Last updated on: December 23, 2017

Archive March 2016 - November 2016

Air Miles Expiration Starts in Only 2 Months
Many of you have Air Miles accounts that have been accumulating points for many years. In 2011, The Air Miles company (called LoyaltyOne) announced (with very little fanfare) that Airmiles would now have an expiry date of 5 years after you accumulate them. This means that for many of you who have been getting the points for years without redeeming them may lose most of your long time points on December 31st of this year. On top of that, Air Miles has not made it easy for you to redeem them. For one, there is no more booking on the phone so everything has to be done online. Secondly, the online catalogue which used to have a lot of products has mysteriously shrunk to only a few items and you can no exchange miles for gift cards. Thirdly, some of the items online only offer you to buy them with money, not points. Lastly, even if you can log in to your account (which many people have never done), to check you expiring miles, you have to make a requests and then you receive a statement within 24 to 48 hours by email. They could have easily provided this facility in real time online, but it's one more thing to make the entire process more difficult. The only good news is that as long as you redeem the miles before their expiry, they can be used for future travel. Airfare is a rip-off because of taxes, but there are still good deals on hotels and car rentals.

When I first wrote about this a the beginning of the year, I had mentioned that of my 22,000 miles accumulated over the years more than 12,000 were expiring at the end of this year. We tried to use as many as possible this summer, on our Eastern Canada road trip. We managed to use about 9000 miles to reserve hotels in Fredericton, Sydney, Halifax and Saint John. Our 3 day stay at the Halifax Hollis (a Doubletree hotel) was on the top floor facing the harbour and only cost $90 plus 4100 Air Miles. Had we booked the same hotel through Expedia or the hotel itself it would have been over $600 at that time of year. When I requested the expiry statement back in January it only showed me what was expiring in the next 12 months. It ends up that I have 2,550 expiring December 31st, 995 more on March 31st, another 1,562 in June then another 700 in September, click here to see that statement. These numbers are high but I have changed my main rewards program since.

Redeeming these miles will be a bit tricky for us although rather than losing them, we will probably try to book some hotels in Montréal on the nights we are in town for a play. One thing for certain, I have researched some airfare options and if you are lucky enough to get the dates you want, the taxes they are charging are ridiculous. I went to the airfare portion of the Air Miles website to do some comparison shopping. I found that if you used 5,800 Air Miles AND paid over $600 in taxes per person you could fly to London. If you paid cash and not use Air Miles at all it would cost you just over $800 for the exact same flights. According to Air Miles, that 11,000 miles should be worth about $1400 but not if you use it for Airfare. In my opinion, the best deal right now is booking hotels and a close second is car rental. (Update - Two people have told me that they have booked vacations, like a Mediterranean cruise using up all their miles in one shot.) Remember that only certain hotels can be booked through AirMiles and not all city searchs will show any hotels but it's use 'em or lose 'em time. I suggest that if your are still collecting AirMiles, that you switch to AirMiles Cash. At least this way when you have accumulated 85 miles you can get $10 cash back immediately when you purchase something at an AirMiles retailer. Switching to AirMiles cash is done online by sliding a little cursor to one side. The other thing you should do is check your expiration statement by clicking here. You will need you AirMiles collector number and pin number to get there.

If you are wondering why AirMiles changed it's policy is that so many people had accumulated so many miles without redeeming them that the potential for everyone trying to offload their miles at the same time could actually bankrupt the entire program and the company. If you want to read more about this, Rob Carrick of the Globe and Mail wrote an article on some action being taken trying to get LoyaltyOne to change their policy or at least make it easier to redeem miles that are about to expire. Read the article here.

Legion to Hold 70th Annual Armistice Dinner
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 185 will be hosting its 70th annual Remembrance Day Dinner on Saturday November 5th. The doors open at 6pm and the ceremonies and supper will be at 7pm. Tickets are on sale until November 1st, details here.
On Sunday November 6th at 1:00pm, everyone is invited to join in for a moment of remembrance at the Hillcrest cemetery. Following these ceremonies, a parade will proceed from 13th avenue and Oka road to the Legion cenotaph for the laying of the wreaths. Lest we forget!

Two Bursaries Are Awarded at LTMHS Class of 2016 Graduation Ceremonies
The graduation ceremonies were held at LTM on Friday October 21. Many scholarships, bursaries and awards were presented including the Paul Goyetche Visual Arts and Multi-Media bursary and the new 2MOPAUL.COM Music bursary. The recipient of the $500 Visual Arts award was Jessica Réhel while the $250 Music bursary went to Dylan Julius-Quirk (both pictures below). Thanks to everyone that contributed to the fund this year and made it possible to expand to create the new award. Congratulations to all the graduates of the Class of 2016 of which 50% of them were on the honour roll by having an 80% and over average mark. To see past recipients click on the LTM crest on the top right of this page.

Are You Ready To Dance?
 

After a successful event last year, Lisa and Debbie are organizing another Dance Party at the Heritage Social Club on Saturday November 19th.

Admission is only $10 and the music will have you dancing all night. It all starts at 7:30pm, so get on your dancing shoes.

For more info you can contact Lisa Coleman by phone at 514 972 2724 or Debbie Auger by email at heavens@bell.net. Click here for the poster of the event.

4 Korners Caregivers' Conference
The 4 Korners Family Resource Center is once again offering their caregivers workshop and caregivers support group. The workshop is a special 6 week program designed for caregivers to provide tools and strategies to ensure that the caregiver does not become worn-out. They have two upcoming start dates on Monday, November 7, 2016 from 5:30p.m.-7:30p.m. and Thursday, November 3, 2016 from 1:30p.m. – 3:30p.m. The workshop runs for 6 weeks and is free of charge!  
Their caregiver support group will be held the first Wednesday of every month from 1:30p.m. – 2:30p.m., beginning on November, 2, 2016.

They also have have three conference sessions planned in the near future:
Tired of Being Tired: Fatigue Management - November 16, 2016 from 1:30p.m. – 3:00p.m. 
Healthy Aging, Healthy Brain: Memory Fitness for Everyone - November 30, 2016, from 1:30p.m. – 3:00p.m. 
Stressing Out about Stress - December 14, 2016 from 1:30p.m. – 3:00p.m.

Click here for the informational brochure and click here to access the 4Korners website.

Leonard Raymond - R.I.P.

From Brownlee Funeral Homes Website - Peacefully at the Cornwall Community Hospital on Wednesday October 12, 2016 age 86 years. Leonard Raymond of Ingleside (formerly of Two Mountains). Beloved husband of Pat Raymond nee Gibb. Loved father of Ronald Raymond of Calgary, Heather Raymond of Kitchener, Donald Raymond (Helen) of Montreal, Michael Raymond (Rachelle) of Saskatoon and Carolyn Raymond of Oshawa. Sadly missed by his 10 grandchildren Alicia, Jordan, Kelly, Kristen, Stephanie, Alison, Dayna, Zoe, Kevin and Kimberley. Predeceased by his parents Louis and Tina (Thomas) Raymond; 3 brothers Dan, Russel, Carman and 1 sister Ina. Visitation will be held at the Brownlee Funeral Home MacDougall Chapel 14815 County Road 2 Ingleside on Friday from 2-4pm and 7-9pm.

A liturgy of the word celebrating Leonard Raymond's life will be held in the chapel of the funeral home on Saturday October 15, 2016 at 2pm. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to the charity of your choice would be appreciated by the family.

Online condolences may be made at this link.

Lions Club Book Fair
The annual Lions Club book fair will be held on Saturday October 22 and Sunday October 23 at the Veterans Hall. The hours are 9am to 4pm.
All books classified by category and the prices are as follows: Pocket books: 50¢ - hard covers and large soft covers : $1.50 - Children’s books: 25¢
There is also an Arts and Collectable table with reasonable prices as marked.

Snacks will be available for sale. There will be a pre-sale on Friday October 21st from 2 to 5 pm only for handicapped individuals in need of wheelchairs, walkers or canes. Mothers with babies in strollers also very welcome. As always, all profits are given back to the community.
This year again, as the need is great, we will be collecting non-perishable food items as a contribution to the Christmas baskets for the Agapé Association.

For more information please contact
Nancy Rupnik - 450-473-0298 or Betty and Martin Hensen: 450-473-1932. Click here for poster with all the info.

LTMHS Bursary Spawns A New Bursary
I mentioned a few months ago that the fundraising for my Visual Arts and Multi-Media LTM bursary had gone well this year. I have had many donations and was thinking of raising the amount given from $500 to $750. After speaking to the graduation organization, they said it might be a good idea to add a smaller bursary (of $250) to award to a promising student that was pursuing education in music. The graduation for the LTMHS class of 2016 will be held on Friday October 21st. I will be presenting both of these bursaries to two students that will only be finding out that evening. To find out who these recipients will be, you will have to come back to this website on the 22nd of October.
This will be the fourth year that I have had the pleasure of presenting the award to an unsuspecting student. In case you are not aware, this fund was started back in May of 2013, when a few people and organizations got together at the Heritage Club to show their appreciation for the few things I do around the community and the outreach of this website. Instead of giving me a gift, they had the idea to start a 'scholarship' fund in my name. It was a gift that I hope will keep on giving for years to come. Currently, there is enough money to for another 3 years including this year's.
Thanks once again to everyone that has contributed this year and allowed the fund to create another small bursary to help two people they pursue their education and dreams. The link to the bursary page is location on the top right of this page.

My Current Cover Page
Some people have been asking about the Margaret Trudeau picture on my front page. We use an investment firm that sometimes hosts evenings called the Speaker Series. Usually it's about money and how much not to leave your children and other 'boring' investment advise. On September 28th, the topic was the biggest investment you can make, your mind. Mrs. Trudeau spoke to us for over an hour about her life and dealing with mental illness. It was a fascinating journey and a very candid look into her living with bi-polarity (then known as manic depression) and her bouts of depression even while living the glamorous life at 24 Sussex. At the end of the presentation, we all received her 2010 book, Changing My Mind which she signed and graciously spoke to us for a few minutes. It was a wonderful evening and if you ever get the chance to meet our prime minister's mother and get to hear her speak, don't miss it.

Happy Gang Golf Tournament Round Up
The 33rd Annual Ron Kesseler Happy Gang golf tournament took place on Sunday September 25th, a beautiful fall day on the Ancestral course of the Glendale Golf Club. 22 teams of 3 golfers took to the links in a friendly competition. At the end of the day, the team of Paul Goyetche, Bernie Goyetche and Mike Nabozniak took first place at with an 8 under par 63. At minus 7 was the team of Marc Leduc, Pascal Leduc and Stéphane Villeneuve. There was a 4 way tie for third place at -6. Those teams were Ron Kesseler/Richard L'Abbé/Don Smith, Mike O'Neil/Mike McKeown/Don (Pimmy) Gillis, Gilles Denis/Jim Major/Serge Leblanc and Richard Coté/Pierre Coté/Serge Potvin. The highest score was a plus 9 (80) and although they shall remain nameless (unless you look at the last picture in the album), they were the big winners as they won one of the 8 random draw prizes along with their $60 purse for honesty and loft. For a few pictures of the event, you may click here.

Stella "Yaya" Destounis Nicholson -  1936-2016

From Deux-Montagnes, on Tuesday September 20, 2016, at the age of 79 years old, Stella "Yaya" Destounis Nicholson passed away after her long battle with Cancer, dear wife of the late John "Johnny" Nicholson.

She will be missed by her children Tommy (Dede), John, Jamie and Donna, also her grand-children Nathalie, James, Halen, Diana, Samantha and Ryan, and her grand-grand-children Cadence, Crystal and Avery. As well as the two children that she took care of for many years, Jennifer and David and many others relatives and friends.

A Memorial Service for Stella will be held on Saturday, October 29th at the Heritage Social Club, 503 Cedar in Deux-Montagnes, between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Donations can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Oktoberfest at the Legion on Saturday October 15
The Legion Branch 185 is having an Oktoberfest starting at 4:00pm on Saturday October 15th. The price is $20 a person which includes a German style meal. Happy hour prices will be in effect all evening. The supper will consist of appetizers such as German cheese, Black Forest ham and more. The main meal will be a smorgasbord of German Sausages, Roast Pork in Bavarian beer sauce, Kielbasa and sauerkraut, German potato salad and cucumber salad, red cabbage and pretzel buns. Of course, the finale will be a Black Forest cake. All are welcome to attend.
The Legion is also conducting a fundraising 'hockey' raffle with 5 great hockey related prizes. The first prize is a pair of Montreal Canadiens tickets. The second prize is two pairs of tickets to the World Junior Hockey Championships at the Bell Centre. They include a January 2nd quarter final game and the January 5th relegation game. The 3rd prize is also 2 pairs of tickets to a January 2nd game plus the Czech/Denmark game of December 29th. The fourth prize is a pair of tickets to the Finland/Switzerland game on December 21st and the final prize is a pair of seats to the Denmark/Sweden December 26th game. The tickets are $5 and can be purchased any day at the Legion which opens at 2pm.   

More Than 500 Million People Affected By Yahoo Hack
Today, Yahoo has admitted that the data of up to 500 million users may have been compromised back in 2014. They strongly recommend that if you have not changed your password since 2104 to do so ASAP. The stolen data includes users' names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, scrambled passwords, and the security questions — and answers — used to verify an accountholder's identity according to Yahoo. They can't explain why it took so long for Yahoo to make this announcement. I think this could explain a lot of the SPAM that I have been getting from what looks like legitimate Yahoo users. With all the 'Cyber' crime out there usually blamed on 'state run' entities, this will not be the last time something like this happens. A complex password is one way of making harder for hackers to break into your accounts. If and when you change your passwords, use some UPPER and lower case as well as numbers and I suggest making it longer than the minimum 8 characters that some sites require. Some sites even require you to use at least one special character. Remember, you will also have to change the passwords in the settings on your phone if you use it to access your email. You should also change you passwords periodically, at least once a year. This is not very often as many business systems require a password change every 2 months.

Coq Au Vin Delivers Tasty Treats
 The restaurant Coq Au Vin that opened last November in the digs of the old Golden BBQ on the corner of 20th and Oka Road is now in the delivery business. Not only can you order pizza but there are all kinds of other options on the menu. Burgers, fish and chips, poutine, pasta and much more. They deliver to Ste-Marthe and Two-Mountains (sorry Toronto) from 11am to 10pm. To see their extensive delivery menu please click here. You can also visit their Facebook page here that is usually updated every day with their lunch specials. Their phone number is 450 473-5500.

Special recognition ceremony to highlight the exceptional work of our firefighters
 Press Release: Deux-Montagnes, September 12, 2016 – A special recognition ceremony to highlight the exceptional work of specific firefighters from the Inter-municipal Deux-Montagnes/Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac Fire Safety Service was held prior to the municipal council meeting on Thursday, September 8th.
Mathieu Poulin was taking part in the “Course de la famille de Deux-Montagnes” when he fell gravely ill as he approached the finish line on July 17th. Firefighters on hand to provide first aid during the event took charge of Mathieu Poulin quickly and efficiently. He expressed his tremendous gratitude at the ceremony to the firefighters who came to his rescue. “Words cannot express how grateful I am,” he said. “If you had not been there, I know I would not be here today for my wife and two boys.”

“We’re all here to congratulate our firefighters for their outstanding work,” said Mayor Denis Martin. Firefighters honoured at the ceremony: Ron Hunt, Michel Thibault, Bradley Mills, Philippe Côté, Nicolas L’Espérance, Jean-François Chartrand-D’Aoust, Mathias Béchiau, and Jean-Marc-Hétu.

The recognition ceremony ended with a signing of the City’s guest book in the presence of the firefighters and their families.

Harry William Wexler-Boyd 1920-2016
 Published in the Montreal Gazette September 8th, 2016

Harry, born December 5,1920, husband of the late Peggy Burley, passed away on Monday, September 5, 2016 at the age of 95 years. Harry is survived by his children William Norman (Ardeth) and Doreen Margaret Wortham (Steven), his grandchildren Samantha (Richard), Amber, Kris, Mark (Jane), Aaron and Tabitha (Charles), his great-grandchildren Koen, Callum and Jack. Sadly predeceased by his brothers Jack, Norbert and Raymond and his daughter Colleen Ritchie and his granddaughter Trina Wortham. Harry was a Naval Veteran of World War II. He gave Seventy years of service to the Royal Canadian Legion and became a life member of both the Montreal White Ensign Naval Association and the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 185 which he joined in 1949. He served as president of the Legion seven times. Harry was a member of Hill Crest Cemetery board of directors and actively participated in Deux-Montagnes community affairs. He will also be remembered and dearly missed by his family, numerous nieces, nephews and friends. Many thanks to all the wonderful care that Harry received at Ste. Anne's Veterans Hospital. And many thanks to Diane Boerio who gave numerous hours of special care to Harry. We the family greatly appreciate it all immensely. The family will receive condolences at the Royal Canadian Legion at:141 Grand-Moulin Deux-Montagnes on Friday September 9, 2016 from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. The service will be held at 4:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers donation to the Canadian Foundation of Cancer will be appreciated.
Please click here to view his online obituary and guest book.

First look at 4 Korners Family Resource Center’s new offices!

Press Release: DEUX-MONTAGNES, QC, September 2, 2016 – Join the Mayor of Deux-Montagnes, city officials and other community notables for the grand opening ceremony of 4 Korners’ brand new location in Deux-Montagnes. All are welcome. Some light refreshments will be served.
From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.: Information, registration for Fall activities and membership renewal.
At 7 p.m. Ribbon cutting ceremony.
Location: Basement of Ville de Deux-Montagnes’ Community Center
200, rue Henri-Dunant
Deux-Montagnes
About 4 Korners Family Resource Center:
In a spirit of respect, support and empowerment, the 4 Korners Family Resource Center is a non-profit community organization dedicated to assisting youth, adults, seniors and their families in the Laurentian region to access information, resources and services in English
 

33rd Annual Happy Gang Golf Tournament
 This is the 33rd edition of Ron Kesseler's Happy Gang tournament, at the Glendale Golf Course, Sunday, September 25th, 9:00am The price is $55.00 Golf/Cart, plus $25.00 in a pot for prize money. Back by popular demand this year, the first, second and third place teams, will receive will be a nominal prize of $120, $90 and $60 respectively. After those prizes are awarded, all teams names get put into a draw (including winners) and balance of the prize money will be luck of the draw! Prizes range from $240 to $90 meaning more than half of the teams will win something. This is to encourage more golfers to come out with hopes of making a few bucks no matter how well their team places. Ron's main goal is that his long running tournament remains something that all enjoy and look forward to every year. Last year, over 60 golfers participated and this year we would like more. The format is teams of 3 playing 'Vegas Style'. Groups of 6 go out and it's a great competition. You can enter your own team of 3 or if you are alone or with one other golfer, Ron will pair you up to make a team.
To register please contact Ron by sending an email to ronk@2mopaul.com.

Holy Family Parish Annual Bea’s Lobster or BBQ Steak Supper

Team USA Retains Wyder Cup Again
On the weekend of August 18th to 21st, Team Canada suffered their 3rd straight defeat in the 15th Annual Wyder Cup held in Bethlehem, New Hampshire at the Maplewood Golf Resort. Day one finished with the Americans leading 12 to 8 but the Canadians managed to claw their way back to 15½ to 14½ before the individual matches that conclude the final 9 holes of the tournament. The final score was 29 to 22 as the USA won 13½ of the last 22 points in man on man match play. In the 'friendlier' Ladies division, prizes went to Chantal Chibok and Ruth Blakeney for their birdies and to Lynn Macdonald and Sharon Wall for the 'Angry birds' score. Click here for pictures or use the Wyder Cup link on the left of the page.

 Congratulations to Sandi MacDonald and Ross Watkins
 

On Saturday August 27th, Sandi MacDonald and Ross Watkins tied the knot. The event was at the Legion. The ceremony was officiated by Brenda Watkins, Ross's sister. The after dinner entertainment was provided by the Fabulous Flashbacks. A good time was had by all with the weather cooperating for the outdoor riverside ceremony. Congrats to the newlyweds.

Click here for a few pictures from the wedding.

 

Michel Mastromatteo 1927-2016

On August 16, 2016, Michel Mastromatteo passed away. He was a city councillor for 3 terms from 1957 to 1961, Mayor from 1986 to 1990, councillor again in 1996 and became mayor again during that term from 1989 to 1990. Many people will remember him as the owner of the Michel Hardware on Oka Road near 20th avenue. His funeral was on Saturday August 20th.

To see his online obituary, please click here.

Back From The East
Once again you may have noticed a lack of activity on my website. Everyone was on vacation including us. We spent the last 29 days touring the eastern portion of our beautiful land. Most of the time was spent in Newfoundland but since we drove there for the first time, we took in sights in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We kept a 'diary' of our travels as well as posted lots of pictures during our trip. Some people followed our travels through our updates but everything is still there ii you are interested. You can click here or simply click on the Our Trips links at the top of the page.

A Municipal Pool For Two-Mountains?
There has been a lot of debate over the pool project that is brewing between Two-Mountains and Saint-Marthe-sur-le-lac. There was a public 'consultation' at the Legion in June and the conclusion was that a large percentage of people wanted a pool for 2MO. Of course, there was only small percentage of the population there and many were there to show support. Karine Gauthier, the councillor for the Du Lac district was the only one that did not vote for the motion to go ahead with the negotiation with SteMarthe. As you may have read here, she thinks we should look at other means of offering swimming services to the population. There now exists two petitions for this project. One against it based on the cost to the taxpayers and the second one in favour. Below are the links to both petitions: Of course, you must be a Two-Mountains resident to sign either of these petitions.

School Tax Inequity for the English
Lisa Agrombar from 4Korners Famly Resource Centre has sent out an email to some people regarding the fact that people who are paying school taxes to the English school board might be paying more.
Here is a copy of her email: You may have heard or experienced that school taxes are higher when paying to English educational institutions. AGAPE Laval who are neighbours of 4 Korners Family Resource Center have begun a petition against this. If you’re not sure if you pay more or not you can easily check with a neighbour. Its a very interesting exercise if you haven’t already done so. Below is the link to the petition with a detailed description.
Click here for the School Tax online petition

Heritage Community Garage Sale
The Heritage Social Club will be holding its 2nd annual community garage sale on Saturday August 13th from 9am to 4pm. The Heritage Social Club is at 503 Cedar avenue in Two Mountains. There will be food and beverages sold. For more info, click here for the poster or here for their website.

Lanthier And Beatty Construction's 1st Annual Fish for the Cure Bass Tournament Postponed to Next Year
 On Saturday August 27th, at Parc Aimé Struthers (aka Grand Moulin Park) there will be a bass fishing tournament starting at 7:00am. All proceeds will be donated to Diabetes Quebec. It is sponsored by Lanthier and Beatty Construction in association with the Lions club and the City of Two Mountains. It's all about the bass! you can get more details here.

Vankleek Hill Porchfest Grows
Vankleek Hill, Ontario (barely an hour drive from Two Mountains) has porches and has talented people. Put them together and you get Porchfest. This year it's on Saturday July 23 from Noon – 5pm. This year, an acoustic trio version of Two-Mountains' favourite band, Late Night Therapy will be performing along with 25 other artists.
Organized by a small group of community volunteers including former Two-Mountaineer, Ken Duff, Porchfest is a day for Vankleek Hill residents and visitors to discover local musicians, poetry readers and story tellers as they perform on neighbourhood front porches. Think of it as a stroll through historic Vankleek Hill, with mini-concerts to guide your way. One more way to enjoy the Busiest little town in Ontario.
The first community Porchfest was held in Ithaca, New York, and many other cities throughout North America now hold very successful Porchfests every year! We are happy to add Vankleek Hill to that list.
In addition to bringing residents together through local entertainment, Porchfest also provides a great opportunity to appreciate Vankleek Hill’s historical gingerbread architecture and friendly community! This community organized event is completely free. Click here for their website and all the info. You won't be disappointed if you make the trip. Tip, bring a folding chair and you be able to relax while listening some great entertainment.

The Second Edition of Deux-Montagnes En Fete - July 15-17, 2016

Once again this year, the city of Deux-Montagnes is celebrating its DM En Fete on Oka Road between 13th and 16th avenues. On Friday July 15, there will be a free movie 'under the stars' shown in the Les Mésanges school yard. The action resumes on Saturday afternoon (July 16th) at 2pm and continues until a concert at 7:15pm featuring 3 singers from the French version of The Voice. At 9pm, King Melrose and his musicians take over the stage. The weekend wraps up with a 10k, 5k and a 1k race as well as the tiny tots race at 11:30am on Sunday (July 17th). The 10k race starts at 8:30am. Click here to register for any of the races.

 

Click here for all the info of the day from the Deux-Montagnes website. Click here for the press release from the city.

 

Canada Day Festivities In 2 Mo - Hot, Wet and Wow!

The weather wasn't perfect for the 45th annual Canada Day festivities in Two Mountains but it didn't keep the people from coming out and enjoying it. It started as a hot day then a few scattered showers cooled things off. The rain didn't stop the bands from playing and the headliners, the Blushing Brides, capped off the evening with a +2 hour Rolling Stones tribute, only interrupted by a dazzling fireworks show. Click here for pictures.

Click on the picture on the right for the 9 minute YouTube video of the day.

Dan Klimas' Drive For The Cure Raises Record Amount
Once again, it was a beautiful day on the Fontainebleau Golf Course for the 16th Annual Drive for the Cure golf tournament. This year, the total raised was over $106,000 eclipsing last year's $100,000. All the money raised goes to Cancer research at the MUHC. Click here for pictures. In the picture below is part of the Two-Mountains contingent that plays in Danny's Tournament. From left to right are: Mike Barth, Mr Black. Steve Doucette, Ron Potter, Jody Scott, Stan Rose, Rick Galley,Danny Klimas, Les Boyd, Frank Bouchard, Garold Nixon, Paddy Dore, Paul Goyetche, Steve Lawrence, Gary Macmillan, Brad Gleason, Vic Black, Barry Klimas and Les Brault.

 

Freda Josephine McNamara (nee Smith) - August 26, 1925 - June 23, 2016

Mrs Freda Josephine Smith, widow of M. John McNamara, from Deux-Montagnes, passed away peacefully at the age of 90, on June 23, at 11:00 p.m. She is reuniting with John and her daughter Mary Deborah and two grandchildren John and Stephen.

Beloved mother of Barbara, Maureen (Rob), Linda (Stephen), Susan (Donnie), Carol (Fran) and Debbie, devoted grandmother of thirteen grandchildren and many great grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Mrs Anna Pine, nieces and nephews and many friends from the Sunrise Senior Living in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.

A funeral service will be held on Thursday June 30th at 11:00am at Holy Family Parish followed by the burial at St-Agapit cemetery. Family will be available from 10:30am at the church to receive condolences. Online Obituary

Click Here for the Canada Day Schedule

LTMHS Class of 1996 20 Year Reunion
On Thursday June 20th, the LTM class of 1996 will be having a 20th year high school reunion. The details I have been given is that they are having supper somewhere and then heading to the Two Mo Pub for beverages. If you have any more details to post, drop me an e-mail.

Goodbye to the Mirabel Airport Terminal
Just got an email from Richard Dupre with a couple of pictures of what is left of the Mirabel Airport terminal. It is sad that such an airport became a white elephant. The runways are still being used by cargo planes but there was no need for the terminal. The demolition was supposed to take a year and cost 15 million dollars. It is now in its final phase of demolition. It is a shame and such a waste of money. Click here for the Wikipedia entry for the story of the airport. Thanks Richard for the pictures.

Glenn Hogan Memorial Tournament Raises Over $5800 for Holy Family Parish
Saturday June 18th was a beautiful day to spend outside on the Oka golf course. 78 golfers will attest to that and 50 more will attest that the follow up supper and reception was equally as good. Thanks to the corporate and private sponsors and the money collected for the raffle, a record $5,800 was raised to help the church. Thanks to all who participated, sponsored and contributed to a great day. Click here for pictures.

Standing Room Only Crowd Attends Swimming Pool Consultation Meeting
The Monday June 20th meeting was attended by a record crowd as the mayor and director general presented the proposed pool project with Ste-Marthe-Sur-Le-Lac. The presentation itself lasted almost one hour and was followed by a 90 minute question and answer session. Many people expressed their feelings about the project and although most people agreed that there was a need for the service itself, some would like to delay the project until the city get back on its feet financially. Under the direction of Mayor Denis Martin, the city's financial situation has made a remarkable comeback but some people feel that to use all of this 'found' money in one major project is a little premature. On the other hand, Ste-Marthe-Sur-Le-Lac is looking to build the complex NOW and the window of opportunity to join them in their venture will be closing soon, hence the urgency of the decision. We will see what the future holds and we will keep you posted on the developments.

Two-Mountains Celebrates Its 45th Canada Day Celebrations
 A press conference was held on Thursday June 16th to inform the media on the Canada Day celebrations to be held on Friday July 1st. It all starts with a parade that leaves the Legion and stops at noon for the singing of the national anthem. It then continues to 13th avenue park for the opening ceremonies at 12:45. This year's parade marshal will be Troy Ewenson, a long time resident of Two-Mountains who has been president of the Deux-Montagnes Softball Association for 20 years. The Blushing Brides, a Rolling Stones cover band are the main 'event' once again this year as the rain prevented many people from attending last year's great performance. They will be topping the day's entertainment at 9:45 with a break at 10:15 for the fireworks and they will continue to play until midnight. All the bands will be performing on the Selection Deux-Montagnes stage. Selection Deux-Montagnes is the new residence being built at the end 8th avenue which will contain over 200 units on 8 floors bordering the rapids. Check out their website here. The other major sponsors of the event are the City of Deux-Montagnes, the Canadian Government and Caisse Desjardins. We are hosting the Canada Day Party for the entire MRC which is made up of towns from Oka to St-Eustache. Stay tuned as the entire schedule will be posted here soon as well as the full press release.

The Deux-Montagnes/Ste-Marthe-Sur-Le-Lac Swimming Complex Controversy
Last Thursday's town hall 'regular' meeting was anything but that. On the agenda was a vote to form a group that will negotiate an agreement with Ste-Marthe-Sur-Le-Lac (SMSLL) to build an inter-municipal year-round swimming facility behind the city hall in SMSLL. For you, like myself, that do not know where city hall is, it's behind Giant Tiger. Karine Gauthier, councillor of the Du Lac district, requested a vote to show her constituents opposition to such a project. Of course, being the only councillor to oppose the motion, it still passed along with the negotiation of an agreement to share the Olympia Arena. The main reason that Ms. Gauthier opposed the project is that only one quarter of the more than 200 citizens she asked had any interest in going to a public pool, let alone in another city. Once the agenda items were presented, it was time for a very heated question period. Let's just say that most of the talk from the floor was not in the form of a question.

Of course, the price of the project was discussed in great detail although no official numbers were communicated. The ball park figure of the cost of building this complex is between $8 and $10 million. The operating costs are estimated to be around $1 million a year. The cost of the venture would be split 50/50 as we both have around 18,000 citizens and the commitment would be for 20 years. The other point of contention over this project is that the two mayors and the two general managers were the only ones that really knew anything about this project until about 2 weeks ago. Had it not been for the public outcry for transparency, the motion to start this project would have passed almost unnoticed at last Thursday's meeting. The original plan was to have press conferences this week so that the newspapers would publish that we were definitely doing the project. The project would have been presented to the public in September with work probably already started. Our mayor, Denis Martin, was on board because this venture could be done with 'little or no tax burden'. Due to the sale of the Manoir Grand-Moulin and the soon to be paid off Olympia Arena, the city's financial situation has made a turn for the better. For this reason, the mayor assumed that the population would accept the project. It looks like he was wrong.

Councillor Karin Gauthier, asked the mayor's permission to survey her constituents to see if there was interest in the project. 78% of the people said they would not use the pool. Of the 22% that said they would use the pool, 50% said they would use it a couple of times a year. Ms. Gauthier's quote is: 'I do not think that owning a pool with Ste-Marthe-Sur-Le-Lac is in the best interest of the citizens of Deux-Montagnes. The financial situation does not allow DM to invest such a important amount due to the high level of taxation and one of the most important long term debts in Quebec. However, I am convinced and in agreement of finding the most cost effective solution to allow citizens of Deux-Montagnes access to a pool in the area.'

Ste-Marthe mayor Ms. Paulus has promised to get a pool for the city during her two electoral campaigns. She currently has an agreement with the city of St-Eustache where all SMSLL residents swim in the St-Eustache pool complex for 'free'. This costs the city somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 a year. There are about 1000 visits from SMSLL residents to the St-Eustache pool every month and fewer during the summer months probably because many people have their own pools open. Assuming that 1,000 different residents visit the pool, this would mean that each month only 5.5% of the people of Ste-Marthe use the facilities. If each person went twice in the month it would mean that only 2.8% of the population is actually using those facilities. It is obvious that Ms. Paulus wants to build a pool in her town as she is already spending a lot of money for a service that is far away from her town. Ste-Marthe has everything to gain in a 50/50 agreement with our financially strapped town. That leads to a question I will have for our mayor. Do we keep paying 50% of the bill even though our populations may not be the same in a few years? Two-Mountains is very limited in increasing its population. In the last 20 years, our city has grown by 2,000 citizens while there has been close to a 10,000 citizen growth in Ste-Marthe. In 10 years, we will probably still be around 18,000 while Ste-Marthe has the potential to grow to 24,000. Who knows? Should an agreement go through, should it not be proportional to the population? That's the way the Ste-Marthe/St-Eustache deal is currently negotiated.

Some people may be saying to themselves, 'didn't we go through a pool debate a few years ago?'. The answer would be yes. In 2010, there was a survey done to see is we wanted to use the St-Eustache pool. All municipal tax bills would have an additional $50 added to them every year and you would only have to pay an administration charge to get a card to access the pool in St-Eustache. A telephone survey was done and 74% of people said no to a pool based, so Mayor Lauzon at the time did not approve the move. The press release of that decision can be accessed here (in French).

Other than the uproar at the town meeting last week, the mayor and some councillors were bombarded with emails from disgruntled citizens who felt they were being left in the dark over one of the city's biggest projects. Mayor Martin announced that he will be having a public consultation to present the project. This will be at 7pm on Monday June 20th at the Veterans Hall at 141 Grand-Moulin. No matter what side of the fence you are on, I think it would be in your interest to attend this important meeting for the future of our city. 

LTM Bursary Fund Growing
In case you are not familiar with the LTMHS Bursary fund (link on the top right), it got started in 2013 when a few groups got together at Heritage Social Club to a have surprise presentation for me in appreciation of how I have supported them through this site and/or at an organizational level. They wanted to give me a gift of something but instead, they had a great idea of starting a bursary for an LTM graduate that was going into visual arts and multi media. I have presented the bursary to 3 recipients since 2013. This year, thanks to the generosity of many people that donated some money at my 60th birthday party as well as the Heritage Club that donated another $400 as I DJ'ed their Valentine's Dance. Another generous donation came from the boys at our Saranac Inn golf weekend. Now that I have collected enough for the next few years, I have decided to raise the bursary amount to $750 instead of the $500 from previous years. That means the fund has enough in it for at least another 3 years. Thanks to all who have supported this over the years and hope it will continue for many more years. The bursary is handed out at the graduation ceremonies in October. 

Phyllis Mary Thornton (née Messett) - 1929 - 2016

Passed away after a long illness in Deux-Montagnes, Phyllis Mary Thornton (née Messett) on June 3rd, 2016. Phyllis was predeceased by her husband James Bruce Thornton. Left to remember her lovingly are her daughters Elaine DeBlock (Danny), Gail Ann Bourgeois (Gene) and Karen Thornton (John). She will also be missed by her 6 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. The family is very appreciative of the excellent care Phyllis received while staying at CHSLD Vigi Santé in Deux-Montagnes.

The family will receive condolences at Holy Family Church on Friday, June 10th at 10:30, followed by a service in the church at 11:00.

After the service there will be a reception in Holy Family Church hall.

 

The Boys of Summer Invade Belleville
The annual golf pilgrimage of the 'Phil Roberts Gang' headed west this year to Belleville Ontario. The 3 day - 4 round 'friendly' tournament was held on 3 different courses: Timber Ridge Golf Club on Friday, 2 rounds at Trillium Wood on Saturday and by mere luck, a dry round on Sunday after torrential rains. The Sunday round at the challenging Black Bear Ridge golf course didn't look like it would happen because of the overnight rain. Five people headed back home but 7 went to the course to see if it was open. The rain had stopped and the course was open AND we were the only ones there. We played as a 'sixsome' as the seventh player (Jamie MacDonald) had injured himself during the Saturday round. There was a splatter of rain on the 3rd hole and we played dry until the very last hole. The conditions were great despite the overnight rain but the wind was not our friend as it gusted to 50 km/h. The weekend was a blast and the town may take a while to recover and so might some of us. Click here for pictures and some of the scorecards might show up later in the week on the golf page.

Only A Few Days Left to Join Mon-Chez Moi Bowling Event
The deadline for joining the June 18th Bowling for Mon-Chez Moi is June 1st. Here are the details:
We are having our 9th annual bowling party to raise money for Mon Chez-Moi on Saturday June 18th 2016 at 6:00PM.
If you would like to participate please organize a team of 6 players, collect $13.00 from each player, and get back to me by June 1st 2016 with
the money and the names of your team players.
I need both the money and the names in order to reserve the correct number
of lanes to accommodate everyone. If you would like to participate and do not have a team please contact me
and I will put you on a team.
The cost of bowling shoe rental is $2.00 to be paid to the bowling alley.
Thank you all again for your continuing support, Ethel Stephen (450-472-2211)

Legion Br 185 Annual Steak Supper
On Saturday June 4th, the Legion Branch 185 will be holding its annual steak dinner. The cost is only $20 and the proceeds will go to the St-Anne's Veterans' visit. All are welcome.

Horticultural Day - Saturday May 28
The city is hosting its 11th annual Horticultural Day on Saturday May 28 from 9am to 3pm. Once again, the Caisse Desjardins is the major sponsor. Residents of Two Mountains can pick up some free flowers after providing proof of residency. There will be people on hand to give gardening advice. Volunteers from Maison des Jeunes and the 5th Boy Scout troop of Deux-Montagnes will be on hand. As well, your city councillors will be there to greet you. It all happens at the municipal garage at 625 20th avenue.

Click on the picture on the right for the full poster.
 

4 on 4 Play For Autism a Success
On Saturday April 16th at Olympia arena, a 4 on 4 hockey tournament was held to raise money for Autism. The following message is from Margie Lavalée who was key in organizing this event:

Holy Family Golf Tournament - Glenn Hogan Memorial
On Saturday June 18, the Holy Family Church will be holding its annual tournament in memory of Glenn Hogan. The tickets are $60 a person which includes golf and a steak dinner back at the church hall. It's B.Y.O.B. at the hall. People who just want supper can do so at $25 a person. Tickets will be on sale between 5:00pm and 5:30pm on Saturday May 21st at the entrance to the church and on Sunday May 22nd after the 11 o'clock mass in the church hall. There are also a limited number of carts available at $26 a cart ($13 a person). The tournament is open to everyone is will be played in a 4 player scramble (Vegas). If you will be absent on the ticket selling dates, you can contact the church at 450-473-2163 Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 9:30am to noon.

After 10 Wonderful Summers My Baby Is For Sale
Just in case you are not on FaceBook's Articles A Vendre Deux-Montagnes and you don't visit Kijiji, I am parting ways with my 2004 BMW 325CI convertible. I have spent the 10 last summers with my hair in the wind, which is why it is almost all gone. Actually, the windscreen I purchased blocks out most of the wind, so the hair may have escaped in another manner. With the purchase of my brand new 'winter' car, my garage can only accommodate 2 cars therefore I don't want my convertible to sleep outside so I am relunctantly letting it go. The car, with only 89,500km is in excellent condition and is a steal at $12,000 since it is listed at $12,500 on Kijiji. It comes with the windscreen and an official BMW charger for winter storage. It also has brand new Pirelli tires with less than 500kms on them. It is a must see. I wouldn't mind it staying in the area since I may ask for visitation rights. Click here to see pictures taken last week at the park on 24th avenue. Drop me an email if you are interested. Update, someone was interested and he promised to take good care of it.

Only a Few Tickets Left For Upcoming Forever Young Production
On Friday May 6th and Saturday May 7th, the Forever Young Theatre Group is presenting Broadway Bill's Variety show at the Heritage Social Club. It's a behind the scenes look at an old style TV variety show with skits, music and dance. The cost is $15 a person and the both shows start at 7:30pm. For tickets, you can call Hazel Wylie at 450 983-6811 or send an email to hazel_wylie@hotmail.com. For full details, please click here.

Any Victory's Lying Around?
Just received a picture of an old Victory from Former Two Mountains resident Michael Catsburg. It's from October 1964 and is complete with a major spelling error in the headline. There is also a call to abolish taverns within city limits. Who knows where we would be if that really happened. If you have old Victory issues lying around, I will gladly capture them electronically and post them on my link above. I currently have 18 of them online with most being complete. I will return them to you after a few days and fix them up a bit should they need restoring. Congratulations to the 1964 provincial soccer champs and thanks to Michael for sending me the pictures.

Mike McKeown Continues The Trend (Erratum)
On Thursday April 28, exactly a week after Don White's season opening hole in one, Mike McKeown aced the same hole at Victorien. It was Mike's fourth career eagle par 3. His first came a dozen years ago also at Victorien. This one was much like Don's as it took one bounce and buried itself in the hole. The hole is just over 100 yards from the white tees but the wind plays a lot of tricks on the ball flight. Congratulations to Mike and we will see who's up to the challenge in next week's games. I apologize to Mike for having 'forgotten' about his hole in one on the 195 yard 17th at Lachute a few years ago. To my knowledge, Mike is now in second place trailing Ron Potter (with 6) as Two Mountainers in H-I-O rankings. If you have more than 3, let me know.

Hot Dog Benefit For SERCAN
On Sunday April 24, the Pub Deux-Montagnes is having a hot dog sale with all proceeds going to SERCAN, a palliative care home in St-Eustache. There will also be a raffle for many prizes. Hot dogs will cost $1.50, all of it going to SERCAN. Pub Deux-Montagnes is at 2000 Oka road.

Golf Season Starts Off With A Bang
Yesterday, April 21st, was the first day of golf at le Victorien golf course. It was the first B52 day also which means a few of us played for 'free'. Don White did not take long to make his mark on the year by getting a hole in one on the 3rd hole. Congrats to Don for great shot. Honourable mention goes to Mike O'Neil for scoring a 1 over par 74 with a bogey on the final hole.

The season started with a beautiful day of weather and golf. Not so good on the second day weather wise.

Customer Service in the 21st Century
As many of you have read, we are undertaking some renovations at home. Our 'new' house is 29 years old and like many of us, it's in the need of a slight 'pick me up'. Other than the required annual maintenance, you need to upgrade certain items. Three years ago, what started as an attempt to spruce up kitchen cabinets, turned into a full blown kitchen renovation with new appliances. This time around, we took the high road and started both bathroom renovations from scratch. In order to have a pot to 'p' in, we started with the smaller main floor bathroom and only started the upstairs or main bathroom once that was finished. This article has nothing to do with renovations really but in the last 2 months I have dealt with many vendors and the frustration seems to never end. From the pickers in the ceramic store putting the wrong tiles in the trunk to a bath being delivered with options installed on the complete opposite side of the specs that are online. Most of these problems are solved in the end but sometimes after hours of phone support and many trips to return items. Since my retirement 6 years ago, I have never put so many miles on my car. I must say that dealing with Rona and Home-Depot has been really good, since there are no questions asked when returning items. Here is where the story goes bad.

Last Saturday, I was driving by the Bell store in St-Eustache and I stopped in because I knew that my cellular contract was expiring and I could exchange my 3 year old HTC phone without penalty. So instead of doing my usual research online, I let the young lady behind the counter talk and considering my plan, she suggested a 'free' Samsung option. Somehow, she convinced me to take a brand new Samsung Galaxy 3s. That's right, a 4 year old phone but I was in a hurry and at that point anything but my ailing HTC One would be a joy. A joy it wasn't. As expected, the battery was very tired sitting there idle for a few years. From 100% charge, I got a battery low warning within 11 hours. I knew within minutes that I had made a bad choice and I did my post purchase research so that on my return visit on Monday I was well armed with knowledge and my choice would be easier. So on Monday, my wife and I went to upgrade our phones, my Galaxy 3s and my wife also ailing HTC One. Her transition to her new Galaxy 5 Neo went smoothly, mine however took an ugly turn. I was now bringing back my phone under the 'buyer's remorse' plan. The clerk behind the counter was blocked at step one of the proceedings and there was nothing she could do.

Two days before, as I knew I would probably be trading in my beautiful Galaxy 3S, I asked the girl how long I had to change my mind and she said 14 days. I wasn't worried because in Quebec there is a consumer law that you can pull out of any contract within 15 days of signing. She also mentioned something about 30 minutes of talk time. Being in renovations, I was on the phone a lot Monday before going to exchange my phone so I had used up more than 30 minutes air time. The only way to get past the block was to 'talk' to the loyalty department and have them override the buyer's remorse block. I spent 15 minutes on the phone escalating my request and getting questions like "is it damaged?", "is it in the original box?". The phone was brand new and the box was only opened to take the phone out and I had purposely left everything untouched. I escalated my language and blood pressure in this process but finally got my new phone a good 10 minutes after the boutique had closed. Thanks to the clerk (and her boss) who processed everything to make things right. I know this saga is not really over as I get my bill at the end of the month and I am sure it will be filled with extra charges which I will 'escalate' accordingly. By the way, with the new phone upgrade, I have now entered the 21st century as I have unlocked texting.

Windows 10 Got Me Back for the April Fool's Joke
The computer I use to update this website is now running Windows 10. I didn't really choose to upgrade but as I was typing something last evening the PC suddenly said it was restarting. Then the message came that it was upgrading to 10. It displayed one of those messages to not turn off the computer while this was going on and I wasn't taking a chance turning it off in the middle of something. Today, except for the fact that my PC took about 20 minutes to boot up as it finished the upgrade, things don't look too bad. I have been using Win 10 on another computer for 8 months so it wasn't such a big deal but this is the machine I use the most and is most critical to me. So far my laptop seems to be winning the fight of the forced upgrade but it looks like it could happen anytime. I have heard of other people that have been automatically upgraded like I was. It kind of takes the decision making process out of it and it really isn't so bad in the end.

Ricky Hunt - December 18, 1949 - April 9, 2016

As published in the Ottawa Citizen: Hunt, Richard "Rick" Gordon. Passed away of a sudden illness, on April 9, 2016 at the age of 66. A Firefighter for 15 years of his early life in Deux Montagnes, retired employee with CP Rail. Survived by his beloved wife Violette, his loving children Patrick (Dawn Orr), Melissa Hunt (Philip Strader), his treasured grandchildren Kathryn, Clara and Anna. He will be sadly missed by his brothers Douglass and Ronald (Diane), and all other extended family members and friends. A special thank you to the Ottawa General Hospital for their care and compassion over the last few weeks. Family and friends are invited to On Tuesday, April 12, 2016 for visitation from 1-2:30 p.m. Funeral Service will take place at 2:30 p.m. in the Chapel. Cremation to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society .

Online condolences and sharing memories may be made by clicking here.

Sandy Allen 1942-2016
Allen, Sandra (nee Potts) of Two Mountains was born in 1942 in Montreal Que., Sandy passed away peacefully, on April 6, 2016.

Sandy is survived by Albert, her best friend and beloved husband of fifty-two years. She will be dearly missed by her Brother Gordon (Maureen) and her Cousin Arnold (Gladys). She will fondly be remembered by all of her nieces and nephews and their children.Sandy was deeply rooted in the Two Mountains community. She was a devoted volunteer for 15 years at the Manoir St. Eustache, A member of the Women's Time Out, A Two Mountains Lion. Sandy truly enjoyed shopping vigorously and tirelessly 37 years for the Meals on Wheels and 20+ for the Canada Day Association. Sandy will be dearly missed and fondly remembered by her monthly bingo players (at the Heritage Social Club), She was especially noted for 15 famous Atlantic City Trips. Sandy was a awarded a Jubilee Medal for her contributions to Canada.

The family will receive condolences on Saturday, April 30, 2016, from 9 a.m. at All Saints Church, 248 18th Ave, Deux-Montagnes. The Service will follow at 11 a.m. A Reception will follow the service.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to The St. Eustache Hospital, the Canadian Cancer Society or a charity of your choice.
To view her online obituary and guest book, please click here.

Sally Warren (née Wand)  1934 - 2016

It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our mother, Sally "Wand" Warren on March 23, 2016. Born on June 28, 1934, our mother fought a very brave and courageous 11 month battle against cancer.  Sally leaves to mourn her 4 children: David, (Debbie Howard) their son Jeremey and (Beckie Sinka) and her great grandson Preston.  Earl and (Janet Basan) their daughter Chelsea and (Terry Tsarouhas)  Judy,  her son Dane and  (Renée Latour) daughter Teal & (David McGurk) and their dad (Mike McCarthy).  Cindy and (Brian Sinclair) their daughters Allegra and Mackenzie.  Sally also leaves her siblings: the late Chuck (Patricia), Gary,  Kevin (Gisele), Betty (George) and Brenda along with many nieces and nephews. Sally will be dearly missed and fondly remembered by her monthly bingo players (at the Heritage Social Club), her many friends at Les Cascades and for all her charitable services she is was known for.

We will say our final goodbye on Saturday April 9th, 2016 at 1pm at All Saints Church on 18th Avenue in Deux-Montagnes .  The family will receive friends in our mothers honour in the hall until 5pm.  In lieu of flowers a donation can be made in our mother's name to Mathews House Hospice 6028 Highway 89 P.O. Box 10060 Alliston, Ontario L9R 0K7

Browser Wars - Who's winning?

 Not unlike religion or politics many people are loyal followers of certain browsers. In case you are not familiar with the term browser, it's the application that interprets what people post on the world wide web and makes you able to read it and see pictures and stuff. The icons above depict what are the current popular browsers' If you are reading this, there is a 99.9% chance that you are using one of these browsers but probably not the third one which is Opera. Although Opera is used by over 300 million people, it's hasn't made much headway in North America. The rest of the icons above from left to right are Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) and the newcomer Microsoft Edge which is the default when upgrading to Windows 10. I won't write about Safari since it's only for Mac and iPad's and it's pretty well the way to go and I don't know much about it other than using it on my iPad and iPod.

Browsers are a huge business as they can control what you see on the internet. You might notice that if you install one, it wants to become your 'default' browser. This means that when you open things, it uses that browser by default. I get asked by a lot of people which browser is the best. Like I said, for many people people it would be like asking a Catholic person which is the best religion. Some people used to swear Netscape Navigator but it died in early 2008 as many people had moved to IE or Firefox. I don't get emotionally attached to software and although I was an avid user of Netscape as it was my first browser but gladly adopted IE when Netscape dwindled in popularity. All browsers claim that they are the fastest and take the least resources of your computer's power. It's really hard to tell although there are extensive studies on the Internet that compare each browser. The difference in performance is sometimes milliseconds so you won't notice the difference. Of the above browsers, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is likely to suffer the same fate as Netscape Navigator since Microsoft is pushing Edge with Windows 10. As of January 2016, only IE version 11 is being updated for security and technical updates. So if you are using an older version, you may be getting messages saying that your browser is too old. I can't really recommend a particular browser and I don't need anyone's opinion on which is the best. I actually use 3 browsers not counting Safari. I still like IE except that it doesn't work for my picture uploading website, so I use Chrome for that. And since Edge is the default browser on my Windows 10 PC it comes up automatically when I ask Cortana a question.

I haven't answered why everyone wants to be your browser. It really doesn't have anything to do with the browser itself. It's more about the search engine behind it. You see, Google Chrome would like you to use Google to find things on the Internet. Microsoft is in bed with Bing and Firefox's default search engine is Yahoo (That will change soon I suspect). This is where the money is. If you search for something, you will notice that the first few entries are 'Sponsored Links' now labelled Ad. This means that they show up at the top because someone is paying the search engine to appear near the top so you can click there. I make it a point of not going to a sponsored link because the search is biased to those links even though other sites might match your search better. Like I said, I won't recommend any particular browser but to give you an idea of who is winning the browser battle in 2016, below is a snapshot of what the visitors to my website have been using. Note the growth in non-windows machines. Also, there is still at least one person still using Netscape Navigator. Hats off to that one person, your PC might be a collector's item.

 

  March 2007 March 2010 March 2013 March 2016

Browser
Internet Explorer 77% 75% 51% 7%
Safari 2% 4% 21% 20%
Netscape 12% less than 0.01% less than 0.01% less than 0.01%
Firefox 6% 18% 13% 9%
Google Chrome N/A 0.2% 14% 41%
Microsoft Edge N/A N/A N/A 28%
Opera N/A 0.2% 1% 0.1%

Operating System
Windows 94% 92% 77% 72%
Macintosh (including iPad) 3% 5% 20% 21%
Other (including Linux) 2% 3% 2% 6%

 Microsoft Recalls Windows 10 (April fools story)
After an extensive rollout to over 200 million users, Microsoft have done an about face and are recalling Windows 10. If you have already have Windows 10 installed on your PC, you probably have gotten a popup message (like the one on the left) saying that you need to 'downgrade' to Windows 9, a new much more stable and secure version. According to Bill Gates, the decision to recall W10 was not taken lightly as the impact of such a move would deeply affect Microsoft's reputation not to mention the amount of hours already invested in upgrading over 200 million machines. The good news to people who have not yet upgraded to Windows 10 from versions 7, 8 and 8.1 is that the upgrade to Windows 9 will only take a few seconds. The downgrade from 10 to 9 however could take up to 2 hours.
The reason for such a drastic move is hard to understand and the industry is puzzled over the decision. Some computer experts speculate that the jump from 8 to 10 without ever using 9 caused some of the operating system to drop some bits and therefore the 128-bit security keys were not as secure. Some conspiracy theorists are saying that Windows 9 was never released because the number 9 is a very lucky number in the Chinese culture and they had been running that version internally for years. Some of Apple's internal staff are even claiming that Microsoft is trying to ride the coat tails of their ISO which is now 9.3. There is also the constant rumour that many German high tech companies had said 9 to upgrading to 10. By now, you may have realized what today is. If not, you can wait until Saturday until your computer may revert to its original version. For now, HAFD! This was posted an hour early for my readers in the East.

4 on 4 Hockey Tournament For Autism
On Saturday April 16th at Olympia Arena, a  great hockey tournament for Autism will take place! All proceeds will go to Crestview Elementary School for their programs for children with autism. Entry fee for a team of 9 players will be $320 and the format is 4 on 4. Registration for this tournament is April 4th a Olympia Arena.

You can view all the details here or visit the event Facebook page here.

Richard James 'Dick' Patterson - 1930 - 2016
 Richard James Patterson (April 1, 1930-March 19, 2016) At 5:43 am passed away peacefully at the age of 85 surrounded by his family. He leaves to mourn, Marcey, his wife of 64 years; his children Michael (Angie Patterson), Debbie (Randy McDonough), and Lynne (Rick Fougere); his grandchildren, Tammy, Dave, Julie, Jeff, Amanda, Steven and Brandon; his great-grandchildren Evelyn and Mikhiel. He is also survived by his brothers Harold (Shirley), Eric, sister Arden (Neil McDonald) brother-in- laws Willie, Andy, Louis, George, Billy Gardner, sister-in-law Annette (Don) and many nieces, nephews, and friends. Richard was a payroll manager at General Electric and City of Cote St. Luc and co-owned 3 Marcia clothing stores. He will be remembered for his profound interest in NCAA Notre Dame football, boxing, creating, maintaining sports statistics and constant sense of humour. Richard was very thankful for all the calls and visitors throughout his long illness and to all the caregivers at the “Centre d’hébergement de Saint-Eustache.

The family will receive condolences at Complexe Funéraire Guay (Réseau Dignité),146 Saint-Louis, Saint-Eustache, Tel: 514-871-2020 on Monday, March 21st, 2016 from 2pm to 5pm and 7pm to 9pm., Tuesday from 9am to 10am. A celebration of Richard's life will take place on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016 at 11 a.m. at Holy Family Parish, 1001 chemin Oka, Deux-Montagnes. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Canadian Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. To view his online obituary, please click here.

Air Miles Expiration
 Many of you are Air Miles collectors. I have been since June 2001 and I have cashed in for several flights, Via Rail certificates and a couple of items from their catalogue. My BMO credit card until 2 years ago was the prime source of my AirMiles points. I still have over 20,000 Air Miles. One of the reasons I still have some many points is that it's been almost impossible for us to get the flights we want on the date we want and in the last years the taxes they were charging were almost the same as the cheapest airfare you could get. As one of my readers wrote me, if you haven't used your Air Miles card in two years, you don't have worry about this article since you have no points left because of inactivity.

In 2011, the people at Air Miles decided that they would put an expiry date on your points accumulated. It was written somewhere in the fine print but customers were not really notified. If you were notified as I was verbally at the bank, the date that was coming into seemed far away at the time. That date is no longer far away. It is the end of this year and I was shocked to see what was going to happen to my Air Miles (AM for now on) balance. First of all, Air Miles will not send you a statement to tell you that you will be losing your points. AM's that are older than 5 years will simply disappear every 3 months. How are you supposed to know which of the AM's are to expire? You have to make an online request at this link and within 12 to 24 hours you will get a report. Of course, you have to be signed in, but many people do not know their PIN #'s and have rarely signed in. Once that happens, you will get an e-mail to give the news, and in my case pretty bad news. Here is the email that I received if you want to see it. The letter tells me that 12,285 'Dream' Miles will expire on December 31, 2016.

AM's cost around 30 cents if you want to buy them but they are worth about 10 cents depending how you redeem them. That it itself is crazy but here is an even crazier thing going on. I thought that if I had to use to 12,000 miles that I could go to their catalogue and get things for free. Well it ends up that their catalogue only has 3 items left that you can get for free. All other items are in the Air Miles Plus Cash category. For example, you can get a Klipsch Bluetooth speaker for 500 AM's plus $156 cash. The same speaker you can buy online for $195 if you want 3 year old technology. That means that you will have to spend money to cash in your Air Miles. God forbid you need to fly somewhere. A year ago or so ago, AM changed all the requirements for number of points for flights. If you manage to get a flight you want in the first place. Basically I have to spend over 12,000 nightmare miles in the next 9 months.

Fortunately, I may have found a way which I had never used before. Since I probably won't be flying anywhere else this year, I will be using my soon to be gone Air Miles on hotels and maybe car rentals. I wish I would have done this in Hawaii. I paid over $600Us for my car there and with AM's it would have cost about $160 and used up about 4000 miles. You still have to pay taxes but nothing like flying. For example, I will be booking the Delta hotel in Fredericton for just over 1000 AM's and takes will be only $30. I had already booked that hotel through Booking.com at $163. I just have to find 11 other hotels to stay at sometime in the next few months. The only thing I am not sure about is the cancelation policy if you book a hotel and have to cancel. Do you lose your AM's and/or your money. It's not obvious on the web site. Anyway, Air Miles was good to me for 10 years but now it sucks big time.

Sarah Griffin Named Ottawa Rose of Tralee

On Sunday, March 13th, Two Mountain's Sarah Griffin was named the Ottawa's Rose (of Tralee). She competed against 9 other lovely ladies between 18 and 27 years of age of Irish descent and she took the title. The Rose of Tralee is an international festival that occurs every summer in Ireland. Sarah who was sponsored by the School of Irish Dance in Ottawa will be attending the festival this summer between August 17 and 23rd representing Quebec and Ontario.

Congratulations to Sarah! To know more about the festival, simply click here.

We Are Back and So Is My Laptop
We have been back since Wednesday and if you haven't read our trip log, our last day went from a day in paradise to a day in hell. From an 11:30am hotel check out with 12 hours to kill until our flight, to an over 2 hour flight delay (more hours to kill). Mix that in with our last 8 hours in pouring rain as we were trying to change into 'travel' clothes. Throw in leaving a wallet in the rental and only realizing after passing security at the airport. The wallet was turned in by the person at Budget who cleaned out the car. There are still honest people on this planet. After leaving Maui over 2 hours late, the pilot stepped on the gas and some tail winds helped and we miraculously made our connection in Vancouver even though we only had a 2 hour layover. After a couple of days rest and recovering from a 5 hour time difference (which will be 6 hours after we spring forward tonight as Hawaiians do not change their clocks), I finally decided to tackle my dead laptop issue and phone Dell to see what I had to do to get my travel laptop back on its feet. The story below is long but it has a moral which you can probably get by skipping to the last paragraph. FYI, my laptop is a Dell 2 in 1 Inspriron 11 3000 series like the one in the picture below.

OK first of all, laptops are not meant to be dropped onto a ceramic floor. Meā culpā, it was only yesterday that I realized why my laptop so easily slides on glass table tops. Three of the four little rubber feet underneath are gone, probably from having to take it out of its sleeve so often at airport security. Anyway, with my dead laptop in hand, I call Dell support to find out how to send them my out of warranty machine for repair. First I call the 'regular' support line. After a few minutes, they tell me that my product is out of warranty and they transfer me to their 'out of warranty' service department. After another few minutes, the person says 'Are you in Canada?'. They now say that I am at the U.S. support centre and they will transfer me to the Canadian 'OOW' support centre which is of course in........India. To her credit, the lady who answers me immediately tells me that if I have trouble understanding her to let her know and she will repeat herself. After giving my express service code out for the third time, which I now know by heart, she looks it up and apologizes profusely every time she puts me on hold. We then go through the first troubleshooting step which is making sure that the power supply is plugged in which of course I had done many times on multiple outlets in Hawaii and back home. The laptop was now just a door stop.

The next step was to see if the battery had somehow disconnected. Of course, in Hawaii I had done all that to no avail. Now, on this particular machine, getting to the battery involves removing 9 screws to undo the back and then removing 3 more screws on the battery itself. The table had now turned as I was apologizing for running around the house for 5 minutes looking for the tiny screwdriver that would fit those tiny screws. She was very patient, kept saying don't worry, sir as I was fumbling around out of breath from the descent into my man cave to find the appropriate tool. As I finally removed the battery, a very loud piercing sound came from the bowels of this tiny machine. One last breath I thought after 5 days in a coma. A final goodbye to my $499 (on sale) investment from only a few years ago. All other attempts of revival were in vain and she concluded that my motherboard was dead from the drop. Now at the beginning of the call, I had told her that it MAY have been dropped or slightly jolted, as Myrna was giggling downstairs, as she knew it had fallen from about 4 feet with a very loud bang. A dead motherboard, the mother of all expensive parts in a computer. She put me on hold one last time to get the estimate of how much it would cost. She came back with a $350 plus tax estimate. Hmmm...Over $400 to fix my $499 investment. I asked her that if I sent it in, and they found out that the problem was simply that a power wire was disconnected or something minor would I still have to pay $400. She repeated that the motherboard was most likely the problem and it probably would cost the maximum. I went along with her and she opened a ticket for me and eventually sent me an e-mail where I could pay and then they would send me a shipping box that would be properly addressed to a service center that would replace the MF MB (you figure it out). I asked if my laptop would be visiting the home of the Taj Mahal but she said no that it would be sent to an authorized Canadian centre.

At this point, I knew I would rather invest an extra hundred or so more to get a brand new travel laptop with rubber feet that would maybe prevent another disaster. I was ready to give my laptop a final send off. By the way, I was not a happy camper that I would have to spend a bunch of money but I knew that I did not have any critical data on this laptop. I use the cloud (OneDrive in Windows) for my important stuff and a desktop for really important stuff that is backed up regularly. Had my laptop contained data that was critical I would not be as complacent. So I was ready to part ways with my machine.

Since I wasn't sending it in for repair, I decided to unscrew those 12 tiny screws one more time to pay my respects to the motherboard and all her friends, the tiny hard drive, the little fan, the 4 gig of memory that 20 years ago would have cost $5,000. As I touched each one to say goodbye, the ribbon wire to the hard drive waved back at me. Wait...that's not supposed to wave. The tiny little connection ribbon wire to the hard drive was a little loose. Could such a little 20 pin connector actually have been jarred by just a four foot drop onto hard and cold ceramic tiles? In the 60's, the shag carpet would have certainly cushioned its fall however in the 60's, 500 gigabytes of data would have been the size of the entire condo block. I gently pushed the wire back into the defective motherboard and on a lark plugged the adapter back into the hole and lo and behold, the charging light went on. The tiny light looked like the end of E.T.'s finger as he came back from the dead. I quickly re-screwed the 12 apostles, opened the laptop, turned it on, it gave me a message that it could not boot Windows but offered a retry button which I gladly pushed (it's a touch screen) and within seconds my login screen appeared. Halleluiah, the Inspriron was once again Inspiring and running albeit on one rubber foot.   

Moral of the story, for you people that skipped to the last paragraph: Never give up, never surrender. By that, I mean never surrender your money to people who troubleshoot over the phone and give you the highest estimate possible for a fix. Once you give the OK to perform repairs, you will be paying the big price even if the repair is minor as I am sure that would have happened. You see it on Marketplace and 60 minutes. Bring your perfectly good car to a garage after unplugging one spark plug and see that in more than half the cases, you will be paying big bucks for a fix. On that subject, something that has been irking me a long time is when you buy a computer at a store. At Bureau En Gros (or Staples for you foreigners), they charge $150 to setup you computer. In recent Windows versions that setup involves answering 5 questions. The name you want to give your computer, the language you want Windows to be in, your time zone and your wifi password. After answering those, Windows does the rest of the work which can take up to an hour of staring at the colours changing on the screen. Please don't spend that money. Keep $100 of that for a nice dinner. Take the other $50, give it to my LTM Bursary and I will set up your computer either at my house or I can even make house calls and set everything up at your place with your wifi password. I will even throw in Open Office which is FREE and does everything Microsoft Office does without having to dish out yet another $149 for a legal copy. Here is the link to download Open Office in case you didn't know about it. You can donate to the Bursary if I just saved you $150.

Missing in Action
A few of you have asked people why my website hasn't been updated in a while. There are 4 reasons for that. 1) I could use the excuse that there is not much going on which is partly true but it would be a cop out. 2) The way I update my website stopped working a couple of weeks ago and what used to be really easy to update requires 3 steps which adds almost double the time to update the main page. 3) We have been in Hawaii since February 24th and are coming back tomorrow. That's probably the best excuse but a fourth excuse happened while on holiday here. My travel laptop fell on the floor and is now completely dead making impossible to update my website unless I go to the lobby in the hotel we are staying at right now.

If you are desperate to read something from here and see pictures of our trip, there is a secret link to our trip blog which you can access by clicking on the M between the 2 and the globe on top of this page. I hope to get everything in order when we get home but we might not have much time as you might get from reading the travel blog.

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