Holiday begins!

"To freedom," Lou and I clinked wine in short tumbler glasses in our shared Dawson Creek apartment. Today is our last day of work til January 4, 2014.  That's in, like, a whole different year!

Good work news: nobody has cut their leg open, severed their hand off, had a concussion or otherwise given me any business.  A few slow speed maneuvers ditching trucks and equipment has been the extent of my worries.  Bad work news: I'm way too excited to see this company in my review mirror in January.

My coworkers are flying, driving back to where they're from tomorrow morning- with a few sneaking out early this arvo - and I can't wait to see my sweetie tomorrow night.

It has been four years since I was in Canada for Christmas and I'm feeling medium about the whole thing.  This snow and cold continues to be dreadfully inconvenient, the shortening days are playing with my happy hormones and I miss the cat.  And Dan.

My immediate family never large on presents with our relationships floundering in the vicinity of functional, or recently, civil, it's the investment of time I'm most looking forward to spending with family - mine and otherwise.  Generously given from tomorrow til Jan 4th off, Dan and I are visiting Victoria, Calgary and Red Deer to cover off our respective families.  Can't wait!

Visitors

Currently relocated to Dawson Creek for newly found work as a First Aid Attendant on a BC Hydro construction project, I was over the moon when Dan and the current kitties visited last night.  True, I have only been here a week, but a week away from where I'd rather be none the less.

Work days have been slow and the crew has not given me any business (good) I gave myself a goal of finishing one novel every two days.  A few town days and training sessions and I'm still on track.  Yan Martel's Beatrice and Virgil - spooky, twisted ending; Rajaa Alsanwa's Girls of Riyadh that points out the common threads of women everywhere; and Paul Theroux's latest and rumoured last travel memoir The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari - a brilliant first hand account of western Africa travel - are on their way back to Chetwynd's library.

When the temperature plunged to -29 with a windchill of -36 I earlier this week, I undoubtedly confronted Theroux's driving question: What am I doing here?

Taking advantage of a bigger center's Arts Scene, I was pleased to drop in on a great acoustic session by Winnipeg's Chris Carmichael.  Dawson Creek's Art Gallery hosts concerts throughout the year and Carmichael visited on Tuesday. Among the sparse audience numbering fewer than a dozen, his original rock, alt/country, blues, surf blues and cover songs were a welcome break from hanging out in my fancy, furnished apartment yearning for my friends and family elsewhere.