FACING THE FACT THAT THIS IS WHERE WE ARE NOW

 IT WAS A WINTER WONDERLAND WHEN I LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW THIS MORNING

Oh dear, where to start.  Some things have gone right and some things have gone wrong.  I had to make two phone calls this morning to cancel the Tuesday 10 a.m. meeting with our Nurse Practitioner and our Wednesday afternoon 2 p.m. meeting with one of Kelly's liver doctors in London.  Neither one of us are in good enough shape to attend those meetings.  It's the worst possible timing but I have come down with what I think is a very nasty head and chest cold.  I think it is something I picked up in the Goderich hospital last Saturday morning.  I had two bad nights in a row and not wanting to run the risk of spreading it to Kelly or the hospital staff I did not go to the hospital today......Kelly had a drain put into her side this morning to drain the fluid out of her abdomen.  That drain will stay in now.  A doctor Duckworth came in to have a talk with Kelly this morning and he was able to formulate a plan for moving forward.  Kelly had some questions for him that we had written down.  She asked if she could donate her body to science.  The doctor said it's not impossible, but highly unlikely.  She asked about Palliative Care and the doctor told her she is already under Palliative Care right there at the hospital.  She asked about Hospice and he said there are waiting lists to get into those places.  He recommended that she not go home and explained the reasons for that which made a lot of sense and Kelly was okay with that and understood.  He said they can keep her comfortable right there in the hospital and tend to her every need.  Kelly asked about funeral arrangements and he said they look after all that as well.  So, right now that is our plan for moving forward, and for Kelly and I, we both feel it is the right thing to do.  Kelly's voice today was her usual strong and bouncy self.  She had a terrible raspy cough though.  So, today as I walk around the house in somewhat of a daze trying to wrap my mind around the thought that the one I love will not be coming home again, I have come to terms with the fact that this is where we are now............

THE BIRD FEEDER ATOP OUR BIRD STATION IS TOTALLY ENCLOSED IN SNOW

 THIS LITTLE JUNCO SITS PUZZLED ATOP THE BIRD STATION

TRYING TO FIND ANYTHING TO EAT THEY CAN

 A JUNCO SITTING IN AN AZALEA BUSH

 A JUNCO IN A SEA OF WHITE

We were walloped in the night by over a foot of snow and it is still coming down.  Temperatures came up around the freezing mark today and that made all the snow very heavy.  It's garbage collection Tuesday morning so I had no choice but to go out with my snow shovel and dig out our two garbage cans.  I could see our front yard birds were in a dilemma as well because our bird feeders were snowed in.  Despite feeling like 'an old bag of dirt' I shoveled a pathway to the bird feeders, uncovered them, and sprinkled a lot of birdseed and corn around for the guys, squirrels included.....However, I think I am slightly on the mend from whatever bug got through my immune defences because the headache finally lifted this morning.  I am still stuffed up and coughing so I am going to give it another day before heading off to see Kelly.  Kelly's daughter, Sabra is driving over from Cambridge (weather permitting) tomorrow afternoon to see her.

 IT JUST KEPT ON SNOWING ALL DAY

 I SHOVELLED A PATH FOR PHEEBS THROUGH THE SNOW ON OUR DECK

 I THINK PHEEBS IS A LITTLE OVERWHELMED BY ALL THE SNOW

 THIS GIVES YOU AN IDEA OF MUCH SNOW WE GOT OVERNIGHT

 I SHOVELLED A PATH FOR PHEEBS IN OUR BACK YARD

 HERE'S PHEEBS STRUGGLING THROUGH THE SNOW BEFORE WE HAD THE DRIVEWAY PLOWED

Last winter we had a fellow in our Park here who plowed our driveway but we hadn't heard from him so I figured he maybe wasn't plowing driveways this year.  I didn't know what I was going to do with all that snow in our driveway but figured the all wheel drive Subaru would make it through.  But then, something kind of amazing happened.  A message popped up on my Facebook from Lori, a lady in the Park asking if I would like our driveway plowed.  Would I??  Ya darn tootin I would.  She said someone from Bayfield was driving his plow out to our Park this afternoon and was going to do driveways for a donation to a church.  At 4:15 I heard the rumble of a machine coming down the street and sure enough it wheeled right into our driveway and began plowing snow.  I was so thankful for that because now I could get our garbage cans out to the road and it would also make it easier for Pheebs when she went out.  Thank heavens for little miracles.  And, a big thanks to the bearded fella at Berger Builds for plowing our driveway............... At 7:10 tonight our power went out.  Probably the steady falling of heavy wet snow pulled some power lines down somewhere.  I wasn't optimistic that our power would be restored any time soon.  That is not usually the case here but imagine my surprise when at 8:40 with a pop and a flash of light our power was back on.  I had been planning on spending the night in my sunroom recliner beside our gas stove which keeps emitting heat despite the power outage.  And, would you believe we had thunder and lightning going on during that power outage.

Als Music Box:)) Waiting For A Girl Like You is a 1981 power ballad by the British-American rock band Foreigner released as the second single from the album 4(1981) and was co-written by Lou Gramm and ick Jones. The opening motif was written by Ian McDonald and the distinctive synthesizer theme was performed by the then-little-known Thomas Dolby.  Billboard said that "The melodic arrangement enhances the lyrics while the tasty orchestration and commanding vocal maximizes the love ballad's effectiveness."Record World called it a "dreamy ballad" and said that "a great title hook, enchanting vocals & keyboards make a perfect radio record."  It has become one of the band's most successful songs worldwide. It reached the number 2 position in the week of November 28, where it was held off the number 1 spot by Olivia Newton-John's single "Physical" for nine consecutive weeks, and then by Hall & Oates'  "I Can'tGo for That" for a tenth week on January 30, 1982. The song was the band's biggest hit until "I Want to Know What Love Is" hit number 1 in 1985. In Canada, the song was number 2 for 2 weeks, kept out of number 1 by "The Friends of Mr Cairo" by Jon and Vangelis.  The song ranked at number 80 on Billboard's "Greatest Songs of All Time".  Classic Rock History critic Brian Kachejian rated it as Foreigner's 7th best song, particularly praising the "great keyboard line played at the song’s intro and in between verses."  Mick Jones said of writing the song that: It just came out. I had no idea what it meant, but it got to the point where I couldn't even be in the studio when we were recording it sometimes. It left such a deep impression on me. It's the kind of song that the pen does the writing, and you don't even know where it came from. But I feel that it's stuff that's floating around at times, and you have to grasp it. It's kind of flying around in the air, and you just have to be open enough to let that flow through you.  In his autobiography, Lou Gramm tells of a beautiful, mysterious woman who appeared in the control room when he was recording his vocal and gave him the inspiration to deliver the stirring take that was better than he has ever sung the song. He writes that this ephemeral beauty vanished, and he has never discerned her identity.  The introduction was created by Thomas Dolby using a Minimoog synthesizer. Dolby remembers Mutt Lange leaving him to his own devices in the studio one night, "like a kid locked in a toy shop" to develop the intro to the song with six tracks of the multitrack available.  As a result, he made the "Eno--esque" ambient drones. These were sustained single notes in a minor scale, each recorded on a single track of a (separate) 2" multitrack tape; Dolby "played" the faders on the mixing console at Electric Lady Studios(by fading in and out the sustained notes) like a mellotron and bounced down the result onto two tracks.  Drummer Dennis Elliot likened the intro to "massage music" but Jones liked it and it stuck.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( The Toronto Board of Health has proposed that warning signs be placed on all alcohol bottles to tip off drinkers about the possible peril of drinking a pint or two of any alcoholic beverage.
1. WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to wake up with a breath that could knock a buzzard off a wreaking dead animal that is one hundred yards away.

2. WARNING: Consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like an idiot.

3. WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell the same boring story over and over again until your friends want to assault you

4. WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to thay shings like thish.

5. WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell the boss what you really think of him.

6. WARNING: Consumption of alcohol is the leading cause of inexplicable rug burn on the forehead.

7. WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher, handsomer and smarter than some really, really big guy named Psycho Bob.

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KELLY IS OUT OF ICU AND INTO HER OWN PRIVATE ROOM

I DIDN'T TAKE ANY PHOTOS TODAY

While up to see Kelly this morning they moved her out of ICU into her own room.  Not a lot has changed in her condition from yesterday.  I'm going back to see her this afternoon and taking along a few things she requested.  I'm hoping tomorrow we will know more about the way forward.

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Al's Music Box:)) Let It Be Me is a 1960 single by The Everly Brothers. The song is an English-language cover of "Je t'appartiens", which had been  The song was a top ten hit for The Everly Brothers in the United States and spawned many additional cover versions.  "Let It Be Me" is based on "Je t'appartiens", which was written in by Gilbert Becaud and his frequent collaborator, lyricist Pierre Delanoe and wasreleased as a single in France by Gilbert Becaud in 1955. Delanoë reportedly wrote the lyrics for Bécaud as an apology for missing one of the singer's performances at the Olympia in Paris. The song was sung by Bécaud.  The Everley Brothers recorded their version of "Let It Be Me" after the song was recommended to them by producer Archie Bleyer. They recorded the song in December 1959 in New York with guitarists Howard Collins, Barry Galbraith, and Mundell Lowe; bassist Lloyd Trotman, pianist Hank Rowland, and drummer Jerry Allison. The song was released by Cadence Records as a single in 1960, with "Since You Broke My Heart" as the B-side.

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GROANER'S CORNER:(( I don't mean to brag, but I finished my 14-day diet food supply in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

 - I may not be that funny or athletic or good looking or smart or talented. I forgot where I was going with this....
 
- Life is like a helicopter. I don't know how to operate a helicopter either.

- Never sing in the shower! Singing leads to dancing, dancing leads to slipping, and slipping leads to paramedics seeing you naked. So remember... Don't sing!
 
- I see people about my age mountain climbing; I feel good getting my leg through my underwear without losing my balance.
 

- We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

- There is a guy stealing iPhones around town...
At some point he’s going to face time!
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Al's Doggy World

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Al's Art Gallery