)) My Love is a song by the British–American band Paul McCartney and Wings that was first released as the lead single from their 1973 album Red Rose Speedway. It was written by McCartney as a love song to his wife and Wings bandmate Linda. The single marked the first time that McCartney's name appeared in the artist credit for a Wings record, after their previous releases had been credited to Wings alone. The single was viewed as Wings' first significant success in the US and helped Red Rose Speedway achieve commercial success.  Wings recorded "My Love" at Abbey Road Studios in London in January 1973. The song is a piano ballad and features an orchestral arrangement by Richard Hewson that was recorded live with the main track. The recording also includes a guitar solo by Henry McCullough that some commentators view as a highlight of the track. In his improvised playing, McCullough imposed his own style on a Wings song for the first time, countering the more regimented approach favored by McCartney.  Despite its commercial success, "My Love" was given an unfavorable reception by many music critics, some of whom considered it overly sentimental and lyrically inconsequential. A live version of the song was included on Wings' 1976 album Wings Over America, and McCartney has continued to perform it in concert as a tribute to Linda following her death in 1998. He included the song in the musical program for Linda's memorial services in London and New York City, where it was performed by a string quartet. After forming the band Wings with Linda in the summer of 1971, McCartney included "My Love" in the set lists for the group's two concert tours in 1972.  When they performed it at Nottingham University on 9 February for Wings' public debut, the song included Linda singing lines in response to McCartney's lead vocal.  According to Perasi, the performance was otherwise "almost identical" to the version that the band subsequently recorded for official release.  McCartney invited Richard Hewson, with whom he had worked before while with the Beatles, to arrange the orchestral accompaniment for "My Love".  The song was recorded live at Abbey Road Studios in London with a 50-piece orchestra accompanying the band.  The session took place in January 1973.  McCartney played a Fender Rhodes electric piano on the track, while Denny Laine substituted for McCartney on bass guitar. The idea to tape the basic track and the orchestral arrangement simultaneously went against music industry convention, since the session musicians were paid by the hour.  Hewson recalled that he recruited "the best jazz musicians I knew ... They had this particular warm sound" and that the reason for the live recording was because McCartney wanted to capture "a certain feeling".  In music journalist Tom Breihan's description, although the song appears to lack a formal structure, "It chugs and twinkles with the slow confidence of an old torch song, while the orchestra ... swells and contracts."  According to Hewson, around 20 takes were performed over three hours, leaving the musicians tired and having to assure McCartney that their playing could not be improved on.  McCullough later said, "it had got to the point where I achingly wanted to be the guitar player in the band", rather than a sideman playing lines dictated by McCartney.  McCartney recalled in a 2010 interview:  I'd sort of written the solo, as I often did write our solos, and he walked up to me right before the take and said, "Hey, would it be alright if I try something else?" And I said, "Er ... yeah." It was like, "Do I believe in this guy?" And he played the solo on "My Love", which came right out of the blue. And I just thought, Great.  And so there were plenty of moments like that where somebody's skill or feeling would overtake my wishes.  According to McCullough, it was the first time that anyone in Wings had challenged McCartney, and it was an approach that others in the band encouraged, in an effort to make Wings a genuine band and improve McCartney's image.  He described the result on "My Love" as "a stroke of luck, a gift from God really, and you sometimes get that in music".

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two factory workers were talking. "I know how to get some time off from work." said the man.  "How do you think you will do that?" said the other one. He proceeded to show her...by climbing up to the rafters, and hanging upside down.  The boss walked in, saw the worker hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he was doing? "I'm a light bulb" answered the guy.  "I think you need some time off," said the boss. So, the man jumped down and walked out of the factory. The second worker began walking out too. The boss asked her where did she think she was going?  "Home. I can't work in the dark." 

The salesman was demonstrating unbreakable combs in the department store. He was impressing the people who stopped by to look by putting the comb through all sorts of torture and stress.  Finally, to impress even the skeptics in the crowd, he bent the comb completely in half, and it snapped with a loud crack. Without missing a beat, he bravely held up both halves of the 'unbreakable' comb for everyone to see and said,  "And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what an unbreakable comb looks like on the inside..."

------------------------------------

===============================

IT'S THE TIME OF YEAR FOR STINGING AND BITING INSECTS

The best part of today was the early morning's cooler air.  Pheebs and I leisurely slipped out and cruised around a few country roads taking in Mother Nature's early July scenery.  With the amount of biting Deer Flies in the air there was no point in trying to set foot out of the Sabaru at the Bannockburn Conservation Area for a walk.  It's the time of year for stinging and biting insects in the air and especially so in the area's Conservation Areas with their creeks, ponds, and swampy areas.  The afternoon's humidity once again kept me inside.  

Al's Music Box:)) It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels is a 1952 country song written by J.D. "Jay" Miller, and recorded by Kitty Wells. It was an answer song to the Hank Thompson hit 'The Wild Side of Life'.  First performed by Al Montgomery as "Did God Make Honky Tonk Angels" on the Feature label which was owned by songwriter J.D. Miller.  The song — which blamed unfaithful men for creating unfaithful women became the first No. 1 Billboard country hit for a solo woman artist. In addition to helping establish Wells as country music's first major woman star, "It Wasn't God..." paved the way for other women artists, particularly Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette and songs where women call out unfaithful men.  In 1998, the 1952 recording of the song by Wells on the Decca label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  It was preserved by the National Recording Registry in 2007.  In the late 1940s, Wells had recorded on RCA Victor, but had little success there. By 1952, she was recording on Decca Records, and recorded "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" at her first recording session.  In 'The Wild Side of Life', Thompson expresses regret his bride-to-be has left him for another man whom she met in a roadhouse, stating, "I didn't know that God made honky tonk angels." That song and its appeal to people who "thought the world was going to hell and that faithless women deserved a good deal of the blame...just begged for an answer from a woman".  The rebuttal song, as it turned out, was written by Jay Miller, although it was Wells who made it a hit.  In "It Wasn't God..." – which follows the same melody, but more uptempo – she cites the original song and counters that, for every woman who had been led astray, it was a man who led her there (often through his own infidelity). She also expresses frustration about how women are always made scapegoats for the man's faults in a given relationship.  Wells' statement was a rather daring one to make in 1952, particularly in the conservative, male-dominated realm of country music; women's liberation and their sentiments in the song were still more than 10 years away.  There was plenty of resistance to the song and its statement: the NBC radio network banned the song for being "suggestive," while Wells was prohibited from performing it on the Grand Ole Opry and NBC's "Prince Albert" radio program.   Yet Wells struck a chord with her fans, as "It Wasn't God..." went to number one for six weeks on Billboard magazine's country charts.  In topping the charts, Wells became the first woman to ever accomplish the feat, at least as a solo act; if all female singers are considered, then Margaret Whiting gets the honor (in a 1949 duet No. 1 with Jimmy Wakely called "Slippin' Around").  Wells was at first reluctant to record the song, but eventually agreed, if only to get the standard $125 session fee payment. Eventually, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels" outsold Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life," and launched the then little-known Wells to stardom. Years later, Wells told an interviewer she was shocked over the song's success and endurance. "Women never had hit records in those days. Very few of them even recorded. I couldn't believe it happened," she said.  Historian Charles Wolfe noted "It Wasn't God..." was one of the few notable exceptions to the rule of an answer song not enjoying the same success as the original.  In 2024, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #11 on its 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time ranking.

GROANER'S CORNER: The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialed the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whispered, "Hello?"  Feeling put out at the inconvenience of having to talk to a youngster the boss asked, "Is your Daddy home?"  "Yes," whispered the small voice.  "May I talk with him?" the man asked.  To the surprise of the boss, the small voice whispered, "No."  Wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your Mommy there?"  "Yes", came the answer.  "May I talk with her?"  Again the small voice whispered, "No."  Knowing that it was not likely that a young child would be left home alone, the boss decided he would just leave a message with the person who should be there watching over the child.  "Is there anyone there besides you?" the boss asked the child.  "Yes" whispered the child, "A policeman."  Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, "May I speak with the policeman?"  "No, he's busy," whispered the child.  "Busy doing what?" asked the boss.  Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the fireman," came the whispered answer.  Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone the boss asked, "What is that noise?"  "A hello-copper," answered the whispering voice.  "What is going on there?" asked the boss, now alarmed.  In an awed whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper."  Alarmed, concerned and more than just a little frustrated, the boss asked, "Why are they there?"  Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle, "They're looking for me."

--------------------------------------------

Golf balls are like eggs...They are both white, sold by the dozen, and a week later you have to go out and buy more.   

--------------------------------

===============================

 

LUCKILY, IT DOESN'T HAPPEN EVERY NIGHT

 MOST OF TODAY'S PICS ARE FROM AN AFTERNOON WALK

My turn to drive this morning so I picked up my good buddy Richard and we headed straightaway to Clinton's Tim Hortons for two coffees and two carrot muffins to go.  Our country road travels on this fine sunny summer's morn took us southeast of Clinton nearly as far south as Exeter before heading west nearly as far as the shores of Lake Huron.  From there it was north up through Bayfield and home.  A fine way to spend a couple of enjoyable hours.

With the oppressive humidity in the air, I didn't venture out into the yard but Pheebs and I did later take a leisurely stroll into the pine forest beyond the pond.  Had the sun been out we would have not taken that walk. 

AN OLD BROKEN DOWN METAL GATE SEEN ALONG THE WAY THIS MORNING

I wonder how many people fall asleep at night with their computers sitting on top of them??  Not many I should think, but I am one of those who does.  Not every night of course but once or twice a week is not uncommon.  Not a heavy desktop computer mind you, but a lighter laptop.  As readers know, I have been sleeping in my recliner now for nearly a decade.  Because of some kind of medical condition I've never really understood, I can't sleep on my side in a bed.  Nor can I lay flat on my back on a bed.  My living room recliner is the only place I can comfortably sleep.  Kelly and I generally watch Canadian news from 10 to 10:30 p.m. whereupon Kelly heads for bed and I switch the channel to 'ambient music' and fire up my laptop computer.....on my lap.  It is at this time I generally start putting my blog together for the next day.  It is at this time I choose a song for 'Al's Music Box' and gather together the Wikipedia info for that particular song.  I then work on 'Groaner's Corner' deciding what cartoons I will put in the blog.  This all takes time and some of the Wikipedia stuff I have to sift through and retype.  Sometimes closer to midnight, I simply fall asleep 'at the switch' so to speak, only to be woken up later with my fingers still on the keyboard or a piece of music playing over and over.  Or maybe I will wake up to a half-finished sentence in a paragraph with no idea what I was writing about. etc.  In this sleepy haze, I simply close the laptop's cover and sleepily slide it off my lap onto a side table and try to figure out in the morning what it was I was writing about.  Seconds later I am totally asleep again.  Luckily, this doesn't happen every night......

 ONE OF OUR PARK POND'S MANY FROGS

 IT WAS A 'ONE TURTLE' WALK THIS AFTERNOON

 ONE OF OUR VERY OWN FRONT YARD FROGS

Al's Music Box:)) Runaway is a number-one Billboard Hot 100 song made famous by Del Shannon in 1961. It was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook, and became a major international hit.  It was No. 472 on the 2010 version of Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of all Time.  Singer-guitarist Charles Westover and keyboard player Max Crook performed together as members of "Charlie Johnson and the Big Little Show Band" in Battle Creek, Michigan, before their group won a recording contract in 1960. Westover took the new stage name "Del Shannon", and Crook, who had invented his own clavioline-based electric keyboard called a Musitron, became "Maximilian".  After their first recording session for Big Top Records in New York City had ended in failure, their manager Ollie McLaughlin persuaded them to rewrite and re-record an earlier song they had written, "Little Runaway", to highlight Crook's unusual instrumental sound. On January 21, 1961, they recorded "Runaway" with Harry Balk as producer, Fred Weinberg as audio engineer, and also session musicians on several sections: session musician Al Caiola on guitar, Moe Wechsler on piano, and Crook playing the central Musitron break. Other musicians on the record included Al Casamenti and Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, and Joe arshall on drums. Bill Ramall, who was the arranger for the session, also played baritone sax.  "Runaway" was released in February 1961 and was immediately successful. On April 10 of that year, Shannon appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, helping to catapult it to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for four weeks. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man answers the phone and has the following conversation: "Yes, mother, I've had a hard day. Gladys has been most difficult...I know I ought to be more firm, but it is hard. Well, you know how she is..." "Yes, I remember you warned me. I remember you told me that she was a vile creature who would make my life miserable and you begged me not to marry her. You were perfectly right..."  "You want to speak with her? All right."  He looks up from the telephone and calls to his wife in the next room: "Gladys, your mother wants to talk to you!"

-------------------------------------------

- My superpower is holding onto junk for years and throwing it away a week before I need it.

- Not to brag or anything, but I can forget what I'm doing while I'm doing it.

- Artificial Intelligence can't replace you if your not intelligent.

- As long as everything is exactly the way I want it, I'm totally flexible.

- Nine out of ten times when I lose something it is because I had put it in a safe place.

- I found a book called 'How To Solve 50% of your problems so I bought two of them.

- Sixty may be the new forty but the one hundred dollar bill is now the new twenty. 

-------------------------------------

I was on vacation in Texas, and was appalled by Dallas' chaotic traffic.  I asked the bellhop at the hotel why it was so disorderly.  "In some countries, they drive on the right, in others on the left. Here, we drive in the shade."

--------------------------------------------

===============================

REMEMBER THAT RV WE WENT TO LOOK AT NORTH OF LONDON A FEW WEEKS AGO??

 GODERICH'S ROTARY COVE

Another really nice summer morning so with Subie's windows down, Pheebs and I moonroofed our way to Goderich and back.  Our usual stops while there at McD's for a coffee to go with a spin down around the harbor and beach areas.  Following that, it was a Walmart stop to pick up a prescription and a few groceries.  On the way home under growing cloudy skies we slipped around to Bayfield's south end and picked up a couple 20-pound bags of birdseed at the Porters Hill Wild Birdseed Company  Best birdseed place around:))

SPOTTED THIS COUPLE ENJOYING THEIR TIME AT THE BEACH

 ALSO SPOTTED THIS COUPLE ENJOYING LAKE HURON'S REFRESHINGLY COOL WATERS

Our wondrous cool spell of recent weeks has been replaced by summer's miserable heat and humidity again but luckily the afternoon cloud cover kept it from being worse than it could have been.

 LAKE HURON WAS SHOWING OFF HER BEAUTIFUL AQUA COLORS THIS MORNING

I buried my nose in my book for much of the afternoon knowing that if I went outside I would end up in an uncomfortable sticky situation.  Not much in the way of photos today but I did manage a few in Goderich while the sun was out.

Readers may remember a sunny Saturday morning a few weeks ago when Kelly, Pheebs, and I took a drive to look at an RV north of London, Ontario. (My Post for that Day)  No, not for us, but for RV blogging friends of ours who at the time were traveling in Europe.  You can read the results of that Saturday morning here at Kevin and Ruth's blog, Travel with Kevin and Ruth.  You can also find these fine travel folks on my sidebar:))

Al's Music Box:)) The Ballad Of Davy Crockett is a song with music by George Bruns and lyrics by Thomas W. Blackburn. It was introduced on ABC's television series Disneyland, in the premiere episode of October 27, 1954.  Fess Parker is shown performing the song on a log cabin set in frontiersman clothes, accompanied by similarly attired musicians. The familiar refrain of "Davy, Davy Crockett" is heard throughout the song, which sings of the man's praises. The song would later be heard throughout the Disneyland television miniseries Davy Crockett, first telecast on December 15, 1954. This version was sung by The Wellingtons. Parker played the role of Davy Crockett in the miniseries and continued in four other episodes made by Walt Disney Studios. Buddy Ebsen co-starred as George "Georgie" Russel, and Jeff York played legendary boatman Mike Fink.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The local sheriff was looking for a deputy, so Gomer, who was not exactly the sharpest nail in the bucket, went in to try out for the job  "Okay," the sheriff drawled, "Gomer, what is 1 and 1?"  "11" he replied.  The sheriff thought to himself, "That's not what I meant, but he's right. What two days of the week start with the letter 'T'?"  "Today and tomorrow."The sheriff was again   surprised that Gomer supplied a correct answer that he had never thought of himself.  "Now Gomer, listen carefully: Who killed Abraham Lincoln?"  Gomer looked a little surprised himself, then thought really hard for a minute and finally admitted, "I don't know."  "Well, why don't you go home and work on that one for a while?"  So, Gomer wandered over to the barbershop where his pals were waiting to hear the results of the interview. Gomer was exultant. "It went great!  First day on the job and I'm already working on a murder case!"

------------------------------------

In Las Vegas, "What Happens Here, Stays Here" is getting old, so a contest is being held for new slogans. Here are the leading contenders:
1) Las Vegas: Better than Detroit
2) It's The Gambling, Stupid
3) You're Broke, Hung Over and Upset. Now Go Home
4) Where Luck Goes to Die
5) More Than Thirty Million Schmucks a Year Can't Be Wrong
6) We've Got What It Takes To Take What You've Got

-------------------------------------

- What does E.T. stand for?  Because he hasn't got a chair!

-----------------------------------------

"Fidel Castro was still in the hospital with a serious medical condition. He still thought communism was a good idea until he was being rushed to the hospital in an old dilapidated '55 Oldsmobile."

---------------------------------

DEFINITELY A SIGN OF OUR TIMES

==============================

GRUBINSKYIESENHEIMER, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Another cool sunny one.  Good stuff but nothing like a long weekend to screw up one's day perception.  I thought for sure it was Sunday all day.  Maybe it was, I don't know, so in order to give my head a shake I tried to spell my name backwards.  Couldn't even do that.  No, don't try it, you'll just mess up your day too and especially if your name is Schwartzentruber or Schlickengruber or Grubinskyiesenheimer, or something like that.

 

THE FIRST CONE FLOWERS I HAVE SEEN THIS YEAR AND DID YOU NOTICE A TINY BUTTERFLY ON THE FLOWER AT LEFT??  IF NOT, LOOK AT THE NEXT PIC

With a nice summer's morning breeze in the air, Pheebs and I took the longer scenic route to The Linwood Wildlife Area southeast of Bayfield and as it turns out we were the only wildlife there.  Had ourselves a walk along the hedgerow between two cornfields.  There's a vantage point here where the distant blue waters of Lake Huron can be seen a few miles off to the west.  I like to stand here each time we come and simply take in the rural scenery stretched out in front of me.  It's always a time for reflection.  The morning's gentle breeze rustling through a stand of nearby trees added an extra feeling of calm as I stood there.  After a bit of thinking, Pheebs and I walked back to the car and headed for home.

 I STOOD HERE LISTENING TO THE GENTLE BREESE PLAYING THROUGH THESE TREES

 THE AQUA BLUE WATERS OF LAKE HURON CAN BE SEEN NEARLY 3 MILES AWAY

WE STOPPED TO SAY HELLO TO A COUPLE OF CONTENTED COWS ALONG THE WAY TODAY

 SPOTTED THIS LITTLE FELLOW ON AN AFTERNOON WALK

Always yard work to do here and this morning was no exception.  Some encroaching vines on the roof of our shed had to be taken down before they got under the shingles.  A tall shrub out front near the road had to be topped off so I did that too.  It was shortly before noon with the humidex on the rise when I finally pulled the plug, headed inside, and cranked up my sunroom pedestal fan.  

 ANOTHER WHEELBARROW LOAD OF YARD CLIPPINGS

Al's Music Box:)) From The Beginning (A lot of memories with this song and it's one of my all-time favorites from the early 70's and I liked it so much I bought the album, which I still have) This song is written by Greg Lake and performed by the progressive rock trio Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. It was released on their 1972 album Trilogy.  It is driven by an acoustic guitar line with layers of electric guitar (both rhythm and lead), electric bass guitar, and sung by Lake, with some backing on drums (played by Carl Palmer with congas, tympani mallets and without cymbals), and with a distinctive closing synthesizer solo from Keith Emerson, accompanied by overdubbed synthesizer sounds.  Record World said that "Greg Lake gets a great sound out of his band on this acoustically jazzy number that highlights his voice and fine lyrics.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( You might be a redneck if...

On your first date you had to ask your Dad to borrow the keys to the tractor.
Your parakeet knows the phrase "Open up, Police!"
You saved lots of money on your honeymoon by going deer hunting.
In tough situations you ask yourself, "What would Curly do?"
Taking your wife on a cruise means circling the Dairy Queen.
You think the last words to the Star Spangled Banner are "Play Ball..."
You have a color coordinating rope that ties down your car hood.
You bring your dog to work with you.
Your grandmother can correctly execute the sleeper hold.
You've ever held somebody up with a caulk gun.

----------------------------------

Heard On Noahs Ark::
10. "Did anyone think about bringing a couple of umbrellas?"

9. "Hey, there are more than two flies in here!"

8. "Wasn't someone supposed to put two shovels on board?"

7. "OK, who's the wise-guy who brought the mosquitoes on board?"

6. "Help! I need some Pepto for the elephants, QUICK!"

5. "Don't Make Me Pull This Ark Over And Come Back There!"

4. "No Ham, you cannot eat the Pig!"

3. "And whatever you do, DO NOT pull this plug out."

2. "Nice Doggie!"

AND THE NUMBER ONE THING OVERHEARD ON NOAH'S ARK.....

1. "Are We There Yet?"

----------------------------------

===============================