Do I miss lobster face? Not even a little

Another week behind us and the uniforms are drying on the hangers. I measure the rotation by the number of times remaining to wash the work clothes and the magic number is…..six. Almost half way through as I've extended this time to almost ten weeks. As usual, regardless of the total, the time is flying by. 

I was very excited on Tuesday night to find my job share partner had arrived back from the neighbouring community she had been loaned to. The dental team was preparing to leave on their charter which was arriving at about the same time as the scheduled flight from Ulukhaktuk. There were stacks of containers in the waiting room and foyer and although I was trying my best to ignore them, they were a needy pair, so when the video phone rang I fully expected it to be the dental assistant. I was thrilled to find it was instead my coworker who had been dropped off by the COOP truck aka ambulance. Happy reunion and we settled in to get caught up on the news. She was surprised to have made it as there was a blizzard beginning in Ulu and she had trouble seeing the road to the airport, there were strong winds as they took off, but it was still a nice evening here. That didn't last for long however. 

In the morning I checked the online warning and announced "there's a blizzard warning" to which my counterpart replied "just look out the window, oh wait, you can't see out through it". Sure enough the blizzard had come to visit us with snow

Blizzard from the inside

being blown around at 70 - 80 km/hr by north winds. Dark and cold, nothing moving and then along comes the van/school bus creeping up over the hill in near white out conditions. Apparently school wasn't cancelled today. We ready ourselves and head downstairs, thankful for the 14 stair commute which doesn't involve a parka. There is much back and forth with the NIC in Ulu as to closure criteria, finding the policy and then contacting the Hamlet SAO. He says "we're sort of closed" and my coworker says "that's like being a little bit pregnant, not possible" so he counters that he's at the Hamlet office but we can close and she educates him that we can only close if he does so he promptly says "we're closed then". I call the manager and she tells me that since we live over the health centre we are expected to do administrative duties and provide emergency services. We catch up on our programs and make some lists / plans. No one is coming in for a flu shot today for sure, they have more sense than to be out in this weather. 

Well…..almost everyone. There was a 4 wheel drive double crew cab pickup which travelled around the community a few times during the day. Turns out it was the tradesmen from Midnight Sun Carpentry who were finishing up their work orders. Proudly announced they only got stuck three times for the whole day. The next morning the bus driver / janitor was a few minutes late as she "couldn't find the principal this morning". Apparently he lives with the SAO who had left his cell phone at the Hamlet office when they closed and went home so when the principal tried to unsuccessfully call him for a ride home, he was stranded. The carpenters were working at the school and kindly offered to give him a lift home. The principal's version of the story was that after they dropped him off, he wandered around for a bit, couldn't find his way and decided to crash on the couch at the B&B. The carpenters version was that he didn't seem that sure of where he lived when they were trying to locate it, so they finally dropped him off at the end of what seemed to be his driveway. Lucky the B&B didn't charge him $125 to sleep on the couch as it's $250/night. The thoughts of doing a search and rescue mission then treating hypothermia were not far from my mind with the recounting of this yarn. 

The health centre / apartment was difficult to heat with the high winds and the poor quality windows that someone ripped off the health authority by installing a few years ago, passing them off as arctic weather quality. It was a fuzzy socks inside footed pjs with a trap door kind of evening. The blizzard finally abated by late morning, as forecast, the winds died down and the sky cleared. The community began moving a bit and the scheduled flight actually came in that evening. 

Had an encounter with a community member who asked who I left "down south" and I assured him that my kids had all flown the nest "and what about your old fella?". I reassured him that the life partner was able to take care of himself or if he didn't, I was far enough away that I didn't worry about it after all these years. He shook his head and said "the wife came over here on April 13th the year she was 16 and that was 48 years ago". I was impressed that he was so definite with the details. He asked what I was going to do when I left here and I explained that I was going on a cruise to South America in January. "Hmmm, I'd like to do that someday, I've never experienced that, I am only cruising on my skidoo across the tundra" and he pantomimed his arms stretching towards the handlebars and we both chuckled. I asked what he'd be hunting for and he said "anything that gets in front of my gun" ….musk ox, caribou, arctic hares….

At the close of the day, we cleaned off the vehicle, warmed it up, unplugged it and crept over to the COOP. This was because we'd heard there was "all kinds of vegetables" which translated to celery, butternut squash, avocado, carrots, milk, eggs and even yogurt. Let's go. My counterpart was telling me that Lloyd, although a very hard working, generous,

Scarves are us

community minded man - he is the mayor after all - is "not much of a shopper" and to illustrate her view pointed to the scarves on the wall of the store. Last years one blue striped (but soft) scarf still hung there, beside this year's rainbow striped, but very itchy one. Apparently Lloyd could use some help in the clothing purchasing division. We were rewarded with the veggies as noted as well as the holiday candies.

Christmas candies

We passed on the $16.88 package of icy cups and didn't even ask what the Pot of Gold cost, especially considering they are likely well aged after arriving on the barge a few months ago. There was cottage cheese and so I splurged for Del Monte peaches ($4.20) vs COOP brand ($3.60) for the small can - a healthier alternative anyway. 

The roommate and I are planning some Christmas crafting and have sourced some patterns for decorations. She at present is working on a prototype for small trees as she has more patience to work out the details. If it's too complicated or finicky it will be a one off. Some garland, a few ornaments and soon we'll be as festive as we're going to get. 

At any rate I am missing the pre lobster season shenanigans. I was chatting with a captain who fishes year round - he just got in and was baiting trawl in the morning as hoping to go in a couple of days. I asked if those who lobster (and feel the universe is controlled by them this time of year) were annoyed when he arrived in the middle of a wharf full of waiting lobster traps. Oh he said "they get their lobster face on" so I told him that must've been what the shore captain was wearing when we 'faced' on Sunday.  Of the things I miss, the pre-season angst is NOT one of them. 

Off to crawl in to bed and hopefully sleep in. Ahhh the northern life with it's dark sleep in mornings. Down to just some twilight at noon time now for a couple of months.