Slave Lake

October 22, 2005

Wow the past couple of days have been excessively busy.  I’ve been here in Slave Lake since Tuesday and it’s been non-stop until now.  Even this morning (Saturday) I had to go to the Pulp Mill for two hours at 6AM!  So now I’m sitting in my fantastic hotel room on the shores of incredible Slave Lake looking out the window considering the things I should / could do today.  There are the usual chores, washing the truck and cleaning it out, laundry, and mailing off the completed work to the office.  But right now I’m pretty much content to just sit here.  I do really wish that I had internet access though as that would help to dull the monotony.

Quite honestly Slave Lake has turned out to be the biggest surprise of a long time.  The last time I was here was about 5 years ago.  At that point this place was a dismal little dump.  The first clue I got that things may have changed was when I called from High Prairie the other day and tried to get a hotel room.  Every room in town was booked!  At this point I kind of got a little worried because I needed to stay here.  I called the office and told them to find me a room as I wasn’t having any success.  Thankfully they found the place I’m staying in on the internet.  I can’t even describe how much I like this place aside from saying that I would happily live here… well maybe a few months a year.  Yeah, I think I’ll trade in the car and buy myself a big ass Ford F-250 King Ranch 4X4.  Then I’ll go get an obscenely high paying job on the pipeline… yes that’s exactly what I’ll do.

So back to reality.  I’m looking forward to hitting Edmonton on Tuesday.  It’s a shame that all of the people I used to know in Edmonton no longer live there.  I do have to make a stop at The King’s University though to drop off some things for friends of The Baron’s.  I suppose I’ll also see Raphael’s brother while there.

I’ve really been missing Vancouver lately.  I’m not sure if it’s just because things in life are getting so predictable and I’m longing to shake things up a little or if it’s cause I just really want to go shopping?  Possibly a little of both.  

The more I think about starting my business the scarier it gets.  There are so many things that I never learned in business school.  Mostly things like how do I figure out how to get the suppliers I need on board, how do I open a retail store with absolutely zero money of my own, etc.  So right now because I happen to have ample time for reading I’ve been re-reading my Retailing text book from school (which is proving to scare me more with talk about population density equations and retail failure rates) but I’m finding that it’s not really all that much help cause I already know everything it’s trying to tell me.  Seems I didn’t miss very much from that class.  I’ve decided what I need is a mentor.  Someone who has been successful in retailing and would be willing to help would be excellent.  I know one person in Vancouver who used to own 10 Club Monaco’s when the chain was just new and who’s a real retailing diva but I’m going to have to track her down again.  I don’t think that’ll be hard.

Wow, a bald eagle just soared past my window.  I really wish my stupid camera phone was able to take a picture that adequately portrayed how beautiful it is here.  I’ve tried numerous times to get it to work but it just can’t get the immensity of the lake.

I suppose it’s time to go and wash the truck.