Kitimat

Kitimat is a different kind of place.  It is a designed community build out of basically nothing in the 1950's the purpose of the town was to house and support the workers at Alcan's aluminium smelting operation.  It is remote, 50 kilometers (30 miles) down a dead end road from the nearest other town (Terrace, which is not huge either).  I could say a lot more, but Wikipedia and the official website do it better:

Wikipedia on Kitimat

Official Site

The short story is we like it here.  Made some wonderful new friends and brought an old friend back to the town of his boyhood.

Where next?

This is the RioTinto Alcan site in Kitimat, BC, Canada.  The Kitimat Modernization Project is a huge job in a very small town.  It sounded like fun and adventure, so we went.  More than a bit spur of the moment, but it isn't the first time we have done that.

Definitely time for an update or two...

While it may seem so to some, or many, that I have again dropped off the face of the earth, that is not the case.  The earth is not that lucky.  New Mexico went bust for a lot of different reasons, but in a weird case of synchronicity something came up in my sister's life where she needed a bit of help.  So we packed it up and moved to southern California.  It was wonderful to spend time there with family, but SoCal is not a good place for me.  Too many ghosts and demons, drove me more than a little bit crazy.  So we moved on.  But I will be eternally grateful to my sister and her husband for their warm welcome and hospitality.

I am so lucky

I try, but truth be told I am not a good man. But I have a spectacular woman who loves me, kids who are off the top spectacular, and a unique collection of people I call friend. I am a lucky man.

Okay...

Okay, when you just pull it of the the top of your head, you would think Farmington NM sucks.   Well I have to say that is wrong.  And I have been places that sucked, I have been places that redefined sucked.  This is nice.  Comfortable, warm, homey nice. Yeah. that kind of place. And this might seem strange, but the native americans I have met so far really remind me of the nigerians.  There is something so basic and earthy.  I guess the common trait is they don't do bullshit. I have so much more to learn.

The adventure begins.

So the start of a new phase in life. This one is a bit different, the closest thing in my experience is the move to Seattle. But this is different, just me, the wife, and the dog.

A new job. A new adventure.

So it took a bit of looking, okay a whole hell of a lot of looking, but I finally found a job.  And with this new job comes a whole new adventure.

First, the where of it; Farmington, New Mexico.  Farmington is the largest city in the Four Corners area.  Four Corners is the unique juncture where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado come together.  High desert at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.  The scenery is incredible.  Thing is, if you use Google Streetview to do some exploring, you will find that Google did not do Farmington any favors.  Main Street was photographed at night, possibly in the rain.  The rest of the town was done at the height of winter, not a green leaf to be seen.  On top of that you have to do some real searching on the web to find any good news about the place (though this is true for good news in general).  But unbiased information can be found, and while it will be a big change from anyplace we have ever lived (putting aside my misspent youth) it sounds like a nice place.  I will keep you posted.

Then there is the job. Professional Land Surveyor for a native american owned company named iiná bá Inc.  (It will take some practice to learn how to pronounce that correctly.)  They do a lot of work for the Navajo Nation and their values are structured along native american philosophy. Should be interesting.  I am also thinking that it will be a different path than the "dirt butcher" work that has been such a big piece of my career.  It is hard to put into words my growing discomfort with that kind of work.  Again, I will keep you posted.

If you are so inclined take a look at their website: http://www.iinaba.com/