Red Handed at Red Mountain

This picture is evidence that I had a great day. No, it's not some foreign tropical skin disease that I picked up from my secret foreign lover Eguardo. It's the sign that huckleberries are in season and absolutely delicious! This morning my dad and I did the trek up to the top of Red Mountain. Next to Old Glory, this is one of the hikes that I've been wanting to do since I found out that there was a trail up to the top. In case anyone doesn't know, Red Mountain the local ski hill which is located in Rossland and during the summer they really focus on bringing in people for hiking and biking the trails. When I was younger we always got season passes for skiing up there but never really took advantage of what they had to offer in the summer. Today I finally got the chance to walk to the top of Red!



The hike was called Red Top and was only a blue square. That means that it's pretty easy-intermediate hike for most of the way up. And yeah, it was a nice leisurely hike up the mountain. As always when hiking up in Rossland, the views were beautiful, the trails were well maintained and the air smelled amazing. But this trail had the bonus of huckleberries! Huckleberries are a delicious berry which grows mainly in alpine areas and is related to the blueberry. We grew up picking and eating this marvelous fruit so our family basically holds them in as high regard as others may view gold. Why are they as precious as gold you ask? It's because you usually have to drive or walk up huge mountains to find them, and if you do find any, chances are that there aren't very many or they haven't ripened yet, or the bears got to them already and you're SOL. The walk took us about 30 minutes longer than normal because we kept stopping to pick and munch out on berries. Some plants were just hanging over with the weight of fruit on the branches. It's just way too hard to pass by a plant that looks like that.




But the day was absolutely gorgeous and sunny (and it's supposed to stay this way for a while!) and the hike had some long-lost cabins situated overlooking the view. When we reached the top and took a look around the area, we decided to take a different trail back down which was pretty much down the face of the mountain. In hindsight...not a great idea. The trail was incredibly steep and the dirt was loose and gravely in some areas which made our footing slip well more than once or twice. We were thankful to reach the bottom. I don't think that my hamstrings would have lasted much longer.





Tip of the Day: The huckleberry is the state fruit of Idaho.

A Series of Unfortunate Events.....

Sometimes it takes a few unfortunate events to create opportunity for more pleasant events. Take the past 24-48 hours for example. Two days ago my parents were supposed to go to the lake for 4 days. My mom asked me to take care of Riz and Peanut while they were away which in turn meant that we would have to stay at their house. This was both a good and bad thing. It was good because it meant that I would get to sleep in my basement dungeon room which admits very little light, therefore creating a blackness paradise which is perfect for sleeping in. I would also have full access to the treadmill which is always a good thing, and there's lots of great place to walk. Staying at the folks house was also a bad thing because it meant no internet (how can one survive??), smaller bed and you can't walk to town in less than 10 minutes (like here at Pam's house). But these are minor problems and really no big deal at all.

Since I was working night shift and Chris has been working lots with Jer lately, that meant that no one was around to watch Riz for the first night...so Pam volunteered to take her for one night. This was fortunate. But then some unfortunate events took place which included traffic jams and the flaring up of my mom's bad knee which lead to my parent's calling off their trip to the lake. That sucked. But then I guess Pam went down to the parent's house the next morning to walk the dogs with my dad when she turned her ankle in a camouflaged hole and tore a ligament (or something like that) in her ankle. Poor Pam.

This lead to two very fortunate events for me! I don't want to sound like a selfish jerk for saying this, but since Pam is now all gimpy for a while, that means that we get to take care of Splash for a while. YAY! In turn of having Splash here, that meant that I got the opportunity to walk her in the mornings again and was able to learn about a hiking trail which is only minutes from the house which I never knew existed. If my parent's had gone to the lake then Pam wouldn't have been down there to walk the dogs that morning meaning that she wouldn't have hurt herself. Then I would have woken up this morning and done a regular boring workout in the living room and gone on with my day. But since I have Splash, I had to get out and take her for a good walk (she's part border collie so she needs a really good amount of exercise every day) and stumbled upon a fantastic trail. Is it wrong to prosper off of other people's misfortunes?

The thing I love about sunny mornings is that they inspire me to want to go and explore. There's nothing that one can't do on a sunny Sunday morning. That may sound cheesy but I am a firm believer in it. The original plan was to do the walk to Bingy Bay and back, but when I walked down by the highway I glanced up at the lookout point just above the hospital and felt inspired to hike up there and go to the Canada flag that someone placed up there years and years ago. On the way up the Raven Cliff Trail, we ran into a man walking his two dogs and he explained all of the trails in the area which I was heading in and I decided to take advantage of the weather and early morning and explore around the mountain (don't tell my mom that I walked around a mountain by myself with only a dog and leash as my line of defense against cougars and grizzly bears).

Tip of the Day: A dog and a leash will never be enough to fight against a cougar or a grizzly bear...unless you're Macgyver.

Following the hike and a quick shower was a trip down to my cousin Victor and Helen's house for their daughter's first birthday party. It was nice to be able to mingle with the family for a couple hours. We don't get to see each other enough. Everyone was discussing having a big backyard BBQ before Chris and I head back to PEI (which I am still in firm denial about). I hope we are able to pull that together before September 5th. Fingers crossed!

Now it's off for a swim and dinner with the family!

Simplicity of a Compliment

Today at work I got a compliment from a co-worker. It was a simple act of kindness for him to go out of his way to walk over to me, stop me from what I was doing and tell me that he thought that I did an awesome job (yes, he used the word awesome). I guess he worked an extra shift a few days before which meant that he got the opportunity to work with another person who does the same job as I do (but on my days off), and he told me that the quality of work and effort that I put out was just on a completely different level as this other person.



The conversation took only a mere 30 seconds or so, but it meant enough to motivate me to create a blog about it. I think what lead me to really think about this simple little act of kindness was that at this job, I get very few compliments from my bosses. Because the bosses work different hours and shifts than we 4&4 people do, they don't see our continual work habits and probably don't take much notice of the differences between one charge floor operator to the next. In one way this really sucks because I am the clean freak who continually sweeps the floor but it's not recognized by the bosses. The thing with working with the same 4&4 crew is that they all work with each other every single day and they see just how hard we do or don't work, and the quality of the work that each individual puts out there. I think that the bosses here are just content when they are able to get through a day without someone blowing something up or breaking something down. I also know that they have lots of people to overlook and lots of responsibilities, so I'm not putting out any blame here.

Anyway, the point of this rambling is that it was really nice to hear such encouraging words from my co-worker. It's great to know that someone out there notices and appreciates what I do at my job. We come to work, day in and day out, and somewhere along the line start to become numb to our surroundings and may lose sight of the big picture (for me, paying off school and student loans!). Now I'm not saying this happens to all people at all jobs out there, but I mean, sometimes one can put out a lot of effort at a job and the little recognition can start to wear a person down. At a previous job that I worked, we were all given a good pat on the back every day and this made all of the employees feel really good about coming to work. If I had a shitty day at work, that little "you did a good job today Adrienne" was enough to make me smile and want to come back the next day and give it another go. I think it's really important to make your employees feel good about who they are working for and for what cause. It's a whole lot easier to want to be friendly and courteous to customers when the boss makes you feel important and part of a team (unlike another job I had in which we were scolded 100 times for every 1 time we did something right. And if we did do something right, that did not mean that we would get a pat on the back for it).

Tip of the Day: Making your employees feel discouraged and useless will only lead to mutiny and ex-lax in the company cupcakes.

Through Hell or High Water....

Sunday was a bit of a bust. The big plan was to spend the day at Champion Lake with Gill and her family. We were to meet Sarah and her family as well and just make a big fun day of it. Well, the weather had different plans. It started off alright. There were some daunting clouds which made us a bit nervous but Sarah's husband was equipped with a tent-like structure which would be assembled over the picnic table and make an alright cover for us if we needed it. The BBQ was fired up, the kids (and of course Chris) were down by the water playing in the mud building a structure of some kind, and everything seemed to be going nicely. Until the skies opened up and nearly drowned us in the rain.



The funny thing about crappy weather when at the lake is that kids just don't care. It was pouring incredibly hard and it just did not faze them in the least. They remained down by the water, laughing and playing together as though it were sunny and 35 degrees outside. Some of us adults took this as a cue to say 'ah the hell with it' and decided to join them. We were getting massively soaked anyway so what would be the difference of just jumping right in. Besides, swimming when it's raining out is just so satisfying. The water seems warmer and fresher and just all that much more enjoyable.

Tip of the Day: Watching kids eat soggy Cheesies is hilarious. The reaction of watching them bit into something which is supposed to be crunchy but ends up tasting like softened foam is just downright funny.

Unfortunately, after waiting and waiting for the rain to let up, it failed to do so, so we decided to pack everything up and get on out of there. This was really disappointing but these things happen from time to time. It's just too bad that it had to happen during the few days that my friends were in town with their kids. The remainder of the day consisted of grocery shopping, cooking, drinking and dice games. No complaints there!

Today Gill and the family had to head back to the US and say goodbye to Canada for a while. I picked up Splash and drove over early in the morning to say my farewells to everyone. We are planning to take a quick trip down to Seattle in a couple weeks to go visit them, but it's still hard to see them leave. I've known Gill since I was 5 years old and I hate that we live so far away from each other. Plus her family is wonderful and I wish that I could spend more time with them on a regular basis. Anyway, after giving their Suburban help with some jumper cables (one of the kids left a DVD player running overnight), they were on their way. I then took Splash and Riz for a walk, already missing my friends. Here's a picture of all of Gill's cutie kids:



Back to work tomorrow. How do my days off go by so quickly?

Explosive Day

Today was a busy day but it was extremely enjoyable. It all started off early with a hike up the mountain to a plane crash site that Pam has been wanting to walk up to all summer. On October 18th 1947, a B25 Mitchell Bomber from the Canadian Air Force crashed into the mountain up in the Plewman Basin. There were 7 people aboard the plane, and all were instantly killed upon impact. The hike is not well known to a lot of people and we were basically relying on word of mouth and some flagging tape on random trees to show us the way up the mountain through some rather rough terrain. It's not a well maintained path like the ones we have been walking lately so our legs were good were scratched up by the end of it. When we got up to the crash site...we just kind of stood back and took it all in. It was very easy to understand why everyone on board were killed instantly considering how mangled and torn apart the remains were. Just a graveyard of scrap metal all over the place. It was sad and eerie to stand there in such a beautiful place of the world and see the destruction that a man-made machine can make.






We headed back down the mountain and drove to Trail to hang out with Gill and her family for a couple hours. Chris went and crawled into my old bed to take a nap (7am wake up is a bit rough on that guy) while I headed into town to help Ralph (Gill's husband) find a couple places to hand out resumes. Did I mention that they're wanting to move to Canada!!! YAY! We went out for a quick lunch and headed back to the house so that I could wake up Chris and head to Holden's birthday party.

Here's a picture of Gill's adorable daughter Piper playing on one of the kiddie rides at the mall:



Holden's 5th birthday party was being held at the Trail Aquatic Center and Chris has been looking forward to this day ever since I received the invitation many weeks ago. Nothing like 14 screaming kids all splashing around in a pool to get your Saturday really going. We played around the pool/hot tub/sauna/water slide for nearly two hours before the party dwindled down and parents started coming by to pick up their kids. I honestly don't think I've ever had that much fun at that pool before in my life.

We went back to hang out with Gill and family after the birthday party again. We took Splash and Riz for a walk then headed back home for some dinner. After dinner, Chris, Ralph and I walked down to the river so that the guys could jump in the water for an after dinner cool down. Eating vast amounts of pasta generally makes you want to drop your body temperature a few degrees in hopes of easing the pressure in the system. I've always found this helps!

After that we played some dice games (both of which Ralph won and got all of our money). It was a truly lovely day and evening. I look forward to the adventures that tomorrow brings.

Tip of the Day: When you go to the Kotyk's house to play games, always remember to bring your money. Winner takes all at our house.

Early Morning Conversations

On Tuesday I learned a very important lesson: never rely on a conversation you have with someone at 5am, especially when that person just woke up. As I was leaving for work I asked Chris to please pick me up after work at Ferraro Foods at 6:30 since I had to pick up some things for Gill and her family while they stay here. I also wanted to get a ride out to my parent's house to drop the stuff off and do some cleaning at the house in preparation for their stay. We talked this over and he agreed and wished me a good day at work.

On my break at work I even sent him a quick email to remind to pick me up at 6:30 and to please water the tomato plants. Reminder #2 seemed good enough to make sure that I had a ride after work.

So I sat there for over a half hour outside of Ferraro Foods that day, waiting on the curb with my heavy grocery bags resting beside me. Where could he be? I called the house but there was no pick up. Hmmm. Luckily an old perverted man who continued to tell me how beautiful I am kept me company for a while. That was nice. There's no flattery as good as that from drunken men with long scraggly hair and overly dark glasses. I think the worst part of the whole situation was the looks of pity from the customers who see me when they enter the store, then once again see me sitting in the same place as they leave. They know that I have been abandoned at the grocery store while my jug of milk warms in the heat of the day.

I didn’t want to bother the people in the store to use their phone again so I hauled my bags over to 7-11 and made some calls on the pay phone in hopes of finding a ride. No pick up at Amy’s house. Parents weren’t home either. My last call was to Pam who was thankfully home and able to come to my rescue. While I waited by the curb for Pam to arrive, low and behold, my scraggly haired friend came moseying down the sidewalk again in my direction; a freshly bought bottle of booze in his hand and a smile on his face. He had found me again. Lucky me.

Turns out Chris had zero recollection of our 5am conversation and was shocked at how in detail I was able to describe his answers to my questions and promises to pick me up. Apparently this is not a new situation for him and told me to ask his mom about just how useless it is to speak to him when he is in that state. I wonder how many people he has left stranded at grocery stores in the past?

Tip of the Day: Seedless watermelon, $4.98. Two bags of chips, $5.00. A bunch of bananas, $1.07. Getting hit on by creepy old drunk men in the early afternoon…priceless.

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I wanted to add this picture to my blog because I love it and it made me laugh. It was taken with Pam's camera at the top of Plewman's Trail and she just recently sent it to me. Enjoy!

Past Days

It's been a hectic week...and yet not all that much happened. I mean, lots happened, but nothing that has inspired me to blog solely on one topic. A quick rundown of the past week would be as follows:

-Ended up not going to the lake because the weather was utterly horrible. We had it alright in Trail but over at Woodbury there were storms and torrential downpours and ghastly winds. My dad called up us and basically told us not to bother if we wanted to sleep in a tent or have any kind of outdoor fun over there. He also informed me that their car broke down and had to get it towed to the Honda dealership in Castlegar and that there was a chance that I would have to come pick them up on Sunday afternoon.

-The following day I went and babysat Cadance for a few hours. Eventually Chris came over to the house as well to keep me company. We decided to take Cadance to the mall so that she could play in the ballroom (weather was bad that day) and mingle with all of the children over there. We learned that day that she really really really doesn't like those fake tattoos. She had a bit of a meltdown when I applied a lovely heart tattoo to her upper arm.

-Sunday I took Splash for a nice long walk in the morning. The weather was beautiful and I tried to take as long as I could when walking. As soon as my path steered me towards my neighbourhood, I would take a turn in another direction to lengthen the walk. Eventually I got home and headed out to the lake to pick up my parents and Rizzo. It's amazing just how different the weather is out there compared to here in town. It was hot and muggy when I left Trail and by the time I got out to Woodbury, it was cloudy and the wind chilled me considerable. When it comes to weather, the rules never apply out there. Chris, Jer and Splash all went for a drive/hike up a mountain so I knew that I'd be going home to an empty house, so I lingered at the folks house when we got back to Trail.

-Monday was back to work. Double time and a half is never a bad thing. I made more money that day then I would have gotten on an entire paycheck from my job last summer. Crazy. I also got to drive a Bobcat for the first time that day! I've been wanting to drive that machine since I began work at Teck and I when I got the opportunity, I took it!

-I also learned Monday that Gill and her family would be heading to Canada on Wednesday! After a lot of debate, we decided the best place for them to stay would be with my parents. Pam's house has a few "quirks" to it that would make their stay perhaps not as comfortable then they may have liked. One of them being the ant infestation and another the crappy air conditioning. I wouldn't want a family with a newborn baby sleeping in a house covered in raid and unevenly cooled in 40 degree weather (Yep, it was 39 degrees today).

-Tuesday...work. Blah. Nothing special.

-Wednesday is today. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Gill when they arrived because I was already at work. Stupid night shift. Sucks that I have to work the first two days they are here, but I'll have the weekend to enjoy their company. I look forward to it!