Wow, has it been a month already since the my last post? Oops, sorry.
I guess it can be said, that I have been busy. First of all, I managed to get the new position at work, which has proved to be a very busy one. I went from a crew where everyone had experience and new how to get the job done, to a rather green crew, were most of the staff are new apprentices, and there is even more work than the last group that I was with. My shifts are flying by now, answering many questions, being in fifteen places at once, playing crew lead when my crew lead is away (that usually makes an eight hour day turn into a ten hour day) and somewhere in that mess I need to get my own work done. Last night I was even crew lead for my crew and another crew on a plane that I have had nothing to do with. Work has become very busy.
I also had our yearly winter camp for Scouts. Known as Rovent, it is a camp that takes place in the mountains of Manning Park in the snow. This year, attendance was down a bit, but we still had 430 people there. We also had a lot of very wet snow. Thirty centimeters of the stuff. It made for a rather miserable experience. We also had a few incidences as well. The first and the stupidest was the brain dead 22-year old twit who figured that he would be cool to drive his truck out into the field, through about a meter and a half deep snow. Not only did he get stuck, he nearly ran over a bunch of people, me included. He came very close to having my Mag light go through his window. We gave him a choice, get himself out in about half hour, and he could stay, but if he couldn't, I would pull him out with the five tonne truck and he would be going home. He managed to get out, but we made him park two kilometers away and then made him walk back to camp. The part that bothers me the most was that he could not see what he had done wrong. Not only did he endanger people, but the field is out of bounds for all vehicles; this is a BC Parks rule. It is an old gravel pit, but it is also being reclaimed and that makes it a place of some ecological sensitivity. I still think that he should have been sent home. We also had the the usual dumb kids who think that they can get drunk at camp and get away with it. Nope, busted them. Also had the kids that were firing off bottle rockets. Busted. I was busy. =) I think we had a good time all the same, even though I come home sick from it.
And speaking of snow, three times this past month there has been snow in Abbotsford. The last snowfall was about 25 centimeters on February 28th. I don't remember the last time we had snow that late into the winter.
I just found out the other day that I won't be going back to France any time soon. The boss over there let me know (in a rather "form letter" kind of email) that I won't be needed this summer. Maybe September, but not before then. So, I will have to think things over. I still want to go, but am now thinking about buying a place, get settled in over the summer and see what life will bring me. I also need to start thinking about getting my motorcycle license. That is something that I have wanted for a while, and now I will have the time to get it.
And finally, the biggest bummer of the month, my iPod died. Haven't even had it 10 months, and the battery quit. Probably less than 100 hours of play time too. I am not to happy about it, since I have to send it away to get a new one (they don't change the batteries, they just toss you a new one). I was thinking of getting the extended warranty, but I think I will take the risk and not get it. The local Apple store says that they will be carrying the batteries starting soon since most of the warranties are running out and it will be cheaper for people to just get the battery changed by them. But for now I have a very expensive paper weight sitting on my desk.
