The last ship

It's been consistently cold the last week or so in Iqaluit. You get a choice when you live up here...you can have it relatively warmer, but it's going to be cloudy or you can have bright sunshine that your body is craving, but considerably colder. You're not getting sunshine and warmth at this time of the year.

Earlier the week the last sealift boat made its escape from Iqaluit. I'm surprised it took as long as it did. For days it seemed like it was just hanging around out there, doing nothing. I can't imagine sitting on a sealift boat when it's -27C windchill, which we had last week, was particularly fun. I figured that was the last boat of the year.

Except yesterday the coast guard made a reappearance. Again, not really sure what she's doing out there. I guess it's possible another sealift boat is coming, or perhaps a fuel boat. But it's getting awfully late in the year. There are great clouds of mist coming off the bay today. The air is considerably colder than the water, and you can see the bay is starting to freeze up. You won't be hopping out there on a ski-doo for several more weeks, but it's beginning. People around town are anxious for it to happen. It's too cold to go boating now, so they want the bay to freeze so they can go ski-dooing.

The light was nice this morning, so I grabbed a couple of pics; one in colour and a slightly spookier one in black and white.

And just because it's been awhile, I figured you should get an update on Boo. As you can tell, it's a hard life being a little dog. He's resting up in preparation for his next defence of the house from the evil duo of The Water Truck and The Sewage Truck. It's a never-ending battle...trust me.

I've also discovered in recent weeks that there is a third Coton de Tulear in Iqaluit. I knew there was at least one other because the family came down to meet Boo before deciding if they were going to take the plunge (Coton's are not cheap). This lady got her dog (named Chiquita), from a different breder...one in Saskatchewan. Still, it's nice to know there are three Cotons in town, even if Boo wanted absolutely nothing to do with her when they met on the street. I joked we needed to start a Coton Club in town. Alas, the joke seems to go right over everyone's head. Anyway...

I always kind of regret how unsociable he is with other dogs. It's a consequence of when we lived "downtown" and there were so many strays - many of them not nice - so that we were constantly yanking him away from other dogs when they met on the road. It's too late to do anything about it now (something about old dogs and new tricks, I believe), but if that's the worse we can say about him, then I think we got off all right.

Well, Cathy's not fond of his habit of whining at 4 am to get up on the bed, even though he's perfectly capable to jumping up there himself. So I guess we can find a few bad things, but really, he's an awfully good dog. I regret that with the colder weather coming in his walks are about to get a lot shorter. Even with a proper coat on, we can't have him out as long. His feet get too cold. And yes, we know we can buy boots, but the little bugger is a Houdini in getting them off his feet. We've probably lost $100 worth of those things. 

Last Five
1. Bad liver and a broken heart - Tom Waits
2. I think Ur a Contra - Vampire Weekend
3. The one - Garbage
4. Billy Liar - The Decemberists
5. Murder in the Southlands - Mark Bragg*