Work

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The Half-Way Mark

At this time six months ago, I was in Ottawa on the eve of the big departure. Six months from tonight I will either be back in Ottawa in anticipation of returning to my government job the next morning or committed to long-term full-timing. I already know that chances are that I’ll be going with plan A… which is to not go back to my government job. But there are too many variables and what ifs in my plan at this time to discuss it any further. I’m such a tease. 🙂

I’m not where I thought I would be tonight in terms of my financial situation. A lot of things went wrong in the past six months, including the market crashing and longer periods of unemployment than anticipated,  so I’ll admit that I am scrambling a bit to come up with the funds to finance the next part of my journey, that is to get me to employment in Dawson City, Yukon. I would be happy to remain at my current position (and my employers would be glad to keep me) for an additional month, but the prohibitive cost of rent here does not make that a good option. I have been trying to find part-time evening and/or weekend work, but that has yet to pan out and time is running short. I know that the money will come, it always does, but it’s hard not to think about how quickly May 1st will be here!

When I look back on the past six months, I marvel that I am not bitter and disillusioned. September was amazing, yes. But October, November, and December were mostly hell. January was a mixed bag of feelings–taking so long to find work, bad weather keeping me cooped up, moving to such a wonderful park, joy at finding a great contract. February was good, even if it reeked of my old life–commute and desk work, but tolerable because it was a means, not an end. March and April will be much of the same I imagine. But I am impossibly happy, more content and at peace than I have ever been. Hard as this life has been at times, it has been joyous, freeing, good, and honest.

If there is one moment that I will cling to as the vivid memories of September 4th, 2008 to March 3rd, 2009 start to fade it is the minute I stepped out of Miranda at Lake Louise. The sharp scent of pine is etched in my memory and serves as a reminder that I can go forth into ‘their’ world, but still do it my way.

I will also never forget Croft’s and my adventure with the batteries that led to discovering what the big honkin’ yellow button is for. The whole misadventure taught me to have more confidence in myself, that my sense of humour is my biggest ally, and that I am not living in a vacuum; there are wonderful people out there willing to help if I just ask.

Thank you to my readers who have followed me thus far. I’d still keep a blog even if no one read it, but it’s nice to know that my experiences strike a note with people outside my bubble.

All that’s left to say is “Dang I should have bought some beer to celebrate and YUKON, HERE WE COME!!!!!”

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Excel Induced Nightmares

There is already a hint of spring in the air and I’m starting to get the Itch, so I am glad to be so happy with my new job! I feel doubly blessed in that it found me, through my Craigslist ad. After my experience last fall at the RV park, it feels so nice to be back at a job where I feel valued and respected. The work is mostly satisfying and enjoyable. I’ve spent several days working on The Excel Spreadsheet That Never Ends (TESTNE), something that some people would find boring, but which I really do enjoy. The days just fly by when I’m working on complex Excel projects. I especially appreciate that the project TESTNE is part of is entirely mine and I can manage it as I please. That said, I’m getting a bit of a crick in my neck from all that time spent at the computer and I’m having nightmares about the dang Microsoft paperclip!!! I do have to say that I am not enjoying working on a PC after spending minimal time on one in the past six months. They really are antiquated and worthless junk and it’s high time that Macs take their place in the world. *sighs*

Life in south Surrey has settled into a gentle routine that is enabling me to recharge my batteries in anticipation of the summer ahead. I hope to be heading off to Vancouver Island for two weeks at the beginning of May and then pushing north. Hopefully, June will mean work, and lots of it, in Dawson City, and then I’ll head back south to Whitehorse in mid-July for the Chilkoot trek.

Because so many things went  haywire in the budget in the past six months (longer periods without work than expected, colder weather, having to move mid-winter, toad issues, etc.), I will need to make a serious concession about the rest of this first part of my trip: I get the Chilkoot, but I lose the Dempster. So, I don’t anticipate going to Inuvik this year after all, although, who knows, a lot can happen in the next few months and I hear the money’s good in Dawson City…. But I’m no longer focusing on researching that stretch of road and instead getting ready (and really, really excited) for my Chilkoot hike!

Yesterday, I pre-ordered my copy of the The Milepost 2009, an Alaska travel planner that includes great information on routes from BC to the Yukon. I’ve always enjoyed flipping through the year’s latest version and planning routes, but never allowed myself to buy a drastically reduced last-year’s copy just for fun, promising that I wouldn’t get one until I knew for sure I was going to put it to work.

Summer feels so far away, but I’m content enough here to be able to wait patiently. I’ve waited a lifetime to see the North, so what’s another few months, and, truly, there are worst places to be. I know, I’ve been there. 🙂

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Parking Disappointment and Free Gas

Well, so much for getting a super cheap, 60$/month parking pass! As it turns out, the pass takes a week to process, so I would have had to pay for a full February pass and daily parking for the first week, and there is a three month minimum contract, with a really arcane cancellation policy. That said, I calculated how much it would cost me to pay for daily parking vs. the bus and it’s only a 15$ difference. Moreover, I just checked my Petro-Points balance and discovered that I have enough for a couple hundred dollars worth of free gas (and this after redeeming some in December for Miranda), so I don’t need to worry about gas for the toad this spring (and I’ll have plenty of time to rebuild my balance for the next time Miranda needs a fill). I am therefore going to suck up the 15$ difference and enjoy my extra 40 minutes a day!

Petro-Points are worthy of a sidebar. For several years now, I’ve used a Citibank MasterCard linked to the Petro-Points reward programme. All my purchases earn me points which I can then redeem for gas or other goodies. I didn’t drive much for about a year, so every month or so I would redeem points for a 25$ amazon.ca gift card! These days, I save my points for gas (gee, I wonder why), and even though I can’t possibly spend enough to fully cover my gas expenditures (well I could, but then I’d rack up debt which would negate the point of the exercise!), I do spend enough to take a huge bite out of the gas budget. This is truly ‘free’ money seeing as I pay off my MasterCard in full every single month. I belong to quite a few rewards programmes and Petro-Points is by far the most rewarding. I also like that I can double up on points by getting gas at Esso to get both Petro-Points and Aero-Points or at Shell to get the Petro-Points and Airmiles. I don’t buy into the ‘2 cents off per litre’ hype from Petro-Canada, though, seeing as their gas tends to be more expensive. I only get it with gift cards! I highly recommend the Citibank Petro-Points MasterCard to anyone who is disciplined enough to pay off their card in full each month (since the card has a hefty 19.5% interest rate!). No, this paragraph was not sponsored by Citibank. 😀

Random RVing thought of the day, as I lit the stove: “There is something delightfully primitive and elemental about needing fire to cook.”

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Still Going Around in Circles

I missed my bus sort of on purpose this morning. I was having a really mellow morning and by my leave time of 7:20 I was still in my pjs! I decided that this was going to be my first day of attempting to drive to work and that I could use up my last bus tickets Thursday or Friday.

Getting to New Westminster was extremely easy, with just a few slowdowns, but I once again got confused by all the construction. I’d looked at a map ahead of time knowing that Majel would be useless once downtown, but I still got led astray onto a side road that took me straight through the downtown core, past my parking lot and my office building. It took forever (or so it seemed) to get turned around and back onto the correct street. Once there, the parking lot was easily accessible and finding a space was painless as there was tons available right near the inbound ramp. Getting to work, driving around in circles not included, took about 45 minutes door to door, 15 minutes less than taking public transit.

This evening, I followed the ‘exit’ signs in the parking lot until I got to what looked like the off ramp. But there was a great big arrow telling me not to turn right there and to keep going straight. I did so and got to the end of the lot, where I had to execute some ‘fun’ manoeuvres to get myself turned around. I was really confused as to how to get out of there and followed the exit signs right back to that turn off where I realised that the sign telling me not to turn right was actually mis-oriented!!! So, that was the exit and, conveniently enough, it led to a one way road, making a left turn onto a busy road a piece of cake. I followed the highway signs to get onto the freeway, laughing as Majel got so confused that she just shut up and let me figure things out for myself. I got home in 38 minutes, compared to the 70+ from public transit!

(Never in my life would have have thought/dreamed/believed/imagined that I would one day have to commute a route for which the last stretch is to follow the signs marked Seattle!)

In other news, Translink called me today to ‘apologize’ for the bus not showing up on Friday, giving the usual excuses of weather (not an issue that day), traffic (not an issue that day), bridge closure (no reason for it to affect that route), etc. I’m still not impressed.

While I’m working very hard at trying to find a way to support myself on the road that would not involve commuting to an office, this assignment is thus far proving itself to be enjoyable and an acceptable way to fund the next part of my journey. I hope that things do not degenerate as they did last fall. 🙁

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So Much for Peace and Quiet

One thing I find hard about RV life is how little privacy we get in RV parks. There does seem to be an unspoken rule that every RV pad is its own bubble, giving an illusion of privacy, but it’s just that, an illusion. That said, until Saturday, I felt that I had a pretty good spot here at Pacific Border. The owners of the rig on my passenger side haven’t been here, I have a forest behind me, and there has been no one on my driver’s side. Then this huge class A backed in next to me. The view from my study went from being one of grass to one of fiberglass, but I sucked it up. C’est la vie in RV parks, after all. But last night, around 9:30, they started to blast music. Then they ran their generator until almost 11pm. I am not kidding. They must be the most self-centred people in the universe because for not being able to realise that loud music and generator noise at that hour is unacceptable! The kicker is that after they turned on the generator, they left! I think their generator might have had a timer or something because it turned off before they roared into their site around 1AM.

Needless to say, I was not bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at work this morning. 🙁