NO LEAKS OR OVERFLOW...PROJECT COMPLETE:))

Opening our living room curtains this morning I could see our day dawning sunny and bright.  Later, being my turn to drive, I slipped over to Richards and we were off on another one of our enjoyable country road coffee runs.  I think we've been doing this for over ten years now.  Our travels took us southeast of Bayfield this morning.  Bronson Line, Pavilion Road, Bannockburn Line, Centennial Rd, Parr Line, the Hay Swamp, Grand Bend Highway, Babylon Line, the village of Zurich, the Goshen Line to Mill Road to Bayfield and back to where we started out from. Good stuff:))

MOTHER NATURE'S AUTUMN FIRE

COLORFUL SUMAC LEAVES

Home again a couple hours later, I figured I'd better take a break from my frog pond project.  Well, that's what I figured but within an hour there I was back at it again and an hour after that I had all the rocks back in place and the pond filled up with water.  Happy to say no leaks or overflows.  Project complete:)) 

 ROCKS ARE BACK IN PLACE AND THE POND IS FILLING WITH WATER

WATER IS FILLING THE POND FROM AN UNDERGROUND HOSE AT THE RIGHT

NEARLY FULL

 THE FROG POND IS ALL FILLED UP AGAIN...PROJECT COMPLETE:))

Before starting this project I knew I was going to end up with a lot of sore muscles.  Both my legs are so sore at the moment they are hardly usable.  But it's a good soreness and I know that soreness is beneficial to strengthening my weak leg muscles.  But, to push my legs even further, Pheebs and I got ourselves out for a late afternoon walk over to and well beyond the Park's pond.  There is a lot of work going on in the Park at the moment and the landscape is changing.  Many piles of brush burning has given our Park a nice smoky 'mallows and weenies' campfire aroma.  The land is being cleared for new housing and the old forest walking trails in the Park we once so much enjoyed are pretty well all gone now.  But, it's the way of progress and we've had to accept that and get on board with the change. We're just thankful we had all those years from late 2002 to about 2020 to enjoy the quiet forest trails while they were here:))

THERE WERE HALF A DOZEN PILES OF BURNING BRUSH IN THIS AREA

 OUR OLD PINE TREE TRAIL ONCE RAN RIGHT THROUGH HERE

Al's Music Box:)) She's Leaving Home is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and released on their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Paul McCartney wrote and sang the verse and John Lennon wrote the chorus, which they sang together. Neither George Harrison nor Ringo Starr were involved in the recording. The song's instrumental background was performed entirely by a small string orchestra arranged by Mike Leander and is one of only a handful of Beatles recordings in which none of the members played a musical instrument.  "She's Leaving Home" was recorded during the sessions for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The day before McCartney wanted to work on the song's score, he learned that George Martin, who usually handled the Beatles' string arrangements, was not available. McCartney contacted Mike Leander, who did it in Martin's place. This was the first time a Beatles song was not arranged by Martin. Martin, though hurt by this, produced the song and conducted the string section in a session on 17 March 1967 that generated six takes. The melody is composed in a modal scale, typical of English traditional music. The harp was played by Sheila Bromberg, the first female musician to appear on a Beatles record.  Three days later, McCartney's lead vocal and Lennon's backing vocal were recorded, with the two singing together on each of two vocal tracks, their voices overlapping to match the narrative.  The stereo version of the song, finalized on 17 April 1967.  In April 1967, McCartney visited Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in Los Angeles, where McCartney played "She's Leaving Home" on the piano for Wilson and his wife. Wilson recalled: "We both just cried. It was beautiful."  As the credited composers of "She's Leaving Home", Lennon and McCartney received the 1967 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two gas company servicemen, a senior training supervisor and a young trainee, were out checking meters in a suburban neighborhood. They parked their truck the end of the alley and worked their way to the other end. At the last house, a woman looking out her kitchen window watched the two men as they checked her gas meter.  Finishing the meter check, the senior supervisor challenged his younger coworker to a foot race down the alley back to the truck to prove that an older guy could outrun a younger one.  As they came running up to the truck, they realized the lady from that last house was huffing and puffing right behind them. They stopped and asked her what was wrong.  Gasping for breath, she replied, “When I see two men from the gas company running as hard as you two were, I figured I'd better run too!”

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- Why do they put braille on the number pads of drive-through bank machines?

- If nothing sticks to Teflon, how do they stick Teflon on the pan?

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The Fourth of July was coming up, and the nursery school teacher took the opportunity to tell her class about patriotism. "We live in a great country," she said. "One of the things we should be happy about is that, in this country, we are all free."  One little boy came walking up to her from the back of the room. He stood with his hands on his hips and said, "I'm not free. I'm four."
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LUCKILY, THE HUMIDITY STEPPED IN AND ENDED THE ARGUMENT

A FEW EARLY SIGNS OF AUTUMN'S PAINT BRUSH 

I was surprised when I glanced at our calendar this morning and noticed the rest of the month is actually clear of any medical appointments.  Imagine my amazement when I checked the calendar for the month of October and only saw one minor appointment scheduled for the whole month so far.  I'm sure that will change:((

 HOW NICE TO STAND ON OUR WALKING ROAD THIS MORNING LISTENING TO AN AUTUMN BREEZE RUSTLING THESE CORN STOCKS

 THIS APPLE TREE IS SHOWING OFF ITS RED AND GREEN CHRISTMAS COLORS

I don't often (if ever) wake up a flaming ball of energy anymore and this morning was no exception.  I had to push myself later to put on my rubber boots and get outside and into the frog pond.  Luckily, sometimes a little extra push helps, and before long I was right into things.  This of course was after Pheebs and I had slipped out to our country road walking spot for a short walk. 

 WELL, I BETTER GET BACK AT MY FROG POND PROJECT

 GETTING A FEW ROCKS IN PLACE AT THE LEAKY END OF THE POND

Our day remained cloudy which was quite alright with me because it prevented the Sun from ramping up the already high humidity factor in the air.  Every little bit helps these days but it was that sticky humidity that finally did me in about 1 o'clock and that was a good thing because my mind and body were at odds with each other.  My mind wanted to keep working and maybe even finish up the pond project today but my body was hollering at my mind saying things like, 'give the guy a break ya doorknob...he's hardly got enough energy left to even stand up'.  Luckily, the humidity stepped in and ended the argument.

 WITH THE PLASTIC LIFTED HIGHER I'M CONFIDENT THE LEAKING PROBLEM WILL BE SOLVED

 KELLY TOOK A COUPLE PICS OF ME IN THE POND

Venturing outside an hour later to have a look at things I spotted a couple small froggy guys so I quickly grabbed my fish net and within five minutes, 'BANG-ZOOM' I caught five more little froggies.  Off I went with my white pail in hand to the Park's pond and into the water they all went.  Seconds later I heard a bunch of little froggy giggles at the pond's edge.  It's nice when things work out and both sides are happy:))

 THIS IS ONE OF THE LITTLE FELLAS I MOVED TO THE PARK'S POND THIS AFTERNOON

 WITH A BIT OF LUCK I HOPE TO HAVE THIS CLEANED UP TOMORROW....MAYBE

Kelly is feeling better these last couple of days now that the antibiotics have fully kicked in.  However, the liver disease itching has ramped up another notch and she had a lot of difficulty with that today.

 A FROG'S EYE VIEW IN THE POND OF THE DRY WATERFALL

We always turn on the CKCO Kitchener 6 o'clock news each evening.  The TV set is in the living room and we are generally at the kitchen table in the kitchen eating supper.  We're usually not paying full attention to the news unless something comes up we're interested in.  Monday night was no different except the words 'Soper Park' and 'Cambridge' caught Kelly's attention because Cambridge is where she was living when we met.  She glanced over at the television as the story ended and the Television crew panned to a tennis court before going to a commercial.  Kelly got up from her chair, walked into the living room, and picked up the remote.  We have a DVR so she re-played the 10 second tennis court footage back a couple times.  In the shot of the tennis court that the TV crew took, was a fellow dressed in black playing tennis.  A few seconds later Kelly exclaimed, "that's Jason".  She played it back a few more times and sure enough, it was her son Jason.  Kelly paused the DVR and snapped a picture of the screen and sent it to Jason who answered "yes" he had been playing tennis in Soper Park and remembered seeing a guy walking around with a camera.  Nothing like a Mother's Eagle eye to recognize one of her own eh:))

 KELLY'S OLDEST SON, JASON

Al's Music Box:)) Smoke Gets In Your Eyes was recorded in 1958 by the Platters for their album Remember When? The group's version became a number-one hit in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart. In 1959 it peaked at No. 3 on the Rhythm and Blues chart.  Buck Ram, the producer, said that Harbach praised them "for reviving his song with taste."  The widow of composer Jerome Kern disliked the recording so much she considered legal action to prevent its distribution.  However, she was informed that she was going to get huge royalties from the sales of the single.  It was expected to sell over a million copies, and she dropped her lawsuit.  In 2019, the song by The Platters was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

 A FEW DABBLE OF COLOR

GROANER'S CORNER:(( One day, there was a catastrophic event that caused all humans on Earth to die. To sort things out, everyone went to Heaven. God came in and said, "I want the men to make two lines.  One line for the men who ruled their women on Earth and the other line for the men who were ruled by their women. Also, I want all the women to go with St. Peter." With that, the next time God looked, the women were gone and there were two lines.  The line of men who were ruled by their women was 1000 miles long, and in the line of men who ruled their women, there was only one man.  God became angry and said, "You men should be ashamed of yourselves. I created you in my image and you were all whipped by your mates. Look at the only one of my sons who stood up and made me proud. Learn from him!  Tell them, my son, how did you manage to be the only one in this line?"  The man replied, "I don't know, my wife told me to stand here."  

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"If you want to know how old a woman is, ask her sister-in-law"  

"Old age comes at a bad time" 

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened."  

“You spend 90 percent of your adult life hoping for a long rest and the last 10 percent trying to convince the Lord that you’re actually not THAT tired.” 
 

“Old people shouldn’t eat Health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get.” 

 "At my age, flowers scare me." 

"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us… at age 40, we don’t care what they think of us… at age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all." 

"The important thing to remember is that I’m probably going to forget." 

“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.” 

"Everything seems to slow down with age, except the time it takes cake and ice cream to reach your hips." 

"You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks." 
 

"Looking fifty is great — if you’re sixty." 

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{Quote}  Outside our scientific knowledge there exists a Force exercised by intelligence differing from the ordinary intelligence common to mortals.

'CAPTAIN BIG BOOTS' CLIMBS INTO THE FROG POND

 OUR FRONT YARD FROG POND FROGS WERE DOING THEIR BEST T TO STAY OUT OF SIGHT TODAY

An overcast day but that's okay because they say 'variety is the spice of life'.  Too many sunny days in a row can get a little boring.  We need these cloudy days in our lives to really appreciate those sunny days when they do come along.

It wasn't much of a car ride this morning as Pheebs and I slipped around our Park and came home.  Kelly had some errands to run in Goderich and I was anxious to get started on my front yard frog pond project.  And, speaking of frogs, my annual frog round-up began this morning as well.   I had hoped to at least catch half a dozen frogs but it began raining around 11 so I quickly hustled the two frogs I already had in the pail over to Park's pond and eased the little guys into the water.  Half an hour later the rain stopped so out I went again and rounded me up 8 more frogs.  Draining about two-thirds of the water out of the pond made it easier to catch the little fellows with my fisherman's net.  I also pulled on my rubber boots and climbed myself into the shallow end of the pond and was able to lift out a number of rocks that had tumbled into the pond over the past couple of years.  And, I was easily able to get the plastic at the pond's end pulled up.  The next phase of the project is to now rebuild that end of the pond.  Maybe tomorrow, depending on the weather.

 WITH THE WHITE PAIL A THIRD FULL OF WATER I DROP THE FROGS IN AND THEN WHEELBARROW THEM OVER TO THE PARK'S POND AND GENTLY SLIP THEM INTO THE WATER....I USE THAT BLUE FISH NET TO CATCH THE LITTLE FELLAS

 TWO OF THE TEN FROGS I TRANSPORTED TO THE PARK'S POND TODAY

Of course, if this whole idea goes sideways I may go to plan B and pull all the liner out, fill in the hole, plant some flowers, and call it a day.   

 IN THE PROCESS OF PULLING THE SHALLOW END PERIMETER APART

MY SUPER ENGINEERED POND WATER DRAINAGE IDEA

 I MADE THE MISTAKE 20 YEARS AGO OF USING BRICKS AROUND THE EDGE OF THE POND TO HOLD THE LINER DOWN....IN THE WINTER THOSE WET BRICKS FROZE AND SHATTERED INTO PIECES....IT WAS HERE THE LEAK OCCURRED

I UNCOVERED A SURPRISE HERE...I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN THAT I HAD ACTUALLY PUT SOME KIND OF A WHITE THICK LINER UNDER THE DARK PLASTIC LINER....NO WONDER THE POND HAS BEEN HOLDING ITS WATER ALL THESE YEARS

OKAY, HERE GOES' CAPTAIN BIG BOOTS' CLIMBING INTO THE FROG POND

Music plays in our house non-stop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  How nice this morning to be brought ever so softly out of my sleep with this tune called Shanghai Super Flight. (wait for the horn)  Oh my, how I love this kind of ambient music and it is the type of music that surrounds me every day including in the car.  And yes, I have a boombox in the washroom with quite a library of favorite music on cassettes too.  About the only times I do not have ambient music in my ears is when I am working around outside or out for a walk somewhere.  At those times it is Mother Nature's music I listen to.  The wind in the trees, the songbirds in the air, the Squirrels and the Chipmunks, the Coyotes, the Crickets, the rumbling thunder of a summer storm, raindrops, and Peeper frogs in the Spring.  Yes, Mother Nature has a whole host of wonderful music for my ears.  And yours too, if you listen:))    

A's Music Box:)) Cowboy Night Herd Song by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers.  Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, freemason and rodeo performer.  Following early work under his given name, first as a co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then as an actor, the rebranded Rogers then became one of the most famous and popular Western stars of his era.  Roy was 19 when his sister Mary suggested that he audition for the Midnight Frolic radio program, which was broadcast over KMCS in Inglewood, California. A few nights later, wearing a Western shirt that Mary had made for him, he overcame his shyness and appeared on the program playing guitar, singing, and yodeling.  A few days later, he was asked to join a local country music group, the Rocky Mountaineers.  He accepted the group's offer and became a member in August 1931.  By September 1931, Len hired the Canadian-born Bob Nolan, who answered the group's classified ad in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner that read, "Yodeler for old-time act, to travel. Tenor preferred." Nolan stayed with the group only a short time, but Len and he stayed in touch. Nolan was replaced by Tim Spencer.  In the spring of 1932, Len, Spencer, and another singer, Slumber Nichols, left the Rocky Mountaineers to form a trio, which soon failed. Throughout that year, Len and Spencer moved through a series of short-lived groups, including the International Cowboys and the O-Bar-O Cowboys. When Spencer left the O-Bar-O Cowboys to take a break from music, Len joined Jack LeFevre and His Texas Outlaws, who were a popular act on a local Los Angeles radio station.  In early 1933, Len, Nolan, and Spencer formed the Pioneers Trio, with Slye on guitar, Nolan on string bass, and Spencer as lead vocalist. They rehearsed for weeks refining their vocal harmonies. During this time, Len continued to work with his radio singing group, while Spencer and Nolan began writing songs for the trio.  In early 1934, the fiddle player Hugh Farr joined the group, adding a bass voice to their vocal arrangements. Later that year, the Pioneers Trio became the Sons of the Pioneers when a radio station announcer changed their name because he felt they were too young to be pioneers. The name was received well and fit the group, which was no longer a trio.  By the summer of 1934, the popularity and fame of the Sons of the Pioneers extended beyond the Los Angeles area and quickly spread across the country through short syndicated radio segments that were later rebroadcast across the United States. The Sons of the Pioneers signed a recording contract with the newly founded Decca label and made their first commercial recording on August 8, 1934.  One of the first songs recorded during that first session was "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", written by Bob Nolan. Over the next two years, the Sons of the Pioneers recorded 32 songs for Decca, including the classic "Cool Water".

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man enters a craft chocolate shop and asks if they could make a chocolate model car for him.  “Sure, no problem”  “And can it look like the VW Beetle that my dad had?”“Nice idea, no problem at all.”  “And can you make it so that the chocolate doors open and you can see the interior detailed in chocolate, like with a plastic model car?  Same with the bonnet and trunk?” “That will require some planning, but I think I can manage.” “And I would like the wheels to roll, and if I turn the steering wheel then the wheels should turn as well?”  “Mmmh that is fiendishly difficult in chocolate, I will need to carefully plan and experiment…”“And finally, can you make it so that the chocolate windows can move up and down when you turn the handles?”  “Man this is insanely difficult. But give me 3 weeks and I’ll try my best.”  Three weeks later the man returns and indeed there is a lovely chocolate VW Beetle model on display. The chocolatier proudly shows it in all its glorious details: interior, wheels, steering wheel, windows, everything works perfectly, and after the demo he asks, “Shall I put it in a nice gift box?” “No need, I will just eat it here.”

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How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

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The United States is the only country where a housewife hires a woman to do her cleaning, so she can do volunteer work at the daycare, where the cleaning woman leaves her child.
Go figure.
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