Be careful of what you ask

So as I may or may not have mentioned (once again I refuse to re-read my own work...otherwise I might realize how boring my life is) it is my ambition to become a planner. Many years ago I took a planning course at the old U of S and I quite liked it. However, not having a planning degree, I presumed that door was closed to me.

So I started at the County. And I've made no particular secret of my desire to segue into planning at some point in the future. I had planned to phase into it at my usual incredibly speedy pace (see: in a couple of years). So I asked my boss (who is a planner) what I should do to start on that road since I can take night classes and such and he says that he definitely needs another development officer and so he'd be more than happy to involve me in planning stuff. This was a month ago when I first mentioned it. Then I sent him an email on Tuesday...well two emails. The first was to ask if the County will pay for my practicum (which they might and that would be awesome) and then, since I thought of it, I emailed him to ask if we could sit down to plot out a career path for me so I could get started.

So that afternoon he calls me into his office and says essentially "Hi Ben. You said you wanted to move into planning right?" and of course I say "yeah". "Great. We need to draft an amendment to the Land Use Bylaw for the County to allow for a couple of recreational uses for agricultural land. Why don't you write up the proposed bylaw amendments including the definitions for crucial terms. Here's an example from Red Deer. Let me know if you have any questions."

So yeah. I was a little stunned. I did some research that day and spent some time with Jacinda (the actual development officer) who informed me "That's how these things are. If you want to do it you jump right in."

Then today he stopped by to let me know that it's going before council in two weeks. And that I might as well do the presentation to Council about it since it would be a good experience. Also he thinks I should take a Land Use Planning Certificate from the University of Alberta (which the County will probably pay for) and I should start the application process to become a provisional member of the Canadian Institute of Planners since I will need to maintain a log book of 6 years of planning related word in order to qualify for full membership.

So yeah. I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed right now. It was one thing to think about maybe doing some reading and doing some coursework. It's another thing entirely to be churning my legs in order to hopefully hit the ground running instead of splat like a pancake.

In other news I could have used this news a week ago since I spent almost all of last weekend engrossed in first the Comics Curmudgeon (and his hypnotic archives which defy all science and logic when it comes to actually reading them) and then when I almost broke free I was told by the amazing Malcolm to read aLp which is just goddamn awesome!

Let's see. Also this week I got to fix a car by hitting it with a hammer. Which is to say that when the county truck I was out in broke down I got to crawl under the it in the rain and hit the gas tank with a hammer to convince the fuel pump to actually work. The fact that this tactic worked tells me why auto mechanics are awesome. So yeah...good work week overall.

In future type news, I'm going to Edmonton this weekend. Danielle is going for the "cutest couple" award by shaving her head so she and Jay can be all adorable and such. Ok I'd best amend that on the off chance she actually reads this. D is shaving her head for Cancer.

Note: It has come to my attention that when people do something "for Cancer" they are not in fact demonstrating a solidarity with that disease. Rather they are in fact acting to try to bring it down. Which makes it kind of an odd statement but it is part of the common parlance so what can you do? I just like that it seems to mean that I can say "I'm carrying this empty gin bottle for Rod Black." When what I mean is "I'm gonna hit him with it."

Back to reading about bylaws. I leave you with this. Please note that his name is even ROB! I had no idea they were friends or that Rob had gone to business school.