Farewell, not GOODBYE

The saying “Time flies when your having fun” really hit home the other day when I checked the calendar and realized that I’ll be retiring from Canadian Mining Journal at the end of the month after more than 13 years as its Publisher.

I started here at the Business Information Group in November 1993 on another magazine, so all in all the past 17 years have been very exciting and rewarding for me.

After publishing almost 200 issues I’m still having fun!

But all good things must come to an end and I’ve decided to call it quits and head off into the sunset (literally) and move south. Not permanently south, mind you, but south of the Toronto office to our home in Burlington from June to October then to our new place in Florida from November to May.

In other words no more shoveling snow for this guy; it’s time to golf, swim, ride my motorcycle and resume flying. In reality, though, grocery shopping, gardening, and visits to Home Depot are more likely what’s in store.

But I don’t mind because whatever I do to occupy my time it’s okay with me because I’ve got my health, and more importantly my wife Jo-Ann to share retirement with.

You see, Jo-Ann is also retiring after more than 27 years in sales and she too, so she say’s now, is looking forward to us spending leisurely hours doing what we want, where we want, and most exciting of all, when we want.

Just the thought of no more commuting gets me pumped even more about retiring, but like I said at the start, working on Canadian Mining Journal for the past 13 years has been one of the better experiences of my life and even the deadlines haven’t been that bad.

I wish my successor Robert Seagraves, formerly with our sister newspaper The Northern Miner, continued success in his new role as Publisher.

The hardest part of this job is now, saying goodbye to colleagues and friends that I have made over the years because it seems so final.

So, instead, I’ll just say “farewell” for now.