We carry on ...

It’s Saturday morning after a nice week; well nice for the most part. Tea and cake for breakfast is a good thing. I was looking at the newspaper Thursday morning. It is the last newspaper that will be printed in Timmins. From now on the papers are going to be printed at a press plant down south, and the papers will be trucked north. Our parent company Quebecor made that decision. It means the six guys in the press plant here at our paper are being laid off. Not a happy time. Our press plant had printed the Timmins Press, The Timmins Times, as well as the newspapers in Kapuskasing, Hearst, Cochrane, Iroquois Falls and Kirkland Lake. It's a shame they're closing our plant. I wonder how much thought goes into that kind of decision. It may save a few dollars today, but if the price of fuel goes up, who knows. I enjoyed some television last night, by watching Netflix. I am pleased to report that The West Wing is being presented. So I am watching it again. It was a great show that began in the late 1990s and ran for a few seasons … one of the best television shows I can remember. I had a pleasant evening Wednesday, when I attended a local coffee house where an event called Timmins Voices is presented. In this case, the voice was Diane Armstrong, our main columnist at The Times. She did a reading from her latest book. That was nice. It was also nice to see so many young people there, as well as a few oldies, who did poetry readings. When is the last time you sat down and listened to poetry? Exactly! It was just excellent. Some folks at the microphone were getting really personal and pouring their hearts out. I plan to be at the next one. It is Mine Rescue time in the North. That’s when Mine Rescue teams from the various mines compete for bragging rights. Kidd Operations won this year, at an event held last weekend. Second year in a row. Congrats to them and my brother-in-law Moe the miner, who has been part of Kidd mine rescue for 20 years. Team Kidd are also the defending champs for Ontario. ( I am proud of this because I am a former Kidd mine rescue man.) So in June, all the winning mine rescue teams will be in Timmins to once again, compete for the title of best mine rescue team in the province. By the way, this is the May long weekend. Saturday morning and there are snow flurries outside. The river is rising, and the city has set up sand-bagging stations because flooding is expected any time now. Life in Timmins … it goes on. People just carry on.