The news of the day is.....I am running away from home. When I mentioned this to the only son he said "yeah, I heard something about that but I wasn't sure if it was true" so I assured him that it was in fact the truth. I said "I'm going to be able to visit your sister out west on the way in and out" and he said "yeah she mentioned something about that but you and Dad travel quite a bit so I wasn't sure." He and the girlfriend were discussing the situation and she says "yeah Mom threatens to do that all time but I don't think she will" but he apparently assured her that his mother was the type that might actually make good on the threat.
So, where I am running away to and for how long? I have received a leave of absence from my position here and been approved as a casual RN and am heading north to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut to work as a CHN (pronounced chin) otherwise known as a Community Health Nurse in a Community Health Centre (previously called Nursing Stations) for the month of October. I fly to Edmonton, Yellowknife and then in to Cambridge Bay. You can Google it and find it's a town of about 1400 people on the Northwest Passage (think Amundsen and Franklin) with a couple of stores, arena, curling rink, seasonal pool as well as muskox, polar bears, arctic char and more. It is the capital of the Kitikmeot region on the western edge of Nunavut at the top of the world. Should be some good pictures. Can't wait, getting excited and a bit nervous now, especially when I look at some websites like this link or the maps and photo below:
http://bit.ly/provide
http://bit.ly/provide
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/nu-15_metric_e.html
Lately I've been spending some time with my friend who is planning the wake for her husband tomorrow. I can't even imagine how I would manage if this were me. We've walked the dog, shared some meals and a few tears while generally trying to sort a very unsortable situation out. She is a very tough cookie but I am glad that if this had to happen it wasn't while I was unreachable in the north next month this time.
Enjoyed a family BBQ as we celebrated my baby sister's birthday when both of her daughters were able to get down with their families. It was the usual raucous affair with my great nephew stepping in his cousins plate of supper :) Good times, good times.
As you can imagine I have a loooonnnnngggg to do list which seems to grow, not get shorter. Today I think I conquered the cell phone / land line phone issue when I visited the local phone centre, just have to call customer service. It looks like I can get local minutes, unlimited long distance and texting on my cell for less than our land line - the bonus will be NO telemarketers. It really doesn't make sense for each of us to have a cell phone AND the land line at $85 per month, considering how much we'll actually be here. I have a few things to sort out here - getting the car serviced next week while I'm working (reminded me of the eager young lad at the gas pumps who asked if I wanted the oil checked and offered that he usually let his get to E before adding any) I already have the cleaning lady and dog walkers lined up - having my priorities straight at least.
I have such a learning curve ahead of me I should be training for high altitude work. Off to study my Nunavut Immunization Guide. I guess I should also study my language guide too come to think of it as the Inuinnaqtun dialect is spoken in CamBay and Kuglutuk,
