Happy Leap Year eh!

It's been a few days since I have dropped by, but happily work is keeping me busier than ever. And sssshhhh,... don't tell anyone, but they actually give me money to do this! I love this work and yet every couple of weeks they throw money at me!! Lucky me eh.

So here are a couple of interesting winter photos. The one of the winter trees is one I shot a while ago, but I just like it so much. The other photo is a shot of a sun dog. It's something that happens on those really, really, really cold days we get here in Timmins. The sun reflects off the ice crystals in the air and gives the impression of three suns. I saw it one morning as I was heading into the senior's home for a photo shoot. so I snapped this quick pic through the trees.

My new scanner

It’s funny how much technology improves, when you’re not paying attention. I use VHF radio scanners for work. I had three… the newest being about 15 years old. The others are 20 years old. It was time to get a new one. So I went online with the Uniden company in Texas. They sent my new scanner by Fedex this week. It was only about one third the cost of the one I bought in the 1990s, and yet it has twice the power and capacity. The nice thing is that thanks to the free trade agreement, and because the product is made in the US and not some place like China, there was no duty...and no taxes!!!

Em Oh Oh En - Moon!

Yeah I was like a lot of people tonight. I went out and found a dark spot on the Hollinger tailings, set up the tripod and snapped a couple of shots of the lunar eclipse. Problem: the camera exposes the shot for 5 or 6 seconds, just enough time to cause a little blurring... because hey, the Earth is moving! So here's my moon shot... I don't think NASA will be impressed.

It's family day

Happy Family Day ... if you're in Ontario. It's a new stat holiday here... Thanks to liberal premier Dalton (the Deceiver) McGuinty. He promised a new stat holdiday during the last election... and everyone fell over when he actually lived up to a promise. Oh well, I guess he can't be blamed, he's a true liberal... says ANYTHING to get power.

Guinness is good

I’ve stopped drinking beer. Well that’s what I tell my friends. Even on a hot summer day, I’d rather have water to slake my thirst. But I do enjoy having a Guinness every now and then. Maybe once or twice a month. I had one before supper tonight, and even though the weather was so cold today, the Guinness just seemed to be a fabulous winter drink. It’s hard to explain. It sure has a different taste. It’s good. I remember years ago, when Jenn was in university, I was passing through Sudbury and dropped by for supper. I asked for a beer, she gave me a Guinness and I refused to drink it. Funny eh. Oh yeah... one other thing. A pint has only 198 calories. That's less than orange juice!

Jazz rocks!

What a cool night at the Grammy Awards! First we heard Herbie Hancock playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Anyone who has been to my house knows that music since I play it often. It's one of the best pieces of American Jazz from the 20th century. And then Hancock won the most prestigious Grammy, the album of year, with a jazz album. Yeah, the world is good tonight.

Fireworks and cold weather

One of the nice things about living in Northern Ontario is that one eventually gets used to living in the cold. I was in South Porcupine tonight to see the winter carnival fireworks. Walking out on the ice of Porcupine Lake, it was interesting to see literally hundreds of others out there as well. The windchill was minus 41. But that didn’t seem to slow anyone down. Kids and parents were running around and laughing like it was normal.
I found a good spot to watch and shoot some pictures. I was dressed warmly so I figured the easiest thing was to lie down on the ice, use my camera bag as a pillow and watch the show overhead. I felt a bit self conscious for a moment until I looked around and saw other people lying on the ice, watching the show. It was quite comfortable. I met Ashley later and we went to Tim’s. She told me she sat on a park bench by the lakeshore to watch the fireworks. Of course, she was all snug head to toe in a snowmobile suit. So sitting on a frozen park bench at minus 41 is just a good thing to do… if you live in the north.

Interesting grave markers

I was on a bit of a bizarre story chase today. I went looking for the graves of a couple of Cornish miners who came to Timmins in the 1920s to work in the huge Hollinger gold mine. The two fellas were lifelong friends who worked together. Unfortunately, they died together exactly 80 years ago when the disastrous Hollinger Mine Fire occurred. (Feb. 10, 1928) I was a bit surprised to find their graves were side by side and they shared the same headstone.
Moments after I snapped the photo I noticed footprints leading to another grave not far away... being a nosey sort, I checked it out. Imagine my surprise at finding the grave of the great Bill Barilko. I think only real diehard hockey fans would know about "bashing Bill." But obviously somebody was interested since there were footprints leading up to the headstone... and they weren't mine! Fans of The Tragically Hip will know that Barilko was the subject of their song Fifty Mission Cap. Click the pics to see full size.

Superbowl Updater-Giants 17-14 over the Patriots!

Wow! What a game. Just got home from Casey's (the ribs and wings were great, the chocolate cake I had for dessert was too big) and it was an excellent evening. Of course there was the usual crowd there, and we split ourselves quickly into the two camps... Them for the Patriots and Us for the underdog Giants. We figured the game was lost in the the last four minutes when Tom Brady threw a TD pass in the Giant's endzone. Suddenly the game was 14 to 10 for the Patriots. Oh well, the Giants played their best we figured. It was a good try. But then, by some miracle, the Giants rallied and came back and starting moving down the field. With 35 seconds left in the game, Eli Manning threw a pass and it was a touchdown for the Giants. Unbelievable!!! We shouted ourselves hoarse with cheers and hollers. Who woulda thunk it?! What a game!

Superbowl Sunday

I will have to go out and find a TV today so I can watch the Superbowl. I confess I have not watched a game all year. But this is different. Today's game will be talked about for decades. For the first time ever, one team, the New England Patriots has had a perfect regular season, not losing one game. So there is a chance the "Pats" could have the perfect season. That would nice to see.
On the other hand, the New York Giants are the ultimate underdogs ... in that the Giants could be (pardon the pun) the giant killers if they can defeat the Patriots in this one game! What an upset that would be. This is usually the most-watched single sporting event in the world. Today it will be huge. Either way, it's gonna be a great day for football!

It's not news ... it's just sad.

There has been much media attention about Britney Spears struggling with some personal problems and it seems to gather a lot of attention. I really don't know too much about this person except that she's one of those Hollywood people. I've never regarded the entertainment shows as news. It's all gossip presented as news by the prettiest boys and girls they can find. Anyway, one hopes they leave this person, and her mental health issues, alone.
As for interesting stuff, here in Ontario we have an inquiry going on into the misdeeds of a pathologist who used to work for the Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Charles Smith has made too many wrong decisions and has provided testimony that sent a lot of innocent people to jail. I am following the story because Smith accused a 12-year-old Timmins girl in the death of a 16-month old baby girl. He was so wrong. But the babysitter's family went bankrupt hiring lawyers to prove her innocence. You can read more about the inquiry here: Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario. Read the transcripts.; amazing stuff.

February... just say it.

I think I put a note in here last year about one of my pet peeves. Tomorrow is February. Yep, it's pronounced FEB-roo-air-ee... not FEB-you-air-ee. I get tired of hearing so-called professional announcers on radio and television saying it incorrectly. It's just lazy. Or maybe they're just not clever enough to pronounce it right. Oh well, I am sure there will be more pressing things to worry about tomorrow.

Facebook

Well I did it. Some friends convinced me to get on FACEBOOK. So I did. But I confess I haven't quite figured out how it all works. Neil calls it the internet's version of crack. People keep sending messages and notes and suggestions on things to do... but I am not sure how to take it all. Oh well, I could always say, "oops my computer crashed!"
By the way, that's frost on the moustache. It was minus 43 on the MacLean Trail that day.

I have an Ear Worm!

I just found out on the weekend I have an Ear Worm! Oh don't worry, you won't have to send flowers. An ear worm is a good thing... well, maybe not a good thing, but it's not a bad thing. An ear worm is when you get a tune in your head that won't go away. It just stays there and you hear it ... whenever you have a free moment. So people who know me know that my tune is The Jeopardy Tune. Yep, I will be standing in line at Sears, or pumping gas or maybe waiting for something and without really being conscious of it, I begin humming the Jeopardy Tune... da da da da, da da da, da dee da da DAH da da da da.... sometimes people notice. If they do, I don't notice. It kinda like "did I just hum that out loud?" Sometimes it's really funny when I am in a bar and go to the washroom, all the guys standing at the urinals... and I'm there humming Jeopardy! So this has been my ear worm... oh for about ten years anyway. I haven't been watching TV for about six years. Maybe I should... and get a new tune eh.

Stinky again!

People noticed when I walked into a meeting room today... that certain fragrance that says... hmmm, house fire! I should remember to stand upwind from the smoke when taking photos eh. It was a busy morning. See the news blog here.

Feeling Guilty

So I started the day, with a cup of coffee... and a bowl of ice cream. Okay, I lied. I put Nestle's chocolate syrup on the ice cream. It was just a craving. So I was feeling guilty. Not the usual Catholic guilt. (That's where you feel guilty because you ARE Catholic... apparently we're God's Home Team y'know!) I kept looking at the treadmill. Guilt. Guilt. Guilt. Then an emergency call came in. So I scooted out to the west end of town, just in time to see the cops and the rescue guys heading out into the bush... on foot! ... to the scene of a snowmobile crash. As I snapped a few photo's I felt even more guilty... so I grabbed my gear and followed them. On foot! It took a good 30 minutes of hiking to get to the scene. What a workout. My toque was soaked with sweat. No more guilt. Woohoo... i think I deserve cake and ice cream for supper now. Luckily for the rescue crews, a few snowmobilers caught up to them and rushed the paramedics in to the where the victims were. See the rescue info on my news blog here.

Gold gold gold

One day many years ago, I snapped a photo of an unusual event. Several of us were standing in a small room and the heat and the fire from the furnace got so bright and so unbearably hot, I had to shield my face and my eyes. The room was locked. A grim faced man with a loaded shotgun stood watching me. I was witnessing the pouring of several bars of pure gold at the McIntyre Mine. They poured three massive shiny ingots that day. I will never forget watching it. I am still looking for the photo… it was on a KODAK slide. When I find it, I will post it here. The reason I mention it is that Timmins is riding an economic high right now, with the price of gold breaking new records every day. Up until last Friday, the price record was previously set in January of 1980, back when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. It closed at US $850 an ounce then. On Friday it closed at $855. Just so you know, Timmins is the largest gold mining municipality in the world. The experts say gold could hit $900 an ounce by spring and $1,000 an ounce by the end of the year. It’s not all welcome news though. A local mining company has been drilling for more than a year right in the heart of town and they’ve identified a gold zone of approximately four million ounces!!! It could mean a new mine… right in the middle of the city. I just remembered that several years ago, when I was a hardrock miner, a fellow miner handed me a small chunk of pure gold one day. Back in those days, one didn’t want to get caught with a piece of gold … so I sent it to my Dad as a souvenir of Timmins. I wonder if it’s still somewhere in the house in Grand Mira?

Ice cream weather is here

Ice cream should be frozen. For some reason, when it's in MY freezer, it goes soft. Everything else freezes solid in there... but not the ice cream. I should add the only reason I have ice cream is because Ty and Nate came to visit at Christmas. But I hate soft ice cream. I believe ice cream is something that we shouldn't have to slurp once we pull it from the freezer. Two nights ago, as I was plugging in the truck, I noticed how crispy cold it was... so I ran to the freezer, grabbed the ice cream carton and put it outside on the porch wall. It works! It was frozen! - solid! Good thing the ravens didn't notice it eh.

Happy happy : )

Happy New Year morning to all. It’s a sunny pleasant day in Timmins … I think it’s a bit too bright right now. Once I have a soothing cup of tea, I am sure I will be a bit brighter myself. It’s almost 10 a.m. I was up at about 5:30 a.m. and drank two large tumblers of water for some reason. Then it was back to bed. I was out last night to help ring in the new year. I shot several photos. I don’t know what this one is, or how it got into my camera. Hmmmm.....I will try to figure that one out.

Wow... what a book!

If I haven’t been in here writing, it’s because I have become a couch potato with my new book! It seems Jenn and Scott were chatting with Santa because on Christmas morning I received a beautiful copy of Vincent Bugliosi’s new book Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It’s more than 1500 pages and is just packed with more than 20 years worth of research and interviews. Bugliosi’s whole purpose is to prove there was no conspiracy to kill the president. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but wow, this guy sure knows how to research. It took two days just to read through the introduction. And then the narrative begins with all the things that happened on Nov. 22, 1963… not just minute to minute, but in some cases, second by second. I am a bit sore today because I read for nearly five hours last night, hardly moving from the chair… but I did down a pot of coffee and half a bottle of Baileys! So when I finish the book, don’t even ask to borrow it! This one’s a keeper. It stays on the bookshelf.