Winter's here

Sorry it's been so long since I've written here. I've been fairly busy. The last flight left February 15th. I'm stuck here. I was at an astronomy class tonight and learned the sun will go down the 24th of March. We'll have twilight for awhile and then it's darkness, stars, the moon and auroras.

This weekend has been a two day weekend. I enjoyed the time off, slept a lot, started our yoga classes, partied and helped make bagels. I do enjoy the community here. You don't find many uncool people who decide to go to the South Pole. It's fun pitching in on all the odd jobs needed to make this place run.

Other than that, I'm working out (although my body isn't quite adapting yet), trying to read through Tom Robbins, of whom I've not been to appreciative of this book, and I'm getting caught up on work. We need to make a flag line for finding our way in the dark this winter. From time to time we will have to go work on the satellite dish. It's a bit of a hike.

Well take care all and thanks for reading this. By the way, you can now leave comments without starting an account. Keep 'em clean for the family if you would, but make jokes at my expense of course. You wouldn't be my friends if we didn't play like that.

Love you all,
-d

Mactown Vacation

Hey all. I just got back from McMurdo. It was 28 degrees ABOVE 0 there. I never needed a coat. I saw dirt and water (in nature) there.

The group I went with partied a lot. We made a name for ourselves being seen around station. I went out evenings and slept 10+ hours a day inbetween. I got invited to see the Kiwi Satellite dish and then had a nice walk home on a ridge above McMurdo sound. I am now finally familiar with the geopgraphy to understand the pictures of ice bergs in that area.

I also did a small hike up Observation Hill, which provides a great view. I walked to Scott Base, the Kiwi station right next door. Mostly I relaxed. I watched a good few movies, spent some days reading by the window watching snow. I actually will not see snow again until I get off the South Pole. I programmed my website while there but have not completed the Pictures and Descriptions, so that's still to come. I'll be busy playing catch up the next week or two, then hopefully I'll have a reprieve before station close.

Well, it's late here and though I napped I need to get a night's rest.

Take care all,
-d

Welcome

Hi everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to start posting on the internet. I'll soon be linking this to a website with pictures and adventures. I'd like to put up a forum or guestbook for everyone to sign, but we'll see how well I learn to make webpages. I may have an abundance of time in the winter (our winter here is opposite the Northern Hemisphere).

Things here are well. I work long hours but I'm not that busy. I volunteer to help a lot of people and am apprenticing my partner in crime, Bill, on satellite communications. He's pretty crazy. I brought dog slippers down and brought them to work. He showed up here with fuzzy monster feet slippers. We sit around work on office heavy work days in the slippers. Our boss thinks it's funny. The atmosphere is quite liberal. I remember showing up to the interview in a suit and following a women with pink hair into the Raytheon Polar building.

So the holidays are over. No I'm sorry to say I haven't received much in the way of your packages. Cargo this year has been a nightmare, though most veterans just shake they're head and say it's always something like this. They bring cargo through on Air Force planes and a Coast Guard vessel to McMurdo station on the coast of Antarctica south of New Zealand, then on to us at the Pole via a C-130 with skis for landing gears. First, McMurdo's runway out on the sea ice melted early and they couldn't get non-ski planes in. Then a ice berg the size of Rhode Island floated in front of McMurdo Sound. The ice berg didn't actually block the Sound, so we were able to get an ice breaker in. The ice breaker broke. They're working on fixing it but the Russians are bringing down a monster of an ice breaker and we'll probably just let them break through. They're discussing unloading our cargo ship and a fuel ship at the same time using a very long hose, but everything is smoke until we see it happen.

We just found out we need 156 C-130 loads of fuel out of the scheduled 180 remaining flights down here. We already have work stoppages here for lack of supplies. They're requesting the Air Force stay on longer to ship more cargo. I guess if they ask that we generally start having a ton of flights come in every day. The Air National Guard likes to go home on time. We'll be fine, but I don't envy the higher ups' stress levels making sure of it.

Well, I’ll let everyone go before I write too much no one wants to return to this site. More to come, and a link to the pictures.

Love,
-d