Work

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Almost Gone With the Wind

Two nights ago, I awoke shivering the middle of the night and had to grab another blanket. Last night, I slept with a window and two roof hatches open and stepped outside this morning to weather that had already passed twenty degrees. Calgary apparently got snow yesterday. Bwa ha ha ha ha!

It wasn’t unbearably hot, though, since it’s still windy out. That wind is a mixed blessing since it covers everything in a fine layer of grit. I won’t miss that grit, but I will miss that breeze as the sun starts to beat down mercilessly.

Today’s big to-do was a staff barbecue. There was a bit of schedule coordinating necessary for both the manager and I to attend, but we made it work.

Between the heat, the manic pace of a busy day, and the mountain of grilled shrimp, I’m feeling rather spent. Guess I’ll call it another good day in the Klondike. 😀

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A Very Full Day

I don’t know what it is about the long sultry summer days of the Klondike, but I seem to wedge twice as much into a day as would seem feasible. So, today:

A Ferry of My Own!

I was out at Gertie’s a little bit later than I should have been last night, so this morning’s awakening at 9:20AM by my iPod Touch alarm clock was a tad brutal. I’d promised friends across the river that I’d help them move back to Bonanza, so I was up and at ’em in minutes. In fact, I was at the hostel with the car nearly packed within a half hour, including a short wait on the ferry. Not bad!

We had to wait for the ferry to cross back, less than ten minutes. I had the ferry to myself, which was kind of cool. I would have thought that they would wait to load up, but nope. They take the passengers who are there, or at least as many as they can fit, and then they cross. Back and forth, all day, every day. What a service!

Once back at the motel, I checked them in, dumped their luggage, grabbed some toast, gulped down coffee at the office and started my day.

Beds and Bundles!

Housekeeping was shorthanded this morning, so I spent an hour stripping beds and then running linens and towels up to the rooms. I needed to be back at the office for noon, which enabled me to discover that I can make two beds in fifteen minutes. I’ll have to look up my record for last summer and see if that’s good or bad. 😀

Back in the office, it was the usual zaniness. During quiet moments, I continued to make little bundles out of our check in cards in preparation for inputting into our computer system. I designed and implemented a new database this week, so I have a huge backlog to go through. I don’t mind since I love data entry AND I’m doing it on a Mac! Yes! We’ve got a Mac in the office this year and I can do 90% of my work on it! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I was relieved at quarter past two and headed home to play with my iPod some more.

iPod Breakthrough!

After getting in a little work at my contract (subject of a future post), I decided to focus on the iPod and try to get more ebooks on it. I put together a few semi-related pages and came up with a way to connect the iPod to my cellular connection! This finally gave me full iPod use, limited only by my bandwidth restrictions. I was given a huge cd filled with tons and tons and tons of wonderful ebooks and I transferred a few of them to the iPod. Then, I discovered that you can actually bookmark and annotate books in the Stanza app. Amazon Kindle? Pfft.

Oz!

I went back to work at quarter past five and it was the usual zaniness until a customer checked in with a bunch of dogs and the manager decided to adopt one. Well, she’s trying him out tonight on a trial basis, but they’ve bonded, so I know he’s staying. 🙂 Somehow in the middle of this, she and I agreed to coparent him this summer, so I sort of have a dog now! He’s a Jack Russell, the only breed I have any experience with since that’s what I had growing up, and we named him Oz! I will be taking pictures soon. 🙂

The Night Is Young!

It’s presently 8:40, dinner’s in the oven (chicken and lasagna), laundry’s in the washer, I have work to do, I want to play some more with my iPod settings, and I want to finish the short story ebook I’ve started.

Just another day in paradise and I’m lovin’ it! 😀

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Gift of a Salesman

We’ve had a fishmonger staying in one of our rooms for a few nights. He travels around in a refrigerated truck hocking frozen fish to individuals (restaurants have their own suppliers). I inquired about his wares and when he realised that I was shopping, not just being polite, he was quick to offer me a good price on a 5lb box of haddock.

Much as I love haddock, I knew there would be no way I could get through that much fish in a reasonable amount of time, so I asked a friend to split the box with me. By the time she had examined the fish and agreed, the fishmonger had dropped his price again, to $80, or $16/lb which is a good price for up here.

I’m just waitin’ on dinner…

In the meantime, here are some random pics that don’t warrant their own post:

no need to close the rear blind this winter!

c is for cat AND contentment

Dinner’s ready! And YUM! Best haddock EVER!!!

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Settling In Day

Today, I was able to move to my ‘permanent’ spot for this summer, just two spots over from where I’ve been parked all week. It doesn’t matter if you have to move three feet or three miles, the same amount of work is involved!

Deciding on this spot wasn’t easy since the other spot I had my eye on had a lot of advantages, too. What settled it for me is that this part of the park is the last to shut down, so once I was moved, I wouldn’t have to go anywhere again until September.

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Thinking Within the Box

Today was cold, wet, and miserable. I worked my normal split shifts and went into town between them to see if I had any mail. *rereads that* Somehow, my day was a lot better than that sentence makes it sound. Maybe it’s because camaraderie doesn’t translate well to written form? 🙂

When I came home, I spent some time on Google, researching volunteer opportunities in the US for foreigners, finding the National Parks Service International Volunteers in Parks Program. If I am eligible for the visa, I would then be allowed to apply for any volunteer position in the National Parks Service and it would be okay for them to pay me with a full hookup site. This seems like the perfect solution for me. It would enable me to enter the US in a much less suspicious way than doing so ‘for holidays’ would, it would cut down on my expenses, and it would give me something to do as well as more experience on my resumé. I’ve completed my application and will sleep on it before sending it off. I already know where I want to apply first should I be approved!

Now, I’m watching what passes for a sunset around here. My bed is calling….