Updates from Wapasu

Over the past week or so, the Fort McMurray area has been subjected to heavy rains and flooding. This has made it difficult for Wapasu Lodge to get resupplied and serviced. One of the many things they’ve had to cut back on is water. Here are some of the highlights passed on to me:

• disposable paper plates and plastic cups are now used in the dining rooms as there is not enough water to wash dishes
• dining room menus have been changed to a “low water use” menu (whatever the hell that means)
• water services controlled in order to conserve water (this means no showers)
• bus trips take an additional 15 minutes to 90 minutes

Another amusing story from camp…a bus broke down/got stuck a short distance from the camp drop off. This bus was filled with workers who just finished a long, and probably wet day, on the job site. The workers were not allowed to get off the bus and walk to brass alley, but instead, they had to wait for a replacement bus to pick them up and shuttle them the last 100 ft to the brass alley drop off. This wait took an additional 45 minutes.

All this information comes from very reliable, highly placed sources.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Back In The Office

I’m back in my Edmonton office. I’m not going to say the view is better than the view at Kearl Lake, it’s just different. Here’s a photo taken from the floor of my office…

This is another office shot, taken from eye level. It’s substantially less exciting…

My office does afford me a lovely view of the chillers and new loading dock. Bonus: the chillers hardly make any noise at all when they’re not running.

Job Sites and Career Paths and Choices

Site was nice. I enjoying working on job sites, but I also enjoy coming home every night. At this stage in my life, being home every night (or most nights) is  important to me. I’m a construction engineer, I’ve worked my way up from assistant construction engineer to senior construction engineer. My career path will (hopefully) take me to the top position in the engineering department one day. I won’t be a project manager, construction manager, general manager, vice president, president, COO, CEO  or anything like that…and that’s fine with me, that’s what I’ve chosen. I’ve been with PCL for almost 15 years now. Some of the people who started around the same time as me are moving up, and I know some of those people are heading for GM, VP or president positions one day. They will (do) make substantially more money than me. These same people have put in a lot of time (years) working out of town on remote job sites. This is what they have chosen. Hopefully when these people hit the big-time, they’ll remember the little people like me and fly me out to their private islands on their personal jets.

This is why I like to be home every night…

My girls!

…even though they can be difficult sometimes (I’m never difficult). Iris didn’t get the memo. They were all supposed to wear black, not fluorescent pink.

Camp Life and Reality

I tried to paint a picture of life when you’re based out of a remote work camp. I hope my friends and family have a better picture of this life. One thing to note: I was only there for 8 days in a row. The standard shift is 10 days work and 4 days off. That’s 10 hour long days, and 10 of them in a row. The guy I was covering for has worked about 5 of those shifts. Other people on the same site have worked shifts like this for 5 years, or 10 years, or 20 years. So, when you think about it, me whining about mediocre horseradish on an 8 day stay is rather petty. A lot of these people who work these shifts also love their jobs…but a few people don’t, it’s just like any other work place. Something I’ve seen about the construction industry: you don’t need an MBA or Ph.D to succeed, a lot of people have made it to senior positions without those credentials, but everyone who’s made it to the top has spent a lot of time working on job sites.

Day 8–Last minute heroics by the VP

I write this on the bus to Shell’s airstrip. I’m on my way home, but I almost didn’t make it. I decided to leave my backpack with all my PPE (personal protective equipment) at site. I also accidentally left the contents of my wallet in the backpack. I realized this on the bus back to camp (to get to the airstrip from site, you have to go back to camp first) and I panicked!

These are the thoughts that went through my head: DAMMIT! F*CK! BLARRGGHHHH! F*CK!

I sent a few messages, hoping for a miracle…I knew if I didn’t get my ID, I couldn’t get on the plane. Luckily, a miracle happened…

Roger Keglowitsch, PCL Senior Vice President of Heavy Industrial, brought me my stuff. He was at meetings on site during the day and caught a truck back to camp shortly after the busses left. Would your company’s VP do this for you?

Day 8–Meating It Up

Remember Matt? He’s the guy who’s shift I was taking while he was on vacation. He’s back, and he shared this awesome lunch tip with me. Matt takes a vegetarian wrap from the bag up room as well as a package of lunch meat (yes, there are packages of lunch meat in the bag up room). He unrolls the wrap and delicately arranges the extra meat (he prefers ham). I call this “meating it up”. I’m certain that this term will catch on.

Chris does something similar. He the turkey out of a turkey sandwich and puts it into the vegetarian club sandwich. It would be so much easier if they just made a proper turkey club sandwich.

Day 8–Fruit Loops

Along with the eggs, sausage, bacon, more sausage, and more bacon, the dining room also has a selection of cereals available for breakfast.

I had fruit loops this morning. Got a problem with that?

Day 7–Boredom & Return of the Jedi

Dinner was ok, but it was the company that made the dinner hour interesting. I sat at a table with 3 new Canadians, all from Africa. Dinner conversation consisted of a deep discussion into African politics and root of corruption in many African countries. I mainly sat back and listened (really). Excellent dinner company. I also walked out of the dining room holding a double scoop ice cream cone. I walked with impunity.

Bored

You can’t have a wild night every night and tonight is my night to do nothing, but instead of enjoying it, I’m just feeling bored. I see my knitting project in the corner, and that would probably alleviate the boredom…but it’s way on the other side of the room. The remote control is right beside me though…

Awesome, Return of the Jedi is on TV. 

Seeya.

Day 7: Why am I here?

A co-worker asked “Why are you up at Kearl Lake, I thought you were an office guy?”. Fair question. I am a construction engineer. I provide engineering support to industrial construction projects. Engineering support can involve:

• Preparation of crane lift studies.
• Verification of fall protection anchorage points.
• Preparation and approval of pneumatic test procedures.
• Design of customized rigging equipment.
• Review of procedures for structural steel erection (Ha ha! I said erection)

(Note: If any of these things interest you, apply here…if we don’t already work together)

The way my good friend Mark, a manager at a refinery in Edmonton, describes his job, is also a description I could apply to my job:

I perform miscellaneous engineering tasks as required.

I do many of these things from my office in Edmonton. For the Kearl Lake job, an engineer from my department is onsite…except for this week. In order for my colleague to take his vacation, someone from the office had to come to the job site to take on his roll for a week. That person was me. 

Day 6–Wapasu Attire

My wife had to take our daughters to West Edmonton Mall (WEM) yesterday for a birthday party. WEM can be a pretty intense place, especially on weekends. Also, there is no dress code at WEM…

Forgive the typos, I don’t struggle with Autocorrect, I just ignore it. Hopefully, you get the picture.

 

Day 7–Fire! (From a few years ago)

I’m at the Kearl Expansion Project. Some of my coworkers were on the Kearl Initial Development project as well. During the KID project, massive forest fire swept through the region. Site and camp were evacuated for several days. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your views) the Kearl lake site wasn’t damaged. I snapped this from the bus on my way to site. I think my wife calls this tertiary succession…

Day 6–Prime Rib & Handy Hints

Usually the dining rooms are about half-full at any given time. There’s always a place to sit with plenty of room. Today both dining rooms were packed. Workers housed in one of the neighbouring camps got booted over to Wapasu East. It was extra busy. I thought it was extra busy just because it was prime rib night.

The prime rib was actually quite good. I asked for medium rare and got a medium rare cut. It was a bit surprising. The Yorkshire pudding was acceptable as were the peas and mashed potatoes. The carrots were so-so, as were the mussels. Not bad, just not as good as the rest of the meal. Note: the horseradish is pointless, I don’t know why I keep getting it with beef dishes, it has no kick, and no real flavour. 

I ate in dining room 1 today. Dining room 1 has the normal menu, but also caters to people with special dietary requirements. Look, they have diabetic friendly desserts…

Handy Hints

If you’re coming to Wapasu Lodge for the first time, or coming to any work camp for the first time, here are a few tips that might make things go smoother for you:

• Bring laundry detergent. I prefer doing laundry as opposed to packing for a week to 10 days. I like Tide pods, they’re easy to manage and less messy.
• Bring a pillow. Seriously. The pillows here suck.
• Towels are provided, and they’re adequate, but you might want to bring your own. Don’t forget soap. There’s no soap here.
• A few ziplock/tupperware/rubbermaid containers for packing lunches. The ziplock containers with the screw top lids would be good for packing soup for lunches. The containers provided in the bag-up room suck and they’ll leak all over everything. Ask me how I know. 
• Workout gear. There’s a cardio gym, weight room and a yoga room. Use them. 
• If you’re a coffee snob, like me, bring your coffee stuff. We’re working construction, the coffee sucks. Always has, always will.

If you’ve been in camp before, this stuff is all obvious. If you’re reading this while you’re in camp for the very first time this will all seem obvious later.