Saturday, November 3, 2007

Belated Halloween

Well, this week seemed to absolutely fly by. I had no trouble staying busy, and keeping that up doesn't seem like it will a problem anytime soon. The whole group of emergency response teams is really scaling up for a lot of training and drilling here in the next few weeks. Hopefully we'll be able to settle down into a bit more placid rhythm of activity once we get our feet under us.

The winterovers are still stuck here due to a combination of weather and flight rules for the Air National Guard crews. They seemed to manage to have a good time last night at the Halloween party out in the Summer Camp lounge. It's been good to get to know some of those folks that will be returning in a few months to spend another winter here. I feel like I've gotten a lot of good information, advice, and forewarning about many of the issues inherent in spending nine months here physically severed from the rest of the world, with five of those months being bathed in perpetual night.

I went out to the party with a group of folks after getting shown how to do the hourly checks for the equipment down in the power plant. The community volunteers to cover time slots so that the power plant guys can have a night or day off, depending upon their shift. Part of the game everybody working for Uncle Ray-Ray down here has to play is to be involved in lots of activities outside their job if they want to be even considered for the highest level of bonus at the end of the season. So, other than being an engineer and a technophile, getting acquainted with the power plant also has potential monetary benefits. I know, I'm a feckless mercenary, but aren't we all?

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