Fall in Fort McMurray

The view out of the windows at the gym was absolutely stunning this morning. The foliage in fall in Fort McMurray is truly beautiful. I do love the fall, but I wished it lasted just a little longer before northern Alberta turns to ice. It's perfect fleece weather, but that won't last long.

Some People Drink On The Weekends...

The day starts before the gym opens. I eat a large breakfast and mentally prep myself for my workout. The gym is typically very empty as there are only a few individuals in town as dedicated (crazy?) as me. I plug in my headphones and go about my workout in a businesslike manner.

For me, exercising is sweaty noisy moving meditation. I forget about the outside world entirely and my whole being becomes focused on movement. All my parts move in unison to attain the goal. At the end of the weight workout, I can feel everything much more keenly and my brain is on high alert. It's an amazing feeling and it is definitely addicting.

Some people drink on the weekends. I lift. Time spent with the iron is always productive.

50/50 Movie Review

On my singleton weekend, I dragged myself out of my hermit cave to see 50/50.

50/50 is one of the best films of the year and may end up being my favourite film of 2011. This film is centred on one young man's tragic battle with cancer, but at times the film is almost hysterically funny. Part of the joy of watching this movie is feeling the emotional rollercoaster as the film reaches peaks of hilarity only to come crashing down into scenes of visceral pain and anguish. All of the actors are outstanding and the scripting is incredibly strong. GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!! It deserves recognition!

Good night, world. I gotta get up early to hit the gym and study. My life is glamourous. You know that you're jealous. :)

An Embarrassing Moment...

I was halfway to work today when I noticed that the low gas light was lit. My stomach flipped over as I realized that I may run out of gas on the way home. The wait to get my vehicle moving after work was excruciating.

At 4:25, I headed out and started the car. I had less than one-eighth of a tank to get through the 35 kilometers of ludicrous traffic to get to a gas station. As I watched the gauge, the needle got closer and closer to empty. My anxiety level was rising as fast as the needle on the gauge was dropping.

As I approached town, forward momentum slowed and then stopped. My car was slowly creeping towards Confed as the needle was burying itself into empty. It seemed to take an eternity to travel the last little bit of roadway until I could turn off and speed to the gas station. I arrived at the gas station on the final fumes and managed to fill my hungry gas tank.

The moral of the story is: Check your fuel level before heading up to site on 63. :)

Oilsand Blues

Before someone gets all uppity, I recognize the need for oilsand extraction. After all, I do work in the industry. However, it always makes me a little sad to get to the point north of town where the trees have disappeared and the plant looms across the old tailings pond. I'm no hippie environmentalist, but it's sad to lose the natural landscape.

Wanna see what I'm talking about? Fire up Google Maps. Find Fort McMurray, Alberta. Follow the highway heading north of town. 30 km north, you'll start seeing the oilsands operations. Not exactly the original muskeg ecosystem...

I'm a blogger! Unpossible!

So it's come to this... I guess I'm a blogger now. My brain tends towards hyperactivity and the only thing that'll settle it down is getting the random thoughts out.

What is this blog for? Who knows? I'm just going to unleash my stream of consciousness and see what shows up on screen.

Background information for you. Experienced hired thug (doorman) drags ass back into school, graduates, and gets a job in the oilsands. Marries his longtime gf and breaks up with her one year later (we're amicable and we still chat about stuff).

I'd been separated for a few months and re-entered the dating world a few months after that. Being that I am a bit of an introvert, I joined an online dating site. The first woman I met was smart, beautiful, and charming. She worked up here most of the time and had a house in another city for when she had time off. We shared many interests and got along really well in all of the most important ways. What she failed to share with me was the fact that her personal life was royally screwed up. I will not put details up here in order to protect the guilty (and the innocent), but our happy whatever-the-heck-it-was came crashing down suddenly one evening and she moved back to her home town the next day. I hope she is settling into her life and is making the right decisions to put her life in order, but I am not in contact with her.

I met a couple more women on that site until I met K. We chatted online and talked on the phone for a few weeks and we really hit it off. I was not looking for a distance thing, but we had a real rapport. Although we lived in separate towns, we decided that we had to meet in real life. Everything went really well and we've seen each other every weekend since then.

I realize that life will intrude and there are weekends where we will be unable to meet up. This weekend is the first of those singleton weekends for us. I'm interested to see how it plays out for me. I'm used to being around K on the weekends. She brightens the world up and puts a big smile on my face. I expect I won't be so smiley this weekend. I'll keep you posted...