Sublimity…

For the past three summers I’ve been really lucky, I’ve had officially “sweet” jobs with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), and as I’m learning, this summer is no exception! Example 1: I spent today doing carpentry (building a crate to hold solar panels during transport) and “playing” with a pallet lifter (like a forklift, without a cab) moving gear around the lab. I’ve dreamed of doing stuff like this ever since I was a kid, and while I contemplated holding out for a true forklift, in the end I decided that the pallet lifter would be alright for now. The thing is so much fun, you feel like superman, pneumatic lifting and electrical drive motor making moving tonnes (literally!) of stuff seem like nothing. Did I mention I worked 9:30 to 3:30 before being told to go home! Mind you this 32ËšC, 80% humidity weather made working outside a little less enjoyable than it should have. When does the next plane leave for Antarctica, right now I’d much prefer -40ËšC than the 40ËšC the humidex reached this afternoon. My big purchase of the week, a new desktop fan bought yesterday, has made the climate in my room a little closer to tolerable, but I’d give a fair bit to be back in good old NS an east-coast summer again! The melodic drone of the fog-horn is much preferable to the ambulence sirens signalling another person being hospitalized from heatstroke…

A weekend of relaxation is in the works, and then it’s back to construction fun. The next challenge, design & prototype a system for protecting a 2.4m diameter, 120kg satellite dish using the least amount of materials possible, and only stuff available at a hardware store in Yellowknife. Not exactly typical work for a recently graduated engineer, but it certainly is engineering. Plus more playing with the pallet lifter. As for the weather, I just keep thinking… June 20th, June 20th, June 20th. Northern Quebec (La Grande Power Project area) at 54ËšN should do something to help with this damn sauna-sickness I’m getting here in Ottawa, assuming I have any blood left…

Anyway, life is good, and ‘work’ is awesome. So next time you gripe about paying too much taxes, just remember this: “Thank you so much for sponsoring my fabulous summers! Your tax dollars are hard at ‘work’.”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 10th, 2005 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.