Feeding my addictions...

So March is almost gone, but I have been feeding my addiction. Books. It was one night about two weeks ago, I getting ready for bed when I suddenly realized I had read all my recent books. I had nothing new to read. I panicked. I ran to the bookcase and searched for something to read. Next morning I was up and off to the book store where I bought four new novels. So I have read two and began reading the third one last night. I am heading out to buy more books this weekend. I am also thinking of buying an e-reader, one of those little tablets. But I am still not sure if I will use it or like it as much as holding a book.
Anyway, super, crazy, busy news month. You may have heard about the big tractor trailer crash near Timmins this week… a truck hauling coins from the Mint hit a rock cut on Highway 11 and spilled several million dollars worth of loonies and twoonies all over the roadway. Bizarre. The unfortunate part is that the two Brinks employees suffered serious injuries and they will be getting medical attention for weeks, if not months.
I have another addiction. Grapefruit. I used to think they were bitter tasting, but not anymore. I actually had one for supper this week. I find them so juicy and slurpy good.
March in Timmins has had some unusual weather. We had temperatures last week in the mid-twenties! How crazy is that? Things seem to be back to normal now. It’s minus 11 right now and I can accept that. There is very little snow left in the bush and the rivers are running high. I am going to predict this will be a rough season for forest fires. Come May and June, it’s gonna be pretty smoky around here.
I was talking to Jennifer this past week and she and her family are all well. We will all be heading to camp for the Easter weekend so that will be nice.

Quite the change eh?

So if you check out the photo and the note I posted here last Monday, you will note the temperature was MINUS 30! Well it's Sunday afternoon in Timmins and the temperature is now PLUS 20! What's with that?

Sad news, good news ...

It was upsetting today to learn that a dog near Sudbury has died after valiant efforts by veterinarians and ordinary people. The dog was discovered last week wandering along a bush road after it had been shot in the face, twice, by shotgun blasts. Remarkably the dog was alive long enough that people driving by were able to pick him up and bring him to a vet for surgery. The dog was nicknamed Buddy and although he seemed to be recovering, his heart failed Friday. It is so sad that somebody would try to kill the animal and just leave him. I can’t imagine how that dog suffered. If somebody doesn’t want their dog anymore there are ways to look after that by having the animal adopted out by the local pound or the Humane Society. It is frustrating that this happens.
Jennifer and Scott and their boys have a dog. He too is named Buddy. He’s pretty special. Every time I arrive at Jenn’s place, he wanders over to the truck and waits for me to get out of the vehicle. This is a photo of Buddy and Neil at Christmas, with Buddy sucking up to get a treat. My best memories of Buddy were when Jennifer was in the hospital and I would visit her. When I came back to the house, it’s like Buddy knew where I had been and he would circle around me several times, nosing and sniffing knowing that I had been visiting Jennifer.
Okay I have some “apartment guy” news to share. I finally have a “door thingy”. In my building, most tenants have some sort of a Welcome ornament on their front doors. I never had one, but thought it would be nice to get one. I just never saw anything I liked whenever I went out shopping. To be honest I never gave it a lot of thought. I was snooping through my bookcase this week when I noticed the eagle head carving. Neil gave it to me at Christmas. It’s a piece of street art carved by a Nootka aboriginal guy in Vancouver. Neil said he always gives the guy a few bucks in return for a piece of unique street art. Suddenly I knew what this was… It’s a door thingy! It's on my door right below the little peep hole. So now, on those evenings when I have sipped an extra whisky and I am tip-toeing home from the pub, I will know for certain what door is mine.

March mornings ...

Today was one of those typical deep-of-winter mornings in Timmins when the smoke from the chimney's just hangs in the air. And yup, like the thermometer shows, it was cold. Minus 30. I didn't plug the vehicle in, but it started just fine. I am really liking that Jeep engine. Sunday morning was a windy March morning, with gusts up to 45 Kilometres per hour. In one Timmins neighbourhood it was enough to send a portable car shelter up into the air like a kite, where in got tangled in the wires at a neighbour's house.

As usual, click on the pics to see them in a larger size.

Schumacher celebrates

There’s a little part of Timmins known as the community of Schumacher. It’s a tight-knit little mining town left over from the glory days of the McIntyre gold mine. Schumacher is not a pretty place; it’s a rough little reminder of the hard working who lived there for so many years. But it’s the people that make it special. March 1st is the 100th anniversary of the town. It is named after a fellow known as Frederick Schumacher, a mine financier who made his fortune in the early days of Timmins. So the next few days will be a lot of fun in Schumacher as they celebrate their centennial. I know I am going to have fun. I like Schumacher and that's probably one of the reasons I have taken so many photos of the old McIntyre Mine headframe, such as this one, which has the look of an old postcard. One of the nicest tributes will be a re-enactment of the walk from the townsite up the hill to the mine gate. It’s a walk that was taken by thousands of miners over the years, as they left home each morning, or evening, and went to work at the mine. In a lot of cases, wives and children would accompany the men to the mine gate; it was a social thing. So Thursday night, at 7:00 p.m., the whole town is invited out for the walk to the mine. See you there!

Half a century ago...

Hard to believe that 50 years has passed by since the flight of Mercury 6 - Friendship 7 when American John Glenn became the first NASA astronaut to orbit planet Earth. I remember it because I was in Grade 2 and the teacher stopped classes so we could listen to the broadcast on the radio on February 20, 1962. It came back to me a couple of years ago when I toured the famous Museum of Flight and Aviation History in Seattle where they had the Mercury space capsule on display. A lot of people at the museum walked right by the old capsule, but I was drawn to it and just tried to imagine what it is like to travel through space at 27,000 kilometres per hour!

A nice winter day in Timmins

Winter in Timmins is great. Well, today it was. I like winter. But I’m not alone. Today was an amazingly bright and sunny day with a temperature of about three degrees. So I was out driving around with the intent of snapping a few photos. Sure enough, there were things to see. I saw a family out at the sliding hill on Highway 655 by Gillies Lake having cookies and hot chocolate at the top of the hill. Of course, they were surrounded by all the other families out enjoying the snow and the sunshine. How nice is that? Over at the Hollinger Park, people were out skating on the new oval there. Other people were sitting around the open fire roasting marshmallows! And then, over at Tim Horton’s the snowmobile crowd was standing around outside, enjoying the sunshine with their coffee. So yeah, it was a nice winter day in Timmins. I took one of the photos I snapped today and played with it through Adobe Photoshop to get some different effects. I think they’re interesting. (Click the photos to see them enlarged)

Why are they called Smart Phones?

I received a very interesting e-mail this past week from my cell phone company offering me a great price on a new plan and encouraging me to get one of those new Smart Phones. So I spent quite a bit of time last night reading up on the new plans and these phones that everyone is excited about. I have to explain that I have a very basic cell phone. It rings, I talk. I want to call somebody, I enter the number and if they answer, we talk. I am not big on texting.This past month was one of my busiest ever though. I sent 14 messages. I was on the phone for 209 minutes! Of course all this was well covered by my plan which gives me hundreds of minutes, free long distance and "unlimited" messaging. Woohoo. But I don't use the internet or e-mail on my phone. In fact I called and told the phone company to disconnect any Internet service because I once activated the Internet on my phone by mistake. I didn't even know it at the time. Seriously, I can't imagine standing on a street-corner and browsing the net with my phone. So as I looked through all the fancy phones being offered I had to wonder why I would need one. I am still not convinced. Besides, I like my phone. They gave it to me for free and it has my initials on it!

Reading the fine print ...

So I signed up with the online version of the New York Times last fall. And since this is the time of year I gather all my tax receipts, I sort through my credit card bills. That's when I noticed I was billed twice for my MONTHLY subscription in November... on Nov.1 and Nov.29. Hmmm. I telephoned the customer service number to tell them of the "mistake". Hmmm ... no mistake. The subscription is not a MONTHLY thing. It's every 28 DAYS! So I said to the guy, "This is not a monthly subscription then?" "No sir, we bill you every 28 days... that's what you signed up for." Hmmmm... that means they will send me 13 bills this year instead of 12. Got to read that print more often eh.

Glasses, gasses and giggling ...

Things have changed at my dentist’s office. I was in twice this week and both times they gave me sunglasses to wear! I like that. Those dental lights are so bright that even with your eyes closed, there is still too much light! Instead of squinting my eyes in that bright light I was able to close ‘em and relax a bit more. Monday, I had a cleaning and check up. On Thursday I got a root canal procedure done and it was nowhere near as uncomfortable as I expected. I think the nitrous oxide gas sure helped. I have learned that the gas is not so much for relieving pain as it is used for relieving anxiety. Well it worked for me. And yes, it does make you giggle; just a bit. And because it was a one-hour procedure for the root canal, having the gas administered cost an extra $125! Oh well, it was sure worth it.

Ouch!

So it was just over a month ago, Neil and I were leaving a restaurant in Timmins. We had a beer and a sandwich. It was a cold, cold night and we were leaving early to go home. As we approached the parking lot, I took a mis-step on the ice and whoopsie, took a flip. It was a rather spectacular fall, as falls go, as my head hit a truck bumper on the way down and then I banged my head on the ice. I'm no Sid Crosby... I have a thick skull. No damage there. But I did bang my teeth together and that resulted in a nasty bite on my tongue. Neil was alarmed and said I might want to see a doctor. No problem said I, waving him off. I should have seen a dentist though. I went in for a cleaning and check up today and Dr. Kurys tapped on one of my front teeth. Yow, that hurt! X-Ray! Yup, there's a problem. Abscessed root, damaged nerve. So I will be going back in Thursday... root canal time. Darn.

Stories...

I remember my favourite professor from journalism school saying "everyone has a story". He wanted us to understand the fact that if we give people the chance to talk, everyone has something truly amazing about them that is worth telling. I was thinking about that today when I spent some time on the telephone with a former Timmins fellow who is now in his late 70s. He used to be a millionaire. He used to rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities. Now he's on parole after spending years in prison. He shot his business partner to death in a fit of rage. I went through all the court documents and I am still trying to get the real story of how it all happened so many years ago. These two guys, both from Timmins, both millionaires, were as close as brothers ... but then they had a falling out. What the hell happened that one murdered the other? Years have passed, but there is still a story to be told. It's going to take some time, but I am working on it...

Yes, I am glad I went...

Sometimes it pays to answer those e-mails … you know the kind, the ones that you don’t think are that important at first, but then you figure, oh what the heck, just do it. That was the case this week when I got a note from Porter Airlines asking me to drop by their wine and cheese event Thursday night to celebrate the fact that Porter is now running scheduled flights three times a day between Timmins and Toronto. People in Timmins sure seem to appreciate the new airline, which is offering cheaper fares and connecting Timmins with New York, Chicago and Boston. I don’t normally do the wine and cheese events, but I figured it was a good chance to see Robert Deluce again and a few other folks and have a nice chat. I wrote about knowing Mr. Deluce and his connection to Timmins several weeks ago. So, when I got the wine and cheese event, I realized I had to take a few notes and a few photos, so I never got the chance to enjoy some good wine and the fabulous food. Too busy. But there was a lot of nice people to chat with, folks who I haven’t seen in awhile, so I stayed… right to the end. Well almost to the end, because CEO “Bob” Deluce was making a thank you speech to the “hometown” crowd in Timmins, saying he realized that the best advertising for Porter Airlines was word-of-mouth from happy customers. That said, Deluce told the crowd he’d like them all to become goodwill ambassadors for Porter … and then he announced that every person in the room, about 500 people, would get a free round-trip airline ticket to anywhere Porter flies. Nice eh?

Staying in touch ... NOT

I have not been doing well lately in terms of staying in touch with people. I realized this about 20 minutes ago when I arrived home and found my phone sitting on the little shelf by the front door. Sure enough there were two text messages on it, from fellow reporters who were kind enough to send me info on a court trial. I confess, I didn't know I left the phone at home. On Monday I realized I didn’t have my phone with me. I searched high and low for it and finally found it in the back of my vehicle. I was on a photo shoot Sunday night at the airport and when I took off a safety vest, I placed it in the back of the truck. My phone was there. Last night, just before I was going to bed at 11 p.m., I noticed there was a text message on my phone. It was sent out at four in the afternoon. I didn't notice. I should mention that my cell phone is my only phone. I cancelled the house phone more than a year ago. The only time I do any serious telephone time is at work when I call people for news stories. Other than that, I am not a serious talker. Most months when I check my cell phone bill, I usually have 40 to 50 minutes of talking and about a half dozen text messages. I have a good phone plan with hundreds of minutes, free long distance anywhere in Canada, unlimited texting and lots of other perks for less than $30 a month. I can’t understand how people can send more than a hundred messages a month and speak on the phone for three or four hundred minutes. Even when I chat with Jennifer or Neil, a long call is about 15 minutes. The one exception is Debra. I don’t think I have ever had a phone call with her that was less than an hour. But that’s okay because it’s usually a good chat. I am sure I will hear about that. Oh, I don’t have Internet on my phone either. There is nothing that is so important that I have to know about it NOW. Now as far as being in touch, I just got a newspaper poll question in my e-mail wondering if I thought Ricky Gervais did a good job hosting the Golden Globes. Who the hell is Ricky Gervais?

Two watches and hearing loss?

I have two watches. They’re exactly the same. One is in daylight saving time and the other is standard time. It’s easier to have two watches than to worry about changing the time forward or back a couple of times a year. There’s just too many dang buttons to figure out. When Neil was here a couple of weeks back he was able to find my summer watch because he could hear the alarm going off. Alarm? I didn’t hear any alarm. Neil assured me there was a distinct high-pitched alarm on the watch, which goes to prove that older fellows such as myself do indeed lose part of their hearing as they age. Neil was able to hear the high frequency alarm that I could not hear. So there is truth to the statement that one loses the ability to hear higher frequencies. If you’re wondering, you can take an online hearing test at: http://www.freehearingtest.ca/index_flash.html. I didn’t hear anything at 8000 Hz… but maybe it’s a trick! So if you're having a birthday anytime soon and you're feeling a teensy bit older, take the test.

Don't put THAT on your blog ...

So here we are, entering our seventh year of blogging! Hmm….I wouldn’t have guessed. But then again, the Internet changes so many things. Who can imagine what sort of Internet we will have seven years from now? It will probably be all video. I don’t know if that is good. I have entertained the idea of Vlogging (Video logging). Well it’s not going to happen anytime soon. I think if I do video logging, I will have to be showing something far more interesting than my old face! Something like a good snowstorm. Hmmm… I do like e-mail. I think it has more people communicating with each other. I can even send silly jokes to my grandsons. Whatever the case, I will try to keep this blog as interesting as possible. Sometimes, I have to hold back because I realize that some of the things I write about are family things … and not everyone wants to have their information, ideas or issues put out here for all to see. I actually had one person tell me something recently … and then they said “don’t put that on your blog!” So I will be sensitive to that. There are even people I know who DON’T cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs, if you believe that! My Google stats tell me that people read the blog more if there are photos, so I will work on that too.
It has been an interesting week in Timmins. We are now in 2012, our official centennial year. It was kicked off Sunday with a spectacular ice skating show that featured a fellow named Elvis Stojko. I was pleased to meet him and have a brief chat (one of the perks of the news business). He’s a very pleasant fellow. The best part was seeing him skate. I have never seen a professional figure skater perform before, in a live situation. It blew me away. Television cannot match the speed and energy these people have. So that was good.In another story our local police will be patrolling the ice road on the James Bay coast, the one that eventually leads to the De Beers diamond mine. I might go up and check it out. It will be a few weeks yet before the weather is cold enough to completey freeze the road. Interestingly, you don’t need a driver’s licence or insurance on that road.
Speaking of weather, we have plenty of snow here in Timmins and this week it has been a very mild minus-ten to minus-twenty. I was out hiking twice yesterday and it was perfect.

It has been a good year ...

Where did the year go? This was a good year in a lot of ways … maybe the best part is that everyone in the family is okay. The other highlight this year was visiting Scotland and the village or Morar where my paternal ancestors came from back in the 1800s. And maybe I have some regrets that right now I am not in Edinburgh. It is said, that Edinburgh is the best city in the world for New Year's Eve celebrations. This past week was excellent because I got to spend a lot of good time with Jennifer, her family and my son Neil. Neil is headed back south to Toronto for a day or two with friends and then back home to Vancouver. I say home because he is quite certain that the west coast is where he wants to be. He was NOT impressed Thursday morning when the temperature was minus 35! He doesn’t even have a winter coat. He wore a heavy fall rain jacket (popular in Vancouver) and dressed in layers, and then added a scarf and toque. I offered him any coat in my closet but he said he was fine. It was a great visit. I mentioned to Jennifer this morning that I stocked up on groceries and vegetarian stuff that Neil likes, but we managed to find a lot of restaurants. It was more fun for Neil as he was able to see people he hasn’t seen in four or five years. Either way, I have a fridge full of fresh vegetables, which I suppose is a good thing.
Tomorrow, Timmins celebrates its official centennial as a municipality. I am amazed to think back to the people who built this community and how they managed to carry on and survive 100 years ago. The Northern Ontario wilderness is very unforgiving, but when people search out gold, they don’t hold back.
It was on this day in 1910 that Noah Timmins was trekking through the bush for his first ever visit to Timmins. He had grubstaked Benny Hollinger and Alex Gillies to work some claims, which eventually became the world famous Hollinger Mine, one of the world's richest gold mines. It was the next day, on January 1, 1911 that Mr. Timmins first arrived to see his new property. Obviously, his mine had an impact on the city that bears his name. Quite the history in this town.
In a couple of weeks from now, I will be marking my own anniversary of the day I arrived here back in the 1970s. I figured I would stay maybe six months. But the people here are nice. So I hung around.
So I will sign off for 2011 and wish everyone the very best in the coming year. Tonight I will think of all those I love, and I will toast you, as I enjoy the warmth of a great whisky.

A perfect Christmas ...

This past week has been the best week of the year I think. In the past some Christmas weeks have been too stressful and too much of a headache. Not this time. For some reason, everything was just right and spending so much time with people was just perfect.
It was a week ago today that I arrived in Sudbury to catch some much anticipated Rest and Relaxation at Jenn and Scott’s place in the Valley. Denise and Don had arrived from Westree. Nathan and Tyler were being the best grandsons I can imagine and I was ready to unwind. I was able to enjoy Jennifer’s latest cooking effort of Chicken Kiev which she mastered. Well, that was just the beginning of a week long bash of really good food, delicious desserts, really great company and a few fine drinks. It wasn’t long after arriving at Jenn’s that we got a call from Neil to let us know he would be on the overnight bus from Toronto after flying in from Vancouver. As good as that news was, we also discovered that Victoria would be arriving on the same overnight bus. Cool. So we all went off to bed that night looking forward to more company in the morning. Don and Denise were up bright and early to get to the bus station and before long Neil and Vic had arrived for Christmas. I was just pleased to see Jennifer and Neil again. I thank God I am blessed with two wonderful children. So that Friday was just perfect. Jennifer went all “Martha Stewart” again cooking up a fabulous breakfast for everyone. Neil slipped off to grab a snooze but he was up again by noon so we could do some father-son shopping. That was good and before long we were in a pub enjoying brewski’s and having a late lunch. We even managed to get some shopping done before heading “home” to Chez Alexander. I should mention that Nathan and Tyler were perfect hosts. Nathan let me stay in his room while Neil stayed in Tyler’s room. The boys were able to sleep in the “fort” they created with furniture in sleeping bags in the rec room. And as you can see in the photo, Neil enjoyed seeing Buddy again and said he was amazed at how big Buddy has become. On Christmas Eve, the boys and I carried on what might now be a tradition. We headed off to Perkins to for pancakes, just like last year. Neil came along and so did Victoria. It was great. We all ordered huge breakfasts and really mucked out. Then we went shopping on Christmas Eve! Which every man knows is the best day of the year for shopping. We walked and shopped and shopped and walked so much!!!
I was having fun except for the fact I had twisted my knee the night before playing a bit of ball hockey with the boys. So I was limping a bit, but still having too much fun to complain.
I remember giving Vic, Tyler and Nathan some spending money so they could run off by themselves. And then they did something amazing. They came back with a fabulous photo of themselves with Santa. I nearly had tears in my eyes. I have never seen them look as perfect as they did in that photo.
I should mention that going back to the Valley was excellent. Up until this point, it looked like it was going to be a green Christmas in Sudbury. But then it started snowing. Nice big fat fluffy snowflakes were coming down and covering everything.
Back at the house it was time to wrap gifts and munch a bit. I should mention that Denise created a fabulous seafood chowder and cheese tea biscuits that are too good to describe. I won’t waste words. I wolfed down four biscuits and two bowls of chowder. As the evening wore on, it was nice to sit back and enjoy the conversation. I got such a kick out of seeing Jennifer playing the perfect hostess. You have to remember it was only two years ago that Jenn was still at the cancer centre and they let her out with a two-day pass for Christmas. She was in the wheelchair then and wearing a bandana because she had no hair after her chemo treatments. What a change.
By the way, Jennifer gets a bit stressed about the fact that she had another birthday just a few weeks ago…I would never give away her age, but being a normal woman, Jennifer frets about it. The best part is that she was at the liquor store recently and the clerk carded her! Yup, she got asked for her I.D. How nice was that? Jenn tells the story with a big smile. And she’s no baldie anymore. Her hair is long and wavy and she looks as fabulous as the day she was married.
At 10:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, I was able to declare that Christmas had arrived in Canada (in Newfoundland right!). That was the occasion I needed to open up the bottle of single malt whisky I brought back from the Isle of Skye in August. We kept it at Jenn’s place so I wouldn’t be tempted to open it before then. It was a litre of Talisker. It’s the only whisky made on Skye. It was warm and wonderful and so very, very, very smooth.
Anyway, Christmas morning was normal. Tyler was first up the stairs from the rec room. I could hear his feet thumping up the stairs and into the living room. So I got up and sure enough he and Nathan and Vic were all standing by the tree with big smiles. Yes, Santa remembered them. But it was 7:00 a.m. and still dark, so I told the kids we had to wait. Each year I snap a photo of the children by the tree. This year, Victoria declined. She’s a teenager now and her hair wasn’t quite right! Once we got the coffee on and cracked open the Bailey’s, the adults were ready and so it went smoothly and with great fun and joy. I was amazed at the wealth we Canadians all enjoy and I am pleased and thankful we are all so blessed. CHRISTMAS MORNING!Later, the children and I enjoyed some chocolate cake for breakfast!
Christmas Day turned out to be nicer than expected. The snow kept falling and the temperature was mild. Scott headed out with a few friends for a special tour of the Xstrata copper smelter, since there was a minimum staff on. The lucky guys got to see them pouring a million dollars worth of molten nickel from the huge ladle crane. The ladle is about the size of a house. I didn’t mention that in Timmins you can pour a million bucks worth of molten gold into something the size of a breadpan!
Scottie brought home his good friend Ritchie, who always shows up on Christmas. And Ritchie brought along fishing pal Howard, a genuine Bay Street lawyer. Howard was amazed to get such a warm welcome, but the best part was that he was a cool guy and so the warm welcome wasn’t wasted!
Before long we had a nice ball hockey game going in the backyard rink with all the men and the boys. My twisted knee ached, but the whisky was soothing and warm, and took my mind off the pain. I was goalie and took a few hard shots, but am happy to say I stopped a few hard shots. And yes, I actually have the bruises to prove it. It was a good game until poor Tyler took a slapshot in the face. He went down. We thought he was faking, but then realized he wasn’t. We put the sticks away and after a few hugs and atta-boys, Tyler was okay. He has a nice little scar near his eye to show off to the gang at school.
As the afternoon progressed, we got wind of the wonderful smells from the kitchen where Denise and Jennifer were hard at work creating the perfect Christmas dinner of turkey, potatoes, turnip, stuffing, ham and salads.
Howard and Ritchie didn’t need much coaxing as they agreed to stay for dinner. How nice was that? Vic, Tyler and Nathan got to sit at “the kid’s table” as they ate from the coffee table in the living room. Doesn’t get much more Canadian than that eh?

Too many holidays, too much housework.

I have too many holidays. Really. The Boss told me this week I have more than five weeks to use up between now and my birthday next spring. Then I have another four weeks after that. Sheesh. I took three weeks in August! Now, I have to take Fridays off until I use up my extra time. I like my work. I have been doing it so long that's it's not a chore any more. Maybe that's why I don't mind being at work. I get to meet lots of new people every week. When something really important and interesting is going on, I get a front row seat. Oh well, today I have the day off. I was bored. So I cleaned the bathroom. Still bored. I cleaned the fridge. Then I vacuumed the little tracks at the bottom of the window sills. How the dirt gets in there I will never know. And they're brand new windows too. Oh well, gonna do the floors next. And it's just after 9:00 a.m. Good thing I have to do some Christmas shopping. That should take about half an hour. I chatted with Jenn yesterday and told her I will probably finish my shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve. She said "Yeah, you and all the other men!"

Minus 22 this morning

Well winter has arrived in Timmins, finally. The snow is on the ground to stay and hopefully it can provide some nice trails for the skiiers and snow shoe crowd. And a local businessman is creating a public skating oval in the Hollinger Park. I also snapped a photo of my outdoor thermometer at 7:00 a.m. today and it was a pleasant minus 22. I guess I am going to have to start drying my hair more thoroughly ... it was crunchy this morning when I jumped out of the shower, got dressed and headed out the door. Had a nice phone chat with my brothers this week. Gary, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, celebrated in his 60th birthday on the weekend. And he was quite pleased there was a cake for him provided at the parish hall in Mira.
I spoke to Ronald Monday morning to get some background on a military story. He lives on Vancouver Island on the other side of the country. He should be a media researcher. He pointed me in the right direction to find all sorts of public information on the internet. There was also some exciting family news. Ron and Loni are also new grandparents! Daughter Christina had a baby girl several days ago and everyone is happy and healthy.