Bad jokes and cool gadgets ...

Gadgets are something you have to appreciate, especially when you don’t have the ones you want. Here in Timmins, a lot of folks have those winter remote car starters for those really cold days. I had one on my Tracker, but I don’t have one on the Nitro. A fellow asked me once, Do you have an automatic car starter.  I said, I used to have one, but she got a new boyfriend! Ha ha. It’s the same with dishwashers. Guy asked me, Do you have an automatic dishwasher. I said I did at one time, but she moved out of town! Ha ha. Which brings me around to the fact that Jennifer has a new potato peeler. She was preparing Thanksgiving dinner last week when I offered to peel the spuds. She said No thanks and pulled out a fancy looking Starfrit device that was amazing. Jenn peeled a whole pot of potatoes in just a few minutes. I love stuff like that. I think I know what Santa will bring me this Christmas.

Changes

Wow, things are sure changing around Timmins. Well first things first. It’s the second week of October now and we’ve had our first official snowfall. Of course everyone gets excited, but what’s the deal? It’s October. It’s Timmins. It is supposed to snow. Kids here get extra large Halloween costumes so they can wear their snowsuits underneath them.

Last week was Thanksgiving. So I drove to Sudbury to spend the weekend with Jennifer and her men. It was nice. Of course I was secretly hoping she would be going to Westree because Don and Denise were planning a real Jigs Dinner, but the boys had to stay for hockey practice.

It was all good. Jennifer still made some amazing meals. Her patience for following a recipe is outstanding. And I had a feed of some lovely cabbage rolls … that somehow rolled in from Westree.

Spending time with the boys was great. I hadn’t seen them since the summer, so it was nice to get caught up on all they did in the past few months. And they’re getting big too! The other nice change is that the boys are adjusting well to the fact that Mom,  -- Jennifer—is not around each morning to see them off to school. That’s because Jenn is back in school now herself.

More change. Poor Scott had to sell his truck. He sold off his lovely black Silverado to help a friend who needed a good truck at a good price. So Scott needed something new. Turns out he made a sacrifice and bought himself an old Dodge… I should put the photos in here, but right now those photos are at work… I will post them soon. Yup, Scott owns a very nice Dodge special edition Longhorn truck, complete with a crew cab, and all the toys including real wood in the dash and custom stitched leather upholstery in a western theme. He drove into the driveway Saturday night after a day long trip down south to Peterborough to pick it up. Everyone just said WOW! So that was cool.

True to form, every time I leave Timmins for a few days, stories happen.

I got home Monday to find that legendary Timmins prospector John Larche died. Mr. Larche, who helped find the Hemlo goldfields, was much loved in Timmins. Not just because he gave huge amounts of money to the hospital, his church and other charities … but because he was the kind of fellow who still wore workboots and work clothes everyday.  John lived in a spectacular mansion on the edge of town, but he still cut the grass on the massive front lawn.  There is not enough room here, but if you Google his name, you will be impressed.

Trying to get back to normal after a weekend off was crazy. There was a double house fire Tuesday night that got me about of bed at 2:00 a.m. and I haven’t caught up my sleep from that one yet. And then there is the pit.

Timmins is in the midst of change in the sense that there is a gold mining company that wants to create a huge open pit mine in the middle of town… and that means the pit will be roughly 1.5 kilometres long by more than half a kilometre wide, located about 200 metres from the downtown area. So there’s a big of a fuss going on about it. Enjoy the aerial photo.

On Monday, city council will be asked to give formal approval to the plan which has been about six years in the making. Oh yeah, good luck with that.

We will keep you posted.