I am feeling better this week. Really. It has been two weeks now since I slipped on the sidewalk out on Cedar Street and fell, landing on my back. I mean, I really took a flip. My left leg shot out on the ice just under the snow and I went down, hard. It knocked the wind out of me and for a couple of seconds I couldn’t breathe. That was scary, so I flipped over onto my front to push myself up. I grunted. And I breathed. I didn’t bother getting checked out because I figured if I could get up okay, I would be okay. If not I would just lay on the ground and call 911. LOL. Besides there is a flu outbreak and I didn’t fancy sitting in the emergency room with all those people coughing and sneezing.

I am better now. The next day I dropped into a sporting goods story and found some shoe spikes. Wow, what a difference. They cost $35, but they really work. They stay on your shoe by a heavy elastic strap. When you go into a store or building, you just flip up the spikes and you don’t damage the floor.  You know I take this seriously when I spend money on something when I could easily purchase a very nice bottle of whiskey for the same price.

Waiting for news...

I think I know how people in Olympic communities feel as they wait to find out whether their city or town has won the right to host the games. Timmins is among four cities invited to submit a bid to build a new smelter or metals refinery to process chromite.  That’s the main mineral located in the Ring of Fire mining area in the James Bay Lowlands. The value of the deposit is estimated in excess of $50-BILLION. Yup, that’s Billions we’re talking about. If Timmins wins the bid for a smelter, well we’re talking many hundreds of millions of dollars in local investment. And jobs. Lots and lots of new jobs. That would be helpful. So lots of folks in town are crossing their fingers. 

Yes, I am jealous.

So get used to reading the name Jada Yuan. You may not know of her, but last week she was picked for the best job in the world ... in my opinion. She is an almost-40 freelance writer who has been hired by the New York Times to travel the world for a whole year and report on what she sees. Yuan was selected from more than 13,000 job applicants. She will be travelling to 52 cities around the globe and will write stories on her experiences. Nice work if you can get it. Yes, I am so jealous.

Pencils and stuff.

This goes back to journalism school when we were all taught to carry pencils because in Canada, it gets cold and your pen will freeze. If you have to take notes, a pencil will never freeze. That was sure in evidence last week.  

Things change. All the reporters I see these days have voice recorders built into their smart phones.  I have this feature on my phone, although I am not certain how to use it. What I do use is a very reliable Sony voice recorder that picks up every comment, even in a crowded city council chamber or in a courtroom, if allowed. I also record all the phone calls I get into the newsroom. 

Although I am peeved now that my primary recorder crapped out on me this week. I am using a backup now.  I had the main recorder for about four years, so it’s not so bad. I will have to purchase a new one. Wish I had known about this during Boxing Day sales. 

Pay the working poor!

I want to weigh in on the minimum wage debate in Ontario. The Liberal government has implemented this is oh-so-obvious vote-buying bid. But it is still something that should be done. Raising the wages of the working poor is not something that should be debated or argued. It was overdue. I would have preferred to have seen a straight up income tax exemption for anyone on minimum wage. Not a tax exemption for people who can bring in a list of tax deductions, but an exemption if your pay stub shows minimum wage.

I don’t care that some small businesses will feel the pinch. Deal with it. Raise your prices, find efficiencies. Cope with change or get out of business. I have already decided I will not go to Tim Horton’s because of the way they treat their minimum wage employees. I will also accept that I may have to pay a little more to accommodate those businesses that choose to work with the new minimum wage.

I like tea. Real tea.

I went into a new tea shop in Timmins today. It was so cold outside, I welcomed the idea of a fresh cup of tea and a snack. Aline’s Tea Shop is not that new, but it is new to me. I had heard good things from other folks and decided to try it. I really like that we are getting a few more boutique style eateries in downtown Timmins. So I asked the pleasant lady for a cup of tea, telling her I like the plain orange pekoe tea. She had a shelf without about 30 big jars holding all sorts of different flavours of tea. Some of them smelled quite different. Not necessarily bad, but certainly not something I would drink.

So here’s the thing. They were not really blends of tea. They were all sorts of herbs and flavours. But I like the ordinary tea, that comes from the familiar Asian tea leaves. Usually it is known as black tea. Orange Pekoe is a grade of black tea. Everything else is an infusion. Anyway, we found a plain black tea and it tasted very nice. Only after I explained I wanted ordinary black tea like the grandmas in Nova Scotia would drink. I also had a couple of home baked cookies. Very nice. I think I will go back and bring a couple of Red Rose tea bags with me. 

Can we make stoner jokes anymore ?

I honestly don’t know what to think about this legalization of marijuana thing. On the one hand it seems innocent enough. People want to enjoy a nice mild mood altering drug; maybe in the same way I enjoy a glass of Scotch every now and then. Whoa, wait a minute. I enjoy Scotch a few times a week! I tell myself I enjoy the taste. And I have proven that a few times to myself by not buying certain brands that taste a bit too wild. I also found two distinct brands to my liking and discovered they were blended – years apart—by the same man.

So what makes this different for the person who might enjoy smoking a joint? Not much I guess, but I fear the problem will go beyond that to the stupid stoner who enjoys his weed only because he can get zonked. That also happens to alcohol drinkers, but I argue that this does not make it right. Alcohol is very strictly controlled. I hope this also happens for cannabis users. So here in Canada we will soon find out whether this is a sorry Liberal decision (redundant use of the word sorry) or whether it is something we can live with.

Happy, happy ...

So far this New Year has been crazy cold, but hey that’s kind of normal in this neck of the woods. I am pleased though that the figure-8 skating rink in Timmins – Sk8te Hollinger -- has such wide public support. Was so impressed yesterday when a bunch of teenagers took over the rink for a few hours of fun. Those kids acted like minus 30 was nothing.

I was out at the park last week and took a couple of nighttime shots, but it was too cold to spend too much time out there. Besides I lost my favourite leather gloves and so my hands get colder more quickly.

New Year’s Eve was pleasant. Claudette and I visited Louise Anne and Fred to enjoy a cheese fondue. I have to admit that in all my 63 years I have never before had a cheese fondue. Wow. It was delicious. Poor Fred had to work day shift at the mine, so he went to bed early. He has to get up at 3:00 a.m. and the drive to the mine is an hour away.

We are TV bingeing again. After watching the Netflix series Scandal, and Suits and The Crown, we begged off TV for a while, unless hockey was on. We have discovered an interesting Netflix series; The Blacklist with James Spader and Megan Boone . Quite entertaining. Check it out.