Chronicles of Camp Doom, part III: July
July. oh, July.
July was a diastrous month, if ever there was one.
July was the month I flipped the truck (more on that later).
the foreboding of July began on the 29th of June, when, while driving back from dropping off our camp leader at the airport, the Suburban died. R.I.P., Subbie - you did well. Then, while driving back from picking up Scott, who was stranded out on Km 27 of the road (we were at Km 65 ish) the glass on the back of the truck cap shattered. Down one suburban and one secure cap. Then there was Dave.
Dave had been left in charge. He's originally from Nova Scotia, and is quite a laid-back guy. So it wasn't surprising that, in the opinion of our over-worked, uber-stressed Project leader, that he "let things slide". instead of getting up and going out into the field for 9am (which is late, btw) the guys were heading out for 10-11. even so, they managed to get all the mapping assignments given, but no more. We weren't told we ought to do more, so we didn't. I got to put up with more of Scott's mysogenistic jokes (although after The Final Incident, I wonder if he just didn't get how such jokes make people feel - he figured if no one got really mad, it was ok to keep making them)
When our Camp leader came back, she asked me how things had gone. I hate being used as a spy, so I told her exactly what she asked for, no more.
druing this week, we received three more people - another female geoscientist , and the two native students. things were strained between the natives and our project leader before they ever made it out to the field - they had no formal training to speak of in geology, and our uber-stressed leader felt even more terror and resentment at having to train two more people, in addition to the four juniors she already had. The second project geologist helped on this front - she understood the mapping. the two students, however, added to the workload - they had little respect for our team leader, and although they were really productive when they got into the swing of things, they were on the whole, even lazier than the original guys. in addition, Dave seemed to side more with the guys (not surprising really), so we ended up with a guys vs. girls power struggle in camp, to which the girls responded by getting nastier and meaner over the next eight weeks. Any trust left between factions was broken. and me in the middle of it all.
So it was out of this rather tense system, along with another couple of data program crashes, that I went early to a week's blessed respite at home - not that it was much of a respite. i had planned to go to kingston on wednesday, helping around the house on monday and tuesdy, leaving thursday and friday for me to recuperate. well, we had a big lightning storm monday night, which essentially blew out tuesday, and on friday mom had "planned" a birthday party for me and my bro. now, in my mother's eyes "planned" means that the whole family must help to excecute said plan in order to get it done in time. so after my delayed trip on thursday, i had to go buy food on friday night for this stupid party i didn't know about until the night i got back to toronto. when i left early saturday morning, i was zonked. so much for a "Vacation".
when i got back to camp, things had escalated to the point where you could cut the air with a knife, the tension was that thick. Mind you, I got back to camp 3 days later than expected - as we were getting an oil change done, we found that the U joint had been punctured, and wasleaking grease, so we had to get it fixed - and it was Saturday night. we had a week's worth of food in the truck, too. So we stored what we could, and waited until we could get the U joint fixed - turns out, monday morning.
So camp was stressed, I was stressed, and then I got to start leading teams on my own.
The first day, thursday, one of the native guys and I went out on one of the lakes. we started mapping our way around. then, down the other end of the lake, the guy tells me we're low on fuel. This guy has been out on boats more than i, so i panic - it will take us several hours to row back to the other end. So, we start to make out way back - it's all the same anyway, and i take quick notes and keep us moving. we get most of the lake done - there's a corner and one large island left to do - and we make it home early. I am slightly frustrated - the guys said there was enough fuel, but according to what i was told, it wasn't enough to get me round the lake. so I headed home early, hoping to get some data entered. We prepared another jerry can with the required mix, and got ready to head out the next day. Greg, a veteran geoscientist and expert in the area came up to the camp that night, and put the squeeze on the guys.
the next day was friday the 28th.
I got up, got ready, and took my crew out on the road, hoping to finish the lake today. I'd asked to be given an additional assignment, but i don't think i was given one. so off we went...
I was driving along the road at about 75-80km/h - a bit fast, but then again, our team leadder would do 90+, so i figured if i was going slower, i's be okay. Well, it turns out, no - I hit soft gravel in a corner, and the rear tires began to skid towards the side of the road, and i panicked and oversteered. twice. the second time i couldn't get the vehicle to respond, so we veered off the road, plunged over the drop, and rolled, surprisingly, upright.
yep that's right, i rolled the bloody truck. a brand new, $50 000, less-than-10000km-on-it truck.
AAAAAARGH!!!!*sob*
PLUS i had two passeengers with me! i ended up going all the way to thunder bay hospital. thankfully no one was injured much - just bruising and muscle soreness. but when i was picked up in Armstrong that night, I couldn't bring myslef to speak, i was so ashamed - all this time i'd tried so hard to help, and i'd just screwed up in just aobut the biggest way possible.
So that was it. July ended on the hardest note for me. Our team leader gave us the weekend off - i felt terrible. And i knew that any trust remaining between myself and our leader was completely shot through - and it began to show in the last weeks.
July was a diastrous month, if ever there was one.
July was the month I flipped the truck (more on that later).
the foreboding of July began on the 29th of June, when, while driving back from dropping off our camp leader at the airport, the Suburban died. R.I.P., Subbie - you did well. Then, while driving back from picking up Scott, who was stranded out on Km 27 of the road (we were at Km 65 ish) the glass on the back of the truck cap shattered. Down one suburban and one secure cap. Then there was Dave.
Dave had been left in charge. He's originally from Nova Scotia, and is quite a laid-back guy. So it wasn't surprising that, in the opinion of our over-worked, uber-stressed Project leader, that he "let things slide". instead of getting up and going out into the field for 9am (which is late, btw) the guys were heading out for 10-11. even so, they managed to get all the mapping assignments given, but no more. We weren't told we ought to do more, so we didn't. I got to put up with more of Scott's mysogenistic jokes (although after The Final Incident, I wonder if he just didn't get how such jokes make people feel - he figured if no one got really mad, it was ok to keep making them)
When our Camp leader came back, she asked me how things had gone. I hate being used as a spy, so I told her exactly what she asked for, no more.
druing this week, we received three more people - another female geoscientist , and the two native students. things were strained between the natives and our project leader before they ever made it out to the field - they had no formal training to speak of in geology, and our uber-stressed leader felt even more terror and resentment at having to train two more people, in addition to the four juniors she already had. The second project geologist helped on this front - she understood the mapping. the two students, however, added to the workload - they had little respect for our team leader, and although they were really productive when they got into the swing of things, they were on the whole, even lazier than the original guys. in addition, Dave seemed to side more with the guys (not surprising really), so we ended up with a guys vs. girls power struggle in camp, to which the girls responded by getting nastier and meaner over the next eight weeks. Any trust left between factions was broken. and me in the middle of it all.
So it was out of this rather tense system, along with another couple of data program crashes, that I went early to a week's blessed respite at home - not that it was much of a respite. i had planned to go to kingston on wednesday, helping around the house on monday and tuesdy, leaving thursday and friday for me to recuperate. well, we had a big lightning storm monday night, which essentially blew out tuesday, and on friday mom had "planned" a birthday party for me and my bro. now, in my mother's eyes "planned" means that the whole family must help to excecute said plan in order to get it done in time. so after my delayed trip on thursday, i had to go buy food on friday night for this stupid party i didn't know about until the night i got back to toronto. when i left early saturday morning, i was zonked. so much for a "Vacation".
when i got back to camp, things had escalated to the point where you could cut the air with a knife, the tension was that thick. Mind you, I got back to camp 3 days later than expected - as we were getting an oil change done, we found that the U joint had been punctured, and wasleaking grease, so we had to get it fixed - and it was Saturday night. we had a week's worth of food in the truck, too. So we stored what we could, and waited until we could get the U joint fixed - turns out, monday morning.
So camp was stressed, I was stressed, and then I got to start leading teams on my own.
The first day, thursday, one of the native guys and I went out on one of the lakes. we started mapping our way around. then, down the other end of the lake, the guy tells me we're low on fuel. This guy has been out on boats more than i, so i panic - it will take us several hours to row back to the other end. So, we start to make out way back - it's all the same anyway, and i take quick notes and keep us moving. we get most of the lake done - there's a corner and one large island left to do - and we make it home early. I am slightly frustrated - the guys said there was enough fuel, but according to what i was told, it wasn't enough to get me round the lake. so I headed home early, hoping to get some data entered. We prepared another jerry can with the required mix, and got ready to head out the next day. Greg, a veteran geoscientist and expert in the area came up to the camp that night, and put the squeeze on the guys.
the next day was friday the 28th.
I got up, got ready, and took my crew out on the road, hoping to finish the lake today. I'd asked to be given an additional assignment, but i don't think i was given one. so off we went...
I was driving along the road at about 75-80km/h - a bit fast, but then again, our team leadder would do 90+, so i figured if i was going slower, i's be okay. Well, it turns out, no - I hit soft gravel in a corner, and the rear tires began to skid towards the side of the road, and i panicked and oversteered. twice. the second time i couldn't get the vehicle to respond, so we veered off the road, plunged over the drop, and rolled, surprisingly, upright.
yep that's right, i rolled the bloody truck. a brand new, $50 000, less-than-10000km-on-it truck.
AAAAAARGH!!!!*sob*
PLUS i had two passeengers with me! i ended up going all the way to thunder bay hospital. thankfully no one was injured much - just bruising and muscle soreness. but when i was picked up in Armstrong that night, I couldn't bring myslef to speak, i was so ashamed - all this time i'd tried so hard to help, and i'd just screwed up in just aobut the biggest way possible.
So that was it. July ended on the hardest note for me. Our team leader gave us the weekend off - i felt terrible. And i knew that any trust remaining between myself and our leader was completely shot through - and it began to show in the last weeks.
posted by NinjaRaven at 10:38 AM
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