Reading to Handley

Handley LOOOOVES to be read to. I LOOOOVE reading to kids.

Its lets me be a kid for a couple of minutes, over-animating the charactors,

using voices that don't really exist and generally being goofy.

Kids usually love it ....

And what I love about Handley is that he asks intelligent questions at the end.

Very imaginative and of course, Auntie Lelann comes up with some far-fetched

answer just to further warp ...... (no worse than their father would do ... :)

I just love this picture of him. He is such a precious little boy.

I wish everyone could meet him. He has the sweetest smile,

the biggest dimples and loves to cuddle.

I miss him and Marilu so much.

Someday I hope we all live a little closer to each other.

My Humble Abode

Well, my new kicks first! Aren't they pretty??

Cute magnet Stephanie gave me .... made me tear up a little.
Its on the only mirror in the room.

View from my bed, looking left. (look right and you'll see the wall)
I DO live in a 8 x 12 room .... basically the size of the upstairs bathroom
in my parents house!

View from the door.

At the door, looking left (are you claustorphobic yet?)

See my tv? Look again. You might miss it.

Please note how out of place my Coach bag looks.

Before and After

I should have mentioned that the camp I live in is 2 hours North of Fort McMurray. You drive for about one hour on Highway 63, and turn right and drive for another 50 minutes or so into the woods.
Hence the difference in lifestyles I'm about to showcase.
I know people have experienced this on much grander scales,
but let me take you for a quick little trip into my switcheroo in lifestyles.
There are six main categories in which I've taken a nosedive in the small luxuries we have in life.

First being Eating. Pretty basic, no?
On my regular M-F schedule, eating was nochalant, unplanned. It just happened.
At my leisure.
I could never have imagined the mind change I'd be forced to make.
In Halfax, I'd wake - get ready - leave my apartment
Walk to work, and CHOOSE where I'd get coffee that morning.
Would it be the Mud Room, Uncommon Grounds, Starbucks, Tim Hortons, or the other Starbucks?
Would I get my favorite roast or switch it up today? Would I get a Latte or Cappacino?
What type of muffin would I get today? Hmmm...... all the choices, I can't decide .....
Get to work. Pick peices of my mufffin when I felt like eating it, sip my steaming hot deliciously bad for you caffinated drink.
If I wanted more, I'd slip out of work, (of course, taking orders to justify leaving the office) and simply get more.

NOW: I take my travel mug, go to whichever spout is working in the Kitchen Trailer. (doesn't matter much, it mostly tastes like slightly coffee flavoured water - but me being the eternal optimist, I try every morning, hoping for a miracle)
I pack my lunch /snack in a paper bag (as it has to double as my garbage bag)
By the time I get to the jobsite, my coffee is cold. (everyday ,,, again.... hoping for a miracle)
Then at 10:30 - work stops. Literally. Stops. Wherever you are at 10:30 - Stop your machine and take your break. It's like a movie was suddenly put on pause.
I grab my take away bowl of cereal. (Frosted Flakes is the flavour of the moment), take my banana, cut it up into the little bowl. (being the domestic goddess that I am ...).
This is all happening on the floor of whatever machine I am operating.
Hygeine becomes an afterthought in these conditions.
Finish eating.
Have another quick snack because I won't get to eat until 2:30 ....


NEXT is DRESSING:
In my former life, I'd wake, shower.. do hair .. etc.
Peruse my closet. Wonder if my polka dot high heels will match that new yellow blouse I bought?
That open toe is so cute and will really show off my hot new nail polish.
Pick out outfit.
Pick out matching jewels.
Wonder if the green eyeshadow I splurged on will look cool with my funky ensemble.
Apply lipstick.
Pick up handbag.
Walk to work.
On a street to an office.


NOW:
Try and guess how cold it is/going to be.
Put tights on.
Put jeans on.
Put on tank top.
Put on long sleeved hooded thin layer.
Put Helly Hanson thermal layer in bag (just in case)
Put socks on
Put other socks on.
Put Helly Hanson socks on.
Put Ice socks on.
Put Lululemon hoodie on (I know, scandlous!)
Gather heavy coat.
Get safety vest.
Get hard hat.
Put toque on.
Get fleece gloves.
Get scarf.
Get snowmoblie gloves.
Walk out the door.
Walk to work.
On a boardwalk into a tent.


NEXT is GYM.
(boooooo hoooooo.... I miss my gym!)
BEFORE: Walk up street. Work out. Walk home.
NOW: Beg the busdriver to wait just fiiiiiiiiiive minutes so I can change from (see above) clothes.
Leave the room in tornado like conditions.
Hop on bouncy, short school bus.
Get to gym.
Phew! Theres at least 1 other girl there. Good.
Hope she doesn't hop on the only treadmill (of 4) that works.
Work out. Improvise, seeing every other machine is broken.
If I'm lucky, or don't do cardio, I can catch the 7:00 bus that belongs to another company but passes through our camp.
Otherwise, I have to wait until 7:45 and have the grumpy night shift guy drive me home.


NEXT is ENTERTAINMENT:

BEOFRE:

Anything I wanted.
Movie up the street.
Theatre down the hill.
Friends around the corner.
TV channels up the Ying Yang.
Coffee shops everywhere.
Hockey games 3 blocks away.


NOW:
1 TV room where nowhere really cares if you're watching 'The Office',
they chant your name until you turn around.
OR:
a 12 inch in my room with 7 channels.


BATHROOM
(I bet statistics would show that this is the thing we take advantage of the most)
BEFORE: As I pleased.
Wherever. Whenever. Get up off my chair and saunter down the hall to use the facilities.


NOW:
Park machine.
Put on hardhat, safety vest, goggles, gloves,
Climb down using three point contact, of course.
Make sure I don't get run over by other equipment.
Go to Johnny on the Spot, or if I'm lucky, I'll be working at a site with bathrooms that are in trailers.
OR:
Call a foreman. Ask him to take you to a bathroom.
(yup. your foreman often knows your bladders' schedule)
Sometimes they come along and ask if you need a bathroom break.

PHONE CALLS:

BEFORE: As I pleased.

NOW: On breaks. (but only if I'm in a service area)Ask a co-worker who has a Bell or Telus phone with a long distance package.

LANGUAGE:

BEFORE:Common exchange: Leanne, could you book a meeting with the CEO's and VP's of districts 7,8 & 9. Forward agendas to their admins. Order food. Meeting is in regards to the new re-structuring proposals.

Me: Sure Abe. How long is the meeting. Are the Deputy and Minister invited? Do you care which boardroom is used? Whats the urgency and who is doing the minutes? Do you need any presentations prepared? (yeaaaaaah, never ever asked that question, but sounds very administrative assistant-y doesn't it?)

NOW: Leanne, do you have a copy?

Me: Leanne here

Radio: Where are you?Me: On the Canterra, by the Aerodome

Radio: When you get to Pit 3, dump your browns, go to the loader on the top, grab a load of clay, take it to Sub 71 and dump in on the NE side.

Me: 10-4

PAYCHEQUE:

BEFORE: Start sweating, wondering how am I going to do this AGAIN? How am I going to go another 2 weeks on this little amount of money?

NOW: I can breathe easy .... and makes the above noted inconveniences pretty well worth it. Especially since I'm flying home on a chartered jet in 5 hours.

Typical Firebag Schedule

The camp I live at is called Firebag.
Named after Firebag River which runs closeby.
A firebag is a leather pouch that was used by the natives long ago to hold embers from the fire so when they needed to build another one, they had some heat and coals already.
Thats your history lesson for the day.
Back to the task at hand.
This is typically what happens from Pre-Sunrise to the Bedtime.
5:00 am - alarm goes off. i hit snooze
5:10 am - i hit snooze again
5:20 am - i hit snooze for the last time. (if i don't have to wash my hair)
5:30 am - grab my robe, shower stuff, toothpaste and brush, put on my "pink goof boots" (as Biker Dave calls them- they are pink fuzzy slipper boots - i love them), stumble down the hall, hoping noone sees me in this state. Noone generally does. When they do, all eye contact is averted ....
6:00 am - go on the internet, see if theres any messages or if Mo has updated her page.
6:20 am - wonder where the time went
6:21 am - scramble around my room, get dressed in my long johns, three pair of wool socks, four layers of shirts, put make up on (yes, i wear make up here - theres very very few ways to feel feminine here - so make up is necessary), pack my bag with snacks, Storme style, an extra layer, lots of water, a book, my blackberry, my notebook, pen with lots of ink, pack up the lap top, make my bed (to have it re-made by the cleaner later), take my vita -greens and daily vitamin, grab my hard hat, safety vest, and out the door.
6:28 am - drop my overloaded bag by the boots and search for my generic steel toes. not hard. the smallest and cleanest pair. drive my feet into them, pick my bag and hard hat up, sweating already, and stomp out the door. (ever try to walk delicately in un-tied steel toed boots?)
6:30 am - arrive at the kitchen trailer. drop my overloaded bag, and hard hat, make small talk and remarks about the weather to those doing the same. slip out of my (see,,,, now are you getting it?) UN-TIED boots and go into the kitchen line up, grab some fresh pineapple, grapes, wraps, rice krispie squares, celery sticks with honey mustard salad dressing to dip them in, some ruby red grapefruit juice (my favorite in all the land) for my break snacks, then grab a bowl of cereal, toss some strawberries or something on it and inhale.
6:46 am - wish i didn't leave this to the last minute - every day.
6:46 am - make my way to the 'tent' - which is our gathering place for our morning meeting which is called a Safety Meeting, Toolbox Meeting or Tailgate Meeting. All it is is we sign in, sit on our benches (we all sit in the same spot every day - weird) and listen to Safety get up and give a little speech on something, like three point contact when exiting a machine etc. occasionally a foreman will tell a joke ... and Foreman Mike gets up, and gives us our instructions for the day.
7:30 am - get on the short bus (for reals) that takes us to our job sites. Mine is always the last site to go to, so I get the tour.
8:00 am - get to my machine. do my walk around. think its way too cold to have an outside job.
sit in machine and shiver and shake until it warms up, defrosts, i write out my time card for that job, fill in my equipment checklist and make my way across the road to my site.
8:20 am - get to my site and start packing ( I drive a packer most days) and start planning my future. For the 12th time that rotation (or whatever day I am at)
10:00 am - go for a bathroom break whether or not I need it. Sitting for that long is bad for your blood and mind and hip joints.
10:10 am - back in the packer
10:30 am - coffee time. don't know why the call it coffee time. theres no coffee in sight. and the stuff from the morning is long since cold. (thouuuuugh.... i, as a joke, told my foreman, Steve, that just like the old days when secretaries made their bosses coffee, foremen should bring their operators coffee at break time. Well,,,,, sometimes he does!)
so this getting boring, right? think about it in real time. just THINK about how bored I get - sitting, packing, only occasionally moving out of a dozers way .....
2:00 pm - another potty break -
2:30 pm - coffee time - again ...no coffee ??
4:00 pm - another potty break - look - i need the exercise and sometimes the foreman will come along and ask if you need a break and just take you to the nice bathrooms. then you get some human interaction and a nice comfy Duramax or Cummins seat.
5:30 pm - signal from the dozer to stop work.
5:30:01 pm - stop work
5:31 pm - park packer. let engine cool while gathering your not so overstuffed anymore bag and completing said time card. making sure all garbage is picked up, cab is clean for nightshift.
5:35 pm - hop in short bus, tell Wayne you had a great day, how was his ? and sit down.
5:45 pm - dump bag, hardhat, vest, 2 layers on floor of room, go on internet again before the circuits get too busy and check for messages.
6: 00 pm - shower, or every other day, change into gym clothes and get the shuttle which takes you to 8:00 pm)
6:30 pm - (stretching evening out) go to kitchen trailer
7:00 - 8:00 pm - depending on the level of entertainment in the lunch room, hang around and have a lot of crazy laughs and unbelieveable stories ....
8:00 pm - down time, reading, cleaning, organizing for the next day.
9:00 pm - bedtime .......
Ever see the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell?
Life at camp is like Groundhog Day.

Ask anybody what day it is and for a second, they will look blankly at you and peer at the sticker on their sandwich to see what day it says ... the thing is, you don't care what day it is because it doesn't even matter. all that matters is how many days until you fly out .... its the weirdest feeling.
its like living in the twilight zone or something.

thats all. thats how my days go. they ARE boring, but theres many bright moments in them. The radio talk is mostly funny, the toolbox meeting is always a laugh ....

that's all
xo
L.

Brought to You By 49 Moberley

Marilu's favorite pastime.
Mom's too


You don't get much cuter than this ...



or this .... look at this little impish smile

This is Clive. He comes to Barry & Iris' for dinner every Sunday.

Such a sweet man. He gave me $50 one Sunday because he didn't

want to see me go without.

Who says theres no fashion industry in FMM???

Check her out!