Home again, home again jiggity jog

Now that I'm settled in (whatever that means) at home it's time for an update. It seems like I'm worlds away from my former life and so I am. A week ago this time I was on call, procrastinating about cleaning the apartment and packing up my life into two duffel bags - always amazed at how little you can actually exist with for two months. Each contract I get better at minimizing and specializing my collection so I can maximize my perishables. I was also witnessing the only snow storm we had while in Taloyoak (Nunavut is a polar desert) in eight week, so a relatively quiet call shift.  Sunday, which was a beautiful sunny, mild (-30c) day was almost completely taken up with domestic duties and a long walk to try out my kamiks - they are wonderful!

I worked Monday morning as the Dr. was in and doing a busy clinic, blood draws are done on that day, it's always busy after the weekend and it would've been cruel to leave only two staff there. I'd been on the receiving end of that schedule and it's tough. I managed to contribute to the caseload, wrap up my paperwork, restock the office and head upstairs. I phone Canadian North, no the flight is delayed, won't be leaving until 4:30 p.m. I head downstairs to tell the custodian/driver of the later departure and am captured by my coworker who needs help giving a number of immunizations to a child who requires a catch up schedule. I retreat following to do the last minute cramming of frozen food into the action packer and put my bags out in the hall then sit down to read for a few minutes.

The phone rings at about 3 p.m. and it's Nellie saying "what are you still doing here? you're plane is leaving without you, they're calling for you". I implore her to tell them I'm on my way and rush out in to the hall almost colliding with David the driver. He takes the front of the action packer and I bring up in the rear down the stairs. We struggle the bags outside, I pitch the health centre and apartment keys at the front desk staff and he brings the vehicle around. I again grab the back of the action packer but on the slippery and steep exterior stairs I quickly lose my grip and the tote pan escapes me, out distancing David and almost taking him out on the narrow stairway. In the frigid air we heave the bags into the back of the SUV and are off for the airport. Since the plane would be bigger than the airport it's easy to see that it hasn't arrived yet. There is only one very odd acting guy (more on that later) sitting in the waiting room and the airline staff who are casually trading fishing stories (I could already be home I think). I am checked in before I get my parka off and my butt on a bench - no ID needed here as Chuck knows my name and particulars. After a few moment I ask gently (one does not after all want to anger those who are responsible for piling ones luggage on the back of the pickup truck and driving it across the snowy airstrip to the plane then throwing it in) if he called the health centre to say the plane was leaving when in fact it hasn't even left Kugaaruk and will be late taking off from here? Chuck gives me a blank look and says "no". No further discussion then. After about half an hour the RCMP replacement officer who is flying out today arrives and we all sit quietly in the former DEW Line portable building which for the past three decades has served as Taloyoak airport. Then Chuck points at the man beside me and says "sir, you can't do that in a public place, I'm going to have to ask you to stop". I am reluctant to turn around and look but I sniff thinking he's lit up a cigarette in a public building. The guy mumbles something and the RCMP officer gets up and says loudly while showing him his badge "he told you to pour it out, have you been drinking this all day?" and I turn to see the officer holding an empty 66 oz. of Jim Bean and a coffee cup. Ohhhhh, that's why he was acting odd - he's plastered. Chuck then says "I'm going to have to deny you access to your flight as you are intoxicated". The waiting room fills with passengers and I catch up with the dental team who are heading home to Ottawa and Vancouver and a CHN who filled in with us and is on his way to Mexico.When the Cpl arrives to pick up the female officer coming in on the flight they have to 'assist' the inebriated non passenger to the RCMP truck and off to the hotel for the night.

Chuck puts on his reflective vest and says "flight 748 to Yellowknife now boarding" and we tromp out across the snow to the plane. It's a surreal experience to enter a cold, small, quiet, dark 20 seat turboprop plane and stuff yourself into the seat with parka, mitts, snowpants and boots while the flight attendant in her Canada Goose parka stands by the door holding a flashlight and says "sit anywhere" as she's counting heads not checking boarding passes under these conditions. There are white tracks of snow off the boots of passengers in the aisle which don't melt until the plane warms up at least 20 minutes into the flight. I offer my seat mate some gum, the engines are started with a roar and we settle back for the 30 minute flight to Cambridge Bay. We're late and there is some concern amongst those of us making a connection to Edmonton that we've already lost that chance. We have a very short service stop in Cam Bay - long enough for a bathroom break and we're reboarding. The crew is in a hurry to make up time tonight as when we make it to Yellowknife they will be able to deadhead back to their home base of Edmonton, they don't want to overnight in Yellowknife either. As we get closer to Yellowknife the announcement is made that the Edmonton flight is being held and that all those remaining in Yellowknife should stay seated until we're off. The dental team makes the sprint off the plane and in through security (they've done this multiple times as the northern flights are often late - naturally) and I follow on their heels through security and out the door to a waiting jet. Whew, made it - going to be able to overnight in Edmonton and see my daughter in the morning.  I sit next to the first officer from my previous flight and he and I share stories of our work in the north. He enjoys the description "same country, different planet". We make a slightly late arrival and I retrieve my duffels and action packer from the carousel saying to the RCMP officer waiting for his luggage "you didn't have to show anyone your badge here in the airport?" and he grins.

I grab the shuttle to the hotel and try to check in. This is where the fun starts. First I'm told there is no reservation for me and no room as the Brier is on and the first of the week is busy for business travel. I try to have my frozen food taken to the walk in freezer but the clerk denies this as "you don't have a room". I quietly and firmly assure her that I WILL have a room, this even though they turn away a man who requests one as I wait. Finally the second clerk remembers my name as a no-show for the previous night so they check and yup, wrong date. I am finally granted a room (albeit next to the elevator and across from the pop and ice machine - didn't hear a thing as tired as I was) and my action packer is taken to the freezer. I crash for the night.

Down to enjoy breakfast with the electrician daughter and her boyfriend and we have a good catch up visit - the highlight of my travelling day. They deliver me to the airport in the gently used cadillac the boyfriend has bought a few days earlier - it really does look like an old man's car but he has always wanted one and it is very snazzy with heated seats etc. It's good to have a sherpa with you when you're lugging a large action packer of frozen food as well. The flight from Edmonton to Toronto is uneventful (and that's a good thing) which gives me a chance to watch Argo which is the Ben Affleck flick about Tehran in 1979 and the Canadian Embassy with the American hostages. Very well done and interesting, even if you weren't around for the real event - highly recommended. We stop in Toronto to let passengers disembark - thankfully the badly behaved children leave - while we are told to remain onboard and not use the bathrooms as the cleaning crew will be servicing them. Cruel and unusual punishment. Quick flight to Halifax, the luggage all made it, out to retrieve the car and on the road. It's been freezing rain and slushy snow so it's slow going. Home well after midnight. Have to wake the dog as she's so deaf now but she's thrilled to see me, Gary just wants to be fed and Stanley is afraid and hides.

The first few days back in this time zone are always problematic for sleeping - have to fix my sleep. Get my stuff unpacked because with the mild temperatures here it's not as if I'm going to wear any of my winter gear. A nice visit with the baby daughter and her boyfriend who are home on March Break and supper with the shore captain before he headed out to the Seafood Show in Boston for six days. Messages from the western daughter saying that during the night the neighbours had a window shot out and in the ensuing excitement of police cars arriving....the boyfriend's car was struck. She got up as she heard the sirens and crash (not the shot) but the boyfriend thought she was pulling his leg because of her feelings about the car. Oh dear.

Dealing with paperwork as I discover that MY visa, not work has been charged with my hotel bill, even though I didn't give them my credit card this visit they must've kept it on file. The charge gets reversed with an apology. A Frenchy's shop on Friday, then a few groceries, drop the son off to borrow his father's truck to pick up a transmission for his newly purchased pickup and back to enjoy having the house to myself. Visits with the travel buddy, walking the dog and supper together with a chance to catch up apres meal. Just now a photo (sent by his girlfriend) of the boy captain's sutured hand which he apparently sliced while installing the truck transmission and so received four sutures. She was quite unused to such things but he said he should've let me practice on it. That boy! Tomorrow I'm heading out to Write Away as I haven't attended the writing group for some time now, never short of story material in this household. Must think of packing at some point for the trip to Cuba.