AT THE RISK OF GETTING TOSSED OUT ON MY EAR

 OUR PARK'S ENTRANCEWAY FLOWERBEDS ALWAYS LOOK SO LOVELY

Definitely cooler dryer air this morning at 49F. and that was quite alright with me.  For a change, my chin wasn't uncomfortably sticking to my neck when I woke up.  

 A FEW PICS AROUND OUR PARK THIS MORNING

Checking ahead to the 14-day weather forecast I can see we are finally turning the corner from Summer's heat to Autumn's cool.  And that also means the slow transition of wardrobe.  On and off I will begin slipping into T-shirts and long sleeve shirts.  Pants, socks, and footwear will remain the same for a while yet until Winter's cold sets in.  At that time it will be lined pants, warmer socks, heavier winter footwear and winter coats.  The transition back from all that will not begin until maybe mid-April of next year.  I'm already looking forward to those early Spring days:))

 A SMALL GROUP OF HARD-WORKING CREATIVE LADY VOLUNTEERS IN OUR PARK GO OUT OF THEIR WAY  TO KEEP OUR PARK LOOKING NICE

A short drive down Bayfield River Road and back for Pheebs and I this morning.  With a few more prescriptions to pick up, Kelly needed the car to head for the Walmart Pharmacy in Goderich.

AN ALREADY HARVESTED BEANFIELD

 A DOZEN BUZZARDS ON A BARN ROOM

 ON ANOTHER ROOF WORKERS BRICK UP A CHIMNEY ON A NEW HOUSE

 A LONG FARM LANE

With the cool air and sunshine, it was the perfectly perfect morning to be outside doing something, anything.  Now, had I been in a perfectly perfect mood it would have made for a perfectly matching day.  However, it took a while to get myself outside because I just didn't feel like going outside.  Oh my, I thought....what a waste of a perfectly good day.  I dozed out in my recliner while reading but after that, my mind re-booted itself and I was out the door scanning our frog pond for frogs.  I spotted and caught the little feller first and then sure enough, there was the big jolly green frog back again.  It took me three tries but I finally had him in the big white pail and off to the Park's pond I went with both the little guy and the big guy.  I don't expect the little frog to hop back but I'm sure that big jolly green will be back in our pond by morning.  'Ho-Hum'. I also began gathering up a few outside garden ornaments to put away for winter.  Not all of them but I like to make an early start and not leave it until the weather suddenly turns nasty.  With emphasis on the word 'suddenly'.  Nasty wet and cold weather and me being outside doing anything is a 'No-No'!!

 MY FROG CATCHING BUCKET AND NET ARE NEVER TOO FAR AWAY THESE DAYS

 GATHERING UP A FEW OUTSIDE THINGS TO PUT AWAY FOR THE WINTER

 I MOVED OUR BLUE GAZING BALL OVER TO THE FAIRY PATH YESTEERDAY

At the risk of getting tossed out on my ear, I took a chance late this afternoon and switched our thermostat from 'cool' to 'heat'.  Yup, I turned our furnace on.  Kelly, who was in her room having a snooze is the one here who generally controls our inside climate and she likes things 'cooler' than I do.  I was hoping she wouldn't notice the change in temperature when she woke up, but she did.  In my defense, I told her I was just testing the furnace to make sure it was in good working order before the snow is upon us.  Surprisingly, in her room resting, she was feeling cold too and was glad when all of a sudden the heat came on.  Who would have ever thunk it.  Hey, chalk one up for my side:))))

 A FEW MORE PICS IN OUR PARK

 THIS IS OUR FRONT YARD AND YOU CAN SEE HOW HARD IT IS FOR ME TO CATCH THE FROGGIES WHEN THEY GET OUT OF THE NET AND QUICKLY LEAP INTO THE JUNGLE

There was a time when Kelly would begin taking her 'itching' pills in the evening an hour or so before going to bed.  Now, she has to begin taking those pills not long after getting up in the morning and the itching goes on all day.  She came home from the Pharmacy this afternoon with 270 anti-itching pills with an 810 refill pending..........

 CROWS AND A BUNNY IN OUR YARD THIS AFTERNOON

Al's Music Box:)) Rock Me Baby is the debut single by American singer George McCrae. Written and produced by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch of KC and the Sunshine Band, "Rock Your Baby" became an early landmark recording of disco. The song spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1974.  The single has sold over 11 million copies, making it one of fewer than forty singles to have sold 10 million physical copies worldwide.  The backing track was recorded in 45 minutes as a demo, with Casey on keyboards, Finch on bass guitar and drums, and their fellow Sunshine Band member Jerome Smith on electric guitar. The song became one of the first pop hits to use a drum machine.  The track was not originally intended for McCrae, but he happened to be in the studio at the time and added his distinct falsetto vocals. Music critic Rovert Christgau has described the result as "irresistibly Memphis-cum-disco-with-a-hook."  "Rock Your Baby" influenced John Lennon's "Whatever Gets You thru the Night", released a few months later.  In a 1975 interview, Lennon said of "Rock Your Baby" that "I'd give my eyetooth to have written that."  Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus have also cited the song as an inspiration for ABBA's 1976 song "Dancing Queen".

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A famous art collector is walking through the city when he notices a mangy cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store and he does a double take. He recognizes that the saucer is extremely old and very valuable, so he walks casually into the store and offers to buy the cat for two dollars.  The storeowner replies "I'm sorry, but the cat isn't for sale.  The collector says, "Please, I need a hungry cat around the house to catch mice. I'll pay you twenty dollars for that cat."  And the owner says "Sold," and hands over the cat.  The collector continues, "Hey, for the twenty bucks I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat's used to it and it'll save me from having to get a dish."  And the owner says, "Sorry buddy, but that's my lucky saucer. So far this week I've sold sixty-eight cats."

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Wife: Okay, today's Friday. Where's your pay envelope?

Man: I already spent all my pay. I bought something for the house.
Wife: What? What could you buy for the house that cost $480?
Man: Eight rounds of drinks.

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An airline stewardess was giving the standard safety briefing to the passengers. She had just finished saying 'In the event of a water landing, your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device,' when a man remarked, "Hey! If the plane can't fly, why should I believe the seat can float?"

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'WEENIE SNACKS' - STAY FOCUSED DAD!!! - 'WEENIE SNACKS!

Knowing the overnight cloud cover would have prevented a heavy dew from settling on the ground I figured the grass at the Bayfield Cemetery would be reasonably dry.  I figured correctly so Pheebs and I took ourselves for a walk around the large grassy area on the east side.  At some point, the cemetery will expand its burials into this area but probably not for a few years yet.

A DRIVE DOWN AROUND BAYFIELD'S HARBOR AND BEACH AREA THIS MORNING

 I LIKE THIS BOAT'S OLDER DESIGN AND IN THE PHOTO BELOW SITS THE CAPTAIN AT A PICNIC TABLE CONTEMPLATING WHAT'S IN THE WHITE BUCKET FOR BREAKFAST

 THIS SAILBOAT'S MAST IS LASHED DOWN WHICH MEANS IT IS READY TO BE TAKEN OUT OF THE WATER AND PLACED INTO STORAGE SHORTLY

 COLORS

FOUR FISHERMAN ON BAYFIELD'S SOUTH PIER

Home again, I raked up a couple more wheelbarrow loads of pine needles and caught or re-caught another or the same adult frog in our front yard pond and took him in my big white frog-catching bucket over to the Park's pond.  I know there is another small frog in our pond for sure but I haven't caught the little feller yet.

 RAKING UP PINE NEEDLES IN OUR BACKYARD CAMPFIRE AREA

 ANOTHER WHEELBARROW LOAD OF PINE NEEDLES FOR THE UTILITY TRAILER

It was around 2 p.m. when the cloud cover broke and we were in full sunshine for a while.  By late afternoon it clouded over and a big wind brought in a cold front dropping the temps considerably.  Rain followed and at the time of posting this tonight, it's 57F and still raining.  

OUR MORNING WALK AT THE CEMETERY AND IF YOU LOOK CLOSE YOU CAN SEE PHEEBS WAY OVER THERE ALONG THE TREE LINE ON THE LEFT

DECIDING WHETHER TO HEAD INTO THE DARK FOREST

 PHEEBS SAID 'NOPE', LET'S HEAD HOME AND GET SOME WEENINE SNACKS GOING

'WEENIE SNACKS' -  STAY FOCUSED DAD!!! -  'WEENIE SNACKS'

Thanks for the reassurance folks.  You are all a big part of my strength.

Al's Music Box:)) Grazing In The Grass is an instrumental composed by Philemon Hou and first recorded by the South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. It was released in the United States as a single in 1968. The session was held at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood.  It was ranked as the 18th biggest hit of the year.  Masekela's recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( “I’ve just had the most awful time”, said a boy to his friends. “First, I got angina pectoris, then arteriosclerosis. Just as I was recovering, I got psoriasis. They gave me hypodermics, and to top it all, tonsillitis was followed by appendectomy”.“Wow! How did you pull through?”, sympathized his friends.“I don’t know”, the boy replied, “toughest spelling test I ever had”.

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- What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary?  A thesaurus!

- The geography teacher asked if I could name a country with no 'R' in it.  I said, "No way!"

- What is the longest word in the English language?  “Smiles”, because there is a mile between its first and last letters.

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Bumper Stickers::
- Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
- I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
- He's not dead, he's electroencephalographically challenged.
- She's always late. Her ancestors arrived on the Juneflower.
- You have the right to remain silent....Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.
- I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges.
- - Honk if you love peace and quiet.
Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool.
- Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
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AND FOR THAT, I THANK EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU:))

There was a coolness to this morning's brisk East wind but that didn't stop Pheebs from having her passenger side window down.  I had a little smattering of heat going on my side.  Subarus have separate side-by-side heating controls so that comes in handy.  I knew Pheebs wasn't up for a walk so we just motored around a few country blocks, snapped a few pics, and came home. 

 WE HAVE A VERY PASTORAL COUNTRYSIDE HERE IN SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO CANADA

Pine needles have begun to fall so needing to use up a little free energy, I raked up 3 wheelbarrow loads and forked them into the utility trailer.  Moved our blue gazing ball and heavy concrete base over to beside the fairy path.  Caught (or re-caught) three adult frogs in our front yard pond and transported them over (or back) to the Park's pond.  They will probably be back before sundown.  Kelly suggested I make up a little sign to place beside the road.  'Slow Down - Frog Crossing'.

 AREA FARMERS WERE BUSY THIS MORNING....BUT THEN AGAIN, AREN'T THEY ALWAYS BUSY

 IT LOOKS LIKE THIS MARSHMALLOW FARMER HAD A BUMPER CROP THIS YEAR

 LOOKS LIKE THIS FARMER HAS A GOOD SUPPLY OF STRAW BALES FOR THE WINTER

 SOME MIGHT SAY YOU CAN TAKE THE MEASURE OF A FARMER BY THE NUMBER OF SILOS HE HAS

In our RVing days, it was generally this time of year that we were really getting ramped up for our departure to the Great American Southwest.  I always liked to set our departure date for the third weekend in October hopefully before any bad weather set in.  Once on the road, we didn't dilly-dally anywhere and it was pedal to the metal to get as far south and west as we could.  We didn't want any nasty weather catching up with us plus it was the Southwest where we wanted to spend our time so we didn't stop to look at things along the way (or back).  I have no regrets about that and if we could go again we'd do the same thing.  It was the lure of the mountains and the beautiful desert landscapes we craved and wanted to spend all of our time being a part of.  I never considered it a winter vacation and instead I always looked forward to the complete change of lifestyle.  Just the two of us and our doggy guys boondocking for days and weeks on end out in the deserts and canyons of the southwest.  No people, no traffic, no noise, no problem.  Just the wind whispering through the Saguaros, the Palo Verde, and Mesquite trees.  The smell of the desert air after a rain.  Diamond like stars in the black velvety night sky stretching from horizon to horizon and big full Moons rising over mountain tops casting shadows across the desert floor.  Stunning firey red sunrises and sunsets.  Warm days and cool nights with no humidity in the air.  Deep canyons and long valleys with sweeping vistas for as far as the eye can see.  We always considered the Southwest our home away from home.  We even owned a house and property for a few years in Arizona and I think Kelly actually at one point acquired an Arizona driver's license in Wickenburg.  The sounds of Coyotes, Gambels Quail, Cactus Wrens, and my favorite, Curve Bill Thrashers.  Cool nights and warm days.  And of course, there were always our favorite haunts like Borrego Springs and Slab City in California.  Ajo, Why, Bisbee, Wickenberg, Quartzite, and Yuma, in Arizona.  Oh dear, I've gone and done it to myself again.  Now here I sit with another depressing case of the 'if onlys':((   

 A STOP ALONG THE WAY THIS MORNING

 SOMETIMES THE SCENERY GOES BY A LITTLE FASTER THAN OTHER TIMES

It has been a while since I last thanked all my faithful blog readers, commenters, and emailers for hanging in here all this time.  As I've said a dozen or more times before, if it wasn't for all your continuing support of this blog of mine, there simply wouldn't be a blog.  I draw my inspiration and blogging energy from you folks.  It is all you people who help me each day hold my world together and give me a sense of purpose.  And, for that, I thank each and every one of you:))

SILVER BIRCH LEAVES

Al's Music Box:)) Come And Get Your Love is a song by the American rock band Redbone. The song was originally released as a promo track under the name "Hail" and was later featured on their fifth album, Wovoka (1973), under its current name. The song was released as the album's first single the following year. Written and produced by band members Pat and Lolly Vegas, it is one of the band's most successful singles. It made them the first Native American band to reach the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching number five on April 13, 1974.  The song later appeared on many "greatest hits" albums released by the band, as well as on numerous compilation albums of the 1970s. The song features a prominent part for an electric sitar.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man in Topeka, Kansas decided to write a book about churches around the country. He started by flying to San Francisco and worked east from there. Going to a very large church, he began taking photographs and notes. He spotted a golden telephone on the vestibule wall and was intrigued by a sign which read: "$10,000 a minute." Seeking out the Pastor he asked about the phone and the sign. The Pastor explained that the golden phone was, in fact, a direct line to Heaven and if he paid the price he could talk directly to God. The man thanked the Pastor and continued on his way. As he continued to visit churches in Seattle, San Diego, Chicago, Greensboro, Tampa and all around the United States, he found more phones with the same sign and got the same answer from each Pastor.  Finally, he arrived in Texas. Upon entering a church in Dallas, behold, he saw the usual golden telephone. But THIS time, the sign read: "Calls: 35 cents." Fascinated, he asked to talk to the Pastor.  "Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country and in each church I have found this golden telephone. I have been told it is a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to God, but, in the other churches the cost was $10,000 a minute. Your sign reads 35 cents. Why?"  The Pastor, smiling benignly, replied, "Son, you're in Texas now... It's a local call."

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- Felt uncomfortable driving into the cemetery.  The GPS blurted out...'you have reached your final destination'.

- Brain Cells, hair cells, and skin cells...they all die constantly but those fat cells seem to have eternal live.

- Hard to believe I used to be 4 pounds 7 ounces.  I've really let myself go.

- Got me an emotional support pet.  It's a chicken.  It's crispy.  It also came with a biscuit.

- Super excited about a brand new week of hanging on by a thread.

- Walmart: You go in for cookies and yogurt and come out questioning the fate of the whole human race.

- You know you're getting older when it feels like the morning after but there was no night before.

- I promised myself I would do something different today.  So, I sat on the other end of the couch.

- 'What was that noise'?  'My shirt fell on the floor'.  'It sounded louder than that.'  'I was in it'.

- I just asked myself if I was crazy and we all said 'no'.

- Why do eggs come in a flimsy styrofoam carton when batteries come in a package only a chainsaw can open.

- If you want to make your Mom happy, clean something.  Anything!!

- I watched a documentary last night on marijuana.  That's probably how I'll watch all documentaries from now on.

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