Eight weeks and a fork in the road

It was a year ago now that my life came undone. Fifty-four weeks give or take, since I was told “not to come back”. There were of course conditions attached to my coming back, and therein lies the rub. I chose not to meet them and by that definition I bear all the responsibility for ending my marriage. So be it.

I’m not here to discuss or debate this issue, sway your opinion, or garner any sympathy. I mention this simply to put a frame on the blankness of the last eight weeks here. I think I’m ready to move on again.

This year started off with the laughter of my children in my apartment. Yeah, my brother and I moved into our own place at the start of December. I got back from Russia to find that my dad and brother had moved most of my gear already. The apartment itself was and still is pretty bare. I spent the rest of December getting the place ready so my kids could come and stay with me over the holidays.

All in all we had a good time. There was a lot of wrapping paper on my floor on Christmas morning. My sister came out from Toronto for a few days around Christmas. I took the kids sledding. We went to the beach around New Years. There are pictures of the kiddos I still haven’t downloaded off my camera or uploaded to my Flickr account. I know that when I get around to posting them, it will jog my memory and I’ll be able to fill in some more of the highlights from the aforementioned blank Eight Weeks.

Some of the blankness also comes of my having been continually sick since I got back from Russia. I had a cough that just wouldn’t go away. It followed me to Fernie, BC where I had to do some training presentations at a mine. You haven’t lived until you’ve hacked your way through a power point presentation in front of 80 or so grizzled heavy equipment operators.

I also flew to Williams Lake in January to meet with the managers of the mine that will be my next project. I didn’t get to take too many pictures on that visit, but when I go back in March, I’ll be sure to have my camera ready. Williams Lake is right in the middle of the Cariboo-Chilcotin region of BC, which is in my humble opinion, some of the prettiest country you will see in the entire province.

Right now I’m back in Logan Lake, visiting Highland Valley Copper again. I couldn’t drive the Coquihalla Highway to get up here due to an avalanche a week ago that first closed off the highway and “extreme avalanche hazard” which has kept the highway closed since. The snow stopped yesterday and the good weather the highways department was waiting arrived this morning. If the weather holds, they’ll have the avalanche slopes dynamited and the highway cleared by the weekend.