The Weather.....

Exactly a week ago Lauren and I would have been waiting to board the plane to Yellowknife, anxious to reach our destination and to leave the amassing snowfall that had forced itself upon Edmonton. Our touchdown was met by bright, cold and clear skies which have remained all week until now. Today we have an overcast day with snow - not the big gloppy flakes typically found in Ontario - but the smaller, more granular flakes that typifies a dryer, colder climate (I presume)......

Our stay at the Coast Fraser Hotel has been wonderful; warm, quiet and with a great view of the east part of the downtown. Close enough that I've been able to walk to work, though the first morning in doing so nearly sent me into shock as my body certainly hadn't yet adjusted to the cold that literally took my breath away. I had brought enough warm clothes with me, that was not an issue, though the coat I purchased for the coldest of the cold days is in storage somewhere, waiting to be unloaded, and eventually to be worn.

Weather is a funny thing, It's been said that we Canadians talk about it - almost incessantly as it begins and ends many a conversation and meeting. Well, Canadians have a lot of weather to contend with so perhaps it is not an unexpected source of amusement after all and quite frankly, I've amused myself all week about it. Should 'amuse' not be the most correct word, feel free to imagine what other descriptors I may use regarding it.

So what (and how) have I amused myself this week regarding weather?

I've not encountered an area of Canada where people don't surprise me regarding their choice of clothes for the season (sorry for the double negative). However, here, given the extremes of temperature, I would have expected more consistency in terms of encouraging survival and minimizing frostbite, but this is not to be. Even taking into account the reality that people may not have the resources to dress themselves well, I'm thinking this is probably not the case for the extremists I have observed. And, yes I am being mindful of situational factors such as the shuttle bus that plowed its way through snow to the airport with a group of passengers dressed in sandals and the lightest of garb numbed to the effects of their current reality (ie a state of denial) as they anticipate warmer climates henceforth. And I guess lastly, I'm not referring to the children who, bless their hearts, don't seem to feel the weather extremes until they hit puberty....or later.

Okay, so how do I dress for the cold? Fully and completely. Most of you will know that I tend to run a little on the cool side - I'm happiest in a 74+ (24C) degree room so you won't find me underdressing. PS - for those of you wondering why in the world I would willingly choose to move to a cooler environment, the official answer is that for me 'cold is cold' and no matter where I live I will typically experience feeling cold, so it is, in reality, a non-issue.

So here I am bundled up - hat (though begrudgingly as I'm not a hat fan), hood, count em - 2 scarves, one for neck and one for covering most of my face, full, knee length coat and merino wool socks, leggings and sleeved shirt underneath my regular 'warm' clothes. My eyes are literally the only thing visible (Muriel and Christine H, you will get a kick out of this) - they too were starting to freeze on one of my walks....time to get the goggles out (lol)....

The other day in Shoppers Drug Mart, not one, but two women were bare legged with the skimpiest of shoes (again, did not appear to be an issue of resources). Most people do not wear scarves, or even hats and certainly not coats that pass their bums. Many do dress appropriately, and yes Canada Goose thrives up here as does North Face products, but for the most part I wouldn't be able to tell I was living in a very northern community if all I had to work with were my observations of the typical attire of the community in general.

By the by, saw my first seal skin coat the other day on a man..........it's a tough thing to accept (and as Lauren commented, it was really ugly too).

There's very little snow here and the sidewalks are kept clean. I've seen some huge ice patches on the streets and wonder if they will ever be cleared away, suspecting that they will be larger and even more hazardous to drivers as time goes on. You can tell the streets are icy and the city provides a sand / small gravel mix to ensure some grip. The good news is that I'm not walking through piles of snow, nor bringing it into the buildings or wearing salt on my clothes....this may change over the next few weeks....(I'm sure I'll have reason to speak more about this in the future :)

Absolutely, everything is covered with frost and while we've all seen this spectacle, something about it seems different. I suppose part of it is that it stays - there is no melt - no 'in between' or transition from one weather system to another. All vehicles that sit outside are covered with this layer of frost and even the ground has this crystalline structure that grows upward. Every aspect of a tree, plant or bush is covered with this frost and it is a spectacular sight.

Yesterday, the Director commented to me that I had arrived at a difficult time of year, particularly with the 'cold snap' that had come into the region. Hmmm......so this isn't typical for November? Apparently, this is much too cold for this time of year and more representative of January......whew.......I was a little concerned that it was going to get much worse and I couldn't imagine what 'worse' was going to feel like.... However, all in all the week has been cold, clear and definitely sunny with little wind, and for these two Ontario transplants, this has been a reasonably good 'weather' week.

PS (but still too cold to be out taking pictures....sorry......)

The trip.....

Overview: one of the early ideas was to drive to Yellowknife so that we could have use of a car there. It’s an older car and wouldn’t net any great resale value here, but I had confidence it could take us west and north. 5000 kilometers is a very long drive and at the time of conception the idea was also based on us being able to take a lot of our possessions with us. I knew the earlier we could leave the better but thought we’d likely still be okay as long as we left by mid-November.

Things take time and it wasn’t until the 31^st of October that I received and was able to sign the acceptance of employment. This allowed the travel arrangements to be made; two moving companies provided quotes and one was selected. On the first, I spoke to one of the moving companies and in that discussion he provided a name of a property management company in Yellowknife that had a good reputation. The relocation coordinator had encouraged me to find a place quickly as there were often shortages for good accommodations so I was happy to have a local recommendation as I wasn’t confident in finding a place sight unseen. Darcy, who was awarded the move had agreed to pack me up on the 9^th of November. My last day of work was the 8^th and as Danielle’s birthday was the following day – my move day – and she was going to be in Ottawa for basketball, we had her birthday dinner the night before and said our good-bye’s. Our intentions were that we would leave on Sunday and arrive in Yellowknife by Friday or Saturday the (16^th/17^th).

So, it had been a busy fall and while I had spent time moving possessions around from garage to storage and apartment to storage, I still hadn’t been able to finish off the sorting process of the apartment, hopeful that I would be able to on the day of the move. It was Lauren’s last day of work and we’d gotten up at 5:30 in order to grab the things we would need for the next two weeks, which would go into the car. The three movers arrived around 9:30 armed with boxes and paper and the next six hours were organized mayhem.  Lauren arrived home from work via Rochelle and we said our good-bye’s to her as well. We finished off the apartment by 8pm and the items going with us were in the car along with a variety of other items that had been left in the apartment.  Lauren and I drove away from Barrie, sadly realizing it would be a very long time before we saw it again.

We stopped into my mom’s place in Elmvale before arriving at (sister & brother-in law) Marlene and Paul’s home north of Elmvale and stayed the night, waking to a morning that held a bitter cold wind and intermittent precipitation. My intention was to go as far as Sudbury and to resort and repack all of the cars possessions before heading out bright and early Monday morning.  So far everything was on track.

Awoke to a significant amount of snow in Sudbury Monday morning and proceeded to pack the car following the previous day’s 'sort and reorganize'. Most everything was still going with us, the only thing left behind was the laundry basket. We left a little later than we wanted to but the roads were clear between Sudbury and the Sault and the drive was consistent. As we wandered the Sault’s downtown for a place to eat the snow picked up which we fortunately left behind an hour out of town.  We stopped in Wawa around 5:30 for a coffee, it was days end for the only other drivers on the road and by the time we resumed our drive there were fewer other cars heading into the dark of the northern road.  

The car started feeling different, almost like hydro-planing, before I realized that what had been dry pavement a few moments ago had now turned to grease and I was having trouble navigating the road. I crept along the highway, hoping that we would reach Marathon even though I’d planned on going further that night. Eventually we arrived and checked into the last room at the Airport Inn, bringing in our most essential items along with the two plants I wanted to bring to our new home. It was cold in Marathon, I was a bit shaken up and suddenly I knew that winter was upon us.

When we came to repack the car the following morning, we both saw a hose had become disconnected and was lying on the ground by the rear back tire. There were two mechanic shops in town – Canadian Tire and Napa – we went to the CT – car couldn’t be looked at until 10am – mechanic said everyone was busy in town with snow tires etc. We went to Napa and someone there diagnosed it as the air overflow that would normally be connected to the gas tank – they did a make shift fix and we were finally on our way.

The drive around the lake was beautiful. Dryden was smelly as was Kenora, I believe, but our focus was on reaching Winnipeg which we did, a very lovely Comfort Inn right off Circle Drive – an easy on and off the highway that gave the best complimentary breakfast along the way.  Tuesday was a good day.

Our goal for Wednesday was to reach Lloydminster. It was an ambitious drive but with enough time and good conditions it was manageable. Lauren’s dad was driving in from camp and we would have dinner and stay the night. Driving the TransCanada is a unique event, we were on the Yellowhead (Hwy16) north of Portage de Prairie was a 2 lane highway but we were able to make good time. The skies are big and the sunsets are beautiful on the prairies. As we got closer to the Battlefords we noticed how the area / roads were filled with ‘workers’ – not the correct definition or description – but the way it became quite apparent that there was a lot of action, a lot of movement of goods as well as the men that were a part of it all. We made one last pit stop before making our end run to Lloydminster, we were just outside North Battleford and had been back to divided 4 lane highways since leaving Saskatoon, when the car starting losing its grip on the road. We stopped the car and checked the road – it didn’t seem possible – we had hit some light rain an hour earlier but it wasn’t apparent any longer. We resumed and the roads became more difficult to manage and we had to turn back, Lauren very disappointed in being unable to meet up with her Dad.

We ate late – it was a terrible meal at Smitty’s and we found a room at the Super 8 – a haven for all the boys with their trucks. We went to bed shortly after and I awoke at 3am anxious and concerned and feeling very unsettled about the remaining drive; I was no longer confident in making the drive, at the very least I would have to get new snow tires as these ones were obviously poor. Should I even attempt the drive? Lauren was in touch with her dad and he said that his travel back to camp was quite bad, the roads had iced over and he didn’t think he would be able to come back out that night so we decided to move on and get as far as Edmonton and make some decisions then about the rest of the trip, though I knew I wasn’t going to be able to drive north – I’d lost all desire, confidence and umph to do so. But to fly…..I don’t know…..? I’ve been known to have anxiety attacks just thinking about flying so this wasn’t a very comforting thought either…..

A hard decision was made – leave the car in Edmonton and fly to Yellowknife. It would mean that we’d have to definitely leave some stuff behind, and/or pay additional pieces of luggage.  Got a hotel in Leduc, very close to the airport and deliberated how to get rid of the car. Put an ad in Kijiji and got a few responses; the first one was ready to come over and pick up the car, until he realized it was an out of province vehicle – he then explained that cars not registered in Alberta had to be inspected etc which would now cost him more – that I should explain this on the kijiji ad. This was confirmed by the next caller as well. I adjusted the ad and even got some response at 2:30am though no more response until noon on Friday. Originally we were trying to leave on Friday but knew that we’d not had enough time to deal with the car, thus we decided to stay another day. I'd obviously forgotten that the provinces were different in terms of putting a car on the road with a new owner....

It just so happened that I needed to make a call to the moving company to determine what day he expected my stuff to be into Yellowknife. During the conversation it came up that I was trying to dispose of my car before heading north via plane. He, offhandedly suggested that I could park it at the Park n Fly and he would be able to pick it up in a couple of weeks time. I was ecstatic as we were not liking the idea of not having a car in Yellowknife. He also commented on the fact that Alberta took great care of their roads but that I would have certainly noticed the difference crossing the border into NWT. Lauren and I went to find where we were going to park the car the next day before flying out at 10am. 

This now changed things in terms of not having to get rid of any of our belongings and / or potentially bringing additional luggage at a cost. However, I had picked up smaller pieces of luggage in Barrie so that we could fit them better into the car. Now they were going to be useless to us as we needed larger suitcases. We went to see what we could find and begin the process, once again, of sorting and repacking and determining what stayed behind in the car to be delivered another day.

Friday the 15^th. It snowed quite a lot in Leduc and we drive slowly to the Park n Fly where a shuttle picked us up to take us to the airport. The Park n Fly is filled with pickup trucks, evidence I think as to how many people fly out for jobs to remote camps. One of the bags is over its required weight so we have to move things around so that we don’t have to pay. We’d picked up a couple of cheap duffle bags at Walmart which handled a lot of our clothes so we were able to keep it to 2 pieces each. Edmonton turned out to be a lovely airport – very modern and aesthetic. We boarded but the plane didn’t leave for another hour, the snow had held some up and the planes were also being de-iced before leaving.  Because of the snow we couldn’t see the ground until an hour into the trip and then the remoteness and isolation of the area became crystal clear. I was so glad to be on the plane…..in light of two disagreeable events I had become ‘cured’ of this longstanding flying anxiety and had not a flutter of panic arise.  We landed into Yellowknife, a bright and sunny city that in mind bears a lot of resemblance to Sudbury, just on a smaller version of it.  We are staying in a housekeeping suite downtown YK and after dropping off our packed walked downtown to pick up a few groceries – nothing too out of sync with what we would have paid in Barrie.  Today is a do nothing day……..well, other than this blog that is…….

These are the basic chronicles of the events bringing me to Yellowknife. Future blogs will revolve around further observations about our travels and the sights and feelings associated with the travel. Until then……keep well.

The 'Before'.......

Background:  Mid-August and Rochelle is thinking about moving to the NWT for employment in Social Work - she is looking for a better paying opportunity than what she currently has in Ontario. As she applies to a job in Hay River, she sends me a link to a job she thinks I might like, and when I see it I am immediately struck by how good a ‘fit’ it is for me as it is the culmination of all the work I have done for the past 15 years in the Employment Industry. Plus, it moves me into an area of further growth and development and it pays twice what I make right now. The catch? Well, it is also in the Northwest Territories, which, for all intent and purposes is a million miles away from home in Barrie.
 
But I am intrigued and I start researching Yellowknife where this job is located. I find that there are some very good opportunities and the town (city) appears to be very progressive, has a fairly young population and most of the amenities one could want are there (or, at the very least what’s not there one could live without). I apply for the job close to the end of August after putting hours into the application documents…..and I wait.

While Rochelle and I wait for some response to these applications and start thinking about what we would do if we both got jobs there; what would happen if one of us did and ultimately what would change if neither of us got these jobs. I was really getting into the idea of going wherever I needed to go in order to have career growth and a better paying opportunity. I began to look at other jobs the government posted as I knew how much of a long shot it would be for me to get the first job I applied to; that even though it was a very specialized job to which very few would be so uniquely qualified, it was still a matter of selection; that the GNWT would adhere to the Affirmative Action process to ensure priority consideration was given to Indigenous and non-Indigenous and other equity groups.

Lauren, who had completed her Business degree in April was also involved in the process of seeking employment – Toronto and GTA – corporate – but was having limited response. As I continued to get excited and focused on moving to the land of opportunity (my perception), I wondered if the rest of the family could also see themselves moving there. Danielle had just finished her Massage Therapy Program in school and would complete the registration exam and practical later in the year. Caitlyn was in school and wouldn’t be done for a couple of years. It would be a long shot for them to pick up and leave. I mentioned it offhand one day to Lauren, which for everyone who knows Lauren, would be the ultimate long shot as the worlds of Corporate Toronto and unknown Yellowknife were miles apart.

Lauren decided to broaden her search to include Yellowknife. Rochelle was interviewed for the Social Work job in Hay River. A job that Lauren originally considered applying to was decided against and as I reviewed it I realized that while it had not been the path I’d followed in recent years, there was enough overlap of responsibilities and qualifications that I knew I could fulfill the responsibilities. The job was called Information Coordinator for the Petroleum Products Division of the Department of Public Works and Services and I applied on the closing date.
 
Approximately 10 days later I got a call to set up an interview. I prepared as much as I could in the less than 48 hours between notice and phone call. It was with the Director and HR and typical to all interviews you prepare but still get caught with unexpected questions. The practical part that followed had some peculiarities and I’m not sure how well I did. I was told I would hear one way or another by Friday of the following week. By Wednesday my references hadn’t been called and when I arrived home a message from HR was left, asking me to call back. I didn’t reach her directly so left a message thanking her for the interview opportunity, that I presumed it wasn’t moving forward. Well, I was wrong and reference calls were made the following week and was presented with a verbal offer on the 17^th of October which could not be formalized until the Governments’ Affirmative Action process was completed a week later.

Rochelle’s interview had not resulted in a job offer. Lauren’s prospects had not improved and Danielle had returned to school to enhance some entrepreneurial skills. At this point both Lauren and I were ready to leave our current jobs and relocate to what we fervently hoped were the opportunities we were looking for. Rochelle was game to go but also undecided for a variety of reasons. On October 17^th, I gave my notice and started to dismantle my Ontario life.