Thursday, October 18, 2018

Hoping for toasty toes...


I haven’t given this much thought to winter in years. I think I am beginning to “feel” it a bit more these days. For starters, I take blood pressure medication which has the effect of making my fingers and toes feel cold. Doc said that was to be expected. So I live with it.
Also, when I was visiting Jennifer last week, I had the opportunity to buy a new winter coat. I call it my fall coat, because when real winter comes, I wear my parka. But my parka is just too warm for mild winter, anything that is minus 20 and warmer. So I put the fall coat on this week and it was warm, so I took out the liner. I like it.
Then I bought a new pair of leather gloves. My old ones were about five years old and had some serious holes that only a surgeon could repair.
But the real change has come with my Sorels. These old boots have been my favourites for roughly 40 years. I remember wearing my first pair of Sorels in the Arctic in December and they were fine. These boots are also perfect with my snowshoes. 
This is my second pair of Sorels. They're the original Made-In-Canada brand. Not the new ones that are made in China. 
They’re almost 20 years old and still in good shape. But I bought new liners this week. Not the usual felt-wool liners. I caved to modernity and bought a pair of those synthetic breathable liners.
They’re rated to minus 45. I don’t know how they figure that stuff out, but I know that from living in Timmins, there will be a few days that I will get to test that. I will keep you posted.

Monday, October 08, 2018

Thankful ...


I hated the drive down on Highway 144 on Friday night. There’s always moose on the highway. But the trip was worth it to spend a couple of days with Jenn and her men in Val Caron for Thanksgiving. It’s always so relaxing there, and I go into total veggie mode with a few drinks, a bite to eat, with lots of conversation, laughter and even a few tears. My grandsons are so grown up now. Tyler is first-year university and Nathan is in his final year of high school. We used to have a tradition on Saturday mornings where we sat around in our jammies and ate chocolate cake. Well, I guess the boys are not interested in that stuff anymore, LOL. That’s okay, it was still nice to spend time with everyone, -- even if the Leafs lost on Saturday night.