Paul Alton MBA

I took an extra day off before the July 1^st long weekend and we left from the bus stop on Thursday night. Back at home we rushed into the house bringing only half a dozen of the mosquitoes inside with us. By the time we had hunted them down with the Dyson vacuum and the electric swatter the woodstove had taken the chill off and we went to bed.

On Friday we got up early and with skillful use of chainsaw and dually and Juanita’s outstanding spotter skills we managed to get the large poplar that was leaning over the woodshed to the ground safely with no damage to the shed or the nicer of the adjacent spruce trees. I cut it up into pieces and got them off the driveway. Juanita headed to town and I headed over to Ernie and Debbie’s and helped a bit with prepping trusses with hangers (that painful black mark under my thumb nail will grow out eventually) and handing them to Ernie until we got rained out. Then I went to town and ran some errands, visited with Debbie at the store where she works for a bit and came home and did inside tasks. Ernie carried on between rain showers and got the rest of the trusses up.

Saturday was Canada Day. Ernie took the kids to the celebrations in town in the afternoon. I worked at removing the stump from the poplar tree. Sunday we went to church and relaxed mostly although there may have been a tank of chainsaw gas used in the late afternoon to take down and cut up some leaners near the grid road. The RM mower usually does a single wide pass once a season and I like to have the trees out of the way to make that possible. Also, usually I flag down the mower that does the highway margins each August and pay for them to do a double wide pass on our eighth mile frontage. Probably will still be in Edmonton when they are working this year so the grass will be tall and the poplars and willow sprouts will get a year's reprieve before they are trimmed back.

Saturday night I took Sonja, Sasha and Kohen to Despicable Me 3. Fun. Don’t over think things.

Hyper early on Sunday, Debbie and Kohen left for a trip with friends to BC. Sasha headed up to Bethel Camp to work there. Ernie and Sonja managed to finish the trusses on the porch and attach the 2x6 fascia. Monday, I came and helped Ernie with putting plywood on the trusses and then Juanita and I headed to Edmonton around noon. We got there early enough to head downtown to Pampa, a Brazilian style steak house. I received a gift card for there for Father’s Day. They have a huge salad bar and servers bring an ongoing selection of grilled meats to your tableside and cut off as much as you want. You have a little disc that is red on one side and green on the other. You turn up the side you are feeling at the momemnt. The green side is their signal to keep the selections coming. The red side signals “I’m taking a rest right now”. Sort of a get out of pestering free card. I ate too much. Juanita was her usual more responsible self. Probably why it was not a Mother’s Day gift. 😊.

Each day the alarm goes off at 4:15. I get up at once and do not hit the snooze button except for the one day I hit it once.

 I go into the kitchen and turn on the coffeemaker and get the omelet and my bag lunch out of the fridge. I put the omelet into the microwave and set the timer for a minute except for the day I put my bag lunch in the microwave. Somehow it seemed there was much too much stuff in the microwave and I paused before closing the door and setting the time. Only took a few seconds to realize what was wrong and replace the bag lunch with the omelet.

My bag lunch goes into the insulated lunch bag which I set in front of the front door so I don’t forget my lunch. Then it is time for morning bathroom routine, vitamins and psyllium husk and so on. By the time I get back to the kitchen the coffee is ready and I pour a cup and turn off the coffeemaker so the coffee cools and is still worth drinking when Juanita gets up hours later and reheats it in the microwave. After breakfast I brush my teeth and get dressed and between 5:10 and 5:15 I start walking for Tim Horton’s around the corner and line up with the other refinery construction workers for the 5:29 bus.

This is the last pick-up point in the morning. The driver turns out the interior lights and yells, “seat belts, please!” and in two blocks turns onto the Whitemud freeway. There is wi-fi on the bus. I surf. Many people put their seats in max recline and doze off almost right away. At night, the buses line up for loading at quarter to five. When they roll through the refinery gate at five many people are already fast asleep. I have tried sleeping but not succeeded so I surf. I don’t know why, maybe not sleep deprived enough. It is not out of a sense of embarrassment. If all those strangers don’t mind snoring and drooling and leaning on strangers as they sleep, why would I?