After a day that looked and felt like a cold blustery November day in Toronto, today is rather nice. Unfortunately, I would estimate that 50% of the golden leaves that had been holding on have since blown down. And, slowly but surely, the snow is now creeping down the mountain sides. It's on the taller mountains surrounding Whitehorse, and Mount Lorne is looking particularly spiffy. Golden Horn and MacIntyre are speckled white and Grey Mountain has had snow but it has melted off again. I'm more comfortable with the snow now than I was in August, that's for sure.

I'm working 70 hours this week for some extra dough. I'm the transportation captain for this weekend's conference, so we went and picked up our walkie-talkies this morning. That was fun. I won't get a lot of sleep, though, which is a shame because I really do enjoy sleeping. However, an additional 40% supplementing this coming paycheque is welcome and will get used either to put down a security deposit on a lease vehicle or purchase part of my airfare home to TO for Christmas. I've also picked up some freelance work for "What's Up Yukon", the arts rag that's published every two weeks. It wants to be "Now Magazine" when it grows up. It doesn't pay much, but it pays enough to buy me some groceries.

Speaking of money, the saga continues. I finally had my meeting at the Bank of Montreal today about the loan I applied for. In that time, I came to the realisation that it will be nearly impossible to find a decent vehicle, 5 years old or under, for $8000. I've been doing my research. It ain't gonna happen unless a miracle occurs. So, I've been out visiting the Import dealerships here (Subaru/Kia, Toyota, and Nissan) and test driving their new mini-models. Kia doesn't have the Rio5s in right now, but it was estimated I could get a lease rate of 260/month. I test drove the Yaris five-door hatchback, which was quite zippy and fun, and was given the rate of 244/month, which is better than the Kia. I finally test drove the Nissan Versa today, too, and it was absolutely the -most- fun to drive of the lot of them and felt quite "European". It is a small, sexy car, but the rate I would get would be 298/month, so it's also the priciest. Probably out of my range, even.

Getting back to the bank, today; I talked to the representative about getting a line of credit instead of the loan. Denied ! Flatly. Seriously, I was flat out denied and there was no room to negotiate. So, I asked about a better loan rate that would allow me to actually find a vehicle and was informed that based on my income, and utter lack of assets, I wouldn't get much more than what they're offering, which at 5.5% + prime (approximately 11.5%), isn't really all that great. So, this leaves me somewhat screwed, but I'm just going to hang onto the wonderful sensation of rocketing along in SIXTH gear in that little Versa. Mmmmmm.