Miscellania

This is the first time in a long time I have come to work and thought "wow, I don't feel like I was just here." so I guess that means my long weekend did it's magic. On my second day off I job shadowed with VMF's supply people; it was fun to get to try something a little different. I got to check out how the whole supply system works, tour the warehouses, and even drive a pickle...which is a tiny military style fork-lift not a cucumber preserved in brine. This picture isn't of the one I drove, that one was named Elvis, but I didn't take a picture and this is the only one I could find. I was really afraid I was going to hit something, I haven't driven so much as a car in 3 months, let alone something with a forklift on the front. But Rob assured me if I did hit something it wouldn't be anything too expensive, so I did a few laps around the OSA (Outdoor Storage...something or other) and managed pretty well considering the rocks and mud. If I thought everything was ugly and melty before...I had no idea...there are mini rivers running all through McMurdo, the ice continues to melt and we don't have any dirt, only rocks so the water just rushes about while fleet ops tries to level out the ground and keep puddle-palooza at bay. Between that and the ugly Christmas decor outside, this place is going aesthetically downhill fast. To be fair to the Christmas decorations, we can't really put anything pretty out. Lights would be pointless without any darkness, there are no trees to decorate, and the wind can get pretty strong so anything that isn't heavy and able to be nailed down is pretty much out of the question. Hopefully I will be seeing some different sights soon, the ice runway is rumored to be breaking up tomorrow which means we may be getting out to Willy Field next week (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_Field) which is further from the station. I have been dying to get out and about lately, but so far I have only been able to read about doing so. I have been reading this book by Roff Smith (a journalist who has made multiple trips to Antarctica) called "Life on the Ice: No one goes to Antarctica alone" and he got to go everywhere, Australian bases, a Chinese Base, and abandoned Russian base, an Erebus field camp, the South Pole...and what was the least exciting place he got to go? Here, good old Mactown. He describes it as an "Alaskan mining town, a far flung Cold War radar base, and the campus of a junior technical college somewhere in the Rocky Mountains." And goes on to say: "I quickly came to understand that McMurdo exists alongside Antarctica rather than in it, as though one and a half square miles have been excised from the continent..." That's not to say that he didn't enjoy this place, so much as it seemed to him the farthest you could get from Antarctica without leaving the continent...which is pretty much how I feel. But even if I don't get to go out and see all I'd like to I figure I at least was here for Winfly and got to see some real weather, some Antarctica darkness, and that view at Pegasus when I stepped off the plane. And at least I got to live in that small, close knit community of just under 400 that made me want to stay for forever. Whatever happens in the next three months I always have those 6 weeks to look back on. Hopefully I will get out a bit though.