Opportunities

Seems the phone calls for employment opportunities is finally paying off. I thought my resumes were lost amongst the resume Gods. Turns out, people are just slow. Nonetheless, I have now received a phone call back from Canada Post office in regards to my interview. They tell me I passed with flying colours. I need to figure out now according to my inside source whether it's privately owned or is it Federal before I make any decisions.

Until then, the fence at the FOL site is coming along nicely and very fast. According to the boss, if i don't slow down, I will work myself right out of a job. So the guy I am working with, and myself have acquired a nice grove and pace along with a good system to repairing it.




This was to be a two week job that is going for a finished goal of approximately eight working days. Good for me, there is yet another site we need to fix the fence there too.

On another note, speaking to a local today, he tells me of how they catch the bigger whales here or like in Resolute Bay where they caught a 100 foot bowhead whale earlier today, they use a grenade launcher with a harpoon and a grenade attached to the harpoon arrow. You can imagine from there pretty much what happens upon impact of the harpoon and grenade on the whale. KABOOM! Like shooting fish in a barrel. I will hopefully get a chance to see this one year.

Tonka Trucks Anyone?

Yea, ok so today i got to drive a front end loader. Exactly like the one you see above there. Not difficult at all, learned it within 3 minutes of getting in it. So I've flown a Cessna with an instructor, Raymond Reach forklift, a gas & electric lift, a scissors lift, a motorcycle, trucks, and now a front end loader and of course, cars. Nice little resume of vehicles. I have yet to attempt one more vehicle of sorts that one day I wish to own as well, a boat.

The work with the construction company I'm with is going great. We just about have the fence for the FOL, Forward Observation Lookout, a building that was constructed in the 80's for the American Army to watch for the Russians, has never been used. I was given a tour of the inside where everything is still new, and unused. A fully stocked kitchen, offices, bathrooms and rooms. It is basically a barracks. But the building is maintained as is the fence around it that has been ruined by snow plowing and permafrost which pushes the fence posts up out of the ground, thus pushing the fence as a whole, upwards and out of the ground. So we cut all the metal ties on it, pull the fence downward level to the ground, pull the posts straight again with the front end loader and a chain and push them downward into the ground and re-post the top post of the fence, cap them, and tie on the metal ties again.

I have an interview tomorrow for meat manager in the Northern. I would basically be a butcher. Lot's of great benefits and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to offer to me tomorrow.

Sick, Sick, Sick.

I can't believe this is the second year in the north I will be doing and again for the second time in a row within my first month here, I have gotten ill just as I did last year in Kugluktuk. It has been identical, got a touch of flu, accompanied by an ear infection. Only this time to throw into the mix, I also got an eye infection. Cause? My contacts, the sun or the wind. Haven't figured out which one exactly but does it really matter right now? I can't believe I can have so many ailments at once.

On another note to date, the job hunt is still on the go. As September nears, as does my birthday on September 1st, it appears more likely I may be in as daycare assistant manager. I have applied at so many places here, the school, the Northern, the daycare, the library, the health care centre, First Air, Canadian North, CIBC bank, RBC bank, and the Canada Post office. I'm sure I missed a couple to list. It's now become a wait and see game. I had one interview so far that was with Canada Post, it felt liked it went well, but who really knows.

Just A Thought

Ok so tomorrow is Friday and what a busy week it has turned out to be. Still needing to rid our place of unwanted furniture has become a task, but supposedly the right people have caught wind of it and are en route to do so. On a really interesting note, Bell will accept phone calls from complete strangers and let you open and set up complete accounts in another persons name without any verification from you or the person who's name you are putting the account into. I know this, because I did it. Yesterday, in Melissa's name then when I called today to change something, wasn't allowed to do anything because the account wasn't in my name! Problem got resolved suffice to say and all is well.

We are on the hunt this year for some really exciting carvings. We have purchased three already, two inukshuks and one polar bear. They are polished black stone and excellent quality. We hope to acquire enough by the end of this year we can sell down south. As far as employment goes here, I caught wind tonight as Melissa and I went out walking and met a local that the mines here pay a little better than the daycare. They pay four to five thousand every two weeks. I seriously need to look into this. As is, Melissa has found out if after ten years staying here, she can retire with a full pension. After this year, she would already have 2 years punched.

We have some good options here to play with and need to make some serious decisions about what we want to do with our lives together.

Rankin Inlet

The move from Kugluktuk to Rankin Inlet has been an easy one. Everything we own was already here waiting for us. Staying in Kugluktuk was not an easy move for me after a few months. Lack of work and the feeling of being 'black listed' in a small town was not fun for me. The move to Rankin I hope will be a more positive move this year. Having resumes out there already helps but it is not enough until I am actually working.

Our apartment, yes a real apartment, is smaller but just as nice. We do not need to wait to have our water trucked in or our sewage trucked out. We can use water as freely as we wish here. One downside or upside, depending on how I look at it if I want to loose weight, is we are located on the top floor of this building. Being only three floors is not too bad. But try lugging boxes and groceries up the stairs.

We have public laundry facilities located on our floor just a door down the hall from us. Makes it easy seeing as no one has to lug loads of clothes up and down three flights of stairs. We do not have a garbage chute so our garbage is lugged down the stairs to outside bins. Our neighbours seem nice, as I have only formerly met one so far. She seems nice and works at the CIBC bank in town. Over all the building is clean and quiet.

Today we also got our Bell HD receiver hooked up to the buildings satellite. :)