Winning awards ...

We had champagne at the office on Friday. I wasn't surprised. I am now working for an independent publisher and they like to do things their way. Very different from working for the corporate newspaper companies. The champagne was a celebration of the fact this local newsroom snatched up the top six awards for 2018 at the Ontario Community Newspaper Association awards event. This all happened before I arrived, but I am still proud of the team.

The reporters here at Northern Life earned those awards through hard work and dedication. How cool is that? I think it shows the importance of local newspapers, as compared to the national newspaper companies. It also shows there is a significant cadre of local news reporters still on the job in smaller newspapers across Ontario and across Canada doing exceptional work. 

Catching up ...

Well work is going well. I was a bit worried about some company procedures, but I am happy to say I produced my first solo effort on the medical journal.

Everything went fine and the bosses are happy with it. My only concern is that three of my stories were pulled because the advertising people sold too many ads. One of the bosses told me this week to watch for that and that when extra money comes in from advertising it is reasonable to add more pages to the magazine.

Since my last posting in March, lots has happened. Tyler celebrated his 19^th birthday and we had a nice supper at the house. It was good to see that Denise and Don had returned from their winter getaway in Florida. Scott and Jenn made great supper. I took leftovers!

They had a nice time, but missed seeing some of their Saturday night hockey games.

Had a good chat with Debra on my birthday. I should mention that I officially became a senior citizen now that I am 65. I am glad to be still working. I don't think I could deal with retirement.

Debra said she is enjoying her retirement, although John is still teaching. Deb and John have purchased a condo in Florida and are now planning to build a new home in Grand Mira. They will enjoy that. Both of their boys – Alex (Married!) and Scott (Single!) – are doing well and living in Laronge, Saskatchewan.

Life in Sudbury is nice, but I do miss a lot of people in Timmins. I covered a mine rescue conference held in Sudbury last week and was pleased to meet about dozen people from Timmins. It was nice to talk and catch up.

I also met the Diamonds In The Rough, Canada's first all female mine rescue team. It was nice to be able to do a story on them.

Okay, so this is a day off and I have to read through 400 pages of the Mueller Report on Donald Trump. I don't really have to read it. But I have too many questions in my head that need answers.