It's Spring (I think)

It has been too long since my last post. Just to catch up let me back track a bit to Goose Bay.

Unfortunately, I didn't completely appreciate what being on call 24/7 for a week would do to my social life. I'm still paranoid about being on home call for anesthesia so I didn't leave town for the whole week. While Goose Bay had slightly more amenities than St. Anthony, the actual town itself didn't have much to offer in the way of sight seeing. I expect to go on a Labrador road trip (and possibly through Quebec) one of these days and I'll do Goose Bay justice then.

The Goose Bay locum was pretty quiet -- only a half day of OR work 4 out of 5 days a week. It's interesting how I was initially interested in the Goose Bay position based on the ad and the high salary (2x what I'm paid now). However, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't want to work there. My skills would rust solid after a year and you couldn't pay me enough to do call 24/7 (even if it is pretty quiet).

After the locum I returned briefly to Toronto for my birthday. Due to a busy social schedule I didn't have the traditional morning dim sum with my parents -- the only time we could have done it was early morning (7-8am) and my Dad was adamant that there were no good dim sum restaurants open that early. The ones that do all serve defrosted/microwaved dim sum. While I find that hard to believe, I should do some digging -- there must be a good dim sum place that opens early!

I also had a chance to catch up with some friends over coffee and some Korean food. While this isn't the first time I've lived outside of Toronto, this is the first time I've been this far away and return visits are infrequent at best. Although I've only been away for 10 months, you definitely notice the passage of time more acutely every time you return home. A case in point being the upcoming marriage I've been invited to in June. Man, I feel old.

Life has settled into a routine up here in St. Anthony so nothing terribly interesting to report. Hmm, we did have a polar bear visit the area but the poor animal was put down by conservation officers. My only other (close) encounters with wildlife are with the 4 legged variety on the Viking Trail highway. While coming back from a movie in Corner Brook I saw no less than 8 moose and 3 of which forced me to slam on the brakes because they were on the highway. All I can say is that I'm a fan of Philips Extreme Power +80% lightbulbs for your car headlights.

The transition from winter to spring is very slow up here. In early April we had 2 weeks of above zero weather and I decided to put my summer tires on to spare my winter tires the wear and tear. A week later we get 15 cm of snow overnight and I was thankful I didn't have to drive anywhere that day. My colleagues admonished me and said I should have kept the winter tires on until April 30th (the last legal day to have studded tires on your car). But, things worked out and I was happy to have the quieter summer tires on my trip to St. John's where temps hit double digits. However, the last stubborn pockets of snow still remain, particularly at the higher altitudes. At least the harbour is now clear of ice. But just when you think winter is dead and gone, it snows (last week) or you hear tales of freak June snowstorms.

It won't be until June before we get temps in the teens and then we only get 2 weeks of "summer" in July with temps in the low 20s. Although I miss wearing shorts in the summer, I can't say that I miss the sweltering, high humidity heat waves in Toronto. One other benefit of living in a higher latitude place is the increased daylight. Right now, St. Anthony gets around 1 more hour of daylight than Toronto does. I'm having trouble these days with the sun waking me up at 5 am (a problem I wouldn't get in Toronto until late June).

So, in addition to the wedding in Toronto in 3 weeks I'm also planning a trip out west to Vancouver/Victoria for an Anesthesia conference and to visit a friend who just moved there recently. Can't wait to have Vancouver sushi again. I'll be stopping off in Ottawa on the way back to visit another friend. I don't have much in the way of plans for this summer. I'll try to spend some time in Central Newfoundland and maybe visit Fogo island which gets lots of airplay in Newfoundland's tourism commercials. Then it'll be back to Toronto for a week in September for my sister's wedding.