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The drive home was a success. It was a great success from Ottawa to North Bay where the roads were bare. The drive from North Bay to Cochrane was pretty bad. Luckily for me, I felt drowsy at this point and let Vero drive for awhile. But it was pretty bad. There were a few times where I decided to stay in the non-passing lane because it was too icy to pass anything. However, that doesn’t stop 20 other cars from passing me and then I have thoughts of one of them side-swiping me!

In the end, we counted 10 cars in the ditch on the way up and one was just past Moonbeam and was flipped right over. They were alright so we continued on the trip. It took us 10 hours so it wasn’t that bad of a trip. We played Christmas trivia and had lively discussions with Krista (who was getting a ride).

We dropped by the Konopelkys where my parents were having a drink and we relaxed for awhile and then headed back home for the night. After some beers, great pizza and watching the Beatles Help! film, Vero and I headed out to the Legion where everyone was. Maureen also showed up for a beer and we had a good laugh when realizing that we were both wearing the same outfit – red sweater and jeans! I proclaimed “You have the town to yourself for the entire year, this is my town for one week! Go home and change!”.

It was nice seeing some familiar faces and the band was in top form. My highlight of the night was when Bruce called me up to sing and we thought Back in the USSR would be a good fit. Luckily for me that I had been practicing this song for the past few months so the lyrics were fresh in my inebriated mind (as opposed to all the lack of memory on all other lyrics in this world!). So I was impressed with myself and we had a good time once we figured out what key to sing it in. Special thanks to the band for allowing me to sing on one number. I’ve included one photo which shows me in my rocking stance. I was telling Vero that it’s a different feeling being up there without a guitar as I don’t really know how to stand so I just tried to think of the greats; Robert Plant, Bono, Mom…and channeled that energy into the performance. I was offered the guitar at first but figured that it would be hard enough remembering the lyrics let alone playing with the entire band!

Highlights:

• What was with the draft beer that night? I swear there was definitely some sugar added to it.
• I have no recollection of how this started but somehow the slogan for Mike was that he was Hepatitis Free so every time we saw him we cheered this fact. Let it be clear that Mike has never had hepatitis!
• Seeing Brent take the drums for a few songs.

All in all, a good first night back home. It was good to see Danny and Carol as they are heading out fairly soon during the Christmas break as they have to go back to work.

Mom graciously sent some survey answers our way so we can round out the 12 Days of Christmas! Special thanks to Aunt Lois who reminded me that Mom did send something in as I had not put it in my Christmas Survey folder and had forgotten! She also didn’t send along a photo of herself and she explained it with this message: “As you know, I Don’t have a scanner so I can’t send any pictures from long ago, also, you may not have realized, but I never seem to spend Christmas with you guys, since there are no photos of me.” If this isn’t a hint at what she wants for Christmas, I don’t know what is! She sent along a favourite photo of hers where I was impersonating an old man that Nanny would be dancing with in an old-timers home.

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?
My favourite things about Christmas are getting together with family & friends and all the
decorations.

What’s your least favourite thing about Christmas?
Most people who know me will know that I really dislike trying to shop for people who don’t need anything (or go and buy it for themselves just before Christmas). We have long forgotten the important things about the season.

What’s better? The Christmas Story film or National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation film? Why?
I really like Christmas Vacation. I don’t really know why.

What’s your favourite drink during the holiday season? Slush

What should Vero get Palmer for Christmas?
The question should be what should Palmer get for Véro?

I was reading an article on old Marvel superhero toys and I found this following statement:

Needless to say, the Marvel license was snatched up toot sweet and the rest is toy history.

Read here.

This is a great Globe and Mail article about medical myths that have been debunked. I send this article out to my friend who always had some water by her side!

Read here.

iplaying: Wave Song – The Smashing Pumpkins (Mashed Potatoes)

Ah..the holiday spirit is approaching fast! I had my sociology exam last night which went well solely because the professor gave us example essay questions and indicated that she would choose two of them for the exam. That saved my ass because the multiple choice were out of this world. As in, she doesn’t choose her questions from her lecture points, she chooses them from the textbook! I find this frustrating as I’m typing a mile a minute on my laptop to capture everything she says and in the end, all you need to do is memorize the textbook (which is no easy feat!). Plus there are questions that are obscure like “According to a statistic regarding population, what was the 3rd largest minority?”. What the heck? Do I have to memorize every graph in the book? Argh. Anyhow, I’m hoping it went fine.

It’s the last day at work before the holidays and I’ve already received a few gifts. I got a great Guinness Beer gift set from my manager and I also got a Christmas Trivia game from Krista. There are 1200 questions so I think that in 120 years we can use the entire set if I have a Christmas party every year!

I have to pick up some more things tonight because I haven’t had that much time to shop and I will have to pack up the car tonight with things to keep me interested over the holidays. Up on the chopping block is bringing my guitar and recording equipment home, borrowing Eric’s Lord of the Rings set to watch and bringing some movies that I think Dad would be interested in. I also am going to get Dad to teach me how to play Crib again. Haven’t played in years!

Not looking forward to driving this weekend…rain all the way. I can only imagine what that will mean in this weather. Slush and lots of windshield washer. Guh.

Other than that, there isn’t TOO much lined up for the holidays which is fine by me. Christmas Eve at the church and a gathering afterwards, I think there is a night at the Legion tomorrow night, maybe there will be another wings and beer night at the Losiers and I will probably spend New Years Eve over at Vero’s.

I will try and update the blog but who knows? Holidays are kind of nice to let go of that sort of thing…

Here‘s some reading for you concerning Charlie Brown’s Christmas.

Whoa! Just heard word that the province of Quebec has made it mandatory for cars to have winter tires between November – April.

That is quite the ruling. Does residents get a tax break from that? Will the tire shops jack up their prices because it is now mandatory?

Here’s an interesting statistic from this Globe and Mail article.

“Currently, 90 per cent of Quebec drivers switch to winter tires. But Minister of Transportation Julie Boulet wanted to make snow tires compulsory, even though buying them will represent an additional cost for some owners.”

That’s quite a high percentage. I never realized it could be that high. So then I’m wondering, why the heck are they making it mandatory if 90% of the population does so anyhow?

Here’s another stat worthy of discussion:
“Last year, 717 people died as a result of accidents on the province’s roads.”

Questions (from my critical thinking mind):
– Of those 717, how many were snow-on-the-road related accidents?
– How many of those snow-on-the-road related accidents involved vehicles without snow tires?

I would think that if 90% of the population has snow tires, chances are, even if the 717 were involved in snow-on-the-road accidents, some of the cars had snow tires.

What I’m getting at is that I don’t think the statistics help the case for a mandatory snow tire policy. Now, if they said it was voluntary but you got a rebate from the Quebec government, maybe the number would creep up past the 90% mark. But 90% is a heck of a lot and in many circles is deemed a good average.

I don’t even know if 717 people dying due to provincial road accidents is higher compared to other provinces or if it’s in line with the average. I stand by my original question as to how many of these deaths are winter-tire related.

Maybe I’m just commenting because I don’t feel I need snow tires, but people who buy them anyhow are ADAMANT that they are needed and call me foolish for not doing so.

On a related note (I’m sure I’ll get flack for this comment), I wonder how many accidents are caused because people think if they have snow tires, they can go about their merry day and drive like it’s the summer in the middle of the winter? I’m sure there are a few.

Anyhow, in the end, considering there’s only 10% of the population in Quebec that don’t buy winter tires, it’s a small percentage who will have their say but will get drowned out by the all the others who buy winter tires anyhow. I’m going to mark in my calendar to take a look at the province wide road deaths a year from after the ruling is implemented.

Another interesting point was the banning of hand held cellular phones while driving which is going to go into effect on January 1. I guess I agree with it…I’ve noticed some drivers in the past who are merging into my lane when they shouldn’t and I wonder why they are doing that and then I notice they are on their cellphone. However, I’ve been there and done it, and don’t feel that it hinders my driving but that may be my ignorance speaking and it would be interesting to take a driving test while talking on a cellular phone to see how reaction time is diminished. In the end, I don’t think it’s a BAD idea and it doesn’t cost anyone money to not talk on phone while driving. Quick! Sell some hands free sets in Quebec for the Christmas season!

***update*** So our friend pollcrazy left this comment:
” What about the insurance industry not covering your claim because you didn’t have snow tires on?”. This intrigued me as I had never heard of this happening but heck, you never know with insurance companies. So I decided to go straight to the source and emailed my insurance supervisor and she said that it simply wasn’t true. Now in pollcrazy’s defense, perhaps his insurance company has a different clause, or perhaps he has friends that this has happened to or has seen investigative reports on this type of thing. Heck, we’ve all heard horror stories about insurance companies not processing your claims. At the very least, I have received a Christmas present from pollcrazy in the fact that I now have an email from my insurance company saying not having snow tires won’t affect my claim if something does happen. Yay!

Day 9 rolls in…egads…we are close to Christmas! I wasn’t even thinking about how close Christmas actually was until I noticed the date on my watch yesterday. I hope that everyone is done their Christmas shopping so they can relax and enjoy a good book. I have my final exam tonight and tomorrow will be a whirlwind of last minute shopping, packing and dropping off gifts. If you see an amazing looking gift on your doorstep on Saturday morning, it was from me.

Katie sent in her Christmas thoughts and she gave me a variety of pictures to choose from. I definitely wanted to put up the cowboy picture but I also thought a Santa hat may do it justice. You can decide which one you like better. Also, she sent in what can only be described as something she picked up after a ride in the Delorean.

What is your favorite thing about Christmas?
My favourite thing is probably giving gifts, whether it’s something that puts a smile on your face, or inviting friends over to enjoy a meal, or giving to charity. It’s such a good time of year, I sometimes have a hard time reigning myself in.

What’s your least favorite thing about Christmas?
Hmmmm…I don’t have a lot of least favourite things. Maybe getting up super early? Also the crowds whether in the stores/malls or the crowded living rooms.

What’s better? The Christmas Story or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? Why?
Okay, I’m sorry, I have to go on a bit of a rant here. If you guys think that the best Christmas movies out there are the two choices listed above, boy are you missing out. The best Christmas movie, by FAR, is One Magic Christmas. There’s tons of humour, some sappiness, some scrooginess, heartbreak, hope and of course Santa!!! And the two cutest kids (brother and sister) ever. Oh, and did I mention that it’s Canadian. This doesn’t tell you much http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089731/ but you must believe (ahem, perhaps a recurring theme in the movie) in what I say. Oh, and a very very young Sarah Polley makes an appearance. [Palmer’s Note – I am definitely going to take a look at this film over the holidays! I am intrigued.]

What’s your favorite drink during the holiday season?
Got to agree with the mimosa’s Christmas morning.

What should Vero get Palmer for Christmas?
For some reason, I still think love is enough.

We are living in the land of ‘I need my music now and there is a way of achieving that!’. Case in point, hot off of their 2007 tour, the Smashing Pumpkins went into the studio and cut four acoustic tracks which will be released on January 2. This is quite the quick turnaround. In the yesteryear, we would have had to wait until 2011. Not anymore!

They will release this EP on iTunes in the US, but everywhere else gets a sweet physical copy. I am stoked by this because…I like my physical copy. It’s nice to pop it into the car stereo. It’s also nice to have as a backup in case my hard drive dies. Don’t know how I feel about the digital realm yet in terms of purchases.

Anyhow, I am excited for this new EP and I hope that it brings forth new methods of distribution for the Pumpkins. They are toying around with how to get their music out there when they feel it’s hot and not wait until they have an album worth of material. We can see clearly that the entire industry has went back to a single-driven world (well, did it ever really leave?) where you used to buy your 45s with your new favourite song.

If you have been living under a rock (or do not have a Music World in your town), you should know that each week they increase their discounts on merchandise leading up to the January 15 closing date.

I am treating myself to some deals as I won’t be around a store during the holiday break. Mainly I’m catching up on some killer albums that I have downloaded but never got around to purchasing. Like Metric’s new album and Silversun Pickups.

While out shopping this holiday season, go here before anywhere else. You never know if you’ll find a better deal.

I was talking to Mom yesterday and she mentioned how they were in Timmins yesterday (1.5 hours away) and picked a turkey up on the trip because it’s hard to get a turkey in Kapuskasing.

What the heck? Turns out that there is only one grocery store left in Kapuskasing. So it’s hard to keep turkeys in stock! I was talking to Krista about it this morning and we were wondering how many turkeys are needed? Let’s say Kapuskasing is 10,000 people, are there 5,000 turkeys needed?

I think what they need to do is just get a tractor trailer full of them and advertise that they will be selling on a Saturday morning! Actually, Mom said that they have quite a few coming in through the week but they are always gone by the time she gets there! I find that incredible. I don’t know if it’s the case of simple supply and demand, or of lack of food shipping management. I’m going to assume supply and demand considering they have a truck coming in three times a week.

Anyhow, if someone else is missing a turkey, simply send me some money for postage and I’ll send one your way!

iplaying: Hey Jude – The Beatles (Past Masters Volume 2)