It's a bird, it's a plane

no…it’s James Cameron! The Canadian movie man who brought us Titanic & Avatar is in Ft.Mac today to see the Oil Sands for himself, after previously calling it a “black eye” on Canada’s image. He wants to see the impact the oil sands is (or isn’t) having on the environment, so he’ll be buzzing around in his chopper for the next few days, touring the mines and meeting with oil execs (who will show him this) and Aboriginal leaders from Fort Chipewyan (who will show him this).
It will be interesting to hear what his official stance on the matter is once this tour ends. Not because his personal views are all that important, but you have to admit he can be one persuasive dude. (Have you seen Avatar? Don’t tell me you didn’t have real feelings for that magical tree!) Because of his celebrity status and the amount of media coverage surrounding this trip, his final verdict could really sway public opinion one way or the other; so lets just hope he gets a fair and balanced look at both sides.


**update**
Well it seems Mr.Cameron got a good like at both sides, because there wasn't a lot of news about his reaction; he left with a new appreciation for the complexity of the oil sands yet still concerned about the environmental impact. He said "Everybody has got their perspective on it and I don't think anybody's doing anything irrational. It's just a question of how these perspectives need to be reconciled". He also mentioned doing a documentary about it someday. So all in all, it wasn't that big of deal after all - which is probably a good thing.

Hellooo waterslides

The new Aquatic Centre is finally open for business and it looks awesome!! It has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, an additional four-lane pool, a lazy river, splash park, two water slides, a couple of hot tubs and who knows what else, I haven’t been inside yet. I figured I’d let the masses of screaming children get their fill first, but I can definitely see myself spending a few winter afternoons here pretending I'm in Mexico. And it’s all part of Mac Island, which I told you about in a previous post – so translation: lots of fun under one roof. So pack up the kiddies and come on up. Who needs West Ed, you can come here now instead!

Graffiti: Fort Mac Style

Kijiji

I just love it. I have the app on my iphone and I can’t help but check it at least once a day. If you don’t know what Kijiji is yet (mother), it’s basically a gigantic online garage sale. What’s great about it is that it’s local, so if you find something you want, you just contact the seller and arrange to pick it up. I get a kick out of the Fort Mac ads, because there seems to be an abundance rental properties, truck tires and engagement rings for sale. I haven’t bought any of those things, but so far I’ve scored a brand new pair of rollerblades (for free), a nice set of Wilson golf clubs, located a cat groomer, and my latest Kijiji achievement is selling Special K’s old computer printer (which he probably would have just taken to the dump) for fifteen bucks!
There’s always lots of high quality stuff to be had, though I don’t usually need anything. But hey, if you’re ever in the market for a used quad, work boots, or a piece of property in Newfoundland, Kijiji Ft.Mac is where you want to look first!

September Golfing

Here's a few pics from the Finning social club golf tournament yesterday, held at the Fort McMurray Golf Club. This was the first time I'd ever played here, and I was terrible as usual! Luckily, we were playing best ball and my team was pretty awesome - so awesome that we ended up taking 3rd place actually, yaaa! I can't get over how nice it was yesterday too - three days ago it was snowing, and yesterday people were golfing in shorts.

Brendan, showing us how it's done.

Kirt with his stash of balls! He disappeared into a gully, and came out with 40 new balls.

Hey, no wonder I suck, this isn't baseball!

Maiden Voyage

What a great weekend in the Fort! Went to a 30th birthday party, volunteered at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre's 25th Anniversary (face painting for me, standing around BS'ing for Kirt), played in a Finning golf tourney, AND took the new boat on her maiden voyage! The weather was beautiful - but fall is definitely here. A few friends came along and we spent the afternoon cruising around Gregoire Lake. The water was like glass, and there just happened to be a dry suit and a ski on board...too bad we forgot the rope!

The new vessel

Someone is happy with his new toy!

Jeff, Brian & Kirt

Claire petting the fish, with one finger. Cute!

Biking in Abasand

I tried out some new biking trails over in Abasand (an area of the city) and was pleasantly suprised! Usually I just stick to my part of town (Timberlea) and bike the trails that I can get to without loading my bike up. I don't know why, I'm lazy I guess. But now that I've seen the light, I'll be doing this more often and see what else is out there.
The trail takes you behind a residential area, with a few park benches along the way and great views of the Athabasca river. I had no idea this spot even existed until Steven drew me a map and told me to check it out. He forgot to mention the hill though...it's a fun ride down to the Horse river, but coming back was slow and painful. Made even more painful when 2 guys went zipping past me on their quads, laughing no doubt. Anyway, just another lovely little spot in the Mac.

The Athabasca

Not sure what you're supposed to see from here.

The Horse River

Gotta love self timers!

Raising Money for United Way

A couple weeks back we put on our boots, chaps and cowboy hats and went to the annual United Way fundraiser organized by Finning. Here are a few pics from the event. (The 797 truck is actually a dog house which will eventually be raffled off - lucky dog!) It was a FUN night – there was a delicious rib dinner, silent auction, and a funny-money blackjack casino, which you could use your winnings to bid on auction items at the end. Between Special K and I, we had over $400,000…which was not enough to get anything! There are too many high rollers in this town I tell ya! It was a fun night though and A LOT of money was raised! I don’t remember the exact number, but let's just say Finning employees are ridiculously generous...and ridiculously good looking.

(photo credits to Allana...just incase she ever sees this! :)

BYOB

Bring Your Own BAG! Today the ban on single-use shopping bags in Ft. Mac begins. That means no more plastic or paper bags at any grocery or retail stores in town – if you want your purchases to be in a bag, you gotta bring your own! The only exceptions are for liquor stores, take out restaurants and pharmacies (because no ones needs to know you just bought hemorrhoid cream!)

I think the idea is good – the city is trying to reduce the amount of waste in the landfills, hopefully reducing litter, and it might also help improve Ft.Mac’s environmental reputation. But there are definitely times when it’s going to be super frustrating. Like when you’re in the checkout line with an overflowing shopping cart and realize you forgot your bags. Or, when you run into the mall for one little thing, but then you see a giant sale at your favourite store, so you either have to go all the way back out to your car in the freezing cold to grab your bags, or, you have to shell out $$ and buy news ones there. Also I read in the paper today that some stores are worried that asking people to bring their own bags could result in an increase in thefts.

But I guess we’ll see how it goes! I already went to the grocery store today, cloth bags in hand, and I didn’t die. There might be a few raging customers at first, but I’m sure we’ll all eventually adjust.