Plugging Away

I'm still here doing this whole multi-tasking thing at Pole. Since posting last, I've also gotten to swap out 32 big batteries for the VLF transmitter and excavate an autonomous VLF receiver from the field. That latter activity took several hours of shoveling on Monday morning, and was the biggest hole I've dug here to retrieve the smallest piece of equipment to date. I've also started writing a consolidated SOP/checklist for how to do my job as science tech. It'll be the equivalent of the Grand Unification Theory (that may be hyperbole...) for the Cusp Tech position, but is mostly being done to facilitate coverage for me if I need to leave to do work in the deep field or-by Odin's beard-actually get R&R in January.

I'm also pushing forward as best I can with getting the fire brigade up and running. For some reason it is taking a LONG time just to get people onto the team, which has consumed a lot more of my time this year than previous. We have to be fitted for our respirators by the safety engineer, go through a brief physical with medical, get a properly programmed radio, and be issued bunker and SCBA gear. That's just to be allowed and equipped to respond, and doesn't even mean you have the training to really know what you're doing yet. All that process of building the team and bringing skills up to sufficient proficiency is what's on my plate for the coming summer (and then I get to do it again for winter). It's tough to schedule training when you have folks working on 3 different shifts in the same team, not to mention the fact that I have a "good deal" of work for my own primary job to do every single day. Oh well, I think it's important for the station, and it will hopefully look decent on my resume if there are any jobs to apply for when I leave here.

"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body."
~Lucius Annaeus Seneca