The weather rivals home!

2006-09-16

I still don’t have Internet…sigh.

The SaskTel guy came out yesterday and when he looked at my cable (I was getting the student package that included my phone, cable and internet) I had the wrong cable type (I didn’t even know that there was more than one type of cable) and he was going to have to either a) drill through my beautiful hardwood floors or b) drill through my finished ceilings because of where my intake vents are, blah, blah, blah… SO now I have to wait for an appointment with Shaw. They’re supposed to call me today since they didn’t yesterday. But at least my freezer was delivered with no excitement! 🙂

So we’re coming to the end of week 3… the first week I was here we set records for how hot it was – I seriously contemplated installing air conditioning for probably one of the first times in my life in Canada, and melted. This week we have rain – record breaking rain. I rode my bicycle once and almost got washed off of the road (even at 6am!). So I am driving or taking the bus (thank you Michelle… my wonderful, beautiful, fantabulous cousin for sharing your pass so I don’t have to pay $5/day every time I come!). In between we had perfect combining weather, so half of our professors were ‘temporarily unavailable’ 🙂 That’s what happens when you go to a school where people have real life experience.

Speaking of my cycling experience – that afternoon I was so desperate to get home that I made it in 10 minutes! (let’s not mention the fact that I also left at the same time as 3 of the guys from the class and I couldn’t let them get ahead of me… so I ended up catching up with one of the other guys, and then beating… 🙂 ) Of course I then had to rest for 30 minutes when I got home because my legs felt like jello!

My tenant has been away this week so there has been no more thumping and bumping… except for Tuesday night – the day of my cycling sprint. So I didn’t feel like getting up… I should have. It turns out that one of the plecos (algae eaters) in the turtle tank had made a wild bid for freedom and ended up on the turtle’s sunning rock. When I got up in the morning there it was… I wasn’t sure when he had jumped out, so since I was in a rush I just put him back in the tank hoping that it had been recent and he could rehydrate (they’re pretty hardy). However when I got home Red (the turtle) was using him as a lever to try and move rocks around his tank (ie he was still stiff as a board)… I’m wondering if Red didn’t just toss/drive him out because he needed some sort of tool. 😛 Now I can’t get at him, but the catfish is slowly eating away at him so either it will eventually smell so putrid that I’ll give in and go ‘fishing’ so to speak, or I’ll end up with a beautifully cleaned skeleton.

My animal herding experiences this week deserve an entire page of their own, but I’ll try and keep them short… Sheep… man they’re fast! And can they jump! I finally understand why when you’re having trouble falling asleep you’re supposed to count them jumping over the moon – they probably could! We had to wrestle them to the ground and then sit them up to examine them and trim their hooves. The first one I tried literally jumped over my head. It’s a good thing I’m short, I still had to duck! They smell better than swine (though I have a mental block about working with pigs I think… ever since my interview last year).

Then I got to work with the horses Wednesday afternoon. As one of the few students in class with any real horse experience I got to catch and halter lots… mostly because everyone was approaching way too fast and making their animals jittery (and these horses are used to being worked with!). Those 2 hours of this week have probably been the most rewarding – they were so relaxing… 🙂 In 3rd year we have the opportunity to go down to Kentucky to check out the World Equine Vet Conference… that would be cool.

I also got a 5am milking shift yesterday – and I’m still cleaning manure out of my ears… I felt sorry for all of the people sitting beside me in class – man did we smell. BUT we were the most efficient couple and managed to get finished all of our 60 in under 2 hours. 🙂 I have decided however, that I probably don’t want to deal with mastitis in dairy cattle day in, day out for a living. The head of post graduate studies came to talk to us and there are some really cool opportunities for our residencies and internships… but I have to pass my BChem first. I’m a little freaked because you have to go and talk to your faculty advisor if you get a mark of 65% or less on any assignment. What pressure!

Here in Saskatoon they have something called ‘late night shopping night’. i.e. you can’t always remember at 7pm that you need something from the store because the stores are not always open at 7pm – it depends on the night. Some stores it is just Wednesday and Friday, some it is Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. So… grocery shopping… let’s just say that I have given up on eating any fresh anything because the last time I bought fruit and vegetables I got strawberries and spinach, both of which went off within 36 hours but I couldn’t get back to the store in time to return them because of the late night shopping thing. I’m sure you can see me pleading with the store clerk at 5:58 – “but I just need to return this rotten produce that I bought on Sunday… yes from this store… yes I understand that you’re closing but I was at school and then had to ride my bike home to get it from my fridge to bring to you… yes… okay… tomorrow? But!” On the bright side I hardly ever raise my head from the books so it’s been relatively cheap so far… other than that I seem to be relying more on caffeine than I ever have and since I don’t drink black tea or coffee I may have to resort to some sort of IV injection to save my teeth and sugar levels from diet Pepsi.

Did I mention that gasoline went down to 88.9 cents per litre last week? 🙂

Anyway… this has become incredibly long. More next week!

love j ox