ONE STEP AT A TIME

No sunshine beaming through our living room window this morning to gently tease me out of my recliner,  Nope, cloudy and gray so I had to huff and puff and haul my old sack of bones out of the recliner all by myself.  Looking outside, I was pleased to see the snow and ice still melting with 40F temperatures on the thermometer.  But, it was also raining which was okay with me because I knew that rain would help melt the snow faster.  Pheebs and I piled into the Subaru and headed east down Bayfield River Road, swinging north on Tipperary Line to Cut Line Road.  Turned west to Whys Line then south back to Bayfield River Road and home.  Still a cold rain falling so it was a good day to stay inside and work on some stuff and luckily I had the energy and interest to do that.

 IT RAINED ALL DAY AND NEVER LET UP

FROZEN ROAD SIDE PONDS ARE THAWING OUT

We have a spare bedroom with a lot of stuff in it including a bed.  Some of the stuff is mine, some of it Kelly's, and some of it ours.  I made a dent in things as I slowly began re-organizing and moving things around.  There are a lot of plastic bins with all sorts of things in them but I still haven't come across our income tax stuff.  I'll be moving more stuff out to the carport as I go along.  I haven't done too much in Kelly's room because I am waiting for her daughter Sabra to come over and go through her Mom's stuff.

 A WEE SPLASH OF COLOR ALONG THE WAY

Overall, I am feeling much better than the past couple of days and I basically feel back to my old self again.  Kind of in charge and eager to get back to the business of getting things organized and done.  Today's few hours spent in our spare room gave me a sense of accomplishment and boosted my morale.  One step at a time.......

 THESE HORSES HAVE THEIR RAINCOATS ON

Al's Music Box:)) Lonely People is a song written by the husband-and-wife team of Dan Peek and Catherine Peek and recorded by America.  "Lonely People" was not automatically earmarked for the Holiday album: Dan Peek unsuccessfully submitted a demo of the song for John Sebastian (Lovin Spoonful) to consider recording.  "Lonely People" was written as an optimistic response to the Beatles song "Eleanor Rigby". Dan Peek considered "Eleanor Rigby" an "overwhelming" "picture...of the masses of lost humanity, drowning in grey oblivion" and would recall being "lacerated" on first hearing the lyrics of its chorus which run "All the lonely people: where do they all come from?...where do they all belong?". "Lonely People" was written within a few weeks of Dan Peek's 1973 marriage to Catherine Maberry-Peek: "I always felt like a melancholy, lonely person. And now [upon getting married] I felt like I’d won." The lyrics of "Lonely People" advise "all the lonely people": "Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup", a metaphor which Dan Peek thus explains: "It's possible to drink from another's well of experience...and be refreshed."  Record World described it as being "about solitude and salvation."

GROANER'S CORNER:(( It seems a farm boy accidentally overturned his wagon load of corn. The farmer who lived nearby heard the noise. "Hey Wilmer!" the farmer yelled. "Forget your troubles. Come in and have a bite with us. Then I'll help you get the wagon up."  "That's mighty nice of you," Wilmer answered. "But I don't think Pa would like me to."  "Aw, come on." the farmer insisted.  "Well okay," the boy finally agreed, and added, "But Pa won't like it."  After a hearty dinner, Wilmer thanked his host. "I feel a lot better now, but I know Pa is going to be real upset."  "Don't be foolish!" the neighbor said with a smile. "By the way, where is your Pa?"  Wilmer replied, "Under the wagon."

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- What does a plumber say in a library?

"Pipe Down!"

- What vegetable do plumbers hate?
Leeks.

- Why was the plumber tired after a day's work?  Because the work had been too draining!

- When the plumber had a near-death experience, he almost saw his entire life flush before his eyes! 

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This young man was elated when he turned eighteen in a state where curfew is 11:00 p.m. for any one under seventeen years of age. He told his Dad how happy he was that now he could stay out until 3:00 a.m. if he wanted.  “Yes you can stay out as late as you want, but the car is under seventeen and it has to be in the garage by eleven,” his father said.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 QUARTZSITE ARIZONA

 HICKIWAN TRAILS IN WHY ARIZONA...WE LOVED BIKING IN THE DESERT

Al's Art Gallery

THERE WAS A SADNESS IN MY THOUGHTS THIS MORNING

 IT WAS SO NICE TO SEE SUNSHINE, GREEN FIELDS, BLUE SKIES, AND RUNNING WATER EARLIER TODAY

Trying to access our online bank account late Friday afternoon I was told by a pop-up screen that I needed to enter a verification code number that was somewhere on my iPhone. With all the stress and tension of late, I  had myself a meltdown which put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day and it only got worse the more I tried to figure it out.  I of course ended up with a locked screen on the iPhone again.  In the end, I was once more dead in the techno water and there was nothing I could do about it until Monday morning when the bank opens.  Whether they can help me with this, I have no idea.  I was so discouraged with everything and yet I didn't know how to give up.  I stuffed the iPhone in a drawer where I couldn't see it and be reminded of it, and now wait for Monday morning.  I am so tired of all this!!  I'm sorry for this not being a brighter paragraph, but it's just where I happen to be right now and I needed to vent my frustration somewhere!!  I so miss the love of my life and my guiding light.

My day began shortly after 5 a.m. With my laptop, I looked at some YouTube stuff, wrote the opening paragraph for the blog, and generally just sat here sometimes nodding off and most times not.  During one of my nodding-off periods, my closed eyelids suddenly lit up with a bright light.  Opening my eyes, I saw right away it was the morning sunrise, and the Sun was actually poking through the pine trees and lighting me up through the living room window.  I was encouraged by that and it wasn't long before I was on my feet getting some breakfast ready for Pheebs.  An hour later we were in the Subaru heading into Bayfield.  And, with Pheebs window down too.  She was loving it.  Of course, I had Subie's heater going but not on high.  I think we were already over 40F with clearing skies and the temps reached 54F later.  A swing down around the harbor netted a few sunny morning pics and oh how nice to see sunlit colors again.  From the harbor, we slipped through Bayfield, topped up Subie's gas tank at the Bayfield Garage, and headed south out of town.

 IT WAS THE BLUE SKY PUTTING THE BLUE COLOR INTO LAKE HURON THIS MORNING

 

 SUNLIGHT BRINGING OUT THE MORNING COLORS

 I WONDER IF THEY WILL EVER GET THIS FISHING BOAT BACK INTO THE WATER

 THE GALS ARE DRINKING THEIR COFFEE OUTSIDE THIS MORNING

Left off the Bluewater highway onto Crystal Springs Road and then a right turn onto the Bronson Line and we were soon cruising through a sun-filled countryside with acres of green fields where most of the last month's heavy snowstorm had already melted off.  My Friday afternoon and evening anger was gone but there was a sadness in my thoughts as I looked at Pheebs and how she is aging faster now.  I so much enjoy having her right beside me loving her car rides with her nose out the window and her ears flapping in the open air. I thought a lot about Kelly as I watched the morning sunshine play its shadows across the open farm fields and woodlots.  So many good times we had especially in those RV traveling years.  Pheebs and I didn't go all the way down the Bronson Line but made a U-Turn back in the direction of Bayfield.  The thought had occurred to me that we might be able to get a bit of a walk-in at the Bayfield Cemetary.

OH NOW I LOVED THE COLOR GREEN AS WE CRUISED THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE

 GUESS I HAD 'GREEN' ON MY MIND

The roads in the cemetery were a little squooshy being a mix of snow, water, and mud.  But, no matter, there were open patches of grass to walk on so that is what we did.  It was about this time that the cloud cover closed in again and we lost the sunshine until later in the day when it returned.  After a bit, we were back to the car and on our way home.  It turned out to be a slow afternoon and I couldn't seem to drum up enough energy or enthusiasm for getting anything done.  But, at least the Sun had come out for a while today and that made it all worthwhile again by dampening my anger and lifting my Spirits.  I knew there would be days like these and I also know that there will be better days ahead.  I just have to be patient with myself and try my best not to let things get me down. I do understand there will be snags in the road and I have to better learn how to deal with those snags when they crop up without getting so upset about it.  

 THE ROAD LEADING INTO THE CEMETARY LOOKED A LITTLE WONKY

 WHEN I SAW PATCHES OF GRASS I KNEW WE WOULD BE ABLE TO GET A WEE WALK IN

 IT DIDN'T TAKE PHEEBS LONG TO TRACK DOWN SOME SMELLS

 THE CEMETARY GROUNDS KEEPER IS GOING TO HAVE A BIG CLEAN-UP JOB IN THE SPRING 

 PHEEBS IS CAREFUL TO STAY OFF THAT ICE

 I AM SO GLAD TO SEE OUR DRIVEWAY FINALLY EMERGING FROM UNDER ALL THAT SNOW AND ICE

Al's Music Box:)) Old Man is a song written and performed by Canadian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Neil Young from his 1972 album Harvest. "Old Man" was released as a single on Reprise Records in the spring of 1972, reaching number 4 in Canada, and number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending June 3.  The song was written for the caretaker of the Northern California Broken Arrow Ranch, which Young purchased for US$350,000 in 1970 (equivalent to US$2,746,015 in 2023). The song compares a young man's life to an old man's and shows that the young man has, to some extent, the same needs as the old one. James Taylor played six-string banjo (tuned like a guitar) and sang on the song, and Linda Ronstadt also contributed vocals.  In the film Heart of Gold, Young introduces the song as follows:  About that time when I wrote ("Heart of Gold"), and I was touring, I had also—just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time—I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today. And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avila and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there's this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, "Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?" And I said, "Well, just lucky, Louis, just real lucky." And he said, "Well, that's the darnedest thing I ever heard." And I wrote this song for him.  He tells a similar story when introducing the song at a February 23, 1971 performance broadcast by the BBC (in which he says that he purchased the ranch from "two lawyers.")

 A FEMALE CARDINAL IN OUR FRONT YARD 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A journalist assigned to the Jerusalem bureau takes an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. Every day when she looks out, she sees an old Jewish man praying vigorously.  So, the journalist goes down and introduces herself to the old man.  She asks, "You come every day to the wall. How long have you done that, and what are you praying for?"  The old man replies, "I have come here to pray every day for 25 years.  In the morning I pray for world peace and then for the brotherhood of man.  I go home, have a cup of tea, and I come back and pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth."  The journalist is amazed.  "How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for these things?" she asks.  The old man looks at her sadly.  "Like I'm talking to a wall."

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- What do you call a bee that lives in America?  A USB.

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I was out last Sunday morning -- I didn't see any signs, nobody to ask, so I lit a cigarette. This woman nearby began shrieking. 'Put it out, please, put it out'. I turned around and saw that she was only three pews away!
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Last year I replaced several windows in my house and they were the expensive double-pane energy efficient kind. But this week I got a call from the contractor complaining that his work has been completed for a whole year and I had yet to pay for them.
Boy oh boy did we go 'round. Just because I'm fair haired lady doesn't mean that I am automatically stupid. So, I proceeded to tell him just what his fast-talking sales guy had told me last year.  He said that in one year the windows would pay for themselves. There was silence on the other end of the line so I just hung up and I haven't heard back. Guess I must have won that silly argument.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 RELAXING IN THE DESERT WE LOVED SO MUCH

 MAKING COOKIES AT HER MOM'S PLACE IN SPENCERPORT NEW YORK

Al's Art Gallery