Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Jaded

It occurs to me that I haven't been talking much about what's happening around town with the two of us.

...

Ummm, that's because there's really not much happening. I don't pretend to have a firm grasp of Inuit culture, but if I'm not mistaken this was the time of the year that traditionally they didn't go out and about much because it was too damn cold and too damn dark. Well, it might be getting a bit brighter around here, but it's certainly not getting much warmer. It's been constantly colder than -30 for the better part of the last two months. It's not really been the kind of weather where you decide to just go out for a stroll. The poor, poor dog hasn't been outside the apartment in weeks. That might seem cruel, but it's crueler to take him outside in this cold. Even with his coat and boots he can only last a few minutes before he starts doing his little "fuck I'm cold, let's go back inside" dance.

This weekend is promising relatively balmy temps in the mid -20s, so hopefully we can get him out for a decent walk then.

But other than that, we lead quiet lives. I imagine we wouldn't mind getting out and doing stuff, but really, we're kind of comfortable right now. As boring as coming home, watching some TV, doing some reading, playing a few video games and cuddling up might sound to people use to going out to bars, it works for us right now. We're not bored of it, so why change?

So, to sum up.
1. Can't really talk about work. Mine or Cathy's
2. It's too cold to do much outside other than freeze.
3. Too cold for the dog to go out.
4. We're borderline anti-social to begin with unless people kidnap us from our apartment, which they haven't been lining up to do anyway.
5. Have been up north long enough that we're not so much at the point where nothing surprises us, but it does take bit more to jolt us into thinking it's weird. Snowmobiles blasting past us at Mach 2, kids drinking Slushies in -35 and animal skins being stretch behind someone's house is no longer weird. It's the North.

All of which leads to #6.

Not much to blog about, really. Oh sure, there's still news that catches my eye. But I figure I've been a little lax in blogging about things Nunavut related. And this is just to let people know that I want to, it's just that it's a wee bit harder than it was when we first arrived 30 months ago.

Last Five
1. History to the defeated - The Weakerthans
2. Because of you - Tony Bennett and k.d. lang
3. The chain - Fleetwood Mac
4. Love like that - Mark Bragg
5. Hit me baby, one more time (live) - Travis

2 comments:

Clare said...

It is harder writing Nunavut related articles as time goes by. I don't want to write the same post I did the year before about, oh say, the return of the sun.

But hey, didn't you get a fancy camera a while back. How about some great Iqaluit pictures while you're out looking for inspiration.

towniebastard said...

I should be taking my camera back and forth to work. I saw a lovely picture after dropping Cathy off today of dozens kids on a playground with the frozen harbour and mountains behind them all draped in white. It was really nice.

Part of my concern, and perhaps other photographers can tell me if it's a needless worry, is that the camera is a sensitive piece of equipment. And these things don't often react well to the extreme cold we've been getting lately. So I'm worried about taking it out and accidentally damaging it.

Still, it's promising to get a bit warmer this weekend and stay sunny. I'll slap on a polarizing filter and try and grab some pics.