The plight of winterovers

It's been pretty rough on a lot of the folks that just finished wintering here. Today, yet again, flights were cancelled coming to/from the Pole. A good number of people are starting to miss out on their vacation plans, and that's not necessarily making them the happiest they could be.

In a way, totally devoid of Schadenfreude, it's pretty interesting to observe how people handled the winter and these flight delays, and to imagine in just what psychological shape I'll be in a year's time. I think boredom is a main culprit for why people are having such a hard time with the flight delays. Most of them aren't working anymore, having handed their jobs off to summer staff, and they are finding it very hard to pass the hours in the day without much to do. It probably gives them plenty of time to dwell on their plight, instead of keeping busy and passing the time whilst engaged in some activity. I'm sure in a similar situation I'd be pretty antsy, too.

Today has been pretty quiet thus far, and I've just been taking care of various little tasks and projects in the B2 science lab. Much of my work as the Cusp Tech centers around the electronics here in B2 mounted in the Cusp Rack (shown in picture below). Most of this equipment interfaces with sensors that are placed way out in the Clean Air Sector from one quarter to a full mile from station.



Outside of work, I just finished reading the excellent book "Jarhead" by Anthony Swofford. It definitely pulled no punches in describing the author's experiences as a Marine before, during, and after serving in the first Gulf War. I also started reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, which has been pretty good thus far. I'm really looking forward to the rest of my gear arriving, whenever planes can manage to fly here regularly, so I can get my Rosetta Stone Russian software and start learning that new language.

All quiet on the southern front for now.