Hey Canada, It's Voting Day!

Dear Canada,

Today is very important! Please make sure you get to your polling station at some point between 9:30am-9:30pm. Make sure you vote! Also, please vote for hope and not fear. Please vote for something we can wake up tomorrow and feel happy about. And no, you cannot vote for the Toronto Blue Jays!

Your polling station should be listed on your Voter Information Card, but if you didn't get one, check out Elections Canada to find out where to vote.

Thank you!

Jen B. 

Pride Week Cupcakes

Simcoe County celebrated Pride Week from July 31- Aug 8th, with many municipalities raising the rainbow flag to celebrate. We live in Tiny Township, and even though Simcoe Pride has been around for a few years, this was the first time our municipality participated. We went over to the township office to watch them raise the Pride flag, and I was very proud that our small town was celebrating diversity.

A fair amount of people showed up for the event, which was wonderful to see, and I made and shared cupcakes with the crowd to celebrate.

Making rainbow cupcakes is one of my favourite things so I always love an opportunity to bake them. The recipe for rainbow cupcakes can be found here. I also made some rainbow cupcake toppers, which I have previously posted about here.

Simcoe County Battery Collection

The County of Simcoe is collecting used disposable batteries next week as part of the regular curb side collection. They mailed out battery collection bags a few weeks ago, and all we have to do is fill them with dead batteries and put them out at the side of the road. I love when they make it easy for people to do the right thing.

Battery Collection Bag

The waste management program in Simcoe County is already really good at diverting materials out of the landfill, as there are lots of items that can be dropped off at the local dump for free. Last year we did a big clean out of our garage and dropped off a few carloads of old paint cans, half full cans of various chemicals, car batteries, and scrap metal, all for free. It makes me feel good that I can help the environment and still get rid of the things I need to dispose of.

So I have happily filled my battery bag and I'm glad this new program is here to keep these items out of the landfill.

Batteries ready for pick up

Simcoe Pride 2013

It's Pride Week here in Simcoe County, with festivities running from August 2-9th. Simcoe Pride has organized a number of events, including Pride Flag raisings in ten communities. This will be the first time many of the municipalities have flown the Pride Flag (Penetang raised their Pride Flag for the first time last Friday).

Yesterday morning there were eight flag raisings in Simcoe County, and I went with Betony and Clara to the one in Midland, ON. It's a small town so we ran into some friends and had a really fun time watching Midland show its Pride.

The crowd gathering for the flag raising

André from Ciboulette et Cie made rainbow cookies for the event and handed them out to the gathered crowd. It was such a lovely thing to do and the cookies were great.

Clara picking out the best rainbow cookie

Members of Simcoe Pride and Mayor Gord McKay said some words before the flag was raised.

Mayor Gord McKay, MP Bruce Stanton, J. Andrew Baker, Jai Crouch

Here is the video I took while the flag was raised:

There is a Pride Flag flying in Midland, ON! Woot!

After the flag was raised, I got a nice shot of Betony and Clara looking adorable.

We all gathered on the steps of Town Hall to get into some photos.

Mayor McKay in center front, André hands out more cookies on the right

Being behind the camera I don't have any photos of me, but I make an appearance at the end of this video of the event. I'm in the front left wearing a green top.

The flag raising was a great experience and made me proud to see so many happy and smiling people showing their support. Way to go Midland, ON!

Rainbow Cookies

By now you have probably heard about the not-troversy surrounding this Oreo Cookies Gay Pride poster:

In celebration of Pride Week and in appreciation of rainbow cookies everywhere, I picked up a box of Rainbow Chips Ahoy! and will be enjoying an entire tray full!!

Happy Pride Week Everyone!!!

Paying With Plastic

I never have cash on me, and if I do, at most it's a twenty.  Everything is either debit or credit, unless there is a "get 10% off" deal if you pay in cash.

Because I spend so little time with cash, I was surprised to learn that Canada now has a new $100 bill.  I had the pleasure of holding one today and looking at all the neat security features, which includes being made out of plastic instead of paper.  Wild!

I then watched this video on the new bill from the Bank of Canada to learn more about it:



Canadian readers, have you seen or held one of these yet?  What do you think about them?  My first thought was that they are props from some futuristic/Sci-Fi movie.

Happy Trails To You

I wonderfully live in an area that has many amazing trails.  I have access to both forest trails, which are great for walking and picking berries, and also the rail trail, which is great for cycling.  There has been talk lately of improving the trail system, and there have been calls for community input on the best way to do this.

Late last year I participated in a number of web questionnaires put online by Tiny Township.  The questionnaires asked about current trail usage, experiences on the trails, and asked for my opinion on some suggested improvements to the trail system.  Some of the suggested improvements include:

• Pave the trail (currently most of the rail trail is covered in gravel)
• Connect the trail conveniently to public beaches
• Connect the trail conveniently to neighbouring communities
• Install public washroom facilities along routes
• Increase amount of parking space near entrances to trail
• Add more signage along trail, including trail maps, historical information, etc.
• Install bike lock-up areas at destination points (beach, etc.)

The questionnaires are still online, so if you have an interest in the trail system, you could fill them out too if you wanted (surveys are fun!).  You don't have to be from Tiny Township to fill out the survey, but the first question asks you to list where you are from.  (*Note: I'm not sure if data is still being collected from these surveys.)

The County of Simcoe also wants to improve the trails, and there are a number of Public Open Houses regarding the development of something called The Simcoe County Trails Strategy.  If you are in the area and have input about the future of the trails, think about checking out one of these events to get your voice heard (the first one is tonight!).  From the flyer that appeared in this weeks paper:

Click to Embiggen

As a regular summer user of the trails, I am glad they are something we are putting money into.  I find the trail a safe place to walk/cycle/explore without having to worry about getting hit by a car.  Many country roads don't have sidewalks, so it is good to know we are investing in safer places to enjoy the outdoors that aren't directly on the roadway.

Your Call Cannot Be Completed As Dialed

We are getting ten digit dialing in the 705 region starting tomorrow, and like every other region that has ever gotten it, no one knew it was coming!

Homer: What really burns me up is they didn't give us one word of warning.
Carl: What do you mean? They ran those TV commercials about it, and that big radio campaign.
Lenny: Don't forget the leaflets they dropped from the Space Shuttle, and the two weeks we all spent at area code camp.

Homer: Not a single word of warning.

From The Simpsons: "A Tale of Two Springfields"

If you have a 705 number and don't want the recorded operator yelling at you repeatedly, then get used to adding the three extra digits, even if you are calling right next door.

As with most things, ten-digit-dialing has been in the works for a while now, but no one cared about it until it was SUDDENLY HAPPENING this weekend.  I found the CRTC decision for 705 to adopt ten-digit-dialing, and it was decided all the way back in October 2009.  For the people I know who are just hearing about it now, I chalk it up to none of us watching local news or listening to the radio.  Plus they are phasing in the new system, so up until March, if you still only dial seven digits, you will hear a reminder to dial ten digits, but your call will still go through.  After March, if you only dial seven digits, your call will not be completed at dialed!  Phasing in the system over a few months is a good way to get everyone to know about it, but I'm with Homer, why didn't anyone tell us! :)

Mixed Precipitation

I don't want to alarm anyone, but it snowed here today.

Don't worry, it was nothing like this photo.  The snowflakes today were actually so light that I couldn't capture any on film.  Regardless, it is a bitter reminder that the winter pictured above is coming.  Hopefully not until January, but it is coming.

Anyone know where Summer went?

First an Earthquake, Then a Tornado...

It is weird enough to experience one extreme natural event in a single day, but yesterday we had two: an earthquake and a tornado.

The earthquake I'm sure everyone has heard of by now.  A magnitude 5.0 earthquake on the Ontrario/Quebec border, with people feeling the effects of it all across Ontario and into the United States.  It was only brief here, about 15 seconds at most, but it was pretty surreal none-the-less. John said: "Do you feel that?", and I looked over at the TV stand and the DVDs were rattling.  And then it was over. We all went outside.  I expected to see a fighter jet flying low, bringing all the big shot G8 members to Huntsville, but none were to be seen.  It was an Earthquake.  I called family in Barrie; they either felt it or heard something weird.  I went to Facebook: at least ten people had already posted experiencing the earthquake too.  I checked twitter and it said it was over capacity; so many people were talking about it.  It wasn't long before the U.S. Geological Survey had information about it too.  My brother and I both filled out the "Did You Feel it?" survey - check it out if you are interested in expressing your experience of the event.

 The Earthquake location; from US Geological Survey

I have never experienced an earthquake before, and to be fair this one was incredibly minor.  The DVDs rattled a little and then I talked about it (as did everyone) all day.  Though we do have some fault lines here in Canada, we are really lucky that most of us thought the earthquake was neat rather than life threatening and terrifying.

Flash-forward five hours later to something actually life threatening and terrifying, a tornado struck Midland, Ontario. I have spent much of the day looking at photos, news sites, and watching youtube videos about the destruction - it is hard to believe how much damage tornados can cause.  No one died, thankfully, but many people are without homes and Midland has declared a state of emergency.

I live about 15 km from Midland, and though we were safe where we are, it is frightening that it happened so close to home.  Our friends and family live and work in Midland.  We go there practically everyday for our necessities.  If we had needed groceries last night, we could have easily driven into the storm.  It is crazy to think about.  I hope everyone in Midland affected by the tornado is okay and that people can get their lives back to normal as quickly as possible.

Here are some links to reports about the Tornado.  I find some of the video coverage shocking because I recognize all of the buildings.

Midland Mirror
CBC
CTV - with video

Bear Hysteria or Hys-bear-ia

Or Bear-steria.

No matter what you call it, my little small town is buzzing with it.  Bears!  They are everywhere!  I even saw a bear recently while on a drive to Bala.  The bear was on the side of the road and ran like hell from our car.  We caught this photo of him running:

Run Bear Run!

The hys-bear-ia comes from a recent bear attack on a human.  Or as the Ministry of Natural Resources likes to call it: "human-bear conflict".  There have since been sightings all around the region: Midland, Elmvale, and even on the concession road I live on.  Yesterday, there was not only a bear sighting in Elmvale, the Ministry of Natural Resources came in and shot a bear cub with a tranquilizer and returned it back to the wild.

I hope that the recent attack and the sightings are encouraging people to educate themselves about bear safety and reminding us all that we share the woods and planet with animals that are much bigger than us.  According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, bears mostly avoid humans, but if there is a shortage of natural foods available to them, "bears will look for other food sources – primarily your garbage" and "once bears learn where to find and get a non-natural food source, they will return again and again."  So keep your garbage in a bear-proof container, and keep your Green Bins clean of any food smells (I will be cleaning mine out today to be sure it smells like soap and not food).  I am trying not to hop on the hys-bear-ia train, but following some tips on the Bear wise website is not a bad idea.  I also haven't gone on any walks in the woods for the past few weeks, as I would rather not disrupt any bear activities that don't want to be disrupted (plus it makes my Mom feel better if I'm not in the woods with the bears).

Though I think Bear safety and awareness is important, some of the headlines surrounding recent Bear activity have been a little over the top.  Two local papers ran the following headlines: "Bear reported in schoolyard" and "Bear sighted near Midland school".  When I read those headlines I pictured children playing on swing-sets at recess, running around having fun, when a bear strolls in and starts acting all crazy, causing the children to run for safety.  What actually happened, however, was that the Bear was spotted at 11:30pm.  At night.  To me, that is a little different than the Bear wandering through a schoolyard full of children.  I suppose "Midnight bear stroll in schoolyard" doesn't get the Bear-steria flowing nearly as much as "Bear reported in schoolyard."  I will save my rant on the media for another day. :)

There is a lot of great information about bears on the government website, so check out the following to educate yourself about Bears and Bear safety.

Keep Bears Out of Your Neighbourhood

Black Bear Safety

Be Bear Wise