THIS NASTY COLD BUG HAS REALLY GOT A HOLD OF ME:((

Found some mediocre photos in my Canon Camera I forgot I had so will include them because I just don't have any other pics for tonight's post plus I have to leave in a few minutes on my second mobility van run of the day.  Pics were taken on a slightly foggy morning this past week on my way to Goderich.

I had really been hoping to start the blog off today by saying I was on the mend & feeling much better since my last post.  Unfortunately that is not the case.  Whatever nasty bug has got a hold of me isn't letting go & I felt worse today than yesterday.  Had a totally sleepless night so all day I have been in a Zombie like state.  Throat is still very sore and there seems to be more congestion in the lungs.  It's a tough little bug that has got a hold of me for sure.

With some of the other driver's off on holidays & a few more off for the weekend I knew there would be no getting a replacement for me today so I went ahead with my 2 mobility van runs.  Luckily I was able to return home between pick-up's & drop offs for some power naps in my recliner.  That was a big help.  I really have my fingers crossed that they can find someone to replace me for Monday but so far it is not looking to encouraging.  Our humidity is just brutal!!

A big thanks to RICK  for suggesting a way to retrieve my lost Follower's List.  I thought all 151 of those people on that list were lost forever.  I followed Rick's simple directions & 'walla' there was my Followers gadget back in place on the right hand side of my blog.  By the way Rick, I lost the small camera case for my Canon point & shoot a few days ago.....any suggestions how I can get that back:))

Have been meaning to thank all the folks who sent in comments & emails regarding our Jeep purchase about a month & a half ago.  I'm sure glad we listened to all you folks & held out for a 6 cylinder motor.  I can tell after having driven the Jeep for about 6 weeks now that it was a right decision.  And I'm glad we decided to put the hard top on instead of the soft top.  Just a whole lot less aggravating for AL.

A PRACTICING PIPE BAND ALMOST HAD ME BLOCKED IN ONE NIGHT LAST WEEK

Can't believe how fast this summer as sped by.  Here it is the middle of August already & if everything goes according to plan we'll be on the road again in just a couple short months.  No definite plans on departure dates or routes of travel yet.  We are watching the condition of Kelly's Dad's health very closely right now because that is going to be the deciding factor in our travel plans.  There has been some talk about me & the doggy guys heading straight for the ranch on our own & Kelly flying down later to join us but I'm not too keen on that plan.  That's a little bit like trying to fly a big clumsy plane without a trusty co-pilot.  Oh, I could handle the flying part OK but sure would be in trouble without my trusty navigator, system specialist, computer technician, gas pump referee, food organizer, problem solver, chief mechanic & all round super great traveling companion.  Just wouldn't be the same.  I've always thought traveling was best done with two people. The old saying, 'two heads are better than one' certainly applies to RVing.  There seems to be a lot more decision making while traveling & some of that has to be done very quickly.  It's always best to have that 'second opinion' close by.  Seems the older some of us guys get, the more 'back-up we need!!'  RVing is one of those things that just lends itself perfectly to two people.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UN-AWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a work in progress)

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

KINDA TURNED OUT TO BE A DO & DOZE DAY

OUR FRONT YARD

Well, today I was able to do a little & doze a lot.  It was a zero energy day & aside from taking some cottage interior photos for Deer Park Lodge's website I spent most of my day in various states of doze not too far from my trusty recliner.  A sore throat & lung congestion were my biggest bugaboos all day & my voice is still just a forced & broken scratchy whisper.  At least no headache & no sick feelings.  My gallant Soy Shake army is doing pitched battle with the nasty virus invaders & although the nasty guys managed to gain a surprisingly quick foot hold this time, my Soy Shake troops have rallied to the cause & will shortly trounce the invaders right out of my body.  In the meantime I am one big tired battleground!!  Sat down to look at our local Wal-Mart Flyer at 12:15 this afternoon & woke up at 2:45.  I was still on the first page!!

<< IT ISN'T EVERYONE WHO GETS PERSONALIZED COFFEE SENT TO THEM, BUT GAIL DOES.  AND WHO IS GAIL?....WHY IT'S KELLY OF COURSE:))  GAIL IS HER REAL NAME.

Our blog's 'Search' gadget quit working last week & despite repeated re-installations if just wouldn't take.  Tried it again this morning & it seems to be working again.  At the same time I was working on that 'search' problem a few days ago I decided to make some changes to the blog's appearance.    Did I think of the new border colors for the blog?  Nope I didn't, but when I came across what I think is a great looking blog I knew I had to scurry back to my own blog & make a few cosmetic changes.  Check out, TWO TO TRAVEL'S PHAETON JOURNEYS I'm not exactly sure where these folks are but they have some nice pics of a place called, Endless Caverns on their July18th post.

PART OF GRAND BEND'S BOARDWALK

While changing the border colors I took a couple of things off the side bar & moved some of the programs around.   This morning I alarmingly noticed our 'Blog Followers' program was gone!!!!!  I do not recall removing that & am wondering what happened.  It would not remove itself so I must have accidentally done something.  I do remember moving it to a different location on the side bar though.  It had 151 Followers on it:((  No point in starting another one from scratch.  It just makes me shake my head & wonder how I could have done that!!  One consolation though, I did attain the first of my 3 blogging goals by reaching the 150 Followers mark & I am only a couple days away from goal number 2 which is to reach 150,000 Sitemeter hits on the blog.  With a bit of luck I hope to reach my 3rd & final blogging goal sometime in late November with a total of 1,000 blog posts.  Now, that is a lot of blabbering!!

With some of the blog talk going around lately I was reminded of something I wrote at the end of last September.  It went like this.......Went to the bookshelf & dusted off one of my good old AA books this afternoon, sat down at my keyboard & opened the pages.  There before me was AA's official Twelve Steps To Recovery.   Thought about it for a few minutes then added, altered,  and eliminated a few words here & there & came up with.............

'BLOGGER'S ANONYMOUS'

Step One:  "We admitted we were powerless over blogging - that our lives had become unmanageable."

Step Two:  "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to our lawnmowers."

Step Three:  "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Spouses as we understand them."

Step Four:  "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our thought patterns & blog archives."

Step Five:   "Admitted to our Spouses, to ourselves, & to another blogger person the exact nature of our blogging woes."

Step Six:  "Were entirely ready to have our Spouse remove all nasty posts from our blogs."

Step Seven:  "Humbly asked Her/Him to remove our shortcomings, our spell checkers, & our publish buttons"

Step Eight:  "Made a list of all fellow bloggers we had commented to, and became willing to make amends to them all."

Step Nine:  "Made direct amends to such bloggers wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them, their rants, or their blusterings."

Step Ten:  "Continued to take personal writing inventories and when we were wrong promptly didn't blog about it."

Step Eleven:  "Sought through humbleness and fear to improve our conscious contact with our Spouse as we understood Her/Him, begging only for knowledge of Her/His will for us and maybe our keyboards back to carry that out."

Step Twelve:  "Having had a blogger's awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to all fellow bloggers, and to practice these principles in all our restructured blogging affairs."    10-4!!

Hi, my name is AL & I am a Blogger:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( 

The doctor tells his patient: "Well I have good news and bad news... "The patient says, "Lay it on me Doc. What's the bad news?"  "You have Alzheimer's disease."  "Good heavens! What's the good news?"  "You can go home and forget about it!"

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UN-AWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a work in progress)

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

A LONG 12 HOUR WORKING DAY & I HAVE LOST MY VOICE:((

SUNSET ON GRAND BEND'S PIER

It's 3:15 a.m. Friday morning & of course I am wide awake sitting in my recliner.  The patio door beside me is open with a slight wisp of cooler air bringing in the sounds of nearby crickets.  I love the sound of crickets.  A great horned owl can be heard in the pine forest.  I am saddened now by the Owl's sound.  I am reminded of the little Horned Owl we tried so hard to save a couple of months ago.  Night has always been my favorite time & I now feel a kinship with the Owl. 

LOOKING NORTHWARD ALONG THE LAKE HURON SHORELINE  (When Kelly & I first met back in 1993, this quiet & not well known beach is one of the first places I took my little sweety:))

GRASS GROWING ALONG GRAND BEND'S BEACH BOARDWALK

The thought occurred to me sitting here that maybe I should start the blog early today just in case.  I am aware of a feeling in my chest that I have not had for many, many, years & I think the last time I felt this feeling in my lungs it was referred to as the opening round of a chest cold.  I have been doing something these last bunch of days in this humidity that I now seem to recall is a 'no-no!!'  I have had the A/C vents in the mobility van blowing directly on me for hours at a time. 

SUNSET REFLECTIONS

Figured I'd better start the blog early just in case I end up at the end of this day in a somewhat altered physical state.  I am not prone to illness but then again......I'm not exactly 18 anymore either.  Geeeezzzz, when did that change!!

IN THIS PHOTO YOU CAN SEE THE PIER & LIGHTHOUSE IN THE BACKGROUND (and some sailboats too)

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments since my brief techno-meltdown at the computer keyboard Wednesday night.  That one word blog seems to have garnered more of a response than my long drawn out posts generally do so I guess that should really tell me something.  Mr. Blabberfingers here needs to pay much good attention to this!!!! 

I am now nearly 3 days behind in my blog readings & of course the guilt feelings are really having a field day with my emotions about that.  It just seems there are so many blogs out there to read & the numbers are increasing daily.  I have got myself into a position now where trying to keep up with them all is becoming a bit of a time problem for me.  And of course I always feel bad for not dropping comments on all the blogs too.  I probably need a bunch of non working, cold, wet, rainy days to get myself back up to speed again.

Well, it's nearly 5 a.m. so that means it's shower & coffee time for another beginning to a new day.  Pip Pip.......here we go:))

Well, it is now 7:30 Friday night & it is a good thing I started this blog off in the wee hours of this morning.  Had myself a very busy 12 hour day & whatever virus or cold bug I have in my chest at the moment has seen fit to remove my voice.  Whether it's from the vans A/C or a bug I've picked up in one of the nursing homes I don't know.  When I try to talk, I squeak!!  Needless to say, I am feeling like an old bag of dirt so I'm just going to add a few pics & call it a day.  Luckily I don't have to work tomorrow but there are runs lined up for me Sunday & Monday.   Maybe tomorrow I will just keep a low profile around the house, stay out of the heat & humidity & get caught up on the latest buzz out here in blog land.  And oh yes, I hear there has been some more buzz alright:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  John Wayne once said, "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid."  Ya know what.....I can somehow identify with that one sometimes!!

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UN-AWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a project I will likely never finish)

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.