Welcome to my first weekend in Fort McMurray. What have I done so far? Unpack. And I'm not finished yet. Since this is supposed to be a fresh start and a new beginning I thought a new blog was in order. For those of you who have been around before its the same old stuff just with a new address.
I arrived on Thursday evening and spent my first 3 hours in town in the dark--literally. Apparently someone cut a power line or disconnected a power line and it left most of the city without power for at least a portion of the evening. I survived without issue and was able to order Chinese food from a part of the city that apparently did have power. Early the next morning I was hovering outside of the landlords office ready to get the keys to my new apartment. By 12noon I had unpacked my truck and was staring at the pile of boxes, totes and bags wondering where it was all going to go. By Friday evening I had the kitchen into a semblance of order and was able to at least walk from one room to the other without jumping over anything.
It is now close to supper time on Saturday and while I have continued to make progress on the unpacking it is at the point of chaos. So many things piled and stacked with the 'I'll deal with you later' label thrown on them. I am desperately trying to get all the boxes and totes emptied so that nothing goes bad (in case of water inside the container) and so that I have located everything. I have been to Walmart, Canadian Tire, Save on Foods, Sobeys, a liquor store--though the wine is in a bag somewhere as yet unopened, a dollar type store and the bank. I have purchased and put together one of those over the toilet shelving units which took much longer to assemble than I would care to admit only to find out that the brace in the back is at the exact same height as the water pipe coming out of the wall. I am hoping that the brace will not prove to be a vital part of the entire unit. I am in need of a shelving unit for my storage closet and will venture out again tomorrow with the truck to pick that up along with more groceries as no matter how many times I have bought food the past two days I still don't seem to have anything to eat nor to make lunch with for Monday.
So...new job...new location. I'm looking forward to both.
Let's talk about the location. As I drove across the country from the East Coast to the Prairies people would ask me where I was going and I would say, "I'm moving to Fort McMurray. I have a new job." The next reaction is this look of pity on their face followed by, "Oh, that's too bad." Now most of these people have never been to Fort McMurray so I can't imagine that they are experts on the situation nor are they able to give me a true reading of my new home and so their comments have been largely ignored. But it happens ALL the time. I don't think I met yet with a "Congratulations! A new job. How exciting for you." I don't care. I received about the same type of response when I decided to move to Nunavut and that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. So to everyone out there who gave me the pity response 'ppffffttt' I'm determined to have a good time while I'm here.
I have the summer ahead of me for camping (though if we don't get rain soon I may not get to experience the joy of a campfire this summer), visiting friends in Edmonton, learning about this new city I have moved to and becoming an expert at my job. It's all positive and good from here.
******
Monday morning. I'm sipping my tea and watching the clock. Don't want to be late for my first morning. I was going to drive the route last night just to make sure there were no surprises but opted to stay and hang out with the cats instead. They have survived their cross-Canada flight with no issues. They were a tad confused when I finally dumped the kennel on the floor in the new apartment and they walked around meowing for about 1/2 hour. I just sat on the couch asking them to keep it down a little. By supper time they had explored the whole apartment and had settled down to stare at me from across the room. At one point I got up to use the bathroom and wondered where they had wandered off to...turns out it was the tub. They love the tub. This tub is much deeper than in the last apartment and Tundra is having issues jumping out, but I'm sure she will get the hang of it.
So...back to work. Or rather off to work for the first time with this particular company. I'm looking forward to it and am a bit anxious at the same time...which seems about right. I don't know if I should bring my lunch or not...yes, minor point but it is one of those defining moments to the first day.
Anyway...I better run or I will be late. Here's a few pics from the move before and after...a few you have seen before.
I arrived on Thursday evening and spent my first 3 hours in town in the dark--literally. Apparently someone cut a power line or disconnected a power line and it left most of the city without power for at least a portion of the evening. I survived without issue and was able to order Chinese food from a part of the city that apparently did have power. Early the next morning I was hovering outside of the landlords office ready to get the keys to my new apartment. By 12noon I had unpacked my truck and was staring at the pile of boxes, totes and bags wondering where it was all going to go. By Friday evening I had the kitchen into a semblance of order and was able to at least walk from one room to the other without jumping over anything.
It is now close to supper time on Saturday and while I have continued to make progress on the unpacking it is at the point of chaos. So many things piled and stacked with the 'I'll deal with you later' label thrown on them. I am desperately trying to get all the boxes and totes emptied so that nothing goes bad (in case of water inside the container) and so that I have located everything. I have been to Walmart, Canadian Tire, Save on Foods, Sobeys, a liquor store--though the wine is in a bag somewhere as yet unopened, a dollar type store and the bank. I have purchased and put together one of those over the toilet shelving units which took much longer to assemble than I would care to admit only to find out that the brace in the back is at the exact same height as the water pipe coming out of the wall. I am hoping that the brace will not prove to be a vital part of the entire unit. I am in need of a shelving unit for my storage closet and will venture out again tomorrow with the truck to pick that up along with more groceries as no matter how many times I have bought food the past two days I still don't seem to have anything to eat nor to make lunch with for Monday.
So...new job...new location. I'm looking forward to both.
Let's talk about the location. As I drove across the country from the East Coast to the Prairies people would ask me where I was going and I would say, "I'm moving to Fort McMurray. I have a new job." The next reaction is this look of pity on their face followed by, "Oh, that's too bad." Now most of these people have never been to Fort McMurray so I can't imagine that they are experts on the situation nor are they able to give me a true reading of my new home and so their comments have been largely ignored. But it happens ALL the time. I don't think I met yet with a "Congratulations! A new job. How exciting for you." I don't care. I received about the same type of response when I decided to move to Nunavut and that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. So to everyone out there who gave me the pity response 'ppffffttt' I'm determined to have a good time while I'm here.
I have the summer ahead of me for camping (though if we don't get rain soon I may not get to experience the joy of a campfire this summer), visiting friends in Edmonton, learning about this new city I have moved to and becoming an expert at my job. It's all positive and good from here.
******
Monday morning. I'm sipping my tea and watching the clock. Don't want to be late for my first morning. I was going to drive the route last night just to make sure there were no surprises but opted to stay and hang out with the cats instead. They have survived their cross-Canada flight with no issues. They were a tad confused when I finally dumped the kennel on the floor in the new apartment and they walked around meowing for about 1/2 hour. I just sat on the couch asking them to keep it down a little. By supper time they had explored the whole apartment and had settled down to stare at me from across the room. At one point I got up to use the bathroom and wondered where they had wandered off to...turns out it was the tub. They love the tub. This tub is much deeper than in the last apartment and Tundra is having issues jumping out, but I'm sure she will get the hang of it.
So...back to work. Or rather off to work for the first time with this particular company. I'm looking forward to it and am a bit anxious at the same time...which seems about right. I don't know if I should bring my lunch or not...yes, minor point but it is one of those defining moments to the first day.
Anyway...I better run or I will be late. Here's a few pics from the move before and after...a few you have seen before.
1 comment:
The cats are starting to look as though they are settled. I'm glad their flight went well. Good luck at the new job!
Post a Comment