As promised....A king's ransom for Warren

Many years ago, before packing up and moving to the land of hobbits, dwarves and elves, I worked in a wonderful place called Ft. McMurray. Back then it was small town, quaint, despite some of its lack of services and distance to major cities. But it was fun and it was a community. It still is from what I hear, but the place is bursting at its seams, due to its geographical layout, huge influx of populations coming to build and to work at the oil sands plants.

They even have about 10,000 construction workers housed in trailer camps to supply the labor to build the sites. Lots of hustle, bustle and energy going to and from everyday, all the time.

My last big trip up there was to work on the first expansion of the original oil sand plant that was built back in the 60's. I stayed two years and made lots and lots of money. The everyday grind kind of gets to you with lots of hours, long days, haywire travel down that ol' highway 63. Many, like me, lived to tell about it. Many others did not. Victims of bad drivers, alcohol, bad weather and heavy traffic.

Recently a firm that I used to work for contacted me and said they had a two year project up there and wanted me to come out of retirement as I am a specialist and good at what I do, of course.

Folks, here is what they said. 'Warren, we will pay you 1,000 per day for roughly 22 days a month for two years, plus, we will give you 6500.00 a month for living allowance. Also, if you have a truck we will pay you 100.00 a day for that and mileage. Oh, and we'll fly you home for leave."

I am listening to this guy weave this offer to me and I guess I should have been flabbergasted or ready to jump at it. I mean this is over a half million dollars in salary alone for two years. As I am a consultant, I try to keep the government out of my pocket book as much as possible.

I have been sitting here for about ten days trying to get my head around this. Not the money. It is just that I don't think I can do another two year stint in a place that used to be my home. Too much of it has changed, and not for the better.

From what I am able to glean on your press, the city is being swamped and needs well over a billion dollars just to maintain their infrastructure.

House prices have gone through the roof and to the moon. Good for the folks who bought pre the big boom. Not so good for those trying to get a foothold in the housing door. I single wide trailer recently sold for 335.000 dollars.

Where there is money like the kind up there, crime follows it's scent. Drugs flow into the city for those that need them. Gambling sanctioned by the government is the highest in the Province of Alberta. Alcohol consumption is the highest in the province. Now, I'm not saying it is the good citizens of my old town, it just comes with the territory of boom times.

Traffic, traffic, traffic, the Indy 500 out to the plants everyday. Traffic everywhere you turn.

It's not the old place that I lived for many years, and I am sure a lot of McMurrayites feel the same way and can't wait for their pensions to arrive.

So, as I said, a king's ransom maybe, but I can't just get my head around the place anymore.

later gators

Warren K