Las Vegas

Still at home recovering from my first ever trip to Las Vegas. And no I didn't misbehave. If anything I am disappointed. It was a bucket list thing for me, having never been there before.

I took some vacation time and decided I would also take in the Mine Expo, which is the world's largest mining technology convention. Besides, it was a cheap holiday considering that flights and hotel rooms are far less expensive to other places I have visited in recent years. Much cheaper than Vancouver or London for example. To make a long story short, I injured myself. I severely sprained by left hip and knee. It doesn't help when I tell the story that this happened when I was getting off a barstool. I wasn't at all tipsy. It's just the way I twisted my body ... after having only two pints of Bud Light. I slipped and landed badly on my left heel before catching myself from a serious fall. So as I returned to my hotel room on Tuesday Sept 24, my left leg was very sore. And when I went to bed my hip and knee were screaming at me. I figured part of the problem was that I had overextended myself that day with all the walking and touring I did. So I spent the best part of the following three days in my room, in varying degrees of pain as I swallowed a couple of bottles of Advil. I just could not get comfortable and the pain was constant. Upon returning to Sudbury, I went to the emergency room and instead of a long wait, they looked after me quickly and sent me for X-rays. I told them I was a senior citizen who had a minor fall. They reacted quickly. The attending doctor told me nothing was broken but my hip flexor muscle was sprained. She said that would explain the severe pain, which was still with me last Saturday. The pain was from my left knee, along my thigh, around my hip to my butt and lower back. So she prescribed Naproxen and told me to lay off the Advil, which was upsetting my stomach. She also gave me a prescription to ease the stomach trouble. So working from home as I wait for my leg to heal. More stories coming later.

Poor rabbit ...

I bumped into my neighbour briefly last week as I was walking through the parking lot when I got home after work. We both noticed there was a skinny little rabbit running around behind the cars. It was small and didn't look too healthy. I had some cherry tomatoes in my grocery bag and so I tossed a few toward him. The rabbit sniffed the tomatoes, but didn't eat. Oh well. Things change.

Came home this week and noticed that the remains of a little rabbit were on the asphalt. I think the ravens liked the taste of the rabbit.

Mmmmm ... leftovers

Having a hungry spell at work right now, while I enjoy a tea break. Jennifer invited me over for supper last night with leftover spaghetti sauce from camp. OMG it was so good. Salad. Garlic break. Pasta. And sauce that was excellent. I think my eyes glazed over as I just inhaled how good it all smelled, and tasted. In three hours I will be home having leftover leftover spaghetti and sauce. Can't wait.

The Rodeo Burger

Sudbury has this neat charity thing that happens each summer, where people get a chance to buy a hamburger at their favourite restaurant and a portion of the profit goes to a local charity. I was more than pleased to try out the Rodeo Burger at Fionn MacCool's pub on Friday.

OMG it was a huge burger combined with deep fried onion rings and gouda cheese balls. It was big. It was tasty. And I am glad I tried it. It also filled me up for Friday supper. Next time I will eat only half and take the rest home. And I will try to find out why they named it the Rodeo Burger.

I like the idea of a vacancy tax

Upsetting. I was reading about small boutique-style business owners in Toronto being forced out because of high rents. In one story a local neighbourhood cafe and pastry shop shut down after her building was sold to a new owner. Their monthly lease was $3,000. The new owner came in with a new lease, charging $6,300 a month. That's just greed. There is a city in the U.S. -- I forget where exactly -- that passed a new law for a vacancy tax. If you own a building and set the rent so high that your spaces are vacant, they add 10 per cent to your property tax. I like that. If you're so greedy and set your rental rate so high that no one can afford it, then you cannot claim it is the market rate. So pay the vacancy tax or set your rent at a rate that businesses can afford.

Olympics will be different ...

Not sure if you've had the chance to look ahead, but the upcoming summer Olympic games in Paris are sure going to be different. For starters there will be no opening ceremony in a big stadium like most of us are used to seeing. Instead, we will see things happening on the Seine River in the heart of Paris. The Seine is also site of the opening ceremony on Friday, where some 100 boats carrying tens of thousands of athletes and performers will glide down a 3.7-mile stretch of the river as spectators gather on the river banks.

So that will indeed be interesting to watch. There is also an olympic surfing event. But that won't be on the Seine. No, the surfing will be done in a tiny little part of the South Pacific Ocean ... off the coast of Teahupo'o, a small village in the French Polynesian island of Tahiti

Wow, halfway through the year already

Okay so this happens a lot... Is it my memory or is it that I don't think of unimportant stuff too much? I just realized this is the week before the Canada Day holiday weekend. No big deal really because I am not working on the weekend. When I am working on news stories, I kind of exclude everything else. I put reminders on my phone, or computer, for things I absolutely have to remember. Other than that, I go home, enjoy supper, enjoy reading, enjoy jazz on YouTube and make sure I have enough laundry done for the week ahead. I have been busy and have enjoyed the warmer weather. Some days it was too friggin' hot but other than that, no complaints. I dropped by Fionn MacCools to watch the Hockey Game monday night and kept hoping the Oilers would score that extra goal. No such luck. Other than that it was a nice night out when I don't usually drop by. But wings were on sale for $10 a pound and the beer was only $5 a pint. Just to keep things healthy, I also ordered the spinach and artichoke cheese dip with nachos. So I stayed for the full game, enjoyed the good food and went home disappointed that Lord Stanley's trophy wasn't coming to Canada.

I should mention that Jennifer and her men were also watching the game and enjoying a late dinner Monday. She invited me out to the house, but I declined. I was just opting for the shorter drive home on a worknight. If it was a weekend, I would have been at their place. I have been eating well this month, thanks to the warmer weather. I really enjoy salads, but admit I am too lazy to whip them up myself. I like to buy the prepared salads from the grocery store, and then I add a few extra things like cucumbers or tomatoes at home. What I do enjoy is this occasional family dinner put on by Denise and Don. They put on the best dinners and it's always a hoot to enjoy the company of our extended family.

What the hell happened ?

Just updating a wild and crazy month of April. I was so pleased to be in Toronto on April 8 for the home opener game of the Toronto Blue Jays. I rode the bus again with the gang from Fionn Maccool's pub in Sudbury to go to the Roger's Centre to see the game and take in all the fun.

Yes, it was nice. My first ballpark hot dog of the year (actually a nice Schneider's sausage) and a beer came to a total of $32.16. I guess that is the going rate for having fun. So I enjoyed a few more beer. Interestingly, they do not accept cash at the Roger's Centre. Everything was paid by debit card, which I had installed on my phone. The game was nice. The best part was getting away and enjoying a night out.

Two days later, back in Sudbury. I got a call from H&R Block. They were doing my income tax forms and asked to submit a receipt for rent payments. I said sure, no problem. I hung up and went online to check my bank statement so I could look up the exact January-to-December rental cheques I wrote last year. As I was logging in to my account, I got blocked with a message saying I had the incorrect login. Hmmm. That was odd. So I tried again and this time the online account said it needed to send a verifying code number to my phone. Fine. So I logged in again and got through okay, only to notice to $6,490 was missing from my account. I notified TD Bank right away and they said a global cash transfer has just been approved by my account number and password to a bank in the United States. No way, I said. Oh yes, they said. So after some arguing and asking them to notice that I had never done any such thing in the past 30 years on this same account, they backed off a bit and promised to investigate. I then went downtown and changed by debit card and account information. Two different people asked a bunch of questions to verify that I was indeed the person named for my account. Alsp, because this was fraud over $5,000 I had to get the police involved. The good news is that eight days later, I got a message from TD Bank saying that the stolen money was being replaced.

My birthday ...

My birthday was on the weekend, while I was away at Angel's wedding in Timmins. I don't worry about birthdays anymore. They're nice but I don't worry about observing them. Just another day of the week.

Getting back to work on Monday I was pleased that my coworkers took time to notice. They signed a card and contributed to a very nice gift of good Scotch. Wow, life does not get much better. I was pleased.

A nice wedding

I am amazed at how much we take for granted all the super nice people in our lives. I was thinking of that Saturday night when I was in Timmins to attend the wedding of my niece and God-daughter Angel and her new husband Al Chamberlain. It was so nice to see all the kids, the cousins, the aunts and uncles and people that you don't get to see as often because we live in another town. Weddings are a great way to bring people together.

Angel sat with me for a while just to chat and reminisce about how things were years ago and how our lives have changed and about all the people who have been part of our lives. It was just the best time. I truly enjoyed it.

Clawback on your wages ?

So at work today, the boss was talking about the company giving pay raises for 2024. I remarked I am good with whatever comes along as long as there is no clawback. This comment got weird looks from my co-workers until I realized they did not know about 'clawbacks' from Canada's Anti Inflation Board. I had to give them a quick history lesson from the 1970s. In 1974, Canada's inflation rate was 11 per cent. In January of 1975 it was over 12 per cent.

This is a page from the North Bay Nugget in 1975. The Canadian government brought in strict measures to control inflation. Stores were not allowed to raise prices and employers and workers had to accept controls on their wages. Clawbacks became a thing. If your boss gave you too much of a raise -- let's say more than five per cent -- the board would issue a clawback order and you had to settle for a lower raise. I wonder what people would say today if something like this happened.

Cold coffee is good ...

So how does stuff happen? Have you ever wondered who came up with the idea of cold coffee. I have. It happened to me this morning. I was enjoying a nice cup of hot McCafe Keurig dark roast coffee as I was working... and working... and working. A few minutes ago I reached for my cup, took a big gulp and it was cold. But it still tasted good. Something to think about as summer approaches.

Speed cameras

So Sudbury is setting up speed cameras in half a dozens areas around the city. This is the sort of thing that will upset a lot of people but the speed cams are located in mainly residential and built-up areas as opposed to main throughfares. The locations are not permanent. The locations are expected to change every four months or so. Will be interesting to see how this all works out. The new cams go into effect on March 22. The first six locations across Greater Sudbury are: • Bellevue Avenue (between Picard Street and Ralph Street) • Algonquin Road (between Maurice Street and Field Street) • Falconbridge Road (between Donnelly Drive and Church Street) • Main Street, Val Caron (between Justin Street and MR 80) • Hillcrest Drive (between Brian Street and Mikkola Road) • Gary Avenue (between Lasalle Boulevard and Madison Avenue)

The oddest thing.

Met a new guy in the elevator this week. It turns out that the guy was with Rock-Tech which makes the Rhino rockbreaker. That got me thinking and brought me back to my mining days. One of the first weeks I was employed in mining more than 40 years ago, my boss assigned me as a rock breaker on a grizzly on the 2800 level. In plain English I was given a track hammer -- which is a custom style of sledge hammer used for driving railroad spikes. I was to stand on the grizzly, which is a metal grid that had 16 inch openings, above an ore pass some 2200 feet deep. It was the most basic mining job I ever did that required very little skill, or so I thought. The job was to smash the hammer into large rocks and break them to they would fit through the holes in the grizzly and fall into the ore pass. The idea is that smaller rocks flow more easily through the mine ore passes on their way to the crusher, which makes them even smaller. At first I couldn't believe this was an actual job, but my shift boss assured me it was indeed. After several minutes of banging away on a large rock, my hands, wrists and forearms were aching. I remember thinking that this was the stupidest thing I had ever agreed to do. The rock was not breaking. But the money was good.

Soon enough, a more experienced miner named Al came over to explain a few things. He said the whole idea of the track hammer was that the narrow head of the hammer could hit more effectively into cracks and crevices in the rock. He showed me. He was right. After hundreds of swings and blows, I slowly got the knack of breaking rocks. It was hard work. But it was satisfying to be able to look at a larger boulder, hit it a few times and then break it into smaller pieces. Nowadays they have machines to do it. But I am glad for what I learned.

Terrible news from Bell Media

The recent announcement by BCE Bell Canada Enterprises and BellMedia to layoff more than 4800 news reporters across Canada is terrible. This is a company that earned more than $2 Billion in 2022 and had net earnings of 2.3 Billion in 2023. The company claims that running radio and television stations is not sustainable. Of course the company separates the media division from the rest of the corporation and argues that the media division is not profitable enough. Horsefeathers. I don't trust this corporate nonsense. If things are so bad, Bell should sell off the media assets to people who know how to run broadcasting companies. This is bad because the news industry is taking a hard hit for the worst reasons. This is going to hurt so many small towns and cities across Canada who will lose out on local news coverage.

Discouraged ...

Sad to see when so many people are having a rough time. The latest news (January 23) from Statistics Canada shows the number of people in debt and the money they owe is now beyond the amount of cash savings people have. And yes it is also true that the wealthiest Canadians have seen their incomes rise while the lowest-income Canadians have seen their household incomes drained by the cost of living. I am not sure where I am. I am not poor and I don't have any debt. But I am not wealthy. I am also at an age where my income-earning days are numbered. I have a few monthly bills I can handle, but I don't like to see so much poverty. This past Christmas I think I donated more to local charities that ever before. Not that I am that generous, it's just that more people, more organizations had their hands out asking for help. There was a time that loonies, twoonies and $5 bills went into the charity jar. Now it's all $10 and $20 bills. I don't know what the solutions are, but I am thinking that big business and the corporations need to be a bit more generous to their workers.

Getting up to speed again

So I found a bit of time today to write about new things. What am I saying? I always have time, I guess I just get lazy. I am a happy guy for many reasons. The company gave us a very nice Christmas bonus this year ... $500 in gift cards!! That is crazy. Crazy nice and Crazy welcome. I signed in to the company website to look at what gift cards to choose from. I figured for sure I will get one of the LCBO cards. But I didn't. One of the first cards I saw was a gift card from The Bay, also known as the Hudson Bay Company. That sealed it. I chose gift cards from The Bay, went online and purchased a genuine six-point Hudson Bay blanket. It arrived today. I love it. I have purchased one of these before as a gift, but now I have my own. It came in a special garment bag complete with a sewn-in seal of quality. I am pleased.

Also Christmas-related was a gift calender I received for Christmas. I love stuff like this. It's on my desk and yes I check it every day because it has all sorts of interesting stuff to learn. Christmas was another very nice gathering at Jenn and Scott's place.

I woke up at 7 a.m. and sat in the living room enjoying coffee and Bailey's before anyone else was up. It was nice and dark and quiet and I was pleased to reflect on how good life is. Around 8 a.m. the rest of the gang was up and it was time to share gifts, more coffee and Christmas cocktails. Some people like champagne and orange juice. I like whisky and egg nog. I think the best part of Christmas is seeing children being overwhelmed with everything. Young Ace seemed to get a kick out of having so many gifts. His parents -- Dara and Nathan -- were barely able to keep up with his excitement.

Christmas Day was perfect. The food was outstanding of course, but it was nice to head out to the garage to relax and play some games. Scott even managed to get a bonfire going out in the back, despite the drizzle. By the way, we had a green Christmas this year in Sudbury. Thanks to technology and cellphones, we were able to have a live face to face chat with Don and Denise in Florida. We missed seeing them at Christmas dinner, but it was so nice to have that chat. Jennifer and I did the same thing in a phone call with Neil on Christmas Day. It was so nice to connect with him as he and some friends did a Christmas dinner at the pub. I stayed over for Christmas night and took a leisurely drive home on Boxing Day. I mentioned to Jennifer that I sure don't miss those days when I had to drive the 300 kilometre trip from Timmins. Oh yeah, my car is still in the shop. They're working to fix an electrical problem but the good news is that this is covered by warrantly and they gave me and new 2023 Jeep as a loaner vehicle. Life is good or what eh? Finally I am trying to figure out what is going on with Blogspot, the company that sponsore my blog. Apparently Google has sold this to a company in India, yet they are still publishing. Hope to have more information soon.

Happy day Bro!

So it's Happy Birthday today to my little brother Ronald. Wow, time flies eh. It is amazing that he has such a cool family and a young wife :) Some guys have all the luck. Speaking of luck, I have none when it comes to my car. I was off work for a week in October and left the car parked. No where special to go. Then a week ago, on Monday October 30, the car would not start. No power. Nothing. It has all electronics and so the entire car was shut down. The tow truck guy could not even put it in neutral. Eventually got it to the dealership, where I have a warrantly. The shop was not able to work on the car until this Monday ... an entire week of my vehicle sitting in the lot. The news came Tuesday that they were able to install a new battery (3rd battery in four years). And then they found a squirrel's nest in the engine. It seems the squirrel also chewed some wires. So they got everything going fine, but the car died at five minutes. I am still waiting.

A loving tribute

Was really pleased recently to see that Neil got himself a new tattoo. Anyone who knows Neil, knows he really likes some varying styles of tattoo art and it shows. His latest addition is a very simple piece that says Thérèse, which was Terry's given name. I think it is a very nice and loving tribute.

Air Canada needs to get better

So Air Canada needs to step up and improve ... seriously. Just back from a vacation trip to the west coast, which involved six different Air Canada flights. In every case, every flight was delayed. I also noticed there appears to be a public backlash against people paying to have their luggage checked for a fee. I noticed more and more people are bringing carry-on baggage. While this could be the result of luggage fees, I also suspect it is because so many people are reporting problems with lost luggage. As one might expect, this has caused a lot of congestion when people are boarding the aircraft and trying to stow their bags in the overhead bins. You get to your seat and find the overhead bin is already stuffed with someone else's baggage, which is the same situation in the bins ahead of, and behind, your seat. Very frustrating. If you are one of the last people to get on the plane, or if a person's softside suitcase is too stuffed, you won't get a bin. On two occasions I saw the flight attendent take a persons carry-on bag, saying 'we will have to check this bag'. More frustration. Also, on two occasions -- two of my six flights -- were oversold and the Air Canada desk clerks had to appeal for volunteers to take a later flight, either in the evening or the next day! On one occasion, while flying to Comox I chose not to select a seat in advance. It's a 35 minute flight, why should I pay $19 to pre-select a seat? So the Air Canada desk clerk said I would be the one who would need to give to up a seat, because they oversold the flight. I asked why. She said because I didn't pre-select a seat. Sounds like a scam, I replied. I said I was diabetic and needed to get to my destination in order to get my insulin. I keep track of my bloos-sugar level hourly through an app on my phone. My blood-sugar was rising. She backed down immediately and said I could go on the plane.