Flying solo

Well, Monday the first major bunch of winterovers finally departed, and with them was my predecessor, Jason. The week working solo has been just fine, but I'm definitely still getting myself up to speed and acquainted with the ins and outs of the Cusp Tech position. I think probably the best tool I have here is the calendar in MS Outlook, because without it I think keeping track of every little report, email, and sundry duty would be a lot harder.

The Team 2 fire brigade work is also consuming a lot of my time, as I try to get myself in a position to have constructive training sessions/meetings for other T2 members that have just as much training as I do. I foresee this position probably taking up as much time as my science work, particularly here in the early stages when our team (and the other 3 emergency response teams) has to do the bulk of its learning about how to do its job safely and in coordination with all the other teams and groups on station. It's quite a time investment for a volunteer position.

Last week I did two calibrations for one of our instruments, which is on top of the ARO. It's definitely a bit different doing that job in -90F wind chill than in the warmer climes of Southern California (pic 1 below). Sunday we had our science support "family photo", with the outgoing and incoming science techs and Al (pic 2 below). One of the last Cusp Techy things Jason and I did was to change out a tube in one of the photometers mounted on the roof of the station. It was actually a lot of fun getting to do some hands-on work, and the view from on top of the station was pretty sweet (pic 3 below).