Ethan's Vivifying Adventures

Late-Summer Field Work (sans HAL)

2012-01-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

One of the aspects of the science support work down at Pole seems to be an increasingly lopsided distribution of site visits by various groups that make use of the technicians for on-site support. The trend seems to rapidly have become having most/nearly all of the projects down within roughly a 2-week window in late January. In about 2 days that window will close for me after a couple of somewhat challenging weeks supporting what was ultimately 4 different groups, with 3 of them overlapping for a day or so at one point.

One project had a lot of field work in the antenna field beyond ARO. It included the removal of two antennas put up the last summer I was here (2009-2010), and their replacement with the construction of a single radio mast nearly 40 feet tall.

Another antenna, actually located in the edge of the Clean Air Sector, required replacement of its preamplifier (buried in a plywood box at the base of the supporting structure) and the actual antenna wire itself.

All in all, things went pretty well with the site visits. That being said, we did find one camera dome shattered on the roof of the station (cause: TBD) for a different project, and another project had an instrument fail roughly 8 hours after the 3-person team that came to do the annual maintenance on it departed for McMurdo. Like I said, it was not too bad a summer site visit season, but it had its challenges. Repairs for the project that failed at ~8 hours reminded me of the AE-35 unit replacement in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, minus the murderous artificial intelligence, since I had to perform a swap of the AD-975 unit for the SQO SAU. Despite the harsh conditions of Antarctica, acronyms blossom in abundance.

Kinks with hiring and the new contractor continue to be ironed out, but the flow of information is pretty slow. I suppose any organization selected would have its fair share of challenges trying to take over operations down here. It will be interesting to see what contracts for the last 7.5 months of winter end up looking like after numerous assurances of a seamless turnover from the incumbent to the new contractor and subcontractors. How new contracts start developing for the 2012-13 summer will also be watched closely by many program participants, as may well be imagined.

The 27 January deadline for NASA astronaut applications has also now passed. At least I will have plenty to keep me busy while playing the waiting game to hear whether I make it to another step in that process. Ad astra per aspera.

“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.”
~Karl Von Clausewitz

Catching up with Scott

2012-01-23T13:56:00.000-08:00

So, the ceremony at the geographical marker for the Scott centennial was nice and pretty low-key. Managers of various groups talked some about the significance of the expedition, as well as the spirit of exploration that lives on today (albeit in a much different form).

Later in the evening the station crew was welcome to visit the tourist camp, which was roughly half a mile upwind of the Elevated Station. They had tents for individuals, as well as the main building that was their commons area and galley. It was a nice change of scene, and gave a little different perspective on the little corner of the world we call home. Interestingly, the time zone used by these NGO folks is that of Chile, since that is how they access Antarctica. The USAP uses the New Zealand time zone for similar reasons, so what was late evening for us was the crack of dawn for the tourists. That did not seem to deter most of them from their revelry. It was a really nice evening to be outside, with clear skies and plenty of sunshine (of course).

Yesterday the first group of turnover management from the new companies, headed by Lockheed-Martin, arrived at Pole to start getting ready for taking over the reins of the program. I have not been specifically contacted in person about this winter, but did start filling out some application materials I received via email last week. This is all going to be pretty interesting, methinks.

“But if we have been willing to give our lives to this enterprise, which is for the honour of our country, I appeal to our countrymen to see that those who depend on us are properly cared for.”
~Robert Falcon Scott

Busy

2012-01-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

"No time for love, Dr. Jones!"
~Short Round, Temple of Doom

With a couple science groups here at Pole that I have to support, including a whole lot of work in the antenna field, I have not had a chance to do much besides work this past week. Eventually I will get some words and photos on from the Scott centennial, but things like rebuilding an antenna need to happen first.

Scott’s Arrival Centennial

2012-01-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

Today, Jan. 17, is the centennial of Scott’s expedition arriving at the South Pole. Of course, it was to the sickening sight of the Norwegian flag deposited by Amundsen’s group over one month earlier.

This evening there will be a ceremony commemorating the event, and earlier in the afternoon there is to be a “science mixer”, where we can go talk to visitors about the research we do/support down here.

Last night a gentleman, Lt Col Henry Worsley of the Royal British Legion, who skied here along the route Amundsen followed, gave an interesting talk comparing the two expeditions and the two routes. Since he also did the route Scott (and earlier Shackleton) followed in 2008, it was very interesting to hear his thoughts on the contrasts of the paths taken. It really made me want to actually get to go see some other place-of which there are so many-on this remarkable continent. But, that is most definitely NOT in the cards for the remainder of this year.

Speaking of leaving, winter crew members have started taking their R&R trips to New Zealand. As this is the time of year my science groups start to arrive for their yearly visits (one got here yesterday and two groups arrive today), it would be pretty disadvantageous for everybody if I were to leave the station. There is also the whole deal how I do not get any days off here, unlike most people, but would still not get paid whilst on leave, which I really find to be inappropriate. Regardless, some folks probably can use the break more than others, and it is probably a good thing to let folks that have never done a winter, let alone a full year, have a chance to freshen themselves up before the long haul of winter begins.

Despite the fact there will be over 70 visitors here for the anniversary, I like how this one is a lot more low-key than the Amundsen one. All the business of the fancy parties, live TV broadcasts, and large contingents of people in the station seemed to distract from actually considering the event that was being commemorated. Sometimes less is considerably more.

“Every day some new fact comes to light - some new obstacle which threatens the gravest obstruction. I suppose this is the reason which makes the game so well worth playing.”
~Robert Falcon Scott

On the Fritz

2012-01-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

Things seem to break in waves down here. The last several days we have had an LC-130 aircraft being repaired, which had serious problems upon landing (not sure exactly what happened). In addition to that, I have spent a good amount of time over the last couple days troubleshooting some issues with one of the interferometers I operate at the Atmospheric Research Observatory. The elevated in the Beer Can (“vertical tower” for those using official nomenclature, no matter how redundant) broke down yesterday, and there is no estimate as to when it might be operational again. I think I heard the drilling for the new Rodwell is making little progress, as well. Anyhow, it all is a good reminder of how challenging this environment can be on people and machinery. With all the social distractions a bustling summer season provides, I often think that fact gets forgotten. Winter is a different ballgame.

Like I wrote before, that switch has been flipped, and lots of folks are talking redeployment and travel post-Ice. I look forward to finding out what sort of travel options Lockheed will offer, as a chance to go see some really different parts of the world before heading home is a nice carrot at the end of the long stick of winter. Taking a little longer to get home also lets you get a bit more color to your skin, and allows one to recover some of the wits that have been dulled by the fatigue of 9-13 months on the Ice. I’ll probably start thinking about travel around mid-winter, if it turns out it will still be possible to do so like in the past.

I am getting toward the end of reading “A Game of Thrones”, which is the first volume in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series by George R. R. Martin. It has been a good read thus far, and it is remarkable how much of the book the series on HBO managed to incorporate. With four more long books to read over the coming year, I look forward to whatever lays in store. Of course, as the words of House Stark go: Winter is coming. That saying has a certain resonance down here.

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
~J.R.R. Tolkien

The Portal is Passed

2012-01-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

Reaching the New Year always seems to bring a definitive change in the vibe of South Pole Station. Once January hits, you start hearing about travel plans, how super-tired people are, and the term “redeployment meeting” begins to increasingly proliferate in the day-to-day conversation of the station. Looking at the roughly 4-month-long summer season from the perspective of someone staying for the whole summer and winter, it really is just a speed bump on the way to the long haul of winter. At least the brief, but intense, span of the summer provides ample fodder for contrast to the mellower and more sustained vibes of winter. Summer is all about seeing lots of people you do not know and have no idea what they have come to the bottom of the planet to actually do. During winter you become intimately familiar with even the most subtle character traits of a lot of the crew. All that being said; the summer rages on unabated at Pole.

Yesterday we were supposed to have had the usual practice airdrop of supplies from the Air Force, but it got pushed back to today (Saturday) and then put off until Monday. To thank the food service crew for their extra work over Christmas, today is another Managers Cook Day. Though I’m not a manager, I have been volunteered (as always) to assist with lunch. Whilst working in the kitchen I’ll be sporting a pink pocket t-shirt that reaches back to my first real job back in high school at the Kingfisher’s Inn, which does not even exist anymore.

We have started to get a few details concerning the turnover to Lockheed and its bevy of subcontractors. It looks like in a little over 2 weeks there will be some transition team people down here to start the process of taking over the managerial reins (or at least figuring out how to do so), as well as getting their winter crew squared away. That’s the part I’m most immediately interested in, of course.

People still are commenting about the New Year’s music, which is nice. I gather the recording that was done off the mixing board turned out well, but the excellent gent who is generous enough to spend his personal time doing the mixing and editing is still working on it. It’s always fun to hear how you sounded as a group, since even hearing oneself on stage can sometimes be difficult if the monitors are not properly configured. If anything is posted online, I’ll pass along links when they’re available.

William Gibson just published a new book of essays titled “Distrust That Particular Flavor”, which I would not mind getting my grubby little paws on.

“Seasons change and so did I
You need not wonder why
You need not wonder why”
~The Guess Who, “No Time”

No Dick Clark Required

2011-12-31T17:08:00.000-08:00

Well, we rang in the New Year last night with some pretty skilled musicians playing in the gymnasium. There were 4 bands (folk, funk, classic rock, and hard rock). I played in the third. The crowd was a bit smaller than two years ago, when I played with Security in Noise, but that is to be expected with a station crew that is roughly 50-60 people smaller than the 2009-10 summer season. This year playing with “The Flakes” turned out to be quite a blast. Our set list was as follows:

White Room by Cream
Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics
Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins
Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers
L.A. Woman by The Doors
Brown-Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
Today by Smashing Pumpkins
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd
Breathe by Pink Floyd
Authority Song by John Cougar Mellencamp
Running Down a Dream by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Everybody was firing on all cylinders, and despite some technical difficulties with an amplifier overheating in the middle of L.A. Woman, it went off without a hitch. Hopefully I will not have to wait another 2 years to get to play with another band!

We are still waiting to find out more concerning the new Lockheed contract. It seems that whole turnover will need to get started right away in early January, what with all that needs to be handed over by 1 April. I think most people are hungry for some details, particularly whether they will be extended contracts or not.

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
~Victor Hugo

Thermal Correction

2011-12-26T18:53:00.000-08:00

Actually, the record for all-time high temperature at Pole was set on December 25, 2011, and was a whopping 9.9°F. We're back down at cooler temperatures (negative teens°F) today, with the overcast skies having cleared up and the wind swung around to the grid east.

Holiday Happenings

2011-12-25T09:56:00.000-08:00

So, Saturday we had the big holiday dinner (Beef Wellington, lobster tails, real mashed potatoes, etc.), which was excellent. That morning the Race Around the World was held, which was about 2.3 miles in length this year. The weather was pretty windy, and to hear some folks spin the tale it was a veritable hurricane. Not so, you could see all the outbuildings from the station. With that stormy weather that lasted into Sunday, we did have elevated temperatures. The all-time maximum temperature record, since humans have been measuring it here, used to be 7.5°F was set on December 27, 1978. Well, on December 25, 2011 it hit 8.1°F. It certainly felt warm outside, and made me want to “set the goal” of hitting the all-time coldest temperature on record during this winter.

We have not gotten any more details concerning the transition to Lockheed starting 1 April, 2012, but there is supposed to be a meeting to start the turnover process sometime during middle of this week.

“A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.”
~Catherine the Great

And the winner is...

2011-12-22T16:46:00.000-08:00

Lockheed was just announced as being the next Antarctic contractor to NSF. No details have been distributed yet. So, there is one answer to one question that affects a large portion of the next year of my life.

"...baby steps get on the bus, baby steps down the aisle, baby steps..."
~Bob Wiley, "What About Bob?"

Somebody press play already!

2011-12-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

Well, the weather has had a lot of things on pause here at Pole for quite some time. The field science groups have not been able to fly, and have been pretty much stuck here at Pole with not so much to do. The same goes for the Twin Otter crew that is supposed to fly them out to their field sites. We also have a good number of folks that were supposed to be here for just a day or so, but are now getting an extended visit to Pole, since the LC-130s are also on hold. The wind and decreased visibility at Pole do not seem that bad, but they have been just bad enough to throw a big wrench in many groups’ schedules and cargo deliveries. But, this is not really anything new on this (harsh) continent. Delays are to be expected.

The number of NGOs/tourists has gone way down since the centennial, though there was a wicked truck out by the visitors’ center yesterday that looked a lot like one of the old Stompers toys of my youth.

Band practices for New Year’s have picked back up, and our sound is getting better. We have quite a variety of songs, and it is a lot of fun now that we have mostly moved into the polishing mode for most of them. I am trying to take care of my voice, but sure wish I had some real vocal training.

Holiday decorations, including a tree (artificial, of course) have been put up in the galley. The big meal is on Saturday evening, and earlier in the day the Race Around the World will be held.

"Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little." ~Plutarch

The streak ends

2011-12-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the Norwegian contingent managed to depart, despite some pretty lousy weather. The visibility has been bad the last two days, with considerable amounts of fog. It has waxed and waned, but is currently playing Old Harry with our flight schedule today. Normal skier flights from McMurdo have been cancelled, and the other fixed-wing flights to support field science have also been put on hold. Without the LC-130 cargo flights, many folks are twiddling their thumbs waiting for important cargo to be delivered. I guess we had this coming, since the weather had been so fair for so long.

With the departure of the centennial group, hopefully our still-to-be-named band will be able to get into practicing again. We are also dealing with the transition of one member from day shift to swing shift, which has not helped expedite the practice process.

"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."
~Mark Twain

A nice commemoration

2011-12-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

This afternoon some of the science staff here at Pole made ourselves available to talk to the public about the research we support. I did not get many takers to discuss space weather/science, but then again I didn't have a big, glossy poster to attract potential customers. This is the view of the ceremony gathering while walking in from the visitor center.

The speeches were pretty succinct, but quite enjoyable. It is interesting to think about the formative events in different countries' histories. Hopefully the U.S. will be following up our moon landings at some point with similarly "out there" advancements in exploration. I hope to be involved! The following are of the Prime Minister before and after the unveiling of an ice bust of Roald Amundsen.

Of course, lurking a short way away was the real pole marker for today.

"Action is the foundational key to all success."
~Pablo Picasso

The big, big show

2011-12-13T10:03:00.001-08:00

So, the day of days has arrived. Pole was like a regular airport back home, with what seemed like an incredible number of flights arriving and departing. At one point we had 5 airplanes on the ground at the same time. I asked how many people we might have as neighbors, but could not get an answer.

Tonight there is a special dinner for very select folks, followed by a somewhat less select soiree in the gymnasium. The station crew in general is not invited to attend, but some folks are, as well as some (if not all) of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) people. I really do not know the specifics about it, as I’m not invited. It will be interesting to see what all transpires through the day, though. At 4pm (local, New Zealand time) there will be a live broadcast television event at the Pole marker with a speech from the Norwegian Prime Minister, which everybody is welcome to attend.

“For a war correspondent to miss an invasion is like refusing a date with Lana Turner.”
~Robert Capa

Gettin' this Pole party started

2011-12-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, arrived at the South Pole. At supper, he gave a nice, brief speech thanking the station crew for all they do, and explained in short why the Amundsen Expedition (as well as some of the others, like those done by Fridtjof Nansen) was so important to their young country. After the talk at dinner, most folks on station trooped out for a group photo at the geographical pole marker.

Earlier in the day the Norwegian contingent had been out to do some filming/photographing. It was a first for me that I had to detour on my way back from ARO due to something like that, but there is always a first time for everything.

I will also point out in that photo the bit of pipe in the snow with a green flag next to it, just to the right of the group of people. That is the actual location of the Pole, as of December 14, the centennial of Amundsen's crew's arrival in 1911. So, though it is a couple weeks shy of the usual full one year from January 1 to January 1, that is essentially how far the ice cap moves in a year (~10 meters).

The weather has been really pleasant, warm, and calm here lately. I've taken to just wearing my fleece sweater on the walk to ARO, since I've been overly warm with the full jacket on (let alone wearing the Big Red parka, which I avoid like the plague). With luck the weather will cooperate here for the events the next couple days, and hopefully weather at McMurdo and Pole will remain within flyable conditions, so we can get people and cargo moved in/out on schedule.

"I don’t think there is any such thing as an ordinary mortal. Everybody has his own possibility of rapture in the experience of life. All he has to do is recognize it and then cultivate it and get going with it. I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I’ve never met an ordinary man, woman, or child."
~Joseph Campbell

The Mobile Marker

2011-12-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

With the upcoming centennial, a Norwegian flag has been added to the geographical South Pole marker. A new sign has also been installed there, though the content is the same; it’s just a whole lot bigger.

This is, as things work down here, actually the surface location of the geographical South Pole as of 1 January, 2011. The first day of each calendar year, the marker location is updated to its present position. The reason the marker apparently moves is because the ice sheet that constitutes the Antarctica Plateau is slowly moving at about 10 meters per year. As a result, the updated positions of the pole appear to march across the landscape in a line, but it is the landscape (or, icescape, if you prefer) that is actually moving.

The pole marker itself is actually from the 2010 crew with which I last wintered. We selected a design during the winter, and the following summer it was installed at the new/current geographic pole location on New Year’s Day. Similarly, on 1 January, 2012, we will update the pole location using the marker (kept secret from the public) selected by the 2011 winter crew. The machinist each winter is who actually fabricates the actual marker article.

"After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one."
~Cato

The Polie Express

2011-12-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

Mail has been arriving again fairly regularly, though I have not gotten anything in a while. The last package to arrive for me was one I sent myself, with supplies for the year.

Unfortunately, it got obviously some rough treatment along the way, so I'll probably have to find something else (robust) to ship my laptop and other related things back in next year. Though, maybe I'll be hurrying back with my laptop to go interview for some out-of-this-world job, not taking the time for more globetrotting, so who knows?

“My favorite review described me as the cinematic equivalent of junk mail.”
~Steve Buscemi

It’s a Polar Picnic

2011-12-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

The last week has really blown by here. Last Saturday, in appreciation for the extra work the galley crew undertook to provide Thanksgiving dinner, I helped out for what is called “Managers Cook Day”. Though not a manager, I helped wash dishes, assemble grilled (ham and) cheese sandwiches, and put a mean burn on them on the grill. I think we made the better part of 400 sandwiches.

Yesterday I participated in the refresher course for the Snow Craft survival course. Though I do not anticipate getting to go out into the deep field to support any science projects, I now have the required training (refreshed) to do so. I took the full course during my first season in (mostly) McMurdo when I worked in the galley. Other folks will be doing the full up course, with a night spent out camping somewhere off-station.

Tourists continue to visit and depart. There have been a good number of flights, and the number of tents and other structures out at the designated campsite continue to increase. There was some 8-wheeled truck out by the visitor center yesterday morning. As days pass, we continue to find out more about the festivities surrounding the centennial, as well as restrictions upon general station activities as a result. It will be a little inconvenient for us residents of South Pole Station, but should still be interesting to see what all goes on during those days. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. It would be edifying to see the total numbers for how much ends up being spent by all parties involved with tourism and centennial celebrations down here this summer. Similarly, I think it would be interesting to see a census done concerning the demographics of the tourists that do have the means to recreate in this part of the world.

“Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.”
~Clark Griswold, “Vacation”

Murdered Out Space Traveling Rock ‘N Roller

2011-12-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

I had not encountered this term until this summer when a long-time friend in the program said this year I was all “murdered out”. Upon questioning her more closely about this bit of Antarctic Argot, I was informed it referred to my attire. In particular, it pertained to my Extremely Cold Weather (ECW) gear. This year’s accoutrement included a black jacket, instead of the usual brown variety that I have been issued in the past. I am also sporting black overalls, boots, glove liners, and neck gaiters. Given the funereal palette of my garb, which has been sported by numerous fine people in the past, this has been dubbed being “murdered out”, I guess. For a visual depiction of this mode of dress, please refer to the following photograph.

In other news, regarding another occupation requiring even more exotic working garb, I submitted my astronaut application online (but still must mail off a letter about my college transcript). I feel good about my credentials! I have the type of education and some job experience it seems the selection folks would be interested in, and I certainly have gotten the remote living thing down with my years here at Pole. I am healthy, not too tall or heavy, and have good eyesight. With that ball set rolling, we now play the waiting game, at which I have definitely become adept. I certainly should have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.

One of those things keeping me busy has been the start of practices for a yet-to-be-named band here at Pole. So far I’m just doing vocals, but we’ll see if I get to play some guitar as the set list develops. The big gig will likely be New Year’s Eve. Though my vocal chords protested some during the first practice, they seem to be getting used to performing in this high-altitude desert again. After all, this is the only place they ever get put to this sort of use. Musical selection thus far is a somewhat eclectic mix of contemporary and classic pop/rock. Fun stuff!

A little foretaste of the centennial has sprung up in the station's front yard. Carpenters from McMurdo have been brought in to start assembling the visitor center structures out beyond the ceremonial pole marker. Some folks are already starting to call it the second station. I am not sure exactly when its first visitors will arrive, but it certainly is going to be different from summers past.

“It's our destiny to explore. It's our destiny to be a space-faring nation.”
~Eugene Cernan

Begun, the holiday season has

2011-11-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

So, Thanksgiving here at Pole was a fairly low-key event for me. I worked Saturday like normal, and got changed for dinner as soon as my science checks were done. Dinner was the usual T-giving fare, and all tasted very nice. I especially enjoyed the REAL mashed potatoes and gravy, which is something a guy spending a year down here does not encounter all that often. The usual partying afterwards didn’t appeal, particularly with many heading out to the Summer Camp lounge, so remaining in the station and (somewhat cynically) waiting for a fire alarm was more my speed. We got to have leftovers the next evening at dinner, which tasted just as fine. All in all, with the somewhat smaller crew here so far this summer, it was as pleasant a Thanksgiving as I’ve had on the continent.

Monday we started getting flights again, having not had any since Tuesday of last week. Of course, after a couple days of flights we’ve now had all of them rerouted to different destinations today, for whatever reason. I think some of the West Antarctic field camps are getting the LC-130 action right now, for whatever reason.

Yesterday was supposed to be the big day for the NSF contract announcement for the Antarctic, but nothing has been heard yet. I suppose it will eventually happen, but each week that passes is less time the new company will have to get their act together and be ready to roll come April 1, 2012. It would be interesting to read a narrative of what all has been going on regarding this request for proposals for the Antarctic bid over the last several years. I would like to know more about the whole process. From the outside, it certainly seems arcane.

“The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is.”
~Yoda

No Thanksgiving for wx delays

2011-11-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I suppose if you were in a department/crew whose work was mostly centered around supporting aircraft/flights and weren’t the most motivated worker, perhaps you would be giving thanks for the weather that has cancelled all flights between McMurdo and Pole for the last several days. On the other side of the coin, if you are a winterover still here and waiting to get out...yeah, well, you are ready to start human sacrifices to get on a plane for destinations north. As I understand it, the weather in McMurdo has been the culprit, but every time I have checked their website’s weather page, it has been all “Condition 3”, which is normal weather. My faith in the veracity of what I read on the internet all being true is being sorely tested by this ongoing paradox. People in the know say we have a bunch of mail ready to come in from McMurdo, if we could only get a flight. That would be nice, so I’d have a little dressier pair of trousers for Thanksgiving dinner than either of the ratty pairs of jeans I have down here now.

“Bad weather always looks worse through a window.”
~Tom Lehrer

Al Ca-Pole’s Vault

2011-11-20T19:25:00.000-08:00

I enjoy working out in the field. It often poses some challenges, but it’s rewarding to overcome them. Sometimes it is just small things you can do to make the job easier. Sometimes you have to enlist the assistance of other, skilled folks to help renovate your infrastructure (pay attention America). In this case, the vault for our Lucent Fluxgate Magnetometer had been gradually getting buried deeper and deeper beneath the surface of the snow. It was finally agreed upon that our science carpenters would extend the vault back to/closer to the surface, so that entry did not require first digging down roughly 4 feet to the hatch. Over the couple weeks since I arrived, this construction project has been in the works, and it was put to its first use today when I did the biannual leveling of the magnetometer down in the bottom of the vault.

The exterior of the new vault lid:

Looking down the new exterior hatch to the original hatch:

Looking back up the new, upper ladder from the original hatch:

Original hatch open in the new antechamber:

The sacred relic in the Holiest of Holies (a.k.a. the magnetometer):

Of course, the drifting will eventually catch up to the entry hatch again, but for at least a few years the Research Associate supporting this project should have an easier and safer time accessing the instrument.

Sadly, Geraldo and his mustache were unable to attend the opening of the new vault.

"Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

One down

2011-11-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

I got the simple turnover to the returning cryogenics tech done a couple days ago, but still am covering the aurora tech's few projects in addition to my primary ones. The station population is currently at 190, which doesn't feel too crowded. I guess they are trying to keep it at or under 250 for the big periods this summer, which is nice. Hitting 300 definitely felt way too densely populated for comfort during past summers.

The temperatures have still been near negative forty Fahrenheit, but yesterday we had really light wind, and it felt warm outside. I reset some flags out to some antennas, and walking back I had to open my jacket (black this year, instead of brown) and take off my mitts to dump the extra heat. With the absence of wind or blowing snow crystals, it was a great day to hear things (like loaders or snow mobiles) at a long distance.

I think the season is getting into the routine enough now that people are starting to think about bands. I have had a couple folks contact me about playing this summer, so we'll see what comes of it. I definitely look forward to playing and singing again.

With the astronaut candidate positions now posted, I will be getting my final ducks in a row to send in my credentials. It is open until January 27, 2012, so I have plenty of time. I know it's a long shot, but my chances are zero if I don't apply.

"To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."
~Robert A. Heinlein

Most useless shower ever

2011-11-14T12:22:00.000-08:00

Well, Saturday night I took a much needed shower before dinner, ate dinner briefly, went to go watch a movie (Life of Brian), and before the show started had to respond to a fire alarm down in the Main Power Plant (MPP). So, that shower was good for about 45 minutes. There was no fire, but there was plenty of glycol vapor being sprayed out into the work area. We had to use SCBA-clad firefighters to set up ventilator fans to eject the vapor from the area, so it would be safe for mechanics to do the necessary repairs, as well as clean-up folks to deal with all the glycol on the floor, etc. After dealing with all that I had to check the science projects and the cryogenics facility to make sure they were functioning properly. It made for a short 3 hours of sleep before a busy Sunday, which included the first time I had gotten to do the hands-on work for transferring liquid helium from a large storage container (dewar, to be precise) to a small one for transport over to the Dark Sector Lab for the BICEP2 telescope.

This morning we got to deal with a false fire alarm in the galley, which was fun/brief. Somebody got a few too many cooking fumes going, and a lot of folks got a 5:30 AM wake-up call. I was in the gym, so didn't have to drag myself from sleep to respond.

I wanted to live the life, a different life. I didn't want to go to the same place every day and see the same people and do the same job. I wanted interesting challenges.
~Harrison Ford

Hanging in there

2011-11-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

The week rolls on with me still filling the 3 science support tech roles. Hopefully the flights next week will arrive on time and with healthy replacements ready to get to work. I have had a few extra things to deal with in the last few days, beyond the normal operation of the various projects. Yesterday we began work on a project to extend the entrance to an instrument vault, which thus far has meant doing a lot of digging to clear the entire lid of the vault housing a magnetometer. The science carpenters are building the new structure, and we hope to have it installed in the next few days. The original entrance had drifted in to about 4 feet of depth from the surface of the snow, which was starting to hamper safe ingress/egress during calibration activities. I'm glad to have gotten this started early, since the science carpenters are not too busy yet.

The station still seems pretty quiet, but we are still probably the better part of 100 souls short of our full capacity for the summer. That will change all too soon, and in about a month I bet this place will be jam packed, not only with workers in the program, but with all those tourists here for the Amundsen centennial.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost legendary. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Perseverance and determination alone are omnipotent.”
~President Calvin Coolidge

I'm at the Pole...

2011-11-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

I arrived Thursday morning, and pretty much hit the ground running. My entry into the station upon arrival, and the walk to my berthing room took about 20 minutes. This was not because I was out of breath or anything, but was because I kept getting stopped by folks already talking business with me. I found out I will not just be taking over the reins of my normal science tech job and the fire brigade leader position, but will also serve as an interim replacement for the other science tech and the cryogenics tech. So, until those other two folks arrive, I will have my hands just a little bit more full than usual.

I have felt loads better than my early arrival days two years ago. I managed to get here healthy, which I will attribute to my unusually brief stay in McMurdo, which ended up being just a little over 12 hours. Other than the usual headache the first night, I woke up Friday morning feeling great. I have slept well each night, and seem to have left jet lag far behind.

With luck, I will be able to find some spare moments to keep posting updates as the summer season barrels on here at Pole.

"Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before."
~Franz Kafka

Another leg complete

2011-11-02T00:53:00.000-07:00

After 2 full days of delays, plus a 4-hour delay today (Wednesday), I finally flew to McMurdo without any problems. The schedule has me flying tomorrow morning to Pole, however the weather may turn bad at Pole and keep us here for several days (potentially). Deployment is definitely a process requiring plenty of patience. At least I'm not in Man Camp with 29 roommates, just 5 of them in Building 155.

So it is. So it goes.

Safe & sound

2011-10-29T02:05:00.000-07:00

I made all my connections, and arrived in Christchurch just fine this afternoon. The closest bit was getting to my departing gate in Dallas just as they were starting to board the aircraft. Otherwise, things went just peachy. I seem to have gotten enough sleep over the Pacific that the transition to this new time zone has not been too rough. I've stayed awake WAY longer than in the past, but am fading pretty quickly.

Tomorrow it's on the agenda to get gear in the afternoon, so I will have to figure out what to do with my morning. This hotel is pretty far from the city center, but that place has completely changed. I'll write more on that in depth later.

Now, it's time to let myself wind down.

Frequent flyer miles…Here I come

2011-10-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we have reached the endgame stage here, as pertains to my imminent departure. I have really only a few final things to attend to before heading to the airport Thursday afternoon. I will be winging my way south via Dallas, Los Angeles, Auckland, and Christchurch. Saturday I will be issued my ECW (extreme cold weather) gear at the CDC (clothing distribution center). Then on Halloween, weather and mechanical gods being properly appeased, I will fly to McMurdo Station. The following day, ditto the satiated spirits, I would then fly to Pole. If you would like to see what that looks like, and just how many miles in the air that is, scope out this LINK to the flight itinerary on a great circle mapping website.

I also got to see the new “The Thing” movie this past weekend. While I still like the original John Carpenter remake better, this new film was plenty of fun. I find the social dynamics of the research station crews going through stressful and traumatic experiences about as interesting as the whole alien shape shifter part of the plot. It is also remarkable how little people have to bundle up when they are outside (in the movie), particularly over their faces. But, I suppose it is a bit difficult to emote through a balaclava and pair of goggles.

“To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go. The tales of rough usage are for the most part exaggerations, as also are the stories of sea danger.”
~Capt. Joshua Slocum, “Sailing Alone Around the World”

Another Kansas Road Trip

2011-10-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

My flight from Seattle to Denver went fine, and the training was informative as usual. It was mostly a review, but it’s definitely to review things like saving peoples’ lives before having to do it for keeps!

Driving back from Colorado, a couple of stops were made along the way. The first was a major mountaineering feat: gaining the summit of Mt. Sunflower. This fearsome peak (i.e. grassy hill) is the highest point in Kansas, and was a very pleasant break from the usual I-70 homogeny. Located in a ranch’s pasture several miles from the Kansas-Colorado border, a nice little marker and fenced-in picnic area reside at the 4,039-foot summit of the 34th state to join the Union.

Carrying on from the top of Kansas, the night was spent in Oakley. The next morning the Fick Fossil Museum was visited, which was a nice surprise. The collection of minerals, frontier relics, and marine fossils was really interesting. Some of the larger marine fossils were top-notch reminders of the old days when Kansas was drowned beneath a great inland sea. Numerous pieces of artwork that incorporates fossil vertebrae, shark teeth, etc. were exhibited that had been done by Mrs. Fick throughout her very artistically productive life.

On the edge of Oakley, there was a giant statue in honor of Buffalo Bill, who never lived there, but took part in a buffalo hunt that earned him his nickname.

The final stop was the lovely Coronado Heights outside Lindsborg, with its neat structures (including a castle) from a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s. The viewpoint is postulated to be where Francisco Vasquez de Coronado called off his search for the Seven Cities of Gold, but even if that is totally bogus, it is still a great place to make a stop. It had been forever since I had been here, and was great to see it was still in good shape.

So, within the month I will be starting another, much longer trip, in both distance and time. It will be interesting to see how Christchurch has changed in the aftermath of their seismic calamities. I see that one of my favorite places to stay, Charlie B’s Backpackers, did not survive the quakes. In the meantime, I will be updating my USA Jobs resume in anticipation of submitting my second application for NASA astronaut, since another astronaut selection cycle will be beginning soon.

"Geologists have a saying - rocks remember."
~Neil Armstrong

Sweetness in Seattle

2011-09-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I’ve been pretty busy this last week or so. I did manage to get to see a good number of attractions in Seattle during my time there.

On my way there, I got a good view of Mt. Rainier from the airplane. Though I’ve been up higher mountains, this is a much more “mountainy” mountain, with its jagged ridges and glaciers covering the volcanic cone. I would love to do a climb there sometime, but would probably need to go with a guided group to keep my precious self safe {gollum, gollum…}.

One evening we went to dinner at a waterside restaurant with our trainers from University of Washington. The mountains across the sound on the Olympic Peninsula sure looked awesome with a beautiful sunset framing them. I really enjoyed that view, and will hopefully be able to recall it in the depths of winter in the south. It would have been great to go hiking there, but alas, it was not in the cards.

I got to lay hands on some starfish in a touching pool at the Seattle Aquarium. I wish I could have petted some of the (both sea and river) otters. The definitely seem to have more fun than most creatures, when they’re not asleep. I got a healthy dose of kids running rampant there, with lots of little people buzzing about and expressing their excitement at seeing such strange life forms.

A visit to Seattle without visiting its most famous structure would have been a shame, not to mention the fact I was staying just a couple minutes walk from it. The view from atop the Space Needle was fine, and Mt. Rainier could be discerned through all the miles of haze. Seattle, being a city on the water, reminded me of Wellington, NZ, but I suppose Wellington would remind me of Seattle if I had been there first.

An excellent museum complex at the base of the Space Needle houses the Experience Music Project (EMP) and Science Fiction Museum. The big exhibit in the music area right now was a look back at the great band Nirvana, with this being the 20th anniversary of their Nevermind album. They had a gallery of historic guitars, one of the coolest being Hendrix’s one he played at Woodstock. I spent a while playing instruments and singing in the booths provided to let people get acquainted with guitars, drums, keyboards, and singing. The exhibits about Avatar and Battlestar Galactica were interesting, too. The full-size fighters and mechanical suits were cool, but so were the Na’avi-sized boots. I definitely got my money’s worth in my hours spent here.

My last night in Seattle, I attended a screening of the new documentary “Pearl Jam 20”. It continued that interesting musical trip down memory lane started at the EMP, and was doubly interesting with the opportunity to see it where a lot of the “action” took place. The Seattle Sound, of which Pearl Jam was a large player, was hitting its stride in my youth, so it was interesting to finally visit this storied (musical) land. One person sitting near me talked about how their film from early in the band’s career together was hers. The Cinerama where I saw it still had the big curved screen, but only one of the three projectors was used for this film.

I’m now in Denver doing the latter half of the emergency response training. The group of prospective winter crewmembers seems to be very nice. It is a bit strange to be on more experienced end of the spectrum, but I suppose that is what I get for continuing to go down yonder. Following the medical training, there will be orientation briefings the last two days here this week. A lot of it will be review, but I suppose there will be some interesting new tidbits. There are a lot of unknowns with this season-seemingly more than usual-so maybe some of the blanks will be filled in.

“He who travels much comes to know more than he who lives long.”
~Eastern Saying

Back to the Apocryphal Past (& on to Training)

2011-09-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed a nice foray with my family this weekend. We were several of many that attended the KC Renaissance Festival. It was supposed to be the Scottish Highlands day, but I really didn’t see all that many folks sporting the manly man-skirts. They did have the usual jousting, with real one-horsepower steeds of great size. I think real, full-on jousting (with accommodations to modern safety standards) could be a really popular “alternative sport”. {X-Games, listen up!}

Watching folks in their various modes of dress/undress was entertaining, as usual. Some costumes showed a great deal of imagination, while others left considerably less to the imagination. A highlight at the end of the day was taking an introductory swordsmanship lesson from the folks that are members of the Medieval Swordsman Guild of Kansas City. We learned some basic footwork, blocks, and strikes. It felt good, like doing Tae Kwon Do again, and I wish they had an instructor-level member coming to Pole this year. It is interesting how western/occidental martial arts are starting to become a little more common, to balance out the proliferation of the oriental varieties.

I depart this weekend for Seattle to get a week’s training on a new-to-me science project. I will return to Denver then for the second half of the winterover emergency response training weeks and Antarctic Program orientation. This means I will not be doing fire school this year, which is a significant letdown. But, I am very glad to be getting some training in Seattle, since I would like to be prepared for taking over the reins of this new project for a year. This will be the first time I visit for Washington State, so it should be interesting. Updates will be, naturally, forthcoming.

"My characters are more like men than these real men are, see. They're rough and rude, they got hands and they got bellies. They hate and they lust; break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed."
~Robert E. Howard

Some wheels turn faster than others

2011-09-07T08:10:00.000-07:00

It still amazes me how convoluted the process of beginning employment in Antarctica is. Long gone are the days of Shackleton’s laconic {and possibly apocryphal} call to likely demise, but possible glory. For several weeks now I have been working on my physical qualification (PQ), and think I am drawing near to the end of that series of poking, prodding, imaging, sampling, and patience testing. However, there seems to always be some other document to fill out, notarize, and submit. Last week I was out in Colorado for the lovely ritual of the winterover: the psychological evaluation. I drove out early and spent a few days up in the Rockies, including a successful hike to the summit of Mt. Massive (14,421 feet). I also had the nice, if brief, opportunity to catch up with some family members I had not seen since returning to the States while I was in the Denver metro area.

On the drive home I finally managed to visit one of those little names marked on my Kansas road map that I had wanted to visit for so long. Monument Rocks/Chalk Pyramids in Gove County was where I stopped off on a welcome detour from the usual 9-hour meditation on I-70. Along the way there I espied a couple prairie chickens and a lone pronghorn antelope; the first one I have ever seen in Kansas. The rocks were totally deserted, and much larger than I expected. I liked how it was just out in somebody’s pasture, with little else around. There were no gates or tickets or parking restrictions or any of the usual complications with developed tourist destinations. Given all the convolutions of the bureaucracy I’m navigating again to just go do the same job, the simplicity was a welcome change of pace.

My 1994 Civic gave a commendable performance throughout the trip. El Civ averaged about 40 mpg, with one tank of mixed mountain and flatlands driving getting a high of 45 mpg. That is not too shabby for a vehicle I’ve had over half my life.

“It's like putting on crampons and trying to walk through a room full of puppies.”
~Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

Here We Go Again...Again

2011-08-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

I heard something in the last few days about how history doesn’t necessarily repeat itself, but it can rhyme. That makes sense to me, since the decision to return to Pole for another summer-winter combo pack has me feeling a little like Michael Corleone. However, it is nice to know income is in my immediate future, and I doubt I’ll have to make anybody an offer they can’t refuse as a result. So, I will do this again and come home and see what the world looks like, and what the job market for somebody like me might hold in store. In the meantime, there will be plenty of work and play (hopefully some music), and the journey will be what it will be. In my absence, it would be great if the economy and such could bounce back, or at least leave this teetering on the brink of collapse for the somewhat greener pastures of steady growth and expansion.

Before I get to leave, I have to finish running the gauntlet of Physical Qualification (PQ). I have most of the medical and dental portions completed already, but will have to still get out to Colorado for my third swing through the hundreds of questions on the psychological evaluation tests. The toughest part with that is usually getting the interviewer to believe I’m not pulling their leg about not drinking alcohol. Next month I will also spend more time in Denver doing some firefighting, first aid, CPR, and stress management training. At that time they will also have us sit through the usual orientation lectures at my employer’s headquarters, before sending us home for a while prior to departure. With a direct deployment from Kansas, it will be about 13,600 miles of flying to get to Pole, with what will likely be the usual layovers in Christchurch and McMurdo.

It’s going to be a busy time getting ready to start the journey once again, but everything will get done, and I’m sure I will feel like I never left when I walk back in the science lab at Pole. I had the same feeling the last time, forsooth.

“With Oy in the lead, they once more set out for the Dark Tower, walking along the Path of the Beam.”
~”Wizard and Glass” by Stephen King

Distractions

2011-07-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

Isn’t there some saying about how the wheels that grind slowly grind finely? In any case, my employment situation’s wheels must be grinding to the consistency of glacial rock flour, as slowly as this situation continues to unfold. I know I will get there eventually, and do have plenty to keep me busy in the extended interim.

I have recently resumed studying Russian with a software suite that is much advertised in print. Picking things back up has gone well, though I have started over from lesson one instead of where I last left off. I hope to be able to make a habit of studying and get all the way through the lessons in the reasonably near future. Being fluent in Russian would serve the Cause quite well.

There are some interesting pieces of cinema headed to theaters in the next year or so. I wonder whether I’ll be able to see them, depending upon where I end up when. The prequel to a perennial favorite comes out this October: “The THING”. It looks like it might be a decent re-remake of one of those really horrifying flicks from my probably-too-early childhood. In November another remake comes out of one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors: “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”. Given the great cast, I really hope this does well, and they go on to finish the trilogy by filming the other two books. Fast forward to next summer’s major blockbuster/tent pole flick: “The Dark Knight Rises” will probably do some serious box office damage, even if our economy has already been wrecked by folks elected to do quite the opposite. Hit the time warp a few more months into the future, and you will have the 23rd installment in one of the most suave, debonair, and profitable franchises: the next James Bond movie. I have seen the last two ones, by happenstance, in New Zealand and Australia on my way home from the Pole. And, to round out 2012, we will have another financial juggernaut unleashed from the land of Kiwis: the first Hobbit movie (of two). I’m sure it will be done very well, and I will have to just let it go and deal with all the departures and additions the make to the much beloved book. Anyhow, along with all the real adventures of life in the actual world, these doses of escapism should be nice distractions from whatever potential new bits of unpleasantness the global economic downturn has in store.

Our wave of hot summer temperatures lives on, though yesterday we got the better part of a much-needed inch of rain. Hitting the century mark has become no big deal, as it does when a “-“ precedes the temperature instead of a “+”. You just adapt and get accustomed to whatever the new norm is, or you waste a lot of time complaining.

“Few can foresee whither their road will lead them till they come to its end.”
~Legolas, Lord of the Rings

Still Independent (of Employment)

2011-07-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Well, the last few weeks have just ticked by in a flash. I have yet to make any serious inroads into my employment situation, but can derive whatever comfort there is from the fact that there are plenty of other folks facing a similar daunting challenge. It will work itself out eventually, but hopefully I will not have to deal with anything in the meantime as unpleasant as I did the last two weeks.

I was called for jury selection, and was subsequently called to be one of the final 14 (12 primary and 2 alternate) jurors for a set of local criminal cases. It took about 1.5 weeks to go through the whole process, from selection to deliberation and verdict reading, and it was certainly a unique set of experiences in my life. It felt pretty weird really judging the guilt of someone else, and to have it not be the petty judgmental behavior so many folks (myself included) engage in frequently. This was real life, and the consequences of the decision had serious consequences on the lives of those involved. I felt pretty strange afterward, but know some of that had to be the fact that we did not finish the last day until 1:30 in the morning. It really was an eye-opening experience, and I am very glad to be immune from being called for another 2 years. That is all I’ll say about it; no further comments forthcoming.

Weather here has been suitably warm for summer here, with 5 of the last 6 days topping 100 degrees. Yesterday our thermometer registered 107 degrees here at home, which was the highest I have seen this summer. However, as I write, a nice rain is falling, which should get the grass growing at breakneck speed once the sun gets back to shining.

“For neither birth, nor wealth, nor honors, can awaken in the minds of men the principles which should guide those who from their youth aspire to an honorable and excellent life, as Love awakens them.”
~Plato

Background Check…WAY Back

2011-06-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Though I have not written in a while, it is but the slightest blink of an eye compared to the 30,000 years that have passed since the paintings in the Chauvet cave in southern France were made. I saw them in the new Werner Herzog movie “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” yesterday as part of a small observance of another trip around the sun. It is amazing to see and consider the creations by our long-off elders in 3D; it’s really one of the best uses of 3D projection I’ve ever seen. There is still that voice in the back of my mind that harks from my early days when I wanted to be an archaeologist and teach swimming lessons when I grew up. If I were working right now, I would also fork over the bucks to the National Geographic Genographic Project to see what my own DNA could reveal about where all my constituent ancestors hailed from across the globe.

In part due to reflection upon the movie and my own past and current circumstances, particularly pertaining to employment, it really makes the stress fall off contemplating how many folks have lived their lives since the painters of Chauvet. It certainly demonstrates how finding something to do that you love is what is really important. Most things fade and disappear with enough time, so make the most of it while your time lasts. If that means changing paths somewhere along the way, then so be it. One archaeologist researching there in France said he’d originally worked in a circus, so there you go!

Apropos to both the solar voyage observance and investigation into the past, this also marked the thirtieth year since “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was first released. How many times have I watched that cinematic masterpiece?

The summer here is well underway. The temperatures and winds have been evident, and humidity has tagged along like usual. Thistle hunts out in the pastures have been held by some, though some properties (unfortunately upwind of ours) appear to have been neglected as usual. The one major thing lacking here thus far is the sound of cicadas, which is THE sound of summer, as far as I’m concerned.

Marion: You're not the man I knew ten years ago.
Indiana: It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.
~Raiders of the Lost Ark

Show Me

2011-05-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of a little road trip to the Show Me State (and just beyond) last week, and saw some cool stuff and some family members I hadn’t caught up with since getting home. Most of the time was spent in and around St. Louis, which I had never really gotten a chance to get to know, other than on I-70 at speed. Downtown held the famous Arch and the old courthouse where the Dred Scott case was tried.

Directly adjacent to the Arch is the Mississippi River, which was at a pretty elevated level. The Lewis and Clark statue was barely visible, though I think “George W. Bush Emerging from the Waters” would be a more apt name, at least with what was visible.

Off to the west a bit I visited Laumeier Sculpture Park, which had some interesting installation. One was a real eye full…

Across the river in Illinois, we visited the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. There you can see the remains of a culture that built numerous earthen mounds, including the huge Monks Mound. They did a pretty impressive job for folks without the wheel or the horse. A big city of 20,000 people here north of Mexico definitely jars with the preconceptions a lot of us probably have grown up with. National Geographic had a good article on Cahokia back in their January 2011 issue.

Going and coming, I got to drive with my lovely grandmother, which was fun. It’s quite something having a conversation with somebody who still remembers when Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic the first time.

I also saw the movie "THOR" and continued to be unemployed, neither of which are all that exciting.

“A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.”
~Mark Twain

Hurdles

2011-05-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

Well, the long overdue death of OBL has yet to wreak miraculous turnarounds on the job market (not that I expected it to). My particular field just seems to keep being whittled smaller and smaller, with fewer opportunities apparently available at all levels. Don’t believe me?

Take a look here

And here

And here

And finally here, across the pond

So, one starts to consider alternate paths that might take greater or lesser departures from previous plans. One also considers their fallback option(s) to try and wait out the situation in order to just keep money coming into the coffers. There is nobody to be angry at for the world being like this. It is just too big and impersonal a set of commingling forces, and unfortunately for some folks it is happening at an especially bad time (or, time and time again) in their brief, mortal lives. One just has to keep trying, and eventually find some happy medium. It still stinks, though.

On the up side, there have been a lot of avian arrivals in the yard here in the last couple days. I’ve seen gold finches, a brown thrasher, a Baltimore oriole, and a hummingbird. There must be several mockingbirds in the area, too, because the number of bird calls sometimes seems way beyond the variety of birds visible. Nature could not care less about the plight of any economy, which is reassuring in its own way.

Also a positive is that I didn't have to fight at Gallipoli in World War I. Here's a belated ANZAC Day remembrance from a damn Yank, for what it's worth.

“Why is a crooked letter and can’t be made straight… never mind why, just get up, pus-head! Get up! The day’s young!”
~Cort, “The Gunslinger” by Stephen King

Ich hab nichts…

2011-04-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

Spring is springing here, though it is a bit cool today. It has been nice getting to see a majority of my relatives in the last couple weeks, and I hope to get to see the rest at some point before I get whisked off to go work somewhere doing something. However, in the last few weeks there have really been no major progresses made in my current search for meaning in my life…I mean, gainful and engaging employment. Of course, timing plays such a huge role in life. It is a lesson that is being reinforced again and again as I go through another quest for hire.

Over the weekend my family went to see a circus. One act had “Du Hast” by Rammstein played over the PA system as accompaniment. That totally reminded me of the Polish guys that worked at Glacier NP in the same lodge that I did, and would spend lots of their time off in their room below me in the dorm getting blotto with vodka and blasting Rammstein songs on their stereo. Good times (unless you’ve got to work the early shift tomorrow morning)! The pairing of the music with a child-dense audience seemed an interesting contrast.

“They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force-nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.”
~Marlow, “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad

As if I'd need an excuse!

2011-03-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well, 3/25 is Tolkien Reading Day, which should be pretty self-explanatory. A little J.R.R.T. can brighten up most any day, and honoring the man/author by reading his works seems highly appropriate.

Totally inappropriate is the design of the Dodge Caliber, which I had reason to drive as a rental car recently. I don't know if I've driven a car with worse visibility all around as that unfortunate vehicle. Not only was the rear obstructed by thick, opaque structures, but the front pillars also seemed to be perfectly placed to obscure important swaths of view. It also handled awkwardly, and the automatic transmission wasn't smooth at all at low speeds. Anyhow, I survived my brush with lackluster design, and will certainly never subject myself to such a vehicle again if I can at all help it.

I may have encountered another one of those places that I'm going to have to visit sometime in my life. I was reading back issues of a certain magazine (Backpacker), and I read an article about hiking the length of Offa's Dyke that essentially runs the length of the Wales-England border. It was built way back when during more hostile times than these. It looks like a lot of fun, like something that could likely be found in Middle Earth, and has certainly caught in my mind. When I have these sorts of ideas take up residence between my ears I end up doing things like going to Antarctica, sailing to Easter Island, endeavoring to become and astronaut, etc. Life is fun, and I'm thankful for the opportunities I've had.

I'm also thankful I'm not a resident of northern Honshu, or Japan in general right now. Talk about a trio of nastiness to deal with...

Anyhow, this is getting long. I'm still in limbo on the employment front, blah-blah-blah.

“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”
~Aristotle

Carry on then, carry on.

2011-03-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well, there has not been much in the way of excitement since my last post. I’m still trying to figure out where life will take me next. Nothing is happening very quickly, but that’s nothing new. In the meantime I’ve been doing the usual errands and helping out around the homestead. Today I raked a bunch of gravel on our lane road, which was quite enjoyable. No kidding! It was a beautiful day today, though our temperatures have really been on a roller coaster in the last week or two. But, there is some green out there now, with grass and wheat just beginning to grow. Spring will get here eventually, but we continental dwellers-far from the ocean’s moderation-know there could be plenty of snow and winter yet to come. In the meantime, I’ll carry on as required.

“Step by step walk the thousand-mile road.”
~Miyamoto Musashi

Waiting Game…The Sequel

2011-02-10T10:25:00.000-08:00

The usual process of job search, application, and rejection is in full effect here once again. Granted, that has been interrupted quite a bit in the last few days with lots of snow shoveling, since we here in central Kansas have gotten a thick blanket of the white stuff from the last big winter storm. I think this last one deposited 15-17” here, and did it quickly enough at times that the driveway and patio areas we’d started shoveling were already covered again by the time we finished the whole thing.

Anyhow, what comes next is still very much in the works, though without quite the sharpness of angst about the future that was felt 2 years ago when I was in the same position. I guess it’s a good lesson to have learned so thoroughly, given the state of the global economy. It is a good fight, so I will certainly keep fighting it.

“A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.”
~David Brinkley

Change, hopefully with restraint

2011-01-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

Boy did we narrowly dodge some interesting (in the way the Chinese curse someone to live in interesting times) developments in Egypt. That people are already gathering at the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo to forestall any looting or ransacking of that extremely important vessel of the human record is heartening, but a bit scary. Hopefully people will be able to get back to peaceful conditions without many being hurt, as well as many works of art and sources of understanding of those that went before being lost or damaged. With similar demonstrations of dissatisfaction and discontent happening in Tunisia and Yemen, one wonders what might be afoot in that part of the world.

Good luck to us all.

“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”
~Abraham Lincoln

Backtracking: more Turkey & NYC

2011-01-19T12:56:00.000-08:00

The circle of the trip then brought us back to Istanbul for a few more days, though the lame travel agency nearly shafted us by not booking the plane tickets it was supposed to have set up sometime earlier than 45 minutes before takeoff. Istanbul had loads to see, and we had a great time in the archaeological museum there seeing many relics from places we’d visited and other places (the Alexander Sarcophagus was indeed amazing). Hagia Sofia, which is one of those amazing buildings from antiquity still in use in the 21st century, consumed much space on memory cards with way too many photos being taken.

The Topkapi Palace, where the sultans hung out consumed nearly an entire day of the trip. The roofs on the towers shown below and the conical tops of the fireplaces inside the palace totally reminded me of gnomes and other fanciful creatures. There were also plenty of riches to be seen there, including the famous Topkapi Dagger, with its rather large emeralds on the handle.

After a long flight from Istanbul, we arrived just prior to a nor-easter storm dumping a bunch of snow on New York City. The icy wind was really blasting the next morning when the view was taken in (here, of the Flatiron Building) from the lower observation deck of the Empire State Building.

In true “Ghostbusters” fan fashion, the pilgrimage was also made to the New York Public Library, with its fabulous main reading rooms.

A considerable amount of time was spent acquiring tickets for and attending a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman, which was a fun change of pace. Seeing place that the Beatles played way back when was pretty interesting, too. It's amazing how brief the time line of events in this country is compared to other places in the world.

So, other than a marathon stint in the Greyhound bus system for just over 30 hours, I made it home in one piece, though pretty tired. This trip garnered me my 41st country and my 7th continent on my life’s travel list, and seemed to be just jam packed with cultural and historical treasures, not to mention a wide variety of landscapes.

What comes next? That's a good question, which I'm working on now, but who knows what will actually come to pass? Life keeps itself interesting in that way, for sure.

“Next to seeing land, there is no sight which makes one realize he is drawing near home, than to see the same heavens, under which he was born, shining at night over his head.”
~Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast

Backtracking: Turkey Part 1

2011-01-19T12:28:00.000-08:00

A couple hours in an airplane changed the dynamics of our surroundings drastically, as we hit the ground running seeing the sights in Istanbul, Turkey. The first afternoon we saw a couple sights, including the Blue Mosque (not pictured) and the Basilica Cistern. That latter sight (pictured below) was one of those places I’ve always wanted to visit, since seeing a movie at a young age that featured it. In this case, the movie in question was “From Russia With Love”, and the cistern totally did not disappoint.

It was then off on a whirlwind trip of western Turkey over the next three days. The first stop was the World War 1 battlefield on the Gallipoli Peninsula. We mostly visited the more northerly sights, including this small graveyard near ANZAC Beach, with “the Sphinx” in the background. Visiting here reminded me of the battlefield at Gettysburg, with lots of much-fabled locations and names and events that took place during the battle. While this is not a battle that is paid much mind in the U.S., having lived and worked around plenty of Aussies and Kiwis, I understand why it figures so importantly in the relatively brief histories of their countries.

The next day we visited a place some guy named Homer (not Simpson) wrote about a few years back: Troy. Yeah, Troy. This is a real sleeper of a destination. It’s not the most visually striking or breathtaking, but it really felt like a very special place. Nestled amongst sleepy farmlands, this multi-layered city is still just hanging out there with its record of ancient human habitation through the ages. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have someplace like this just hanging out in the neighborhood. It was pretty cold that morning, so there was frost on the grass in the shaded areas and frozen pools of water in the hollows atop some stone pillars.

In the afternoon of the same day, we visited the Acropolis of Pergamon looking over modern-day Bergama. This set of ruins was home to the famous Pergamon Altar, which now resides in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. It also sports one of the steepest amphitheaters of antiquity, and a masterful work of engineering in just the foundation to support the Temple of Trajan there.

And then we had to wait a few hours overnight before seeing another fabulous set of ruins in Ephesus, a bit further south. This Roman city has a bunch of public buildings in pretty good condition, which reminded me much more of Jerash in Jordan than Pompeii in Italy. It also, like Troy, used to be on the coast, but a couple thousand years of silt now leave it quite far inland. The third Ancient Wonder of the World was visited here, too. All that remains of the stunning Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is a single column, capped with a stork nest and flanked by a gaggle of honking geese.

We're getting there; one more post should do it.

"Sing, goddess, of Achilles ruinous anger
Which brought ten thousand pains to the Achaeans,
And cast the souls of many stalwart heroes
To Hades, and their bodies to the dogs
And birds of prey."
~Homer, “The Illiad”

Backtracking: Egypt Part 2

2011-01-19T11:29:00.000-08:00

We got back to civilization at the neat-o Siwa Oasis, which I will remember most fondly (seriously, it makes me laugh every time I hear it) for the sound of its many donkeys braying in protest at being made to pull their little carts around town. The town is surrounded by orchards of date palms, and has lots of ruins of its old fortress-like district called the Shali.

We then headed north to the Mediterranean coast and made a brief stop to pay our respects at the Commonwealth graveyard for soldiers killed in World War 2 at El Alamein.

Alexandria was the final stop after that long day of driving, and the view from my hotel room included the Qait Bey. It was a first for me to be able to see the site of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world (Pharos Lighthouse) from my bed.

The last stop in Egypt was back in Egypt, and a day trip to the far edge of town included the oldest stone monument in the world (step pyramid at Saqqara) and the Dahshur area where pyramid building techniques were refined, with a few mistakes along the way. That included the Bent Pyramid, which shows how the builders had to reduce the angle of the pyramid’s slope to prevent it from collapsing. Whoops!

That wraps up Egypt, but hang in there for more from the road.

“Fare on then, for nought are ye laden with sorrow;
The love of this land do ye bear with you still.”
~William Morris, “The Roots of the Mountains”

Backtracking: Egypt Part 1

2011-01-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

So, here we go finishing off the trip’s itinerary with plenty of photos:

From Aswan, a day and night were spent on a felucca (local sailboat) on the Nile, camping on an island overnight. It was a nice, relaxed day between hectic ruin-visiting stops and a chance to catch our breath before heading west into the vast distances of the desert.

Luxor and its magnificent temples of Karnak were the next stop, and we were there over Christmas. We visited the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatshepsut, which is pictured below. No cameras are allowed in the VOTK, but that pyramidal peak up above the temple is what looms over the entrances to the tombs on the other side of the ridge. Hatshepsut’s temple had some pretty good examples of intact colors on some of the carvings, which were beautiful.

From Luxor, we drove out into the Western Desert, which is part of the greater Sahara (you might have heard of it). Our first touristy stop was a semi-deserted village called Al-Qasr, which was mostly built from mud bricks. All the doorways were really low, and there were random low beams between buildings across the walkways, so one either made like the Ministry of Silly Walks or brained themselves if attention was not paid to the head room.

It was then out into the deeper desert for a few days, including a cold night camping amongst the fanciful ventifacts of the White Desert. Heading west from Bawiti, we went through a very empty expanse of desert, where the asphalt often was missing or abandoned, so we could drive at 120 kmh over loose sand and dust and rock. That involved about 10 hours of driving, with only a few stops at bleak military checkpoints along the way.

More to follow shortly.

“Iced drinks are deadly...The ice is usually full of microbes, all the more spiteful for their temporary imprisonment.”
~”The Happy Traveller”, Rev. Frank Tatchell, 1923

There's No Place Like...

2011-01-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, home, at long last. I'll fill you in soon on the fun stuff from during the hiatus since I last wrote. For the time being, I'm still trying to kick some jet lag and posterior soreness from riding the bus to Kansas from NYC.

(in) Turkey (and time for) dinner

2011-01-05T08:00:00.001-08:00

A quick flight from Cairo to Istanbul landed us in Turkey before noon. We public transported ourselves down to Sultanahmet Square, found our (kickin') lodgings, and visited the Blue Mosque and Basilica Cistern (go watch "From Russia With Love" if you don't know what I'm talking about). It's cold and overcast, but still a lot of fun and vastly different from Cairo/Egypt. What a difference a day makes... Anyhow, we need to get some dinner and get some sleep, since our tour out west to Gallipoli, Troy, Pergamum, and Ephesus kicks off at 6:30 tomorrow morning. We'll have two more days to explore Istanbul when we get back, before flying to the Big Apple.

"Now, to find some kebab..."
~Ethan, "Common Phrases That Run Through My Mind"

Back to the urban jungle from the desert

2011-01-02T03:11:00.000-08:00

After a couple nights in Alexandria, we’re back in this little burg of Cairo on the Nile. Three more nights here, and we’re off to Istanbul. Doner kebab, here I come!

From Luxor we set off to the oases of the Western Desert. We stayed in Dakhla before camping a very cold night in the White Desert, and continued on the next day to Bawiti through the Black Desert. It was then a long drive over a not-always-quite-there road/desert sands to the lovely oasis of Siwa, with its tombs and temples at the far western limit of ancient Egyptian influence. The 4x4 safari vehicles we were in were pretty old, and the drivers didn’t seem to have issue flinging us about (without seat belts) driving at U.S. highway speeds on pitching sand and gravel. It was nice to arrive intact, though thoroughly permeated with dust. On the long drive from Siwa to Alex, we stopped and saw the Commonwealth cemetery for soldiers killed in and around the battle of El Alamein in World War 2.

Alexandria was a reintroduction to a much more frenetic, urban environment before the whole enchilada of such in Cairo. New Year’s was pretty tame in Alex, since the locals follow a different calendar than us westerners. Somehow I managed to be out of the U.S. for the entire calendar year of 2010, which I really only missed achieving by a few hours back in 2008.

Photos will follow as I get the opportunity.

“Cairo…city of the living.”
~Sallah, Raiders of the Lost Ark

Long gone, but not lost

2010-12-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

Well, the days keep cranking by with lots of events and many mile of travel. Tomorrow we set off from Aswan on a day and night-long excursion on a felucca (local sailboat) down this little river called the Nile. The trip has made it to Wadi Rum for a night sleeping under the stars, Aqaba, Sinai, Cairo (crazy), and here to Aswan and Abu Simbel. The pace of the trip is a little fast for being totally pleasant, but we're definitely getting to check off a lot of boxes of places visited and things done. Here are a few photo taken since I posted last.

Sandstorm-tinted sky over Madaba, Jordan. We saw snow in Amman a couple days later. Weird.

More sandstorm action at the Roman ruins of Jerash.

Me getting some solo time with the treasury at Petra, Jordan. It took getting up at 4:30 in the morning to accomplish, but the early bird got the worm.

Getting on to sunset in Wadi Rum, Jordan.

The monastery of St. Katherine's at the foot of Mt. Sinai, Egypt. They have a fire extinguisher right beside the bush said to be on the spot of the burning bush of Biblical fame. Who said monks don't have a sense of humor?

Two of the pyramids of Giza (the Great one in the foreground) on a very hazy day in Cairo. We actually couldn't see the city for it, which wasn't so bad at all.

The hypostyle at the temple of Philae near Aswan, Egypt.

The relocated temples of Abu Simbel, Egypt. The interiors were actually more striking than the exteriors, which was surprising, though photos aren't allowed inside.

“History is Philosophy teaching by examples.”
~Thucydides

Canyon of the Haloed Moon

2010-12-14T22:05:00.001-08:00

So, I've just time for a brief note before heading to Wadi Rum today and Aqaba and Sinai tomorrow. Since arriving in Amman, we've visited the mosaics at Madaba, the Roman city ruins of Jerash, Mt. Nebo, the Dead Sea, the crusader castle at Kerak, and this little place called Petra (you might've heard of it). Weather has been surprisingly cold. It actually snowed the last night/morning we were in Amman, and it has been pretty chilly and windy most of the time here. There was also a sand and dust storm with really heavy winds for a few days. Regardless, it has still been fun, and the coming days' events look to be similarly pleasant. Hopefully we'll warm up a littl bit in Egypt, at least during the day, but the nights will likely still be down in the single-Celsius digits. Posting pictures may have to wait until Cairo.

"...follow me. I know the way. Ha!"
~Marcus Brody

bags packed...let's go

2010-12-08T01:53:00.000-08:00

OK, so in an hour or so we'll head to the Manila international airport terminal. A few hours after that, and it's off to Amman, via Bangkok and Kuwait. Sadly, despite about 6 hour scheduled in Kuwait, it probably won't be possible to go see anything outside the airport. It feels good to be getting to this Middle Eastern chapter of the trip. It really seems like that's going to be where the really cool sights get seen. Anyhow, cheers to the upcoming 6 hours of jet lag.

Happy trails.

Flip-Side Philippines cont.

2010-12-04T00:26:00.000-08:00

The village of Batad.

The beach at Sabang, Palawan.

The boats to get to/from the Underground River, as well as the maw of the river itself at Sabang.

Some of the local fauna in Sabang, including carabao (water buffalo) and bayawak (monitor lizard).

The next leg of the trip carries us across 6 time zones to Amman, Jordan, which will feel wonderful I'm sure. Until then we're just TCOB getting rested and prepared for the drastic change of scenery, culture, food, environment, etc. It really feels like we'll be inundated with cultural and historical sights and sounds once we get there. It should also be significantly cooler and less humid, which will be nice after the shock to the system the Philippines has been.

"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did."
~T.E. Lawrence

Flip-Side Philippines

2010-12-04T00:06:00.000-08:00

Having been on the go for a while here on Palawan in the Philippines, I finally have a chance to put some digital pen to paper and post some photos. Palawan has been much warmer than Banaue, but has thankfully not seemed to be so wet, though it rained hard here in Puerto Princesa last night. A few days hanging out here, followed by a couple more days getting back to and doing more of the recharge-the-batteries thing in Manila, and the Philippines will be history, as far as this trip is concerned. The following are some representative photos of the high points of the trip thus far.

Jungle plants floating in the Pasig River flowing through the urban blight that is Manila.

The mile-long barracks on Topside at Corregidor, and blasted lateral tunnels in the Malinta complex also on the Rock.

Sunset from Corregidor.

The rice terraces of Banaue.

Refrigerated freight...again

2010-11-25T03:49:00.000-08:00

Wow, the Philippines is a land of extremes. We went from the extreme tranquility of Corregidor to the manic, rain-soaked insanity of Manila, to a frigid night on a bus to Banaue with the A/C so cold we're planning on wearing stocking caps and winter clothing for the night ride back to Manila tomorrow night. Banaue has been the acme of humid, and we got pretty soaked walking up to Batad to view the rice terraces there yesterday. It's beautiful and green and totally different than Antarctica, but we're dreading the couple nights back in Manila before our flight to Puerto Princessa on Palawan. Oh well, that's travel.

I'll try to get some photos posted at some point.

"California sunlight - sweet Calcutta rain - Honolulu starbright - the song remains the same.”~Led Zeppelin

A bit of a contrast after much contrail

2010-11-18T23:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah, a marathon day-long displacement with flights from Chch to Sydney to Brisbane to Manila, Philippines really took it out of us yesterday. We got in late and ended up in a pretty sparse guesthouse. Manila is most of what Pole is not: hot, wet, loud, crowded, etc. The people seem pretty friendly when you talk to them, which is nice. We saw the Manila Hotel's oppulent lobby today, and I couldn't help but be reminded of "The Shining". The old Intramuros district and the raucous walk back trying out the old navi-skills without my nose in a map went well. Looks like the trip to Mt. Pinatubo isn't happening tomorrow, but whatever. We'll find something to do.

What's shakin' in Cheech?

2010-11-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening our C17 arrived in Christchurch with little fanfare. Suddenly one finds themself stepping off the plane into a moist world at sunset, with things called "trees" towering in the distance. It feels good to be back, though I haven't ventured out since getting to the hotel. Just as I was falling asleep last night we had what felt like a pretty decent earthquake, which tossed me around a bit. That was a first for me. The packing situation is my priority right now, so tomorrow I will return to the Antarctic Center to repack and ship the last of my stuff home. The next couple days will probably just be spent relaxing and taking care of business in the final break before the big trip gets underway.

"We learn geology the morning after the earthquake."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whoa...

2010-11-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

Yeah, we made it to McMurdo and I'm definitely feeling like I've been hit by a truck with FATIGUE written on the mudflaps. That the interior of the plane was sweltering the last 15 minutes of the flight probably didn't help much. I just don't seem to be operating at the same speed setting as everybody around me. Apologies to those friends I've already probably mildly freaked out or insulted as a result of what must be seriously aggressive fatigue finally being able to rear its ugly head. We have to wait until 8pm to weigh in ourselves and bags-"bag drag"-for tomorrow's flight to Cheech. I hope I can stay awake long enough.

"Can't sleep...clown will eat me!"~Bart Simpson

Chapter 1

2010-11-11T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, my plane is supposed to arrive in a little over an hour, and I might be not at Pole for the first time since last 28 October shortly thereafter. That seems like quite a long time ago. A lot can happen, and has, since I left home. There has been a lot of work, a lot of good times, as well a lot of not-so-good times during this contract. That is just how life goes, regardless of where one is. When I left last time I ended up with wrenching sobs and tears, not knowing whether I would ever be back. This time, like many things that have changed, I find I'm sailing much more of a middle passage through the Emotional Archipelago. I don't know if/when I'll return, but I'm not ruling it out. I have no clue where I will end up. So, with today begins the abrupt unplugging of a year of life on Earth, and the beginning of a new chapter, though there really is just one chapter, which is one's life.

So, as the fedora moves north, its first major destination (country-wise) is the site of what was probably the largest excavation of earth in the calendar year 1991. Chew on that, and I'll update you from the road when I get there. First comes McMurdo Station, followed by New Zealand, and I'm not sure how much time I will have to do any reporting/touring in either place. Frankly, some serious sleeping is in order, as well as some eating of different foods and getting reacquainted with things like trees, animals, rivers, etc. Leaving, as I say, is probably about as interesting as staying here at Pole for a winter.

“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
~Matsuo Basho

Dramatics @ Pole

2010-11-10T10:41:00.000-08:00

Oh, the Antarctic blast goes on. Allegedly today (Thursday in this time zone) we will be able to fly, but it still seems the same windy outside as the previous however many days this blow has lasted.

Give that man an Oscar!

So, today marks one week prior to my departure for the first stop on the long road home. Following my prescription, I took the first dose of anti-malarial medication for that destination. Hopefully that won't jinx my efforts to leave the Ice and get to this destination on my already-scheduled flights.

Thanks to R.A.B. for the photo.

“A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.”
~Tacitus

Still here, still windy

2010-11-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

The forecast looks like we winter leftovers probably won't be leaving Pole until Friday. The clouds cleared up overnight, but the wind is still blowing pretty strong and carrying quite a lot of visibility-decreasing snow along with it. Oh well, planes will fly when they fly. I just hope I'm on my flight to {destination redacted} a week from this Thursday.

Sunday night I had what (I hope) to be the last of my movie nights. It's a great flick, and seemed only to obvious and germane a choice to pass up.

A roped flag line was actually set up from the station to Summer Camp. I guess it was the conservative move, given the fact we have so many new-to-Pole/Antarctica folks at Pole now, but seems a bit odd from the perspective of somebody who has spent a couple winters walking around in the dark/wind/storms. Better safe than sorry.

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
~Leo Tolstoy

Hectic

2010-11-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday we got to do some project troubleshooting for one instrument. Otherwise, it has been quiet on that front for problems during turnover. In the evening my plans to do laundry and pack for my (alleged) flight out Wednesday were interrupted by issues with the power plant. So, today I'm trying to do the last bits of archiving personal data, packing, and finishing turning over. That being said, it's still blowing outside, so I'm not betting either way I'll be leaving on time. At least I'm done with my service as firefighter, since I was unceremoniously told my gear was needed by the new team. That's fine. I held up my end of the bargain, and then some, for that station responsibility for long enough.

It's always strange getting ready to leave, either coming or going. You pretty much unplug everything in your life and have to be ready to plug it back in wherever you end up. I think leaving is about as interesting as the process of spending a winter here; perspectives change pretty drastically after this long on the Ice. The trip home is definitely about both the journey and the destination.

“To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go. The tales of rough usage are for the most part exaggerations, as also are the stories of sea danger.”
~Capt. Joshua Slocum, “Sailing Alone Around the World”

2010-11-05T12:42:00.000-07:00

Science turnover continues at a pretty aggressive pace. My voice is definitely not used to doing all this talking all day long. We are making good progress, and I am set to depart next Wednesday. I’ll most likely have to spend at least one night in McMurdo before I catch a “17” to Christchurch. There are only a few of the winter crew left here, with gradual departures happening as days pass. We are forecast to have a pretty gnarly storm this weekend, but hopefully it will be done here (and not relocate to McMurdo) by Wednesday. I’m supposed to get my performance evaluation/bonus recommendation this afternoon, which will be interesting. It’s too bad that lump sum bonus gets slapped with higher taxes than regular salary, but it’s also annoying that coming all the way to Antarctica doesn’t mean you get out of kissing cheddar goodbye to taxes in the first place.

One of the things we did yesterday was to do the pre-summer leveling of one of the magnetometers. I put in a request for the vault entrance to get extended upward, to counteract drifting, last summer, so hopefully they will get to it this year. It makes it a lot longer process with that much more snow to displace before being able to access the vault to adjust the instrument. This is definitely one of those “rites of passage” that introduce new techs to work out in the field.

"Without Knowledge, Skill cannot be focused. Without Skill, Strength cannot be brought to bear and without Strength, Knowledge may not be applied."
~Alexander the Great's Chief Physician

Beginning of the End

2010-11-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

A Hercules flight with my science replacement and a bunch of other folks got to Pole last night, and carried about half the winter crew back out with it. So, now I'm actually able to start turning the reins of my science job over to the new guy, which is a bit of a relief. I am currently scheduled for one more week at Pole, and hopefully the weather here and at McMurdo will be decent come that time. Today's flight is currently on delay due to some mechanical issue with the airplane.

With all the new folks arriving from the diseased pit of nastiness that is McMurdo Station, I'm trying to wash my hands and do everything I can to avoid getting sick on the way out. I really don't want my first days of freedom to be detracted from by any illness, let alone once I wing off to my first big destination on the voyage home.

With people showing back up in droves, I find it interesting to reflect upon how long and autonomous a winter is in this job of mine. One really must have the inherent programming to do things right on their own, and to keep doing them right day in and day out. Without societal pressures of having others supervising your work on-site, the wrong personality can end up letting too many responsibilities slide. I wish I could figure out some bellwether exam, maybe something like the Voight-Kampff test in Blade Runner, to predict whether somebody would be able to keep doing the right things (i.e. have honor) throughout an isolated mission/season/voyage like wintering here at Pole. It certainly would come in handy.

“...it takes many thousands of years of advanced technological development for a society to reduce honor to an abstract moral truism devoid of real meaning.”
~Luke Skywalker, “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye”

Internal Resources

2010-10-31T13:14:00.001-07:00

Random shot about Pole: Winter crew photos back to the original IGY crew (foreground), stretching back to this past winter's 2010 crew. I think it is pretty cool to have that historical record on display, not to mention being a part of it.

Well, we’ve still no flights and the weather doesn’t (for now) look to be cooperating to get 20-something folks on their merry ways today. We have pretty lousy visibility at Pole today, but it should clear just about the time the weather at McMurdo goes bad again. Some folks are getting pretty antsy, but those are mostly folks that are not being made to do much work, if at all, and have not worked in a while. Personally, I could use some down time, but it is most definitely not in the cards, as I’m still the only person here running my science projects, and still have all my turnover to do. At least I have a really great trip planned for the voyage home.

I had to move out of my room of 9 months in A1 this past week. I got relocated to a smaller room in A4, which does not have much of a view out the window. Oh well, whatever.

Old room view: fine if you ignore the smoking shack and outhouse in the foreground. Since the sun came up I had enjoyed watching the flags flapping and snow blowing in the wind, which is about as close as watching trees sway and grass ripple back in the green world.

New room view: The wall (of B1).

All these delays and such are really just reminders of how the continent rules the roost, and that despite all our “improvements” in operations, we really are not in charge down here or anywhere when the weather decides to do something adverse. A sobering reminder of this was the fact that there were no survivors of the helicopter crash that happened this week during operations supporting the Dumont d'Urville French research station. My heart and many others here and around the world, go out to the families, friends, and co-workers of the loved and lost.

“Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?
Hey you, standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you, don’t help them to bury the light
Don't give in without a fight.”
~Pink Floyd

Orbit 1 complete. Orbit 2 commencing.

2010-10-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve worked for one solid year with no days off from work. If I haven’t earned a little rest after this contract concludes, I don’t know what it must take for a fellah like me to get a break. 365 days at work (with no R & R), and still functioning well; I’ll pat myself on the back for that accomplishment.

We have been doing lots of emergency response turnover and training with the new crew folks that have actually arrived for summer. Only one person from the winter crew went out on a Basler, so the 2010 winter folks are still a notionally intact unit on station. Perhaps in the next few days we will get a couple more planeloads of folks that have been stuck cooling their heels in McMurdo for the last week or longer. I don’t feel too badly for them, though, since I spent 2 weeks working there while on the way down last year, waiting for the flight to come and start work on 28 October 2009... Yeah, that feels like ancient history.

Some folks are getting antsy, and the pre-redeployment jitters have set in. I still do not feel like my departure, though it be roughly 1.5 weeks away, is coming anytime soon. There is still just too much work to do before I leave. At least I got to vacuum my berthing room in a spare 30 minutes this morning. I generally do not feel like departure is near until I’m out on the actual flight line and forced to put on my Big Red parka for the first time since I last flew on a Herc.

"I think the real reason so many youngsters are clamoring for freedom of some vague sort, is because of unrest and dissatisfaction with present conditions; I don't believe this machine age gives full satisfaction in a spiritual way, if the term may be allowed.”
~Robert E. Howard

The weather cries “havoc”...

2010-10-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

...and unleashes the dogs of delays.

The third Basler got here last night, and stayed because of cold temperatures at Pole and bad weather at McMurdo. The weather is not improving, and the forecast is not predicting a change for a while, so flight delays are the watchword here on the Ice. We’re up to about 95 people at Pole right now, and a huge invasion will happen once the Hercs start flying.

Winterovers got to start mailing their packages out yesterday, though they are not going anywhere, like the winterovers. I got all my (5) boxes shipped off, and will probably send one more small box from Christchurch to get down to my “fighting weight” for the super-mega-awesome trip home.

The station does not feel too crowded, though there are definitely a lot more people around. Unfortunately, several new folks felt the need to provide commentary during my showing of “Return of the Jedi” last night, which was really annoying. They also took the best seats in the B1 TV room, so won no friends from those few of us who have been constant Sunday night movie watchers for 9 months now. It is interesting to see how a new group of people move into your “home” and start to make it theirs. It is probably one of the more effective ways of providing the impetus for folks still thinking in terms of the stasis of winter to finally flip the switch and realize it is time to go. Being at consecutive day of work #362...yeah, a break is in order. But, that all has to happen in its own time, and there is zero reason to chafe against the weather and things that are totally out of one’s hands.

I hope everybody had a great time back home over the weekend, and wish I could have joined (3-dimensionally) in the festivities.

“We can never establish with certainty what part of our relations with others is the result of our emotions - love, antipathy, charity, or malice - and what part is predetermined by the constant power play among individuals.”
~Milan Kundera

The invasion has begun (meekly)

2010-10-20T14:27:00.000-07:00

We got the first flight of passengers as of two afternoons ago. The increase of station population by 15 has not really made things much different. The second Basler was supposed to arrive yesterday, but the flight was postponed due to “forecast” weather (it was beautiful). Today, though, it’s blowing and the visibility is pretty low. The flight has been delayed already this morning, and I’m dubious if it will happen. But, one never knows.

With these new filthy people (no offense intended) arriving, I opted to get the free flu shot. It’s not uncommon for winterovers to get ill once new people with new germs arrive, and I’m not talking “gettin’ ill” in the old school Run DMC way, either. By this point people that have been here from 9 to 13 months are getting pretty fatigued, and you start to see some folks moving pretty slowly or stiffly around station.

I have been in project manual and report writing mode for the last couple days, and feel liberated when I get a chance to leave my computer and go do something a bit less tedious. I am definitely ready for my “to do” list to be much closer to complete, so have to keep at it like I am. When you run this many different instruments for this many projects, the administrative overhead becomes pretty cumbersome. To work on a single project, even a larger one, would be a relief (I think).

“Thick as autumnal leaves, or driving sand,
The moving squadrons blacken all the strand.”
~Homer, The Iliad

They came, they left

2010-10-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

South Pole Station finally had two Baslers pass through in transit to McMurdo Station yesterday. We actually had both of them on the deck at the same time for refueling, which was a bit unusual. Nobody on the flights stayed here. We should probably receive our first summer crew via Basler flights on Monday, if the weather cooperates.

Seeing new faces was not really all that much of a shocker this time. I think a lot of the bright-shiny of a first winter wears off rather rapidly upon returning for successive contracts. If you want to see what working every day for (almost) a year does to a body, including burning over 1,000 data DVDs for a single project, scope out my lovely raccoon eyes. Fatigue: it does a body ill.

"All fled—all done, so lift me on the pyre—
The Feast is over, and the lamps expire."
~Robert E. Howard

Prêt a porter?

2010-10-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

What you see is the roughly 20 pounds of gear that I have typically worn throughout the summer and winter while here at Pole. I also wear another light thermal top, too. If it’s particularly chilly, I’ll add another expedition-weight fleece top. The overalls sure take a beating, even just from walking around station.

Somewhere up north there are Basler aircraft trying to head this direction. The weather has been pretty lousy lately, with lowered visibility here at Pole. I’m not sure what the weather up at Rothera Station has been like, which is the first stop for the planes as they head to Pole on their way to McMurdo. The planes have to come here first, because they do not have enough range for a direct flight from Rothera to McMurdo.

We’ve been watching the Star Wars saga some in the last week. I don’t know exactly how much different my childhood would have been without Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but it certainly would have not been the same. It is amazing how many places a good imagination can turn the hay loft of a barn into on a summer afternoon, with the bugs buzzing outside and the breeze stirring the vibrant green of the trees’ leaves.

The last plant I saw living outside was a tree next to one of the hangar buildings at the Christchurch Airport. My flight to McMurdo was one year ago, tomorrow (14 October). Since then, the only living things I’ve seen outside have been of the bipedal human sort. I do not recall the last animal I saw, but one of our (now deceased) cats was probably the last one I was in any contact with before coming here. Though it will be fun to see these different aspects of the world again, it is amazing how quickly one readjusts to seeing them daily. I guess it’s the same quickness of adjustment one goes through adapting again to this environment, after having been here sufficiently numerous times to get used to it. Anyhow, it will be interesting to experience it all again, but it will happen in its due time. Now is not the time of the season to become impatient.

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it but the way the atoms are put together. The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff; we are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”
~Carl Sagan

Still here, still busy

2010-10-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the dearth of posts as of late. The pace of work remains high during this final push towards station opening, which is right around the corner. This morning I shoveled the Viper Control Room's roof for what will hopefully be the last time, as well as checked out SCBA rigs deployed out in some of the Dark Sector buildings. I'm off to run yet another weekly fire brigade meeting in a few minutes. There isn't terribly much new to write of, just that I finally counted up and found I'm currently working on at least 17 different manuals, reports, and other documents that have to be completed in a very short time. Some of these have been under revision since before mid-winter, so no, I haven't been procrastinating.

"Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price."
~Sun Tzu

The Bloody Flux

2010-09-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

No, we’ve not had an outbreak of dysentery here at Pole. ‘Tis the season for the constantly changing schedule of flights and plans for when the station will open and all that lovely jazz. The rumor mill is always grinding away on and about the Ice, but it reaches a fevered pitch during the transitional periods of stations opening and closing around winter. Some folks really get their hearts set on THE date they are SUPPOSED TO leave after a winter. As Phil Hartman playing Ed McMahon would say: “WRRRROONNNG!!!” That’s a great way to get all riled up and achieve nothing. It’s better to make like the astronauts in “The Right Stuff” and maintain and even strain. Or, you can make like Orphan Annie and remember the sun will come out {still be out, to be accurate}...tomorrow, even if the flights don’t arrive on time. Daddy Warbucks will eventually come to the rescue, so fear naught. Sorry, I’m not sure why I’m dragging out the pop culture references today.

Station opening work continues apace here, and the sun continues its slow climb up into the lovely blue sky. It is always interesting to see the gradual changes in how the sastrugi look, as their lighting angle shifts throughout the day, as well as from day to day. With the sun back up and being able to see to the horizon, this landscape always reminds me of the ocean, which is what this place is, if you froze the (desalinated) ocean and hiked it up a couple miles into the sky.

I’ve had some exciting and happy news from home in the last couple weeks. Unfortunately, being here precludes my direct involvement in the festivities, but that is simply something that one has to accept down here. It is just a good reminder that life goes on in anybody’s absence, which is the way it is, has always been, and ever will be.

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
~Dr. Seuss

Not there yet

2010-09-25T14:50:00.001-07:00

Though the sun is up, it really is not imparting any great amount of warmth to us yet. The last several days have been quite cold again, reaching -97°F yesterday with an absolutely gorgeously clear (not a cloud in sight, save the power plant and furnace exhaust plumes) sky allowing heat to dump back into the atmosphere. It got overcast and windy again, and the temperature today is 30-or-so degrees warmer.

I got to go on a wild goose chase on the cargo berms and in the science milvans (think cargo shipping containers) this week trying to track down capital inventory. There is so much junk just essentially abandoned out on these raised platforms of compacted snow. I saw a crate for a project I used to support that was shut down in 2008. Why that’s still here, I have no clue. I’m sure there is plenty of stuff that could/should disappear, but once things make it down here, they tend to stick around: like the buried Old Pole station and the utilidor arches from the Dome days that were not removed this summer. We leave quite a legacy for future generations, or the ocean when this all falls in there in however many millennia.

I am feeling a bit under the weather, with quite a lot of sinus congestion and aches and pains. With David Lynch’s “Dune” the Sunday night movie today, I wonder how much a Fremen stillsuit would help counteract the deleterious effects this place has on one’s body. You’d have all the recycled water you wanted to drink, and it would probably be fairly humid inside, so your mucus membranes would be happier than their usual, unprotected and desiccated selves. But, despite the fatigue and relatively rough condition my body is in (nothing different than last time I wintered), I am still enjoying having the oh-so-convenient weight room/gym at my ready disposal after work. Coupling that with all the walking my jobs have entailed this year, and I’m in pretty decent shape. In fact, I currently tip the scales at about 8 pounds more than I have ever weighed, and it is most definitely NOT due to being fat. I will definitely miss that “bene” of living here at Pole.

“The basic rule is this: Never support weakness; always support strength.”
~The Bene Gesserit Coda, "Heretics of Dune"

Polar Pixels

2010-09-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

There is yet no sign of the sun today for us folks at Pole. The sky is overcast and the wind is blowing a nice, stiff breeze. The temperatures are warmer than as of late, though, which is nice. Here are a few more pictures from a couple days ago:

Wind-carved sastrugi surface:

The growing glow of sunrise, which is not glowing so much today:

The heavily-drifted ARO, like the old song lyric "Sign says...":

Deluxe accommodations inside ARO, including plumbing minus the water. The flowery stool and funnel just run into a big barrel downstairs, and can only handle #1. If you must #2 you do it in a plastic bag or hoof it back to the station where the plumbing has that modern convenience running water in it. What a great use of taxpayer dollars:

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense."
~Carl Sagan

Remarkable Parallels

2010-09-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

We watched the excellent Moon last Sunday, which was directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son!). It has the elements necessary to become an annual movie-must here at Pole over the winter. The protagonist is a contract worker in a remote location, with minimal telecommunications link to the outside world. He spends lots of time on a treadmill and has hobbies, some tedious, to keep him occupied. He lets his personal appearance go towards the Grizzly Adams end of the spectrum. His nose bleeds when he blows it. Those, my friends, are all common aspects of spending a year or winter at Pole. Folks that get toasty over the summer, and never stay for winter, don’t really have any ground to stand on about feeling isolated, since there are so many people around and in and out over the season. Winter is a different ballgame, and Moon really reminds me of this place every time I see it. Now, if we only had robots voiced by Kevin Spacey...

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
~Carl Sagan

Come on a {brief photo} safari with me

2010-09-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

I had a little photography work to do for a project out in the Dark Sector, so took the opportunity of the beautiful morning to snap a few photos for myself while out and about.

Here is a view back to the station from atop the Viper Control Room. Visible is the beginning of the building-high trench I've kept shoveled clear to keep one of my projects running over the course of the winter.

Turning to my right by about 90° is a view of the crescent moon fixin' to eat Venus. That building in the foreground houses electrical transfer equipment (and probably some networking gear) for the buildings in the Dark sector. The building's deck was way off the ground until winter and wind came along and deposited some drifts that are well over head-high on me.

After walking the kilometer back to the Elevated Station from Viper, one encounters the drift and general elevation of the whole ground level that has happened since station closing in February. I'm pretty sure this drift is significantly larger than after last winter. This skiway-side entrance to the station is generally referred to as Destination Alpha or DA.

I'm standing underneath the Elevated Station, and the upwind drift is on my right. This area has drifted in smoothly since 2008, when it was a bunch of pits between the big I-beams that provide the footing for the buildings pillars.

Turning about 90° to my left is the view downwind under the gym wing of the station. On the left are a bunch of the reserve fuel tanks that got hauled back in from the End of the World (i.e. the far downwind edge of the station's perimeter).

Anyhow, I'll try to get more pictures posted around the increasing amount of work going on here. We're on the verge of a major push to do all the station opening activities, so there will be ample opportunities while out and about doing ever more snow shoveling to snap the odd photo of what this place looks like when not all groomed out and convenient for the summer visitors/crew.

“Dreams, dreams, without dreams a man is a bird without wings. And now I’m very close to the greatest dream of mankind. In every century men were looking at the dark blue sky and dreaming.”
~Sergei Pavlovich Korolev

Keeping on the keeping on, etc.

2010-09-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

We keep getting more and more photons flying around here at Pole, but no sun yet, not for a couple more weeks. I believe today we actually entered what is considered to be civil twilight. The temperatures have been pretty cold (-90s F), but we are supposed to have some alternating days of storms this week that will yo-yo the temperature accordingly. It’s blowing right now, and the temperature is about 20°F warmer than yesterday.

Last weekend some folks put on a play by Jean-Paul Sartre titled “No Exit”. I didn’t get a chance to attend, but I heard it was pretty enjoyable. In typical Pole fashion, as I gather, it became a bibulous event.

Watching “Aliens” was pleasant on Sunday night, though we got out pretty late since it was the special edition with a bunch of extra footage. I particularly liked the added scenes with the suitcase cannons, with their rapidly-plunging ammunition counts. That’s such a great flick! It really made me want to see “Avatar” on the big screen, preferably in 3D. Watching the legally downloaded version of that here on an inadequate computer was more like watching the Avatar slide show. Mr. Cameron definitely knows how to build worlds in cinema.

I have been working on a lot of extra tasks that need to get done before the station opens. Yesterday, despite the cold temperatures, I walked the length of a flag line to my antennas about 0.5 miles beyond ARO, on the edge of the Clean Air Sector. I raised the flag poles and replaced poles and flags that had been blown away over the winter. It was kind of nice for a change, and I got to hear lots of snow making “whoompf!” sounds as I disturbed its crystal structure and it collapsed. It’s a little disconcerting the first couple times you hear it, particularly in the dark, but was no big deal yesterday.

“Perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honor bright.”
~William Shakespeare

Closeout & Fantasy Worlds

2010-08-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

I've actually transitioned some projects from winter to summer modes already, and am even transferring ownership (which has been a long time coming) of one project over to another set of folks to run henceforth. We have a huge printout (kind of ridiculous) of all the station opening tasking that has to get done, but I have yet had a chance to give it a hard look and see what I can sign up for. I'll likely employ myself outside shoveling, since even though I've done plenty this winter I would rather do that than scrub dirty baseboards in the bathrooms.

My body is taking a bit less of a daily beating walking around outside, what with this increasingly illuminated world in which we find ourselves. The skies have had varying overcast, which just makes the clear times seem that much brighter. It's really a gorgeous time of year, even if we were scraping down to -99°F for a few days in the past week.

This past weekend, our Sunday night movie was "The Princess Bride". I had not watched that in quite a while, but it was as good as ever. I think my brother and I must have watched that at least once per week one summer as little boys. My brother even named his hamsters Westley and Buttercup, in the protagonists honor. Moving on into Sci-Fi September this weekend, we'll be watching "Aliens". That was one of the few really scary movies my folks probably let me watch at too young an age. After seeing that, I was in horrible fear of reaching out for the light switch in our old barn (before renovations) and putting my hand in the little extenso-mouth the alien xenomorphs had in the movie. Seriously, you had to walk half-way into the barn to hit the light switch, sliding your hand along the wall along the way. I was sure something was there in the pitch blackness lurking in wait of an easy bit of prey. It will be fun to go to the movies again once out of here, especially this new mega-theater.

“Take what is offered. And that must sometimes be enough.”
~Richard K. Morgan, “Altered Carbon”

Pre-Endgame

2010-08-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

The appellation “Angry August” is quite apt. By this point in the winter, people definitely seem to fall to the extremes of really liking each others’ company (or pretending to do so) versus quite the opposite. There really is not much remarkable about the situation. Just run the thought experiment considering how you would feel if all your co-workers/bosses/employees lived and ate and slept in the same building as you. Not being able to get away from the same social scene can really wear on folks.

But, the contrasting point to that is with the brightness continuing to grow on the horizon, one’s thoughts can more realistically begin to linger upon what will come upon departure. Some folks can afford to turn their gaze thusly more often, while others (like your humble servant) still have a whole lot of work to do before station opening, and even more work to do for turnover once replacements arrive. The disparity of work expectations for the different “professions” down here is just more evident given the close proximity in which the various societal castes must exist. For some folks they just stop working when their replacements arrive, but for others they have a whole lot of teaching to do before their labors are concluded. It’s not really different than anywhere else in the world.

We got word recently about the NSF’s decision for the 3 finalist companies/bids for the continued Antarctic operations contract. This whole decision has been pending for quite some time, and I am sure the full-time staff in Denver are very much ready for some sort of decisive, ultimate finalist to be chosen so they can move past limbo and get on with concrete decisions about whether or not to make the leap to the new contractor or seek elsewhere for employment. It seems like a very inefficient process, but is not the least bit different from what I experienced with contract turnover when working at NASA GSFC. Though much will stay the same, there will hopefully be some improvements in various aspects of the company and management of the three American stations on the Ice.

I continue to gradually make plans for my trip home, and have not decided whether I will telegraph my itinerary in this forum ahead of time or will just write from the road and let those of you who consistently read be (hopefully pleasantly) surprised as I go. Right now the plan is to leave Christchurch on 18 November and get back home probably in the middle of January 2011. The year 2010 will be the first time I have been out of the States for an entire calendar year (and then some). The contrast to the homogeny of the preceding year will undoubtedly and refreshingly be quite striking.

“Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."
~Robert E. Howard (Queen of the Black Coast)

Something sunny this way comes

2010-08-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the glow on the horizon has done some growing since we saw it last, due to higher winds yet again at South Pole. This window of calm and clear will only last a little while, so after the next storm we will likely have an even larger omen of light returning to the world. Right now the moon is not quite full, but there is a lot of light outside.

These portents of things to come also herald in the ridiculously busy late-season surge in tasking for science and station activities. It definitely is not the greatest time to have more work dumped in your lap, but it always happens. Things have to keep happening for science like they have the previous nearly-300 days. Extra work preparing for the sun to come back up starts to happen. Extra work preparing to turn the reins over to your replacement happens. End-of-season reports come due. Extra tasking to make life easier for summer-only folks starts to happen. Extra tasking for station opening starts to happen. This all starts to happen when you're the most fatigued and worn down and ready for a break, but it is the last push (like finals at the end of a hard semester of college during which you've had classes every single day) that gets you to redeployment.

A couple nights ago we had our first power outage of the winter. It was very brief, but due to having so many instruments scattered all over the station, I ended up working another 2.5 hours (and walking another 2.5 miles outside in the storm) and got done with all the project notifications around 11:30 PM. We have been lucky to have had so few power interruptions this season, but they are never fun to deal with. Of course, that is for this science position I work. Other folks, who do not have similar requirements put upon them, went back to watching movies, playing cards, etc. I wonder what it must be like to have a "normal" job down here...

“It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.”
~Theodore Roosevelt

Malleable landscape on the move

2010-08-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

The winds have been blowing for a while again here at Pole, but not nearly as severely as before. Still, plenty of snow is getting drifted around station in different patterns than usual, since the wind has been out of the (grid) WNW direction. It actually has evened out some of the road to ARO, but is also causing the leeward drift of that building to grow very rapidly.

I played bingo last night, but...alas...won nothing. You got an extra card if you came in costume, so I wore my fedora and a gaudy sweater and carried my lariat, and called myself Indian Huxtable in honor of Indiana Jones and Bill Cosby's avuncular character from his eponymous show. I figured I brought The Hat down, so I might as well get as much mileage from it as I can.

Early "winfly" flights into McMurdo Station were supposed to start this week. The first was supposed to go on Friday, I believe, but a mechanical problem with the C-17 (thankfully on the ground) preempted takeoff. I think there are supposed to be about 6 or 7 early flights. No such flights are possible at the South Pole at this time of year, because we inhabit a significantly less clement spot on the continent. Early predictions for flight schedules to Pole are floating around, but are as good as fiction until they actually happen.

“The sons of civilization, drawn by the fascinations of a fresher and bolder life, thronged to the western wilds in multitudes which blighted the charm that had lured them.”
~Francis Parkman, “The Oregon Trail”

By dawn's early, early, early light...

2010-08-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

We've got a bit of a gray region in the sky now, which is neither moonlight nor starlight, and not even close to auroral light. The most early vestiges of sunlight, though it still be many degrees below the horizon, have started to claw their way southward. Funnily, seeing that for the first time made me think mostly of all the work we have to do between now and when I leave in November.

Work continues apace, and I seem to be having quite a few problems with my science projects again. For good weeks my weekly situation report is maybe 2/3 of a page long. When you get over a page then you know you're getting the short end of the reliability stick once again...and again...and again...

I had what will hopefully be my penultimate stint in the dish room yesterday, in addition to doing all my required science, which happened to coincide with "Community Cook Day" and to-order pizza for dinner. The volunteer cooks managed to dirty every single pizza and sheet pan in the kitchen, so I got a brief reminder of what I went through when cleaning ceiling-high stacks of sheet pans in McMurdo.

“In the jungle, there was no typical day, though most of the time one day was pretty much the same as the one before and the one after.”
~Michael Lee Lanning, “The Only War We Had”

Let rage reign!

2010-07-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

August is more familiarly dubbed "Angry August" here at the South Pole over the winter. We'll just see whether or not that moniker holds true this year or not. Farewell, Cryin' July!

The wind has been up and down over the past week, and so has the temperature. We lost the moon, and today have also passed back into twilight, though the sun won't be up for a couple more months. It won't be until the end of this month that the all-sky cameras I run will be shut down for the season. Walking around station, at least the portions I transit most often that are not groomed, is an exercise in tripping and stumbling. The sastrugi keep being refreshed before we can walk a nice path into them.

I woke up from what was probably my best night's sleep in quite a while Saturday morning. I don't think I moved a bit once I turned out my lamp, and woke only 3 minutes before my alarm went off at 5:00 AM, instead of waking up at least once during the night. I felt pretty bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, which was such a departure from the norm. It was a welcome surprise, because by this time in the year the constant toll of unrelieved workdays really can leave the/my body feeling pretty beaten down. Despite getting progressively more physically fatigued, I find that the time I spend in the gym helps keep me going through the last few months of the winter. I definitely need that physical outlet to offload all the stress that builds up as time goes on. I may start doing the 300 Workout again as a change from the current lifting schedule I've been following most of the winter. Doing that workout is tough enough, but do it at this altitude with virtually no humidity, and it becomes a serious aerobic challenge as well. I topped out one time at a heart rate of 198 bpm in 2008, which was a little distressing to say the least, but was usually somewhere between 150 and 160 bpm. It'll be a fun challenge again, for sure.

“It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.”
~Homer, "The Iliad"

The trough of the wave

2010-07-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

The last couple days have been lovely and calm, though the temperature has dropped back into the -80°s F. People have been digging out the massive amount of drifting that occurred during the last blast of storms, partially in a hurried attempt to get things serviceable before the next storm hits. That is forecast to hit on Wednesday, so we'll see what happens. I dug my building high trench down to the window for that GPS receiver for the third time in 8 days on Saturday. It took 4 straight hours of digging by hand, and I started it by walking up the drift and directly onto the roof of the building, then excavated down to the base of the building. The ol' body was/is certainly feeling that much heavy exertion this late in a long season. Since this chasm I keep being required to create is associated with the VIPER Control Room, I may have to start referring to my excavation as "The Snake Pit"...

We watched the mid-winter Antarctic film festival entries from a bunch of stations, including Pole, on Saturday night. Even if some films were a little weird, it was neat to see the other stations. I think the martial arts movie we made a while back, which was entered in the "open" category, is up on YouTube now.
"Asps...very dangerous. You go first."
~Sallah, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

Fantastic Environs

2010-07-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Our wind is still howling across the Antarctic Plateau here at South Pole Station. It has been getting up into the 30-knot range, and seems to be pretty sustained. There is currently a lot of blowing snow in the air, which diminishes visibility, but the moon being out helps out a bunch. Today the path to ARO actually seemed a bit more smooth than as of late, so I guess we've currently got a lot of snow filling in the low spots. I'm sure it will blow back out again in short order.

Another weird phenomenon here, especially when it is windy, is how much static charge the blowing snow/ice can deposit on the buildings/structures. I've got a couple sensors down right now because there has likely been a large enough static charge deposited on the sensor platform that it is affecting the grounding situation. Part of me wants to go out and touch the platform to see whether I'd get a big shock, but at least thus far I've had other things to keep me diverted from self-electrocution.

Every so often I get a craving for something different down here (imagine that...), and currently it is a huge yen to play the classic dungeon-crawl, hack-and-slash, "I-cast-magic-missile" computer game "Diablo II". It seems like unplugging from reality and heading off to smite those that deserve smiting would be quite a bit of fun. Sadly, I don't have access to the game, or my characters from when I played it way back when, but I at least got the guitar tab for its cool theme song off the 'net.

Other than that, I'm still plowing through all the junk, I mean project-specific spare equipment, in order to update inventories for all 13 manuals I'm working on bringing up to date. The science lab's mezzanine is looking pretty cluttered with things spread out all over the place, but hopefully it will condense back down pretty compactly when I finish. I could condense it a lot more with a +5 battle axe or chain lightning...

"He grunted with satisfaction. The feel of the hilt cheered him and gave him a glow of confidence. Whatever webs of conspiracy were drawn about him, whatever trickery and treachery ensnared him, this knife was real. The great muscles of his right arm swelled in anticipation of murderous blows."
~Robert E. Howard (The Hour of the Dragon)

What a blast!

2010-07-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

Our winds set some records on Friday. The wind speed topped out at 42 kts/48 mph, which broke the previous peak wind speed record from 1978 of 32 kts/37 mph. The average wind speed on the same day tied the previous highest average record wind speed of 24.2kts/27.8mph, which had been set in 1962. Drifts have grown and changed, and I've fallen down the one by the station in a different way each time I've come back from ARO for the last 3 days. The wind is still higher than usual, but it's nowhere near the tear-the-doors-off-the-hinges speed it was. The physio-altitude has been near 12,000 feet above sea level (equivalent), which has not been too bad, except when you go do workouts in the gym like I just did and make yourself seriously light-headed.

I managed to sneak in an instrument calibration yesterday atop ARO, and it was pleasant to do it with the ambient temperature ~40°F warmer than when I did the same calibration last month. The moon also popped up yesterday, so there was actually some light to work by as well.

I just started reading a book sent to me about the history of space science/astronomy here at Pole. It is interesting dealing with the offspring of projects from back in the day that are still ongoing. Shoot, I've got a radio receiver here that predates me by 2 years, so I'm still getting to serve directly with some remnants of "the old breed".

“As a rock on the seashore he standeth firm, and the dashing of the waves disturbeth him not. He raiseth his head like a tower on a hill, and the arrows of fortune drop at his feet. In the instant of danger, the courage of his heart sustaineth him; and the steadiness of his mind beareth him out.”
~Akhenaton, King of Egypt, 14th century B.C.

ho hum

2010-07-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

It's blowing again here at Pole, much to detriment of the walking conditions outside. The sastrugi move in mysterious ways, and seem to have their prioritized agenda item of creating tripping hazards for human beings well in hand.

Travel planning is going well. I'm ready to start booking stuff to get locked in for some much-needed decompression and cultural immersion. It's nice to have that light shining brightly at the end of the tunnel.

People seem to be doing a pretty good job, at least they are in public, avoiding the stereotyped "cryin' July" here at Pole. I guess the month is not yet half over, though. Maybe the crew will pull through angry August without too much strife, too.

Really, things are pretty much in the just-past-mid-winter groove.

“Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.”
~Aeschylus, "The Libation Bearers"

It's official

2010-07-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

When all was said and done for our recent cold spell, the official lows for each day were as follows:

July 1st: -73.3C/-99.9F
July 2nd: -73.6C/-100.5F
July 3rd: -74.3C/-101.7F
July 4th: -75.0C/-103.0F

It is now back to more clement temperatures about 30-40° (F) warmer.

In two weekends I'll help with the 48-hour film festival that happens down on this continent this time of year. I'm not sure what I'll be doing in front or behind the camera, but it should be fun (as I can swing it around work).

The moon is down again, so it is back to the usual stumble around station. Jupiter was low on the horizon a while back, which always looks like somebody with a red lamp way out in the distance when I first see it. The sun is about 22° below the horizon, and rising.

I have been hitting my body maintenance products a lot lately. I'm talking about saline nasal spray, saline nasal gel, eye drops, hand lotion, lip balm, etc. It is just an attempt to do whatever I can to help reduce the negative effects the low humidity here has on the body. Plus, I brought it all down, so should use it up while I'm here.

Well, I just was delivered a fresh strawberry from the greenhouse, so I'm going to savor the smell a while before it disappears down my gullet.

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
~"The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien

Frigid 4th

2010-07-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

We're having a nice cold snap here at the South Pole, with temperatures regularly dropping below -100°F over the last couple days. It will be interesting to see what our actual lowest low works out to be when all is said and done with this winter. The aurora australis has also been pretty active, and there have been many more displays recently that seem to cover a very large portion of the sky.

At work I have continued to prepare and revise science project manuals, which has also included trying to actually go through the spare parts lists for each of the projects and get them in better order. It's kind of like doing archaeology with some of this stuff, which doesn't look like it has been used in years and years. I just keep fighting the good fight, and hopefully it all works out well in the end.

“Except a person be part coward, it is not a compliment to say he is brave.”
~Mark Twain

Thoughts of tunnel end lights

2010-06-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had a lunar eclipse, which was interesting. I think the one I saw here in the summer last time was more striking, since we’re used to the moon disappearing (just not that quickly), but seeing the sun dimmed for the first time was quite interesting.

Late last week I had to fix one project by shoveling off the top of a rooftop-high snow drift that had obscured its GPS antenna, so the time signal went bad and the controller unit shut down. Who would ever have thought that a pile of snow 12 feet tall could cause any problems?

We just received our airfare credit amounts for redeployment. You can use it straight-up to be taken back to the airport from which you originally deployed, or you can opt for “leisure travel” and revise the itinerary or totally do something different. You just have to use the company’s travel agent in Christchurch, and can use the equivalent dollar amount towards your new flight itinerary. Unfortunately for us, but good for the U.S. taxpayer, the contractor gets a really discounted fare because they book so many tickets. It seems like this is a major milestone, at least mentally, for wintering down here. You are presented with the prospect that at some point you will leave and go off to exotic locales, even potentially that elusive one called Home. It also presents a challenge because this turning of one’s thoughts elsewhere can also increase dissatisfaction with the all-too-familiar surroundings, people, and activities while still on the Ice. That this coincides, roughly, with what is known colloquially as “Cryin’ July” is probably not a coincidence at all. You just have to keep your perspective and maintain a firm hold on your mind game.

"Nothing is more important than that you see love and the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways."
~Fraa Orolo "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson

Blue moon?

2010-06-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

We now have a waxing moon here at the bottom of the planet, and its light brings a welcome change from the last several weeks of stumbling around in the dark. I was noticing the color of the moon on the snow today, and it sure looks blue to me...sort of. The landscape under that reflected sunlight, if photographed with a camera that can take a long enough exposure, will look pretty much like it does under direct sunlight. The snow reflects over 90% (i.e. has a high albedo) of the incident light, which helps make moon-up times such a welcome respite from the klutziness of the darker times.

It is also interesting to see how the drifting has developed over the last couple weeks. One drift out in the Dark Sector seems to have gone from knee to chest-high since I saw it last. I've been walking over it in the dark and could tell it was bigger, but I did not guess it would have experience such a growth spurt. The drift by the "vertical tower"/"beer can" of the Elevated Station keeps creeping closer to the building, and is currently pretty steep, which at least makes for a fun slide down, if the climb up is a bit more strenuous.

Today was a bit quieter than of late, which was pleasant. I made use of the lull to do some work writing in updates for more of my science project manuals. It is a big project, but one I could in no way fail to do, given how much help they can be in the turnover to an inexperience replacement. My early start on these documents will hopefully pay dividends in conserved sanity, via reduced workload, toward the end of the season.

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."
~Carl Sagan

To the solstice...and beyond

2010-06-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

One week after finishing the last major repairs for one project, it suffered another, and a good amount of time this weekend was spent effecting the repairs. The part we replaced was buried amongst all those wires you see at the right end of the component. The close-ups show what eventually happens to metal when you run high current through it (probably arcing some) long enough.

Saturday night and Sunday night we watched "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight". In the few spare minutes I had today I made a little stencil and tricked out my work coat. Too bad it's not titanium reinforced carbon fiber, but it does the trick for the mean streets I have to walk.

Tonight we watch "The Shining", as per mid-winter tradition. I'll enjoy seeing a little glimpse of Glacier National Park as the VW Bug drives up past mountain lakes that are actually in Montana, not Colorado.

"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."
~Bruce Wayne, "Batman Begins"

The Sleeper Awakes!

2010-06-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well, as I wrote previously, this has been a very busy time for this science tech/fire brigade lead at South Pole. Most folks think winter here is less busy than summer, and for most that maxim holds true. Well, having had a bunch of new projects to support given to me at the very end of the summer that has made that statement about placid winters even less applicable for my work.

A couple weeks ago I had a transmitter I support fry some components and wiring inside one of its seven amplifiers, and spent about 1.5 weeks rebuilding wiring and connectors before it was ready to be tested and put (successfully) back into service with the other six amps. Fingers crossed that the thing keeps working!

The fire brigade is gaining a new member, so I’m spooling up to get him through all the basic review training so he can respond to real alarms with us and join the on-call rotation. We recently had the drinking policy for the fire brigade revised to no drinking at all while on-call, which I totally agree with and was happy to hear come down from the Powers That BE in Denver HQ.

In the last week I had my birthday, which was only the second winter birthday I’ve ever had (being from the Northern Hemisphere). I got a few little gifts and many well-wishes, and even a birthday cake from the galley crew, which was nice. I hadn’t eaten any desserts since I was in McMurdo in October, but made a rare exception (my one instance for the winter) and had a piece of my own cake.

We are fast approaching the summer/winter solstice, and this Friday there will be the big Mid-Winter Dinner. I’ll probably take a rain check, since I don’t really dig those functions down here. I’m not sure what night we’ll have it, but Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” will probably be shown at some point over the weekend. That’s one of those Pole winter traditions that I can get behind. Last Sunday night we watched “Rocky” and had personalized commentary from one woman here who grew up in Philly and actually lived just around the corner from the pet shop that figured in the story fairly prominently, so that was interesting.

I keep hitting the gym 6 days per week, which is a nice stress relief activity. Still, with not so much oxygen and very little moisture here, one’s body doesn’t seem to be able to recover fully from exertions. I’m beginning to feel the real winter physical fatigue start to set in, which I’m sure is not helped by having worked at Pole (inside and outside) for 229 days straight as of this Monday.

But, slight indications of an end being in sight have started cropping up already. Last week we were asked by HR to verify whether or not our home airports on record with the company were correct, so they are inevitably starting to think about the whole airfare credit and travel options for us that will be redeploying from the Ice in several months. With mid-winter approaching, it is also the time of mid-season evaluations, which figure on how your performance bonus will shape up come the end of the season.

Really, there has not bee too terribly much of note here. A lot of spending a winter here involves just putting your head down, doing your work, taking as good a care of your body/mind as you can, and letting the weeks slip by.

“The value of self-government at an individual level cannot be overestimated.”
~BuSab Manual, "Whipping Star" by Frank Herbert

Apologies

2010-06-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

A confluence of work, satellite schedule, and utter fatigue in the evenings have conspired to make me a deadbeat blogger. I'll do my best to get something substantial put up on here soon. These 80-hour work weeks are not too conducive to doing much besides, well, working.

Ol' Wind's A-Blowin'

2010-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

We've got a bit of a storm here again. Walking around yesterday was interesting with all the blowing snow. It wasn't very bad, really, since you could at least see the next flag in the line you were following. The windward drift of the station is growing very rapidly, which stinks because it had been at a nice, gentle slope for the last week or so and was pretty easy to walk up with all the moonlight. Oh well, life, like snowdrifts, is little but change.

The weeks keep flying by, and it's going to be mid-winter (mid-summer for you boreal folks) before too long. That's OK with me! Work continues to present a plethora of activities to keep me busy. It would be nice if fewer of those activities involved dealing with balky or recalcitrant technology.

Last weekend's showing of Kill Bill included a short film of the chop-socky genre. I took part, though since I had to work I was one of the first killed. I had the best hair, though.

Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.
~André Dubus

...and the sky glowed green.

2010-05-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

I saw what were the best auroras thus far this winter during my daily walk back from the Atmospheric Research Observatory yesterday. The auroras took up a pretty big swath of sky right overhead when I came back outside. Earlier, on my walk out to ARO, you could see them just as toxic green clouds lurking off to the grid northwest. NOAA Nick was outside photographing them, so I'm sure he'll post some shots on his blog eventually.

I got to assist filming what will eventually become a floating sword for a chop-socky short film to be filmed and shown in the next couple of days as we watch the two volumes of KILL BILL on the big screen in the gym. My buddy and I set up a simple blue screen, and he'll do the special effects to have this floating sword levitate above the upraised palms of the master in the film. I dangled our katana prop from a bamboo pole tied on with fishing line in front of the blue screen while filming was taken place. We've used the blue screen a couple times before, including a pretty funny/cool homage to Ray Harryhausen's CLASH OF THE TITANS several weeks ago. Tomorrow morning we have to film all the live action bits. Anyhow, it should be fun (as always) to see the finished product.

"Then suddenly the borealis, the snow-clad hills and the blazing heavens reeled drunkenly to Conan's sight; thousands of fire-balls burst with showers of sparks, and the sky itself became a titanic wheel which rained stars as it spun. Under his feet the snowy hills heaved up like a wave, and the Cimmerian crumpled into the snows to lie motionless."
~Robert E. Howard (The Frost Giant's Daughter)

I'm here! Come on!! Do it now!!!

2010-05-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

OK, so at a certain point in the winter here I stop paying so much attention to what is actually going on in a given movie and pay attention to the scenery, provided it's some lush, non-polar setting. Case in point last night: Predator. So, of course I still wish I could have that ridiculous mini-gun, but I spent a lot of the movie just admiring the jungle landscape the characters were creeping/running/shooting through. Cheers to an action/sci-fi movie with two future governors (including the Governator). This really makes me want to see the upcoming movie The Expendables. Sometimes you just have to indulge in a little gratuitous fictional violence, and boy did they know how to do that in 1980s Hollywood.

With the moon down outside it has been really dark. The stars and Milky Way have been really clear and vibrant during my walks around station, which is nice. I really missed them when the sun started to come up again last time.

I've rediscovered the lunchtime nap, which has had to augment some abbreviated nights as I've woken with really congested sinuses from the aridity of this climate. Sleep definitely is a golden commodity that you sure miss when it is in short supply.

"Given enough time, any man may master the physical. With enough knowledge, any man may become wise. It is the true warrior who can master both....and surpass the result."
~Tien T'ai

The Endurance

2010-05-11T10:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we've swung from having the coldest April on record to being on track to have the warmest May on the books. Winds have been elevated for quite some time now, and the temperatures have been pretty decent. As I write it is -51°F outside with 13 knots of wind. The winds continue to make the paths to outbuildings quite rough, and I know several folks (myself included) that do a lot of walking outside that are starting to feel that wear and tear on their lower extremities.

May seems to be absolutely flying by, as does the winter in general. Keeping busy has a huge role in keeping those days ticking past in good order. I definitely feel on top of my projects right now (knock on wood), and have been using available time to already start catching up on document updates and the creation of a lab diary/troubleshooting guide for activities and anomalies I've overcome with projects since resuming this position back in October. Speaking of October, this Sunday will mark my 200th consecutive day of work since arriving at Pole. That I've still got perhaps another 180 or so days to go really puts things in perspective about the duration of this contract and how one must promote their own mental and physical health to be able to walk away relatively unscathed after such a long haul. Having just read an article about the Mars 500 guys getting ready to do that long-duration simulation, I wish I could be given the opportunity to show The Powers That Be That Decide Who Gets to Go to Space what I've learned here in Antarctica.

Anyhow, as I hear of friends and family starting to take off on vacations and the like with the onset of nice weather in the northern hemisphere, I hope they do not forget to occasionally send a picture or two down this direction. Having just started watching Long Way Down again, I'm really feeling the pull of the Road. I guess I'll appreciate that freedom all the more by the time I complete my duties here and redeploy to New Zealand.

“If I was wealthy I'd never do anything but poke around in ruined cities all over the world - and probably get snake-bit.”
~Robert E Howard, letter to H. P. Lovecraft, 1931