Boots!

Okay, so I guess I have been bitten by the boot bug. I was searching online earlier this year for some winter boots. I like the pull-on style and had some good ideas of what I liked. Then I saw western boots. Now I confess that over the years I have always thought of buying myself a pair of "Cowboy Boots". I have always like them, ever since I was a kid. When we moved to Manitoba -- or went out west as people would say -- My Grandma MacLean bought me a pair. They were black with white details and I really liked them. 

Anyway, back to the present. I was searching around in Amazon and saw some pop up on the screen. So I began a bit of research and found that as footwear, western boots are usually better made and use better materials than most other boots and shoes. They are also touted as being unusually comfortable.  That could explain why the price is usually significantly more than other boots and shoes. I think they're kind of cool, especially since your jeans cover most of the boot and you don't really notice them unless you look hard. 

My research also found that some of the best made boots -- Boulet Boots -- are made here in Canada.  They have fans around the world, they hardly do any marketing and their boots are expensive, usually starting at about $300 a pair and going to more than $1,000. 

I opted for some U.S. made boots and found to my surprise that many of the companies in America make great boots at good prices. It might be the result of the pandemic, but some prices are amazing. I was pleased to find a nice pair that listed for nearly $300 in the company catalogue going for almost half price on Amazon. They were almost sold out and down to only two sizes. Luckily, my foot size is 10-and-a-half. So here I am as the proud owner of a pair of Ariat Heritage Roughstock boots. Nice eh.  

Nice work or what!

I have to say I am pleased to work in that part of Sudbury where local artists have been doing some nice work. Sudbury muralist Monique Legault, one of our neighbours here on Elgin Street, has just wrapped up her latest project. It's on one of the walls leading into the Elgin Street underpass that goes over to Riverside Drive. 

The work is a combination of poetry and paintings of older buildings from the downtown Sudbury in days gone by. I was happy to check in on Monique over a period of a few weeks to watch her work and take photos. Today I ran into some local Sudburians who had heard of the mural but had never seen it up close. They were amazed with what they saw. I have to agree with them.

Thanksgiving was good ...

 We followed to the rules as best we could last weekend and enjoyed a Thanksgiving celebration at the camp in Westree. Because of the pandemic, the Ontario government was asking that family celebrations be limited to 10 people. So we did and Denise had the cool idea of everyone posing for a photo with our masks on. It worked out pretty nicely. It was also cool that several of the Westree neighbours dropped by for a quick hello. It is always nice to see them. 

The big news is that Scott and Jennifer purchased the camp from Scott's parents, Don and Denise. It means the amazing Alexander Family tradition of hospitality will continue.  They didn't miss a beat and so we had an amazing turkey dinner. We really had the nicest time. We managed to get in an afternoon of ATV-ing off to see some great scenery and enjoy a bit of a picnic on a fall afternoon complete with a nice campfire. We also enjoyed another little tradition of setting up fizzy cans of pop and then shooting at them with the air rifles. It was fun. I am sure I would have had more photos but I was too busy eating and drinking.

I know I can't wait for my next trip to Westree. 

It's hard to explain bad behaviour

Distressing. Unlike a lot of people I was not smiling when Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19. After all he is an overweight, older man and definitely in a high risk group. He could have been seriously sick. Interestingly, unlike most Americans, he gets free health care so he was looked after. But Trump, who was born with a silver spoon, feels entitled. He put others at risk by having an entourage join him in a helicopter trip to the hospital. More than a dozen other people in the president's circle at the White House have tested positive. When Trump got back from the hospital on Monday, he posed for a photo op without a face mask and then walked right back into the White House. He may feel better, but doctors say he is still spewing virus germs. Why the hell does a person act like that? Who puts up with that bad behaviour?

Americans do.

Also, pollsters are finding that a huge percentage of his supporters still believe in Trump and that he is doing and saying the right things. People are baffled at that. When any right-thinking person would shake their head, so many others are willing to overlook his lying, his mental illness and his bizarre behaviour. Some experts have suggested that Americans are just afraid to speak out against bullies.

I am not surprised. As a student of history, I can think back to the days of the late 1930s when most Americans were not willing to speak out against Adolph Hitler and the Nazi movement in Germany. In fact, a lot of Americans supported him. It wasn't until December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Habour that America finally caught up with the rest of the world and did the right thing.