Well its been a long time since i blogged, done a lot and not really had that much time to settle down and right one. So, back by popular demand, (Joy commenting on how i havent written a blog in a while) GRAEME'S BLOG!!!
May: May 1st was my first day working at camp. Hired as spring maintanence for a 9 week term there was nothing that that Mike (Harbin) or I could not fix... without making a mistake.
Between the two of us we...
- broke the key to the tactor
- broke the blades of the tractor
- ran over a hose with the tractor
- ran over a tree with the tractor
- ran into the swings with the tractor
- and that was just with the tractor you can see how our spring went
luckily for us Bill and Marty were there too save the day and get the job done properly while we went off and broke whatever was next. As fun as it was working (sometimes not so much as others) my favourite memories are at the Matterman's table with Marty and Raylene's redheaded firstborn William Martin Xavier Matterman. Not a meal would go by without that kid making us laugh, whether it be him learning new words or his after dinner routine! Those of you who know him know what i am talking about.
June: pretty much the same exept that as we got closer and closer to camp more and more faces showed up increasing the fun exponentially. I learned how to canoe in the couple of weeks before camp started wich ended up being a blessing and a curse.
July and August: Summer Maintanence had arrived so I became a councellor and assumed the name Superman. Summer started off on a bad note with myself and five other councellors going across the lake and steeling the Jewish Flag. I Co-lead the canoeing option which at times was quite frustrating and other times my favourite moments at camp. we had 4 kids camps wich went quite well as far as i'm conserned, and teen camp. teen camp was pretty good exept for a problem the last morning with the kids and a resurgence of the Jew flag problem which we almost got fired for. Not my proudest moment. Imediatly after teen camp myself and 4 other staff members along with the officer from Drumheller were flown up to whitehorse, Yukon as the only urban team this year to do a camp up at Braeburn Lake. Braeburn Lake is 20 degrees below absolute zero and quite possibly the coldest lake i've ever been to. I returned to camp for one last camp. Moms and Kids. I was in the kitchen that week. that was interesting. Nothing spectacular happened there. had some really fun nights that last week though. wish i could have held on to them a little longer. But unfortunatly all great things must come to an end and camp was done. I had one day off and then it was the open seas for me and the program director Bungee. camp ended Thursday and we went on a canoe trip on saturday. we were on the water for 4 days and 3 nights with our final night in drumheller. that was a lot of fun but a lot of work. My shoulders were sore but my pecks were huge.
September: first two weeks I took to lay around and be lazy and catch up on an entire summer of comic book reading. during those two weeks i studied the drivers manual and failed the exam three times. Bungee and I had a roadtrip to ontario but it was dependent on me getting my learners. finally we said screw it, i would write one more time and then head off either way. got it the monday morning and within the half hour we were on the road. we went to many places in both Canada and the US but the main stays were in Windsor visiting mike and peter harbin, and thunderbay bungee's place of origin. We also stopped in london for a day visiting my uncle and my grandparents.
October and early November: october first was spent in calgary for the last night of our road trip. Then it was finally time to make some more money. I work for a temp agency who got me random jobs for 3 weeks and then a 4 week position working for Northlands (rexall and the agricom) doing set up and take down at nights for the CFR. That was a lot of fun but was quite tiring from lugging all that steel for 8 hours a night. After four weeks the rodeo and job were finished, leaving me unemployed.
Late November Early December: proof that God is watching over me, the week the job is done I get an offer to go down to calgary and play everyday for the kettles. I'm thinking sweet 3 weeks away from my parents, and i only half to work a couple hours a week. I'm staying with some great friends and so far everone has been very welcoming and its been a blast.
thats all you need to read right now, but when I return to edmonton for christmas I'll blog a little bit more about calgary, cuz i got some great stories, and hopefully i'll start blogging a little more frequently.
In the mean time, LET'S GO!!!