Things change ...

I came to Sudbury just over 15 months ago to take over as the new editor of the Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal. I was more than pleased to meet and get to know all the people I worked with. Sadly, many of those people including myself were laid off this week. Our company was sold to another publishing company that is all on the internet. They do not have any newspapers or magazines. So it is nice that the company is continuing but I feel bad for many people caught in the middle of this change.
I went into the office today to clean out my desk and send out a few notes to freelance writers and others I have worked with. I was more than pleased with the kindness of their words and messages of encouragement.
With the COVID-19 emergency, this is a bizarre time in our lives. But I am confident we will all get through this with fresh outlook.

A few days at home ...

After being at the annual Prospectors convention in Toronto last week, I figured I could take a few extra days to be at home especially since one Sudbury man tested positive for COVID-19. There has been a lot of concern about all the other people who attended the convention. So I am lucky that I have a job where I can work from home. The best part is that I have no symptoms and I am feeling fine. Just to be sure, I will be contacting Sudbury public health today for screening. That being said, I had fun at the convention and got a whole lot of work done as well.

One other thing.  Just before Christmas our newsroom had a coffee mug gift exchange. Some of the folks will kid me about being the oldest person in the newsroom.  It is all good natured.  One young intern bought me this coffee mug, which I love. As I am self-quarantined this week after attending the PDAC convention, this mug is so appropriate!😄

Relaxing now

I spent four days this past week at the annual Prospectors convention in Toronto. It is the world's biggest mining exploration trade show and Northern Ontario had the biggest pavilion there.
It was a lot of work meeting people, doing interviews, taking pictures and writing stories but it was all worth it.

There was even a protest outside the convention centre where people expressed their displeasure at the mining industry. Interestingly, many had cell phones, which are all created with Canadian metals and minerals. Many wore gold and silver jewellery. One woman was upset that I took her photograph when she stood in front of me to block me from taking photos of protesters. Interesting.

Regardless I met a lot of nice people, enjoyed a lot of hospitality and was glad I attended. One of the fun things was going to all the parties. I was at the Northern Ontario party Monday night when I was pleased to bump into my niece Valerie Maltais and her husband Denis Flood. How cool was that? (I missed getting their photo, but Val took a selfie of the two of us.)
I also met tonnes of other people I had not seen in quite a while. I think the best part of the convention is meeting folks you've met over the years and getting caught up on how they are and what they're doing now. Mining is an international business and so it is not unusual to meet people who have travelled to Toronto from around the world. I even met a radio producer from Asia who said he knew me because of the stories I had written for mining, including the murder at the mining convention.

New technology is great

It was a few years ago in Timmins that the doc said I was Type-2 Diabetic. So my body does not process sugar as it should. So that means having foods and beverages that have a lot less sugar. This is good, but it means checking my blood-sugar levels all the time. That can be a bit irritating because it means pricking your fingertips with a tiny lancet and then using a test strip to measure the blood sample.
Today I began using a new system. It's called the Freestyle Libre. You attach a sensor to you upper arm. It's about the size of a loony and it had a tiny filament that embeds in your skin. The sensor measures your blood sugar every minute and stores the data for two weeks. To make it work properly you wave the scanner device over the sensor once every eight hours.
Everything is downloaded to a computer app. So this is my new thing. Cool.