Good morning to all my faithful readers, that means all 5 of you, on this rather frosty, snowy, windy, snowy, cold, snowy winter morning and of course this is my first ‘Musings’ of December which of course is the last month of the year and the last of other things as well which you probably guessed from my title this week.  Last week was one of those weeks.  I get those kind of weeks sometimes.  I often get one of those days but now one of those weeks is getting to be quite regular as well which is not really an enjoyable thought but nonetheless it does happen which is why there was no ‘Musings’ last week and I don’t know if I will even refer to them as ‘Musings’ anymore which will make it another one of those last things which I referred to and… Sigh. I think I must be getting old.  Or something.  First I lost my address.  Or I should say the post office lost my address and started sending my mail back to the sender.  Not very nice.  Sigh.  But after numerous phone calls and talking to more than one person on the matter it seems to be fixed now.  They found my address again.  My mail is arriving on time again.  Then the town by law officer shows up.  Seems my neighbor doesn’t like the fact I am feeding birds.  Amazing.  There is a law against feeding birds?  No.  But there is a bylaw stating that a bird feeder must be 10 feet off the ground.  Or deck, in my case.  How am I supposed to put food on such a feeder?  A ladder.  A ladder?  Outside?  In the winter?  So it was either comply with the bylaw or stop feeding birds.  Amazing.  There are bird feeders all over town that are not 10 feet high.  Apparently though only enforce the bylaw if someone complains.  Amazing.  That sounds rather discriminatory to me.  So down came the bird feeder.  However, I don’t like to give up so easily.  So I tried building a feeder that would comply.  However, getting food on the feeder was just too much of a problem, plus, of course clearing snow off the feeder whenever it snows.  Which has been quite often so far this winter. So I have decided to give up. I have been feeding birds since 1974.  The end of an era.  Terrible thought.  Right now there are dozens of birds sitting outside my window looking for food.  Almost worth the risk of going to jail.  Which is where I would end up.  Sigh.  Imagine, going to jail for feeding the birds.  This is Canada.  I won’t bother mentioning where I live, since some of you already know I live in Kenora.  Speaking of snow.  We had a storm yesterday and overnight.  It snowed.  Quite a bit.  Not sure how much.  At least a foot or more.  And it was windy, still is windy.  I had some trouble opening my door this morning since the snow had drifted in quite solidly against the door and right across the deck.  So there was nowhere to push the snow to open the door.  Sigh.  I did get out.  Barely.  Since it is my only door I wanted to get it open as quickly as possible.  I don’t like having my only exit blocked.  Kind of makes me nervous.  Especially if something happens and I need to leave in a hurry.  The thought of jumping out a window is not really a fun idea.  Although with all this new snow it would be a softer landing.  I still prefer the door.  Speaking of country.  Some have asked why I call this Steve’s Country Musings when I don’t usually talk much about country things. Mainly because I like country things, country living (even though I can no longer live in the country due to my health), country furniture, country collecting, country pictures.  Country to me is much better than city.  Or a town for that matter.  This is a town that calls itself a city.  A very small city.  But large enough to be called a city amazingly.  And I do talk about country things sometimes.  Like the exploits with my dad.  Definitely country.  However, that might be one of the changes coming up.  There are changes coming.  Though some things won’t.  After all, where else can you find something so wacky as this?  And in the winter this is just the kind of thing you need!  Wheehee!  Or something.  I think CABIN FEVER has taken hold already.  And winter has only been here for 5 weeks so far.  5 WEEKS!  It’s enough to make a person jump up and down, pull their hair, bang their head against the wall, roll on the floor (what do you expect after banging your head against the wall?), and, and…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s okay.  I’m fine.  I’m calm.  Speaking of technology.  That is definitely not country.  But it is something.  Now if it would just work properly.  Or at least work.  Sigh.  I think it must be me.  No one else has the problems with technology that I have with technology and that’s because technology does not like me!!  And it knows when it’s me.  It must.  Why else would all these weird things happen to me and no one else?  Why?  Sigh.  I’m not going there today.  It’s cold.  And I need to shovel snow.  Even though my doctor told me not too.  That one made me laugh.  If I’m not going to shovel snow then I need to live in Hawaii.  Which is a very nice thought.  Sigh.  So much for today.  Back outside, then back inside to enjoy a nice cup of hot COFFEE!! The only good thing about this kind of weather.  Sigh.  I hope you can all enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve. And Muffin who is curled up in her chair which is what I should be doing.  Sigh.  Muffin doesn’t like winter any more than I do.  So we eat, sleep and drink COFFEE!

Good morning everyone on this beautiful, sunny and somewhat mild morning as we close in on the end of the month of November.  Okay.  It’s not exactly sunny.  Most would call it cloudy.  But it is sunny above the clouds and I imagine it is quite brilliant and bright in that sun.  We just can’t see it at the moment.  But it’s still there.  Sometimes we need to look past the clouds in life and realize the sun is still shining brightly.  And yes, it is not exactly mild either.  Actually it is cold.  But not as cold as it could be therefore making it somewhat mild in comparison.  Just depends on how we look at things sometimes.  And even though it is cloudy and cold, a day can still be beautiful, especially when I am inside with a nice cup of hot COFFEE!  And, of course, wrapped in a warm blanket with Muffin curled up on my lap purring.  An absolutely beautiful morning.   Just depends on how we look at things.  Wheehee!  Speaking of phones.  They are a good way to make a day not quite so beautiful.  Such as lately.  I have been getting many, numerous, annoying phone calls from various telemarketers either trying to sell something or wanting info for some survey which is going to end up asking for money undoubtedly and then the latest one was a call supposedly from the CRA saying this was the second call and in reality it was the first call and it wasn’t even a real person calling it was some machine talking and I do not talk to machines when they call me so ‘Go AWAY’ and I hung up.  Sigh.  What a way to start the day.  Always happens when Christmas is getting close.  It is winter.  There is snow.  And ice.  And snow.  And cold.  And more ice.  And more snow.  And more phone calls.  Even while I write.  Sigh.  The rock doves are hungry this morning, all 60+ of them.  When I go out with the food there is a sudden flurry of wings and feathers all around me as they land on the feeders waiting for me to put the food out.  One of these days they will likely start landing on me.  They certainly seem to get quite excited.  And they will talk to me as well.  I know what you are thinking.  That’s not nice.  Sigh.  I have named a few that I can identify.  Like Ruffles, and Freckles, Albert and Snowball, and Stretch.  The other day they were piled three high on the feeder.  It was hard to believe.  One landed on top of another, which is not unusual, that feeder gets crowded, but then another landed on that one, and tried to bend over to get at the seeds.  Didn’t work too well and he fell off, landing on a couple of others where he stayed and managed to reach the seeds from there.  None of this bothered the ones on the bottom, they just kept on eating.  That’s the main thing with those birds.  Eat as fast as possible to get as much as possible.  Quite amazing to watch them really.  Speaking of shopping.  Stores are getting a bit busier.  Which makes shopping a bit more challenging.  At least for me.  I’m trying to reach something on the top shelf, which of course, I can’t reach so I use my cane which comes in quite handy at certain times like that, but while I am stretched someone comes around the corner of the aisle and rams my cart which in turn rams my side almost knocking me off my feet and the item I was after falls but manages to land in my cart.  So it worked out not too bad except my back is now more sore than before. And, the person who did this just kept on going like nothing happened.  Sigh.  Then going to the checkout, I was almost there in line and a lady came racing past me and got ahead of me. If I hadn’t stopped I would have hit her.  It was tempting.  Sigh.  Speaking of bird seed.  I got a cup ready to take out then put my boots on and grabbed the cup…only I missed slightly and knocked the cup over.  All over.  It is amazing how far those little round seeds can roll.  All over.  It took me a long time to get them all cleaned up.  I am sure there is still a lot under the bed.  I will have to use the vacuum for those.  Wasting all those seeds.  Sigh. People say the name of my site is wrong since I don’t talk about ‘country’ things.  Actually I do.  Just not all the time.  After all, I live in town, which is technically called a city, though it is a rather small city, so it’s more like a town that’s called a city but it reality it’s a town.  Or something.  So, because I live in town, I can’t always talk about the country.  Though I suppose I could talk about ‘country’ things more often.  Hmm, changes are coming, probably in the new year.  But the same will be here too.  Or something.  I think it might be time to stop.  Mainly because my arm is trying to stop.  Oh well.  It’s winter.  Try to enjoy your week anyway and God bless!

Steve.