I am in Fort Simpson at the moment and have finally tracked down Barry. He is happier than a pig in ...... ,. working his tail off. I am not sure how much longer he is going to be here but I am trying to convince him that if the opportunity should arise he should go back to work in Yellowknife. I am not sure if he sees things my way!!

I had a good trip down here, made it in record time. I left Yellowknife about 3:00 P.M. and arrived here 6 1/2 hours later. The road is paved to the ferry at Fort Providence where you cross the Mackenzie River, about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Yellowknife, then when you turn west to go to Simpson you are driving on gravel for about 3 hours. The road was pretty decent and I had no problems with the car. I managed to make the Liard River ferry crossing in plenty of time, the last run of the day is at 11:00 P.M. and I was worried that I would have to sleep on the other side of the river. With the amount of bugs there are here I was not looking forward to that prospect.

Barry is actually taking the day off work, miracles or miracle, but he says that he has a meeting tomorrow, that would be Sunday at 1:00. I have asked him to put that meeting back a couple of hours so that I can just leave and drive back to Yk. Work is a little crazy. I arrived on Monday night and started Tues. morning. When I agreed to help they had asked me to just finish training their new bookkeeper. Now they have fired the techincal support person and I am doing that job and helping the new bookkeeper and I will be training the old bookkeeper on the technical support position. DON'T ASK, it is all very complicated and I was not pleased to be put in the position where I was writing the termination slips for the person they fired, YECH!! Anyway, Barry being the diplomat that he is, is reminding me that anyone could be reading this so I had better stop ranting now.

I think if I would agree to it Barry would stay up north and work another 10 years. Maybe I should let him and I could just go off and satisfy my sailing habit, but I am kind of used to having him around and would not enjoy myself if I did not have him to share it with. Barry says to let you know that he sails in order that he be allowed to work!!!!! HMMMM what is wrong with this picture.