SNOWY IMAGES

    This weekend , Sept 27, 28,  and 29 we had snowfall. We were very fortunate as we missed the very heavy snow. We had maybe one or two cm.  Further south the storm and snowfall were brutal. Waterton Lakes National Park, on the American border, had 95 cm of snow. They had the snowplows out. Calgary had about 30 cm of snow. It slowed a large city down and there was lots of street clearing.

     Black current, raspberry and gooseberry.

     Juniper

    Juniper and wet street

Snow formed on a juniper branch

I FOUND THE SINGER AND MORE.

    In my last post I left by wondering about  a third singer to go along with Perry Como and Johnny Ray. I found him and  more.

    I remembered a radio show called the Breakfast Club. It seemed to me the singer I was looking for was on the Breakfast Club. I found the Breakfast Club and right away I found the singer I was looking for...Johnny Desmond. Desmond had an active career in music, movies , television and show business. I was happy to find Johnny Desmond.

    After the Breakfast Club there was a 5 minute segment called Morning Devotions. I remember the theme music was from the cello and very calm and soothing. I've always like the cello. Now I don't remember any thing about the Morning Devotions. Hey, why don't I look it up?

    Now what I accidentally bumped into was more interesting. I remember listening to the Breakfast Club most mornings when I was a kid at home. It came on at 7: 15 AM for a half an hour. It had music and comedy and I'm not sure what else. I tried to listen to one or two of them and found the sound and quality very poor. I think the Breakfast Club started in 1933 with emcee Don McNiel. It ran into the early 60's.

    So does anybody else remember Johnny Desmond? Does anybody else remember the Breakfast Club.? It was also called the Swift's Breakfast Club when Swifts began sponsoring it.

    Oh , there was a comedian...Sam something, who I really liked. I have to go back and find this guy and see why I really liked him.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

       A few days ago In my reading list a blog seemed to have dumped all their posts at one time.

     I wanted to read and comment on some of the blogs I follow. They were not in the usual place. I had to go to my reading list and pick one blog at a time and see if they had posted. Then I could read ti post and comment.

     Did anyone else have this experience?

   

MORE SINGERS

    Sometimes a post just keeps carrying on. One thing leads to another. Your comments certainly bring up more info. How could I ever forget folk music. Folk music is worth a post or two.

     What was rolling around in my head when I did the Perry Como post were two other popular singers at the same time. I thought of one of them but cannot think of the third singer.

    So how could you forget Johnny Ray? Johnny Ray was a popular singer but a little over the top. It was in the days before rock and roll when singers were more like Perry Como or Frank Sinatra. Ray has been given some credit for influencing the origin of rock and roll. Ray was very popular through part of the fifties and then his career fell apart. Who can forget Cry or A Little White Cloud That Cried. Have a listen to them. Ray was a very heavy drinker and died from liver failure.

    There was a Swift's breakfast show from Chicago that Ray used to sing on. The third guy I'm thinking of also sang on the Swift's Breakfast club show. It seems to me that they alternated days when they performed. Of course , this was back in the days of live performance.

    Now some day I'm going tho think of the third singer who was popular about the time of Como and Ray.

PERRY COMO

     With my discovery of You Tube a couple of years ago , I've been able to revisit some music that I used to listen to at one time.

    My music tastes and listening have certainly changed over the years. When I was young. When I was very, very young we did not listen to much radio. Much of radio was programs rather than the station playing music. Some of the programs were country and western music. Other programs were like Lux Presents Hollywood. Fibber Magee and Molly and many more.

    Anyway when I was younger I listened to country and western music. But in there somehow I listened to singers like Perry Como . Perry Como popped into my brain the other  day and I checked you tube. I listened to his songs for a couple of hours. I'd forgotten how good the guy was. Perry Como picked good songs. He sang with a full  orchestra. No wonder I like the guy. I put this on face book and was surprised how many friends had their memories of Perry Como.

     Like any teenager in the fifties I was attracted the rock music. Elvis and many more performers caught my attention. At the same time I found some classical music that I liked to listen to. 

    One day as I was leaving the local library with a fist full of CD's someone said, " you have an eclectic taste in music." I had to come home and look up the meaning of eclectic. 

    Mr C started singing in the mid thirties . He had a long and varied career with bands , radio and television.

   I enjoyed listening to him the other evening.

   So do you remember Perry Como? Did you like him?

PAY FOR AIR?

    For a long time compressed air has been used in a variety of ways, Compressed air drives some tools. It's used in tires and many more ways that I don't know.

    A special pump fills a tank with air. There are valves that let the air out to run things. The tanks and pumps can develop a very high pressure. It used to be that there were corner garages. For courtesy they always had a line outside that their customers could use. Now we don't have corner garages but just gas stations and they don't need compressors. So they charge for the air.

    Now I happen to need air pressure from time to time to fill up my bike tires. Bike tires work best with  pressure of around 40 psi. I bought a small pump to pump up my bike tires. However, the pump got old and I had to go somewhere  you could get your bike tires filled with air.

    Since I hadn't done this for some time I was very surprised to find that you had to put coins in a slot to make the pump work. I hadn't taken any money and had to ride back home. This situation irked me to some degree.

    Three days ago I had to fill trailer tires with air. I got to the place that sells air and found out that they don't accept coins anymore but only cards. You had to tap your card on a screen. Guess what? I didn't have a card. I was about to go back home when a guy driving a motorcycle showed up. He said, " Don't worry . I'll use my card." Now that is a supper gesture. The air costs $1.50 for three or four minutes. Between the two of us it cost $3.00. I offered him money but no way was he accepting money.

    Now my faith in humanity was strengthened when I was helped by a stranger.

   But what about selling air? That seems a little funny to me.

   

   

INCIDENTAL SKY SHOTS

    The last few days I got some incidental sky shots while I was trying to take a picture of something else. 

    OK , I'll back up  bit. My ability in photography is limited at best. I had forgotten how to use my camera telephoto. I have a 34 zoom so not much. I wanted to take some shots of the harvest moon. Another problem I have is to keep the camera still. When you're 80 , it's a big problem.

    So Friday evening I went out on my step and leaned against the house wall for support and tried to get moon shots. So what ? Skies get dark!

     Into every life a little cloud must come. There were thin clouds going across the moon.

    Did I say I hadn't found my zoom for a while. The zoom taught me that it focuses on what's closer.

  I couldn't quite get the people in the balloon.

This time the camera picked up the yellow and black sign and almost ignored the tree branch