Last Week

Well one more week to go. The last three weeks seem to have gone by awful fast. This last week in particular was very busy work wise with a number of files keeping me occupied. I wrote up a few reports to crown so who knows maybe I'll get called back for court so I can see Igloolik in the summer time. I've also managed to avoid doing traffic work even though at times the thought of pulling over a skidoo for excessive noise is overwhelming

Last night (Friday) There was a birthday party at the high school for one of the teachers. They opened up the gym and there was about 25-30 people there so we started out with a game of dodge ball. Now I haven't played dodge ball in a long time and it was surprisingly fun. However, they were not using the old hard rubber balls filled up to 20psi that I remember as a kid. Instead they were using softer Nerf type balls, somehow the fear factor of getting hit wasn't quite the same but lots of fun.

I had thought about taking the skidoo out today but its -40 with the windchill and that's just a little too cold. Hopefully I'll get out tomorrow as it is supposed to be a little warmer and hopefully a little less windy.

Sundog

If you look closely you can see a halo around the sun. When I took this photo it was quite cold and windy causing ice crystals to get into the air and thus the halo. I am led to believe this is what is known as a sundog. If I am incorrect let me know.

Basketball

Saturday night is drop in Basketball at the local school. I went with Mike the other member here. Aside from ourselves there was 9 Inuit so we had a pretty good game of 5 aside basketball. We played 2 1/2 hour halves so it was a pretty good workout. Everyone was there for a good time and quite a few of the players brought their wives and kids with them. There is also floor hockey on thursdays so I'll have to give that a try this week. So for anyone thinking of coming up here there are things to do in your off time if you look around.

No Public Service Staff

One thing that takes some getting used to is having no public service staff. Anyone who takes P.S.'s for granted should have to come up here for pennance. I thought doing CPIC entries and looking after exhibits weren't too bad but there is a lot more work here than one would think that has little to do with actual policing. Friday Iqaluit crown faxed the subpoena list for court. They don't fax subpoena's its up to the members to type them up, then get them signed by a local Justice of the Peace then go and serve them. Needless to say with my typing skills it took a little over two hours to get them all done. We also do all our own informations up here. On the bright side I am learning all sorts of new things that no one ever does down south

Work

Work is going well. So far I've only been called out twice since I arrived here. Last night we were called out at 3:00 A.M. needless to say I was a little disoriented at first but as soon as I got out in the -30 air to go out to the truck I was awake. I have to give the guys in these small detachments a lot of credit. Even though only one person is on call most after hours calls that need attendance require both members so you have to expect to be called out every night. I think that would wear thin pretty quick but the members are up here for two and three years dealing with this all the time. All I know is I will not miss the on call stuff.

Right now we are running about 1 file a day. Mostly thefts and break and enters. Not too bad, I even managed to get a confession on a break and enter so who knows maybe I'll get a summer trip back for court.

Hope everyone is doing well. Will write more later

Sledding

This is a brother and sister that were out sledding in their yard. Age 3 and 5. They were having a great time despite the cold and the snow. It makes me think back to when I was a kid and you would be outside for hours even though it was -20 out. Now I'm out for 10 minutes and I'm thinking man I can't wait to get in where its warm.

Elementary School

Here is the elementary school playground at lunch time. About 1/2 the kids run around and the other 1/2 play soccer, which seems to be the most popular outdoor sport during class breaks as you always see lots of the kids playing. I am told the school currently has about 65 students. There is actually a school bus here that looks like it would be at home in Courtenay. It picks kids up in the morning and then takes them home after school even though most of the kids walk home. The School is alsmost in the middle of town so none of the kids has more than about a 5 minute walk.