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10/07/05 |
     
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Sept 6th 2005 -- Another Labor Day in Chinook Sept 10th 2005 -- Wasting away... Sept 20-22nd 2005 -- My trip to Regina, Canada Sept 28th -- My dad got a lung!
Well this is the second year in a row that I have spent my labor day in Chinook. Repetition, makes an impression -- for the 2nd year in a row I will spend thanksgiving in Scotland as well. Last year on labor day, sept 2004, I did two jobs in a row. This year I did 3 back-to-back-to-back. And I'm in charge where last year I was just helping out. Right now I am having trouble sleeping -- which is not good because I have a job in 4 hours or so.... :( I was all packed up for my days off -- I had the suitcase in my car, but then I got a call from my boss, almost in tears, asking me to cover some jobs. So I worked through my days off and I start my rotation (12 days on, 6 days off) tomorrow. I really, really need to get out and have some fun. This is not like me -- I haven't worked out in the gym in 3 weeks, haven't played any sports since then...it is getting kinda rough. The funny thing is -- if I had a week off tomorrow -- I'd have no idea what I would do. I can't think of anything! I remember this time last year -- this week was when Bethany found her biological family, man was that a roller coaster! I also was anxiously awaiting Scotland. Scotland really did not disappoint. Now I am anxiously awaiting a transfer to an overseas location. Part of why I always work my days off, and try not to complain, and try to do "above and beyond" what is required is that I want to get an overseas position in the company. They are hard to get, but I have been told that Schlumberger rewards effort and ability. So I continue to spend my vacations away from friends and family -- I just hope I'm not being a chump! In better news I have really been enjoying Straylight Run. A "emo" kind of group that is pretty good. I recommend it. What an appropriate song is playing on my Winamp right now....Delusions of Granduer by Fleming and John. So I sit here, in an old Ford Building in Chinook Montana that we have converted to a make-shift Schlumberger base. Alone. Waiting for my 2 jobs to call in (they'll be sometime later tonight). I came to the office just to get out of the hotel room -- where I had nothing but my "deluisions of granduer" to entertain me. "In my deluisions of granduer" "I can do what I want to do, I can be what I want to be." "purpose, mission, dream, ambition...all I can see..." I have worked straight since August 19th -- today is Sept 10th -- and I'll get my first day off Sept 17 or so. I have money, I have a challenging job, but not much of anything else. Normally a really good book and some prayer time can get me through these times, but I haven't had either in too long :( AHHHHH!!!! I hate freak'n complaining, and I do it waaaay too often lately. I need to get out and *do* something this next week off. Maybe go up to Regina, Canada and visit our great friends to the north. Or maybe down to Devil's Tower in Wyoming -- what I planned to do my last week off before I came out to Chinook to work through it. Good news is that so far I have managed 10 jobs this week (I did 7 of them) without making one customer wait. In the middle of that introduced a new employee to our base, and installed some AC Outlet covers on the outlets in our wash bay. Well my friends, till next time....
Well I am now taking my first days off in 31 days straight. That's what happens when there are only 3 engineers, and one of them was preparing for his SFE controls (which is a series of interviews and presentations to determine if you get your next promotion) and therefore couldn't cover very many jobs. This was much needed as I was getting burned out. So I packed up my bags and drove 200 miles north to Regina, Canada -- the closet "large" city (more than 100,000 people) to Williston. I'll break down my day-by-day itinerary for you guys: Tuesday: Booked a hotel online, packed a suitcase, left my apartment a mess, and drove north. Saskatchewan (the province north of North Dakota) looks just like North Dakota. Funny how mother earth doesn't seem to comply with human national lines. I arrived in Regina, and was pleasantly surprised to find that my XM radio still works this far into Canada. I walked around downtown for several hours, and found the shopping mall (which is in the middle of downtown). I also had my first "phantom" encounter of the trip (throughout the trip I came across the word "phantom" several times, which strikes me as odd, but it is a pretty neat word after all). Regina really is a pretty city. There is a huge lake / city park called Wascana in the middle of downtown that is just awesome. I ate dinner at a *real* sports bar -- 4 Seasons. And Watched the phillies sadly lose to the braves. It was chicken wing night (I know, I know, I am a lucky man) -- the wings were 1/2 off. So like any good american, I ordered 2 servings of them (medium and teriyaki). I also ran across 2 different groups of employees striking -- the transit workers and Sobey's employees (a Canadian grocery store). Weds: Woke up, and had Quizno's subs for lunch! I treated myself and even ordered bacon on my turkey sub. Man it was good....Then I went to the aforementioned Wascana Park and walked around the 8 KM trail while listening to yellowcard. Why was I listening to yellowcard? BECAUSE I AM GOING TO SEE THEM PLAY IN CONCERT ON THURSDAY!! How crazy is that? At quizno's I was reading "local happenings" in the newspaper and saw that Yellowcard was playing! This is too much. I am from their hometown (Jacksonville, Florida), and had at least a half-dozen chances to see them in Jax or Gainesville, but never did. I really like them, and was pumped to hear them up in Williston at the local Applebee's singing "Ocean Avenue" (which is about 2 miles from my parents house). And now I get to see Yellowcard in Regina, Canada. Crazy...I even have a "Jax Beach" t-shirt that I'm gonna sport at the show. An added bonus is Rufio is opening, another band that I think is pretty cool. So walking around Lake Wascana was really cool. It felt like a Saturday in Florida too me -- I was outside enjoying the weather and a nice city attraction. It made me that much more aware of what I am giving up by working for Schlumberger, where I have no set hours (but defiantly no week-ends) and live in a very small town in North Dakota. It was just really enjoyable to be around people, places to eat, and a nice city park. Plus things like concerts and libraries. Oh yeah, libraries. Wednesday night I went to the Sunrise Library to a free meeting, "Beginning Astronomy". This is something that I have wanted to get into for about 4 years now, but haven't yet. I saw the advertisement in the paper, called the library, and showed up at 7:00 PM. I have lived too long in a college town where 80% of the population is 18-24 and 90% of the city's activities are geared for that age. When I showed up to the meeting, it was me, about four nice women my age (mid-late twenties), and their 10 sons age 4-8. I forgot that these events are frequented by women who are making sure their sons go to Harvard and believe that free meetings about "science things" in the library are the best way to assure an ivey league education. Needless to say I felt a little out of place. Especially when we went outside to wait for them to set up the telescopes: I was sitting back with the young mothers while the kids were running around in the grass until the instructors told us the telescopes were all ready to go -- I then left the nice young women behind to get a good spot in line to view the night sky with the zeal of a dog seeing his owner after a long day at work. It was hard to tell my age from the kids at that point. But I did enjoy myself, and thought that this was a pretty cool thing to do as a tourist in a new city -- visit the library, interact with the local population, and look up at the skyes. I can now identify a couple more constellations and have seen a couple nebula. I left and went back to 4 Seasons to catch the Phillies beat the Braves. I went to bed feeling like Ice Cube -- "Today was a good day". Thursday: On my hunt to pick up a patch of Regina I found 3 more employee groups striking. I guess no one in this city gets paid enough. That's 5 separate groups forming picket lines. One of these was a place that I went into to buy something -- The Salvation Army Thrift Store. That's right, the employees were striking the Salvation Army -- a non-profit. You know you are living in a rich country when that happens. And in the *same* shopping mall there were 2 different stores with signs saying, "now hiring." Well I went into the store, and caught some flak from the striking employees. Maybe they are right, maybe not, but am I supposed to take their word for it and not even find out the truth of the matter for myself? I have no idea what is going on, so why should I assume they are right and the store is wrong -- and I'm not allowed to find out more? Anyway I went in an bought a shirt, and was leaving when a protestor eloquently said, "You better wash that ... like a thousand times! ... At least! ..." I turned, and being a big fan of free market enterprise -- which gives the employees every right to strike, turned around and wanted to know why they were striking. I stopped, turned, and said, "What's going on here?" and started to walk towards the protester who just yelled at me. He *got scared*. He froze and actually started to back up! Like I was threatening him! I couldn't believe it! It made me smile and I rephrased my sentence, "So why are you guys striking?" He then realized I did not mean him physical harm and I had a talk with the employees. They want full time (not part time) jobs. The Sobey's employees want more than a 25 cent pay raise, and I have no idea what the other 3 striking employee groups want. I also visited the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy and watched them do their drills. When they "roll call" they yell and turn their head *very fast* and say "one-two-three-four...." etc. It was a little funny to see them yell like that, but then a group of Chinese tourists next to me started imitating them "corpor! sergent! one-too-free-for!" in a funny Chinese accent that had me cracking up. I think the mounties were about to shoot them all on the spot and start the third world war. "Chinese Tourist Day Massacre" -- one american casualty who stood too close and was a slightly larger target in the crowd.... To celebrate my new found Chinese tourist friends, I had lunch at the Golden Bowl -- featuring Chinese *and* Canadian food! Aint' nothing gold about that place, that's for sure. I went to the Science museum afterwards. Did I already mention about young mother's taking their sons out to educational events? Oh yeah, I met some of my freinds from the library last night at the Science Museum! I did feel a little immature in the "bubble room", but I have never created a six-foot bubble all around me! The other kids were impressed, that was for sure! (They were much shorter and could only generate 3 foot high bubbles.) On an interesting note there was a section on the Uranium mining in Saskatchewan -- it is cool that the nuclear industry is taking a more proactive approach to combat much of the myths of nuclear power. It really is a great source of energy and the public's misconceptions of it hinder us from using it more. There was also a neat "virtual video game" where you can play against other people visiting different science museums around the world! There are 6 stages, and I was in first place -- dominating the competition (2nd place was some kid from China, and 3rd was someone from Austin, TX) when I noticed I had two 5 year old girls watching me patiently looking like they want to play. My eyes looked over them and to their mother behind them, who was giving me a look of exaperation. I know that look from mom's, and understanding the implied threat, offered to let the girls play the game. OF COARSE THEY LOST MY LEAD! I was so disgusted I had to walk away! Man! I was killing the other players! I hope that mom knows what sacrifice I made!!! I am now in Java Express, where wi-fi is free! (take that starbucks!) And waiting to get my third and final Canadian Dinner -- Red Lobster! That's right ladies and gentlemen, when I travel, I do it right! After dinner will be the Yellowcard show, and then the 200 mile trek back to Williston. I'll leave behind some 4-8 year old friends, and take with me an impression of underpaid workers from the thrift shop (maybe they wanted an employee discount?).
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end.... Well I call home to express some disappointment in work to my family. My mom answers my father's cell phone. She soon realizes that I haven't gotten my messages. I had been in Chinook, Montana for a week and there is little cell phone or internet access up there for me. After battling 2 years to get on the lung donor's list, and then being on the list for 2 years, my father had undergone a successful lung operation. It went great. It only took 5 hours, and that afternoon he was off of oxygen. Other doctors were coming by his room just to see the incredible progress he made. The surgeon said it was the best operation he has ever done. So far my dad has done very well and we hope he'll be home by mid-late October. I really can't explain how big a deal this is. You see, my dad installs carpet for a living. So this is a very manual job, and obviously he couldn't work when his sickness deteriorated. (Though he tried -- can you imagine a man showing up to install carpet with an oxygen tank and "nose-hose"?) He also got very sick several times during the last 4 years as he tried different medicines. It has been hard on our entire family, and you can imagine my father, 48 when this started, being un able to work (and for a long time unable to collect social security -- a whole separate battle). I can only hope that this is a turning point in his life. I have had soooo many wonderful friends care for him, lift him up in prayer, and just wish him a speedily recovery. Man this was a journey....praise the Lord....
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This site was last updated 10/07/05