Reactions are Mixed...am I surprized?

The reaction to my announcement of this adventure is, to say, MIXED as you can imagine. The support is still strong at home...and also at the store...but there it varies slightly...one person thought I had stood up too quickly and the blood had never returned to the brain...but they were pleasant about it. Another was eager to hear all about it. Several have mixed thoughts...and one co-worker when I told him the news asked me if I had lost a bet to someone.
Many have suggested medical treatment for obvious reasons...also in a nice way.

Although its supposed to be +4C here at home today and it is the first day of winter officially...the longest day of the year in this hemisphere. At the Arctic Circle the sun should be below the horizon all day long. There will be light there but no direct sun...that's the official version for "the land of the midnight sun" for the summer solstice at least

I'll be at 62°48'56.06"N Latitude but still about 4 degrees south of the Arctic Circle with Longitude as 92° 4'55.09"W. Get those globes out or visit (http://earth.google.com/) and put the world in perspective as they say. This is a far cry from our house at 43°37"01.83' North Latitude and 79°07'15.78"West Longitude in Niagara.

The closest settlement that I can find so far is Whale Cove to the southwest about 80 kilometers. We are approximately 400 kilometers south of the famous Distant Early Warning (or DEW) Line Early warning system established in the fifties during the tensest part early in the cold war. In fact Dewline Line Radar sites CAM-D and CAM 3 are almost due North. Many interesting photos about its history and construction are available here http://www.lswilson.ca/cam3.htm Check it out. For the whole story http://www.lswilson.ca/dewline.htm It was officially working fifty years ago. I was seven at the time...ouch.

So where is this "RANKIN INLET?"

Located in Canada's newest territory (NUNAVUT) on the western shore of Hudson's Bay, the hamlet or village known as Rankin Inlet, thanks to wikipedia, is:

The town was founded by the owners of the Rankin Inlet Mine, which produced nickel and copper ores there between 1957 and 1962 from an underground operation. The mine was the first case of Inuit miners in Canada. Since the mine closed several attempts to develop an alternate source of income for the town were unsuccessful. These included a pig ranch in 1969 and a chicken raising venture in the 1970s. Both animals were fed a diet of local fish which unfortunately gave the meat an unpleasant flavour. It was also common for the animals to freeze to death or be eaten by polar bears.[2]

As of the 2006 census the population was 2,358 an increase of 8.3% from the 2001 census.[3]

The hamlet has a land area of 20.24 km² (7.8 sq mi). The community is served by the Rankin Inlet Airport, and by annual supply sealift.

Rankin Inlet can be known by several different names (Inuktitut: Kangiqiniq; or Kangirliniq, meaning deep bay/inlet) is an Inuit hamlet in Nunavut, Canada. The 2008 Rand McNally Road Atlas shows a new name of Kangiqsliniq, but its status as official is not known. It is on the western Hudson Bay and is the regional centre for the Kivalliq Region.

How it Began!

So the whole thing began about two weeks ago when I got a phone call at the camera store (where I now work part time) asking if I was still interested in doing a locum for the xray tech in Rankin Inlet. I still do relief work here in the city on occassion for one of the local clinics (I retired from the hospital about 2 years 8 months ago but who's counting ??). Prior to that I had a couple of xray grads go there to work for a short time. More about that later.

January is usually a slow month in retail after the christmas season so I jumped at the chance. It's always been a dream to visit the Arctic...probably more so lately...when there is so much talk about what is going on there longterm.

My wife has been very supportive of me in this venture...truthfully....making sure I have the appropriate winter gear and clothing to keep me warm. She does, however, keep asking me "Don't you know anyone who runs a clinic in Bahamas, Bermuda, Florida or Mexico?" So that she also experiences some of the joys I have actively been clearing the freezer for her. We'll see if she tries it!

Winter camping as a teenager was an experience...staying overnight in a tent with the wind whipping around and the sleeping bag somewhat frozen in the morning. My cold feet were something else. We didn't know to dress in layers in those days...we just kept piling the clothes on until we were.

My other coldest experience came at this time of the year. After school, I worked at a small grocery store, Eke's Meat Market on Queenston Street across from the hospital and delivered groceries on a bicycle. Two doors up was Fosters' Ice Cream...Bob and Mae Ewart ran the place and I can remember those free Ice Cream Bars that were being hand made down in the production area. It's forty years since this happened but that Christmas I was sent to help sort and label the frozen turkeys that we kept temporarily in Foster's huge walkin freezer before the customers picked up their ordered birds. It was cold..my ears were tingling even with a toque and the heavy coats worn by the ice cream staff. By the way, Foster's had the best Black Raspberry Milkshakes that were ever made...nothing today compares.

Plans Finalized

I am a Medical Radiation Technologist from Ontario. I have agreed to do a locum for three weeks in Rankin Inlet Nunavut at the local medical centre there.

Apparently, the travel is being finalized and as of today I leave January the second for almost three weeks in the Arctic. Don't know all the details yet but am awaiting the ticketing info.

Have been watching the weather of late, here's a link:
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/71083.html

You'll notice that the sun rises this time of year at about 9:30 a.m. and sets at 2:15...and the temp on the weekend was a high of 24 C and a low of 28C ...the minus this time of year is understood.

My boots are good to minus 60F...so they will be tested. This is the arctic with Global Warming...what did it used to be like?

The research so far shows that the native people have very little calcium from their diet but extreme muscle mass....should prove interesting for my xray images.