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!
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