It gets damn cold here...

Well just in case the title didn't say enough... IT GETS DAMN COLD HERE! The day I first landed it was -27C, that's cold, but it turns out that's just the start of COLD here in Alberta. Not sure if you can see what it says on my new boots, but they are rated up to -100C! Now that's great and all, but I am not too sure I am rated for -100C! I don't even think they sell boots like this back in Ontario.

Well I had two fears coming out here, being cold...and being tiered, looks like my feet should be just fine. Now lets take a look at these beautiful landscape pictures. This is the result of the temperature reaching something reasonable like -5 to -10c really a nice mild temperature here. Then The fog rolls in from the evaporating water. Through the night the temperature drops off again and the fog instantly freezes as it passes over the land, covering everything with a coating of ice crystals. Its really a strange thing, its not ice, like a coating of water frozen...but its crystallized water droplets stacked on top of each other. Beautiful, but DAMN COLD! So, now you see the need for the boots! Well I have been here just about 2 weeks now and I have taken some pretty big steps in living and working in Alberta. By the end of the week I will have another entry with an update on the employment front, I mean it seems pretty secure right now, but I don't want to jump the gun.

The GP state of mind...

First thing's first here in Grand Prairie. If you're going to make the money, you have to look like money! So Mike and I spent the week getting ready for what is to come. You see, as you are only in civilization 6 days out of the month, it helps to enjoy a certain level of 'baller' life when you get the time. We went out shopping, and to the Keg for a celebratory dinner so that we might rightly be able to prepare for the road ahead.

The sweet looking office, is indeed our home base. It was a needed improvement to our place, as this is where we will spend most of our time when in town. Now I will mention, we didn't spend all week on the look and the pad... we got some real world tasks taken care of, they just didn't make for good pictures. We both took a day long class to attain our Q endorsement for our transport license. Additionally we took the written portion of our Class 1 license, which together make up what would in Ontario be your AZ and D, licencing. All that's left is the week long in-truck classes. But its cold here and I am off to Red Deer soon... time to get some warm gear!

Time for a little more fun...OFF ROADING!!

Well after a busy day of learning, what could be better than an off road adventure! Good thing Mike has a Jeep, and isn't afraid to drive the s#!t out of it. He took me down some logging roads up in to the mountains not 20 minutes from home. Then off in to the bush, down in to the riverbed, and back out again. Now this has a great video that goes with it too... and hopefully it will be up soon. And yes...it's always cold here, but after a while you get numb to it.

H2S Training day

Now this is where things got a little more serious. If you want any chance at landing a job in the oil industry, you need to be aware of the potential dangers. N2S is a harmful gas produced through the decay of organic matter and is ever present harvesting of oil. Through proper training and awareness, we strive to achieve a 0 incident policy. However, in the event of an incident we are thoroughly trained how to operate our SCBA(self contained breathing apparatus)to first protect yourself, then assist any man down. I completed the day long training course with full certification and a grade of 100%. Again, I have a video of the class, but it will have to be posted later.

Road trip to BC...

Well, upon my arrival Mike took me out to Boston Pizza for a bite, showed me around town, and took me to drop off my stuff at his place. There is a video of this also, but it will be a later addition. It only made sense that after a big day and a long flight... we should do a road trip to BC! It was a decent two and a half hours either way, but it was well worth the drive, and yeah the blurry sign says, Alaska Highway! And the long skinny pic is wind turbines for Tom.

The BC slogan is, The best place on Earth, I am not sure I could argue against that.

Leaving Ontario and arriving in Alberta

Boarding my flight at 7:30am from London, ON to Calgary, AB. the flight was really cool...I have a video of take off and landing but I will have to put it up on youtube and link it to here, the video loader on this sucks.

It should be obvious what pictures are Calgary...it was -17C when we touched down. From there I transferred to my flight to Grand Prairie, where I met up with the one and only Mike Flight.

My good bye party... i have the best friends and family a guy could ask for!

Nothing like great friends and family to make you feel so loved. Thanks mom for the memorable night, I will miss you all everyday.
It is because of this collection of people that I can do what I must.