Time Flies, and walking to find internet

Hey all,

A common refrain for this blog seems to be, "It's been ages since I updated." So I'll spare you. Oh wait....

Anyway, a lot happened in the last two months. I moved (was relocated?) out of the trailer I was staying in due to water coming up through the floorboards (the water was soon followed by it's sinister cousin mould). I am now living in the Hay River highrise (the only highrise in the area, I'm told you can see it from across Great Slave Lake in Fort Providence). There's an interesting history to this building so allow me to find my reading glasses and rocking chair:

In the 70s there was interest in running a pipeline through the NWT (sound familiar?) and at the time, interested parties thought that Hay River would be a great place for an administrative center. Also, as anyone who lives in a city will tell you, it is impossible to operate businesses without a tall building to state your importance. Thus, the high-rise was born. Towering 17 stories of glory above a town of 3,500 people, the highrise was a pinnacle of economic growth. Until the pipeline was cancelled. So instead some people live there. Apparently in it's early years the high rise was quite fancy and a posh place to be (city living in Hay River)! However, it soon gained a reputation for drug use and violence (hope my parents aren't reading this). The high rise still retains this reputation today, although maybe not as pronounced? Really, it isn't that bad, I haven't had any issues and the people are pretty friendly (if drunk, sometimes).

So that is where I live now. I moved away from a 'dodgy' neighbourhood (called Disneyland) into a 'dodgy' apartment, but everything's been cool so far. I miss the trailer though, I miss your cottage feel and wood burning stove and poisonous spores. I miss your free onsite laundry and dishwasher, and cold water at your command (not available in the highrise). I miss walking 20 minutes to school and seeing/hearing domestic disturbances outside my front window (although they weren't that frequent). I miss the cacophony of your heating system which gently lulled (and shook) me to sleep. I miss your mud room with couch. I miss having channels on the tv. I miss the plants and the hordes of flies that lived in those plants.I miss wireless internet that I borrowed from neighbours. I miss how when I ran the washing machine, the living room chair became a bucking bronco.

There's many other things that have happened since my last entry (and even more that happened before that i didn't even talk about). I think I'll pace them out, like some sort of serial novel. In retrospect it will seem that January was a flurry of activity, and the most remarkable part of November and December was that it got down to minus 20.Assuming I update soon.

Hooray!

Galen