Footwear

The new 2011 Timmins phone book is out. For the first time in more than 35 years, my name is not there or in any other phone directory. I took the advice - or it might be more accurate to say I followed the prediction of a friend - and I got rid of my home phone some time ago. My cell phone is all I need and it's way less expensive than having a landline.
Another milestone of sorts came and went without much fanfare. No big deal really, but this week I pulled my heavy duty winter Sorels out of the closet, put 'em on and was out the door. We had a good snowstorm this week and it was time for the heavy boots. Usually I wait until there is a really big blizzard or extreme cold. Maybe I am just getting lazy, but my Sorels fit like an old pair of skates and it's so easy to wear them.
That's another thing. Maybe I should buy a new pair of skates. I haven't had any for some time. But skating has always been something I loved. Neil grabbed my last pair about about ten years ago. Comfort is an issue for me. My left foot has never been quite right since that accident in the mine when I got a steel bar through it. It's had to find a pair of skates that I can wear for more than an hour or so.
By the way, it's a nice Sunday morning here. Coffee is good. Had a nice chat with Jennifer last night about her trip to Mexico. She said it was great and she said the best part for her was just getting away from it all and spending time with her guys and relaxing. We didn't chat long. She put me on the phone with Tyler for a while... I should have known, there was a hockey game on! It was great to chat with Ty. He is a cool ten-year-old who notices a whole lot more than you'd think a kid his age would see. It's like getting a fresh view of the world. Coffee needs a refill...

Snowflakes, shopping, China, Mexico

Winter has settled in nicely in Timmins. I was out last night and enjoyed walking downtown to see the nice lights and watch the snow falling. I have to admit that longjohn weather has arrived as well. It's not that I don't enjoy the cold weather, I just think that I feel it more than when I was young. As for shopping, I had no desire to go to the mall. Wayyyy too many people. This week I did some online shopping with a company in Maine. I don't feel bad about that. The prices were good, the products were good and the U.S. company promised free shipping anywhere in Canada. Canadian online sales companies don't do that! Plus, I am trying to find fewer and fewer items made in China. It's just a political thing for me. I will likely chat with Jennifer soon as I expect she and the boys will be back home from their holiday in Mexico.

Yup, winter is back.

Another Saturday morning, but today it is all white and bright outside the living room window. Timmins finally got slammed with snow yesterday and this time I think it will stay. Scott, Jennifer and the boys will sure miss it. They're spending a week in Mexico! Scott sent an e-mail mentioning that he and Jenn were sitting on the balcony of their suite, enjoying margeritas, warm breezes and a fabulous view of the ocean while the boys were playing in the pool. I just know that he would rather be driving the plow up and down his driveway this morning!
I was in North Bay Friday and I had the option of spending the night, but I got out of my meeting early so I decided to head north and drive home. It wasn't too bad until I got north of Kirkland Lake. That's when a few mild flurries became a white-out. So it was white-knuckle driving for about three hours at 45 to 55 kilometres per hour. There were three or four minor auto crashes along the way. No reports of anything serious occurred. At one point, I couldn't figure out why everything was so dark behind me. Then I realized that the back window was caked in frozen snow. Things finally cleared up in South Porcupine, about five kilometres from the front door.

Lest We Forget

A sad situation

I don't often let my work cross over into my blog stuff, but today was different. I had to be in court to cover the bail hearing of a young woman who is accused of faking cancer to collect money to finance cancer treatments. I have to be careful what I write here, because the court issued a Ban on Publication, meaning one must obey the court order and not publish evidence, ... even on a blog. I photographed the woman as she was escorted from court and back to jail. I wasn't happy being there. Somebody mentioned that after all the suffering Jennifer endured in the past year, I must be feeling especially angry to see somebody faking cancer. Actually, it wasn't anger. It was just sadness to see a young person having to resort to faking illness for whatever reason. I don't think anyone who truly knows what a cancer patient endures could possibly think about faking it. For some unhappy reason, the young person in court did what she did and it's all quite sad. I sat in court and watched at she looked up at some friends and then burst into tears, covering her face. I know this sounds like I am a softy, but the important thing is that Jennifer has recovered her health. Nothing else matters, not even the fact that some misguided young person has done something stupid.

Deadwood

I have downloaded Season One of an award-winning TV series called Deadwood. It's a semi-fictional account of life in a gold mining camp back in South Dakota the 1870s. Some of it is quite good, but some of it is not. Each episode is about 55 minutes long, but if they took out the cussing and swear words, an episode might be 30 minutes. I know the writers want to keep things authentic, but this is just silly. But I'm at the point where I've watched eight episodes, so now I have to see it through to the end. It's still a good story.
Speaking of good stories, don't rush when you're in the book store! I zipped into The Book Bin last week to load up on six new novels. I glanced at the names of the authors and bought the books. At home this week I discovered that I had read two of the books already; one of them as recently as August!