Usually I classify my blog in only one category; if you check through the archives, you will notice that this generally means the blog about the community in which I live (currently ‘Kugluktuk’) or stories about the general state of being of dogs in the north (‘Snow Dogs’). It’s also no secret that my two dogs, Scarlett and Gryphon, feature regularly in both. What do you do, then, when you go out with your dogs and take pics that could easily blend into a new category called ‘Kug Dogs’? That’s a page I refuse to put together.

For the past two years I have lived on Baffin Island in the eastern Arctic – a land that didn’t quite fit in with the view we were presented with in grade school. On Baffin, there were mountains everywhere and the fjords and islands I encountered were breathtaking. This year, however, I’m living in the community that pushes to the furthest-most location along the western boundary of Nunavut.

I know that’s not the clearest map, but you can still make out the names. Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq are about as far east as you can go whereas Kugluktuk hangs out there in the west (just north of Yellowknife – and the Arctic Circle).

…and you know what? It’s just as beautiful. Check these pictures out…

From the hilltop behind my house looking back over the hamlet.

OK, one more before I start impressing you with the dogs.

Pretty amazing right?

Or what about this…

These next pics could be filed under ‘Kug Dogs’ but, of course, that’s just a tab that’s not going to happen…

NB: For some reason the pictures of Gryphon have him looking like some weird stretched out dog. He’s actually quite well-proportioned in real life!

Another one of the cuties together…

Facing the wind...I love how Scarlett's ears act like sails!

Scarlett (or ‘carlett as my nephew says)…

Gryphon…

When the ravens caught sight of the dogs and started circling, I knew that was the end of the outing. We had a great time, though, hopping from rock to rock in 12 degree weather. Can you believe that? 12 – 15 degrees all day yesterday, and right now it’s around 10; what a beautiful place.

Always remember...

I’m getting back into the swing of blog surfing every day with my coffee and today, of all days, there is only one topic in sight. Check out the publishing date for this entry, and you couldn’t possibly wonder what that subject may be.

So here’s my story…

Ten years ago I had just started working at the University of Ottawa. I remember it was really hot for a September day, and I wasn’t looking forward to the walk home. For the time being, I figured I should just try to enjoy the air-conditioning that kept the class cold and not think about the stack of unpacked boxes in my stuffy apartment.

Class started at 8:30 – it was one of those 3 hour courses to start the day) – and I had the class into their first assignment by 8:45. Everything progressed as normal until the 10:00 break. At that point, like most people do, all my students headed out to check their emails and refill their coffee cups. By 10:15, though, not many of them were back. I had a quiz planned so I was really not too impressed and, as anyone who knows me can attest, I’m someone who believes adult students should be mature enough to follow a schedule.

…but September 11, 2011, was not a day during which anyone stuck to a schedule…

When my students finally did return, nothing they told me made sense. They said ‘World Trade Center’ but I heard ‘World Exchange Plaza’. The latter is a little shopping area in the business district of Ottawa located about a 10 minute walk from campus. “No,” I thought. “If a plane crashed not too far from here, I’d be able to see something outside the window and hear sirens.” Nothing.

Class finished…I let everyone out at 11:00 because I knew I had lost their attention. My boss was always very strict with lesson plans and objectives, and I was not looking forward to explaining how I had ‘lost’ it; there was a syllabus to follow, and universities are notorious for pushing through them – even when the students aren’t prepared.

Next came the walk home. Through the downtown business district. As soon as I hit the bridge I knew this whole World Exchange Plaza deal was a really odd tale to tell your instructor. Sure, people looked stressed and it was busier than normal, but I was just following the street lights. Red. Stop. Green. Go. Put my head up and saw emptying parking garages and people heading for the highway. Strange for Ottawa so close to the Parliament on a business day. Then I started down Bank St. which had the smaller stores – the ones with the TVs in the windows.

And holy crap, that was it.

I don’t think anyone can accurately describe that first feeling he or she experienced. I think most of us were numb and just didn’t understand what was happening. People standing on Bank St., frozen in front of electronic stores, and the shock. I remember feeling a bit weak after walking about 20 minutes. It took about an hour to get home.

I don’t really have anything too eloquent to say. This blog post has already wandered for too long. I’m just going through that day again. Class, walking home in the heat, my stomach dropping out, feeling weak, then spending the entire afternoon and night watching the same story on every channel…on a tiny TV perched atop a moving box. I think my roommate and I forgot to eat. I don’t know. It was just the planes slicing through the Twin Towers like a heated knife through butter that sticks in my mind after that long walk home.

But you know what? Despite that horrific act of hatred, I think it was the day that I fell in love with the world. Partisan lines dissolved and countries began to realize how connected we are. Thousands died that day. Millions rose to support another part of the world.

I’ll stop rambling…my sealift container has arrived and I should be unpacking it…but if you wouldn’t mind watching this clip from my favorite movie, you’ll understand why I fell in love with the world…the day the Twin Towers fell.

The closest window is actually my unit...when I'm washing my dishes, I see what's in the following pics...

I did it…I’ve figured it out! I was having problems with my pictures before because I never really turned my computer off. No, generally I just shut it which sends it into ‘hibernate’ mode. Apparently it needs to be reset. Well, I’m sure there’s an easier way, but my way has been to turn the darn thing off.

So here is Kugluktuk – well, a few pics that the hounds have been howling for.

So that’s the view right outside my kitchen window these days. Certainly a change from last year. I wish I could get a picture where the colour actually reflected the was it is here; I’m not that talented yet.

In case the green is confusing, check out this picture…I really am in the north!

And that bottom pic is just fun…where snowmobiles go to die.

I know that’s not much, but it’s a start. My journey here in Kug has just started, and I’m sure I’ll have better photos in the future.

“Enough lazin’ around now!” was what I said to my Mac last night. It is a sentiment that I repeat today.  I’m sure “it’s not you, it’s me,” would be the appropriate quote, but I don’t want to break up just yet. Can’t we try again?

It’s the iPhoto…curses (imagine a type of evil mutter and exhale of breath here)! I’ve been trying to load pictures into a post for the past 2 days with no luck. If I just want to view then I can, but if I try to load them it won’t read most most recent transfer from my camera.

…the pictures of the golden grass and mini-bushes, the big rock behind my place, the madness of sealift preparation…and I can’t access them. Why, oh why Mr. Mac, are you holding out on me? Oh, and when I say ‘mini-bushes’ it’s only because I spent the last two years on Baffin Island where it’s already snowing.

I suppose I can post some summer memories – all photo montage-like.

Above: Huge tree, right? Completely out of the realm of northern imagination. My older brother lives in Haida Gwaii, and how could I resist checking this out? Sometimes the sound of the damp surroundings under the canopy reminds me of the inside of an igloo – completely different worlds, but somehow similar in their solitude.

Above: This is Yakoun Lake at the bottom of a beautiful hike through the trees (the previous picture of the big tree was taken on the walk down).

Above: No, my nephew is not a crazy miniature boy…this is just Scarlett – the chihuahua mix – on a very large stump. This was taken, in fact, just before she found a pile of some sort of nastiness to rub herself in; she loved the back-twists, but she sure hated the bath!

Above: Of course, safety first if you’re out on a boat with dogs who don’t really like to swim!

Above: At my younger brother’s wedding in August, this was one of the only pictures taken of me – I was snapping for most of the weekend. Painting nails and drinking coffee. What? You thought the sunglasses were the only note-worthy things in this snapshot?

When I was growing up, I actually thought it was ugly…that was, of course, until the 70s revival of the 90s. At that point, I thought the orange and avocado daisies were so amazingly cool. It was in the neon of the 80s, though, that I realized its usefulness.

I am, of course, speaking of the awesomely ugly (depending on the decade) tea cozy tucked away on my mom’s shelf; the shelf which houses the comeback team of kitchen appliances such as the crockpot, rice cooker, bread maker, and steamer. They all take up a lot of room, but they’re definitely convenient additions.

Anyway, this tea cozy is amazing. It has a wire frame which makes the whole thing open like a puffy clam shell, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like having a thermos to carry around your house, but classed up enough so that you can still serve tea from a pot. Well, as classy as a Danish tea cozy ’70′s style’ can be…oh, haven’t I mentioned that it was Danish? Seriously. From Denmark. Or perhaps it came from friends who were Danish – the details are all very muddy.

Nope, the only detail I remember is the fact that it was one of the only things my mom steadfastly refuses to give me. So the search was on. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to find another awesomely ugly (depending on the decade) clam shell tea cozy.

However, a I have been able to find some other cool things. What I bought last night is not so much a tea cozy – though that was what it was called by the little women at the door. I generally haven’t bought too much since I left the craftmasters in Pangnirtung, but I thought this was pretty cool.

And, on the other side…

And, though it’s not puffy, it has something a little extra…

…coasters!!!

…and now all I need is a teapot…

In life, everyone has their emergencies; some more serious than others. For example, I cannot find any bocchini at the Northern or the Co-Op. What are the chances, right? Alas, my quinoa salad will have to do without. I’ll survive.

Other emergencies? The life-threatening kind? Hmm…thankfully they don’t come around as often; when they do come around, its a good reality check. You know, emergencies that affect something close to your heart.

I’m sure you have an idea where this is leading…with such an awesome picture of my girl here, how could you not?

Basically, it was two days before I was due to fly to Iqaluit for orientation meetings and I was out enjoying the warm weather with Scarlett and Gryphon. I know that these monkeys don’t feel grass under their paws nearly enough, and I was trying to take advantage of those last moments in the south. Anyway, as Scarlett did her…business…I noticed a glint.

NB: I know it’s nasty to talk about poop if you’re not a pet owner or a parent, but this post is all about Scarlett and her digestive system.

Back to the glint…well, as it turns out, it was my purple and silver necklace. Went right through her. She’s always had some weird fetish for jewelry, but this took it to the next level. Since I was traveling at the time, I had everything stored in a ziploc bag in my suitcase – ripe for the picking! After finding the mess of mismatched earrings and bracelets, I decided a precautionary trip to the vet.

The Bank Street Animal Hospital in Ottawa is absolutely amazing; for anyone looking for someone, you should check them out. Dr. Kamran did a quick x-ray then came back with my very healthy looking pup. He, on the other hand, looked a bit green. When he had me check out the screen I saw a few earrings and beads in her intestines and a whole mass of tangled jewelry in her stomach. He then broke the news that a relatively high risk surgery needed to happen within the next few hours.

…a bit more serious than the lack of bocchini at the local shop, right?

Anyway, all I can say is, ‘thank goodness for modern science’. A surgeon came in and, within an hour and a half of me walking in, she was under general anesthesia. And this is what they found…

Can you imagine that she had all of this in her little chiweenie gut?

Fortunately, miraculously, nothing had punctured her stomach lining. Had that happened, who knows what this blog entry would entail!

These are her crazy stitches two days after her surgery.

Scarlett is notorious or not wanting anyone to poke, prod, pull, or pick at her – who could blame her? And here the closest vet is almost a 2 hour flight away. Classic quotes, however, stick around for a reason: Necessity is the mother of all invention. In the north many things are necessary. And many things are not readily available. It seems everyone must become a ‘jack of all trades’; I can’t say what my trades may be, but I can say that local nurses often moonlight as a vet techs! This afternoon two of them took time out of their weekends to remove my rascal’s stitches. And this is what she looks like now…

That's one nasty looking scar!

Guess what…my jewelry will no longer be housed in a plastic ziploc bag. And pet insurance rocks bee-otch!

Here I am, logging in again…from Kugluktuk. Yes, it’s true, I’ve moved again. Pretty soon my menu bar isn’t going to have room for all these changes!

Kugluktuk – ‘the place of moving water’ – is located at the mouth of the Coppermine River. Unfortunately, I haven’t really gotten to take many pictures yet; I’ve been out to work every day, but I haven’t been lugging around my camera. I already stand out enough at this point. I’m the new instructor in town that no one can quite place…since classes at the elementary and high schools have already started, they know I don’t work there, but I guess I just don’t carry myself well as a potential nurse.

Anyway, I promise to get pictures soon; there is a hilarious street sign just outside my front window that deserves its very own entry on another day. I do, however, have a snapshot taken from a websearch…just wanted to let you know it wasn’t my shutter which recorded the view – thank goodness for wikipedia!

Northern Christmas celebrations will begin soon in Kug. This would be, of course, this year’s sealift. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite plan things out this year. I prepped my order in Ottawa and had it put it on a ship in Montreal…and had it shipped to the most westerly hamlet in all of Nunavut. Hmm, that wasn’t quite thought out. Most people have theirs prepped in Edmonton and shipped from Hay River. Oh well, you live you learn. This was just a very expensive one.

Next on the list to mention? The weather here, so far, has been gorgeous! I shake my head every morning as CBC North talks about how foggy and nasty it is here and wonder how that mistake can be made daily. It’s all very strange. I’ll just enjoy the sun while it’s here; I know it will officially disappear soon.

Ahh, that reminds me…the Northern Lights made there first appearance (to me) last night. They weren’t as striking as I’ve ever seen but they were there, cutting the sky, on September 2nd.

Regular housing problem to deal with? The heat of the units. It’s absolutely ridiculous how stifling it can be; because of the heat, you end up opening the windows. And what did your mother tell you about sleeping with open windows? You get sick. Right now I have a cough that regularly rattles my lungs and my voice has disappeared – just 3 days before classes are due to start.

And now I have to head to the nurse to deal with a case of canine stitch removal. Check for an update in the ‘Snow Dogs’ category later today or tomorrow.