Good news ...

Good news 1 - Jenn remembered the chocolate cake that was in the back seat of the car and she says the kids tore through it very quickly. I talked to Jenn this morning. "That cake is history," she laughed.
Good news 2 - It's a bit political I know, but Canada has just placed an order for 65 brand new F35 aircraft. I think this is amazing. I am an aircraft nut of course. This is no ordinary fighter jet. It is a stealth aircraft. It is also has Joint Stand Off Weapons, which means it can launch deadly accurate cruise missiles from hundreds of miles away from the target thus not putting the pilot in danger. The cockpit also has voice recognition to allow the pilot to fly and operate aircraft functions by voice command. I can't wait to get the video game version of this plane.
Photo Credit:U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Julius Delos Reyes

Jenn, cake is in the back seat in a box ...

Thursday morning P.S. I am hoping Jennifer remembers I put a frozen chocolate cake (for the kids of course) in the back seat of her car just before she drove away Tuesday!

Winding down ...

It’s Wednesday (or early Thursday morning) and I am winding down. What a great week. Jennifer arrived last Thursday and we sure enjoyed each other’s company for a few days. She went back home Tuesday. We spent five days together and went out to restaurants for five days. It was fun. It was like a vacation for me. We had dinner at home though on Thursday. I was pleased to treat Jenn to a nice steak that we bought at Pick of the Crop. I was worried that I wouldn’t cook it right, but it turned out just fine. It was also time to use the good dinnerware. I always use the same two plates myself. But with Jenn’s visit, we brought out the Royal Doulton so that was nice too. (It was the first time I ever used it!) I forgot to unpack the crystal wine glasses, but we still managed to put away a few bottles of wine. I think the best part was seeing Jenn up and about puttering around my kitchen and doing dishes. Life is good eh.

Jennifer had a nice time too especially because she got to see some of her favourite aunties who were all in town for the weekend. (Front row from left) Lorraine, Suzanne, Lorraine, Helen, (back row from left) Linda and Lilliane sure seemed to be enjoying themselves when we dropped by Moe's place for a backyard fire.

Enjoying the weekend

I have been enjoying a great weekend with Jennifer as she came home to Timmins to relax for a few days. One of the things we did was visit her old elementary school where she reminded me that there was a line on the wall of the school that could be seen by every kid in the schoolyard. Boys were allowed to play on one side of the line in the schoolyard and girls were allowed to play on the other side. Hmmmm…I found that a bit unusual. Oh well. Jenn sure turned out okay! It has been nice to spend a few days with Jennifer, but celebrating with family members all over Timmins is more fun than we imagined. Tiring too. But it's always nice to enjoy great people with the amazing summer weather we have been enjoying so far in July. I shot a fresh photo of Jenn with her new hair style. She missed her long hair, but everyone agrees that she is still a cutie with short hair too.

Happy Saturday.

A fine hot Saturday morning in Timmins. I am enjoying a cup of coffee and munching on chocolate cookies. I have company this weekend. Jennifer is here and it's very nice. The best part was Thursday afternoon when we went out for a walk downtown, in and out of the stores, shopping. Yup, Jenn can walk just fine. She has a cane now and she is determined as ever. I haven't shot a fresh photo of her, because I can barely keep up to her, but I will get a few. Jennifer's hair is slowly growing back and all the aunt's and cousins are telling her how beautiful she looks. Down in Sudbury, Scott and the boys are enjoying a 'boys only' weekend, while up at camp, Denise and her sisters are having a girls weekend. Soon I will be enjoying more of the homemade jams Denise sent up, strawberry and rhubarb. Wow. Yesterday it was nice when some of the Maltais women arrived in town for a visit. Lorraine, Lilliane and Helen Richer showed up. The kitchen table party at Aunt Sue's place went on till two oclock this morning. Helen and Tasha are on their way in from Red Lake. If anyone has ever wondered how big Northern Ontario is, it is taking them two days to make the drive from Red Lake to Timmins. It will be nice to see them. I slept in this morning to eight oclock. Time for another hot cup of coffee.

Grreat Canada Day and wonderful fireworks!

Canada Day was wonderful in Timmins. I was so busy but it was nice to bump into so many smiling faces and the weather was perfect! I think the best part was the amazing fireworks put on by Goldcorp to celebrate Canada Day and the 100th anniversay of gold mining in Timmins.

A pretty darned good day

It's a bit overcast and chilly today in Timmins, but it's a good day all the same. Item 1 - I found $20 in a jacket pocket while looking for a pen! Woohoo. Item 2 - VIA Rail reached an agreement with the CAW union last night, so it doesn't look like VIA will be on strike this summer. That's a good thing because I have already booked a train trip between Sudbury and Vancouver.

Disgusted with the G8 protest...

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time --the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression." ~Dr. Martin Luther King.

Another nice day.

I don't get to see sunsets from my balcony. But I think I do have a nice view. We had rain Saturday afternoon and the clouds looked interesting, so I snapped a photo as the sun was setting. Today is father's day. That's cool but I feel that most days are like father's day. I had nice chats with both Neil and Jennifer this week, so that was good. And tomorrow is going to be the longest day of the year. If I am energetic, I will get up early and join in a sunrise ceremony with the Timmins Native Friendship Centre.

Intermission!

I don't watch a lot of movies, but when I do I like to make it an "event". Such was the case earlier this week, when I purchased Lawrence of Arabia on Blu Ray DVD. I had seen it before, but like a good book, I figured it was worth seeing again. The music score alone was worth the price. So I had a fabulous ribeye steak, a bottle of wine and salad and sat down to watch the movie. It was grrreat. Suddenly, the tv screen went black and the word INTERMISSION appeared. Wow, it has been years since I saw that. I remember years ago in cinema houses that meant it was time to get more popcorn and pop. So I enjoyed my intermission with a visit to the loo and then another glass of wine. By the way, the movie really was worth seeing again. The photography was outstanding. The film was produced in 1962. It was nominated for TEN Academy Awards. It won seven, including Best Picture. One thing I noticed was there was no profanity in the movie... I think the worst word was damn!

Can you dig this?

If I am smiling the biggest smile today it's because I lucked into a jazz album I sure never expected to buy. Well, maybe that's not true because with ebay and amazon.com you can buy almost anything. But on Sunday I dropped into a record store that I rarely visit. I was actually looking for a movie DVD, but I dropped by the jazz section and found a fabulous CD by Miles Davis called Kind of Blue. It was recorded in 1959 by Columbia Records. Among some of those joining Miles was John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. I am a jazz fan, but I don't know enough to be a jazz snob. I'm working on it. Some people consider this not only Davis' best ever album, but the best jazz album ever produced. So I snuck out of the office today and I'm working from home with the stereo just sizzlin' with some of the best music I've ever enjoyed. Some of my friends know I have this silly rule "55 to 75" that basically says if the music wasn't produced between those years of 1955 to 1975, it's not really that good. Think about that!
Album Photo Copyright: PHOTOGRAPHER JAY MAISEL.

So what's up?

About time I dropped by here with an update. Had a quick chat with Jenn this week and she is doing great. The boys and Scott are great too. There's something about the arrival of nice summer weather that makes you feel good. I can't wait to go jump in the lake. I know a lot of people like pools. Some like swimming in the ocean. My preference is a nice cool, clear Northern Ontario lake with the sun rippling down to the rocks and sand on the bottom. I've a few friends who have nice lakeside cottages. One of my favourite memories is getting up early in the morning, sipping a hot coffee, having a quick sauna and jumping into the lake.
This week was busy but good. I covered the provincial mine rescue event this week and was at the dinner last night when it was announced that Timmins won the big competition. That was a nice thing.
Was up early this morning and got around to a bit of housework. Then today I was out shopping on picked up one of those Swiffer dusters. I saw it on a TV commercial so I will have to try it out. Woohoo... my life is fuh eh?
Speaking of TV, I hardly watch it, but I have been checking out some of the World Cup soccer games. It's not as much fun as hockey, but I can see why people get excited. I have to say that I find the noise of the spectator horns just too much to listen to, so i mute the volume and watch the action.
Well I spoiled myself again today. I dropped by Pick Of The Crop and picked up one of those marinated ribeye steaks. I usually buy strip loins, but a friend convinced me that ribeyes are better. Will be sure to let you know.

A frost warning... first week of June : )

What did I tell ya? I mentioned in the last post there is a saying in Timmins not to put plants or flowers in the ground until after the First Moon In June. So what happened? Today Environment Canada issued a Frost Warning for overnight for Timmins. Who would have believed it eh.
Summary
Frost over the regions for Tuesday morning This is a warning that at or near zero ground temperatures will cause frost in the parts of these regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.
Details
A high pressure ridge combined with a cold air mass and light winds tonight create ideal conditions for the formation of frost overnight tonight into Tuesday morning.

Rain, plants and books

It's another nice Saturday morning in Timmins. The heat wave broke and we have had a bit of light rain for the past few days. That's nice. I think I might buy some flowers, or at least a flowering plant, for my balcony this week. There is a rule in Timmins -- Don't plant before the first moon in June. That will be next Saturday. But I think I might take a chance. The forest fire situation is very calm, thank goodness. As much as I like aircraft, I was getting annoyed by the constant noise of helicopters. My new entertainment/wall unit was delivered yesterday. It's bigger than I thought. It's huge. It takes up the whole wall. Oh well, at least now I can begin unpacking some of my books.

Bing Photo Contest - Mac in the fall

Bing Photo Contest - Mac in the fall
Go to the link and vote for my Photo! : )

My litte truck

I put my little Nitro to the test last week with some hill-climbing and narrow bush roads near Timmins while getting photos of a forest fire. The little Chevy Tracker I had before would go anywhere, rain, snow, mud, whatever. I am still not sure about the Nitro since it's a 1000 pounds heavier than the Tracker. It's built on a Jeep chassis with an excellent 4X4 package, but it doesn't seem as nimble. Although I was able to get over some big rocks without any trouble. Maybe I'm the one who is nervous, since the paint job is still so new eh.

Chatting with my brother

Had a great lonnnnnnng chat tonight with Ronald. It was good to hear his voice. He was a bit tired still from the jet lag from Afghanistan, but said he was glad to be home and relaxing. He is still active duty, but has built up some vacation time. We will be seeing each other in September and, for the record, he has a bottle of 12 year old Glenfiddich for me. That should be a good thing.

Oh Doctor, what's that smell?

Sometimes we will go to unusual lengths to get a photo of people doing their jobs. So that’s what happened Friday afternoon when I followed some forest fire fighters into the thick bush to snap a couple of photos of them at work on what they call hotspots. After the main forest fire is contained, there are always little pockets of fire. The problem is that the bush was black and charred from Wednesday’s fire. And the bush in Northern Ontario is thick like a jungle. Anyone knows, except me of course, that a charred branch is like a pencil and leaves a mark. These fellows were wearing dark pants, long sleeves and special boots. I had dress shoes and light khaki dress pants, with a short sleeved shirt. When we came out of the bush, my clothes and arms were criss-crossed with black stripes and scuff marks. It looked liked somebody with a black magic-marker attacked me. I even had char marks on my bare arms. That’s wasn’t the worse part. I had a four o’clock doctor’s appointment to pick up a prescription and no time to run home to change or shower. So I went and sat in the doctor’s waiting room and for several minutes endured the stares or ordinary people who must have wondered what I was up to. To make it worse, I was a bit sweaty and when that mixed with the smoky fragrance of a burnt forest, I must have been a delight for the senses. I just enjoyed the moment because I had several snappy answers in the back of my mind in case anyone asked … like, “Oh they’re shooting a Tide commercial next door, I just dropped in here for a break. - Or – Isn’t this the internet dating office? I’m hoping to meet the outdoors type!
Oh well, it’s now Saturday morning. May Run time in Timmins and the coffee smells great.

This is what it's all about in Timmins, Ontario

There was a big mining show in Timmins this week. One of the more popular exhibits was sitting right out in the open. Well to be fully truthful, there were two armed cops nearby. This is a brick of gold from one of the local Goldcorp mines in Timmins. When this photo was taken Wednesday morning it was worth roughly $880,000. Of course the price of gold has gone up a few points since then. The brick is a bit dark, because there were some 'impurities' in the gold... several ounces of pure silver. To give you an idea of the size of the brick, I took of photo of it with a couple of the mine managers.

Grrrreat news!

I was going through the e-mails this morning when I noticed there was a comment left on Wednesday's entry in this blog. The comment was from RAG ... that means it was from my brother Ronald, who has been with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan for several months. He wrote " ...I am home. Safe and good to go."
Great news Bro! Welcome home!

A long, long news day

I wrote here a few weeks back that May is usually one of the busiest months for news. Oh yeahhhhh. Just got home after a lonnnnnng, lonnnng day. Timmins had not one, not two but THREE forest fires today. Big ones! I am tired also from the fact that at two oclock this morning, I was following the story of a young lady who took Timmins Police on a high speed pursuit, through town, out of town and then crashed her car on the highway and rolled it over. Luckily she is alive. She's in the hospital under police guard, but still alive.


So yep, a really busy news day and a long one. I am signing off now to have a frozen TV dinner from the microwave and a beer so cold it will make my teeth hurt.

It a good morning eh

Saturday morning and the coffee smells great today. I am drinking tea on the weekdays and coffee on the weekends now. Wow, I can understand why somebody wrote that phrase "Wake up and smell the coffee!" It's a good thing.
I covered the Ontario Mine Rescue dinner last night. It was nice to see the fellows from Goldcorp in Timmins win the competition for the second year in a row.
I was happy to see my brother in law Moe there. (click the photo at the right!) Moe is an outstanding mine rescue guy and I have to admit I felt some pride when it was announced he was one of a just a handful of guys who aced the written exam. Way to go Moe!
By the way, I think we're in for some interesting NHL hockey in the coming days. I notice there are a lot of fans out there for the Canadians ... there are still a few who are fans of the "Canadiens". Somebody the other day said, Jeez, there's a lot of Habs fans. I wouldn't call myself a Habs fan, but I do hope the Canadian team wins : )

Watch a wedding...

I will do something this week I've never done before. I will be watching friends get married. But I will be watching it online because they're in Las Vegas and I'm not. Oh how the world in changing. It's still kind of neat though. Jenn and Scott's sister (in law), Christine is marrying Demetrios on Wednesday at The Little Chapel, Chapel of the Flowers. You can go on the Internet Wednesday and peek in. (7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 4:00 p.m. in Las Vegas) Here is the Link: https://plan.littlechapel.com/Guests/Default.aspx?PlanID=551850.
I hope to be right here by my computer. I have a handful of rice and a box of kleenex! Woohoo.

Changing reality

Going through some old photos, I have decided I want to make a few nice prints to get them framed. But I am struggling with the colour on my computer. I am trying to get the old "1950s postcard" look, with the moody washed out colours. I am not sure if I can do it, but I will keep trying. The first photo with the fall colours is the original. The second photo is the one where I am experimenting with the colour.


As always, click on the pics to see them larger.

An interesting day . .

It has been an interesting morning. I have been covering a visit by Governor General Michaelle Jean who visited the Goldcorp's Dome gold mine in Timmins, the longest running gold mine in Canada. I think even her security people were impressed with the level of security at a gold mine. I have seen tougher security in only one other place, the De Beers diamond mine.

It's May eh.

Saturday morning on the first day of May. The coffee is good. The sky is overcast. We had a bit of rain and it's about 10 degrees. That's not bad compared to this day last year, when we had SNOW! It's true, I checked the blog from last year. I am looking forward to this month. For some reason, May is one of the busiest news months of the year. On Monday and Tuesday, I will be covering Michaelle Jean, our governor general. That should be interesting.
Photo Credit:Patrick Boyle. CP

Happy Day Bud!

It's Friday afternoon in Timmins and we're finnaly getting a bit of rain. Nicely refreshing. It was at about this time of day 30 years ago that my favourite son was born. There was a bit of rain that day too. But it has been sunshine most of the time since then. Lucky me,eh! : )

Do I worry too much?

So a new credit card arrived in the mail today. After following the instructions, I activated the new card and then got the scissors to cut up the old card. But I worry about this thing about identify theft. So I cut the card into four pieces. I put one piece the kitchen garbage, another piece in the bathroom garbage and I will take the other two pieces to work and dispose them there. Do I worry too much?

Guilt tripping

It's that time of year. Girl Guides are selling their cookies. One of the moms at work managed to sell me three boxes of cookies for her daughter. I feel guilty. Between Friday and Saturday, I ate a whole box. I guess it was wrong to leave the box sitting out open on the kitchen counter.
Spring has finally arrived in Timmins. (Knock on wood!) I don't think and certainly don't hope we will get anymore snow. But we've had snow in July here, so I am never surprised after living in Northern Ontario all these years.
Now that I have booked my holidays, it seems that's all I can think about. It has been too many years since I first visited the west coast. When I was a high school student in North Bay, I remember when the summer of 1971 arrived. It was another boring Friday afternoon and I didn't have a summer job yet. North Bay is the crossroads for the two major highways in Northern Ontario, Highway 11 and Highway 17. A friend and I had seen dozens of other young people out on the highways. They were hitchhiking. That's when we decided we would do that too. It was a different time then and fun to be 17. I went home and told Mom and Dad I was going to Vancouver. So I packed some clothes and a sleeping bag and grabbed about $40 in cash and by midnight we were in Sault Ste. Marie. Six days later, and after riding a freight train through the Rockies, we made it to Vancouver.

Go west old man... : )

Wow, a whole week has gone by. Lots has happened. Jennifer and the family are doing fine. I have chatted with her about four times this past week. And I spoke with Neil too. I am planning a holiday. Neil has been living west of the Rockies for a few years now, so I figure it's time to visit his neck of the woods. Can't wait to show up at his place in Vancouver and have him buy the beer. It will be a few months yet, but I think it will be nice to get out of Timmins for awhile. Vancouver will be nice, and we'll also get a chance to drop over to Victoria. I might even get a chance to get to the airbase at Comox to see if any family members are home from Afghanistan. If I get time I plan to zip down to Seattle to see the aviation museum at the Boeing plant. It's considered one of the best in the world. Besides, I checked online for some hotels in Seattle and was very pleased to discover that persons over age 50 get a seniors discount! As I look at the sun shining out the window, I am hoping spring has arrived in Timmins. We had snow on Friday, and it didn't stay long, but it was annoying for mid-April. It has been a mild winter, but I think Mother Nature is playing tricks on us.

Pictures, pictures, pictures ...

I've been slowly converting old photos to a digital format. The way its going right now, I think it will take years. I have more than 10,000 slides and negatives to go through! Here are a few just for fun...

Happy Easter

Just got back into town after spending time with Jenn & Scott and the boys. What a treat it was to see them all again. It was a nice weekend even if we did have to watch the Leafs lose to the Bruins. Jenn continues to improve and looks great. I was super impressed to see the renovations that Scott and Don did to the house. I never realized how much work it took to install marble flooring, but it looks fabulous. I had fun with the boys and enjoyed spoiling them Saturday when we went out to lunch and had chocolate fundge sundaes as appetizers! It's fun to get silly every now and then.

Good Friday, busy Friday

It's good Friday morning, and I thought I wouldn't be busy, but I am. Already made two trips to Tim Hortons. News happens, even on holidays. (see my NEWS website on the right)
Well, I did get a note from little brother Ronald after all. He left a comment on the blog after I mentioned last week that I had a cold. His comments: "A cold, that is what happens when you get old. Happy Birthday Leonard. It is March 31 over here so this counts. Say Hi to Jennifer for me. Tell her "next year", us Leaf fans must stick together. RAG"
Just so you know, RAG is Ron's sign off - Ronald Adrian Gillis.

Happy Day

It's just after 11:00 p.m. and I am winding down with a glass of whiskey after a really nice day. I haven't enjoyed a whiskey in awhile since I had a cold and my sense of taste was gone ... not gonna waste it, if I can't taste it! But today is my birthday, so I poured a glass. I was so pleased today to get phone calls from my brother Gary, my sister Debra, son Neil and daughter Jennifer. Of course I also chatted with Tyler and Nathan. Victoria sent me a really nice e-mail. And I got dozens of nice notes on Facebook, including one from Christine, Ronald's daughter. She said my brother Ron is still is still "in the FOB right now" and not able to get to a phone. Ron is in Afghanistan and the FOB is a forward operating base, which means it's basically a few tents, a few tanks and a latrine. But I know he would call if he could. He always does. But it has been such a nice day. When I think of all the nice people I know, I realize I am blessed. : )

Comfort food.

I am fighting a cold this week. Yukkk! And I haven't had a glass of whiskey since St. Patty's Day... You just can't taste anything when you have a cold. I did have some comfort food today and it seems to work. Campbell's tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. It was good.

Vote for Timmins for Hockeyville!

There’s a lot of buzz in Timmins this weekend thanks to the Kraft Hockeyville competition. Timmins was named this week as a wildcard finalist in the top 12. That means we’ve got a shot at being in the top five, and maybe winning the competition. So of course everyone is going to the Hockeyville website and voting for Timmins. They’ve set up free internet voting stations all over the city, at the mall, at the library and in every city arena. Voting continues until 11:59 p.m. Sunday. You can vote too, as many times as you wish, no matter where you are. Click here for the Hockeyville website. It’s all about Timmins and the famous McIntyre Arena… home to a few well known hockey greats such as the Mahovlich brothers, Father Les Costello and Bill Barilko… Bill scored the winning Stanley Cup goal for the Leafs to win the series from the Habs in 1951. He’s nearly a saint in Timmins.

Jenn feeling better, looking great!

It was hard to describe seeing Jennifer for the first time since Christmas, when I visited her at the Alexander camp in Westree this weekend. She was standing up at the door to give me a hug. She had a walker of course, but she was standing and smiling. It was so great. Wow, what a difference from last August eh. She is still taking physio-therapy as an out-patient and is sure feeling better. Anyway, I snapped a couple of photos. Jenn wasn’t exactly pleased to see me with a camera. I guess she isn’t feeling glamourous. But now that her hair is growing back, I was pleased to tell her how great she looks. It was so nice to get a photo of her and the boys.
And what a nice weekend it was too. The weather was perfect. Denise and Don are always great hosts, but on Saturday night they outdid themselves. We enjoyed an amazing seafood feast with Newfoundland lobster, broiled scallops and fabulous cod fish cakes. It doesn’t get any better.

Boots dry, pants wet.

Sometimes I do dumb things … like put away the snowshoes too early. I was out in the bush today to grab photos of new work being done on the Sandy Falls dam. So I followed a few bush roads, hopped a fence and went for a hike. I should’ve known the moment I landed after coming off the fence, I sank up to my butt in soft wet snow. I figured once I got out in the open it would be better. Nope. Snow up to my knees all the way, about a kilometre in and then a kilometre back out. Those footprints run deep! Once I got to the river, there was some interesting ice formations on the water. The other nice thing is that the sun was shining all the way and the hike out is always easier than the hike in. My boots were dry, but my pants were soaked with slush. It was pretty warm out too. I took off my jacket and had short sleeves on. What a beautiful day in Northern Ontario.
I had a nice chat with Jennifer this morning. She says she and the boys will be heading off to camp with Don and Denise for March Break. Sounds like the perfect way to welcome spring. But before I let that thought go, everyone knows that were due for a good blizzard sometime between now and the May 24 weekend. That's reality in Northern Ontario.

Lots of interesting stuff!

Jennifer is home now. Home to stay! After six months of being in the hospital, my favourite daughter is now recovering at home. Jenn is sure happy about it. And so are the boys. Jenn gets to tuck them in at night and she’s there when they get up in the morning. How much we take for granted eh. She is still doing rehab to learn to walk, but it definitely looks like she is a survivor. Her blood platelets were low this week, but the latest check shows them coming back up, so that’s good news too.
NEIL CALLED!
Good news from Neil this week too. The restaurant Steamworks in downtown Vancouver is soooo busy. I got a text from Neil telling me that he met the president of Slovakia who was in the restaurant. That’s kinda cool. Neil says there are always famous people dropping by because Vancouver produces so many movies, but with the Olympics on, there has to be a lot more celebrities in town. The best part was as I was writing this on Saturday morning, Neil called! It was 9:00 a.m. in Timmins. I looked at the clock and said what are you doing up at 6:00 a.m.? He was just getting home after a 12 hour shift at the restaurant. “This town is totally rad” he said, but added he is getting tired of seeing so many drunken people in the streets. Neil said the inside scoop is that the Vancouver Olympics beer sales are more than Beijing and Salt Lake city combined. He said his restaurant, which is known for its local beer, is selling out on a regular basis. The other good thing is that he has a promotional budget, and with the restaurant packed to the rafters each night, he gets to go around buying free drinks for nice people.
Life is good in Timmins. It looks like we are losing our big copper smelter, but the newest gold mine in town, Lake Shore Gold, is going great and another mine, Goldcorp, just announced that they’re sinking a new shaft to go after even more gold.
PHOTOS FROM FRANCE
I have been busy converting old photos and old slides to digital. It’s moving at a snail’s pace because I am so busy with other things. But I found sound photos from the Royal Canadian Air Force base in Marville, France. There’s a pic of Dad with his police van, Mom and Ronald on the beach at La Havre (English Channel), some CF-86 Sabre fighter jets on the flight line, Gary's first communion and me with a couple of other kids… and I have no idea who they are!

Not a bad weekend despite the game.

It was something of a letdown tonight to watch Team Canada get dumped by Team USA in Hockey. U.S. Goaltender Ryan Miller is simply amazing. I called Jennifer because misery loves company. She said she stopped watching as soon as the Americans pulled ahead four goals to two. Other than the game, we all had a nice weekend, with nice balmy zero degree weather in Northern Ontario. Jenn said she was at the house for a couple of days and was pleased to be able to make bacon and eggs for the boys this morning. Now that she has a walker, she is able to stand up for short periods. How nice is that?

So what's new?

Jennifer and I chatted last night about the Olympics. I have to remember to call when a hockey game is NOT on. I could tell when she wasn’t listening. It was like talking to a teenager again. LOL. But we still had a good chat. Her physio-therapy is coming along nicely. Jenn uses a walker now along with her wheel chair. She says she can move across the room, but it leaves her pretty tired.
I have been slowly cataloguing many of the paper copies of photos that I have. I dread the thought of going through the negatives. I came across a few shots of my brother Ronald and myself from a few years ago where he was invited to do para-jumps at the North Bay Air Show. Knowing he was going to be in the Bay, he called me up and we spent some time together. At lunch you can see who is enjoying a beer and who is having iced tea. Ron then got me onto the plane so I could grab some photos at 13,000 feet over North Bay. Then he suited up in his gear and jumped out the plane! Good thing he paid the bill for lunch!

Neil was at opening ceremonies rehearsal...

I had a really nice chat with Jennifer today and we talked about Neil and the fact that he was at the rehearsal Monday for the Olympics opening ceremonies in Vancouver. We are both so jealous. But on the other hand, he will no doubt be super busy at work in the next two weeks as the world arrives in Vancouver.
Jennifer is still in the Intensive Rehab Unit at the Sudbury Hospital, but she has moved rooms … she is now in room 3-164. Anyone wanting to call and chat before 10:00 p.m. can call toll free at 1-866-469-0822.
Jennifer says she doesn’t expect to be in the hospital much longer. At some point within the next month, she expects she will become an outpatient. She says she is looking very forward to that day.

Old photos

Well I was able to find some old photos to put them on the scanner so I can have good digital images that will last. The paper copies of the photos are not going to last. I have a couple of “big hair” school pics of Jennifer and Neil from the 1980s and a couple of photos from Mom and Dad’s wedding. I am amazed at the quality of the 1950s photos which obviously used the big 5-inch negatives. The clarity is amazing. Oh well, something nice to look at. As I start sorting through all the papers I still have, I will begin digitizing the photos and posting a few. The colour slides will be a challenge. At last count, I have more than 9,000. Just click on the photos to see them in a larger size.

Just catching up eh

I have to learn to spent a bit more time here. Considering that I write for a living, one would think this wouldn't be a big chore. It's not. I get lazy. Well not THAT lazy. Actually I worked all weekend and took some time off Sunday afternoon to enjoy the football game, and a tall cold can of beer. I also found time to paint an old dresser. I was checking out one of the home decorating magazines and it mentioned that the "weather beaten" look is quite popular on old furniture. My painting skills are such that I tend to get the "weather beaten" look a lot. Actually it turned out okay, after some work with sandpaper and about four coats of paint. I had a quick chat with Jennifer on Saturday when the hockey game was on. I try not to call when the game is on, but Toronto had just scored it's fifth goal and I figured it was safe. Jenn is doing very well. She still has a long way to go in her physio-therapy, but what a nice turn around from this time six months ago. Oh, some other good news of sorts. My old photo scanner died out on me last year and I have been shopping around trying to find a nice half-decent scanner that can work with old slides and 35 mm negatives. No luck. On Sunday afternoon I dropped into Canadian Tire to get some sandpaper (for the painting) and on the way to the check out, I noticed they had a bit table marked CLEARANCE. There in the middle of the table, was a brand new Hewlett Packard model 4850 scanner, equipped to take slides and negatives. Cost $20. Perrrrfect. I had to stop at Staples and buy a new cable for it... $29. Normally it would cost about $200 for the whole rig. But it works beautifully. So in the next few months, I will be moving all my slides and negs to a digital format. Expect to see some interesting pictures here.

Cookies, whiskey and other stuff.

Jenn and I were like a couple of chatty little hens tonight when I called. It’s funny how we get talking and just go on and on and on. I forgot that I had put on water for tea and it was a good thing the burner was on low. After about 45 minutes of yakking, for some reason I remembered about the tea, so I jumped up and ran to the kitchen. All the water, except for about a teaspoon, had boiled off. So that was good for a laugh. But Jenn gave me hell for not being more careful. I will learn from it I am sure. Make the tea first then call Jenn. I decided that it was too late to make a fresh pot of tea, so as I signed off with Jenn I poured a nice glass of Jameson’s and because it was bedtime snack time, I added an oatmeal cookie. Well son of a gun, what a treat. Have your ever dipped a cookie into a glass of whiskey? It’s delicious. I should go into business… be like the Sham Wow guy, but just for whiskey and cookies. By the way, Jenn is doing very nicely with her physio therapy. She says she is now cramming in two sessions a day, but says some days she gets pretty tired. Maybe I should send her some cookies, and whiskey!

Happy Saturday eh.

Friday was a good day in many ways. Jenn and I chatted for quite a while last night. She was at home of course, because the med team gave her a weekend away from the hospital. She was quite proud to inform that in her physio-therapy on Friday she managed to walk a few steps on her own, without holding onto anything. Wow! She says there’s lots of work to do yet, because her knees lock up and she still has a pins and needles sensation in her feet. But she took a few solo steps and that’s what counts. I am so proud of her in so many ways.
I went out last night to a pub for the first time in about six months. It was nice. Enjoyed a glass of Jameson’s whiskey. The downside was to share a drink with a friend moving out of town to a new job.
The weather this winter is pretty wonky. We’ve had a few really nice and cold days, but too many mild days. I was hoping to get out in the bush for some snowshoeing, but the snow is too wet and squishy. Oh I guess I will get out soon anyway.
Monday should be interesting. The mayor and the Goldcorp mine manager say a big announcement will be made Monday morning. Timmins could some good news.

And so it goes...

There was good news from Jennifer this week. She has moved from the fourth floor cancer unit down to the Rehabilitation wing at the new Sudbury Regional Hospital. (I wrote down the room number, but it’s on my desk at work.) Jenn says she misses the med staff on the cancer floor but is sure she will enjoy the rehab floor just as much. She has a recreational therapist, a physio-therapist, an occupational therapist and a social worker. And of course Denise (Scott’s Mom) is her personal pal and all-round excellent helper. Jenn is confident she will learn to walk again. So that’s a good thing. I was chatting earlier this week and as we signed off, Jenn said she was heading out to Tim Horton’s. I asked her how she does that. She said she jumps in her wheel chair, grabs a book and zooms down to the second floor of the hospital where there is a Timmie’s beside the cafeteria. This morning we were chatting on the phone, but she had to sign off early since Nathan, Tyler and Scott are all playing hockey today and they had to head out to the arena. I am doing housework this morning. Busy as ever. And I had to do laundry too. It seems the laundry room in this building is something of a social centre. I met a little cutie there this week. Very interesting lady. We had a nice chat. Her name is Lina. She is 94.

Lady with the torch

It was c-c-c-cold in Timmins yesterday. The windchill was minus 35 and I was outside for a few hours with several thousand other Timmins folk to see the Olympic Torch Run. So there I was hanging around with my camera when this nice lady with a torch jumped in front of me and stood there so I could snap a photo. And so I did.Funny thing about the windchill. The wind stopped last night for several minutes and suddenly everyone felt refreshed ... it was only minus 25.

Entering year five ...

So now we begin another new year and another year of my Web Log, or 'blog" . This marks my entry into my fifth year of posting here. I went to the beginning to read some my original stuff. It was the same old boring stuff, but it was fun to read, for me anyway. Since then I have had ten thousand viewers! Yep!, well actually more than 10,000. So thank YOU for being here.
The best part was when Time Magazine named "me" Person Of The Year in 2006. Oh yeahhh! ... well it's an honour I had to share with a few million other people, but it was still pretty cool.


Here's the text of the Time story:
The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year.
To be sure, there are individuals we could blame for the many painful and disturbing things that happened in 2006. The conflict in Iraq only got bloodier and more entrenched. A vicious skirmish erupted between Israel and Lebanon. A war dragged on in Sudan. A tin-pot dictator in North Korea got the Bomb, and the President of Iran wants to go nuclear too. Meanwhile nobody fixed global warming, and Sony didn't make enough PlayStation3s.
But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.
The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. Not the Web that Tim Berners-Lee hacked together (15 years ago, according to Wikipedia) as a way for scientists to share research. It's not even the overhyped dotcom Web of the late 1990s. The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.
And we are so ready for it. We're ready to balance our diet of predigested news with raw feeds from Baghdad and Boston and Beijing. You can learn more about how Americans live just by looking at the backgrounds of YouTube videos—those rumpled bedrooms and toy-strewn basement rec rooms—than you could from 1,000 hours of network television.
And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open-source software.
America loves its solitary geniuses—its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses—but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.
Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?
The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.
Sure, it's a mistake to romanticize all this any more than is strictly necessary. Web 2.0 harnesses the stupidity of crowds as well as its wisdom. Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.
But that's what makes all this interesting. Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. There's no road map for how an organism that's not a bacterium lives and works together on this planet in numbers in excess of 6 billion. But 2006 gave us some ideas. This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person. It's a chance for people to look at a computer screen and really, genuinely wonder who's out there looking back at them. Go on. Tell us you're not just a little bit curious.