The True North

Hello everyone,
Well, we're in the middle of another long stretch, 12 hour shifts 7 days a week. Oh well, hopefully it won't last too long and Its nice having Melissa at the store to help. These photo's are from aug 3rd, I haven't had alot of time to get out to do any photography lately. The shack is our water treatment plant (large pump and hose), the other two I just like.
I was able to operate all week without getting worked up about the HO tour this week, I guess the main reason was that I found out on Saturday that my district manager felt compeled to come by on Sunday and assist me through troubled times (anyone who has these types of visits as part of thier job nows just what a relief this is ). He decided to spend a lovely week with me here, actually it wasn't that bad, he's a good worker. The other tour that was supposed to come couldn't land due to a snowstorm, so I lucked out of a double header. Anyways, Its late, I'm tired and I'm heading to the bed. Hopefully I'll be able to post soon, Its just a lack of energy when I get home stopping me, your all in my thoughts.
Take Care
CG

And the Hits keep on coming

Hello Everyone,
Well today was full of new turns and big twists. Melissa started training in the store today, the idea was she could be a emergency back-up for me if I couldn't open the store for some reason, or I had a drastic loss of staff, well guess what happened next....? Dave and Dianne were informed that they would be on the next plane out of town, instead of in 2 weeks as we were planning for. Also I was informed that my only trained office staff member would be sent to Winnipeg to have her baby 3 weeks before she was supposed to, as in now. This leaves me with half a sealift counted, Baby bonus issued tommorrow and no one on cash or in the office and a whole lot of counting to be done, Oh yeah did I mention the HO tour on Monday, no? Thats because I don't want to talk about it. So I'm down 3 office staff, 3 cashiers and 1 grocery manager and one store manager. I wonder what tommorrow will bring? BTW what a great sunset, eh?
Take care
CG

UFO SIGHTING - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT

Hello Everyone,
Its now 8:52 pm central standard time and Melissa and I just got inside. I went out for a smoke about 5 minutes ago and saw a large glowing light in the western sky at approx. 30 degree's above the horizon line. I watched it for about a minute thinking it was a bright airplane but the speed seemed wrong or it was flying real low. Then as it passed to the south you could start to see the firey trail behind it, I yelled for Melissa to get out and see this object. It took her about 45 seconds for her to come out. The object was a bright white with a red aura as if it was passing through the atmosphere and burning up, the tail must have been several miles long. It was yellow, green and red. The intensity of the light never varied through the object or the tail, which I would have expected if it was a meteorite passing through the atmosphere. Its path seemed to be straight rather than degrading. It passed through our whole horizon from 15 degree's to about 120 degree's in about 3.5 minutes. Its speed was hard to judge but it was certainly faster than any plane I've ever seen, I have seen the concord and many fighter jets fly. What we saw was more detailed and intense than any photo's of a comet, or meteorite either of us have ever seen. Both of us have limited history witnessing these events but we did watch the pinacle of "hail bop" and it rated about 10% of what we just witnessed.
Has anyone heard news of a large metorite or any other event that would help us explain what we just saw?
THAT WAS REALLY COOL.
Take Care
CG
And yes, I'm another idiot who was too stupid to tell the wife to get outside WITH A CAMERA

Warning

Hello Everyone,
Please understand this is a spacemaker to block the images in the following post. The following post contains graphic images of the harvesting of a Narwhal. These images are VERY GRAPHIC and display images of northern life, they also may be considered very offensive to some people so be advised and don't come complaining to me if you find this offensive.
Take Care
CG

GRAPHIC!!!! Narwhal Harvest

Hello everyone,
Today we had the pleasure of witnessing the harvest of a Narwhal. Todays catch was cleaned in front of the store so I ran out and got some photo's. Its amazing, even Melissa and chrsitopher came down to watch. By the end there were more white folk watching than locals awaiting the harvest.
Take Care
CG

Sealift and Friday's News

Hello Everyone,
Well today was sealift, and let me tell you all these teachers who get excited about sealift should have to work a entire sealift, not one order, that would take the starch out of their shorts in a hurry. The pictures are before and after. We worked 70,000 lbs of product in 9 hours, and I'm tired so I hope I'm forgiven for mistakes and possibly a rather dim view of the world at this moment. Attached are photo's of before and after sealift.
Ok, now the news we've been promising. I didn't get any official word this week as expected however I'm not one to lure people with promises and then not deliver due to someone else failings. Melissa and I have been very interested from the beginning in being in a more southernly position. We have spoken with many people in some wonderful first nation communities, we have also heard some incredible horror stories from some locations. While living amoung the Inuit we have met alot of very nice people in some very nice locations, While many of these communities are troubled with social problems, our safety and security have never been in question. After lenghty discussions we have decided, at least for the next year we are going to stay amongst the Inuit, and with a 90% certainty we are going to stay specifically in Repulse Bay. This is a wonderful community, that is dealing with its social problems in a positive way. The store, while being small, offers great challenges that focus themselves towards my talents. The daycare and community have welcomed us openly and while we realize there will e challenges and opportunities involved in this "new position", I for one am excited by what I can contribute to this community and this store. My family is equally looking forward to more time in this wonderful place and town. So for the next year "we will remain north of the circle".
Thank-you everyone for your support.
Take Care
CG

Sunday Musings

Hello Everyone,
Well another week has come and gone and sealift if coming ever closer. We expect sealift next Saturday weather permitting. We're also expecting another barge today, this is the fuel barge. It seems the towns fuel supply is running low, we currently only have 1 inch of fuel above the valve left in the fuel farm, so the town has asked the barge company to drop by for a emergency visit. However due to schedualing the barge can only stay here for 2 hours. So for the last couple of days people have been busy running 1 mile of pipe out to the open water beyond the bay in anticipation of a limited offload window. It takes 36 hours to completely fill the tanks. and our regular fuel delivery will not be till early October, So with only 2 hours to offload we are going to be in some very tight straights for the next few weeks. Luckily, I had all the store and vechicles tanks filled last week so hopefully we'll be done for the month. BTW,this also means our fuel prices will be reset for the year, this year basic gasoline was $0.99001 pr liter, so odds are the increase is going to be etween .20 - .30 cents.
Melissa and I expect to have some news by next friday.
Thats all for today, Take Care
CG

Good Morning Nunavut

Hello everyone,
Good Morning, we had a couple of arrivals in the overnight hours. Melissa's new hair arrived, the Co-op ship arrived and the snow arrived and at least stayed to greet us in the morning, we'll see if it going to stay.
About a month ago Tina asked a question I put on the back burner, well we're bringing it to the front burner. The language of Innuktituk. Or more concisely the languages of the Nunavut Inuit. There are seven major dialects of the innunktituk (hereafter refered to as INT) found in Nunavut, as well as several other dialects found in NWT, Yukon and Northern Manitoba. Now, locally they are referred to as dialects but I believe this to be a political action rather than a linguistic choice. There are at least 4 of these dialects that are completely different from the others, that meaning the tones, words, written word and letters (symbolics). They share no common bounds other than geography. From what I understand none of the dialects are interchangeable and the common language used to communicate throughout the territory would default to English and move to INT when specifics are needed and a common language is available. That being said the territorial government is attempting to change the official language of the government to INT, even though its own ministers must speak english to each other to communicate. The problem is that many of the dialects are no longer being used (or taught) so they are very quickly fading from the collective. Since the people of Nunavut have such a long oral tradition this is causing great concern for obvious reasons. And as usual politicians think the answer is simple enough, if they speak it and mandate it then "thy will be done". Now we know something must be done, however we've seen that dual language schools fail up here, the children are leaving with half the skills in both the languages. The Government would like to force private businesses to use all signage in INT, however from what I have heard INT is a very graphic language. For example when they tried to label the hospital in Iqualuit they used a letter by letter translation and the resulting word in INT meant "unwashed and smelly female parts". The other problem is which dialect will be the common one used? Or will all businesses be expected to post all 7 dialects, and who can do the effective translation. We've seen it to be very difficult to get translation services that avoid the mistakes we've discussed. My own company took 3 years to label their stores in INT due to the difficulties in translation.
I think in the back of the government's mind is also all the BS that happened when Quebec demanded language rights. Anyways these are some of the difficulties Nunavut is facing in their upcoming language debates.
Take Care,
CG

Windy

Hello Everyone,
We still don't have alot to write about. The co-op is still awaiting thier sea lift. That was the boat I took pictures in the fog. Due to a problem with the crane they were unable to unload it so it had to go to Churchill for repairs. Its was supposed to arrive Sunday however the weather seems to be interfering with these plans. Its been a very cold and windy week. If you look at the power lines in the photo you'll see what I mean. I watched a seagull fly into the wind for 5 minutes and it was like it was hovering, eventully he gave uo and went the other way, very fast. If the Co-ops ship does arrive we might as well shut down till our arrives for all the business we'll see.
We have a new Kabloona in town, I believe Tammy was watching my blog for awhile to get a idea of the place during the last month and now her family and her have arrived in Repulse, so welcome. Once again I'm outta idea's so any questions welcome. The weather is the only real thing we've been struggling with this week. Its been miserable all week, highs of 4, wind anywhere from 40 to 60 mph, and today we got snow and hail thrown in the mix. Welcome to the arctic.
Take Care,
CG