Away

So I saw the Sun yesterday, high in the sky above Iqaluit. We’re south, in Ottawa, which is why I get to see it before the first week of February. This marks the first time in a number of years that I’ll not be in Arctic Bay for the return of the Sun, and it seems just a touch disorientating. But I’ll survive. 

Our trip down was punctuated by a four hour delay, strangely caused by weather down south. Delays and disrupted travel plans are the norm in the north. Travel rarely happens quickly without quirks. Limited schedules and routes and the sheer logistics of trying to link some 25 far flung communities, plus communities outside the territories makes for challenges.  For example, immediately after we return from this work trip/holiday I depart for Cambridge Bay for four days of meetings and training.

Getting there requires two nights in Iqaluit, followed by a charter to Cambridge Bay. It’s the return trip that will drive me to distraction. We leave Cambridge Bay heading in the direction of Arctic Bay, but once we hit a couple of communities we turn around and head in the opposite direction to Yellowknife where I overnight. The following day we head back across and overnight in Iqaluit, and then I get home the next day. Some 12 hours in planes, not counting the time spent in airports. We’ll hit seven communities and traverse the breadth of Nunavut.

But that’s another trip.  We’re warmly ensconced in our hotel in Ottawa, and in few days head to Manitoba to see my parents. I plan on adding a bird or two that doesn't have the scientific name Corvus corax. Although the very first bird I say today was a black corvid, a Crow. 

Last night turned strange as we settled in to the city. First of all the payment information for the hotel was screwed up (I'm on a work trip for the first half of this little jaunt), and the bank account took a hit that hopefully will be resolved in the next day or two.  Then my introduction to city night life as I walked the block to a convenience store behind a group of young men openly smoking a joint. Did I want a hit? Ah no, thanks anyway.

But the strangest turn of the evening happened when we got on Face Time with the kids and received some news of home. Bolt had puppies yesterday, some time after we left. We didn't believe them at first but no, there were pictures of the three surviving puppies, as they got some warm blankets put in the dog house. How did this happen? Doesn't nature now its -30 out up there?

Other than that its been a day on our feet in shopping malls and the like. There was the usual mass disconnect with being inside a large grocery store in a modern city. Seriously, how do you deal with all that selection?