News from UC
Hey everybody, I haven't had more than 2 minutes spare time to go onto a computer... Tonight I do.
To fill you in on the things I've done will take some time, but I have time tonight (but won't usually) Basically, the plane was a 33 passenger plane and we made 2 stops of about 20 minutes, on the 3rd stop we switched to a 2 pilot, 2 passenger plane which was scary as hell. I bought a can of coke from a vending machine for $1.50 and if I didn't have that I would have passed out easily. All the airports are smaller than the bassment of my house on Charlebois... It's ridiculous.
I got to Uranium City and was driven into town by my boss, John Dixon. I ate supper (we got in at about 8:30pm) and then was driven to a little cabin/motel thing. It's a one bedroom, one living room and kitchen place. My dad sleeps in the living room on a bed, and I am in the bedroom (with bathroom) with two beds, although I only sleep on one. My junk is on the other one.
There are quite a few people my age (about 4) in an abandonded town (less than 80 locals left). Most people who live here are working for GLR Resources or Kasner Resources, the companies I am working for. I don't really like any of the guys my age, they are immature bastards. There is one exception, Nick, who is cool while he is working. He works hard and motivates others to do the same. Otherwise, he's a bastard too. Sundays are our days off, or half-days off, which makes Saturdays the "drinking" night. Seeing Nick drunk pissed me off a lot, so I went home (I had one beer, no, two beer, but over a 3 hour timeframe).
Work so far has been long and tiring. The first day of work was Thursday, and I was assigned to build (with 2 others, age 17 and 19) a deck for a 3000lb drill to sit on. We had to construct it with material we stole from abandonded houses. After a few attempts (and rejections) of our project, we finally finished. Today (Monday) we took it apart and flew it to some random place in the bush and reassembled it. It took from 8:00am until 5:45pm, which is an average day. Sometimes we start at 7:30am and finish at 6:30-7pm, but usually it is 8-5.
It's not incredibly hard work, but being that it is ALL outdoors, the heat enough is to drive a man crazy. The heat can be tolerated though. The bugs are the crazy part. There aren't as many mosquitos as I anticipated. And a swarm of mosquitos would be lovely in comparison to the rest. The black flies are so annoying. When they bite (mostly lower back and armpits), it is like a mosquito bite, but it is about the size of a toonie, and you bleed. It is itchy as hell and the first few bites I got on Thursday still keep me up at night scratching, better yet, I get about 5 more each day. Then there are the horse/deer/moose/bull flies, I don't know which they are called, but they are mean motha fucka's. They are about an inch big, and circle your head for hours and hours while you swat at them. When you get tired of swinging your arms and flailing about, thats when they bite your shoulders and back where the shirt is the tightest. They hurt too! The room where I stay in doesn't have many bugs, but I often find myself dreaming or daydreaming that there are hundreds infront of my face and I wake up swishing my hands around. It's terrible. There are so many constantly around that it is just a normal routine. If there were no bugs, work would be done a hell of a lot faster.
I eat meat. If I don't eat what the cooks give me I wouldn't survive. I burn off all the food I eat very quickly because it is such tiring work. For breakfast I usually have scrambled eggs, breakfast sasuage and pancakes or something of that sort, lunch, 2 sandwiches and either a granola bar or an apple depending on when groceries are flown in, and supper some sort of meat, like pork chops, steak, ham, whatever... with potatoes, salad and some cooked veggies. Tonight was lasagna and it was a treat.
Yesterday (Sunday) I went fishing with the second of two white families that are local to Uranium City. Rumour got out that I had never caught a fish before and everybody went crazy trying to get me to come out with them. So I did. As soon as the rod was set up, I cast the hook into the water. Without any exaggeration at all, within 2 seconds, there was a pull. I thought I screwed up and said "I think it's tangled or caught on something," and someone else said "No dummy, thats a fish!" So I caught a fish and it was about an 8lb Lake Trout (I think).
Another thing that is different in comparison to home is daylight. I didn't think it would be that much of a difference, or that it would have an affect on me, but holy shit this is crazy! It doesn't get dark until about midnight, maybe a little later, like 12:30 or something, and then by 2am it is starting to get bright again. It really screws up my sleep habits, and if I didn't have curtains, I would die.
All the houses in Uranium City are abandonded, well, most of them. You can tell if no one is living there by the windows... If the building HAS windows still in tact, then the place is occupied. Otherwise, little hooligans have gone around and thrown rocks or whatever at the ones where no one lives. It's quite beatuiful, actually, the amount of destruction because of the solitude.
One thing I really like here is that I read. I've picked up a few books and sat for 3 hours in the evening, sometimes more, just reading. Well, what else can you do when there is no TV (there are some movies, but I've seen the decent ones and the others suck...). I play guitar everyday for about 30 minutes before supper, and I do 50 consecutive pushups twice right after work and before supper. When supper is done, I go home and read and then go to bed. I like that routine and I will try to stick with it. Also, my belly is getting smaller, haha. I am so out of shape, hiking for an hour up and down hill on slippery/mossy rocks today was really hard, but I will get used to it soon. I will also have quite the (farmer) tan when I come back. Most of the white people here (every one else is Native) are so dark that it doesnt seem natural. I can't wait until I am like that.
Anyway, it is getting late and I had better go.
Graham
4 Comments:
Awesome that you are still blogging from the UC! Nigga please!
I liked reading this. Graham is Tarzan.
8 lbs??? Good job man! That's a great catch!
Thanks for the update. I think of you often.
I hate fish, flies, ham and most decks.
I'm not sure if I told you how proud I am.
If I haven't, I'll wait tll you get back.
At the most inappropriate time.. like when you're eating messy spagetti.
Keep fighting the good fight, we're all rooting for you back at home.
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