Sunday, August 28 2011

     I know, it's terribly uninspired of me as for a title. So since I've gotten back, we've had a Hawaiian theme night at the bar on Friday night, and Shell Family Day on Saturday. 

     The Hawaiian theme night was fun, even though attendance wasn't very high, people did seem to enjoy getting "lei-ed" as they came in. Well, most did. Some party poopers absolutely refused a lei, however most were willing to at least pretend to play along :) Our rec director Ed was in fine form, keeping the Hawaiian/beach party music going and running the games. The kitchen brought down Hawaiian pizza, chicken wings and meatballs and pineapple upside down cake for dessert. Ed had a limbo contest, a hula-hoop contest and a relay where each team had to take the lei, coconut bra and grass skirt off their teammate, run across the bar, do 6 hula moves, and run back. The bartenders served drinks in fancy glasses and I saw lots of smiles around. 

     On Saturday, Shell had their family day even. Shell employees were allowed to bring their families in, and for a few hours, there were no security stops at the gates. They had jumping castles, an ice cream truck, goodie bags, balloons and Shell toy trucks for the kids and also live music. ESS provided a lunch of hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, fries, salad and drinks. They were expecting around 750 people, but I never heard what the final tally was. It was very strange to see people and especially children and babies freely wandering about. It kind of made us workers feel like zoo exhibits, ha ha. Oh, I almost forgot...there was a guy set up in the parking lot to release foam "balloons" into the sky. The foam is pumped into a form, and when it's filled, the guy would pick up a Shell logo shaped from foam and release it into the wind. This "balloon" is made from soap and water, basically, and lasts 30-40 minutes and can rise up to 4,000 feet in the air before it just dissipates, just like bubbles. It's the "environmentally friendly" answer to balloons. 

     Today there is a big tented area set up right in the lobby across from the front desk where maintenance are going to be working for a couple of weeks. They are making some electrical upgrades or something. Anyway, the area is taped off with the Danger tape, and if anyone goes into the taped area, they will lose their site priviledges (meaning they are out of a job!). I hope everyone heeds the tape and we don't lose anyone!

Shorter days and bears

     Yes, the days will be growing shorter very rapidly. Right now, sunrise at Albian is 5:51 a.m., and sunset is 9:06 p.m. In Stratford, sunrise 6:27 a.m. and sunset 8:28. By the end of this month, sunset here will be 8:30. I only know this because it's on the dining times for the Ramadan meals :) But in the month of August, sunset will be over an hour early from the beginning to the end of the month.
     The weather has been nice this past week. Not that I get out much, the mosquitos and other small flying insects are brutal. Mosquitos are still bad inside, but nothing like they were a couple of weeks ago. Either that or we are getting used to them, haha.
     We just about had a bear in the village today. He was spotted with his nose pressed against the glass at the front entrance doors. Was also spotted by the kitchen area (garbage and grease bins) and just outside one of the B pod back emergency doors. Yep, I don't think I'll be venturing out for a casual stroll any time soon. And no pictures....not allowed. We were going over what the plan of action would be if a bear actually made it inside the doors into the village...since I sit in a back office, I said every man for himself! I'm closing the door, locking it and hiding out ha ha.
     Other than that, there is not much new and exciting happening in my rotation. Aimee has arrived in Calgary with her new car packed full of her worldly good and is starting on her new adventure. I have two more days to work after today and I'll be on my way home for my August days off.

Dog Days of Summer...

     I was home for 11 days, and it was nice to have that length of time off, but it was SO hot and nasty that I pretty much just hid out in the A/C, haha. Funny how people that are from this area think that they are having really humid weather. Come on!!! I just look at them like they've got two heads. You haven't seen humidity until you've been in Southwestern Ontario in the summer.
     It's strange thinking that it's almost a year since I came out here. I didn't imagine at the time that I would still be here and yet, here I am! Aimee has gone, her last day was last week. Her leaving has certainly left a large hole, as she was very well liked and respected. Funny I have had a couple of people that just found out I am her mom, haha. I don't know how anyone could miss Chef's big booming voice calling out "Hi Jomama!" in the hallways, and maybe wonder WHY he's calling me Jomama. Aimee has called me that for years and it sort of picked up and spread here.
     The days are starting to get shorter, sunset is around 9:41 today. The reason I know this is that Ramadan starts today. There is a fairly substantial number of Muslims here that celebrate/observe Ramadan and I've been asking questions and learning a bit about it. For those observing, it's sort of like a month-long lent. They will not take anything by mouth, not even a sip of water, from sunrise to sunset. At sunset, they have a meal. The kitchen has planned/prepared special meals for the month, with the dining room opening up at 9:30 pm. All are invited to join in, if they please. I would love to but it's too late for me, since I get up at 5 am. Maybe I will suck it up and stay up later in the month when sunset is a bit earlier :)
     I haven't heard any recent bear or moose or even coyote stories since I've been back, maybe they have the holes in the fence plugged up, ha ha.
    
    

13 down, 5 more to go

     NOT that I am counting or anything, haha. It's been too long since I was home so I'm anxious. I confess I haven't felt very inspired to blog since I got back, but yesterday I was able to go on a tour of the mine sites (well, as much as we're allowed to see) that was very interesting.
     There are two separate mine sites, one is called Jackpine Mine, or the JPM site, and the other is Muskeg River Mine, or the MRM site. The JPM site is the newest one, the expansion part of Shell Albian Sands. The administration building is right across the walkway from the village here, and they do some refining at this site. ESS has a small cafe in the admin building, food is for purchase, and the medic office is over there as well. Then the MRM site is about a 10-15 min drive from here. It's not actually that far, but the roads are pretty bumpy and uneven from all the heavy equipment traffic, but the graders are out every day trying to keep them smooth and passable. This is the big mine, huge. It's an open pit mine so there is nothing underground. To try and get some perspective, take a look at that giant dump truck that we're standing next to. I saw a lineup of them in the mine waiting to dump their loads into the crusher, and they looked like little Tonka toys. So all day and all night the big giant shovels scoop up the earth, dump it into the trucks, and they drive to the crusher (in the mine) and dump the earth in there then drive back to pick up another shovel full. Once the earth is in the crusher, it gets, well, crushed, haha. Then it goes along a conveyor into another building where it is crushed further and the big rocks and stuff is filtered out. Not sure what all the processes are there, but at the MRM site there is a huge amount of piping and scaffolding around the piping. At some point the bitumen has something added to it, it's sent by pipeline to the froth plant where they do some further refining, and then it comes back as crude petroleum where it sits in those giant silo things until the pipeline can take it away to Edmonton or wherever the final refinery destination is. There are only 2 silos that I saw, as they don't store it for long. Over at the MRM site is where the majority of guys that stay at our camp work. They have great need for maintenance on the heavy vehicles, so that is non-stop. At the site ESS also maintains a cafeteria that sells limited hot meals and snacks for breakfast and lunch. Some of the workers there live in town, so don't stay at camp and therefore are on their own for meals. This is what we checked out on our tour, the actual kitchen/cafeteria building. Of course all the buildings on site (except for the JPM admin building) are trailers. They connect them up together like building blocks and there, you have an instant office/cafeteria/maintenance shops. When the oil is all sucks out of the earth, the big dump trucks take it out to the big dirt hill that surrounds the mine. I would have to say when I first got here the dirt pile has grown at least 2-3 times it's size. They used to drive on top of it, but they can't now. So the long-term plan for the big huge open pit mine is in 20 years or whenever they figure they've gotten all the oil it they will put all this earth back into the hole and the area will be just as it was. We also saw a bear trap along the way, as the camp apparently still has visit now and then from the bears. I guess they have gone right into the truck shop on site, and even into a ware house when the door was left open. They get really spoiled when they've eaten garbage and human food, and they prefer that instead of their normal diet. I guess it's like getting hooked on McDonalds, haha.
     It's still daylight until at least 10 pm, and the sky is still light past 11 pm, even though the days are now getting shorter. You can tell by the angle of the sun, but still bright skies.
     Yes, Aimee is leaving Albian. She tendered her resignation a couple of weeks ago, and her last day here will be July 26. She's packing up and moving to Calgary to explore some options there. Just finally had enough of camp life after almost 3 years and ready to get back into the "real" work world. It will be strange to not have her here, although we hardly see each other even though we work AND life together, haha.
     Oh my, it's only 7:30 pm and I am SO ready for bed. Worked 13 hrs today and I'm pooped!

Bears and now coyotes....

     Yes, Aimee ran into a coyote the other night. It was late, full dark so after 11:30 as it's still light until after 11, and she went down to her car and in the parking lot, wandering around, was a coyote. Scared her a little, I think. I think I might be scared if I ran into a coyote too.
     The smoke situation was on and off last week, but has been clear the last few days. We're pretty sure we've seen the last of it, as the big fire (which has grown steadily bigger) is moving north east towards (or maybe even into already) Saskatchewan. We had rain a few days, not steady rain for 4 days like we needed, but a good amount of rain. The grass actually started to green up around camp. It is still dry, but not that moisture-sucking dry that it was before the rain.
     Camp is not full, but at a better capacity than we've been for a while. There were changes since I left, the front desk area has been re-painted and re-arranged. We all got new uniform shirts. The lunchroom changes are fantastic, and we sure here lots of positive comments about those. And today, I am taking the new shuttle service to the airport. I'm leaving on my days off today. I know it seems crazy that I have only been here 8 days, but whenever you are away for extra days, when you come back you fall into your same rotation, so....I am on my days off again. I am flying to Calgary, meeting up with Thor, and we are driving to Vancouver through the mountains. I'm pretty excited, since I've never been to B.C., and I am looking forward to seeing the mountains again, and the ocean. The weather doesn't sound fantastic, but I'm prepared. I will be checking in with pictures!

P.S.

     After some watering, my orchid has recovered beautifully and the bamboo as well. And I did do the walk on Sunday, but only 3 km. We couldn't walk outside as the smoke had rolled in, and after 36 laps around the track, we were getting a little dizzy. I did feel slightly out of breath for a while after, which I attributed to the smoke, since I wasn't even pushing it like I usually do when I'm walking laps.

Well, it was clear

     Yep, when I got in Saturday, the air was clear. Smoke was back a bit on Sunday morning. Cleared out. Back again today more than Sunday. We did get rain here though today....not enough, and I heard that lightning started 3 or 4 new fires, but that they were reported and extinguished before too much damage had occured. I read that one of the smaller fires joined up with the great big one, and now the total size is 571,000+ hectares, or 2,262 SQUARE MILES is burning. They have been successful at containing it around the "values at risk" as they call it, to the south which is where we are. The fire growth is to the north and east.
     On the positive side, the air conditioning in my room is REALLY working. It's almost cold in here and I've had to stack books on my vent. I feel really bad, because there are a lot of people complaining that their rooms are too hot and the a/c is not working....so I just shut my mouth and put on a sweater when I get back to my room!
     There was a lunch for all ESS employees today, with some VIPs from the organization in attendance. The occasion was 30 incident-free days (meaning no reportable accidents or injuries). Actually it was 55 days, but I guess that is not one of the "milestone" numbers. Chef put on a nice lunch though, bbq'ed hamburgers, chicken breasts and all the fixin's and coleslow, potato salad, pasta salad, steak fries and the famous Albian Village cupcakes too.
     I have to say I am finding it very disorienting to be going to sleep when it's still full daylight out, and getting up when it's full daylight out. I don't see any daylight when I am in my office though, as there is no window so it doesn't really make any difference during the day, and I don't go anywhere near windows much either. I do like to sit by the windows in the dining room though.
     Apparently the bears have moved on, there hasn't been a sighting in a few days now.