Cold Rain on a Warm Night
Monday February 12th 2018 - 0015hrs
I should have worn skates to work tonight; it was that sort of evening. I hadn’t bothered looking outside for the better part of the evening; so I was completely unaware of the dirty trick the weather had been playing on everyone.
Sheets of glare ice covered everything, even the trees looked surprised under their fresh coat of dripping translucence. The pre-work workout of scraping ice off the windows so you could actually see out of them is an inherently Canadian thing so far as I’m concerned. After a good 15 minutes of sliding this way and that whilst scrapping the windows were clear enough that I could get on my way. I wanted to make sure I made it to the post tonight with plenty of time. Especially since whomever the new guy on site is decided to leave without having anyone to relieve him last night.
I have to say that was a first; arriving on site to everything as it should be… except no guard anywhere in site. No vehicle either; even the footprints in the snow were quickly filling in, and making a pretty clear indication on just how long it had been that anyone had even been around.
Things have really changed around here in the last week or so… Not for the better either.
In town the roads weren’t all that bad, but getting out towards the locks the roads quickly turned into a rink; the ‘new-guy’ was idling in his truck as I came around the bend before the two access roads; slowing down to talk to him the Aztec I was driving tonight pitched to one side and glided towards a snowbank. “Weeee!”
At least he waiting for me close to the site tonight. I thought as I climbed out of the car; leaving it running while whatever indicator bell rang continuously. Never have figured out what that bell is about.
The new guy struggled to explain in even the simplest terms how his night went; and some of the new important changes on site. They’d taken us off the main grid and were using the diesel generator again… not so bad on a night at 0, but when it drops back down to -30 again, that heater isn’t going to work. That didn’t do anything to raise my spirits.
New-Guy left, and I climbed back into the aztec and attempted to get up the hill. I wasn’t taking the access tonight along the canal, with my luck I’d end up in it with all the ice around! It took me two runs at it but I managed enough traction to get up the hill and decided to leave it at the 1st lot, as opposed to the back gate like I normally would.
The walk down the hill to the site through the trees wasn’t as treacherous as I’d thought it was going to be, the rain hadn’t crusted over here like everywhere else and I was still able to keep good footing with my gear in tow. The evergreens bent low with their iced branches and it almost seemed like a completely different area, but I could still hear the diesel genny rumbling on ahead of me, and the faint glow of the work lights beaming up from the Cave.
Coming into the office trailer tonight I was greeted again with a massive bag of garbage; and masonry tools strung from one end to the other. The table piled high with an assortment of paperwork, some of which could very well have been confidential in nature. Chaos…
After dropping off my gear and signing in with head office I headed out to take a walk around the site and get a lay of the land. I had to laugh thinking back to the last time I wrote one of these…
All I had wanted was a proper winter jacket… wasn’t even wearing that one tonight on account of how warm it was, but still. It was a simple thing… of coarse the next day we were informed that due to how far behind the work crews were; they were cutting all shifts during the week. A week prior they had cut some of the weekend shifts down to 7hrs as opposed to 12’s… that was bad enough, but 20hrs a pay I could handle losing… This… This dropped me down to a laughable 7. What the hell?!
I’m not sure what they did with James, but I’ve also got his Sunday shift so in all I luck out with 14hrs a week here now. I was supposed to get bumped on at the other lock site, but I haven’t heard anything in the last week about that; but the boss did ask if I wanted work in the city… wouldn’t do to commute everyday with the car in the shape its in; but my uncle does live downtown… and if New-Guy is right, and the workers are planning on going full on 24/7 here… it might be time to give my uncle a call.
It’d be a hell of a change… trade in the quiet creepy evenings in the country with my flashlight; (and whatever the hell is in the woods) for a kevlar vest and whatever happens at the Royal Ottawa psych ward on a given day/night.
Or I could apply for that Armed Guard posting to deliver the medical cannabis; think about that for a minute… armed drug trafficking essentially. What a time to be alive…
Well ya gotta do what ya gotta do to pay those bills right… I’ve also got the time I need right now to finally get that PI license.
Let’s see where the story takes us.