Elliot Lake Unleashed

Around town today

2006-05-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hello. It is a beautiful day today. I went for a walk around town
and took some pictures. Note: there is a lot of empty space below. Sorry, I can not find out how to get rid of it :(

This is the entrance to Huron Lodge which is a home for the aged.

We have two supermarkets in town. The IGA in the mall is full service and full price. As implied by the name "No Frills" this store gives less service and is generally less expensive. In the background you can see Horne Lake.

This town is built on the hard rock of the Canadian Shield. As you drive into the mall you have to decide whether to go up the ramp to the roof top parking over the Zellers department store or stay on the lower level.

This is a long weekend in Canada. Monday is Victoria Day, celebrating the birthdate of Queen Victoria of England.

Litter pick up day

2006-04-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Sherriff Creek Wildlife Sanctuary is a marvelous nature preserve very close to town. Today was "Pick up all the litter day". The small group I went with travelled the "Blue" trail along the eastern shore of Horne Lake and then back to the parking lot. We did not find much litter but it was a very enjoyable morning.

I took several pictures but unfortunately I neglected to clean out the memory stick before I started. It is a relatively new camera and it appeared to be taking pictures BUT it was not storing them :(

This picture gives you a feel for the terrain.

I guess I better study my camera instruction book. It was probably signalling "Out of memory" but I did not notice it. This next picture is not mine but I think it is sooooo precious.

That's it for today. Have a good weekend.

Our first 70 degree day:)

2006-04-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day, Yeah!

Bridge

2006-04-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

My internal time clock kind of got mixed up today. I was up playing Bridge on the internet with some Australian "friends" from about 2 am till 8 am. Then I fell asleep and almost slept past noon. I almost missed going to the senior's centre to play Bridge in person :) We held lousy cards all afternoon, ohh hummmm :(

Time to rinse the winter salt off the KIA :)

2006-04-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

Gloreous spring day. I drove about a mile north to the self serve spray car wash. I inserted 3 loonies and gave the KIA a good spray. A loonie is the nickname for our Canadian dollar coin (it has a loon on one side). Of course I could have used one loonie and one twonie :)

It's been a few days :)

2006-04-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hi. I do not remember where the time went. It has been almost a week since I posted and I don't know where the time went.

I did buy the parchment paper and I did try baking veggies in the oven. It was not a big success in my estimation. Carrot sticks were pretty good, nothing special but not bad at all. Fresh brussel sprouts and broccoli were a disaster. Frozen green beans were not bad, a little chewy.

I went for a nice long walk this afternoon. As I arrived home I took a picture of the apartment building I live in. I live on the ground floor and the two windows on the right side of the picture are my two bedroom windows. The living room and kitchen look north out the back of the building. Having my apartment extend right through the building makes for great ventilation through and through :)

Parchment paper

2006-04-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

I learned to cook at my mother's side. She grew up on a farm and parchment paper was not in her vocabulary. So when a Pogo friend sent me an email extolling the virtues of parchment paper I did not know what she was talking about. Google to the rescue :)

Bake vegetables in a conventional oven (keep heat below 400º F) and preheat oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, cut it to size, do not let excess paper hang over edges of cookie sheet. Bake (do not broil) bite sized pieces of veggies. I will buy parchment paper tomorrow and keep you posted on how I get along :)

Also useful when warming something in the microwave. Put veggies to be warmed in a glass bowl, wet parchment paper on both sides and use as a cover on the bowl.

Nice walk

2006-04-09T20:48:00.000-07:00

Nice day but a cool breeze. Walked around town this afternoon. Saw my first robin of 2006! Went out after dark for a peak at the stars but some high wispy clouds made viewing difficult.

This week is the last week of the senior classes. Then we have to begin planning for the September semester. We need some volunteers for the Board. A recording sectretary and Education Director are the main holes available.

Car talk today

2006-04-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

In 1985 Mum bought a Buick LeSabre. In 1990 Mum turned 85 years of age and had to give up driving so I sort of inherited the Buick. A couple of years ago I drove it to Florida. Here it is under a huge Live Oak tree in the parking lot of a Scottish Inn in St. Augustine.

Unfortunately, this past summer tho old Buick's engine started losing power. One cylinder was dead and another cylinder needed to be on life support :(

If I wanted to keep the car I would have to spend around $5,ooo for a rebuilt engine. After much waffling and looking at used cars and new cars, last August I purchased my new KIA.

It took me quite a while to get used to all the multi-function knobs and levers but I love it now. It is peppy, easy on gas and very comfortable. The stereo CD player/radio is a pleasure. It even plays mp3 files so I have wonderful music to enjoy.

It is a nice spring day, so I think I will walk downtown and after lunch head over to the Senior's Centre to play Bridge.

I am looking forward to walking more now that the ice and snow is gone. I do not do much walking in the winter because of the danger of falling. I am a heavy guy and I need my legs in good shape. If I ever fell and smashed my knee or broke a hip it would probably have a negative impact on the rest of my life.

Wednesday afternoon

2006-04-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

It is over 40 degrees so the coming of spring is back on track :)

We held our Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) luncheon meeting today. Our speaker was Jim Johnston, a local flora and fauna photographer. He gave a wonderful powerpoint presentation.The following is a picture overlooking Helenbar Lake north of town.

A couple of Sandhill Cranes

Red foxes

This next wildlife photograph was definitely NOT taken by Jim Johnston but I got a kick out of it. Elliot lake has a lot of retirees.

The Tuesday routine

2006-04-04T03:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Tuesday :)

I woke up early so went online to play Payday Freecell on POGO. This game is very similar to the Windows version of Freecell with an opportunity to win Tokens. Four extra cards have been added to the deck. These extra cards have 4 areas to "scratch" with your mouse pointer to earn bonus tokens (from 5 to 250). If you complete the game you get a bonus "spin" where you can win 100 to 1,000 tokens. POGO claims to give away cash prizes but I have played a lot and I have my doubts. The other good thing about the game is that you can develop a "friends" list and chat with them. My username is "johnnhoj4" and I play in the "Over 50" age group in a room called "Spaces and Aces".

If you click on the following URL it will open in this very window, I suggest you RIGHT click on the URL then left click on "OPEN in new window".

www.pogo.com

This morning I will make final preparations for teaching my "Beginner's Computing" class this afternoon. I need to send an email to each student with two little pictures that they will need during class. Later I will go to the school and make photocopies of today's lesson. Here is one of the pictures. It is the Jack-o-lantern I made my first year in Elliot Lake (note the I Love EL button) LOL

What a difference a day makes :)

2006-04-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

We began to think spring was truly here. NOT yet, old ma nature sent us an inch of wet snow to remind us.

I have found an interesting animated GIF and I am going to put it next (this is an experiment to see if blogspot will handle it).

Nope, gifs don't work :(

I had a nice meeting with Celia Sankar. She is the head of a foundation called Diversity Canada which is attempting to promote more job opportunities for visible minorities, handicapped people, etc.

www.diversitycanada.org

I heard a joke: During the riots in France there were several people accused of being looters or as they would be known in the U.S. .... undocumented shoppers.

Signs of spring

2006-04-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

Another sign that spring is on the way. Our parking lot is surrounded by a low fence that consists of 8" by 8" wooden posts about 3 feet high and 2" by 10" planks fastened horizontally. Every winter the big front-end loaders that do the snowplowing accidentally break a few of the planks. I am hearing sawing and hammering as the broken planks are replaced.

More about where I live, Elliot Lake. Officially it is a city but not a very large one right now. The city is named Elliot Lake and it is situated at the East end of a lake named Elliot lake. These satellite images (courtesy of Google Maps) were taken several years ago and later in the year because right now the lakes are mostly covered with ice.

We have two sandy beaches. Spruce Beach is in the north end of town and is visible opposite the two islands. Spine Beach is the white blob at the west end of town. My apartment building is near the "H" in Hillside Dr. N.

April Fool's day.

2006-04-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

Let's see, what is going on? Normally on Saturday morning I go for a walk through our local Wildlife Sanctuary. The Penokean Hills Field Naturalists sponser a Saturday Stroll every Saturday. Today I have to stay home and wait for a construction guy.

I live in a condo apartment. This 12 unit apartment building is two stories at the front and three stories at the rear. It was built in the 1960s to accomodate uranium miners and their families. Last year the condo association tore off the old rotting balconies and put on new ones (YEAH). This year they are replacing the door that leads out to the balcony. The aforementioned construction guy is coming this morning to measure and see what has to be done in my apartment.

I love living in this small town in Northern Ontario. I grew up in a small town near Toronto. That small town was swallowed up by urban sprawl many years ago. Eight years ago after Mum died I had to figure out what to do with the rest of my life. I saw a TV show about Elliot Lake and how this small town in Northern Ontario was trying to attract retirees to fill empty accomodation since the uranium mines had closed and the population had fallen from 30,000 to 11,000. I drove up to look around and ended up buying this 2 bedroom apartment for $22,000. It has worked out great.

A nice spring rain

2006-03-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

I am just experimenting. This is a new "Posting". We had a little rain this morning. All the vegetation looks so much greener now that the winter coating of salt and dirt is washed off.

Not much for me to do this morning. This afternoon I have to go and make the multimedia projector available for Sandy Guse. He is a volunteer Coordinator (teacher) for the Elliot Lake Institute for Learning in Retirement. The ILR provides inexpensive courses on a vareity of subjects of interest to seniors (50+).

The Sun is trying to shine :) YEAH

Elliot Lake Unleashed

2006-03-31T00:43:00.000-08:00

This is the beginning. Not the beginning of Elliot Lake, the beginning of this BLOG.

Oh where, oh where is Elliot Lake? It is in Northern Ontario, Canada. Approximately half way between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie on Hwy 17 then turn north on Hwy 108 and travel 30 kilometres.