an observation

Ya know what's really annoying? The clomp of combat boots in the hallways of barracks with thin walls and hard floors in places where the sun never sets.

reporting from Whitehorse

My internet connection comes and goes here so while it's out at the moment I'll write a blog post. I'm in Whitehorse. More specifically, I'm at the Boyle Barracks just outside of Whitehorse, which is home to Regional Cadet Support Unit (Northern) and Whitehorse Cadet Summer Training Centre. I'm working for RCSU(N) as an instructor for CIC training. Yesterday we finished a Basic Canoe Instructor course and tomorrow we begin the Canoe Trip Leader course.

A couple of days ago was the solstice--the longest day of the year. It never gets dark here now. Or at least, if it does, I haven't seen it. The period of "darkness" is only brief in the early morning and I'm told that even then it's not really dark. I haven't seen anything resembling darkness since I arrived a week ago.

I'm here for another week and then I'll be heading back to New Brunswick. My flights here took me to Toronto and Calgary but on the way back I'll travel through Vancouver and Montreal.

I'm very quickly becoming addicted to a Facebook application called Mafia Wars. Feel free to join my mafia.

I can't wait to get back. I'm looking forward to my summer at Argonaut. Not only have I enjoyed working there in the past and will it be nice to be back in the maritimes for a summer, but it's going to be so nice to be able to share my summer with someone special who lives nearby.

Devern and I have some projects on the go that may keep us busy into the summer. I think we're going to do a week-long planning and development session in the fall to look at where the business has gone in the past year, what's worked and what hasn't, and where we want to go with things for the next year.

I finished at Concentra the day before I flew here. I was thrown a little farewell gathering where my fellow employees who know me well served milk and cookies--lots of cookies with chocolate.

I have a "day off" today. I've already spent over an hour in meetings and this evening I'll have to spend a while preparing for the upcoming course. But after lunch today I'll be going out with another officer from Moncton to tour the Yukon a bit. Then this evening the course staff will be having a barbeque.

Tomorrow is another day. Always an adventure.

wetsuit and water shoes

I’m off to the Whitehorse in four days!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I’m heading to the Yukon. I’m been asked to work as Directional Staff on the Basic Canoe Instructor and Canoe Trip Leader courses for Regional Cadet Instructor School (Northern), so I’m going to spend two weeks way up north.

I’ll be there for the longest day of the year, and at that longitude there will be no darkness, ever. I’ll be sleeping, for part of the time, in a tent.

The first bit of the BCI course will go over rescue techniques, which could mean getting in and out of the water repeatedly. Yukon water. The wet suit and water shoes will be a must. *shivers*

My flight goes from Fredericton to Toronto to Calgary to Whitehorse on June 17. On June 30, I’ll fly home from Whitehorse to Vancouver to Montreal to Fredericton.

Tomorrow is another day. Always an adventure.

School

A short video starring Rowan Atkinson, (Mr. Bean), sent to me by Charlie the chaplain.

Made me laugh. Enjoy.

serving papers

I finally served the court documents to a guy I’m suing over a laptop he stole. It’s a bit of a long story but I’ll summarize.

I hired a guy to work as a sales rep for me. Just before he was going to start he called to say his wife left him and took his computer. I sent him a computer and worked it into his contract that he could either pay for it in six months or just return it then, or sooner if the contract ended sooner. He went incommunicado for a bit. He told me he’d get the laptop to me. Then he admitted he’d lied, that his wife had left him *again* and taken the laptop. He said he’d pay. He repeatedly came up with reasons for delays. After several months I filed a small claim. I tried to serve him by registered mail but the letter was returned.

So Mark and I drove to Miramichi to try to track this guy down and hand him the papers. We went to his store in the city. It was closed down. We drove up to where he was supposed to have a store in Petit-Rocher--the address where I’d sent the documents originally. That business was closed down too. We headed to the next address I had for him--a house. An older lady answered the door. I asked for him. She said he was not home and identified herself as his mother. I served her with the documents, effectively serving him by leaving them with an adult at his place of residence.

Over the weekend, we traveled from Saint John to Carleton County to Grande-Digue to Miramichi to Bathurst to Miramichi to Fredericton to Saint John.

Tomorrow is another day. Always an adventure.

smores, burnt pizza, sweet potato fries and chicken pie

I wonder how many people actually read this thing. I keep on blogging, but maybe I'm just doing it for myself. If that's the case, I'm cool with that. I go back every now and then and read up on what I did a year ago and it entertains me. Maybe I'm just really easily entertained. Or maybe I just love myself and my life way too much. What's not to love?

Speaking of love... nevermind.

So, when I last blogged I was getting ready for an exciting weekend. The weekend has now come and gone and it's time to expose how it all played out.

I worked on Saturday morning for a little while and then I hit the road.

My first stop was to visit John and Mackenzie at a slow pitch softball tournament in Oromocto where John was live on location for FredFM. I ate a sausage and then walked over to the mall to visit another John, but he wasn't working, so I walked back to the first John and then hopped in my car and hit the road.

I drove to Argonaut where Amanda was running the abseil tower. (Abseiling is like rapelling, just with a different rope confirguation.) I put on a harness and a helmet and a pair of gloves, climbed to the top of the tower, and was actually persuaded to descend the wall. Fun. Scarey. But fun.

I drove to Saint John and met Mark outside his work as he was getting out. He drove Doris to his place to finish packing a bag and then he drove us to Rivers Edge Campground in Durham Bridge. His driving ability is really coming along.

We pitched our tent just before it started to rain, so we crawled in to stay dry and watch some Harry Potter. As it got dark out, the rain let up. We went for some firewood and came back and roasted hot dogs and made smores before turning in for the night. It rained through the night. We slept in for a bit then got up and packed everything up in the rain.

Mark drove us to Amanda's in Fredericton to shower before we hit the road again. We went to he base so he could get a tour. I took over driving when we got there but just a minute or two after I took over I hit a massive pothole resulting in a bent rim and a flat tire. (We didn't realize we'd actually hit *that* hard until I'd driven a little bit further.) We changed the tire and finished out short base tour.

With Doris wearing a donut tire, we hit the rainy highway with me in the driver's seat now. We drove to Grande-Digue to visit with Brandon and Marc. They had company. We ate pizza, (which I burnt), and then went for a muddy drive in Brandon and Marc's truck, where we saw huge windmills and a giant crane. Back at the house in the wee hours of the morning we all went for a soak in the hot tub on the deck.

We slept in on Monday morning until Brandon made breakfast. After some Harry Potter a la big screen with surround sound, it was back to Saint John. We stopped in at Grammy's for some supper, (meatballs and sweet potato fries). Then we went to Mark's place where we made chicken pie.

This morning I put some chicken pie in a tupperware dish for lunch today before dropping Mark off at work and then driving back up to Carleton County so I could go to work.

It was a great weekend.

Tomorrow is another day. Always an adventure.

holes

I had a good day yesterday. Then it got bad. Then it got good.

The day started out fine. I went to work. Put in my hours. I'm excited about going camping this weekend with Mark so with that in the back of my mind I was just in a good mood all day. Then I got home and saw that the tent was on the ground. I figured my parents just took it down because of the strong wind. But my parents quickly informed me that because of the wind it had become torn and there was a big hole in the roof. It's, to use a military term, non-serviceable.

So then I decided I'd go to Woodstock later to go tent shopping. I had something else to work on. I needed to repair the holes in my canoe. My father and I started to get the fiberglass repair kit ready, I walked outside to move the canoe, and I discovered it was raining. I didn't think it would be a good idea to fix the holes in the canoe in the rain. So I moved on to another project.

My air mattress had a hole in it. (Notice a theme here?) I bought new batteries for the air pump so I could blow it up good and look for the hole. I did that. But I couldn't find the hole.
My tent had a hole. My canoe had multiple holes. And my air mattress had a hole. My day was now bad and I was in need of a hug.

I got in the car and drove to Woodstock. Right inside the front door of Wal-Mart was a camping combo for $99. A tent, a canopy thing, two sleeping bags. Not bad. Not bad at all. But then I went back to the camping section. I found, for $85, a camping combo that didn't have the silly canopy but did have a five-man tent, two sleeping bags, a cooler and a light. Add to that a double air mattress with a soft top and a hand pump for twenty-some dollars and I left the store with a total bill of just under $122 including taxes. I know, ya get what ya pay for, but even if the stuff only lasts me for a couple of seasons, I think I've done quite well for myself.

My day was good again.

Tonight I'm going to pitch the tent and waterproof it. I'm even going to inflate the air mattress--just to make sure--and I'm going to test my parents' propane camping stove. It's going to be a good camping trip, even though it may rain.

Tomorrow is camping day. Always an adventure.