The last three years I've taken vacation time in the early months of the year. This is largely because I'm low man on the union totem pole but I'm starting to think that I would take holiday at this time anyway because it really kills the funk I seem to fall into every Christmas. As I've mentioned, my funk has been bad all fall so it's good that I've gotten out of Calgary for a few days. Granted, I'm not really on holiday and I'm not in London again.
I'm in Moose Jaw. On business. Because I'm a bad RTC and this is the company's attempt to fix me. Lord only knows why.
So I caught the 0800 737 to Regina this morning. I was going to drive but my manager convinced me that driving was 16 hours of my life that I was never going to get back but it would have saved me the irritations of commercial air travel that make me so mental. The flight was short and uneventful except for chop that I generally only experience in the Katana during a chinook.
I spent the rest of the day driving around Regina and Moose Jaw with the Regina Yard Manager. It was interesting to see the nebulous place that is represented on my screen as a white line that occassionaly goes red when a train is sitting on it. For me, the visual is important and this trip is meant to cement certain concepts for me. To be honest, I'd love to have a job in the field.
The Moose Jaw yard has a pet. It's a little, scruffy white, stray dog with a few black spots that looks like he could turn up for a casting call in a Charlie Chaplin movie. He chases everyone except the maintenance guys and only one of them is afforded the privilage of petting him. Unfortunately, he's a bit of a safety hazzard, but railroaders being railroaders, no one wants to turn him into the authorities. So, for now, he hangs out at the maintenance shop where the guys there reportedly look after him. When I saw him he was sitting in front of a running but stopped yard engine behind an ES truck he'd chased. Not much holds up the railway but this little fellow certainly seems to have the power.