Day 7-October 17th '11

Day 7- October 17^th ‘11

My 1^st day of work:

Building 155 is great because everything I would go and visit is within 100 yds and often right out one of the doors. The coffee shop and bars are right out the back doors, as is the church but with a 5 minute downhill walk.



Big Blue Building 155



My work building (140) is up a hill about 100 yds. Now I know I am out of shape, but with the cold, dry air, I needed to suck in oxygen faster than my heaving lungs could allow. I needed to stop 2 or 3 times to catch my breath similar to a diver’s need to stop every 30 feet for a decompression stop. They have a staircase shortcut up the side of the hill to the door, which in a few days I will figure out is hurting my knees and making me more winded than necessary. In a few days I will begin walking all the way up the hill on the road to the building’s driveway and skip using the stairs going up or down.




Building 140- my office (the yellow one)

 





This heavy breathing will last about a week. It’s kinda like when we moved to Colorado and were trying to adjust to the altitude there but we are at sea level here so not sure what the difference is. Pretty soon I can do the whole walk without any stops. I am still winded a bit at the top but recovery is much quicker.




View from the front door of my office building 140. Picture taken at 1 am.

 

I meet my Senior Lead Tom. He has been coming down for 9 seasons. I also meet the other newbie 1^st year, Talia, a Pueblo Native American from New Mexico. She has most recently worked in the Marshall Islands on Kwajalein as an air traffic controller. She and Christen have been here already for 2 weeks. Christen is a 2^nd year returner. She is my trainer and she is very patient, kind and understanding. I immediately like her.

We share office space with the load planners who work the cargo handlers. The cargo bay and shuttles/taxi office are also in this building along with my recruiter/interviewer Pete. The post office and mailroom are also here. Everyone seems to be a fun, tight knit group. I like all of them.

Most of the day is spent observing and being talked at about what to do. I’m a hands on learner, so I am bored to death and confusedly frustrated. What  I do notice is that as old and antiquated their transportation system is, it’s already proving to be a more fluid and navigable program than the brand new program I was using at Point Thomson. Not only that, the workflow was more consistent, and had better protocols and procedures. Their standard operating procedures were tight, straightforward and concise. It was an organized, tight ship. Point Thomson would do well to have Raytheon’s logistics when they come back online.

The fourth Rep Jamie won’t be here until next week. Everyone is on “town hours” 730-530 workday. After Halloween weekend, most departments will be splitting into shifts to cover 24/7. Our division called ATO (Antarctic Transportation Operations) will be working 6-6 with 2 days off. We will swap at Christmastime until our redeployment so everyone isn’t stuck in the same shift the whole time.

Even though I learned very little about how to do my job today, I did get a building tour/orientation. I also took the last cup of coffee and felt obligated to make another pot, so I had someone teach me how to do that. So the day wasn’t a total loss.



Chapel of the Snows