February's Post :)

Beautiful sunset right outside Nordegg.

Tina with birthday cake (Feb 11)

Tina getting her hair done in Kindersly.

The finished product, pretty pretty huh?

Not much has happened since the last post. Both Tina and I celebrated our birthdays since last post 26 for me and 24 for Tina. We went to Kindersly this weekend, Tina's friend Kristin did her hair up all nice like it will be for the wedding, just to see if Tina would like it I guess. I looked around Kindersly for jobs, I put my resume in at a few places, we'll see what will happen. Anyway I been working quite a bit at work lately, a lot of driving around. On my last shift I was in Fort McMurray, Lloydminister, Lethbridge and Bonnyville, AB. Hopefully I'll find something around home soon. Anyway not much to say really, ride safe and have fun. Check back once and a while and who knows, maybe I will update this once and a while.

Not much to say....But what's new.. :)

A photo that I took on the way to Nordegg one afternoon last week.

The CPRail bridge in Saskatoon.

Not much to say right now. You ever feel like your really lost, that's kind of the way I'm feeling right now, not really any direction at all. I don't know if I should stay in Saskatoon or Saskatchewan in general or continue with my job in Red Deer. It's really slowed down in the oil patch this year and things aren't looking really good right now. Hopefully they will pickup because I have to pay for our wedding coming up and that has me a little stressed out. I really don't know why it's so hard to find a good paying job where you don't have to be travelling all over the place and away from home for long periods at a time. I kind of wish I had gone on to higher education some days, it opens up a lot of options for nicer working conditions. I can't foresee myself affording schooling for a long time now though. Oh well, things will work out I hope. I'm trying to gather enough material for regular post but my heart just hasn't been it it to be honest. I just need to stay motivated and get out of this slump. There now I made this post sound like pretty much every other one on the internet, full of whining and self pity. :) Anyway check back often and hopefully I will have something of value here. Until then ride safe and have fun.

Happy New Year!

Driving into Red Deer in the morning.

Tina out on Fish Lake before Christmas

Just took this a minute ago, looking out my motel window in Hinton, Alberta

Tina and Mom, walking on Fish Lake.

Another morning in Red Deer.

Snow/Ice covered Fish Lake, the weekend before Christmas.

Well I hope everyone has been enjoying my frequent updates. :) I guess I kind of fell behind here, not even a post around Christmas day. Well, now it's a new year and I figured it would be nice to start it off with a fresh post. Above you will find all the photos I've taken since my last post, which is a major reason I haven't wrote anything on here since November, just haven't taken any photos at all hardly. Since November I switched jobs twice, on Dec 13 I quit my job with BJ Services and went to work at Calac Trucking in Saskatoon delivering groceries. My job with Calac really didn't work out too well and resulted in me quiting after only 5 days of work, I won't get into what happened because it isn't appropriate to mention on a public site such as Blogger. I did get hired back at BJ Services and I'm currently almost halfway through my first two week shift. I really miss Tina and I was pretty disappointed that my opportunity in Saskatoon didn't work out better. I was awesome to be home and see her for most of December. I really don't know what's in store for me now, I'm really just plugging away and seeing what happens in the future. I know quite a few people read this in the past and I feel bad not keeping it up as well as I used to. I like to have photos for every post simply because people like looking at pictures and sometimes I don't think what I write is really interesting enough to capture people's attention. We'll have to see, I might throw in a few post that have no photos in the future. I'm currently in Hinton on day two of a standby, we were supposed to have two jobs today, but last night they got booted forward a day, so if the stars and planets are in perfect alignment, we may get to work tomorrow. I really don't mind one day off, but after that it gets pretty boring and I run out of stuff to do. I did bring some movies with me this time to watch on the laptop. I hate watching TV because it's usually just crap for programming, but with the laptop I can surf and watch movies, which makes me happy. I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas, I know that I did, got to spend a lot of time at home and with family, also got some pretty cool stuff for Christmas like a memory foam pillow (very comfy), a new coat, and a satellite radio. We went to a wedding New Years Eve in Porcupine Plain which was fun and then I left for Alberta on the 2ND of January to sign my papers and start working again. Have a Good New Year, I hope 2007 is a good year for everyone. Make sure you ride safe and remember to always have fun, check back for more soon!

So much for regular updates huh?

Why is there a picture of a very ugly tub/shower on my blog? Well some of the places I stay while at work are not always castles, this particular one fell short by more then a bit. It shall remain nameless for the dignity of it's owners, let's just say I didn't have a shower this particular night.

My parents dog Kramer, I took her to Fish Lake (by Nordegg) to go for a walk, it was brrrrr.......very cold and we walked around for a while. Kramer got all iced up and I thought it looked funny, plus she is adorable. :)

Fish Lake on the same day, it's got a really decent sheet of ice over it, the tracks are from snowmobiles.

Kramer all frozen up and ready to head home.

Not much to say, and sadly not much for photo's either. It's very cold today; -30Celcius, and I just got back to my hotel room after spending more time then I would have liked outside, in a semi-frozen state. I've suprisingly been working a fair amount this hitch, which will be good with Christmas coming soon. Anyway, don't get too cold out there, ride safe and please have fun. Check back often and you will be disappointed, but bear with me as I'm doing the best I can. Best wishes.........FLYBYU

Enjoying my time off

Tina and I headed out to Nordegg/Red Deer for my days off and we toured around, here we are just outside Nordegg.

We headed out to Big Horn Dam outside Nordegg to check it out, weather changes fast, the photo above was taken about 15 mins before this one. :)

My parent's dog Kramer, looking all pretty. :)

Tina and I were trying to determine if these horses were wild or not, I'm still not sure, but they really looked nice against the beautiful rock formations in the background.

Tina getting cold while I take a photo. :)

Not much to say this time, just wanted to put some more photos on here. I'm yet again looking for something jobwise that is closer to home. I like my current job but it is such a pain driving out to Alberta and I really miss seeing Tina. Hopefully something will work out for me, I spent most of my time at home handing out resumes, eventually someone will call. Ride safe and have fun, keep looking back for more!

Hard at Work

Coming onto a lease up in Edson, Alberta for a frac.

I just took this the other day while we were down in Pincher Creek, Alberta. We had just finished putting the tire chains on and were waiting for the customer to show up so I whipped out the camera and took a photo of our nitrogen pump. It still was somewhat clean in this photo

Another nice sunrise on the way to work, as you can see the roads were a little icy.

Five big frac pumps all firing up at once in the early morning, still really cold as you can see by the smoke coming out of them. Here we are all rigged into the well and ready to pump, just had to warm those engines up first.

I took this photo one morning after I arrived at the shop, that is the main office in the background and our parking lot in the foreground. I thought the sky looked pretty cool too.

I writing this from the Nordegg Library, they actually have high speed internet that I can hook my computer to. I've been pretty busy working and I'm starting to go out with people that I started with, so we both have equal amounts of experiance, in many ways it is a lot like going out on my own and I like it a lot. I'm getting better at driving the big trucks, I took one through Calgary during rush hour the other day and only stalled it once. :) Oh well, everyone has to learn sometime I guess. It won't be too much longer before I'm back in Saskatoon, Wednesday is coming fast. That is good because I really miss Tina and I want to see her again, I can't wait. It is really hard to get a lot of jobs in the two weeks I'm here though, it is starting to pick up and hopefully I will make some money. Anyway thanks for looking if anyone is, ride safe and have fun!

Hello

Well I really don't have any thing to put on here, I have taken some cool on-the-job photos though, so they will be up on here as soon as I get a chance. Keep checking back for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Tina and I

Tina got her hair permed for her friend's wedding and she also just got a new pair of glasses. This will be her first and she really doesn't have to wear them all the time, but I think they look good on her.

Myself, packing up to head back to Alberta for another two weeks. :(

Just thought I would throw a few photos of us up here before I leave for Alberta. I've done a bunch of thinking lately and the conclusion I've come up with is that I want to start working back here again. I love my job in Alberta but it is really expensive to buy a house or rent out there, also I miss Tina, I would like to be around more then I am now, seems like the six days I have off just fly by. I miss not being able to go riding once and a while and so does my body, as my waistline expands :) So I'm looking for something around Saskatoon, it's hard to find anything that will even come close to what I'm currently making, but hopefully something will work out for me so that I can come back again and stay. Ride safe and have fun, I will post more, keep watching for updates.

It's been a long time

My shadow is alot taller then me. :)

We got my wedding band the other day, so here it is. I decided to get a Titanium band instead of gold, that's why it looks different.

It was August 1st the last time I went for a ride, way too long to be off the bike. Suprisingly I didn't feel to out of shape, even though I know I've put on some weight

Driving into Red Deer one morning I took this photo of a nice sunrise.

A couple of weekends ago we were at Tina's parents place and Tina and I went out to Greenwater park, I took this photo of the golf course with the fall colors.

My new van, I can just wheel the recumbent in there, no need to disassemble it.

I bought this about three weeks ago now, a 2003 Chevrolet Venture van, I traded my sunfire on it.



Well many things have happened since my last post. Yesterday I did my first ride since August 1st, just a small ride, 14kms. I went out to Greenwater park by Tina's parents place because there are some hills out that way, so it would be some good excersise. I hit 58kmph on one hill which is very close to my top speed. It was very cold out, or maybe I'm just not used to it, it was only around -5C but there was a cold wind blowing. I really miss riding the bike, I rode so much when I was working in Saskatoon and since the new job started I haven't had time to ride much at all or see Tina. I decided to get rid of my car recently as well, it was starting to have a few problems that would be expensive to fix. I traded the Pontiac Sunfire on a Chevrolet Venture Van, which is nice because it is alot bigger then the car and much nicer to drive on the highway as well (hello cruise control:) So now I'm able to put the bike in the back without taking anything off it. The van get's very close to the same mileage as my old car got while being considerably more spacious. My friend Julian finally moved over to the dark side and bought a Rans Stratus, so next time when I come home maybe we can go recumbent riding together. Ride safe and have fun, hopefully I can post more often now, it all depends on where I am, I will be making an effort to do that though.

At work again.

The flarestack at night, burning off H2S gas from the well, and hopefully keeping us safe.

The coil tubing injector being positioned over the well head.

At work: that's me on the left, Lloyd, the guy I'm riding with in the middle and another guy I started with; Rick, on the right.

Snowy roads on the way to Nordegg, this was only for about 45kms.

Our trucks on the oil lease, there is the nitrogen bulker truck on the left and our two pumper trucks beside it, with the "little" crew cab truck on the right. I drove the pumper truck second from the left to Blairmore Alberta and then my co-driver drove it here.

My car buried in snow at Mom and Dad's place in Nordegg.

Driving into Coleman, Alberta.

Some hunters looking for deer on the road into the oil lease.

I hoped to show everyone what it's like at work for me with this post. I'm really loving my job now, I'm catching on a bit better. Right now we are in Blairmore, Alberta and I'm writing this in my hotel room right now. We are here for a few days doing a job and it is beautiful here. I can't write too much because we have to head off pretty soon for our night shift, but hopefully the photos help show everyone why I like my new job. I can't really go in to specifics about the job because I wouldn't be allowed to. Ride safe and have fun.

At work

I spent a week in Rainbow Lake, Alberta for my last set of days at work. We flew up on the above airplane and then after a week we flew back on the same plane. I actually like flying, so it was a fun trip for me, Rainbow Lake was a boring place to spend a week though, not much going on there.

Here is a photo I took out of my motel room window. The semi truck is ours, we were just driving back and forth in it to our work site and hooking it up to the trailer there. As you can see there isn't much for scenery at Rainbow Lake, just muskeg and half dead trees.

A lot of small towns have mascots, Rainbow Lake's is a giant mosquito. It's fitting because the mosquitoes are the size of hummingbirds there. :)

In case anyone hasn't heard, Burley has stopped making bikes of any kind. The actually were bought out after almost facing bankruptcy, the new owner wants to only produce trailers which is Burley's biggest seller. I'm not really happy about that, hopefully they will still honor warranty issues. This next time when I head out to Alberta I will be taking my bike with me. Hopefully I will get some riding in when I'm not working. We are at Tina's parent's place now, she is going to be staying here until she is able to go to work I guess. Ride safe and have fun!

Hello I'm still here!

Wild horses in the morning mist by Nordegg, I took this on the way to work one morning.

Another misty morning, I took this today on the way to work.

Tina in the hospital after they put pins in her ankle, she's putting on a brave face because it probably hurt like crazy.

Tina wanted me to put this one here, honest :) A photo of her in the ambulance after she broke her leg.

Tina wading in Shunda Creek shortly before she broke her leg, it started out as a good day.......

Just some quick photos for everyone. Ride safe and have fun.