Messy, yes, but it tastes great.

So I am quite pleased with new Melitta ‘Pour over’ coffee maker. You take your ground coffee and put it into the cone-shaped holder along with a paper filt. Then you pour boiling water into the cone. It then drips quickly down into your coffee mug. I find I am able to make a nicer cup of coffee than in my Keurig machine. Except yesterday during lunch I poured the cone full of boiling water and then accidently bumped the whole contraption with the kettle. Darn! There was coffee and boiling water all over the countertop, the stove top and then then down into the space between the stove and the wall. Arrrgh! What a mess.  But … it still makes an excellent cup of coffee.

Enjoying the Olympic Games

I was mentioning to Claudette the other day that the newer version of mixed-doubles curling might become so popular someday it could out rank regular curling. We have really enjoyed watching the Canadian team of Lawes & Morris perform so well at the winter Olympics. We watched every match.  The competition against the OAR was particularly entertaining. The game really moves along quickly and it is quite entertaining to watch. And this morning we learned that they have won the gold medal. So pleased.

I am feeling better this week. Really. It has been two weeks now since I slipped on the sidewalk out on Cedar Street and fell, landing on my back. I mean, I really took a flip. My left leg shot out on the ice just under the snow and I went down, hard. It knocked the wind out of me and for a couple of seconds I couldn’t breathe. That was scary, so I flipped over onto my front to push myself up. I grunted. And I breathed. I didn’t bother getting checked out because I figured if I could get up okay, I would be okay. If not I would just lay on the ground and call 911. LOL. Besides there is a flu outbreak and I didn’t fancy sitting in the emergency room with all those people coughing and sneezing.

I am better now. The next day I dropped into a sporting goods story and found some shoe spikes. Wow, what a difference. They cost $35, but they really work. They stay on your shoe by a heavy elastic strap. When you go into a store or building, you just flip up the spikes and you don’t damage the floor.  You know I take this seriously when I spend money on something when I could easily purchase a very nice bottle of whiskey for the same price.

Waiting for news...

I think I know how people in Olympic communities feel as they wait to find out whether their city or town has won the right to host the games. Timmins is among four cities invited to submit a bid to build a new smelter or metals refinery to process chromite.  That’s the main mineral located in the Ring of Fire mining area in the James Bay Lowlands. The value of the deposit is estimated in excess of $50-BILLION. Yup, that’s Billions we’re talking about. If Timmins wins the bid for a smelter, well we’re talking many hundreds of millions of dollars in local investment. And jobs. Lots and lots of new jobs. That would be helpful. So lots of folks in town are crossing their fingers. 

Yes, I am jealous.

So get used to reading the name Jada Yuan. You may not know of her, but last week she was picked for the best job in the world ... in my opinion. She is an almost-40 freelance writer who has been hired by the New York Times to travel the world for a whole year and report on what she sees. Yuan was selected from more than 13,000 job applicants. She will be travelling to 52 cities around the globe and will write stories on her experiences. Nice work if you can get it. Yes, I am so jealous.

Pencils and stuff.

This goes back to journalism school when we were all taught to carry pencils because in Canada, it gets cold and your pen will freeze. If you have to take notes, a pencil will never freeze. That was sure in evidence last week.  

Things change. All the reporters I see these days have voice recorders built into their smart phones.  I have this feature on my phone, although I am not certain how to use it. What I do use is a very reliable Sony voice recorder that picks up every comment, even in a crowded city council chamber or in a courtroom, if allowed. I also record all the phone calls I get into the newsroom. 

Although I am peeved now that my primary recorder crapped out on me this week. I am using a backup now.  I had the main recorder for about four years, so it’s not so bad. I will have to purchase a new one. Wish I had known about this during Boxing Day sales. 

Pay the working poor!

I want to weigh in on the minimum wage debate in Ontario. The Liberal government has implemented this is oh-so-obvious vote-buying bid. But it is still something that should be done. Raising the wages of the working poor is not something that should be debated or argued. It was overdue. I would have preferred to have seen a straight up income tax exemption for anyone on minimum wage. Not a tax exemption for people who can bring in a list of tax deductions, but an exemption if your pay stub shows minimum wage.

I don’t care that some small businesses will feel the pinch. Deal with it. Raise your prices, find efficiencies. Cope with change or get out of business. I have already decided I will not go to Tim Horton’s because of the way they treat their minimum wage employees. I will also accept that I may have to pay a little more to accommodate those businesses that choose to work with the new minimum wage.

I like tea. Real tea.

I went into a new tea shop in Timmins today. It was so cold outside, I welcomed the idea of a fresh cup of tea and a snack. Aline’s Tea Shop is not that new, but it is new to me. I had heard good things from other folks and decided to try it. I really like that we are getting a few more boutique style eateries in downtown Timmins. So I asked the pleasant lady for a cup of tea, telling her I like the plain orange pekoe tea. She had a shelf without about 30 big jars holding all sorts of different flavours of tea. Some of them smelled quite different. Not necessarily bad, but certainly not something I would drink.

So here’s the thing. They were not really blends of tea. They were all sorts of herbs and flavours. But I like the ordinary tea, that comes from the familiar Asian tea leaves. Usually it is known as black tea. Orange Pekoe is a grade of black tea. Everything else is an infusion. Anyway, we found a plain black tea and it tasted very nice. Only after I explained I wanted ordinary black tea like the grandmas in Nova Scotia would drink. I also had a couple of home baked cookies. Very nice. I think I will go back and bring a couple of Red Rose tea bags with me. 

Can we make stoner jokes anymore ?

I honestly don’t know what to think about this legalization of marijuana thing. On the one hand it seems innocent enough. People want to enjoy a nice mild mood altering drug; maybe in the same way I enjoy a glass of Scotch every now and then. Whoa, wait a minute. I enjoy Scotch a few times a week! I tell myself I enjoy the taste. And I have proven that a few times to myself by not buying certain brands that taste a bit too wild. I also found two distinct brands to my liking and discovered they were blended – years apart—by the same man.

So what makes this different for the person who might enjoy smoking a joint? Not much I guess, but I fear the problem will go beyond that to the stupid stoner who enjoys his weed only because he can get zonked. That also happens to alcohol drinkers, but I argue that this does not make it right. Alcohol is very strictly controlled. I hope this also happens for cannabis users. So here in Canada we will soon find out whether this is a sorry Liberal decision (redundant use of the word sorry) or whether it is something we can live with.

Happy, happy ...

So far this New Year has been crazy cold, but hey that’s kind of normal in this neck of the woods. I am pleased though that the figure-8 skating rink in Timmins – Sk8te Hollinger -- has such wide public support. Was so impressed yesterday when a bunch of teenagers took over the rink for a few hours of fun. Those kids acted like minus 30 was nothing.

I was out at the park last week and took a couple of nighttime shots, but it was too cold to spend too much time out there. Besides I lost my favourite leather gloves and so my hands get colder more quickly.

New Year’s Eve was pleasant. Claudette and I visited Louise Anne and Fred to enjoy a cheese fondue. I have to admit that in all my 63 years I have never before had a cheese fondue. Wow. It was delicious. Poor Fred had to work day shift at the mine, so he went to bed early. He has to get up at 3:00 a.m. and the drive to the mine is an hour away.

We are TV bingeing again. After watching the Netflix series Scandal, and Suits and The Crown, we begged off TV for a while, unless hockey was on. We have discovered an interesting Netflix series; The Blacklist with James Spader and Megan Boone . Quite entertaining. Check it out.

Quite the year eh?

I think the most dismaying part of the past year has been running into people who say, well Donald Trump is not so bad. Leaves me wondering. There were probably people back in my parents' day who were not worried about Hitler too. When people are complacent or choose to ignore stupidity, then bad things can happen. Oh I am sure I will hear about that comment.
Oh well, that being said, I can say that the past month has been nice in many ways. Claudette and I traveled to Sudbury to spend a couple of days with Jennifer and her family last week. That was relaxing and enjoyable. It was nice to see the boys, to see Scott and to see Denise and Don.  We missed meeting Victoria and her boyfriend who were on their way to Timmins. Likely, we passed by each other on the highway Christmas morning.
While it was great to visit Jenn and Scott, I have to say I still miss their dog Buddy. He was always there to greet me when I arrived in their driveway. More than once this Christmas I glanced out of Jenn's kitchen window expecting to see Buddy running through the snow or patrolling the yard.
Jenn had to work Christmas Day at the hospital, but we were pleased to wait until evening to have our gift exchange. Jennifer's FitBit showed she had done more than 15,000 steps that day! Regardless, I am proud that Jennifer is working to help other cancer patients.
It was nice to see Jenn and family earlier in the month when the boys had a hockey tournament in Timmins. This is the last time Tyler and Nathan will be playing on the same team. Nathan turned 16 in November and Tyler will be 18 in April. But it was nice just the same to see the boys enjoying the game. The team won the gold medal, again, in Timmins. Both boys did well, scoring often. In one game, Tyler scored a hat-trick, getting three goals!

I have been super busy at work as expected. Postmedia has not been the corporate savior many people were hoping for. They closed several newspapers in Southern Ontario in the fall. While we were spared layoffs here in Timmins, they have not hired anyone new to replace people who moved on to other newspapers. The effect is the same. Oh well, we struggle forward.

I think the worst part is that our news work is coming under increased scrutiny from the social media know-it-all keyboard warriors who like to think they know better. When they see a story they "disagree" with they label it fake news. If only they knew how much research goes into fact-checking and other steps to ensure our information is accurate. I have been saving screen captures of their comments to hold them accountable if they try to backpedal. They're just as bad as Donald Trump and his tweets.  2018 will be an election year in Timmins, and I think some of them might try to run for office. God help us. 

Fashion? I don't think so.

I bought a nice down-filled parka 10 years ago. It keeps me warm. Here’s the thing; I rarely wear it unless the temperature drops below minus-20. You don’t need a parka unless it gets really cold. I know that. I live in Northern Ontario. I travelled in the Arctic, in winter. About 30 years ago, I had another parka. It was also down-filled, made by Woods. It lasted me 17 winters. It was an excellent winter coat.  So now as I look around I see that parkas have become a fashion thing on the streets of Toronto. Are you kidding me? Toronto? I guess that upsets me. Parkas are not a fashion thing. Or they shouldn’t be. It is just a lousy reason to drive up the price, and I predict the quality will suffer. I hear people are already unhappy because parkas use goose feathers and coyote fur. Give me a break. Hopefully this fad passes soon.  

Apple crisp, revised ...

I think everyone in the Gillis clan knows how to make Aunt Sadie's apple crisp. For me, the recipe is part of my DNA I think. So last week I mentioned to Claudette that apple crisp would be a nice dessert for the weekend. We were standing in the grocery store. I picked up several fresh apples and made sure Claudette had all the other supplies at home. But I really didn't. I forgot to ask if she had any rolled oats. Anyway, the time came to make it. I peeled the apples and set them aside to prepare the "crisp". You know, flour, brown sugar, butter ... That's when I noticed I didn't have the rolled oats. Claudette came up with a couple of package of Quaker instant oats. Good, but not enough. That's when I thought that maybe another breakfast cereal would help. Claudette had Special-K. So we "crunched" up half a cup of Special-K. It worked. OMG, the crisp was so perfect. I think that's part of my future recipe from now on.

Windchill of minus 20!

I was more than pleased Saturday morning when at least 200 Timmins people coped with some cold and snowy weather to attend the Remembrance Day event at the local Cenotaph. Some people are suggesting we should hold the event indoors. And there have been times I would agree with them. A local cop who was directing traffic mentioned that it is only half an hour out the year to put up with a bit of discomfort to honour our veterans. Good comment. I also liked seeing folks carry on the tradition of placing their own poppies at the monument, kind like their personal Act of Remembrance.

A little bit of gold ...

I enjoyed myself this week when the folks at Lake Shore Gold (Tahoe Timmins) poured their millionth ounce of gold. I am always amazed at the idea of gold. Here in Timmins, the entire city revolves around it. If you’re not mining it, you’re selling things to keep the mines in operation whether its fuel, shovels, trucks, timbers or tires. There was a time that the mines spent millions of dollars propping up the local economy. Then it became tens of millions of dollars. Now it’s hundreds of millions of dollars … all for a metal that doesn’t rust, doesn’t tarnish and is non-toxic.

Here’s the best part. People always talk about the Klondike Gold Rush. Well, that was indeed a rush, but it is tiny compared to Timmins. Lake Shore Gold  opened its mining operation in Timmins less than 10 years ago, finding gold on the west side of town,  nearly 100 years after the other big mines opened. The geologists keep saying there is lots of gold in Timmins that hasn’t been discovered yet. All they have to do is find it. By the way, the gold bar weighed in at 55 pounds ... $1.2-million.

Protest is okay ...

So I have been thinking about the NFL players protest of going down on one knee during the playing the U.S. national anthem. I am okay with it.  It is really quite a peaceful, and respectful, form of protest. They’re not setting buildings on fire. They’re not blocking streets. They’re not out looting department stores. They’re taking a knee.

A lot of people seem to forget that people have the right to protest in the U.S. and in our own country They people who are protesting seem to be legitimately upset with the way blacks are being treated in the U.S.   So let’s face it, some of the police services in that country are totally out of hand and out of touch with reality.  Kinda wish Martin Luther King was still around. And if other people are upset with a few football players having a protest, hey get used to it. The land of free. The home of the brave. Get used to it. 

Ron and Matthew's big adventure :)

I was more than pleased this week to have Ronald and his son Matthew drop in to Timmins on their cross Canada trip from B.C. and Alberta to RCAF Trenton. Matt is being posted from the base at Cold Lake to the base at Trenton as his air force career continues. Ron flew out from Comox and met Matt in Saskatchewan to continue the trip.  Claudette was a great host putting on a nice dinner of ribs and chicken while I made sure the fellows enjoyed a bit of beer and whisky.  It was great to re-live some childhood memories and perhaps more amazing, to wonder how we managed to survive some of those childhood adventures.

My knife ...

Few people these days understand the importance of a pocket knife. While on vacation last week, I ran into one of those pseudo-urgent situations where I had a bottle of refreshment and no bottle opener. And it wasn’t a twist-top bottle. I was flummoxed! I always carry my favourite little slim Swiss Army Knife, but for the life of me I could not find it. Maybe some lucky person will eventually find it. The thing is I always like to have a knife not because I want to cut something, but because they’re so useful for other things. Such as opening a bottle of refreshment. 

As it turned out, we enjoyed our refreshments but had to resort to primitive methods to open the bottles. So as part of our holiday travels, there was a search for a new pocket knife, whenever there was a convenient moment. This included Toronto, Niagara On The Lake, Ottawa and even Kanata. On the final day of our travels, we stopped in North Bay at the mall there to see about other things. As I was walking along, Claudette pointed at one of those engraving shops, where you can buy all sorts of things for engraving. I walked in an inquired about their selection of pocket knives. Bingo! I am now the proud owner of a genuine Swiss Army Pioneer.

A grim memory ...

I was on the road today to cover a story in a remote area of Northern Ontario up on the Abitibi River. I came across this bronze monument in tribute to 10 people who died in a plane crash in 1976 at Abitibi Canyon.  It shocked me back to reality. I remember the crash. It was a Labour Day weekend. I was the first reporter at the scene.  The wreckage was still burning. I had never seen dead bodies at a crash scene before. It was grim.

And so it continues :(

I know I have written this before, but I honestly don’t know how long Trump can go on as president, the way he carries on. He has made a mockery over everything presidential and he doesn’t seem to know what he is doing. I think he mentally ill. Not that there is anything wrong with being mentally ill. But people should just know.  His key people are leaving every week. What do they know that we don’t?  Why do I care. I am not American. Well he has the nuclear launch codes and with that other wacko in North Korea I don’t what to think anymore. Thank God for the New York Times, the Washington Post and other responsible media outlets for keeping us informed.

The beginning of this month was fun. Neil came home for a visit and it was nice. It was also a chance to meet Lee Ann, his girlfriend. Two very cool young people. It was great to spend time with them and nice of Neil to get out to see as many cousins and aunts and uncles as he could.  He also got to spend some time with Jenn and her family, which she said she really enjoyed.

So holidays are coming up soon and I think I will head to southern Ontario. I hate the traffic and the air pollution, but I think a couple of days at the Canadian National Exhibition might be fun. I haven’t been down south for a few years, so it will be a change of scenery.

The summer has been good so far, not too hot. Although there were a few days I longed to jump into a cool northern lake. I did that a few times last summer. I must learn to appreciate the North more.