Day 29- November 8th '11

 

Today was a beautiful, sunny, no wind day. I was going to attempt Ob(servation) Hill’s lower loop, but my hiking boots still haven’t come and my shoes were a little too cold to attempt it yet.

I will do it before I leave here. Just not today.

 Scott's Cross was placed here by Captain Scott's team as a memorial to their leader. He and 2 colleagues were found frozen and/or starved to death in their tent about 11 miles from McMurdo almost 100 years ago, on their way back from a scientific trek to collect various rocks for study. They may have survived had Scott not stubbornly refused to leave the rocks behind due to his pride.

From the sea Ice Runway

From Victor's Cross/Discovery Hut

From Building 155

From Chapel of the Snows

From the road to/from Scott Base

From sea Ice road

Day 29 – November 8^th

Day 25 - November 4th '11

Day 25 -  November 4th

Saw my first Skua. They are big scavenger birds. They are brown seagulls on steroids. They are known to dive bomb and attack people coming outside with anything resembling food in their hands. They are brazen and bullying.  They will eat anything, including baby penguins in or out of the shell.

SKUA is also where people can leave things that are still good or might be needed by others. It’s a good program to discard non trash items you don’t want or need anymore, but others might. Think of it as dumpster diving at Salvation Army. There are small SKUA cubbies throughout the dorms. It’s a source of costume building for the dozen or so theme parties thrown down here. Each department has a theme and each year they host a party.

Recently there was a MAD MAX party thrown by Fuels. So people scavenged materials to make post-apocalyptic costumes. There’s also an 80’s party and a FREEZING MAN party. That one is modeled after the Burning Man Nevada desert party, only much further south. There are lots of parties down here. They stand to break up the monotony, raise spirits, meet people, blow off steam and pass the time. People love to party here.



My friend Cargo Kristen as a MadMax bad mama jamma-her outfit created on station via Skua scavenging



Day 23 - November 2nd '11

Day 23 – November 2^nd

I’m working alone for the 1^st time tonight. I’m a little nervous that I’ll have questions and no one to ask. I was going to have a huge double bag drag, but Jamie offered to come back up at 730 to help. So thankful she did. It was a 2 ½ hour deal.

I didn’t really forget anything. I got this job almost figured out

Day 21 - October 31st '11

Day 21- October 31^st

Condition 1 and 2 weather today. Confused me because I was used to Slope PHASES. Phase 1 was normal good weather, Phase 2 was a little yucky out-be careful. Phase  3 was no one could go anywhere. Everything was locked down. No going outside-no driving around. The CONDITIONS are opposite here. 3 is good and 1 is bad.

Wind gusts up to 40mph, wind chill -35* and no visibility. Flights were cancelled, it was very cold and very boring at work.

Day 20 - October 30th'11

Day 20 – October 30^th

Slept ALL day. Transition complete. I start work at 6pm tonight.

It's Lookin' a Little Bit Like Christmas

Like most Smalltowns USA, they hang power pole sentiments to remind everyone that it’s Christmas.

The Dining Galley

The Galley is top notch. The food is very good 95% of the time and very diverse. The fresh fruits and veggies are called “freshies” and are delicious. They come from New Zealand and are mostly organic.

The kitchen is huge and often had several stations open for different things. Some days there is an omelet bar, or a pasta bar or a sub sandwich station or stir fry/ fajita station. It’s all good food.

The bakers out do themselves each and every day.  Their desserts are amazing.  Wednesday’s are Cookie Wednesday. All day long there are huge trays piled with homemade cookies- at least 10 different kinds, continuously replenished throughout lunch and dinner. Ridiculously yummy.

The bakers make enough loaves of fresh baked hot homemade bread to feed 1000 people 2 meals a day. And not just boring white or wheat bread. Wonderful concoctions like ‘red pepper bread’ or ‘gypsy bread’ with walnuts or ‘rosemary bread’…… their combinations are seemingly endless and so tasty.

The dining room is huge, open and spacious, no one is crowded. It has a quieter back room that people who want to eat alone or night operations people off for the night and don’t want to disturb their roommates by hanging out in the room, go to read or write or blog. (Me)

Even the coffee is good. It’s not weak restaurant type coffee, but bold strong coffee. And there is never an empty pot or machine of it in the galley.  It’s either a magic pot or there’s a coffee fairy employed here.

They serve 4 hot squares a day. The usual breakfast, lunch and dinner, but a midnight meal for the 6p-6a workers called “midrats” (midnight rations) or “2^nd meal” as night workers refer to it as. Our breakfast is called ‘1^st meal’ because it’s really at day worker’s dinner time. Lunch at midrats is ‘2nd meal’ and our dinner is ‘3rd meal’ or breakfast for day workers.  In order to keep the bar goers from eating all of midrats before night workers, night workers are given a card to show they are workers- not partiers.  At 1230a if there is any food left, the bar goers are allowed to partake.

There are 2 bars. Gallaghers and Southern Exposure. The Coffee House serves wine and coffee mixers but also has a huge variety of card and board games to play. The Galley is a great hangout for night off workers too, as they have a few games to choose from.

The Galley does not serve carbonated soda in cans, bottles or machine. The staff knows and understands the importance of staying hydrated in this very cold, dry climate, so water, juice, coffee and tea are the beverages served. Saturday night dinner, alcohol (beer or wine) bought from the store and bars are allowed in the Galley to have with your meal. This is the only time this is allowed with the exception of holidays.



The wall are nicely decorated with paintings and photos of Antarctican locales 



A huge photograph of Scott's expedition with the "Discovery" the "Morning" and the "Terra Nova" in McMurdo Bay. The Discovery was actually trapped in ice when this photo was taken.

Day 19- October 29 '11

Day 19 – October 29

I slept in a bit. The Halloween Party is tonight. Halloween is a huge deal down here. So much so, that it made national headlines last year.

People bring down or ship costumes, make them in the craft room or rent them from the gear issue office. The goal is to be as original and outrageous as possible.

me and Danny

Me? I put my cat hat on and went for 30 minutes to see what the hubbub was about and take some pix of my friends’ costumes. Some were very unique, like the giant foam Alaskan grayling and salmon.

It was hard for the camera to focus in the dark. It was hot and loud. I ran in to Tricia M dressed as a giant hotdog. She still wasn’t feeling well, and was also too hot, so we left and went to the computer lab where we looked at funny pictures on the internet and laughed hysterically. It was a fun night.

Tricia





Shuttle Jen

Nathan and Craig

Tricia and Spring

Jason and Caitlin

Burke and Jason

Day 18- October 28 '11

Day 18 – October 28

The safety meeting this Friday morning was given by science cargo about the importance of how to handle NSF scientific data, experiments and specimens to prevent their accidental destruction. It has happened where scientists have entrusted their hard earned grant money and written doctoral thesis’ or scientific articles for journals, only to have the proof die or melt away due to poor handling along the way.

After the meeting, Tom told Christen and I that today was also supposed to be a paid transition day. We were free to head home for the day. YeeHaw! I went back to bed for a nap til lunch, then went back to bed until 6p.

I got up and got ready for another ATO party! This one is called a “roll call” party. ATO’s manager Billy lays a pile of money on the bar at Gallagher’s anyone from ATO can drink anything until the money is gone. It was another great way to get to know others in our department, and have some fun together before we split up into the shifts. 

I wore my Lynx cat hat and everyone loved it! Everyone wanted to pet it.

We listened to Karaoke until 11 and the transitioners went to the 155 lounge until midrats. I couldn’t make it until 7am to stay up, so I went to bed at 4am.

Day 17- October '11

Day 17 – October 27

A C17 is coming in today and tomorrow. Tom is having Christen and I do the crew tours today and tomorrow because we won’t have another opportunity being on nights. By the time we get back on days near Christmastime, the runway will have moved to Pegasus and no crew tours are given because it’s a 2 hour roundtrip ride out there.

Tom wondered if I should drive and do the spiel. I explained that I’d only been out on tour once with Talia. I wasn’t sure of the route or my way around or the town’s history or landmarks. I asked if I could observe and listen to Christen today and I’d do the tour tomorrow. Tom agreed to this plan.

Again the crew was super nice. So nice, that the pilot/commanding officer asked if there was anything the next crew could bring down for us from Christchurch. I offered up “avocados” because they were easy to come by and inexpensive. The officer agreed. I later apologized and asked Christen if that was alright having answered for the both of us. She thought it was great because she couldn’t think of anything offhand when he asked.

Avocados were on my mind since the day before; Talia had scored one in the freshies line at lunch but sadly were gone already when I got there. When I asked a DA if there were more, she offered one up from her stash because she’d never seen anybody so excited with hope or saddened by disappointment all at once over an avocado.  That was very sweet of her.

Day 16 - October 26 '11

Day 16 – October 26

Work was good. I am beginning to assess what needs doing and taking the initiative to do it. It feels good to have the puzzle pieces falling together and actually helping get stuff done.

The shift announcements were made today. I’m happy to be paired with Christen working nights 6p-6a. Working with Jamie would have been fun too, but I want the consistency and flow I have with my trainer. My days off will be Tues and Fridays and I’ll work alone Wed and Sat. when Christen has off. We start Sunday night. We will be off Saturday all day and Sunday day to transition.

Tom worked up a quiz of personal but harmless questions for each of us to answer. When we were done, he got us together, read the answers and we had to guess who answered what. It was a great idea for us to get to know each other a little bit better. Comp time was on the line, I didn’t win, but thought I did pretty good considering I just met these people. It was a fun ice breaker.

Day 15- October 25th '11

Day 15 – October 25^th

More training today. Christen is an excellent teacher. She is easy to talk to and very approachable to ask questions. She never gets exasperated with any question posed to her regardless of how dumb or how many times it’s been asked. The big picture of my job is coming more into focus and I’m starting to see the flow or procedure and processes better.

When I walked into my room when I got out of work, I almost smacked into a wardrobe left just inside the door. I was so excited; I suddenly had energy to burn. I started rearranging my bed so together with the wardrobe; a privacy barrier could be formed.

I turned the bed 90 degrees off the wall, leaving 2-3 feet between the bed and wall that the door is on. I switched out my nightstand for the empty beds. It was taller, opened easier and had different height drawers. The wardrobe I placed at the end of the bed, facing out to the room and just far enough into the room that the door cleared it when opened. I tacked one flannel sheet from the back corner of the wardrobe closest to the door, to the wall near the hinges of the door. That is now the cave door. Then I tacked the other flannel sheet from the other back corner of the wardrobe along the full length of my bed to the wall I turned my bed off of. I am now completely enclosed in a cave of flannel. It is cozy and perfect.

I offered half of my wardrobe to Tressa. She declined thinking she would be moving from the ghetto room at some point.

The Department, My Office, My Job

My Job and the Office I Work

I should probably tell you a little about what I do.

I am an Air Services Rep in ATO. ATO stands for Antarctic Terminal Operations. It blankets:

My box for my belongings at my desk. Since we share our desks, we put our stuff away so as not to clutter the desk for the next person.

Cargo: Freight, baggage and supplies on, off and within the continent

 Science Cargo: Specializes in delicate handling and deliveries of scientist’s data, experiments and specimens.

Shuttles: Taxi service around town, transportation of personnel and air crew to and from the air fields, pick up and drop-off service for bag drags.

Loadplanner Molly: She calls me Tricianopa because when we were introduces, she thought I said my name was PAtricia. I corrected her by saying it's "Tricia -no PA"

Loadplanners: Cargo and freight designers. They piece together all types of freight (baggage, fuel, freshies, food, supplies, and equipment, hazardous, and mail) on pallets so that they fit on the different air transports under stringent guidelines depending on the where, on what and how the plane will be flying.

Cargo Loaders: Build the different pallets the loadplanners request. It’s Tetris on steroids. The loadplanners tell them what and they put it together. They also load  and unload all the planes from everywhere.

Field Camp Planners: They supervise what is needed in remote camps and schedules supplies and people to get there.

Making the flight board for the next day's flights. Flight#, Tail #, Route, Departure times, Arrival Times, # of Crew, Passengers (PAX) in and out, Transport time Pax to plane.

Air Services: Schedules air transportation for personnel on, off and within the continent. Coordinates for shuttles who to pick up when and sends out aircraft movement notices, manifests, and other important communications involving pax and aircraft, controls the flight board of arrivals and departures electronically and white board and updates all information as it changes. Essentially maintaining accurate files for every flight with every passenger and all cargo electronically and a paper trail folder.

I love my job and the people I work with. They are a tight knit group who like to have fun. I feel blessed to be a part of it.



Christen at our desk. I'm at the other computer. Jamie and I share the right, while Talia and Christen share the left- on opposite shifts.



Day 14 - October 24 '11

Day 14- October 24 ‘11

2 trainings today. One as a Shuttles van driver and the other; Airfield Ops Radio Etiquette. I did both with Jamie. Our trainer was Robert. He’s very funny with a dry sense of sarcastic humor. There was much teasing from Robert to Jamie while she was first to drive the van. I picked up on it quickly and felt Jamie was a good sport. I had a good time and I think it broke the ice with Jamie and I a little.

I passed both. I doubt I’ll have opportunity to use the airfield radio knowledge that much on nights. By the time I get on days, they’ll have abandoned the ice runway for the Pegasus airfield an hour away. ( The new ice makes for a shorter season.)

Day 13 - October 23 '11

Day 13- October 23 ‘11

Sunday. Finally a day off. I sleep in hard- like til noon hard. I spend a huge amount of money at the store and attend a penguin lecture by a scientist that evening.

The lecture, along with fuzzy inferences from my lead Tom, are leading me to believe I may not see the actual South Pole, penguins or leopard seals. I find this absolutely unacceptable.

 A few species of penguin are only found on the other side of the continent, leopard seals are illusive and special off site trips are usually reserved for supervisors, leads and returners-generally not first year newbies.

 Off site trips are called Boondoggles. These trips are taken if there are many extra seats and little cargo going to a site or a site requires physical manual labor, like shoveling out machinery or fuel caches. They are also used as a morale /thank you for a job well done trip or rewarded for exemplary work, an awesome idea or lots of volunteering.

Emperor penguins and Adelie penguins are known to come to McMurdo. The Emperors are generally only loner males, not families with fuzzy gray chicks. The fuzzy babies will start molting, losing their fuzziness in November. They are a ways away around the corner at Cape Royds. Normally, morale trips would be taken over there, but the only way there is by way of sea ice or helicopter. Helicopter is too expensive and that sea ice broke up last year after being there for several years, so all the ice is new and not thick enough in that area to support vehicles needed for the trek.

I must trust God that I will see these birds. I must trust Him that I will see magnificent ice bergs, ice caves and wildlife.

Day 12 - October 22 '11

Day 12- October 22 ‘11

Tonight is the ATO (Antarctic Terminal Operations) BBQ party in the cargo bay. It’s a meet and greet for everyone in the unit. Every unit in town is having one tonight.

Spring and Tricia

Spring the shuttle driver brought her roommate, who coincidentally was Tricia M. I hadn’t seen her much since we got to the Ice, so it was nice catching up with her.

The 2 Tricia's

Cassa trying to force feed Sully a drunk inducing Carl Bourbon Cherry

The food was delicious. Excellent cheese (fancy type) and crackers and salads along with Carl’s bourbon soaked chocolate covered cherries. One cherry and you felt like you could be instantly drunk, they were so strong. All the meat was seasoned and grilled to perfection. There were 2 huge watering trough tubs filled with snow (and volcanic dirt). One filled with cans and bottles of beer and wine and the other pop.

Craig trying to cut in on Kevin and Tricia

The ambience and decorating of the cargo bay, gave the feel of low budget wedding receptions in fire halls or VFWs. Or school dances and proms in Smalltown USA, like in the movie “Footloose”. 80’s music was jamming. Some people started to dance and it was like an awkward Jr High first dance, which Tricia and Kevin reenacted by dancing stiff and 3 feet apart like teenagers who’d never danced before. It was too funny.

Kevin and Tricia

Queen and Burke

Tricia trying to mess up me capturing the essence of the ambience

Luke

Kevin and Christen

Jamie

Burke is from Seward AK and I coincidentally worked with his Dad Brandon Anderson at Point Thomson.

Danny and Kelly

Today was the first day Jerry and I started having phone issues. We think it had to do with the phone cards we got at RadioShack. Whenever I called the house, I got a busy signal or his cell phone went right to message, but on his end it rang and when he answered it, all he heard was a dial tone. It was so frustrating.

So we Google chatted. This will go on for 3 days before I decide the phone cards are useless and I purchase a virtual phone card from pingo.com that will take another few days to activate. At least there are other ways to communicate thankfully.