The Secondary Run-Around

You are always stuck with a secondary run-around when PQing for the Ice. Initially, you get poked and prodded, which is always followed by the mutual poking and prodding required to establish that you've 1) passed all the tests and can go work your happy little job for however long in Antarctica and 2) going to get properly reimbursed for all the costs (not insubstantial, those) you incurred whilst jumping through the aforementioned gauntlet of poking and prodding. I guess it just makes for a sweeter sense of accomplishment once all that is behind you, and you assume that you will have sanity enough remaining to pass the psychological exam in several months.

I had a nice Independence Day, though most of it was spent astride a John Deere lawn tractor. In the evening I enjoyed the raucous fireworks in town with some friends that I had not seen for far too long a time. As one of them said, it sounded like the Tet Offensive with all the banging and booming going on. I grew up with fireworks being illegal, so it seems peculiarly disconcerting (i.e. different) to have them so thoroughly embraced and detonated by the public at large nowadays.

Soon enough my housesitting days will be at an end, and I will be disencumbered from the bulk of my related duties. Whether I will be able to abscond for some travels prior to the initiation of my employment-related activities will depend upon how quickly I can tie up the remaining loose ends of my PQ process. I might just work on getting my SCUBA certification via a dive shop in Wichita, but it would be pleasant to get out and see a bit of the world while I still have a chance.

Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.
~Edward Abbey