Morning

Feeling of screaming loneliness penetrates the camp at 2:00 am. Life of rotators is comedy up close, a tragedy from a distance.

Deep coughs, feet dragging on ground, Ray at 2:18 showing up in smoke pit. He doesn’t see me , no glasses, I sit in shadow on stairs. During the day go, endless chatter, struggle to stay in flow, relevant. 2-3 marriages are not uncommon. I leave quietly, let him be.

You have less lies in the camp to wrap around your identity, to convince yourself you’re someone.

Morning chatter:

- Nanton is large compared to this operation (main operation is in Edmonton)

- That’s the problem, they (unintelligible)..underbid

- They always do that even if they partner up

- Did you see what they did to our D8

Fuel duty

-Another day in paradise

- If this is paradise, I don’t know what hell looks like

We laugh. Up-top. Long-ass GFL green vacuum truck. Utility crew at the mine entry point 9 gets bigger by the day. And Luke has to reach even farther for gate pass scanner. ORTA placement.

On Ridge road, Joker flies out of intersection. Sand drops on road. After a while he stops on road and signals left. Then a grader appears on the right, between him and the berm! He went so close to the side, following grader, should have expected grader to turn back to make another windrow. It is not ok to pass grader if it’s working at intersection. Luke: he is a baaad driver.

You’re my everything by Santa playing in my head. We fuel, two operators even don’t come down. Cloud covers entire sky. Mood– Santa’s song.

On mine ops 15:

- I wonder if I can talk to you this way or

- I don’t have time for this right now

- Copy, Dale

- Jake, you on this channel?

- Yes, sir

- If you still want, we can still have that chat

- All right, sir

- Half does not hold here

How bad are things in Newfinland? We got a lot of people who commute from there and travel is only paid from Edmonton and Calgary. That’s grand each time. Kira, Travis, James, Carl is from Nova Scotia.

18-20 units a day. Chokes, lock, diesel, grease, transmission, hydrolics, uptop- coolant, engine oil. DEF for graders. Off you go. “You don’t gotta grease it” – Luke waves trucks out and off.

Cindy says to talk to Trey, ask him to invite GF over here. I go to Trey.

- GF will be here shortly

- I know its unorthodox, but I am told there was a precedent few years ago

- I’ll tell him to speak to you, whats your name

- LJ, fuel bay

He somewhat rushes to close the window. It’s just darts.

Rick on water truck, talks to Luke. I come over:

- what did you do?

- I kissed a girl (giggles) , no, Nanton has this new relationship policy, Mika

- You kissed her, that’s it

- No, I fucked her, then her truck broke, she was ride-along with me, no-no

- These are people’s private lives

- They want to manage our relationships

Next set, guy I don’t know drives Rick’s water truck. He hoses our stuff with water, despite Jun’s hand signals. I step up to him when he comes to refuel. A smirk, something will be enough. Driver apologizes seemingly sincere, I study his face. Jun later says that driver did it for three times and reports him to Carl. In fuel bay, ground personnel rules.

Tucker bullies Luke again.

-take care of my precious boy, he’s my little precious boy...

Triple, trainee and Ronny, who shows trainee how to do walk-around. I laugh. Trainee smiles.

-Ronny, he’ll get ideas, these trucks are shit

Trainee walks funny, like he never wore heavy boots before.

I put on Flowmax on tank like motherfucker by now.

Evening

Return bus: as per Sunridge policy buckle up, hold on your tits. Where four-ways. Behind steering wheel. Haha, I am a bus driver (in low voice). Laughter. Do we have to call shift change? Not anymore.

In the bus to Tamarack

-I actually… worked very hard today.

-Eeehh (skeptical, then group laugh)

Morning

2:28 AM. Walk for first coffee , dorm P pit window, Ray, smoking alone, his head down. Three am, full moon on west and brightening skies on the East.

Yesterday at shack Jun’s drops hints of bitterness, Beanie made him wash his truck, like his servant. "You are perfectionist, Jun, I just hit mechanical parts. You put too much effort."  One day twelve pickups . Holy shit. It takes me 40 min to do one.

Should have exited that trade. He laments loss of 500 profit he did not catch by exiting too early.

Rattle bus again. Night shift runs away to catch 11. No talk.

Shovel/haul static at Sandpiper /Ridge. Wiggle water turning left. Its gonna be hot today. Sun is red ,covered with two lines of clouds like Saturn rings. No signal on Ridge. Rolling into RMT7. Radio chatter.

Evening, changing coveralls, get shit and get on the bus:

- Tired guy?

- Tired soul

- Where is your lube lord

- Kira, she is not until Monday

- She is too violent

- The Fords and the Chevs,they have different shafts

- Heavy Chevy

- If I can be lead hand ,you can be a lube lord

- Your fucking girlfriend tried to do donuts today on grader, Ken, you have to teach her. Fucking retarded

- To be clear, I once made a mission to piss Barry, he yelled at me

- To be fair, I yelled at everybody

Ken asks Luke to stage something for him - so that its easy for me to bang bang bang…you are going alone…yes…where is Evan…he is off, trying to make a baby.

I can recognize the road by how we roll. We are on Sandpiper. I close my eyes in exhaustion, just one endless trip – rattling bus, engine roar and two conversations at once – Dustin and Luke, Victor and Dick.