Last post on blogger

Hi loyal readers! Due to changes in the blogger software I am finding it impossible to write posts here any more. That said I am not giving up but will instead be opening a new account on Wordpress. It is slightly different in name as it is called theadventuresofironpete.wordpress.com.

I just changed that note above so if you tried it before and failed please try it again!  :)

Pee test time!

I pee test tomorrow in anticipation of starting work again for Waiward Steel again but this time at CNRL. I have enjoyed my time off. But it looks like I will fly out next week probably although maybe not as the shift they want me on will be almost over by then so they may not fly me in till the following week. We shall see.

I have enjoyed my time off. I suck at golf still but got lots of it in. I harvested and cooked millions of tomatoes. I even managed to get out fly fishing and to get some trout. Little guys but trout just the same. The money is now gone. School starts soon so my wife will be working. It is time to go back.

Correction from the other day...

The other day I was writing about both weddings and funerals. They are very similar in that both bring the family together. That said, it was a typo when I said that I was going to my niece Kat's funeral to Matt. Maybe it was a Freudian slip? Either way they are actually getting married tomorrow and her funeral won't be until later. Hopefully 60 or so years later!

I had mentioned my daughter Hailiah and the contest she was in for her singing. I thank everyone who voted for her. She came in second and won $500 towards the recording studio of her choice so all good. They are doing an article on her now and the president of the website made some nice comments about it.

Have a great day!

Time off

I am currently home for a few weeks of vacation and so far I am enjoying lots of sleep, family and friends. I think when you are on the go the way I have been for six months the 7 part of a 14/7 shift means less and less to you. So a little bit of a more prolonged stay is a very good thing.

This week we, as a family, have both a wedding and a funeral. My 'Auntie Claudia' died Friday night after a very long battle with COPD, cancer and age. She was 72. The amazing thing about her though is that the doctors said she was on her deathbed 10 years ago and she just kept on ticking! She was a pretty amazing woman. So one day this week I will be doing the 4 1/2 hour drive each way to attend the funeral. I will be driving down with my buddy Keith who I otherwise wouldn't have seen this trip so apparently there are positives to everything. The funeral is for my niece Kat who is marrying Matt. They are both nice kids but I barely know them. Despite being at numerous family events together they have always been in the other room both physically and metaphorically. So despite feeling pretty ambivalent towards the union I am looking forward to seeing a lot of family that I wouldn't have otherwise.

Yesterday I played a game of golf with my Dad, my brother Andy and my childhood friend Richard. Andy is in town for the wedding. Richard lives in town but works in Alberta like me so our scheduled time home often doesn't match up. Neither Ritch nor Andy have played golf in over 5 years so we split into two teams and played best ball. It was a good choice and we all had a crest time.

Tonight my wife and I are probably staying in for 'us' time. I am looking forward to that as she is my favorite person even after all these years. I still think she is beautiful and fun to be with. It is hard for me to believe that we started dating over 30 years ago! But the kids are grown up. Jak has moved out and is in a good job in Kingston. Hail still lives with us but not for long. Andsoon we get to start moving towards our dotage with an empty nest but with full hearts.

All good! :)

Last bus ride to the bin...

We are doing the creep down one of the Wapasu roads making our way slowly to site. It's quiet on the bus mostly because there are so few people. But the same sun is visible through the clouds that has smiled down at us all these months. The same trees continue to struggle for their survival at the side of the road. The same lazy creeks are working their way towards the ocean. We were here and soon we will be gone. I left my mark here though on several levels. With the exception of the last few weeks that have been a little difficult I like to think I brought some happiness and friendship with me. Although I never wrote my name on anything I did add some happy faces when I wrote the torque ratings next to bolts that I helped to tighten. And I wrote this blog of course that documented a lot of what life has been like up here. All good I think. The last thing I want to comment on is a little statement that people make up here which seals the experience and friendships. It is how you can tell whether a person liked you or not. When saying goodbye you say "nice working with you". If the person says it back you know they are a friend. If not, if instead they say anything else, you know that you failed to win that person's respect. It is worth listening for. It is worth knowing who will be glad when they see you next and who will not. I believe in hanging out with the people I like and who like me. I won't slag the others of course but as always will remain positive and friendly. But I also have no desire to waste time with people who's gift to the world is negative energy. So I file these responses in the memory bank and carry on. To you the reader I say thank you for visiting with me through this site for the duration of this particular job. I do hope you stick around for future blog entries both from home (infrequent) and from CNRL where I am heading next. In the meantime it's been nice working with you! :)

The best laid plans of mice and men...

I got my marching orders today. The job is mostly finished and all but a handful are leaving. I fly out tomorrow night. I was given two options the first being a layoff and the second a transfer. I went for door number three... I am taking a few weeks off on LOA and then I am flying back to work at CNRL. They still don't have flights but hopefully will by then. I am ok with this as I am glad that they wanted me back and the superintendent Brad will be there by the time I arrive so all good. He is a good guy to work for so I look at this as a bonus. I am also looking forward to the time off. I need some quality time with my wife before the summer ends and she heads back to the classroom. We have some projects at the house to look after and maybe we can get away camping together. Although I have a week off every two weeks the time is so short and I spend most of it sleeping. Besides, I want to do some writing as I have a short story cooking around in my brain that I would like to shake out of there and onto paper. It has been a good job all told. I got my feet wet in the business. I survived both -40 degree weather as well as +40 degree weather. I only missed 1.5 days of work in that time. I was promoted from pre-apprentice to 1st year apprentice. There were some bumps along the way but I will survive them. In fact I will be a better Ironworker because of them. Along the way I paid my bills and made some friends while at the same time gaining membership in the union hall. All good. Despite being really happy to be leaving I will miss some things too. I will miss meeting the gang in brass alley in the morning. I will miss the joking around On the bus with my scaffolder friends. I will miss the Wednesday Prime Rib dinners. And I will miss the opportunities I missed and likewise the friendships which didn't work out. But as I said, all in all it was a good run and I am determined to do better in the next run. So for the next few weeks my writings will be irregular at best. But once my vacation is done and I am happily ensconced in my new job things will return to normal and I will let you know what life at CNRL is like. Ciaou for now! :)

Tension

There is good tension and bad tension I guess. In materials like concrete they use tension to help create things like those circular rising driveways that you find in parking garages. The bow in archery wouldn't work without tension. The surface of water is smooth and flat because of its tension which is called the meniscus I believe. But there is also bad tension and that tends to be of the human variety. Tension of the human variety can make life pretty difficult. We tend to see it when our routines are changed on us. Or when it is either extremely cold or extremely hot. We see it when people are getting worn down and don't get a lot of sleep. This kind of tension tends to reap less than desirable results. In fact sometimes the rests are downright awful. On our site there is currently a lot of tension. It is hot generally and very humid. As the job winds down and guys are sent their various directions those left are filled with uncertainty. When guys leave en mass as they have the people who used to hang out with them now have their routines changed drastically with the loss of their comrades. So our job site is experiencing serious tension which is flowing back and forth around the site like a summer grass fire burning here and now there. I think at times like these we have to recognize both the conditions and the symptoms in order to get through in one piece and still smiling. If you know people are going to be affected in this way when they react in a way completely out of character for them one needs to say to themself 'maybe this person is reacting like this because of the heat, stress, oncoming bronchitis caused by the air conditioning or whatever.' And then we need to let it go and to carry on. Hopefully that person will calm down at some point and, reflecting on the relationship you have had up until the blowout, know that they have over reacted by a large margin. If not so be it. Carry on with a happy heart and a smile on your face. We really do make the weather that we live in. I choose sunny days. :)