A MUCH BETTER DAY SO I TURNED ON THE OUTSIDE WATER AGAIN

Sunshine, blue skies, and rising temps, made for a much better day.  I think we hit 41F.  Almost tropical I'd say.  Pheebs and I headed out for a short spin and took a few pics.  Laying in the seat, she never sat up once to look out the window.  Sad.  Home again, and with Lorraine heading back to Stratford for a few days, I had my outside work cut out for me.  Recent winds over the past week had brought down more pine branches so I spent most of my time in the back yard picking up branches and raking up more pine needles.  Another three-wheelbarrow loads to the utility trailer.  Raking in the front yard netted another wheelbarrow load.  I re-installed the pond's water pump and in a brazenly positive and optimistic weather way, I crawled under our front deck and turned the outside water on again.  I'm sure that will of course probably trigger the worst and most lengthiest mid-April deep freeze in over a century.  

Al's Music Box:)) Top Of The World is a 1972 song written and composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis and first recorded by American pop duo the Carpenters. It was a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit for the duo for two consecutive weeks in 1973. It also became Carpenters' second number-one and tenth top-ten single in the Billboard Hot 100. The song was initially intended to just remain an album cut, however, when Lynn Anderson's version, released in mid-1973, was a success, the duo was upset that they hadn’t released their version as a single to begin with. The Carpenters’ version was later released as a single on September 17, 1973. Karen Carpenter re-recorded her lead vocal for the single release as she was not quite satisfied with the original. The new version appeared on the duo’s first compilation album, The Singles: 1969-1973.  Following its single release, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late 1973, becoming the duo's second of three No. 1 singles, following "( They Long to Be") ("Close to You") and preceding "Please Mr. Postman".  In Japan, it was used as the opening theme song for the 1995 Japanese drama Miseinen. In 2003, another drama, Beginner, had it as its ending theme song. It is heard in Shrek Forever After as Shrek enjoys being a "real ogre" and terrifying the villagers, as well as in a prominent scene of the 2012 film Dark Shadows, where a performance by the Carpenters is seen on a television screen. In his Oscars acceptance speech for Best Original Song, Naatu Naatu composer M.M. Keeravani mentioned the Carpenters and briefly interpolated his thanks to the tune of "Top Of The World." Cash Box praised Karen Carpenter's "strong lead vocal" and the pair's vocal harmonies.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Bernard, who is noted for his gracious manners, was awakened one morning at four forty-four AM by his ringing telephone...  "Your dog's barking, and it's keeping me awake," said his angry neighbor.  Bernard thanked the caller politely.  The next morning at precisely four forty four AM Bernard called his neighbor back..."Good morning, Mr. Williams... Just called to say that I don't have a dog."

--------------------------------------

A gentleman entered a busy florist shop that displayed a large sign that read "Say It With Flowers." "Wrap up one rose," he told the florist.  "Only one?" the florist asked.  "Just one," the customer replied. "I'm a man of few words."

-----------------------------------------

Diet rule No1  If nobody sees you eating it, it doesn't contain any calories.

------------------------------------------
A customer walked up to my bank window and asked me to cash a check.  “Of course,” I said. “But I’ll need to see ID.”  She dug through her purse and handed me a snapshot.  “That’s me in the middle,” she said.

------------------------------------

While making his rounds, a doctor points out an X-ray to a group of medical students.
As you can see, he says, the patient limps because his left fibula and tibia are radically arched.  The doctor turns to one of the students and asks, What would you do in a case like this?
Well, â ponders the student, I suppose I'd limp, too.
---------------------------------

Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

 IN DOWNTOWN BAYFIELD

 HEADING OFF TO GODERICH FOR FISH 'N' CHIPS

 AND HERE THEY COME NOW COMPLETE WITH A FURRY LITTLE ESCORT

 IN OUR LAST CLASS C MOTORHOME

Al's Art Gallery

THIS WEATHER IS SO DEPRESSING

 SPOTTED THESE COLD DROOPY DAFFODILS IN BAYFIELD THIS MORNING

A cold gray windy day with a mixture of rain and a few snowflakes.  I couldn't convince Pheebs to come out for a car ride this morning so I went by myself.  Drove into and around Bayfield for a bit and came home again.  This weather is so depressing.  Lorraine and I went to Goderich this afternoon with stops at Food Basics, Bell Telephone, and Walmart.

 THE STEEL SCAFFOLDING IS DOWN IN FRONT OF THE ALBION HOTEL

 A COLD MORNING FOR SIDEWALK COFFEE ON BAYFIELD'S MAIN STREET

Al's Music Box Box:)) 409 is a song written by Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Gary Usher for the American rock and roll band the Beach Boys. The song features Love singing lead vocals. It was originally released as the B-side of the single "Surfin Safari" (1962).  It was later released on their 1962 album Surfin Safari, and appeared again on their 1963 album Little Deuce Coupe.The song is credited for initiating the hot rod music craze of the 1960s.  "409" was inspired by Gary Usher's obsession with hot rod.  Its title refers to an automobile fitted with Chevrolet's 409-cubic-inch-displacement 'big block'V-8 engine. The song's narrator concludes with the description "My four-speed, dual-quad, positraction four-oh-nine." This version of the engine at 409 horsepower, achieving 1 hp per cubic inch – featured twin "D" series Carter AFB (Aluminum Four Barrel) carburetors ("dual-quads"). It was offered in new vehicles, Impala SS ("Super Sport"); Bel Air; Biscayne, and as replacement units in the 1962 model year.  It stayed one week on the Billboard Hot 100, at number 76, in October 1962.

THE REASSEMBLY OF SUMMER'S BOAT DOCKS IS UNDERWAY

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two brunettes and a blonde are driving in the desert when, all of a sudden, their car breaks down.  As none of them have any motoring knowledge, they decide to walk. Each of them decides to take one thing with her.  The first brunette takes some food in case she gets hungry, the second brunette takes some water in case she gets thirsty and the blonde takes a car door.  When questioned about her choice, the blonde replies:  "Well, if I get hot, I can roll down the window!"

----------------------------------

- We all know where the Big Apple is but does anyone know where the ... Minneapolis?

- Sink or swim?  The heck with it, I'm going in the pool. The dishes can wait!

- My friend asked me to name two things that hold water.  "Well, Dam."

- I think it is a good idea to wear two different deodorants, one under each armpit.  But that's just my two scents

- So this kid comes home from school in a panic and says Dad, they are all picking on me…are we pyromaniacs?  The dad looks down sadly and says. We arson.

- A man walks into a piano store and says, "I would like to buy a hairy piano." Perplexed, the sales clerk asked, "Why do you want a hairy piano?!" Nonchalantly, the customer responded, "Well, the last piano store only had Baldwins."

---------------------------------

Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

Al's Art Gallery

I GUESS EVERY DAY CAN'T QUITE BE A GREAT BIG GROOVY ADVENTURE

 A

Al's Music Box:)) One Day Soon

GROANER'S CORNER:(( She greeted her husband and then watched in horror as he sat down to his dinner. To her surprise, the husband really enjoyed his dinner. "Darling, this is the best dinner you have made for me in forty years of marriage. You can make this for me any old day."  Needless to say, every bridge night from then on, the woman made her husband the same dish. She told her bridge cronies about it and they were all horrified.  "You're going to kill him!" they exclaimed.  Two months later, her husband died.  The women were sitting around the table playing bridge when one of the cronies said, "You killed him! We told you that feeding him that cat food every week would do him in! How can you just sit there so calmly and play bridge knowing you murdered your husband?"  The wife stoically replied, "I didn't kill him. He fell off the mantel while he was cleaning himself."

-----------------------------------  

- We all know where the Big Apple is but does anyone know where the ...
Minneapolis?

--------------------------------------------

Two old women were sitting on a bench waiting for their bus. The buses were running late, and a lot of time passed. Finally, one woman turned to the other and said, "You know, I've been sitting here so long, my butt fell asleep!'.
The other woman turned to her and said "I know! I heard it snoring!"  

---------------------------------------
A Manager of a retail clothing store is reviewing a potential employee’s application and notices that the man has never worked in retail before. He says to the man, “For a man with no experience, you are certainly asking for a high wage.”  “Well Sir,” the applicant replies, “the work is so much harder when you don’t know what you’re doing!"
---------------------------------

Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

Al's Art Gallery

TURNS ME INTO A TREMBLING MUMBLEPEG

Woke up to a snowy world this morning.  Not a happy camper!!  Pheebs and I didn't make it out for a car ride.  Kind of a lost day of sorts but it ended up having it's own share of stress waiting for me.  

 THIS IS WHAT WE WOKE UP TO THIS MORNING

 I FEEL SO SORRY FOR THIS POOR LITTLE SINGLE CROCUS FLOWER

With me in a dither, Lorraine (Woodsy) and I slipped up to Goderich with my Lenovo laptop in hand this morning.  I had upgraded it from Windows 10 to Windows 11 a month or so ago and have had some frustrating issues with it ever since.  Stopped at the ContinuIT computer place and a young lady there was able to quickly (but not effortlessly) track down the problems and fix them right there at the counter.  No charge:))  I thought that Continu-IT was very decent for doing that.  With a McDonalds coffee in hand and a quick stop at Dollorama, we were soon back to Bayfield......  So, with one dilemma solved, I soon found myself right smack dab into another one with Bell Telephone.  And that problem had us back to Goderich again late in the afternoon.  If I thought I had myself in a dither over my laptop computer problem, I hadn't met my afternoon Bell Telephone problem yet.  My bill had soared dramatically in the past couple of months with another four hundred dollar bill pending.  With Lorraine's help, it was back to Goderich with a stop at my bank for a print-out of my chequing account from November 1st up to now.  With that in hand, it was over to the Bell Telephone store to try and sort things out.  And, thanks to a nice lady there, we did.  It seems when we transferred all of the telephone stuff from Kelly's name to mine back in January, our long-distance USA plan fell off somewhere.  Nobody mentioned to me that that plan was no longer in effect and I incurred a number of long-distance phone calls to my Aunt Jean in Florida.  Jamie, the nice lady at the Bell store put me in touch with Bell Telephones head office and thanks to another nice lady at that end, a total of $335.00 in long-distance fees were lifted.  I never thought I'd ever say this but.....Thanks, Bell Telephone:))  Following that, we were back to Bayfield and I have Lorraine to thank for helping me through my muddlement today.  I'm not the most pleasant person to be around when things like this occur.  Some forms of stress I handle well and some I do not. Computers not working right sets me on fire every time now, and anything to do with paperwork, banking, numbers, electronics, and newer technology, etc. turns me into a trembling Mumblepeg.  I seem to get so confused by a lot of stuff these days:((   

I FORGOT TO BRING OUR FROG POND PUMP IN OVERNIGHT AND IN THE-FREEZING TEMPS FORMED SOME WATERFALL ICE CREATIONS THIS MORNING

Al's Music Box:)) Take It To The Limit is a song by the Eagles from their fourth album One of These Nights from which it was issued as the last third single on November 15, 1975. It reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was also Eagles' greatest success to that point in the United Kingdom, going to No. 12 on the charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 25 song for 1976.  The song, written by Eagles members Randy Meisner, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey began as a solo composition by Meisner, who sang lead on it. As it remained unfinished when the time came for the One of These Nights album to be recorded, Henley and Frey assisted Meisner in completing it. Meisner's performance of the song was popular with the audience in Eagles concerts, but disputes over his reluctance to perform it would also directly lead to Meisner's departure from the band.  

EVEN MY POOR LITTLE DUCKY GUYS GOT FROZEN UP IN THE POND'S SURFACE ICE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( It was autumn, and the Indians on the remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an Indian Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets, and when he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the hell the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side,he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared.  But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea.He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked,  "Is the coming winter going to be cold?"  "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed," the Meteorologist at the weather service responded.  So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.  One week later he called the National Weather Service again."Is it going to be a very cold winter?" he asked.  "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied,"it's going to be a very cold winter."  The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.  Two weeks later he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It looks like it's going to be one of the coldest winters ever."  "How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.  The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy".

---------------------------------

Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly's Corner

Al's Art Gallery