Happy Birthday to me!

So, as of eight or so minutes ago, I'm officially 26. Kind of scary. Getting to 25 didn't seem too bad, but 26 seems kind of...old. Today I got to celebrate my birthday by going out to Tower Lake, re-logging some core, and working to put together a representative rock suite for one of our project areas. Whoo!

I've spent five of the last six birthdays in the bush, and it's really not that bad. They are, at the very least, memorable. I have already celebrated with my family, and I've received a number of birthday wishes from friends today via e-mail.

Tomorrow I will be leaving for a geological field trip in Flin Flon, which will be a nice break from the field work here. This will also afford me the opportunity of visiting with Eileen and Jim, my aunt and uncle who live out in that direction. Should be good.

Week 6

Oops! My First (And Hopefully Last) Quad Roll-Over

Alternate title: More things I shouldn't tell my mother (but probably will).

Today I and my supervisor, Ron, were heading out to one of our project areas to see what the drilling conditions will be like. Right now our heavy equipment operators are working on upgrading that road to year-round truck driveable status. We were going out by quad, and came to an area where they hadn't finished work, that we needed to get through; the only really way of getting to where we were going was to go down a ~6 foot drop, at a 50-60° angle. I knew from looking at it that there was potential for a roll-over, but I squared myself to the trend of the edge as best I could, and gave it a try. Part way down the quad over-balanced, and began to roll; this was happening slow enough that I was able to roll in the same direction as the quad, and get myself pretty much out of the line of descent. The quad went all the way over, and ended up partially on my left leg, but there was never any real pressure on my leg. Ron came down, helped me right the quad, and checked me over, but I came through okay. My shoulder is a little sore, but otherwise not even a bruise nor a scrape. The quad, too, came through virtually unscathed. With some difficulty, we got Ron's quad down safely, and continued on our way.

I'm sure some will be glad to know that I was wearing the proper safety gear, I had on a motorcycle helmet, was wearing long pants and shirt, as well as gloves, so if it had to happen, I was as prepared as I as was going to be. I knew going in the potential of danger, but we needed to go out there, so I took the course which I judged as giving me the best chance of succeeding, and went for it. If I had been on my own, and was confronted with a similar situation, I probably would've said, "nope", turned around and either convinced one of the heavy equipment operators to clear a path for me, or come back another time. In the end, no real harm was done to either myself or my vehicle, but I recognize that I was lucky.

Going over like that was kind of a strange sensation. I've been in a car accident before, and there everything was over in an instant, and I was left wondering what happened. In this case, time seemed to slow down; I was fully cognizant of everything that was going on, and I attained an almost clinical detachment about the situation. I was aware of what was going on, decided how I should act to deal with it, and then followed through with that plan. I'm unsure how long it took, I was going at a crawl, so it could've been 5 seconds or 15, but it seemed longer.

Perhaps God was watching over me today. The situation could easily have ended up much worse than it did. As it is, I didn't strike my head, I was able to roll with the quad, and roll over on my shoulder to absorb the force of the impact. However, I could've broken a limb, or my neck, if I'd been a bit slower to react. They say that God watches over children and fools, and I certainly am a member of both categories far more often that I would like. I just give thanks that I'm able to be sitting here typing this now, rather than the alternative.

Day 11: London & the Journey Home

Okay, so it's been more than two months since I've been home, I really should finish this chronicle.

On Sunday, my family hopped aboard the train to London, and then took the tube around central London. By this point in our travels, we were all wearing out a little, so we only hit a few must-see sites before returning to Reading.

Of course, one of the chief places to go on this list was the Beatles store, shown below. You will also note that I'm wearing the fabulous John Lennon sunglasses I purchased at the store.


Our travels then took us to the near-by Abbey Road, and below is a picture that my dad took of me crossing that famous street.


We then continued onto Picadilly Circus, where, inexplicably, we ran into several hundred people roller-blading through the streets of London.








After that, we stopped by Trafalgar Square.





Hey look, the Canadian Embassy. Sanctuary! Sanctuary!


We passed by Lord's Cricket Grounds, where a rousing game of cricket was going on. Unfortunately, I didn't notice any white robots there. We couldn't find a decent game of Brockian Ultra-Cricket going on anywhere around there, either, so we decided not to stay.



That pretty much wraps up our day in London. At Paddington Station, we of course tracked down the statue of Paddington Bear. Here's a picture of my mom with him. Aren't they cute?




The next morning, my sister saw us off with twice the luggage we came with (we brought back some of the stuff she had over in England during her three year stay), and we flew to Regina via Toronto. I met a rather nice man from Portsmouth, who was traveling over with his wife to tour part of Canada by train. It sure made the nine hour flight go by more quickly, having someone entertaining to visit with. My parents and I then carried onto Regina, arriving late Monday evening. Air Canada, of course, had lost one of my bags, but it turned up the next day so it all turned out okay.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip, went by far too quickly, and was quite exhausting by the end of it! Now I just have to figure out where next to go in my international travels. Taken from Ariann, here is a map of the countries I've visited...right now it sits at a somewhat pitiful 4, only 1% of the countries in the world. I'm going to have to try to better that!



create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Week 5: Full, approaching Bushy

For my adoring public. A warning to all of my fans in law enforcement, the style of these pictures may look familiar (especially to my parole officer).

I like people

After my week in Regina and all the visiting which ensued, I was perhaps feeling a bit let down suddenly not talking with people. Then today, I was in communication in some form or another with Ariann, Bronwyn, Chris, Jeremy, Ky, Scott, my parents, Jen, my grandma, and Bryan! Yay!

One step closer...

As a follow-up to this post, I finally received notice back from APEGS. I passed my professional practice exam, which brings me one step closer to having my professional geoscientist status. I was a bit nervous opening it, I figured I had passed, but wasn't sure. At the exam, I went through all of the questions, and tried to gauge how many marks I should get on each question, and whether it would be enough (yes, this is the sort of person I am); although I was pretty sure I had, I wasn't totally confident.

That's all for now.

Adventures in Regina -Or- Uncle Traveling Matt, Social Butterfly

So, my break has now come and gone, but I thought I'd relay a bit of what went on. I had a very busy weekend, with much visiting and socializing. It was tiring, but fun, and I'm glad I got in as much as I did, since it'll be a while before I have the chance again.

Resuming from my last post on the subject:
Monday I had a eye check-up (with favourable results: the short sightedness in my left eye had slightly improved, eye health was excellent, my right eye continues to compensate for my left such that I don't need glasses. Yay!), did a bit of running around in the morning, and then met with my friend Kent for a while in the afternoon. That evening, I got together with Jessica, saw her new condo, and generally got caught up on what had been going on in her life since last we spoke. It was a nice visit.

Tuesday, I picked some raspberries from the bushes in our backyard, filled up a bird feeder, and did some other tasks around the house before going to meet my friend and coach, Ted, for lunch. I then proceeded pretty much straight from lunch over to the Reed household, where I had a nice visit with Maryanne while we waited for Chris to return from some running around. They also had Kevin over, a friend of Dan Modderman's, and both of Chris' siblings, Dana and Jeff, were about for part of the afternoon. We mostly chatted and played Loot, a Mensa-approved card game, concerning pirates. It was fun, especially since since this soul enjoys sailing the seven seas! Avast ye scurvy bloke, ye will be planking the plank by dinner-time! Arrr! Yarr! This chair be high, says I! ...okay, I'll stop now.

Once the afternoon festivities had wrapped up, I continued onto Mike and Julia's apartment, as they were kind enough to invite me for supper. We had excellent home-made Pad Thai, and some good conversation. It was really nice to get to know to Mike a bit better.

From there, I continued onto Galaxy Cinemas, at the Normanview mall, to meet Chris, Maryanne and Bronwyn. Kevin and Jeff also came along. We watched X-men 3 (which I had seen before; I was there more for the company, and less for the movie), which is a decent show. After that was done, Jeff departed, but Lyn joined us at Brewster's, just across the parking lot from the theatre. So, then more visiting ensued. I finally got home around 1:00, quite exhausted from a full day of socializing!

On Wednesday, I saw still more of Chris and Maryanne, we got together for a walk along the bike trail near Maryanne and Meg's former apartment, then continued onto Dessart on 13th ave. After that, we returned to my parent's house, where Maryanne told Jen about Ky's recent visit to P.E.I., particularly as it related to L.M. Montgomery.

In the afternoon, I got together with Karl for coffee (well, a beverage, at any rate) and a walk. He also showed me some pictures of his honeymoon, through which I was struggling to stay awake, not due to the content but simply because I was so tired! Sorry Karl!

That evening, my family celebrated my birthday (a little bit early), organized primarily by my sister. Thanks Jen!

On Thursday, my dad left for Gimli for the weekend. I packed Thursday morning, and did some shopping, then in the afternoon met Tom and Helen for coffee. That evening was Karl's birthday celebration, at the Ethiopian restaurant at Broad St. and 13th Ave. We had a good time, and man was the food filling! Once supper was finished, I met my mother and sister to watch the Da Vinci Code (eh. It was okay, I guess.)

Friday morning, I got up, drove back to Saskatoon, and then caught a ride up to La Ronge with Alexander.

Sadly, I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to on this trip, but there's only so much time. I was really hoping to get together with Joel on my way back north, but due to his busy schedule and my own, it didn't work out.

It was a great week, but I had to go back to work so I could get some rest!

For the Love of Ky and Trouble

Well, I suppose it's time I put something else up here. So, as quite a few people are now aware, I started growing my beard back, due to popular demand.

This post is dedicated to two individuals who have had notable reactions to my facial hair in the past: Ky, who loves beards, and Trouble, who, when I first returned from the bush with a beard, asked something along the lines of, "What's that growing on your face?!?"

This picture is my beard at four weeks less a day.



At the request of Meg, I will be taking a picture each week to follow the progress over the summer.

As a bonus, here is a picture of me with a beard, and sporting my amazing John Lennon sunglasses, purchased at the Beatles store in London! I don't care what Bronwyn says, they're fabulous!

Home!

Well, I did eventually make it home. We ended up flying out to La Ronge via a Turbo Otter on Saturdy morning, then drove to Saskatoon. I made a brief stop at my apartment, packed up a few things, and then continued onto Regina.

I had a pleasant surprise Saturday night, because my friend Bryan had come back from his work term in Swift Current; originally he was supposed to be working this weekend, which meant that I wouldn't have been able to see him until the fall. After I had supper with my family, I got together with Bryan and hung out for a bit.

Yesterday there was no church to go to, because everyone else from church was up at the North Battleford camp. So, I went out to Noel's parent's cabin, near Regina Beach, with Bryan and Noel. We swam, played frisbee, ate fish 'n' chips at Butler's at the beach, and in general had a good time. After we returned from that, I got together with Scott and Jeremy to catch up a bit.

So, I've got another four or so days here, in which I have to do some more visiting with my family, along with Maryanne & Chris, Meg & Karl, Jessica, Ted, Marion, and possibly Julia & Mike, among others. Busy times.

It's good to be home.

Update: Stupidity and Bureaucrats

So, it's now 9:20 p.m. and, lo and behold, I'm still sitting in camp.

As the day wore on, the plan evolved to having a float plane leave La Ronge at 6 p.m., bringing in several people and then returning to La Ronge with Ron and I. However, we got a call about 6:20, and were told that the plane was unable to take off because of poor visibility, due to heavy rain in La Ronge.

One would think that this would solve our problem: it's raining heavily that planes can't take off from La Ronge, which would seem to suggest that the forest fires are no longer a problem in the vicinity of La Ronge, and therefore that the highway should be open to traffic.

This simplistic solution to the problem overlooks the fact that people, particularly those in government, are frequently idiots.

Apparently, although the highway is safe to travel over now, the opening of the highway requires the approval of a bureaucrat in Regina. Right now, the closure of the highway is being enforced by the RCMP. Since it is now the weekend, it seems unlikely that said bureaucrat will grant this approval until Monday. So, many people are unnecessarily inconvenienced (keep in mind: the highway has been closed since Tuesday and it is the only road access to communities north of La Ronge), because some government official can't be bothered to say, "Oh, yeah, you can probably start letting people through now."

That's the situation as it stands. The plan for tomorrow is that a flight will be attempted for 8:00 a.m., provided visibility has cleared up sufficiently for the plane to take-off. This will put us in La Ronge for hopefully 10:30 or 11:00, which means I'll get to Saskatoon late afternoon, and then continue on into Regina that evening. I'd be mad if the whole situation wasn't so funny; it's the kind of thing that would show up in a movie, not in real life.

Hurry up and wait: The Frustration

So, in theory, I should be on my way to Saskatoon right now (en route to Regina) for my break. However, highway 102 has been closed for the last several days, so getting out by truck isn't really an option.

We were planning to get a float plane to come pick us up (as well as to bring in a couple of people who have been waiting for the highway to open), but there was some rain overnight, so that idea was scrapped because rain means the highway should open up. It's noon now, and I still have no idea when and whether we will be leaving. Kind of frustrating, especially since I had plans to meet a friend (Joel) for supper tonight in Saskatoon.

As is often in the case in this profession, I've just got to hurry up and wait. Not much else I can do, but it's still frustrating.

I hope to see some of you soon!