February... just say it.

I think I put a note in here last year about one of my pet peeves. Tomorrow is February. Yep, it's pronounced FEB-roo-air-ee... not FEB-you-air-ee. I get tired of hearing so-called professional announcers on radio and television saying it incorrectly. It's just lazy. Or maybe they're just not clever enough to pronounce it right. Oh well, I am sure there will be more pressing things to worry about tomorrow.

Facebook

Well I did it. Some friends convinced me to get on FACEBOOK. So I did. But I confess I haven't quite figured out how it all works. Neil calls it the internet's version of crack. People keep sending messages and notes and suggestions on things to do... but I am not sure how to take it all. Oh well, I could always say, "oops my computer crashed!"
By the way, that's frost on the moustache. It was minus 43 on the MacLean Trail that day.

I have an Ear Worm!

I just found out on the weekend I have an Ear Worm! Oh don't worry, you won't have to send flowers. An ear worm is a good thing... well, maybe not a good thing, but it's not a bad thing. An ear worm is when you get a tune in your head that won't go away. It just stays there and you hear it ... whenever you have a free moment. So people who know me know that my tune is The Jeopardy Tune. Yep, I will be standing in line at Sears, or pumping gas or maybe waiting for something and without really being conscious of it, I begin humming the Jeopardy Tune... da da da da, da da da, da dee da da DAH da da da da.... sometimes people notice. If they do, I don't notice. It kinda like "did I just hum that out loud?" Sometimes it's really funny when I am in a bar and go to the washroom, all the guys standing at the urinals... and I'm there humming Jeopardy! So this has been my ear worm... oh for about ten years anyway. I haven't been watching TV for about six years. Maybe I should... and get a new tune eh.

Stinky again!

People noticed when I walked into a meeting room today... that certain fragrance that says... hmmm, house fire! I should remember to stand upwind from the smoke when taking photos eh. It was a busy morning. See the news blog here.

Feeling Guilty

So I started the day, with a cup of coffee... and a bowl of ice cream. Okay, I lied. I put Nestle's chocolate syrup on the ice cream. It was just a craving. So I was feeling guilty. Not the usual Catholic guilt. (That's where you feel guilty because you ARE Catholic... apparently we're God's Home Team y'know!) I kept looking at the treadmill. Guilt. Guilt. Guilt. Then an emergency call came in. So I scooted out to the west end of town, just in time to see the cops and the rescue guys heading out into the bush... on foot! ... to the scene of a snowmobile crash. As I snapped a few photo's I felt even more guilty... so I grabbed my gear and followed them. On foot! It took a good 30 minutes of hiking to get to the scene. What a workout. My toque was soaked with sweat. No more guilt. Woohoo... i think I deserve cake and ice cream for supper now. Luckily for the rescue crews, a few snowmobilers caught up to them and rushed the paramedics in to the where the victims were. See the rescue info on my news blog here.

Gold gold gold

One day many years ago, I snapped a photo of an unusual event. Several of us were standing in a small room and the heat and the fire from the furnace got so bright and so unbearably hot, I had to shield my face and my eyes. The room was locked. A grim faced man with a loaded shotgun stood watching me. I was witnessing the pouring of several bars of pure gold at the McIntyre Mine. They poured three massive shiny ingots that day. I will never forget watching it. I am still looking for the photo… it was on a KODAK slide. When I find it, I will post it here. The reason I mention it is that Timmins is riding an economic high right now, with the price of gold breaking new records every day. Up until last Friday, the price record was previously set in January of 1980, back when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. It closed at US $850 an ounce then. On Friday it closed at $855. Just so you know, Timmins is the largest gold mining municipality in the world. The experts say gold could hit $900 an ounce by spring and $1,000 an ounce by the end of the year. It’s not all welcome news though. A local mining company has been drilling for more than a year right in the heart of town and they’ve identified a gold zone of approximately four million ounces!!! It could mean a new mine… right in the middle of the city. I just remembered that several years ago, when I was a hardrock miner, a fellow miner handed me a small chunk of pure gold one day. Back in those days, one didn’t want to get caught with a piece of gold … so I sent it to my Dad as a souvenir of Timmins. I wonder if it’s still somewhere in the house in Grand Mira?

Ice cream weather is here

Ice cream should be frozen. For some reason, when it's in MY freezer, it goes soft. Everything else freezes solid in there... but not the ice cream. I should add the only reason I have ice cream is because Ty and Nate came to visit at Christmas. But I hate soft ice cream. I believe ice cream is something that we shouldn't have to slurp once we pull it from the freezer. Two nights ago, as I was plugging in the truck, I noticed how crispy cold it was... so I ran to the freezer, grabbed the ice cream carton and put it outside on the porch wall. It works! It was frozen! - solid! Good thing the ravens didn't notice it eh.

Happy happy : )

Happy New Year morning to all. It’s a sunny pleasant day in Timmins … I think it’s a bit too bright right now. Once I have a soothing cup of tea, I am sure I will be a bit brighter myself. It’s almost 10 a.m. I was up at about 5:30 a.m. and drank two large tumblers of water for some reason. Then it was back to bed. I was out last night to help ring in the new year. I shot several photos. I don’t know what this one is, or how it got into my camera. Hmmmm.....I will try to figure that one out.