back in camp and in a cabin

So I made it back in camp. Basically the highlights of the past 36 hours were getting up at 5am to get to the airport for my 8am flight to YK to catch my 9:35am flight to Cambridge Bay to get our noon flight to Kugluktuk to get our 3pm flight to camp. After all that flying around I mentioned to Radio that I wanted to thank the company for giving us a chance to have an arctic flight tour of the surrounding area. Most companies would have just landed their employees in YK and then had them take the hour and 45 minute flight directly to camp to start work. Our company, however, feels that all employees deserve a tour of the world so we did our hour and twenty to Cambridge Bay to do our hour flight to Kugluktuk to then do our 30 minute flight to camp. Arent they just a nice company....no efficient or money saving, but definitely a nice company.

Got to camp and found out that I was moved to being a dishwasher for 2 weeks and then will be moved to night shift (breakfast cook) for 2 weeks. Though will believe the 2 weeks night shift position when they actually put me on it. Dishwasher is a great job. No worries, no stress, no responsibilities. Just take a dirty dish, wash it and put it away. Even better, there are two of us in the dishpit. Finally I get a helper as the dishwasher whereas the 2nd cook has no helper.

Also found out that I have been moved from the main camp to one of the cabins that were recently built. We have only 168 beds in camp, plus the 50 man D-wing camp, and we have more employees than beds. They are actually putting some people in a hotel in Cambridge Bay and flying them daily from Cambridge Bay to the camp for the day and then flying them back to Cam Bay in the evening after their shift. So to meet the need for more rooms they have build cabins A through F in the back area of the camp. They are located about 20 feet away from the main camp with no hallways or anything linking them. So you walk out of the cabin and walk your 20 feet across a dirt/mud/gravel roadway to get to the camp. Makes the 2am bathroom break run even more enjoyable than just stumbling down an empty hallway. Also have to walk from the cabin to the camp to shower in the morning. Right now it isnt too bad since it is only -7'C but once it hits the winter and -45'C with blowing snow they had better come up with a better solution to the bed shortage problem.

When I first got in and found out I was in a cabin, Radio was trying to up sell it so that I didnt complain about being put outside. I was told that the cabins have their own internet hub/server and the wireless was faster and more reliable, it was really quiet and calm out there and there was lots of room in the cabin and wasnt as cramped as the rooms in camp. Later I found out that he should have been a real estate agent with the spin he put on the rooms.

1) there is no wireless internet in the cabins because the IT that shut down the wireless last rotation in camp is back and by sheer coincidence the wireless went down 3 days ago, the same time he came back to camp. After asking what the deal with that was we got the story that they are trying to track one person who is downloading music/movies and they want to catch them and make an example of them. Apparently to do this they have to shut down the entire wireless to the camp to get him. Personally I am leaning more to the side that the IT guy has no freaking clue what the heck he is doing and just making up excuses to cover up his own incompetance.

2) the cabin is really quiet and calm...well, except for when the trucks drive down the main road between the camp and the cabins and then reverse to get in a parking stall and you get the loud BEEP BEEP BEEP of the warning alarm that they are backing up. They did this twice last night before I finally drifted off to sleep and was so tired that chances are they continued all night long but I was too tired to wake up and notice. Might be different in a few days when I get back to some good sleep.

3) there is loads of room in the cabin...however, that is pretty much all there is in the cabin. We only have two beds (I share it with a night shift worker so we arent in the same room sleeping at the same time) and two shelves about chair height so that you can sit in a chair and use it as a desk, a 16" flat screen TV screwed into the wall that can be moved left or right depending on which person in bed wants to watch TV and an AC/heating unit to help keep the cabin warm/cool. That is all that is in the cabin. We have no cabinets, cupboards, dresser, medicine cabinet, towel rack...nothing. When asked were I was to put my clothes I was told "Quit your whining, we have cupboards and cabinets on order. They will be here by the end of the week". Of course after hearing that I told Radio "that sounds like camp talk for 'it is gonna be here in 2 to 3 months'". Later I found out from the 1st, who has been here for 2 weeks already, that they have been saying that since he came into camp 2 weeks ago. So I went and grabbed about 6 milk crates and created the single guy/bachelor/trailer trash solution to the problem. I have 5 milk crates duct taped together one on top of the other making a sort of make shift shelving unit cupboard. got my clothes and medicine all piled up in them. Also there is no carpet out there either. Nothing like waking up at 6:30am and looking at a cold floor and knowing that after you get out of bed and walk across that cold floor to grab your jacket that you then get to get dressed and walk outside in the morning chill to go and shower.

After telling Radio all this and giving him a hard time he tried to make it better by saying that we are all getting 28" TVs in the cabin. Told him that it would be a great thing if we got channels different than the preset ones since all we seem to get now are sports channels, car racing channels and newfie TV station channels. Not a whole lot going on those channels to interest me.

So yeah, that is what is happening in camp. On a funny note, the lady that brought us the "I finded it" from last turn around had another great one. She came up to me taking the last mouthful of water from a glass, smacked her lips and looked at me while holding the glass out and said "this water tastes funny". Of course I looked at her and asked "so, are you saying that it tastes Jerry Lewis funny or Tom Greene funny?" She seemed to think about this for a moment and said "yeah...tastes like that." I made sure and said "so Jerry Lewis funny?" and she nodded and said "yep, Jerry Lewis funny". I was trying not to smile and watched for her reaction and I swear she was dead serious about the whole thing. So I had to tell Radio that she thought the water tasted Jerry Lewis funny. I have no idea if she is meaning to be funny like that or if it is all an accident.