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.

Happy new year to all

Wow, what a ride this year has been eh? If I have learned anything, I think I learned to appreciate the people in my life a little bit more than I may have previously. There are so many important people who influence how I feel, think and go about living my life and I don't take enough time to thank them for their goodness. When something like Jennifer's illness occurs, it suddenly makes us all forget about our ordinary everyday concerns and makes us all realize what is really important. We all manage to be a little nicer, more easygoing, more forgiving and more tolerant with one another. What a nice thing that is. No reason not to continue doing that in the New Year and beyond.
I also managed to get my hands on an official Olympic torch for a few moments this week. It was lighter than I expected... but the design reminded me of a snowmobile ski. Hmmm... no wonder, it was designed by Bombardier.
Couple of other things...
1 - Don't forget to toast the new year with a nice glass of whiskey. Anything else doesn't count.
2 - If you get a minute, drop a line and wish a happy new year my favourite little brother Ronald at ra.gillis@live.ca. He is with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan and I am sure he would love to get a note.

All good things today.

Had a quick chat with Jennifer this morning and she was sounding happy and chipper. The Christmas weekend was fun for her and she enjoyed being at home more than she expected. Of course, going back in to the hospital is part of life these days, but Jenn knows the level of care she gets there is excellent. Her other good news is that she will be able to get a couple of days off for New Year’s and she and Scott will be enjoying each other’s company by going out for dinner. The boys are off to camp with Don and Denise and no doubt will have a fabulous time ringing in the New Year in Westree.
I have been busy as usual. I was at the McIntyre Arena this evening to cover the opening of the World Under-17 hockey tournament. It’s featuring some of the best young hockey players from around the world. While there, I noticed that Timmins lived up to its billing as having some of the best looking women anywhere. I’ve said that for years. I noticed another good looking woman in the stands at the hockey game tonight. Hello Shania. It’s kinda nice when the rich and famous come back home every now and then eh.

Merry Christmas, and happy Boxing Day!

Back home in Timmins tonight after spending Christmas with Jennifer and her family. It was such a nice visit because the good folks at Sudbury Regional Hospital sent Jenn home for a few days. So Scott and Tyler and Nathan were thrilled of course. I was also happy to spend a full day spoiling the boys, with things like breakfast at McDonalds and lunch at Laura Secord`s ice cream shop. Last night we sat down to a wonderful traditional Christmas dinner with Scott and Jenn and the boys, Don and Denise Alexander, and Christine, Demetrios and Victoria. It was excellent. Food and fabulous company was just too good. It was great the see Jenn scooting around the kitchen in her wheelchair and helping out, but she is determined that will not be a permanent thing. I had to head back North today… and I missed the family’s annual Boxing Day bash which was held at Line’s this year. I was also pleased to get a grrreat phone call from Neil on Christmas Day as he had to work for awhile and then was enjoying dinner with friends. Well I have to dig in on some leftovers and a a very full glass of wine right now… I will have some photos up soon.

Jenn's loves her three-day pass!

Jennifer doesn't waste an opportunity. The med team at the hospital gave her a three-day pass for the weekend to go home. So what does she do... Well, Friday she was out shopping. Today I called the house for a chat ... and where was Jenn? Oh, she was out at Nathan's hockey game! Good for her eh. Well I got another flu shot today. I had the H1N1 flu vaccine weeks ago. Today I got the seasonal flu shot. So far so good. I dropped by the mall to do some shopping today. It was crazzzzzyyyy! Thank goodness for 24-hour shopping. I think I will head out at about 5:00 a.m.