ELLA AND I SLIP OUT FOR A PHOTO CRUISE THIS MORNING

 WEDNESDAY MORNING AT OUR HOUSE

Tuesday evening's fast-moving thunderstorm left us with overcast skies this morning and a chance of more rain.  Pheebs took Kelly and Ella for a walk around our Park and when they got back, Ella and I hopped into the Subaru and headed out to see if we could find a few photos.  And, Ella had her own camera too.  

KELLY, ELLA, AND PHEEBS HEAD OUT FOR A MORNING WALK

 AND HERE GOES ELLA AND I IN THE SUBARU FOR A PHOTO CRUISE

SAW THIS LADY PAINTING ON BAYFIELD'S BEACH

 ON BAYFIELD'S MAIN STREET I STOPPED TO EXPLAIN TO ELLA ABOUT LOOKING FOR THINGS IN NATURE TO FRAM A PHOTO WITH

 IN THIS PHOTO I TALKED ABOUT 'PHOTOS OF OPPORTUNITY'

 IN THIS ONE I POINTED OUT THE COLORS

 ON THE WAY HOME WE STOPPED AT THE ASHWOOD WHERE HER MOM AND DAD WERE

 'HEY ELLA' - 'HEY DAD'

Ella has an artsy side to her and I had noticed that when they were here last week so that gave me an idea.  I have a number of older cameras here and one of those cameras was a Canon PowerShot A720 IS. I checked it out a few days ago to make sure it was working okay (last used in 2007) and it was, so I gave that Canon camera to Ella Tuesday evening.  She excitedly busied herself right away taking photos of Pheebs snoozing on the floor.

 NOT THE BEST PHOTO BUT YOU CAN SEE HOW EXCITED ELLA IS WITH HER CANON CAMERA

     YUP, STILL EXCITED

 HER FIRST PHOTOS WERE OF PHEEBS

It was 7 a.m. and I was the first one up followed closely by Pheebs, Kelly, and Ella minutes later.  Another day was underway and it was off to a quiet start.  As I sat here with my Asus Vivobook on my lap I thought how very different things are now compared to years ago.  To my front left sat Ella on our couch with her IPad on her lap and to my right front sat Kelly with her Acer on her lap.  Soft music in the background and all three of us lost in our own separate technical worlds of varying interests.  Something didn't seem quite right about all that but yet I was content in the moment.  It seems an odd world we live in nowadays compared to the world I once grew up in.  I tried to think back to when I was Ella's 11-year-old age but drew a blank.  I can only imagine what toys I might have had and been playing with at the time.  Would my Mom and Step-Dad have been up yet, would my Uncle be awake, and would my Grandpa be stirring?? Gee, had I been writing a blog in those days I could maybe have looked back to find all those answers.  But alas, the word blog wouldn't even be thought of until over six decades later.

 BREAKFAST AT OUR HOUSE THIS MORNING

ELLA WITH HER IPAD

 

 HERE'S ELLA AND I LISTENING TO THE BAND 'TEARS FOR FEARS' ON YOUTUBE SINGING ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SONGS....'EVERYBODY WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD'

 AFTER TAKING THE PHOTOS OF ELLA ABOVE, SHE QUICKLY TURNED HER CAMERA ON ME

 SHE TOLD ME TO SAY 'CHEESE' SO HERE I AM SAYING 'CHEESE' WITH MY MOUTH CLOSED

  I GOT HER BACK WITH TWO MORE PHOTOS

It turned out to be a hot and humid afternoon. (it later cooled down considerably)  Rebecca, Ricardo, and Ella decided to head into Bayfield and browse around some shops. Kelly decided to go along but drove separately in the Subaru in case she felt like coming home sooner.  I asked her if she wanted me to come along but she thought she would be alright.  It wasn't too long before she was home again and feeling sick.  After a much-needed rest this afternoon, she felt better.  Below are a few photos Ella took on our photo tour this morning.

Rebecca and Ricardo brought Ella over late in the afternoon and then headed out for supper.  Kelly and I weren't keen on going out so Ella, Kelly, and I settled for a Pizza which I had picked up in Bayfield earlier.  Ella spent the night at our house again:)) 

 KELLY AND ELLA AT THE DYNASSSTYLE RESALE LOUNGE IN BAYFIELD THIS AFTERNOON

Al's Music Box:)) Reelin' In The Years is a song by American rock band Steely Dan, released as the second single from their 1972 debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill.  The song was written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and features Fagen on vocals. In 2009, Rolling Stone described the track as "a prime early example of what would become Steely Dan's trademark vibe, marrying a sardonic kiss-off to an ex to a bouncy shuffle groove, and adding on some white-hot guitar dazzlement courtesy of Elliott Randall to bring the whole thing home."  The guitar solo on the original recorded version, by session player Elliott Randall, was recorded in one take.  It has reportedly been rated by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page as his favorite solo of all time.  In 2016 the solo was ranked the 40th best guitar solo of all time by the readers of Guitar World magazine.  The four-channel quadraphonic mix of the recording has extra lead guitar fills not heard in the more common two-channel stereo version.  On its release in 1973, Billboard said: "Easy sounding guitar solos lead into an easy sounding piano break which supports the voices extolling about culling life's experiences from tears to time." Cash Box called it a "winner highlighted by some expert guitar playing."  In March 2005, Q magazine placed the recording at No. 95 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Three engineers and three accountants are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket.  "How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks an accountant.  "Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer.  They all board the train. The accountants take their respective seats but all three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around to collect tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please."  The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on.  The accountants saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So after the conference, the accountants decide to copy the engineers on the return trip and save some money (being clever with money, and all that). When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the engineers don't buy a ticket at all.  "How are you going to travel without a ticket?" says one perplexed accountant.  "Watch and you'll see," answers an engineer.  When they board the train the three accountants cram into a restroom and the three engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs. Shortly afterward, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the accountants are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, Ticket, please."

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- Health inspector: "I'm afraid you have too many roaches in here."

Restaurant owner: "How many am I allowed?"

- Did you hear about the old man whose birthday one year lasted only one minute?
It was his sixty-second birthday.

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ELLA ROLLED IN ABOUT 2:30 THIS AFTERNOON:))

With a prescription to drop off and one to pick up, Pheebs and I were soon on our way to Goderich's Walmart Pharmacy under cloudy skies.  I was glad we had a cloud cover, otherwise the already heavy humidity would have been worse.

 BEANS ARE RIPENING

 LOOKS LIKE THIS FARMER HAS HIMSELF A DUSTY JOB THIS MORNING

 YUP HE SURE DOES

 THERE HE GOES AGAIN

 THIS YELLOWING BEANFIELD STRETCHES TO THE HORIZON

We stopped for gas, and coffee to go at McD's followed by a drive down to the harbor and beach areas.  From there it was a quick stop at Walmart and we were on our way home with another quick stop at Richard and Gayles along the way.

 A BIG SHIP DEAD AHEAD

THE FINNBORG IN HARBOR THIS MORNING TAKING ON A LOAD OF GRAIN AT THE GODERICH GRAIN TERMINAL

 'HEY I HEARD YOU USED MY TOOTHBRUSH THIS MORNING'!!!!

 MEN ALWAYS SEEM TO FIND A SHOVEL TO LEAN ON

 THE ALGOMA BUFFALO AT THE GODERICH SALT MINE ALMOST STERN TO STERN WITH THE FINNBORG

 NEW BENCHES IN THE DOG WALKING AREA AT ROTARY COVE

 A QUIET BEACH THIS MORNING

 A FEW FOLKS IN THE WATER AT ST. CHRISTOPHERS BEACH WITH THE LAKE FREIGHTER ALGOMA BUFFALO IN THE BACKGROUND

Kelly's daughter Rebecca along with husband Ricardo and daughter Ella rolled in about 2:30 this afternoon.  They will be here for a couple of nights.  Rebecca and Ricardo will be staying at The Ashwood only about a mile up the road from us and Ella will be spending tonight here with Kelly and I, and The Pheebs.  Later in the afternoon Rebecca, Ricardo, and Ella headed over to the Ashwood to check in, picked up some fish and chips at Out Of The Blue and were back at 6 p.m. bringing supper.  

Al's Music Corner:)) Year Of The Cat by Al Stewart is a narrative song written in the second person whose protagonist, a tourist, is visiting an exotic market when a mysterious silk-clad woman appears and takes him away for a gauzy romantic adventure. On waking the next day beside her, the tourist notes that his tour bus has left without him, and decides to stay where he is for the time being.  Stewart's "girlfriend left a book of Vietnamese astrology open at the page for the Year of the Cat.  In the Vietnamese zodiac, the Cat is one of the twelve signs.  Stewart was obsessed with Bob Dylan's 'of' songs — 'Masters of War', Chimes of Freedom', and presumably in 1975, 'Simple Twist of Fate' — believing that the preposition made them sound 'portentous'. When he watched Casablanca on television, an opening couplet came to him: “In a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time/ You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime…” The song began as "Foot of the Stage", a song written by Stewart in 1966.  It was the melody for this never-recorded song to which Stewart set the lyrics of "Year of the Cat" in 1975. Pianist Peter Wood was given a co-writing credit on the song. Stewart explained Wood's involvement in the creation of "Year of the Cat" during a concert in Edmonds, Washington in November 2017. He recalled that he was opening for Linda Ronstadt during a 1975 tour of the United States and receiving a decidedly mixed reaction from audiences when he noticed the pianist (presumably Wood) using a catchy chord progression during soundchecks. Stewart asked if he could add words to the notes, but the pianist said no. Stewart then incorporated the notes into the melodic line of "The Year of the Cat" anyway.  The track is noted for its lengthy instrumental sections—over four minutes of the 6:40 album version is instrumental, including a long, melodic series of solos that encompass cello, violin, piano, acoustic guitar, distorted electric guitar, synthesizer and saxophone. Tim Renwick plays both the acoustic lead and electric lead and George Ford plays bass. Alan Parsons had Phil Kenzie add the alto saxophone part of the song—and by doing so transformed the original folk concept into the jazz-influenced ballad that put Al Stewart onto the charts.  According to Stewart on an episode of 'In the Studio with Redbeard' (which devoted an episode to the making of the Year of the Cat album), Phil Kenzie was watching a movie and didn't want to be bothered with going to do session work; but as a favour to Alan Parsons he went to Abbey Road, and the sax solos were recorded in one or two takes, after which Kenzie left the studio to go back home and watch the rest of his movie. Stewart also told Redbeard that he didn't like the sax solos at first but grew to like them.   

NO IT'S NOT REAL:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The woman applying for a job in a Florida lemon grove seemed way too qualified for the job.  Look Miss," said the foreman, "have you any actual experience in picking lemons?"  "Well, as a matter of fact, yes!" she replied. "I've been divorced three times."

- I just sold my homing pigeon on Ebay for the 22nd time.

I once spent ten years marooned on a tropical shore...I lived on nothing but coconuts and seafood. I fashioned sandals out of leaves, a hut out of grass and sticks, and I kept myself healthy with wild plants.  One day I was scouring the beach for copper wire to build a radio I was working on, and I came across a small white spheroid about 2" in diameter that I had difficulty biting.  The mystery was solved when a man stepped out of the trees and said, "That's mine." Astonished,  I asked him, "Where did you come from?"  He said, "From the golf resort just the other side of those trees."

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