I have now been up in Kitimat
for 34 days of work, worked 383 hours, and walked an average of 15km per day
totaling an estimated 510km in steel toe boots. These are the numbers and every
day they keep getting bigger and bigger. That is except one number, some may
say the most important one, the days of work left until I can come home.
Numbers are important to me when I work they serve as a means to distract my
mind from some of the mind numbing task s or an escape from the politics. Today
my crew batched out 180 bags of grout so as we were working away doing batch
after batch I slowly worked out exactly how much weight in materials we would
be making that day. So each bag of grout is 25kg which worked out to be 4500kg
of grout. Added to each bag of grout is 4l of water which ways out at 1kg per
liter so that is 720kg of water. Totalling a massive 5220kg of grout produced
and handled all by hand. Not only did this math help me pass some of the time well
producing the grout at the end of day it also helps the guys put an actual
number to the amount of work they did that day. So the most important number of
the day….3 the days until I come home. In the meantime I try enjoying my time
and taking in everything that Kitimat has to offer. So yesterday was Canada Day
and although we all had to work Sarah, Shane, Kate and I all decided we would
take a trip into town and see how Kitimat chooses to celebrate the birth of our
great nation. We started it off with a trip to Mr. Mikes, the classiest place
in town, where I enjoyed a wonderful Oscars Lobster sirloin. We then headed off
to the local rec area where all the big festivities were being held but Sarah’s
feet were really bothering her so Shane and her decided they would head back to
camp. This left me and Kate to head down to the rec center. Now a little
preface to these festivities, we had heard from a few locals that they were
offering $50 helicopter rides around Kitimat all day. So both me and Kate having
never been in helicopter before decided that would be priority number one. Unfortunately
for us just as we arrived to the baseball diamonds to see the helicopter in
were informed by the helicopter lady that this arriving flight was there last
of the night. We were lucky enough to get a nice selfie of the helicopter
landing behind us though. Being a little depressed with our unfortunate luck with
the helicopter and the time getting late we decided it would be best for us to
head back to camp with some help from some fine gentleman that Kate played
baseball with. When we arrived back at camp we overheard some people talking
about some fireworks that we would be able to see from the big tent at camp so
we decided to head over there and call Shane and Sarah to join us. So even
though it wasn’t the big celebration in Cloverdale and Brad’s 7 layer dip
Canada Day in Kitimat ended pretty well. So that is really all I have to talk
about today but I leave you with a picture of the only accessible piece of
greenery on site the one tree. During breaks people sit under it chat, smoke
and eat their food. It is weird being in place where there is such an abundance
of wildlife all around you yet we have next to nothing on site.
Sincerely,
Tanner (I’m coming home)
