Sunday, August 15, 2010

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

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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.

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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.

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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!!

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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.

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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.

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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.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

KINDA TURNED OUT TO BE A DO & DOZE DAY

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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!!

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<< 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.

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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!!

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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:))

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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.

Friday, August 13, 2010

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

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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. 

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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:))

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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. 

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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!!

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

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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!!!! 

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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.

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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:))

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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:))

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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!!

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

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.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

BACK IN THE GROOVE:))

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A GATHERING OF FRIEND'S AT GRAND BEND'S NEW BEACH GAZEBO

All of today's photos where taken Tuesday night in the small Lake Huron town of Grand Bend about 25 minutes south of Bayfield, Ontario. (more pics in Friday's blog)

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BUOY MARKERS GUIDE BOATERS IN & OUT THE RIVER CHANNEL

It was nearly 9 o'clock when I got home Wednesday night after a long hot & miserably humid 10 & a half hour day.  Seven of those hours were basically spent in the mobility van waiting for a person I had transported to a large downtown city hospital.  The humidity was atrocious again & aside from a brief stint at McDonald's, Tim Horton's, & the Hospital Lobby, most of my time was spent in the steam bath van.  A/C is not at it's best with just an occasional idling engine.

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MANY GENERATIONS OF COUPLES HAVE STROLLED GRAND BEND'S PIER

By the time I got to the computer last night I was whipped.  Figured I would just write a short blurb & throw in a couple of Tuesday night's pics.  This is where the straw broke the Camel's back!!!!  For the second time in a week the camera, the computer, & the Picasa photo program would not work together, leaving me sitting here with steam coming out my ears.  I was not in any frame of mind to do battle with all that nonsense so in quick frustration I just typed 'Nothing' in Live Writer & hit the publish button.  With that I went & flopped into my recliner in front of the mindless television, fell asleep & woke up at 5 this morning.......'still out of sorts!!'  Didn't even go near the computer until nearly noon after doing a morning mobility van run in Goderich.  Tried two camera downloads again & everything worked perfectly so I have no idea where the problem is occasionally occurring between the cams, the computer & the Picasa program.

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A LIVELY GROUP AT THE END OF THE PIER

Tuesday night I was just feeling the need to do something different after supper instead of the blog so jumped in the Jeep & drove down to Grand Bend & caught the setting sun on Grand Bend's beach.  I definitely think I need more beach time & less blog time.

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GRAND BEND HAS DONE A MARVELOUS JOB REBUILDING THEIR BEACH AREA

Two additional drivers off Friday so I have an early morning start with a very busy day on the road tomorrow.  Am thinking It may well turn into another 10 hour stretch but that's OK, I don't mind that.  Sooner be challenged with a busy day than sitting around on my can doing nothing for hours on end.  Only down side of course is this relentless hot, humid & sticky weather.  Come on Autumn:)))))

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SOFT LIGHTING ALONG THE BOARDWALK

Well, at least there was one positive side to my blog Wednesday.  It unintentionally turned out to be my shortest blog ever & I'm sure that probably made some folks very happy out there.  Can't say I don't try hard to keep on the good side of my fellow bloggers from time to time y'know:))

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GRAND BEND'S RIVERSIDE MARINA

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk,
but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

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

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

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

It's not the concept of God I have a problem with.......it's his fan club!!

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.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

NOTHING

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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

CANADA'S BASEBALL HALL OF FAME

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CANADA'S BASEBALL HALL OF FAME < click

Drove slowly through another sure sign of the soon to be changing seasons this morning.  A heavy fog blanketed the roads in our area cutting visibility.   I hadn't anticipated the fog so I was behind a bit for my first early morning pick up.  Would liked to have stopped for some beautiful photos but it just wasn't possible.  By 10 a.m. the sun had burnt off the fog & we were under the anvil of another crushing hot & humid day.  By noon we had a real cooker going on.  Not nice & I was glad to be home by 2 o'clock leisurely stretched out in my recliner with a soft fan blowing cooling air conditioned breezes over me.  However, Wednesday will be a whole different story:((

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Canada's Baseball Hall of Fame is located in St Marys, Ontario.  While in St. Marys this past Saturday I took a drive over there to take a few photos.  Even though we had lived in the area for 7 years I had never been to the grounds before. (I'm just not a sports fan)  Strangely enough though I was involved in an indirect way with Opening Day of the Hall nearly 10 years ago.  I was a part time driver for the St Mary's Mobility Bus at the time & on opening day I was assigned to transport visitors back & forth to the site from a lower parking lot a fair distance away.  A coincidental thing happened that day which involved another well known RV'er at the time.  Some of you may know, heard of or read some of Peggy & John McDonald's books.  They are a Canadian couple, long time retired from the military & long time full timers.   RV LIVING NET   They often travel the RV circuits & attend rallies all over North America with Peggy doing seminars on the various aspects of the RV lifestyle. We had briefly met Peggy at one of her seminars in London Ontario at an RV show many years ago but had never met John.  On opening day of Canada's Baseball Hall of Fame I was sitting in the mobility bus between passenger runs reading my copy of  the RV EXPLORERS CLUB GAZETTE (we were club members at the time)  Peggy writes informative & educational articles for that magazine.  A couple of fellows came aboard the bus & one of them noticed the magazine I was reading & introduced himself as John McDonald.  I recognized him right away from the photos on their site.  You will find a lot of helpful info on their website & they do go out of their way to help people with any & all RV questions.

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A BENCH OVERLOOKS THE LARGEST OF 3 PLAYING FIELDS

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THEY HAVE 3 LARGE BASEBALL DIAMONDS HERE.....(There was a whole gaggle of kids in the Hall of Fame so I didn't attempt to go in)

I have often heard of RV'ers having to install air bags on their rigs because of weight problems.  We have never had to do that but K & D IN THE RV just had their # 2 Son (known as the mechanic) do that for them.  If your wondering what an air bag looks like just wander on over to their site & have a look at the professional installation.

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RUNNING LOW ON PICS SO DECIDED TO THROW AN ARMY TANK IN HERE....(Goderich Museum)

Came across another solo RVing blogger person living life on the open road & blogging about her experiences & travels.    Say hello to Diana at LIFE ON THE ROAD.   A full timing 10 year veteran Boon Docker with solar panels, satellite TV, cell phone & an internet card. She is on the move........

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<<< WINDMILLS INSIDE THE GODERICH MUSEUM

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

GROANER'S CORNER  A Farm Kid Joins The Army & writes a first letter home......

Dear Ma and Pa,

I am well.. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Army beats working for old man  Minch  by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.

Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much.

We go on 'route marches,' which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A 'route march' is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.

The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why.. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges They come in boxes..

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake . I only beat him once.. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6' and 130 pounds and he's 6'8' and near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Alice

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

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

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

It's not the concept of God I have a problem with.......it's his fan club!!

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.

Monday, August 09, 2010

OK.....JUST A FEW LAST THOUGHTS ON LIVE WRITER & WINDOWS 7

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HAD TAKEN SOME CANDID PHOTOS OF THIS (ASSUMED) FAMILY ON SATURDAY SO WILL INCLUDE THE OTHER PICS AS WELL BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WAS A NICE SETTING.  (Plus I slipped them a Bayfield Bunch card before departing:))   DSC_0024-1 DSC_0023-1   DSC_0026-1 

It was a muggy overcast morning, but better than the oppressive heat & humidity of last week.  I noticed the sun was barely over the horizon this morning when I made my way to Goderich.  That tells me the days are getting shorter & my early morning travels will slowly become darker over the next couple weeks.

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BIG LOAD OF STRAW BALES

Today's photos are a mish mosh of pics I took this past Saturday in & around St Marys.  Kelly & I used to drive school bus in St Marys so I stopped by the Murphy bus yard & took a couple pics.  Kelly drove one of the larger buses for a bit & when I came on board there they teamed us on a smaller mobility bus for challenged kids.  I drove the bus & Kelly was the aide.  We did that for a couple years along with some other jobs we had going on at the same time before moving to Bayfield on Halloween Night of 2002.

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THE MURPHY SCHOOL BUS YARD IN ST MARYS, ONTARIO

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ONE OF THOSE FIRST 5 CLOSE BUSES IN THE FOREGROUND MAY HAVE BEEN OUR OLD BUS BECAUSE THIS IS WHERE WE PARKED

I debated with myself whether to say any more about my thoughts on the new version of Live Writer.  I really don't need any more 'personal' attacks but, because I think highly of Live Writer I figured why not comment about a program I really like.  I've been using LW for over a year now & I liked it right from the start.  I can scoot around in it like a water spider on steroids.  It has been easy for me to understand & navigate around in.  It still is, & I thoroughly enjoy the program itself.  No complaints there at all.  Great well thought out piece of software, especially in the easily readable & navigable tools department.  But.........Microsoft released a new version of Live Writer a short while back.   I hear they have added some groovy new features but I haven't been able to get that far yet.  This is not a rant but I do have a few very simple questions that maybe the great powers at Microsoft could answer for me. 

!cid_003D6CD38BEE47DFA9A2B874B6E9277C@jim5f28e50b92e

MAYBE MICROSOFT COULD FOLLOW THE LEAD OF THIS AIRLINE COMPANY & MAKE THINGS EASILY READABLE FOR EVERYBODY

With great anticipation I downloaded the new LW a couple weeks ago but was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the new design layout!!   This is where my logical & always inquisitive mind kicked into gear. 

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THIS (MALLARD?) DUCK WAS ENJOYING ITSELF AT THE BASE OF A SMALL WATERFALL

I need someone to explain to me why the designers at Microsoft saw fit to take a perfectly well laid out program & shrunk all the printing, icons & graphics that had been in the easily readable right hand column & crammed them into a narrow tool bar across the top of the program.  I'm not exaggerating here when I say that the uppermost left hand icons are all but invisible as they blend into the background.  The icons up there are about the size of wristwatch number.  And no, I am not blind as a bat!!  I would really like a reasonable, responsible & logical answer as to why the designers did this.  It's not like space is at a premium.  Not at all.  The original Live Writer took full advantage of the abundance of monitor space & had a nicely laid out program.  They made good use of the whole computer screen.  Then why did they shrink everything into a small area????  Is it the 'cool' thing to do nowadays??  I would hope the Microsoft folks would know better than to fall into that.  I sure hope Google doesn't follow suit & mess up their very user friendly Picasa program the same way!!

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ST MARY'S 'SUNSET DINER'....I HAVE FATTENED MYSELF UP WELL HERE OVER THE YEARS WITH MANY B&E BREAKFASTS

So there it is.....I'm not ranting & I'm not condemning, I'm just asking a few basic simple questions in hope that someone out there can help me see the light here.  I  would appreciate some very logical answers for a change.  Until I am enlightened as to the error of my LW perceptions, I will stick to the original Live Writer format & be totally happy in doing so.  I will patiently wait for Microsoft's 'next' new LW version & hopefully by that time more common sense heads will have prevailed on their design team & they will come up with something genuinely user friendly again.  So, sock it to me Microsoft, show me what I don't understand & please turn on a light for me here.......please!!

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MIRROR IMAGE......OR 2 YELLOW TRUCKS COINCIDENTALLY PARKED BACK TO BACK?

And a quick word about Windows 7.  I don't doubt that this is also a fine program.  The techno heads have said it is & who am I to argue with that.  I don't have those kinds of smarts so I take their word for it & believe they are right.  I transitioned from Win 95 to Win 98 with little difficulty.  The jump from there to XP was relatively painless as well with each platform being better than the one before.  There was a common factor between those 3 platforms that made the transition easier because they all had relative similarities.  But, I was stymied right off the bat by Win 7 for the exact same reasons I was stymied by Live Writer.  It is the same company designing these two programs & I suspect maybe some of the same design team people.  Keeping with the 'cool' theme they reduced the size of the printing, icons, & graphics once again making it harder to read, navigate & understand.  No problem if your a Geeker but there are a lot of us folks out here who are not.  I am a very visual person & am more interested in the ease of navigation than I am in how many Gigglebytes, Terrabytes or Alligatorbytes a computer has.

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KIND OF A PRIMPING & PREENING DAY

Eventually I will have to 'get on' with Win 7 & Live Writer & will probably reach a point some day where I will look back to this email & say, "hey, what was all the ruckus about."  That's why I wanted to write this now.....as a newer person looking at these programs with new eyes, thoughts & opinions.  Looking at things from a technically challenged seasoned Newbie standpoint sometimes has the advantage of seeing things from a perspective the techno heads have long ago overlooked, overrun & forgotten:))

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WHO SAID PEOPLE CAN'T WALK ON WATER!!

I have a suggestion for you Microsoft.......hire me, & I'll come down there to la la land & offer my input, advice, & suggestions as to how you can design a user friendly interface....or happyface, or whatever kind of face it is you people seem to be having so much difficulty designing lately. Or, maybe I am totally barking up the wrong tree altogether here.  Maybe I should have taken the advice of the wise one's years ago & simplified my life with..... a Mac:))   D'ya think!!

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GROANER'S CORNER:(( 

Leroy and L'Quiesha go to a revival and listen to the preacher. After awhile the preacher asks anyone with needs to be prayed over to come forward to the front at the altar. Leroy gets in line, and when it's his turn, the preacher asks: "Leroy, what do you want me to pray about for you." Leroy replies: "Preacher, I needs you to pray for my hearing." The preacher puts one finger in Leroy's ear, and he places the other hand on top of Leroy's head and prays and prays and prays, he prays a blue streak for Leroy. After a few minutes, the preacher removes his hands, stands back and asks, "Leroy, how is your hearing now?" Leroy says, "I don't know, Reverend, it ain't till next Wednesday!"

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