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

I CANT SLEEP! Twitchy eyes and blindness.

The sun is still well above the horizon at 10pm up here and the twilight stays nearly till dawn. Light again at 3:30 - 4am. I just recently figured out that its also not a good idea to take my vitamins after supper as one of these vitamins is a B100 energy booster. The effects of 2 weeks of these energy shots before bed may have screwed my seritonin for a long time. As it is my left eye twitches uncontrollably every few minutes as if to remind me that there's something wrong.

During our safety meeting, eye protection was brought up as a topic and how would you cope if you were suddenly blind was how they attempted to hammer home their point on this issue this morning. It started me to think what would I do?? Well, I can play guitar with my eyes closed (not great but hey), sex is all by feel as well, don't need eyes to eat or drink. What else is there?? I've in no way shape or form seen it all, but I've seen a lot, I wonder if I've seen enough. And let's face it the odds of loosing BOTH eyes are pretty slim. Nobody been blinded at firebag yet that I've heard of, maybe we're due!!
I think I would hate it but I could survive if it happened. I still plan on wearin the safety glasses tho' - don't want to get fired ya know!
Trying to post a little more often now that I have the email thing down. Long live the blackberry!!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Firebag

After the safety meeting this morning we stretch, grab our tools (not those tools!) And head over to the VRU where we are working and it turns out that there is an H2S alarm going off. It sounds like a mid-pitch whine from a large motor or high pressure pipeline goong about it's everyday activities.
It's supposed to tell us that we may END UP DEAD if we enter that area!
Christ, I was strapping on my knee pads and someone hollared to us to get out of there. They should have an alarm that subconciously flashes the skull and crossbones image in your head and not one that sounds like the everyday plant operations. My little rant for today.
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Yay

Yay. It worked!! Look out all you three people who read this. I can has blogger access from anywhere now!!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Test

Trying to test post to my blog from my black berry using mail2blogger. Hope this works.
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Test test

Going back to work, lack of interest, Hockey hockey and more hockey

It comes not a moment too soon, I'm headed back to the firebag, for, so I'm told, at least two months, and hopefully for a full 10 weeks as I'm coming home for my sister's wedding in July anyway. It might be better to be sent home then to just demand time off, maybe not, but it's the big guys, Suncor, they want us done and gone by the end of june, but it doesn't always work that way, now does it. I'll be back in the Mac on Sunday the 26th, (hopefully they'll have a room for me at camp) and I start back on to work Tuesday on a 10 and 4 with some remote possibility of... yes....overtime!!! Love overtime!!! Loves it!!! But we may also be going to 12 hour days too....not sure how feels about that. But anyway...back to work next week!! YAY!!

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You've probably noticed my utter lack of interest in posting any updates to my blog for the last while, well sorry, I was totally immersed in a sucking downward spiral of not working depression and felt that since everyday here was the exact sucky same as the last, there was no need to draw uneeded attention to my suckiness. Well, super suckiness actually. But that's all about to change. I should have lots to post about soon, though I may not have access to the internet as easily as I do here, so I may not actually post anything for the next 2 months.

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Being a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, the last few playoffs have not really meant anything to me as my boys in blue were golfing, or busy sucking at whatever other sport they do in their spare time, when they were finished sucking at hockey that is. But this year, this year is different as I have succumbed to the lure of easy(?) money and have joined a playoff hockey pool. That's right. The hockey pool, the place where all your usual team loyalties are thrown to the dogs as you try and pick who you know in your heart of hearts is the best available player. I saw a die hard Montreal Canadians fan who had second pick, take Marc Savard from the Canadians biggest playoff rival Boston Bruins. I almost laughed out loud (or lol for short,) and I actually asked him "Adam, you picking Bruins players??" He says, "Ya, I'm going with the money not my heart." Terrible. The root of all evil getting in between a man and his hockey team. Money vs. Hockey!! and not even a lot a money. How easily we can be bought.

Hopefully the Flames won't be beat out by the time I get my first 4 days out, or maybe my second. I'd love to get back to Cowtown and watch a playoff game in some sports bar downtown on the red mile or electric avenue or anywhere for that matter! I only have Bertuzzi in my pool from Calgary so there's not much invested in them winning other than me possibly seeing them in a playoff game in a bar in their home town in the coming weeks, or the fantasy of knowing someone who knows somebody else with season tickets who can't go to the playoff game and they pass the tickets on to your friend and they owe you a favour and give you the tickets, or ya blow them for the tickets whatever!! It's the playoffs and anything goes!! It's a brand new season!!

Actually, 2 of my players are off with injuries so I'm only dressing 7 players while everybody else has 9 out there. I should be back to full strength soon, by the next round at least. That's if my guys are still around, well Vancouver and New Jersey don't look like they are going anywhere anytime soon so I should see a lot of round two action. Enough to keep me interested right til the end I'm hoping.

I'm tired, Calgary just won their first game against the BlackHawks, last hockey game of the night, time for bed. I may blog again before I leave on Sunday, but I also may not! So this may be it until June/July, so take care bitches!!

The Ice Fog Cometh, and we had batteries in the camera!!

We had a really incredible weather day 2 weeks ago here. Freezing rain at night, warm morning and chilly afternoon makes for a silver thaw fog! I just made that up - lol - but it's kinda true. I have pictures to prove it!! Ya have to click em to do them any justice tho'!  By the way Maria took these pictures.

Just pictures this time out. Enjoy.

Will work for Pride, I've got a new Girl now, Sometimes good things happen to lazy people, Skinny vs. The Giant MultiNational Corp. LTD.

 

God will things ever get back to normal around here?? It's been long enough, will someone re-mortgage their home and start the economic recovery already??? Will it have to be me?? If that's the way it has to be.

Well March is almost over and still no call to go back to work, this financial holding pattern is not a good position to be in as the summer approaches. My sister is getting hitched in July, so I have to be here for that, if there is a big economic turn around in June I'll possibly have to NOT go to work so I don't get stuck out there for the wedding. BLERG.  Well there's always the seal hunt. That started today, I hear your first set of blood-proof Southwester, Raincoat and bibs are free, they'll cost ya after that though!! Blood on the ice, isn't it nice, to pick the wars you want to wage??

Thanks to RockTruck Grrrrl for a previous post exposing the subtle Celtic feel ingrained deeply in the folk theme' d nuances of this band "Blitzen Trapper". Their album 'Furr' has made it high upon my WMP rotation list, songs 'furr' and 'black river killer' sometimes on infinite repeat, much to the chagrin of those within earshot. Two 'Youtube' video links to follow:

Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer

Blitzen Trapper- Furr

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My brand new Larivee, six string acoustic electric, LV03RE  I believe is the model number, not that it really matters what it's called once you hear this exquisite creation!

She will be my last "new" guitar for some time, I may pick up some 'second hand new to me' jobbie somewhere if need be. Unless of course that song writing career spontaneously takes off, all on it's own. Welcome to the department of redundancy department! lol

 

 

 

She looks so sweet with the wood and the earth tones in this old house, she looks like a classic already. But I won't bore any of the 3 of you with any more details.

 

Ya just have to put up with a few more pictures is all!! Till I record something and post that, then you'll have to listen!!! LISTEN TO ME!!! hahaha Not that anybody ever does.

 

I love this old radio too, looks like it was built in this house it's that old, unfortunately it doesn't work. I'm thinking about finding a way of hooking up my Sirius Radio to it and breathing a little bit of a modern life only possibly dreamed of at the time of it's own conception. Which brings me to the "GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY"  (or month, depending on when I post again) file.

My Sirus radio has been broken for quite sometime, being a transient home owner I get used to not having it with me, so when it broke it took a few weeks to get a power adapter and find out that was not the problem and then it took a few months for me to ask Maria to find out if the secondary account holder - her brother - could make other payment options so we could cancel the account and turns out his radio was dead for a while as well, and it in turn took Maria a bit of time to get this news back to me. lol

Well today I called Sirius to cancel the account and they offered to send out 2 brand new Starmate 5 radios to us, free of all charges - including shipping!! God Bless Us! Every one! It may have helped that the call center handling the calls is a 5 minute drive from my house, I worked there when it opened it's that close, and the tech handling my issue actually lives three or 4 streets over from me. We don't actually know each other, which is strange in a little town so trite, but we know some of the same people. Anyways. YAY!!!

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Computer is fixed, new hard drive, only 112 dollars - installed it myself, but that's not the point. I believe Hitachi should have stood behind their product no matter who initially forked over the dough cause in the end it's their name on the sticker on the outside of the hard-drive case! Well....not any more it's not!!! Now it says 'Seagate'!! Take that Hitachi Global Storage Technologies with your 112.2 billion in revenue last fiscal year. Hmmmm 112 in profit, new Seagate for 112.....Maybe Jim Carey or Nick Cage can star in my new movie - 112!! About a guy who can make up stupid coincidences when something as random as....ya...you get the picture....I ramble. BLERG!!!

N E Way, it's way too late for anything but bed, no time to even take off the clothes tonight. Just fall into the fart sack and dream and fart. Good night and sweet dreams and silent farts to all!!

Corporate indifference and the ancient and manly art of avoidance and self preservation.

Hard Drive is dead. Long live the hard drive. Lost alot of files in the battle of Hitachi Travelmate '09. I may be able to get some of these files back, but it looks like I may be on the hook for the cost of the hard drive...hundred bucks or so....waiting on work from Hitachi....Acer has completely washed their hands of me. BLERG.




Ya so because of the computer thing I haven't been posting, and because of the computer thing I don't have the fancy program I was using to post with. And because of the computer thing I'm finding out just how possessive one can be with her brand new laptop. Because of this computer thing I'm finding out that alot of things are not located on a two way street unless you are willing to drive into on coming traffic every once in a while. It's not that bad really but similes, and metaphoric extremes seem to be my thing.

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It beckons. I can hear it through the ceiling. The low steady rumble of the tiny fan motor ever so surely pushing hot air out of the tiny heater and moving it around the bedroom upstairs. I hear it through the ceiling as I imagine I can see my breath in the air downstairs. It beckons. I must resist. I cannot go to the 24 degree oasis upstairs though my semi conscious self is drawn as a moth to flame, for the end would very nearly be the same. I must resist.

I must be strong. I must resist because, upstairs, beyond the hollow 6 panel door from Happy Harry's, nestled within the angular and earthy tinted walls, lies the beast. Flu-zilla!!!

The only thing worse than sleeping beside someone who wakes up every 30 seconds to cough, sneeze, shiver and wheeze, with a nose like an open wound, red raw and dripping thin liquid snot like a tiny river of pus, convulsing in random spasms between a mountain of virus and bug laden blankets and a foundation of damp sweaty sheets, yes the only thing worse than sleeping beside this person is to actually be this person.





Eat properly, take lots of multi vitamins, drink lots of water and get lots of rest and stay away from this person and you may, just may prevent yourself from being this person. So I've been sleeping on the couch for the last three nights and the thermostat is set to basically shut off from 11pm till 6am. I say shut off because even when it's -15 outside it usually doesn't get down to +15 inside which is where the digital wall furnace thingy is set to turn on and bring more heat.

It's funny, if it was 15 degrees outside people would be walking around in shorts and darkly colored ironic tees, but inside....no no. 15 degrees is not warm enough to sleep in. I know I just have to reprogram the thermothingy or turn it up temporarily but I can't seem to do this in the light of day and it's usually to late to do anything about it when I go to bed. And by too late I mean, pants are off, and I'm half ways to getting half ways warm underneath my favorite blankee. I can't bring myself to get up and deal with something I can do in the morning. I'll do it tomorrow. How many times have I said that out loud and to myself since I got laid off. Hmmmmmm.

A new Blog Editor…..Windows Live Writer.

This may be a waste of time, but while downloading updates and software to get my machine back to normal I ran across this ‘writer’ software while downloading MSN Messenger. It’s an add on to the download and it’s description was specifically geared toward blogging so I decided to take a look-see and agreed to download it.

It seems very much like writing in a streamlined version of MS Office Word, but without the cluttered feeling and a user friendly layout instead of what feels like trying to converse in a completely different language all the time. All my links for adding pictures, which I’m about to try in a minute, and hyperlinks, video..they are all here, font and color and alignment control…it’s all here.

As long as it all works I’d say this is nicer than logging into blogger to write a post. Let me try a picture and see how that works!!

COOL, there’s all sorts of picture effects can be applied to a picture…like the reflection on the bottom of the picture above. Incidentally thats my brother with the big fish he caught on the Peace River just south west of Fort St. John in Hudson’s Hope B.C.

Looks like I got a new toy to play with. Lets see how it publishes to the web.

Later on!!

The longest and most boring post about a computer problem.....EVER!!!!

My puter crashed and I was sad. Very sad. I had no rescue disks and the fly by night computer shop which sold me the unit had flown by night, leaving me to my own devices. I had an older version of XP which had been over installed in a few of the local machines and I had the Product Identification code or PID from my laptop and I'm currently in the process of install XP right now while I blog on another laptop.
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It accepted the newer PID on the older software, so I am temporarily happy with this. We'll see when we attempt to activate the installation and register the software with Mr.Gates followers exactly how happy I am going to be.
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This machine has been a mess since I downloaded service pack 3 for XP. From the minute it rebooted - which took 20 minutes btw - it ran slower and constantly froze solid for 10 and 15 minutes at a time. Trying to watch a movie was impossible and listening to music was unbearable, every song started out with the first 2 minutes choppy and jerking around to the point where I was at my wits end with the machine.
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Got past all the crappy installation screens, rebooted and now we are at a windows setup screen.......rolling right along!
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I tried to do a roll back but there was no restore point, I tried to remove the software and the machine could not find the installation files to reinstall the service pack 2. This was because they were removed by 'clean up' software I had downloaded to hopefully speed things up in my registry! My fault, my fault!! OK! Yes, but the updated service pack grossed my machine first.

I got a hold of an online technician from Microsoft who went into my machine and worked out some registry fixes and we rebooted and everything was good except my wireless connection had disappeared, (I had plugged in my cat5 cable during the support session). Hmmmmmmm. I could probably fix this myself so I was good to go but the tech was a perfectionist and there is a very small part of me with the same relative attention to detail, so I relented and let him have at er again. He got my wireless ability back but could not fix the machine again! ugh!
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I'm currently staring at green fields and blue skies and I'm back. I am among the proud owners of broken software built on outdated programming and ready to start the endless series of updates for software, drivers and security purposes that make being a PC user such a pain in the arse!!
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He gave me a ticket number and wanted me to call the next day as we had been at er for a few hours by this point. I agreed but when we was closing the call he mentioned maybe I would want to try another music program besides windows media player. I said 'pardon........'. What the hell?? Yeah, so 2 days later I'm in a work camp in Fort MacMurray and I don't have a readily available internet connection, it's quite a piece away from my room so i frequent the place very infrequently, twice a week, tops, for an hour or two. Not enough time and not a strong enough signal for online tech support.

So I tried email support and they had me jump through all the same hoops that didn't work previously with the online agent. Didn't work, as we all knew before hand. During this process I received an email from my technician stating that two and three days between sessions was not good and if I had something that was more important I could just get back to them at a later date when I had free time on my hands! Hateful, hateful, people I tell you I was hateful after that. I had explained my situation at the beginning of the session work we were doing, but because I was messing with his 'successfully closed in a relatively small time frame quota' I was being pushed aside for some easier tecno gimps. I lost it, sent a scathing letter to Customer Service...like they would even care.....I ranted about foreign workers doing tech support and using flawed translation software to figure out what our problems actually were. It got me no where.

I was going to say 'Long story short' but it's way too late for that!

I suffered with the crappy music and listened very rarely. I drank more often. At least I had made a few friends to drink with. The Simpson's are right. Alcohol is the cause of AND solution to all of life's problems. Now I had some people to drink with though so the music wasn't really that big a loss. Besides, I still had my guitar and I tried to get in close to an hour of banging on that thing every night. That helped alot too!

I made it thought that horrible experience to come home and buy 2 gigs of Ram to put in my machine at Christmas time hoping it would do something to help speed it up, almost like banging the side of an old television would make the color a little sharper or the reception a little clearer. It goes against all logic but somehow it works.
Well not in this case it dosen't. The machine runs faster when it's running but all the afore mentioned problems are still rampant. Not soon after I start getting disk checking errors and then last week...the dreaded blue screen of death! So I start the tedious task of transferring and discarding files and folders and memories to another computer and start trying to get the corrupted installation of windows off my machine and get something on there that works.
Format hangs for a few hours at 47% and for almost a full day at 52% so I think it's corrupted and I try a different file system, NTFS instead of FAT32 but the same problem happens so I try FAT32 one more time and wake up today and it's gone to 100%!! yay
I start to install windows and it won't install. Says it needs to format the drive!!! After three friggen days of fuckin around I'm back to square one with the formatting or reformatting. And I try again and again. Anyway, this older copy of XP won't allow me to install on a FAT32 machine. Apparently this disk wants to only see an NTFS file system so I do a quick format in NTFS and away we go...installation complete!!
I am so tired bitches! Off to bed.

The death of a dream....a few pictures ....and the curious case of the howling bowel.

Well, I'm back. A late night rant to let the world know...The dream is over.....I've been laid off. haha We are told we will be back to work in a month, but hey...I was told we weren't getting laid off in the first place, go figure.
I was supposed to fly back out to Ft.Mac today but I got the heads up last week - wednesday I think - not to bother making the 4 hour drive to Halifax.
Yes I know for a fact it was wednesday because that was the day my Dad started working at Albion Sands. He flew out to work on the day I was laid off. Yes. Go figure indeed.
I guess this is better than making the 4 hour drive to Halifax to find out you have to turn around and go home.....jobless at that!!

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Been in a bit of a funk since then. Sure I'm home a bit longer -well indefinitely at this point - but I'm losing a lot of money to be here sleeping late and trying to do stuff around the house.

Getting some hobby stuff that I wanted to do taken care of too tho. A buddy of mine gave me a 5 string bass in the summer. It was missing a string due to falling off a truck...really...they found it on the side of the road and that it is almost brand new shape is a testament to the durability of the 'soft' instrument cases on the market.
N E Way....got a string put on and started to practice last night during the Grammies - which weren't all that bad but just too friggen polished a show for me to really enjoy it. (how much Justin Timberlake can one show telecast anyway.) After 25 years of playing guitar, bass will be fun to learn and it's quiet enough to play all night without an amp.
Hopefully these practises will strenghten my guitar playing, bring it to the next level, if you will. I will keep posts on my progress.

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I haven't actually made it out for a run yet this year, this makes me sad...I can't call myself a runner if I do not run, all I am is a former runner or a wanna-be runner but a runner no longer in action. Being a runner at heart is ok as a sappy metaphor but it doesn't give me any sense of pride to say 'I used to run', or 'Ya, I ran a half marathon a while back..' That while goes further and further into the past every time I think about it.
It actually was warm enough here yesterday that I changed my 'Facebook' status to "Jody is thinking about going for a run." All I did was think though. It got dark to soon and the sidewalks are not plowed and the shoulder of the road is blah blah blah.....one excuse after another when the bottom line is I didn't get out for a run. It's my fault and my fault alone.

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The warmth didn't last and the next thing I know the driveway is a sheet of glass the walkway is a pretty close second in the 'slippery as hell' catagory. It's bad when you put your car in park and have it start to slide backward without the wheels turning.
So it was a quest for bags of salt and sand after some foraging for sustenance at the local Supervalue this afternoon. A suprise visit from my nephew and his extreme neediness in the 'watch-me' department when playing the Wii kept me from applying the sand and salt in as swiftly a fashion as I would have liked so I was out, fully face masked and winter booted at 10pm spreading and spreading and spreading. Well, it was really just spreading. I wasn't really out there that long!
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Next it was the howling bowel. I have no idea why but the noises coming outta my mid section tonight resembled a cross between an depressed, bi-polar elephant trumpet and an emphasymatic timber wolf howl, clearly audible across the room, even over the disturbing sounds of nanny911 on the idiot box. Scared to fart? Not me. I have Christmas underwear I haven't even opened yet. Not scared but...curious. Yes. Thats the word. Curious.

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Time for pictures bitches!! Gather round and I'll get out ye ole photo album, better known these days as A 4 Gb HCSD card (High Capacity Secure Digital). As always, click on the pics for a larger view.

So glad to be in the air, had a feeling I should not have been as happy to leave as I was.



Sunsets are so much better from a few miles high.





Scrambled and left over rib steak for breakfast. Yay!



Fresh Haddock, MmmMmmMmmmm!



Ohhhh, I'd tap that!!!



The main course.



The a fore mentioned nephew. Breton Thomas.



Happy Birthday Dad, work safe at Albion.



Sunset...from the ground this time...in my backyard.



It's really late...I will return to blog again! Hope all three of you return to read!!lol

the sea was angry that day my friend.....

Well, the seas were very angry the last few days bitches. They are quite calm now, almost looking like they are frozen still in the growing twilight, but on Tuesday the tide was running backward, the wind off the land was driving the waves back out to sea. It was really cool to watch and even cooler if you went out in it .... -30's with the wind chill and nothing like the dry arctic air I'm used to. The spray was blowing in the wind and with a touch of snow flurries it was hard to tell if if was snow or spray in the air.

The view on Tuesday from my front window, looking toward Newfoundland.

(Click on the pic for a larger view.)



That's a composite pic from three shots I took, if looks a little off color wise and a wire or two are not lined up perfectly thats why. But it really gives a better panorama view to the shot so sue me if you don't like it. Well three people read this, maybe only one or two now, it's hard to say without a comments window. I'm still working on that.

Tired of typing, gotta go up to the 'rents for a fine haddock dinner, blog again later maybe!!

Wow, just changed the settings and the template for my blog - I may try to get back into blogging since I have internet in my room next to the palace in Wapasu - and I've found that numerous things have disapearred like my links and my comments feature and a few other things as well. The price of progress I guess.
And it's time to work on a new banner pic, I guess. The reaper was getting old and the tiny java scrpit which made it look left and then right on mouse over was more annoying than anything! lol I'll have lots of time for that when I get back out west.

Yes out west, for those of you (and by 'you' I mean the three people who read this page by accident or otherwise.) who don't know, I'm home for a little bit...two weeks to be exact. I am among the luck ones who have a return ticket to Firebag to finish up work for Suncor on thier stage 2 VRU and SRU projects.(vapour recovery and sulphur recovery units)
It can be stressful working in an environment where you're paycheck and in some cases 'WHO' you are is directly tied to every whim of the shareholders and the board of directors who are only worried about the dollars they are not making...not the dollars that they are. But such is the oil patch. It's always been this way and it always will be.
Though I secretly consider myself a veteran of the patch I am by no means as thoroughly versed in the 'ups and downs of capital investment/oil prices vs. whether or not I am working today' as some. But I have been around long enough to accept the situation as it comes to me. I've known the risks, placed my money down and spun the big roulette wheel of employment chance and so far it's all worked out to the status quo if not to my slight advantage...but the odds always lie with the house and I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And that bitches, is where the stressful work environment comes from. As much as I know things could change in a minute, (before I get around to posting this I may be unemployed) it's the not knowing when that puts your finances on hold and your life in limbo. I've heard different things from different people, we have work until October, work til August, work til July. Blah Blah Blah. It means nothing when we can be shut down at anytime, no apologies to anyone involved, just thanks for coming out, we'll call you when we need you again.
I consider myself lucky to have a job right now and every day they pay me to insulate and clad pipe up there is a bonus day.

Enough rambling for now. More rambling to come. Maybe later, maybe tomorrow, life's just that uncertain right now bitches.

The Mask

After all the different oil field things I've done working for sooooo many different companies over the years out here, it's hard to believe it but today was the first time I've ever had to mask up and work in a H2S situation. It wasn't that bad except for me being told we wouldn't have to work under air, so I didn't bother to shave and almost couldn't get a seal on my mask, which would have prevented me from working on this site today. Not a good impression the first time you meet the new operators at a gas plant.
But anyway, I did get a positive seal (as compared to the bi-polar ones) Jesse and I did the job, replaced the glycol pump and got out of there for a 5 hour day, with 10 hours pay. I love double time Sundays, and time and a half Saturdays are great too. We got 11 hours of time and a half on Saturday. BC has the best labor laws for oil field workers anywhere.
But ya, another day, another job well done but more importantly another task I had not attempted before, completed quickly, safely and at a fiscal positive.

It's real late right now, just got of the phone with my girl, long and late tonight, but a real good talk, and I have work in 6 hours so I will leave you alone with your thoughts for now. Till then.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly.

Well we got the washin ma chine the other day and things are sparkling here now. Clean underwear all around. And some smiles too. It's a big one, it'll fit all my coveralls and work clothes in one load and almost all of my other clothes in another. Wicked.

Working on a crew truck now, twisting wrenches and maintaining 3 or 4 different oilfields for a coupla companies. The money is awesome, but I've only got 18 days until I up and leave for home. The job MAY be available when I get back, but we aren't sure yet. Where was this job three or four months ago? Things would be so much easier if I had of done this for the winter and spring too. Crap.

Saw a bear today on the roadside, just a little one, 2 or 3 years or so. And a deer laying down on a pile of dirt, weird stuff.

That's all I can be bothered to type today!