New station dedication

Well, yesterday was quite a bizarre day here at Pole. We had a series of events and a big influx of 20-some distinguished visitors to commemorate the handing off of the baton from the old dome station to the new elevated station. A lot of this had to do with the transfer of the U.S. flag from atop the Dome to the flag poles at the ski-way end (Destination Alpha) of the new station. Some guys got to climb up the dome to retrieve the flag, and then it was handed from person to person to get it to first the Pole markers and then to Destination Alpha.



While still outside for the transfer of the flag there finally happened to be a halo around the sun, so I got a picture with that surrounding me.



Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get at that spot of dirt (or whatever) that decided to lodge in my camera's optics here right before the station closes for winter. If anybody reading this has any experience/input for remedying this sort of issue or even disassembling a Canon Powershot A620 it would be much appreciated.

The DVs had a dedication ceremony in the gym, a nice dinner by themselves, and then took tours of the station. I got to stand by and have none of them come learn anything about our humble little Cusp Lab. It was the projects with the bigger budgets and buzz words that garnered all the attention. Oh well, it just would have been nice to have gotten away from work a little sooner.

Thanks to the aircraft firefighting crew, I had the first night off-call for the fire brigade in 3 months. I definitely "made hay while the sun was shining", and had a really fun time at the party the station threw once the DVs were headed back north. If I'm not careful I might learn how to dance, or more precisely might be able to totally ignore how silly I probably look and just cut loose with no trepidations.