Holy frig - its been along time since my last post! and that was to be 'the start of the return of the blog'. Ugh Hate when that happens. Thanks to Leanne for sparking my interest again! :)

Sitting in camp today losing half a days pay because it's snowing...thats right...its snowing in Northern Alberta in March and it has been deemed unsafe to work in! We can work for 11 solid hours in the rain in October for a company that doesn't even provide rain gear, but not in the snow while we all have the cold weather gear. This place may as well be run by monkeys. It's frustrating to watch the insanity at work and be forced to abide by some ridiculous rules which change almost daily. Safety should be proactive and preventative, not an over-reactive response to some usually smaller issue which could have been easily prevented if anyone with a white hat could think ahead of the curve, well the curves on the dollar sign at least. Looking for a new job soon!!

My buddy and partner in crime Matt (miracle man) Fahey has a few tracks from his forthcoming (hopefully) summer CD release posted to his Reverb Nation page - Check him out here and it won't take much for all three of ya's to click on the 'like' button while your listening! Hopefully more tracks coming soon.

I swear I will post again at least by the time he posts a few new songs! I miss blogging, I'll post up some pictures soon. I have a lot but they are stupid crapberry camera phone pics - they'll have to do I guess - till i get an iPhone that is! :)

Have Lady Gaga and Sasha Baron Cohen ever been photographed together? Just puttin that out there!

Gettin laid.......off, reunited and it feels so good.

Been laid....off that is! Once again the big wheels of industry have rolled quickly along and I've been spit out from between the tires like so much gravel on any icy northern road. But the horizon is bright, lots of work on the books for the spring/summer/fall of this year. But canceling and rebooking and paying penalties for canceling and rebooking plane tickets, getting my tools and clothes shipped.....where(??) and finding another job or waiting 10 days till one supposedly will magically appear for me yet again - all of these situations frustrate me to no end, but such is the life of a cross country gypsy insulator guy.

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I've been reunited with my guitar after a little more than five weeks apart. YAY. But its taking some time to get back into the swing of things. Guess i was hoping for some secluded, after-a-hard-days-work-time-alone-together-in-my-room-at-camp-time to get reacquainted and haven't found the time to give her all the care and concern she really deserves after going so long without me. I have to be more attentive while I'm here, making a concentrated effort to bridge the rifts that have been torn between us. There there baby.

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Just a short post, I'm not very bitchy today - that's weird considering the job loss and other factors. Perhaps I will make an effort to post more often, but more than likely not.

what a view, hiho hiho, guitarless in Albion

In Edmonton on days off with my buddy Clarey, what a spot he's got. Awesome view of the city from his 10 story apt overlooking the Saskatchewan River.






Just chillin, stayin in having a few drinks and keeping outta the bars except for last night anyway. We went out to few of the bars within walking distance of this great apartment and got a good number of drinks into us. But thats it we're done. Off the sauce for now.
Clarey"s room mate thinks it strange that we would quit drinking on a Friday with the weekend stretching out in front of us like a desert bound mirage, hovering jusyt off in the distance and shimmering with uncertainty. But we say it has its certainty, we've been there and we know where it's going to lead us - into late afternoon wakeup times and early evening headaches.

We decided to go out for breakfast tomorrow instead and not to get a greasy hang over fix me up, just for breakfast, and maybe the farmers market for some fresh veggies.

Ugh - think i might be old!

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Finally got back to work, i insulate things that need to be insulated, all the usual suspects were there all ready, all the usual amounts of work are being done 'cept for some of the new talentless fucksticks that cant seem do anything they are supposed to. I guess i'm complaining about something that happens in every workplace tho so it must seem like excessive whining and i guess it actually is. The accomadations are top notch, there's no flights provided but there is a travel allowance provided which will cover some of the cost of airfare, so i will get to go home at some point but we dont know how long the job will last, thats the big drawback to this. Hopefully there will be another job right around the bend waiting but if not it may be off to another trade or discipline.



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Since I first left home at 17 and packed up my 76 Fender Bronco in my duffle bag and took a chance with the airline baggage handlers who simply love to break and steal things, I have never traveled without a guitar.....till now.
With the situation i had with work, i had to book a ticket with three days notice and there was absolutely no flights outta Sydney which would connect with a flight to get me back to the Mac in time, so i had to bus it up to Halifax and i had a full load of winter gear and tools and was going to be overwieght on that fact alone, (but i wasn't actually) I decided to not pay the usual fee of $117 to fly my guitar with me.



I left her home and I some how justified this with the ridiculous amount of money i would need to pay to get it up and back and the uncertainty of the length of the job. And now i really regret it cause now I'm tearing my friggen hair out with it! First and last time for this. I feel like i lost an arm, a part of me thats been there for so long. Over 25 years I've owned guitars and this is the longest stretch I've gone with out touching one.

One of the bars we went to last night was The Trap and Gill - East Coast bar. They had a musician there who was playing solo and had a great voice and played Bohran and took and played all of our requests and his guitar sounded phenomenal......and it looked real familiar. Yup.
After he had finished his set I asked him and it was a Larivee LV03RE - my exact guitar. I've been homesick before, but not realy since i was 18 or 19 but but last night I sniffed back a single tear as we went out the door into the chilly Edmonton night, a few days from when I will go back to my guitarless room at camp and a few weeks before I fly home to my missing puzzle piece.

The New Palace and a few Precious Linkzzzz

This Camp is Freaking Awesome!!
I'm seriously thinking about applying to clean toilets in this joint when our contract is up. Or maybe drive them big big rock trucks down at the mine. Something. Anything to keep me in this place, Queen size Beds, 22" flat screen, all the canble and sports channels and the friggen room is AT LEAST 3 times the size of the ones up at Firebag and other camps. Food and Main bulding are just like Wapasu camp and the rooms we have are like staying in a hotel. Maybe i could do tech support or something cool like that.

These Links Are Freaking Awesome!!
This guy has his shit together
This guy has lots of wicked links to explore
HahaThis chick is halarious too

I wont push too many links at one time.

Gotta go enjoy my new unhumble abode!!

Till next time!!

Password protection, the loser limo and the blood of the albion sands!

Damn! Seems I can't remember my google password which gives me access to my blog! I really cant remember it and none of the usual suspects fit, my secret question is of no help and apparently I only set up one secret question and I'm not even sure if I had the option to set up more than one but I digress. My big problem with this is that my blog is being spam posted and I can't get in to delete them, I think I can email my posts from my blackberry and I hope this is going to work but if it doesn't I will have to set up a new blog - I may just do that anyway and keep things anonymous but if this works and I'm able to post realize that I CAN'T delete the spam, its not that I'm too lazy or don't care that all 3 followers are being subjected to ads for stock tips, everwood, longwood and pretty girl web cam adverts
Riding the bus aint so bad!! Really it aint!! We stop for food along the way it takes your mind off the driving and doesn't cost nearly as much as gas for the same trip, well at least for the same round trip. Riding the bus to Halifax airport for 7hours is not that bad - spending 8 hours in the Halifax airport is going to be the fucking pain in the arse. But I got a buddy I work with traveling on the same bus and flying on the same plane so things won't be so bad. Got lots of places to stay in Halifax but for a whole 8 hours its not really worth the trip into town.
Well, I'm bussing it to hali because im headed to Fort Mac again and will be working at Shell's Albion Sands project and insulating again. We are on a 14 in and 7 out rotation, but no flights are offered. They do offer 800 bucks towards travel though so I will be visiting in Alberta for a little bit I think. There really isn't a flight in the next month that's either within my monetary range or on the days I need to fly in and out on so ya gotta do what ya gotta do right? Yes. My dad has been at Albion for quite a while now and it will be cool to work on the same project and stay in the same camp - he actually has chartered flights to and from Sydney paid for by his employer, but he put in the years to deserve it I guess. My only problem with this setup is getting to and from camp to the airport. Rides will be worked out eventually but the initial cab ride from the airport to the camp is going to be pretty rich - just glad I have someone to split the costs with.
Well here goes nothing! Hope the email works and this gets posted!!
Later

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Rain rain go away, stuck in a hole, blogging in bed, mmmmmm beer.

Well apparently the solstice came and went without being accompanied by the end of the world, (yet again - damn! Lol) although there were a few flash floods and monsoon type conditions in the west and in the east the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightening. Still there was a glaring absence of locust swarms, blood red moons and cloven hooved children born that day so all appears to be good, unless of course you practice one of the dark arts and were hope for a catacalysmic (spelling??) event that day.
The overflow berms surrounding the tanks on site had lots of water today, was thinking about swimming but it was really too cold for that. I wouldn't be surprised if there was snow today at sometime. Although the forecast says it should be warming up later today, it seems to be staying ion single digits right now. Not June weather by my standards but apparently it snows every month of the year up here, I have to adjust to that yet!

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Confined space entry and monitoring was my ticket to get out of the rain today, bought a cheap FR rainsuit the weekend but they have been known to tear quite easily so I'll save that for another day. OSSA certified course, pay for it myself but I get my 10 hours today so it kinda works out, but I can take this course with me when I leave this company and it looks good on a resume.

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I really thought I would be blogging in bed once I got this mobile stuff working but I haven't thought too much about that, think more about sleep once I finally slide my skinny ass into bed at night. Sleep. MmmmmMmmmm, I can't wait to get some more sleep. One month left. Then home for 18 days of sleepin and drinkin, oh ya...and mowing the lawn. :(

Till next time - stay thirsty bitches!!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry