Step 5- Get Some Wheels!

When I first got into town I had no vehicle. If it would have been possible to live here and do my job without a car, I would have found a way. I bicycle commuted in Abbotsford- in snow! The highway that connects the burbs to the town is too dangerous for a bike. The traffic is so thick and people get very aggressive. It was okay, though, because Liz works a block away from me. I just carpooled with her. On days when I needed a vehicle to drive into town on my own, the Cheethams lent me their minivan.

Now here is the challenge with this post. I believe in two somewhat opposing guidelines: don't look a gift horse in the mouth, and never let the facts get in the way of a good story. You see, the Cheethams lent me the vehicle and asked for nothing back. All I had to do was pay for my own gas. And even then, Gary took the van out and filled the tank for me when I was low. I don't want to complain. On the other hand, if the Cheethams had wanted to get rid of me, they couldn't have found a better way.

The electrical in the van was loose, so that the power shut off from time to town. The entire car would just shut down. This could happen at any time- at stop signs, or even on the highway. I would then throw it into park, shut it off, and start it again. On the highway the engine would just turn itself over and start up again, no problem, except you would loose power steering and brakes for a few seconds. It sure kept driving exciting!

Now, though, I have my own car! I have a 2005 Chevy Blazer. Here she is:

My Grampa game me his truck over the summer and I have just assumed custody. I spent Monday and Tuesday driving this beautiful beast over the Rockies and back up here.

Here are the top 5 reasons that my truck is so great:

5. It holds a great deal of stuff. When I fold the rear seats forward, there is enough space for me to lie down! Yeah, diagonally, but still, this is not your sisters hatchback.

4. It is a 4X4! My Grampa and I spent some really good hunting trips in this truck. He made a point of teaching me how to drive in the snow, on ice, and how to use the 4X4 to get over logs and lumps on decommissioned roads. That is important, considering the state of the roads around here.

3. The truck has some pretty sweet features. For example, the music automatically turns up or down depending on how hard (i.e. loud) the engine is running. Another sweet feature is that it is a very similar colour to the dirt that is in the air here. That means less washing!

2. It smells faintly of gun slick and black powder. Two of my favorite smells.

1. It is a gift from my Grampa! We spent a lot of time in this truck. It is familiar. It has been a large part of our time together. He wanted me to be able to go and do the things we did together, like hunting and fishing and shooting. This is the picture of me and truck that Grampa took on one of our hunting trips.

I know it is weird, but I pet my truck yesterday. It just feels so close to my heart. It is my new baby.

Work this week: I taught another high school class today, and it went really really well! I had a great time. I just love what I am doing.

On the office end of the work, a client was killed over the weekend. She was sleeping in a dumpster and the truck came. She was crushed to death. City officials spent the last few days searching the dump for her body, and found it yesterday. I am somewhat removed and so it has become my job to set up the memorial. Because of the nature of the death, we will not be able to observe the traditional First Nations three days for the spirit to leave the body. It's a really downer story, but that is what is going on here. Regardless, I still love me job.

Step 4. Know the dirt.

Wow- what a crazy week. This week I went to the traveling trade show with friends, taught my first high school STI workshop, set up 3 more workshops (woot!) and almost lost it on a drop in client. People with addictions have a few needy tenancies. One of the is that they often latch on to whomever is nice to them, and then feel very rejected when that person can't do what they want. One of the clients asked me to do something that I didn't have time for. I said I couldn't help her, and she asked, quite whiny, “why can't you?” Blame it on short nights, or her sleeping in our office for 3 days, coughing and complaining all over, but I almost asked “well, why can't you not be a crack addict?” It was at that point in the day that I excused myself from the front desk and went to work somewhere else.

So I am working new modules, writing grant applications, and teaching kids about chlamydia. Lots of stuff is going on all the time. One of our few constants here, however, is the dirt.

Fort Mac is a boom town, 100%. The municipality is working to expand infrastructure. The roads are clogged and filled with potholes. The only bridge in and out of town is being replaced. Two more lanes are being added to the highway. And there are new buildings going up all over! Not just residential, either- warehouses, stores, and industrial facilities are in the works everywhere. That is why there is dirt in the air.

It really is in the air. I wish I could get a picture that captured the hazy glow of the particulates in the sunlight. The fine brown dirt that makes up the soil here -fluvial sediment (no bigs, I studied geography)- actually floats in the air around town. The streets look dirty all the time. In fact, instead of normal street sweepers, this town has pressure washing trucks that drive around and hose off the streets. The cars are constantly covered with dirt, and people just don't care anymore. You see a lot of vehicles that are covered in brown, save for license plate, which they was off. I get it, too. Why wash a car when it will be dirty again tomorrow?

The brown blends in nicely with the now brown skyline. The leaves turned yellow and fell off the trees in the course of one week. The above scene is no more. Now we have brown naked trees, a brown river, and brown brown roads. The cars are mostly brown, and many of the building have developed a fine coat of seasonal brown. The occasional rain or hail storm blend it up nicely into a pervasive mud.

Driving around town would be a little boys dream. There are amazing pieces of machinery! There are trucks like I have never seen. Gary and Liz took me on a drive the other day to see the Syncrude factory. The vehicles out in the fields shoveling dirt were larger than the house I live in. And they are all working on a beautiful canvas of brown.

And let's not forget the olfactory sensation of dirt! The ground here has oil in it- we know this. But I hadn't really thought about that till I moved here. There is oil in the dirt. Sometimes, after it really rains, the oil comes up to the topsoil and runs out of the ground. It is a testament to the resilience of nature that trees and grass grow in a soil that is sweating out petroleum. Sudden changes in weather do something to it, and the town has stunk like oil for a few days.

There is also the dirt of the office. That client, who was sleeping in the sitting area of the office, was coughing all over. She has Hep C, and probably pneumatic TB. The office is very very cramped, with 9 new staff coming on in the last 5 weeks. There is one sink and a half sized fridge. We have to take turns eating lunch so there is room to sit! Thrown in street people, drug users, and the needle exchange, and you have an environment rife with infectious body fluids. I have actually started relying on my old nemesis, antibacterial hand lotion. Sometimes I really wish I didn't know what I did about communicable disease. It's not like I am at risk of catching anything deadly (even Hep C is hard to get unless you are trying), but it does make me feel a little dirty at times.