Originally written on April 28th.
I guess I owe you all some sort of update or at the very least a pop in to let you know that we haven't been eaten by a polar bear.
Since my last post there has been an on-line shopping catastrophe. On April 8th without warning Amazon.ca cancelled all free shipping to remote locations. Instead they now offer shipping at the ridiculous price of$29.99 per order plus $9.99 per pound. As much as I enjoy receiving packages in the mail that is nor a fee that I am willing to pay. I am regretful now that I waiting to order a few things from there that were a little on the pricey side such as a new digital good quality camera, and dog food.
In the same week of the Amazon fiasco the community ran out of dry dog food. This is not as big of a trauma for us as Tia eats mostly rice and hamburger as her staple. The dry food is just extra and a bowl is down if she feels extra hungry. The lack of dog food here is because of a big dog sled race that was to start on April 14th. As you can imagine when you have a sled dog team of 6-8 full grown working dogs they eat a lot of food. The white owners buy food (the natives feed their dogs seal meat) by the case not just by the bag so they came in and bought up all of the extra food. Not very considerate but as I have quickly learned here if you like something in the store you buy as much as you can afford because the stock levels are unpredictable. We will eventually get dog food but at a cost of over $140 per bag if flow in it won't be until the August sea lift before the stock is refilled. No dog food and no amazon leaves us now searching for a cost effective alternative. Walmart seems to be the next best choice if you can say that with their $100 flat rate shipping fee to remote locations. Oddly though that rate is to ship to your home. With a $50 rate if shipped to a Canada Post. There is no home shipping here. I sent an email to Walmart asking about this but I have not heard back from them. clearly I will have to suck it up and pay the $100. I figure if we order 10 items it will at least some what justify the shipping fees.
As it was the sled dog racers didn't actually leave until April 27th. They were waiting for a few more teams to show up. The last teams snowmobile broke down on the way here had to wait to be rescued. If your thought was, huh, snowmobile? Why not use the dogs? I had the same thought until someone pointed out that the dogs would need a rest before starting a week long race to Arctic Bay. So they couldn't pull all the way here and then race the next day.
Last week our oldest employee was honored with a commissioners award for being an outstanding volunteer. This lovely man clearly does not seem ever sleep except when Drew sometimes finds him napping in a back corner of the store so I can understand the award. After working all day he then goes and hosts the radio from 8pm- midnight Monday to Friday and then again for 4-6 hours on the weekends.
Not sure if I've mentioned this before but since everything here communication wise is done via satellite we only have one radio station. This station is manned by members of the community who seem to have no formal broadcasting training. If someone isn't available to work then they broadcast CBC and CBC north. Years ago I worked in a barn where the owner would have CBC on while we worked. I enjoyed listen to CBC. I find that some one the stories that they air are very interesting. Unfortunately the downside to an almost pirate like radio station is that if someone comes into work during the English CBC program, BAM off it goes and the local person plays what they want (normally some kind of junk dance music) or talk in Inuktitut, very frustrating some mornings when there is something particularly interesting being broadcast. I do at least get to hear the news in English via CBC North out of Iqaluit, usually...
The temperature is getting warmer here and things are slowly melting. We have been in winter mode now since November between here and Ontario so Drew and I are both looking forward to seeing what Pond looks like without all of the snow.
I am jealous of all of you southerners with your +15 weather. It's a balmy -14 today.
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