Wrapping up this adventure...

Well, my days of camp life are coming to an end. At the end of the work day on July 5, 2012, I'll be heading home for good. I've been offered and accepted a job scheduling the nursing staff at a nursing/retirement home and saying goodbye for my Albian family. I've spent quite a bit of time wondering how I was going to wrap this up, and I still am just going to "fly by the seat of my pants" here.
I guess for one thing, I never intended to be here this long. I thought maybe six months, and if I made it a year, it would be a miracle. Never thought I'd be able to handle the twenty days in a row, ten hours a day. But I really did like those eight days off every month! I do really like my job, and the people I work with. I've made a lot of good friends, met a lot of very nice people. It's an experience I could have never foreseen for myself, but I am really glad I was able to have the first hand "tour of duty" in the oilsands. It is a whole different lifestyle, and the variety of people who work here, reasons they are here, length of time they spend here has always been interesting to me. I know it's hard to really explain camp life, unless you've lived this type of life before, but I have tried to give some sort of picture of what it's like. The last while has been difficult to book flights, not "technically" difficult, just hard to realize what a pain in the butt it is to get someone to pick me up at whatever airport I was flying in to (because of the cost and time of flights, some had better options than others) and then getting me to the airport when I had to go back. Then making sure I had the car or someone to pick me up in Fort McMurray, so I didn't have to book a flight first thing in the morning (to catch the ESS shuttle back to camp). Seeing the price of flights get high, watching the airlines changing their flight schedules, it all became very burdensome for me. But there are things I am going to miss. It will be strange to leave these long days, (and long nights, once winter rolls around). It will be strange having the 24 hour round-the-clock activity of the camp. It will be strange not to hear the water cannons going off all day and night. It will be strange to not hear of bear, coyote, moose, or other wildlife sightings. Or seeing bear paw prints on the dining room window :) Of course, it will be strange to be able to go to the store whenever I want, and not have to worry about at least an hour drive each way. I won't miss that! And yes, it will be strange having to cook and clean for myself again. THAT I might miss! It has been fun being "Jomamma", kind of a den mother, or a camp mom to most of the staff here. Heck, I am the oldest of the salaried staff here! I enjoyed the vast majority of the people who work and live here too. There are always those grumpy souls that you can never make happy, but most of the people that work here are appreciative to being "cared for" by ESS staff. It was always interesting to hear how far people were travelling on their days off, who was back home, and being in the Guest Services area, the luggage room, I did have contact and time to chitchat with a lot of people. I enjoyed being on my feet most days, running the halls. Even though I DID complain when I had a lot of rooms to visit, or memos to deliver, like a couple hundred or so, especially when it was hot and humid. Well, Alberta humid. (Albertans do NOT know what humid is, believe me!). But it felt good to be active and not just sit at a desk all the time. So, it will be sad tomorrow to leave people behind for the last time. I've had a lot of nice comments from people, a lot of people telling me how much I'll be missed, and that feels good. I do feel like I've made a difference, however small it might be, to my department anyway.
So, come Monday morning, I'll be getting started at my new job, and settling into the regular Monday to Friday workweek. Driving to work everyday, instead of walking down the hall. Having two days a week to sleep in! Cooking and cleaning, and looking after my house and yard. Sounds kind of "normal", doesn't it?
Bye all....it's been fun!

Cold snap in Alberta

     Yep, that's right. C.O.L.D. Woke up this morning, it was -34. With the windchill, felt like -46. What?? It's funny, people who are from around here don't put the "-" or negative, part when talking about it. Just...it's 46 out there...wow. And to convert that to Fahrenheit...well, -40 c is the same as -40 f. So yep, we're talking cold. I am very happy that I do not have to go outside at all, but wow, I feel sorry for the workers that do. When it's this cold outside, however, even INSIDE it's cold. I finally had to go begging to the maintenance guys to throw a log or two on the fire at my end of the building. Can't even guess how cold it was in here, but the thoughts of actually stripping down, getting into the shower, then having to get out all wet was extremely unappealing at 5 a.m. today!
     We continue to be extremely busy here, despite the low temperatures. Busier than ever, as a matter of fact. We have about 800 people at a third-party camp right now, more than ever before. I guess long term plans in are place for another camp, as it seems there will be more oil coming from the earth around here.
     I hear back home it's warm, above freezing, and rainy. Hard to imagine from here!

Christmas at Albian, 2011

     Well, at least we have a white Christmas here! It is unseasonably warm, for this part of Alberta, there must be a chinook :)  All is calm and quiet at the village these Christmas days. Population dropped from full house (around 2300-2400) to less than 500. Yes, most people are home with their loved ones for the holidays. There have been a few special touches for the staff here; hot lunch on Friday, then drinks in the bar last night for Christmas Eve. A few of us tried to sing some carols in the bar, but it apparently rubbed a few people the wrong way and we got shut down. This morning it was so quiet, it was almost spooky. I was talking to my camp attendant, and he said he only had 5 people in this whole dorm. That means 37 empty rooms in this dorm. And, as a cost saving measure, the maintenance people have been shutting down furnaces where there are a lot of empty rooms. My room is as warm as it ever is, but the arctic corridor over here....well, let's just say "Arctic" is an apt description! Our generous AGM gave everyone short shifts today and tomorrow (Boxing Day) which made everyone very happy, since most of the people here (except us) are union and hourly workers, so they are cleaning up big time over the holidays. I was all set to sleep in this morning, and when I got back to my room yesterday, there was a sign on the door coming into the dorm that said the water was going to be shut off at 7:30 am until 4 pm today. Great. Now I had to get up early anyway, just to be able to have a shower. So, alarm went off at the regular 6:30 time, I had a shower (after a momentary scare when only COLD water was coming out of the shower), and figured I might as well go have breakfast, since I was up anyway. Then, I figured I might as well work, since I was dressed, showered, fed, and downstairs anyway. I put in more hours than I had to, but it was slow and relaxed. I talked to all my kids, and later on, mom and dad. They had a lovely turkey dinner, and had the usual array of desserts and also gingerbread cookies.
     I have to admit I was feeling pretty homesick last night. It all sounded good in theory, being here for Christmas, leaving for home on the 27th and having our family Christmas on the 30th. Now I keep thinking, when I go to do my Christmas shopping after I get home, all the stores will have out their Valentine stuff. Sigh.
     All in all, being here wasn't so bad. I mean, everyone else is in the same boat, away from family and friends and loved ones. Everyone tries to be extra nice, and keep each other's spirits up.
     Oh, by the way....my old goose Christmas sweater vest won me a second place tie in the Ugly Christmas Sweater contest. Somewhere out there is a picture....but maybe that should stay lost :)

     Merry Christmas to everyone!

Time just flies....

     Holy smokes, time does fly. I arrived back at camp (in my running shoes and a hoodie) to -20 degrees (celcius) and 6 inches of snow on the ground. Finally found the car, which had my coat and boots in it, and drove back to camp, with the temp dropping all the way. My room here was FREEZING cold....and even though I cranked my baseboard heater it took days to get it even semi-warmed up.
     Since getting back, I've started in my new role as Guest Services Supervisor. The department is not fully up and running yet, but I've been assuming some of the duties, anyway. I spend a lot more time on my feet, and running around checking room status, which is a good thing. I was spending too much time sitting on my butt!! Now I can have that extra cookie and not feel guilty. Shell was passing out pedometers, and I took one, and the first day I logged about 3 miles from lunchtime to the end of my day at 6 pm, and a couple of days I actually surpassed 7 miles. And stairs!!! I refuse to take the elevators, unless I have to because my hands are full, and I have been up and down stairs so many times I can't even begin to count. Also, the flooring is still underway and some corridors are blocked off. When I got back, the 3rd floor corridors were blocked off, so if I had to check rooms on 3rd floors in different dorms in each pod, I would have to go up and down the stairs for each dorm, rather than going to the 3rd floor and checking all the 3rd floor rooms. I am counting on having buns of steel in a few months! Oh, and in my role of managing the room status, I've started enforcing the camp policy (i.e. you must check out or put your room on hold when you leave) and locking out people who are on the "No Sleep" list. I lock the rooms out and put a reminder memo that they must put their rooms on hold before going on days off. It just means that when they get back, they have to go to the front desk and get their key re-activated. Well, turns out I locked out some Very Important People. When I got the phone calls the evening that some of them returned, and asked an explanation, I said...they left on days off and didn't put their rooms on hold. I have to admit, I was a little nervous going in to work the next day, wondering if someone was going to be looking for my head on a platter, but so far...they all seem to have gotten over it. I mean, rules are rules, right?
     Anyway, I'm almost at the end of this rotation, heading home Friday night to a whirlwind week off. I will be spending Christmas at camp this year, but home for New Year's. Last year it was the other way around, I was home for Christmas and at camp for New Year's.
     The weather got above freezing for a day or two, but is back to snow again today.

Random musings...

     Things at Albian have been hopping this last couple of weeks. The winter drilling program is starting to get ramped up, and although it won't be fully underway until the ground freezing, preparation is beginning and of course, occupancy is increasing. The winter drillers go into the muskeg to drill, and they can't get equipment on the land until it's frozen, as it's like swampland when it's not frozen. The beaver dams were blown up and the Athabaska River has carried all the occupants of the now defunct lake into the new lake. I'm sorry, I don't have the names of these lakes, but the beaver dam was the last relocation. The second floor arctic corridors are now open for A pod and B pod, and closed for C pod. I did some room checks this week, and forgot about the C pod 2nd floor closure, so that required lots of climbing up and down stairs, since I couldn't move from dorm to dorm along the corridor. In order to do the second floor rooms, I had to either go up to third or down to first to move over. Good exercise though! I managed to get in two Zumba classes and I hope I'll be able to make 3 times per week when I get back from vacation.
     Now for the pictures...at one of the other camps that is about 35 min driving distance from here, someone showed up for work at their job trailer (I think it was Thursday morning) and discovered a black bear had decided to try an office job. Looks like he was checking the paper stock, taking inventory of the supplies, and maybe trying to fax or copy a letter, it's hard to see. Oh, and the last picture looks like he's just on his break, or overwhelmed with the duties. No word on how they got him out of there.
     So I am off to San Francisco today. The weather looks like it will be decent, around 14-15 degrees most days (mid-high 50's) and very little precipitation for the days we'll be there. Last day there looks very nice, about 16 and full sun. I don't expect I'll be coming back with a tan, but sounds great compared to Calgary here, where they had their first snowfall (that accumulated) yesterday morning. When the plane was coming in, all I could see from the air was a nice white blanket. I visited with Aimee here in Calgary last night, and am flying out this afternoon.
     When I get back to camp, my role at work will be changing, but I will post those details on my return when I see how the department is progressing. I am not sure I'll have internet access but will try to get pics up when I can.

Now snow is in the air...

     Nothing sticking on the ground, but definitely snow in the air. We had a fire alarm a couple of days ago, and it was very windy, and also there were snowflakes in the air. Sigh...oh well, it IS the end of October, as compared to the first snowfall in mid-September last year.
     Replacement of the arctic corridor flooring is underway. The 2nd floor walkways over to the core building were sealed off on Wednesday. That means when I go to work, or back to my room, or to any other rooms for other reasons, we have to go outside. Not bad, really, unless you happen to be lugging stuff from one place to another. Hopefully, another week and the 2nd floor walkways will be open. The first and third floors don't connect to the core building anyway, so you always have to use the 2nd. I guess they figured they would get that one done before the weather got too bad.
     I heard something interesting today. They are going to be digging a new hole, or mine, I guess you'd call it, soon and in order to do this, they had to move a. the road in from Highway 63, and b. a lake. Move a lake???? I guess environmental people have been here the last 6 months moving creatures over to the new lake. Every single fish, and anything else that would life in a lake had to move. How do they move fish from one lake to another? They stun them, with a cattle prod in the water, they float up, they scoop them up, record the species etc, and dump them into the new lake. In about 15-20 minutes, they come to and swim away. The last critters to be moved were the beavers, and they blew up their dams this week and either have or will be now draining the old lake. The beavers will move on down the river and find a spot to build their new dams. NO, no beavers were harmed in the course of this relocation.
     Speaking of wildlife, there was an interesting picture in a Shell newsletter that I saw floating around camp. Because so much of northern Alberta was destroyed by wildfires this summer (over 1,000,000 acres) the bears and other hibernating animals had to travel farther and wider to stock up for their winter sleep. That's the reason there have been so many sightings (100+ last year, 400+ this year) of bears closer to human habitation (in camps, in garbage bins etc). Well one of the little guys went into a pit on site, and then couldn't get out of the hole. Workers placed a ladder in the hole and sure enough, Yogi figured out how to use a ladder and rescued himself out of the hole.
     One of the camp attendants here has started a Zumba exercise class. I finally made it to one last night. It's so much fun! I will be sure to get my exercise in 3 times a week with this! It's like a dance aerobics class, high energy with Latin/African sounding music. Sort of like learning a line dance. But a lot of fun.
     Only 5 more days of work for me, then I'm off to San Francisco for vacation!

Fall is in the air...

     Not that it's cold or anything, and certainly we didn't get snow in September, like last year, but you can tell winter is approaching. Right now it's somewhat mild, at around 10 degrees C or 50 degrees F, and expected to stay around there for the next week. Stratford, by comparison, is looking sunny for the next week, with temps in the 70's, or low 20's. Up here at camp the days are shorter by about 20 min or so, but the difference will be increasing quickly now.
     As far as camp life...well, the maintenance people have started into the new flooring project, in which all the carpet has been ripped out of all the arctic corridors (the hallways that connect the living quarters, or pods, to the main core building). Carpet was a really bad choice for that anyway, and they were really in bad shape, even a safety hazard, as the carpet was bunched up from being repeatedly shampooed and cleaned. So we're walking on plywood floors in all the hallways. Feels like we're in the middle of a big construction project, haha.
     Pretty much since the beginning of September, the camp has been overbooked and other camps have been taking in the overflow. Since these other camps are not near as nice as this one, it's like back in the day when we had the trailers, and guys crying and whining, wanting to get into Albian. There will be some big changes coming to camp, but until an official word is out....my lips are zipped!