[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
Yes, I’ll be going home. I don’t think the borders are totally locked. Not sure about crossing by land, but by air you have to have a negative nose swab 3 days before you go, one at the airport then pay $2000 to stay in a quarantine hotel till you get your results back. Totally over blown, stupid and insane. Numbers are going down, so hopefully things will ease before end of March. Still have no clue if I’ll have work or not. Randy did tell me that his project manager friend on the Fluer Kitamat job has slotte both himself and me in, so looks like a very good possibility I’ll be able to work on that project. That’s a 5 year project on the BC coast. I looked for economic forecasts for 2021 and most of them were positive, there should be rebound after 2020. We’ll see.

So I emailed the guy that gave me his card. Silence. ??? I’ve heard from Dean every day for the last several days. He was a primary lead for a meetup group for a long time and stepped down to secondary lead. The new lead really treated him like dirt and kicked him out. I was quite impressed with how he handled it. He just walked away, didn’t react and found a new group that brought him in as a co-organizer. He’s got a very positive, upbeat personality. We’ll see where it goes?

Those nature preserves are an hour and a half away and on the other side of New Orleans. Not terribly enticing. We’ll see what the weather is like Saturday.

Time to get on the treadmill, then I brought work home so better get going.
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
Yes. Thank you. 52 more days till my last day here.

Well, I’ve had a couple of interesting days.

The North American manager that I fall under was at site yesterday and told me he has nothing for me in Canada and he will pass my name on to contacts he has in other companies. He also didn’t think any projects would let someone in my position work remotely. ?????? It will be an interesting next couple months.

So all of a sudden I’m hearing regularly from Dean, the meetup lead. ????? No clue, but I’m getting clues he’s at least a little interested. Also at least getting 2 or 3 sentence answers from someone I’d be really interested in from Match. That just started a couple days ago.

The mystery man at work has disappeared. But I did find out the last time I heard his voice he works for Triad, our electrical contractor. So today I had gotten some toner for our printer and asked Casey, one of our safety leads sitting near the printer, if he had a knife to split the taped boxes apart and cut the tape on the one I needed to open. There was a gentleman standing there to talk with him, and I said Hi. He was the same height as Mystery Man and had similar dark hair and had Triad on his shirt. He asked if I was the one who decorated the trailer. (I’ve printed several of my photos 16×20 and 20×30 and put them up around the trailer). I said Yes. I asked why he asked. He just said I looked like someone who loved the outdoors. ????? Yeah, right. When I have a mask covering over half my face. He said he loves the outdoors to and he gave me the names of a couple nature preserves near here and then he pulled out his business card and told me to contact him if I had any questions. ????? He’s not Mystery Man, but someone who works for the same company. Not a clue, but kind of fun – and a surprise. So I’m thinking I’ll look up those nature preserves then email him and ask if he had a recommended route or best way to get there.

Hope you’re enjoy your week. Is it still winter there? Have you had much snow?

52 more days!
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
LOL. I know. We are confusing sometimes, aren’t we? I simply said, 100% match, huh? Interesting? 🙂 And put a smile after it. I almost asked what he thought about it, but didn’t. Might have been a bit cold, but was hoping the smile would warm it up.

Kind of interested. I’ll definitely have opportunity to interact with him when I get home as he’s gone back as a lead for the meetup, not the main lead, but still a leader and posts meetups, so I can go to some of those. I would like to get to know him better, so we’ll see.

Down to 57 days and they will busy, busy, busy. Looking like there’s more of a possibility I’ll be officially on the solar project and working both projects concurrently for a couple months. 🙂 It will be nice to be paid for my work. So far I’m donating time. That project goes through August. So we’ll see what happens.

So my social life for the next couple months will be pretty much non-existent. But that’s ok. I’ll have much more of a social life when I get home. 🙂

Have a super weekend!
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Thanks, Heidi,
LOL. He seems to be pretty illusive so far.

So……. the gentleman from work has disappeared. I THINK maybe I’ve seen him a couple times but he sure isn’t giving me any clues and I haven’t heard Hello, Miss Rhonda since Sunday.

But….. I’m SURE and POSITIVE men are the most confusing creatures on the face of the planet!!!!! I can understand horses and dogs and cats and even read wild animals, but men….? Totally confusing. So I told you about Dean, the meetup lead from Calgary that showed up on ChristianCafe. He has my email. We’re friends out on Facebook. He can message me through meetup. So he has several avenues to contact me. A few days ago I got 2 messages from him on Christian Cafe. This is the 3rd time he’s contacted me on there. He always says he’s just on for a day or on for 3 days, so not sure, but maybe he’s taking advantage of a free day? Don’t know. But every time he talks about when I’m coming home. This last time he said, You’ll be coming home soon. Then he says…. this site says we’re a 100% match. ??????? Second message half hour later he says, And you’re the only 100% match on here. ??????? And then says he’s planning a vacation and he’s retiring end of the year, so trying to work make plans for that. I didn’t have the foggiest clue of how to respond to his 2 comments that we’re a 100% match. Why would he point that out….. twice? Dunno. Totally confused on this one. Men!!!! And he keeps talking about me coming home, but really, he’s not given me any real signals that he’s at all interested. Not the foggiest clue.

So….. work is getting extremely busy. Well, not my project so much, but Bridget, our global lead is totally swamped. I helping out quite a bit (donating free time) with a solar project. Plus 3 large projects are going live next month. She wants to pull me off this project to help her on the other projects before the end of March. I could be out of here by the end of Feb, 4 weeks early. Have not a clue what’s going to happen. But I’m going to start packing and clearing my house and training my replacement. Project just got extended to end of May. But really there won’t be enough for me to do and can be combined with another person’s responsibilities, so I won’t be extended. So I’ll probably be working 60 hour weeks for the next few weeks – between this project and the solar project. She’s trying very hard (as are the project manager and quality lead of the project) to get me on the payroll. Upper management is fighting hiring someone else for the project, so we’ll see. Working that many hours, the next few weeks will fly by. But our poor leads, some of them are working 70-80 hours/week. I feel for them.

Past my bed time. Up at 4:30 again tomorrow.
Have a SUPER day!
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Kanya,
It’s hard for me to tell a man know when I know he’s interested. But I’m getting better at it. Here is a whole long list describing my dream man.

Christian with a strong faith in God.
Calm, confident, supportive,
Positive, caring, happy, thoughtful, patient
Team leader who will take the initiative
Honest, open, good listener
Protective without being controlling or dominating
Active and in decent shape physically
Someone who can lead a conversation, make me laugh, good sense of humor
Someone I’m comfortable with and I trust enough to relax around
Someone I can trust – he won’t cut me down or criticize me
Loves the outdoors and respects the environment, loves animals, enjoys hiking and kayaking
Doesn’t smoke and rarely drinks
Accepts me for who I am – doesn’t expect me to be perfect
Enjoys traveling

Think there’s anyone out there that fits that description?

61 more days. I’m watching the travel restrictions and border restrictions. Hope they ease a bit in the next 2 months. Canada is close to approving a home-made vaccine, so that might help.

How was your trip to Florida? Are you still there? I don’t remember how long your trip was. Any more adventures? Did you get out kayaking again or just that once?

Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Well, just told another guy I wasn’t interested. Really good-looking man on Match. I sent him a smile and he was right back to me. But he’s into off road motor bikes and sports bikes and fishing. I’m not into either of those. Have a strong dislike for motor bikes and dirt bikes. So…… turned down another one. 🙁

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
LOL. Yeah…. he’s eye candy when I get to see him. Just a glimpse the first time but nothing the second. Just heard his voice. It would be nice to find out who he is, but we’ll see. Our new analyzer lead is an older gentleman and not particularly good looking. He’s got a bad knee that bothers him occasionally, but oh, is he a sweetheart. Super nice guy. Lives in Houston and I have no clue if he’s married or not, but still nice to interact with someone as nice as he is.

Oh, yea, I’m sorry. Guess I didn’t clarify that very well. Yes, I turned in my 60-day notice here in Louisiana, so pretty solid now. Can’t wait. It’s in the mid 60s with 96% humidity and cloudy. Rain all this coming week and up in the low 70s. I’ll be lucky not to drown this week in this humidity!! And I’m definitely going to be quite rusty by the time I get home! Woke up with sinus pressure this morning. Can’t wait to get home to drier weather!!!!!!!

Have not tried J date but have tried E-harmony several times. I find their customer service is near 0 and I really didn’t find them any different than any other site. I’ve also been on elite singles, but only once, I think. Maybe I should try them again. Oh, Match has opened up so you can communicate for free without being a paying member with a select group of your matches and they’ve also put out conversation questions similar to what Hinge has done.

I really would like to try the matching service in Calgary, but I need to be very specific when I describe who I’m looking for so need to think through that. I’ve made a list of traits, but haven’t looked at it for a long time and need to revisit it.

I’m off to the treadmill then think I’ll go to the hot tub (complex has a nice pool / hot tub / grilling area. Going to be a boring day as I don’t go out in 96% humidity. I’d drown! 🙁

Have a super day. Hope you can get out for a hike and enjoy the mountains.
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
I own a house in Calgary and that’s my permanent residency, so I have a place to live when I go home. Can’t wait! I’m currently in Louisiana working on a construction project. So temporarily I’m living in Louisiana. That’s what us gypsies in the oil and gas industry do. We have a home base and a home in our home base, but we bounce around the world to whatever current (construction) project we’re assigned to. With Worley moving to the digital world and remote work, I should be able to work from home in Calgary at least for part of the next project, no matter where it is, and only go to the site part time or maybe even for occasional trips only. I know. It’s confusing. Ha Ha. Not as confusing as when I was in Ohio. LOL. Lived in Calgary, owned a house in Arizona, have a Wyoming phone number and worked in Ohio. 🙂

Still don’t have a clue who that gentleman is. This morning I was at the copier and heard a voice say, Hello, Miss Rhonda. Did not even get to see him this time as he was walking down a hall perpendicular to the hall where the copier is. I said, Hello, how are you, but he was gone already.

Other than that, very boring on the social front. Just not finding anyone out on Zoosk or Match that I’m interested in. 🙁 Nor Silver Singles or Christian Cafe. Those two are, I won’t ever go out on those again.

Rainy, extremely humid and getting muggy and warm here already. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Hope it clears up for tomorrow.
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
I will be based out of Calgary and that will be home. My bosses know that I need to be home in Canada for 7 months and they are supportive of that, so I expect to be home in Canada. The project in Canada, is huge. I can’t remember what Bridget said, but I think I heard 5 years one time and I even think I heard 15 years this last time. Whatever it is, it’s pretty long.

So I had a surprise today. I was focused on work at my desk in my office when I heard a voice say Good Morning, Miss Rhonda. I looked up and it was a really cute guy. But he was gone so fast I really didn’t get to see who he was. I had time to smile and say Hi and that was it. He’s not one of our team so I didn’t really recognize him. I think I’ve seen him around once or twice, but don’t who he is, and like I said, he was gone faster thank I could say Hi, but he knew my name. Felt kind of good.

Anyway, late again, so need to go. 64 more days. 🙂
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Thanks, Heidi,
I need to go answer a couple messages on Zoosk. Haven’t been out there for a couple days. Leave at 5:15 in the morning and haven’t been home till after 6. Makes for a short evening.

Got the go-ahead from my boss to turn in my 60-day notice to my landlord. Yeah!!!! No more extensions! 65 more days! Got my hair cut tonight and the girl that cut it (a grown and raised local girl) commented to me on how rude and arrogant the people around here are. So its not just me thinking that and feeling that. Also got some other good news. The proposal has gone in to the huge project in Canada and my name was on it, so if it comes through, which its looking pretty good, I’ll be on that project. Bridget (our global support lead) thought I will be able to work at least part of the time at home in Calgary. Quite honestly, I’ll be very surprised if I can’t. So we’ll see. Project is on the NE shore of Lake Huron, so kind of remote in Ontario. No mountains, so definitely not my 1st choice, but should be lots of kayaking around there. It will be ok if I can work mostly from home with occasional trips to Ontario. Once I know what I’m doing I think I’ll contact that matching service in Calgary. I like the idea of meeting someone in person more than on line.

Dean (meetup lead friend from Calgary) contacted me again on Christian Cafe. That’s the 2nd time now. Both times talking about me coming home. Kind of interested, kind of not, but will have plenty of opportunity to interact with him on a casual level at the meetups, so that will be nice. So excited!!!!! Its getting closer!!!! Yeah!!!!

Gotta go. Lots to do tonight.
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
I thought it was a cool story. A few years ago one of the meetups in Calgary had snuggle parties for just that – hugging. I never did go. Seemed really weird and strange to go hug a bunch of strangers.

But I am getting compliments at work – verbal hugs. 🙂 Our mechanical guy came in and asked for some info which I promptly got for him and he said, “What would I do without you?” One of the plant IT guys came in to help me as their network keeps kicking me off. I jokingly said, It doesn’t like me. He said, “Everyone likes you. You’re a sweetheart.” I put some work packages together for our new analyzer lead. He told me I was amazing, he loved the packages I did for him (they were very organized and neat and I put them in nice folders for him). He said I was very much appreciated. Our other mechanical lead came in to get some things changed in the database and said I was his hero. Now why can’t I get these kind of reactions on the dating site!!?? Well, one very good-looking guy wrote me, My… you’re beautiful. A couple other things he’s said started my spider senses tingling…. I highly suspect he’s a scammer.

66 more days!!! Dropped off the first item at Goodwill today. Our global support person sent me a list of 4 approved new projects that are starting up now and 12 that have been proposed or are possibilities. We’ll see what happens. She’s on the road this week so I’ll talk with her more next week.

And its my bedtime again! When I’m up at 4:30 and don’t get home till after 6 it makes for a short evening!

Have a super day tomorrow.
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi,
LOL. I know what’s wrong with me. I don’t get enough skin contact! 🙁 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VlasTqeDXs

69 more days till my last day on the project! Yahoo! Under 70!
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Kanya,
Glad you had fun kayaking. Isn’t it cool to be out on the water like that? Did you see much wildlife? How long are you in FL?

Kanya, I don’t have the foggiest clue. My boss and manager both know I need to stay in Canada for 7 months to get my citizenship and are very supportive. My manager is now in the US but is from Edmonton, 3 hours north of Calgary. My boss is from South Africa via Great Britain and he has to get back to the UK for his permanent residency/citizenship there, so both understand my situation. With Worley moving to digital rather than the traditional paper they are very much open to remote work. It saves a project a lot of money to have someone work remotely as they pay a per diem / living out allowance for people working on site. So we’ll see. The next couple months will be interesting.

Have fun in FL!!!
Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
Worley (and similar companies) will try to keep a core group of employees and move them from project to project so Worley will (normally) move me on to a new project. Projects have been very slim this last year but we have

1) a very huge promising project in Ontario, but I would probably be able to do at least some work remotely from home
2) bidding on a project on the North Slope
3) confirmed project in KS that’s just starting up
4) confirmed project in Morocco just starting up
5) confirmed huge project in South Africa made up of smaller projects and several of them have just been approved and are starting up
6) I think we may have a promising potential new project in Australia
7) Huge project in Mongolia that is mid-stream and looking to switch from the database program Jacobs used to the new database program that Worley uses as Worley dropped the enterprise licensing on the old database program
8) My boss is going on to another project in Africa that will be using a different database and has said there’s a possibility they may need me on that one
9) One of our leads will probably be going to a Flour (competitor to Worley) project on the BC coast and he has already given my resume to that lead and I know he would like me to go with him to that project.

So……….. I think KS, South Africa and Morocco are all starting up now and will need someone ASAP. Mongolia probably will decide what they’re doing within a month or so and that will be a huge project to convert from one database to the other.

But then I thought I had 3 jobs in Canada when I got sent down here and they all fell through, so none of these are for sure. They could all fall through. Nothing’s been even formally offered me. Just talk. We’ll see what God has in mind for me. But Worley is moving to digital and remote work so the chances I’d be able to work any of these from home, or partly from home, is high. I know our global lead for this software is totally swamped right now so I rather expect I’ll be on one of these projects to help her out. I’ve helped her out a LOT while I’ve been here. Worley refused to give her training on this software so she’s relied on me since I’m using it on a daily basis and have had to learn it.

71 days today. So I’ve got to start thinking of what I’ll do with furniture, orchestrate my trip to Phoenix, etc. With the complex requiring a 60-day notice, I need to start thinking about things. I’m lucky to know what I’m doing tomorrow let alone next week and certainly have no idea what I’ll be doing in 60 days! I think its a bit ridiculous and unreasonable to give a 60-day notice, but no one asked my opinion. I’m very lucky to know within 30 days when I’m going to be moving. And that’s pretty typical for me. Oh well.

I am just not attracting the men I’d be interested in out on line. I have no clue why. The few men I hear from are not men I’m interested in. Do not know why. 🙁

Smiles,
Rhonda

[Rhonda R]

Hi, Heidi,
No vacation. Last I heard, no time off but supposedly we’re supposed to get 2 weeks pay at the end of my assignment. I’m at 72 days. Yeah!!! So I heard today a large project just was approved and needs to get started. It wouldn’t surprise me if I get pulled a little early, but its getting close and starting to feel real. Apartment called me and is asking about my end date. I have to give 60 days notice. Bobby Blue (my kayak) I’m coming home!!!!

Smiles,
Rhonda

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