Multiple dreaming layers

Last night I dreamt that I was back in a canoe and catching up on my tanning. I miss the summer and canoeing ALOT! It was much better than the night before's dream. That dream was crazy and started with me working at a shipping yard for the couple months before camp. I ended up climbing a cliff and at the top was my program counsellor from school for some reason (who's husband is a cliff ecologist). I was looking for someone so scrambled back down the cliff and found that the shipping yard was now on camp property and that it was winter. There were tunnels through the snow drifts that outdoor ed had made and they had fans in them to keep the air circulating through them. It was this point that I made my way to the tuck shop which was more like a trading post and ran into my dad. It was then thanksgiving and I was freaking out b/c I noticed that I had cut my thumb off some how. It looked sick. I couldn't remember right away how I had did it but realized that I hadn't actually cut it off but only dreamt that I had the day before while documenting a crime scene with Nanook on the side of the road. Once I realized that I hadn't actually cut my thumb off I felt alot better. I then went sledding at camp and then woke up.

All of that makes sense when I think about. Everything that showed up in that dream somehow relates to someone I saw or somewhere I went over the previous couple of days... It's weird how stuff like that sits in your subconcious.

Indian Summer 2006

Yesterday I made the trek from Fonthill to Port Sydney to take part in the summer debrief for Boys Camp deemed "Indian Summer". In the afternoon we had a meeting and at night we made a huge fire.




We all pitched in for a mammoth firecracker from Smiths called "PLANET SMACKDOWN"! We lit it on top of the blob tower entertaining the cottagers across the lake.






Lets be serious now, the firelighting was the highlight! I got to shoot the roman candle at it sending a fireball into the air and a blue ring of death across the beach.

A few thoughts

Learning from past experiences this past week I got a haircut instead of buying a hat. Gone are my golden blond summer locks however, I am now disheartened until I may be sunkissed once again. Looking at some pictures with snow in it has made me remember how much fun it can be. Maybe I'm not that sad about winter's accelerated approach this year.

I like this picture.


Look, snow on the beach.


I like this one too.


Elliott, just five more minutes... seriously

Man sized bladder

I'm feeling better now and thought of a funny story. Charity will appreciate this.

A couple weeks ago I headed north on a week long field trip for one of the courses I am taking. I slept for most of the 6 hour drive North and have concluded that the air must have been dry in the van and I breathed out most of my body's moisture content because I didn't pee for over 15 hours. Impressed? I certainly was.

Back at it!

Here I am, back at school.... how does that make you feel? Well, it makes me feel crappy to be honest. All this structure, due dates and stresses. I'm living in a house with 3 random girls which is interesting. I managed to score the basement which on the downside doesn't have any windows to the outside world but is about the same size as all 3 girls rooms combined. I've set my hammock up in it which I still have yet to take full advantage of. We don't have a long distance plan so I'm counting on other people calling me or taking of advantage of skype until December. The living room situation is hurting to the max, right now it contains one couch, one chair, and a kitchen table.... Thats it, a pretty sterile environment. Someone should really donate a tv to the room and some cable while they're at it.

Today I had a lab all afternoon which was crappy and then it started to rain. Should I expect less from Guelph? The town of eternal drizzle. Needless to say but today is bordering sucky/mediocre at best.

I was in Kingston on the weekend and snapped some pics.

Finito

I'm gone for the summer to Pioneer Camp working as a tripper. I'll be updating my summer blog instead of this one, check it out at http://pioneercamp2006.blogspot.com/ . Leave me comments already!!

Final Highway Moments

I tried to get some cool pictures on my last night shift last Thursday.... I don't really know why the vehicles don't show up at all but it does look kind of cool.











Another great sunset on the way to work, you can't really go wrong with these.

Dust Bowl and Tornado watch

Today I realized that the date on my watch has been wrong for the past two weeks and the big soccer game today between Holland and the Ivory Coast is actually tomorrow...... but it works better b/c i'll be able to watch some of it. Apparently May does have 31 days, not 30.

On my way home from work today I saw a dust devil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_devil) in a bare field. It must have been over 100 ft high and 30 feet across, it was really cool as I have this fascination with tornadoes and dream about them constantly. I stopped on the side of the road to watch it, then it hit some trees and disappeared. I didn't have my camera... It seems I always see cool stuff in my car when I don't have it. I'd love to chase tornadoes some day but I think I'm too scared. I think this fascination with them started when a twister when through Fonthill in '96, I still remember running down the street to get in the house before the crazy downpour began. The twister ripped through my friends properties and took down a drive in movie screen that was ironically about to play the '96 hit "Twister". I shit you not.

Summer Special, Combo #4

Last night I worked the night shift and we went out for breakfast afterwards. On the way home there was some really cool fog around and the sun was about to come up so I snapped some pics of the sunrise.

















The view from lookout point here in Fonthill was really cool. The fog was settled in the low spots of the Shorthills and you could see from Niagara Falls to St. Catharines.

During the night we cleaned a bridge in St. Catharines along the 406. It's called the Segmental b/c it's hollow and inside there are a bunch of rooms. Anyways, on the side there is always some awesome graffiti so I went back today to take a look around a snap some pictures.


This "GUTS" crew had stuff all over the place. Most of it was pretty impressive even if I couldn't tell what it said. I like the pictures the best.









If I owned a business that catered to young people I would hire some of these people to paint a kickass mural on my store. People would come to see it and they would buy lots of stuff. We could change it up every couple of months, can you say tourist attraction? Yes, sir!

Parents Memory

Ok, so I've decided my parents only had enough room to memorize one set of their kids friends. This was unforunately used on their first born leaving me to have to remind them thousands of times of who is who and where this person is from and how I know everyone I ever speak of. For example, yesterday I made reference to Wayne, you know that guy I've lived with at school for 3 years, I went to highschool with, and am a groomsman in his wedding party....? I figured by now we were past the point where I had to say his last name seeing as how I have known him so long and only know one Wayne, apparently not. If by chance I know two people by the first name all hell breaks loose.


**I'm sure by the time I have kids there will be some sort of computer thing with pictures to do this sort of thing for me **

Night Skywalker

The night was June 1st, 2006, 4am - 5pm. Taking place on the Burlington skyway, they were fixing a broken expansion joint. These are the pictures.

This one looked cooler in person. I guess most things do but whatever, I still like it.
Hamilton steel being forged as we speak and breathe in the fumes.

No traffic on the QEW? Must be the middle of the night.

Steeltown = smogtown, but a cool picture

It cleared up a bit later on in the day as this boat sat suspiciously in the harbour.... dun dun dun...

Finally figured out how to get panoramics up here. These are always cool.

This is what resulted later on the in day. This is a cool feeling to realize you're making thousands of people late, angry, frustrated. A sense of power and sense of respect for the construction workers of this world was upon me.

Hairstylers

A couple months ago I really needed a haircut but not wanting to go to some weird place to get it done I just bought a hat.

Smog, graffiti and the green mile

So I work on bridges for the most part during the spring, cleaning expansion joints and doing minor repairs to asphalt and concrete. However, a couple weeks ago we got a call to come and paint a railing in front of the Hamilton Catholic Diocese offices and some big church that was there. Apparently when the province put in the 403 way back when they agreed to maintain this fence. It was supposed to be painted in the fall but no rush.... The church there is celebrating their 150th anniversary this coming weekend and someone high up in the MTO (ministry of transportation of ontario) knows someone high up at the catholic church and this is HAS to be done by then. Anyways... we've been painting this fence for two weeks solid, it's over 800 feet long and we've nicknamed it the Green Mile. Painting sucks in general, but painting a fence like this is way worse.
This picture shows half of the Green Mile, the rest lurks around the corner to the right. It never ends.

Near by there are a couple bridges that we just found out we have to paint to. Underneath there is some cool graffiti.

This one was the best.

May 28, 2006, Hamilton Harbour. Believe it or not there is not a cloud in the sky, this is all just smog, compliments of my car, your car, dofasco and lawnmowers.

Coats and Rain

Today it rained. We finished work early which was really nice and went out for a pizza lunch and called it a day. We're painting the longest fence in the world. We've nicknamed it the green mile b/c it never ends. On the way home from Hamilton I saw a traffic jam building in front of me near Beamsville and quickly took the Ontario St. exit ( I needed gas anyway) and saw as i drove down the service road that the Toronto bound side was totally stopped. Everyone on the Niagara bound side which I had been on was stopping to look. I felt like a ge
nius as I drove by everyone stopped on the highway!

I'm selling my beloved Oilers jacket on ebay and a couple people have already bid on it. I figured this would be the best time to sell it, when people are in Oilers fever. I already got the reserve price of 30 bucks (double what I paid for it) and there still 5 and a half days left in the auction. That's a decent amount of interest if you know ebay at all. Here's the link. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8817511765&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

Skyway heights

Working on a bridge repair crew has it's advantages sometimes. These are a couple pictures take 3 weeks ago from the western side of the Niagara bound QEW on the Burlington skyway. We are in the process of repairing one of the joints. Getting anything up there is ridiculous though, it has to be lowered by a crane and whinch over the side. I'm about 120 feet up here.

This is Luke, my boss going up the ladder.


I thought this was interesting, Paul Martin's boat named after himself. I waited to see what flag they were flying it was a surprise to see it was Canadian. Luke and I figured they must have just changed it from the Barbados flag or something.

Bugs and flowers

Shortly after getting my macro lense Jake and I went and took some pictures around campus.

A Magnolia on campus by the greenhouse.

This one is my favourite. The focal range on the macro lens was alot smaller than I had thought but I guess it will have to do.

Apples for Dinner

A couple weeks ago on my way home from hanging out with Ben and Aaron I stopped to take a couple pictures of the white fields of apple blossoms.
















These are just some other pictures from this spring.

Hydro One recently replaced an abosolutely insane amount of these things. It looks cool from the top of the hill b/c you can seem them them stretching as far as you can see going from Niagara Falls heading towards Hamilton.
I really like the bees in that one.

These flowers are cool, they close up at night and when it rains. My mom doesn't know where they came from.

Ben to the Rescue

When in doubt just ask Styles. All the way from Oz he can still be of tremendous assistance! Thanks man.

Late for work

On my way to work the night shift a couple weeks ago as I passed by Penninusla Lakes. I love scenes like this. I was late for work because I stopped to snap a few pictures. oh well.