DAY AFTER DAY, HOUR AFTER HOUR, AND MINUTE BY MINUTE

Another gray November day but at least it wasn't raining hard or snowing and the 49F temperature was at least doable.  I can almost count the number of leaves left on our Redbud tree outside the east-facing livingroom window.  Winter is right around the corner and steadily bearing down on us.  I think I will just tip back in my recliner, pull a blanket over my head, wait for Spring, and in the words of Eddie Arnold, Make The World Go Away  Well, after I finish the blog that is.......

It was off to Goderich Pheebs and I went this morning.  Kind of an intermittent drizzle but not enough to keep Pheebs window up.  She was a happy little camper with her nose out the window and the wind rushing by flapping her ears around.  I can tell she likes when that happens.  Nothing new in our usual coffee-harbor-gas-Walmart routine and it wasn't long before we were on our way home again.

 FLYING HER EARS IN THE WIND

 A LARGE SHIP IN THE PORT OF GODERICH THIS MORNING

 THE SHIP'S NAME IS MUSALA AND HAVING BEEN BUILT JUST LAST YEAR THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE SEEN IT

 THE DECK BOSS IN THE WHITE HELMET IS SAYING TO THE CREW, 'HEY GUYS I CAUGHT A FISH THIS BIG IN THE HARBOR AN HOUR AGO, DOES ANYBODY WANT TO MAKE A PET OUT OF IT'??

 THEY ALL TURNED THEIR BACKS ON THE DECK BOSS SO I GUESS NOBODY'S INTERESTED EXCEPT THAT HELMETLESS GUY DRIVING A LOADER WHO HOLLERED OVER, 'HEY WAIT A MINUTE I'LL TAKE IT' 

Looking ahead at the 14-day weather forecast I see no reason for panic yet when it comes to turning off our outside water and draining the hoses, etc.  When that time does come it won't take me long to do it.

 HEADING OUT TO ROTARY COVE IN A BIT OF A DRIZZLE

 A FEW GULLS WERE HAVING A GREAT TIME PLAYING IN THE WIND

 ABOUT TO TAKE OFF

 THERE HE GOES

Last night (Sunday) I hauled the TV out of our spare room and set it up in the sunroom again.  I watched my one-hour show, 'Skinwalker Ranch', then unplugged the TV and carried it back to the spare room.  This is my 6th day without checking news channels and I must say that I am way better off for it.  Partially, because of news channels, I'm still irritable but I'm hoping with time that irritation will dwindle and greatly diminish.  I don't know what's going on in the world right now and I'm trying not to care anymore.  As I've said before, I've had enough of the madness.  It's difficult for a sort of news junkie like myself but I'm at a point now where for my own peace of mind I cannot and will not ingest the daily chaos any longer.  I have done this before and 'slipped' back but I am working hard with myself right now to put this 'news junkie' side of me to rest once and for all.  I may wear out my eyes reading books but I figure it's better than wearing out my brain by subjecting it to seeing people and countries tear each other apart day after day, hour after hour, and minute by minute................... 

 SEEN IN GODERICH....THIS LITTLE FELLOW OBLIVIOUSLY TALKED HIS MOM AND DAD INTO TAKING HIM FOR A SPIN IN HIS LITTLE BLUE ROADSTER

 HEADING HOME WITH HER WINDOW DOWN

Al's Music Box:(( Everything I Own by David Gates and Bread.  After the first song, this video will go on to play more David Gates songs.  'Aubrey Was Her Name', etc. including 'If'.  I like all the songs except for 'Friends and Lovers' not so much.  All songs show lyrics. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gates was surrounded by music from infancy, as the son of Clarence Gates, a band director, and Wanda Rollins, a piano teacher. He became proficient in piano, violin, bass and guitar by the time he enrolled in Tulsa's Will Rogers High School. Gates formed his first band, The Accents, with other high school musicians which included a piano player, Claude Russell Bridges, who later in life changed his name to Leon Russell.  During a concert in 1957, the Accents backed Chuck Berry.  In 1957, David Gates and the Accents released the 45 "Jo-Baby" / "Lovin' at Night" on Robbins record label. The A-side was written for his sweetheart, Jo Rita, whom he married in 1959 while enrolled at the University of Oklahoma studying law and pre-med.  In 1961, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where Gates continued writing songs, and he worked as a music copyist, as a studio musician, and as a producer for many artists including Pat Boone.  Success soon followed. His composition "Popsicles and Icicles" hit No. 3 on the US Hot 100 for The Murmaids in January 1964.  The Monkees recorded another of his songs, "Saturday's Child". By the end of the 1960s, he had worked with many leading artists, including Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Merle Haggard, The Ventures, Duane Eddy and Brian Wilson.  In 1965, Gates arranged the Glenn Yarbrough hit, "Baby the Rain Must Fall". In 1966, he produced two singles on A&M Records for Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band.  According to a 1996 article in People, Gates has remained married to high school sweetheart Jo Rita since 1959. Together they raised four children: three lawyers and a cardiothoracic surgeon.  Gates, who studied the cattle ranching business while touring with Bread, purchased a 1,400-acre cattle ranch financed by royalties he earned during his time with the band. He lives happily with his wife in Mount Vernon, Washington, enjoying his retirement.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( I once dated a girl with a twin and people always asked me how I could tell them apart.....It was simple - Alison painted her nails red, and Bob had a beard.

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I went to the doctor with hearing problems.
He said, "Can you describe the symptoms?"
I said, "Homer's a fat bloke and Marge has big blue hair!"

- I just asked myself if I'm crazy, and We all said No.

- People who wonder if the glass is half empty or half full miss the point.  The glass is refillable.

- I told my wife she should “embrace her mistakes.”...............She gave me a hug.

My father is a skilled CPA, but is not great at self-promotion. So when an advertising company offered to put my father's business placard in the shopping carts of a supermarket, my dad jumped at the chance. Fully a year went by before we got a call that could be traced to those placards.  “Richard Larson, CPA?” the caller asked.  “That's right,” my father answered. “May I help you?”  “Yes,” the voice said. “One of your shopping carts is in my yard and I want you to come and get it.”

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Al's Doggy World:))

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Common sense is not a gift. It's a punishment because you must deal with everyone else who doesn't have it.

                                Al's Art Gallery

AND I LIKE THAT IN A WRITER

A GRAY NOVEMBER MORN BUT NOTICE THE DOGGY'S BRIGHT YELLOW RAINCOAT

We knew the rain was coming so I figured it was going to be a long day spent inside on a gray rainy November day.  Pheebs and I got a bit wet on our way to the carport but that was okay.  Sitting in the house and not getting out and going somewhere is still unthinkable to me at this stage of life!!  Luckily for me, my main incentive and inspiration each morning to get out is a certain furry little black and white Doggy Doogans.  She was kinda miffed with me though this morning when I didn't keep her window down.  'So what if it rains inside the car Dad'!!  Needless to say, we were back home again within half an hour....... (I had trouble with spacing and captioning photos with this post)

 

We have all heard and experienced the expression, 'It's a small world.  Here is another example of this in Lorne Green's post this morning, A Place Called "Away".  And it happened way down in that there place they call Mexico.

The rain let up before noon and skies brightened, but try as I'm sure it did, the Sun could not pierce the cloud cover.  Another afternoon of reading for me and another difficult afternoon of not feeling well for Kelly.  

I've already started a new book and jumping from fiction back to fact I have chosen a book by Leslie White entitled, Three Years A Traveler: One Woman, One dog, Seven RVs, and the path less traveled to heal the heart.  I am only a few chapters in and already I am liking what I am reading.  I can sure identify with her iffy RV decisions and related missteps and bamboozled.  She writes honestly and doesn't lay out a lot of sweet talk concerning her life's problems.  And I like that in a writer.

A Blast From Our Past:)) Seventeen years ago today we were in Moab, Utah.  Our Last Day In Moab

AT OUR PORTAL RV CAMPGROUND IN MOAB

 HIKING OUT OF DEVIL'S CANYON AT THE ARCHES NATIONAL PARK NEAR MOAB UTAH

Al's Music Box:)) Distant Drums is a song that provided US singer Jim Reeves with his only UK No. 1 hit – albeit posthumously in the United Kingdom in 1966, some two years after his death in a plane crash on 31 July 1964.  The song remained on the UK Singles Chart for 25 weeks. The single also topped the US country chart for four weeks, becoming his most successful posthumous single.  Although Roy Orbison had recorded the song in 1963, it is Reeves' version of "Distant Drums" which has endured over the years.  During its time at the top of the UK chart, the song beat off stiff competition from several major (and living) artists of the day. These included The Beatles - who had entered the UK chart around the same time with their double A-sided release "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yellow Submarine"- and the Small Faces, who had also charted in the UK with "All or Nothing".  It was an unexpected achievement for a song that Reeves had recorded for its composer, Cindy Walker, under the impression it was for her private use only and had earlier been dismissed by both the RCA record company and Chet Atkins (a noted guitarist and record producer who worked with Reeves) as unsuitable for wider public release.  Following Reeves' death, the track was overdubbed with an orchestral backing and released to the public as the version that later climbed up the music charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Linda was with her mother while her older sister was being examined by a dentist. Linda kept herself busy playing with toys in the waiting room until she noticed that her mom was resting, her eyes closed.  With about six other patients waiting, Linda marched up to her mother, looked her straight in the face and shook her shoulder.  "Mommy," she yelled, "wake up! This is not church!"

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- Most people don't think I am as old as I am until they hear me stand up.

- Ask your doctor if a drug with 32 pages of side effects is right for you.

- I only do what the voices in my wife's head tell her to tell me to do.

- Why does a room full of married people looks so empty?  There's not a single person in it .

- What do you call a boom-a-rang, that doesn't come back?  A Stick.

- Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Jester!
Jester who?
Jester minute I'm trying to find my keys!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Jilly!
Jilly who!
Jilly out here, let me in!!

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{Quote} You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him, and remember the only thing you can do about awful people is not be one of them. 

Al's Art Gallery