Old passport photo

So yeah,  here's an old passport photo from 2006. Back when I had a bit more hair on top. Today is throwback Thursday. I wish somebody could throwback some hair on my head.

Just to make it ineterestomg. you can compare it to the latest passport photo I had done for my new passport application in September 2026.

Enjoying a really nice new drink

I was at my fave pub last week for a quick supper -- fish and chips -- which hit the spot very nicely.  And it was quicker than I expected as I had only one glass of beer and I had gulped down my supper. Bartender Rob mentioned the October menu had some new drinks on it.

I looked. 

What caught my eye was a whiskey drink featuring Cabot Trail Maple Whisky; firstly because it is a whisky and secondly because it originates from the part of Canada where I was born, Cape Breton. 

The drink is called the Maple Apple Fizz. Maple whisky. Apple juice. Club soda. Cinnamon stick and a few small green apply slices. 

So I ordered the drink

It was delicious and smooth and tasty. Really refreshing.  The strongest flavor coming through was the apple, and then the really nice hint of maplem a whisper of cinnamon followed by the warmth of the whiskey. Up until now I didn't think I would enjoy whisky with an apple juice mixer. So that has changed and I will have to try a few versions of that. 

Font Size. Ridiculous.

   This is one of those times when I complain about things that are ridiculous. Out shopping last week when I saw a package of cabbage rolls. I thought Okay the package size is reasonable, unlike buying a full family-sized tray of cabbage rolls. Regardless, I love cabbage rolls. Got home and put them in the freezer. A few days later it was time to try them. 

I cooked up some potatoes and took the package out of the freezer and pre-heated the oven.  I figured the oven would be roughly 350 degrees, but I wanted to be sure so I checked the package for the cooking instructions. 

Imagine my surprise at seeing the instructions on the front of the package in such a tiny font that I could not read it. I had to use a magnifying glass.  I snapped a photo using a loonie as a reference for size. You can see how small the font is. That is just silly. Click the photo to see it full size.

Music? Your opinion.

 If there is one thing that people are quick to have opinions about it is music. 

In the past few months I have had the time to watch a lot of television. One of the things I have noticed is the popularity of "reaction channels" on YouTube.

A reaction channel is where a person responds to such things as old movies and old music. I am always amazed at the large number of people who have not heard about such popular musicians as The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, Linda Ronstadt and even Elvis. I am not making this up.

So I get a kick when I see people respond to songs and musical choices I have always liked and many people are amazed that singers and performers from days gone by were so  talented and did not use things like Auto-Tune or other technological assistance.

One particiular song that seems popular on YouTube is Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers singing Unchained Melody. It was performed in 1965.

It was performed live on the Andy Williams show and is a masterpiece of a 1960s pop love song.

I have seen it now many times because so many younger people respond to it. I like the melody. I like the lyrics. I like that the guy sings live. I like his voice. And I like that I can understand the words.

One of the commenters remarked that modern music is failing because singers and songwriters just don't seem able to write well and do not actually sing well. Too many singers just shout, or wail in a scream-like voice or they just talk the words. That's not talent. It may be creative. But it is not singing.

Good news and one of my best photos

I heard good news from the business world this past week when it was revealed that a Canadian company is reviving the iconic Canadair 415 water bomber that is used to fight forest fires.

The plane, first developed by Canadair in the 1960s and then by Bombardier and then DeHavilland Canada, is now being rejuvenated for a new upgraded version called the DeHavilland Canadair 515.

Prime Minister Carney and the Canada aviation industry have worked out a deal to build and sell more than 50 new airplanes. Some will be purchased by provinces in Canada. Others are being sold to Europe,

Canada, EU plan to buy 50 De Havilland water bombers

As an aviation fan I have long admired the plane which is regarded as the best of its kind in the world. I am pleased to share a photo I shot roughly 15 years ago during a forest fire in Timmins. The planes were swooping down onto Porcupine Lake to fill their water reservoirs and then dropping water on a forest fire near Schumacher. 

The plane in this photo had just loaded up with water when another plane, flying from behind was setting up to do the same thing..

Photoa were were shot By Len Gillis with a Nikon D50  135mm  lens, on May 19, 2010.  Below are a couple of other shots taken that day.

.

Soup weather

  October is here and suddenly I have the feeling that salad, sandwiches and a cold beer just dont seem fully appropriate for supper. I was out grocery shopping when I decided that a nice hot bowl of beef barley soup would be good especially now that the weather is cooling off. 

As I broswed the meat counter, I was surpised to see that a small package of stewing beef would cost more than $11. That's expensive. 

Then I noticed there was a small steak on for "quick sale" for only $7.  That ws reasonable. I added chopped up carrots, celery, onion, corn and barley. I threw in a package of Lipton Beef Vegetable soup set it to simmer for about three hours. 

One thing I forgot to pick up when I was shopping was garlic, which I think would have been nice. The soup was still tasty and filling. I enjoyed two bowls with bread and butter and put the rest in the freezer. 

Can Washing

So I first read about this in a news article some time back.  Then I talked to a guy who worked in a soft-drink warehouse. He said YES, rinse the top of your pop can or beer can if you're going to drink from the can. 

The thing is that all kinds of crap and dirt can land on the top of drink cans that you don't know about; things like rat shit and mouse piss.and who knows what else; things like chemicals and other substances that could be found in warehouses or other places where cans are stored.

So it's just a thing I do and I rarely drink from cans unless I know I can clean the top. I am a bit wierd that way I guess. 

Pea Soup with bacon

I admit that Habitant Pea Scoup is one of my favourite foods, but I also confess that I enjoy making my own pea soup because it is just so delicious. I made abig batch of pea scoupl earlier this year, but in my enthusiasm I added big chunk of salt pork, which is believed added an authentic touch to the recipe. To my disappointment, the salt pork was far too salty. I was not aware of this because my generation was not privy to the methods of daily cooking with salt pork ... something my mother and grandmothers would have known about. 

So I picked up a pound of split yellow peas and was determined to do it better. Just so you know, a traditional can of Habitant Pea Soup now retails for $3.49 at most grocery stores. The price for a pound of split peas was only $2.99.

I confess I also used a litre of Campbell Soup chicken broth. Add $2.99 to the total.

 So it took about five hours of simmering on the stove top and it turned out very nice. I had to add about halfa teaspoon of salt to the pot, which was about six litres of soup. I had two bowls and the rest when into the freezer. So was it good. Delicious! So I can look forward to a few more nice suppers with pea soup and a grilled cheese, or ham and cheese on a nice multi-grain toasted sandwich.

CORRECTION; Three litres of soup ... enough to fill six 500 ml jars.

Fish dinners

Pleased to report that I was invited to a couple of special family dinners recently. The first was with Don and Denise who have returned from spending a good part of the summer in Newfoundland. That's where they purchased a whole scoff of of seafood and they were kind enough to share it with a family dinner.

As you can see from the menu Denise posted on the dinner table, we enjoyed a feast of fine seafood, along with the amazing company of most of the family. What a treat it was and the take-home leftovers were just as good a couple of days later. 

As if that wasn't enough, Scott and Jennifer hosted a fish fry along with a nice bonfire this past weekend. The amazing fish, chips, salad, coleslaw and other fixin's was a real treat. It was nice to share a great meal with the extended family again. I wonder what the poor folks do on weekends. :)

Walking around

I was out with Jennifer last week for a really nice hike at Bell Park, along the Lake Remsay boardwalk in Sudbury. It was sort of an impromptu thing because we usually get together for a coffee and sandwich chat a few times a month

. The weather was perfect as you can see from the photo showing the lake, Science North and the hospital. This time Jenn said let's go for a good walk; summer is fading too fast; let's get out for some fresh air. What a nice idea it turned out to be, although I admit it was more of a workout than I expected. After that we checked out the Salute coffee shop in the south end, which was excellent. It was one of the best lunches I have had this year. 

 https://www.salutecoffee.com/

New Passport arrived

We get so used to things happening today or within a few hours that it was a bit of a struggle to be told it could take a few weeks for my new passport to be processed. Much to my surprise the new passport arrived Monday... just two weeks after I submitted the application. So I was pleased with that. I was also pleased with the level of service I got at the Sudbury passport office downtown. It has been ten years since I applied for my previous passport, but the level of service has improved greatly.

I am not making any specific travel plans but I think it is good to have a passport just in case some special travel opportunity comes up. It kind of bothers me that world politics plays a role in ny decision i might make. That means that I won't be travelling to the U.S. for the time being, nor will I take part in a unique Russian icebreaker cruise to the North Pole. However, a cruise to Antarctica is still on the bucket list.

I was depressed

What a week this has beem. I was heartbroken to learn of Dolly Parton's death on the weekend. I waa so caught off guard and feeling depressed because she always left me feeling happy and inspired whenever I saw her perform. I just hope her death was not difficult for her. Sunday was otherwise a nice day. Jenn called and invited me out to supper in the Valley. It was a nice drive but the supper was a perfect combination of a hearty soup, a salad and appetizers. She and Scott are such excellent hosts and really outstanding in the kitchen. It was nice to spend time as well with Nathan, Dara and Ace.

I also want to share that I enjoyed vegging out for a couple of hours watching a movie called Song, Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman (Yes, the Wolverine guy!) and Kate Hudson. It's a movie based on a true story of a couple who have a small town tribute band to Neil Diamond. An amazing story, great performances and fabulous music. The movie itself is not a musical, but the musical performances were terrific.

Missing good people

Retirement is good but I find I have developed a mid-afternoon habit of enjoying a treat I would usually regard as really special. I like to prepare special cup of coffee, very strong, with a hint of chocolate syrup, stirred up with a teaspoon of ice cream and a shot of whisky . If that wasn’t enough, I like to add a nice piece of chocolate tuxedo cake or apple pie. Lucky me that I have good taste for things that taste good.

I was saddened to hear last week of the death of well=known TV anchor Lloyd Robertson. I say that because I was able to meet him a few times while I was at CTV. He was a true gentleman, a super nice guy. I can’t say I got to know him well but each time we met he was kind enough to remember my name and ask he about the newsroom in Timmins. He just had a way of making everyone feel important while he was chatting with people.

So you can't say we haven't been warned

Every evening in recent months I have watched the American newscasts, specifically NBC News and ABC News, and have noticed a startling change. Both networks are now focussing on major weather stories. That's because a day hardly goes by that there is not a major weather event that is impacting the lives of millions of people throughout the U.S. Think of forest fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, massive rainstorms, flooding, droughts and unusual snowstorms in places where cold weather was barely a worry before. This is happening all the time now. It brings me back to a lecture I attended at Northern College in Timmins around 15 years ago where Dr. David Pearson presented a lecture on climate change. He talked about the fact that Earth's climate is changing quickly and we are not prepared to deal with it. I remember thinking that some of his comments back then were alarmist. Over the years, a lot of people say climate change is nothing but a hoax perpetuated by the wacky woke crowd. I have to admit there are a lot of wacky people around but we need to pay more attention to the climate.

Retired? Yes, finally.

So halway through July and I can conform I am indeed retired now feom the news game. Village Media was find enough to provide a retirement package that include accumulated sick days and medical leave. I have actually been off the job since just before Christmas. So That's that. I has lunch yesterday with Jennifer downtown at the diner on Larch Street. We get out there maybe once a year or so. It was nice. We chatted .. or I should say I did most of the chatting for nearly two hours! It was nice to get caught up on the family gossip and to enjoy Jenn's sense of humour. I should mention that we had a grreat visit from Neil in June. He was back in Ontario so he could visitt Timmins with Jenn as they attended Moe and Marie's 50th anniversary celebration. From all accounts it was a great event.

We enjoyed a brief time at Camp Alexander, with good food, some drinks and great company. Life doesn't get much better.

Thank goodness for warranties

So it was a good thing last week that my car came out of the shop. Last Friday I got a call from Ken at Laurentian Motors advising that my car was ready. I had put it in the shop on December 29, first of all for a regular oil change but also because some dash lights were showing. The parking brake needed service, the cruise control needed service, the 4x4 wasn’t working and as I pulled into the shop, the service guy said the engine light had come on. Okay then. Time to check everything. This was all two weeks ago. I figured it would take a couple of days. The service called back two days later. Said there was a tonne of work needed to get done and he needed me to approve it Thank goodness I had an extended warranty. Service guy said the total work bill would be over $9,000 which included transmission work. He said he would notify the warranty people to get it all approved. And so he did. Picked up the car on Friday. Cost of the warranty work was $9,730. My cost was only $434. Yes, this was a good week.

Cool cups eh

I have to say I like the artwork on the new Tim Horton's holiday cups. Grabbed a medium this afternoon and I really enjoyed looking at the winter scenes complete with Santa and a hockey stick. So Kudos to the art designers at Timmies for coming up with the nice artwork. I am sure lots of people will notice and enoy.

Sunday afternoon hockey game

I was pleased to enjoy going to the Sudbury Wolves hockey game Sunday. I keep telling myself that it's one of those simple pleasures that is so easy to enjoy. The Wolves haven't been winning a lot this season but it was still fun to enjoy the game, even if I only had two beers and avoided the pizza and popcorn in the VIP booth. I promise myself I will get out again, to watch some really good fast hockey.

Also Sunday I had a chance to chat with Ronald and wish him a happy birthday. We had a great chat about family and just life in general. It was all good.

My Ken Dryden story ...

So it was back in October of 2008 that that hockey great Ken Dryden was having a cup of coffee at the McIntyre Coffee Shop. He was in Timmins campaigning for the Liberals, and I knew I had to get a photo of Dryden on the ice next door at the arena. Luckily there was a noon hour rec-league game underway and as I tried to interrupt the game, I was initially met with anger by the guys playing hockey. I explained that the legendary Ken Dryden was in the house, and would they agree to a casual photo of Dryden with their hockey team. Yes! they said. And so I have this very nice photo of one of the great hockey players from the 20th century.

A good summer or what!

I noticed today, with the weather being a bit overcast and the temperatures a bit cooler, that Summer 2025 is passing quickly. I cannot complain. Overall it has been a nice summer. Don and Denise have put on some really excellent family dinners. Those were fun. ¶Things were especially good this past week when I was able to spend some time relaxing up at Camp Alexander. Jenn and Scott were excellent hosts. It was nice to spend time with Don and Denise also, along with all the rest of the folks. ¶The big surprise of course was the unexpected visit from Neil, all the way from Vancouver. I was sitting in a Sudbury restaurant with Jennifer for a nice supper when Neil suddenly walked in. I didn't recognize him for a few seconds and then I did. Very happy. Neil was able to spend some time at camp and he even found time to get up to Timmins where he was delighted to meet uncles, aunts and cousins. Back in Sudbury this week, both of us had a chance to visit my favourite pub where we spent time eating, drinking and catching up. Neil is heading back home and on Thursday we took a photo at the bus station just before he left town. Can't wait for another visit. Which means I now owe him a visit. It's all good.