Still a lot of the same going on.  Today marks the start of the longest day of the year (which will last well into 2009!).  I made the mistake earlier of opening a window to peek outside after watching Lady in the Water in the dark lounge for two hours.  I must remember to squint next time.

I spent the day helping two of the other UTs out at Willy field.  It is one of the airfields.  It is interesting, since almost every building out there is on sleds, probably so they can move everything annually as the ice shelf migrates.  Even the two control towers.  There were also two large balloon hangers for the research weather balloons.  We shoveled out the indoors in one building while one of the UTs tried to get a generator started.  Why someone thought ducttape suffices as winter-proofing a building, I'll never know.  With all the amazing miracles ducttape can preform, it is POWERLESS in the sub-zero land that is the bottom of the world.  Antarctica is just that awesome.  Ducttape does start working again if you thaw it back out, but it might also have helped if someone hadn't just plugged an open hole with a few strips of tape  Some people don't think things through, it seems.

I've applied for Gear Issue.  I'll get to rent out instruments and skiis and boardgames to station residents to prevent themselves from going insane.  I might have to check out the solid plastic wig and the Hulk gloves and run amok around station, though.  Apparently this position pays, which surprised me, though an hour a week of volunteering shouldn't really thicken out my wallet too much

I may have slightly exaggerated the size of the Deltas in my last post, as I was never really up close to one, and the ones I did see were from downhill where I was working on the culvert under the road, but they're still pretty tall!  Though, apparently Ivan is still taller, which is surprising.  Anyways, I get to drive shuttles for American night next week, as the two or three drivers for tomorrow are already selected.

Thats Ivan on the right, one of the shuttle vans in the middle, and then the airporter next to the orange Delta on the left.  Still, the Deltas are huge!  Though I think Ivan is still pretty big.  I have some other photos of other vehicles around station uploaded to my Photobucket, so have a look in there.

I went on the tour of the Crary lab the other day.  Kinda dull, since not a lot was going on, and someone in the tour were trying to give orders to the people giving the tour, but it was neat to see the tank in the tank room at the end with the fish and spider crabs in it.  The fish in the touch tank was amusing, because he would swim around and lie on the other things in the tank, like the one anemone he spooked when he landed on it.

The wheels on the bus

I volunteered to be a shuttle driver, so today I learned to drive the two of the smaller shuttle vehicles on base.  One of them is part of McMurdo's Ford fleet.  It is just a normal van on some very LARGE snow wheels.  The problem with the Ford fleet with the big tires is its a pain getting into them, especially since most of them lack any kind of step or handle inside the cab to pull yourself in with.  The second vehicle was the airporter, a kind of short shuttle bus you see used as small shuttle busses in cities, or at airports or hotels.  It was a pain to drive since the pedal was awkward.  I still don't have the hang of pressing the gas.

Remember, I said these are the two SMALLER shuttle vehicles.  Ivan the Terra Bus is probably twice my height and can carry something like fifty people at a time.  I'll get some photos later, since I know where they park it.  The other shuttles I might learn to drive are the Deltas.  Those suckers are HUGE, maybe three or four times my height.  I think the tires alone are as tall as I am.  They can't carry nearly as many people as Ivan can, but its still a behemoth.

Where penguins are a dime a dozen

Someone in the UT shop shared a funny story the other day.  I believe he is from New Zealand.  Someone he knows in Christchurch took her autistic son with her to the Antarctic Center, which is a kind of learning center/museum right next to the building we went to for orientation and deployment.  They have all sorts of exhibits about Antarctica.  Well, at one point the woman lost track of her son.  When they found him again, and he was soaking wet.  They could not figure out how he got wet, but he looked otherwise fine.  Later on when they got home, she checked on him while he was taking a bath, and in the tub with him was a one-legged penguin.  Apparently he had managed to get into one of the penguin exhibits, picked out one of the weakest members of the group and stuffed it into his backpack.  The mother called the Antarctic Center, informing them that her son had stolen one of their penguins, who apparently assumed he had a plush penguin from the gift shop and replied, "Oh, just bring it back in a couple of days."

Now with more ice!

Well, I've been working in the UT Shop for the last week, though I have yet to actually do any work for them other than label some shelves for when I later start taking inventory of one of the shop's milvans (cargo containers).  So far the UT Shop has had me helping out in the buildings supply room where they had me identify and tag used motors.  I've also been working with the electricians on the utility tunnel that runs under one of the roads behind the shop.

This tunnel was apparently completely filled with ice two weeks before, but has since had heaters blowing in it to melt it down some.  My work on this specifically was as the Authorized Attendant for the Confined Space work.  Basically, I work as a spot.  I take readings of the air with a small computer connected to a hose on a stick and keep an eye on the guys inside of the tunnel in case they get injured or pass out from toxic fumes or lack of oxygen or something.  The inside of the tunnel was HOT.  My coworkers from the electrical shop were in there wearing as little clothing as they could and still sweating like they were in a sauna.  They would come out for breaks and would literally be steaming as the sweat evaporated off them.  By the end of today most of the ice was melted.  The remaining heater will run for the next few days to melt the rest of the ice that had built up and hopefully the place will be bone dry for the next part of the work.  I never get to go inside since I am the attendant, which is fine because it is way too hot in there.  Luckily I can warm up right at the entrance with all the warm air blowing out.  I start to get cold when I'm just sitting still.

Of the three shops I've worked with so far, the Carpentry shop is the more strict one, though fair.  The UT shop is more casual and relaxed but still get their work done, and then the Electrical shop just seems more lazy to me.  Supply is neat, too.  Its like a big store filled with various machines and parts and hardware.  There are several supply offices like that around station.  

Mainbody finally arrived!  Apparently one of the flights had even made it to the runway, but could not see it to land.  They had circled for a bit before turning around and heading all the way back to Christchurch, those poor souls.  Thats roughly twelve hours there.  I'm glad they finally got here, since I've been wanting to see all the new people.  The galley is really starting to get full at meals and we're maybe at half-staff right now.  I wound up getting my roommates.  Two arrived on the second flight, they are Travis and Dhane.  The third roommate Vince arrived around 11pm last night.  They are squeezing these flights in where they can!  The UT shop holds its morning meetings in the laundry room since it is the biggest of the utility areas with enough room for everyone to congregate in, and as more people arrive, more of the bags of bed linens go out which clears a LOT more room in there.  Also, since they bumped janitors and DAs to the earlier flights we are now done with the House Mouse and DA Duty chore rotations.

Now that I'm getting more and more money every couple weeks I had been looking around for things to buy.  I'll have to start getting clothing sizes for friends and family to pick them up souvenirs from the station store.  I've also been looking at stores online for DVDs and such I'm interested in which came out after my deployment.  CDs might be nice too since my iPod is a bit lacking in tunes, though I can always borrow CDs from the library or leech off someone else's compilation of music off their computers.  Since mainbody has arrived the post office will be open more and I will be able to start sending out mail.

I was fairly certain I had more to write, but cannot remember it all now.  It is the weekend now, so I'll try and relax and refrain from using my hands for anything when possibly.  Apparently the station physical therapist says I should avoid alcohol, which isn't a problem really since i hadn't had any in about two or three weeks.

Ah well, more later when I can remember it.

Yes, tis I in my silly hat.

Tons of snow

Okay, so apparently I have carpal tunnel after all. It isn't worrying me too much, though, since it doesn't seem to be getting worse, maybe even better. This is in ADDITION to something else I have too. At least I got carpal tunnel from work like hammering and shoveling instead of something like computers. I don't use computers much in a day. Sometimes just long enough to check email and failblog.org and notalwaysright.com, or I'll bring my computer down to the kiosk and do all that, plus chat online and upload photos and write these blog entries for an hour or so.


The other day my supervisor asked me to go check on the NASA moon habitat to make sure it wasn't ripped or broken or anything. Kinda neat. There weren't any warning signs around it, like "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" or "NO ENTRY" or "GO AWAY" or anything, so I poked at it and eventually went in. The thing is VERY firm, I supposed that is so it doesn't collapse, since it is just a large inflatable tent. As I could see no damage or any loose ropes from the outside, I went in. Getting through the door is awkward, since it is like a big, thick padded quilt. You unzip it and it kinda goes limp and you wrestle with it while climbing in. Later I noticed their zippers do not appear to be air-tight, so I suppose that isn't being tested in this prototype yet. Then there is ANOTHER door like the first to climb though. I noticed the place had lots of cameras. I guess they keep track of who comes and goes. The room was set up with a heater and computer equipment. I looked around, didn't touch anything, and left. But not before getting a few photos. Job well done!


The other day we headed out south past the Kiwi base to set up the I-Hut for Happy Camper. We had to unpack a large stack of parts by hand, since the fork was broken, and then assemble a tent structure thing on a large berm of snow. Partway through this I looked south towards White Island and Black Island, and remembered people having told me that if you ever see a storm down there, you had roughly one or two hours before it hits you.
Sure enough a couple hours later during lunch, the storm hit. We had to stop grilling our turkey or peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches and run outside, strapping down the large things and putting away the smaller ones either in the little red apple hut or into a Pisten Bully.

I had a little too much fun in the storm. I wound up cackling as I ran back and forth through the blowing wind and snow. I was told it was a Condition Two, but it kinda felt like a Condition One towards the end when it was really blowing and you could no longer see the nearby mountains or even Scott Base up north. I was warm there whole time, absolutely no chill anywhere at all.

Afterwards I wound up back at town. The weather tends to be better in McMurdo than it is down on the sea ice since we're somewhat surrounded by hills and such, and the ice is just big, flat, and open. At one point I was back shoveling off a winter's worth of snow from a large storage deck behind the Carp Shop. I had been working on that off and on for several days in between other tasks. I stopped and stared at it later, and realized I had probably over a ton of snow. All moved by hand, with a couple shovels and a broom. All by myself. Kinda a neat accomplishment. In that photo above, the pile is deeper on the left end where the ground slopes down into the other cargo boxes. Shoveling that much snow will keep you warm.


Yesterday I didn't go back out to help with the I-Hut, since I finally had my turn at Dining Attendant duty. Since mainbody isn't here yet, we don't have the full compliment of DAs and Janitors, so everyone gets to take a turn or two or three or four at DA duty and House Mouse (dorm cleaning). I've had House Mouse twice now. Well, since I couldn't go back out to the I-Hut, they sent me down to work at another shop during the day, which I found weird since I could have spent the day shoveling off new snow from the previous day's fall and painting an outhouse or two. Down at the UT shop I found out that apparently I was being scheduled to work there for TWO WEEKS and no one bothered to tell me. Oh well. I wound up helping the people in Main Supply inventory all the used motors that wound up on shelves during the winter. Not back working in there, and I'm about halfway through that task, but today I had to throw on a mask so I would stop inhaling dust and sneezing constantly, and later on I found out my face was filthy from all that dust, which was saturated in oil and grease from the motors. With luck I can wind up working in there permanently, its a cool place.


I found out that one of the guys I had DA duty with, and who is in the UT shop, is from the Czech Republic, which is cool!


Speaking of mainbody, they are not here yet. The first flight was supposed to be Monday, but weather caused them to turn around (boomerang). Then I think they canceled it three times now. Hopefully they get here tomorrow, since I want to see the new people (and not have to have House Mouse again). They're also backed up, second flight is already waiting. Since they can't fly down, they get to wait in Christchurch, expenses paid by Raytheon.

Condition One

In case anyone was starting to worry, I had my arms checked out.  From what I am told, a thoracic artery in my shoulder or something like that is causing my hand-numbing issue.  It is not carpal tunnel syndrome, but I am told it has similar symptoms.  I have been wearing wrist splints when not working to keep my wrists in the 'neutral position' and taking it easy and I think my wrists are starting to get better.  At least I no longer wake up in the middle of the night with my hands burning.

Saturday I finally saw a Condition One.  In Condition One you are not allowed out of any building.  This ended during breakfast, so we were all able to get to work on time.  At one point I had an appointment with the physical therapist to take a look at my hands, and when that was over it was Condition One again, so I was stranded in McMurdo General Hospital for an hour or so with several doctors and a trumpet-playing dentist.  

Upon arriving in the shop I discovered at some point during the previous evening someone had snuck in an entire stage for the bands playing later that evening.  Kind of surprising when it wasn't there when you left work the day before, and now there it is!  Saturday's tasking consisted of cleaning the place up to make it ready and safe for visitors.  All the large shop tools were powered off and covered.  One large table saw was covered in a small stage with railings for people to dance on at the party.  To hold drinks we(and by we I mean ME) had filled two large plastic troughs with clean white snow.   Later these were moved over to the shop via forklift and I assume someone carried them in by hand.  When I was cleaning up in the shop, I decided to think as if all the drunken party-goers were six-foot-tall toddlers who would get into everything and anything.  After work I wandered away for a while.  I did end up at the party, but can't really much of those next four hours other than wandering around talking to people.

Today several of my coworkers and I had Sea Ice training.  We showed up for an hour or so of classroom instruction which mainly just went over things we already learned in a previous class, but then we loaded up into a Hagglund, a two-compartment treaded vehicle, and rode for the next hour or so along bumpy ice roads.  I can't remember much of the trip, since the windows would ice over on the inside so we could not see out and then it was dull enough that people were napping for the first portion of the trip.  The compartments are heated, but cramped.  Especially when everyone is required to travel with their Extreme Cold Weather gear which takes up space.

The Sea Ice training course teaches you how to identify safe ice to travel over in the field.  Aircraft usually land on six feet of ice, I believe.  Most vehicle travel needs to be over at least 30 inches thick.  When you drive across the ice, you need to stop and check the ice depth along any large cracks you come across.  The first we saw was where the older, multi-year ice (ice that has been around for several years) met the first-year ice (ice that formed within the last year).  You could identify this because of a noticeable shelf in the miles and miles of ice.  It was only an inch or so drop, but when you dig down into the snow there is a difference in the depth of snow over each part of ice.  The ice itself varies in depth between the two fields.  For the experience we had drilled two holes, one on either side of the shelf.  We started with a hand-crank auger, which took quite a while because our instructor had thought it was the brand that was the counter-clockwise turning abomination, and whenever I tried to point this out to the girl who had the first turn on it, she kept on turning the drill the wrong way which did not get us very far.  Eventually we (and by we I mean SHE) figured it out and got it working, and we switched out as we drilled through the ice, one person leaning on the auger handle to push it down while someone else turned the crank.  After showing us how it was done by hand, out instructor pulled out a small powered motor as we started drilling through much faster.

As you drill the ice shavings come out like snow-cone ice.  We tasted this, which was sea ice, and it had a slight salty taste to it.  When you get down lower to the water, the ice shavings come up more damp up like a blended drink.  We tasted this too, and it was a lot more salty.  Now we just need the tequila and lime.  Eventually you break through to the sea water below and it burbles up through your hole. 

Normally you drill several holes along a line across a break in the ice.  Vehicles are allowed to travel over ice thinner than 30inches so long as the distance of the too-thin ice is 1/3 the length of your vehicle track/tire.  Or some nonsense like that.  

I finally saw some animals today! (live ones, not like the stuffed penguins in the Crary Labs) From where we were the seals looked like small little wriggly black things in the distance.  You are not allowed to interfere with the animals here, so we had to steer clear, though if you do see seals that is an indicator that there is thinner ice over there, since they chew their way through and just lie about all day.

I got plenty of photos in the several hours we were out there, some of which I will upload later on.

Party like its 11:29

So last Saturday there was a small party in the Ghallager's bar.  Open-Mic until 10 or 11, and then live DJs until dawn! (or at least until the DJs got bored, which apparently happened when the place emptied around 3am).  Its all BYOB, which makes things a little boring if you don't have a stockpile in your room or don't want to bring anything down.  Not to mention the bar itself isn't open until staff comes down with mainbody next week or so.  Anyways, it wasn't too bad.  My preferred style of dance appears to involve a lot of jumping about and moving around.  I dare anyone to say they got a better workout than me that night.

This upcoming Saturday is the Carpentry Shop party.  We'll have a few live bands and then one of my coworkers will DJ the rest of the night (he was one of the DJs at last week's party).  I guess drinks will be on the Carp Shop since we're being asked to pitch in $20 each.  It should be interesting, as nothing says "PARTY ON!" like a buncha drunk people in a shop full of dangerous power tools (we'll probably lockout-tagout everything, though).

I've been working on various projects in the shop when not clearing snow.  The other day I made 96 'dead-men'.  These are wooden snow anchors for tents made out of a 2x4x20 length of lumber with a 7' rope looped through it.  You bury the wood in the snow and tie your tent down to the rope.  The other day I was asked to make three keychains for our shop trucks.  These were to be small wooden fish to attack the keys too.  Someone else ended up making keychains out of chunks of wood, so apparently my fish project has been canceled.  I've been working on them anyways, since I already cut and sanded the fish, I might as well keep them for personal recreational use!

Otherwise not a lot else has been going on.  It would appear my body isn't used to this kind of physical labor yet.  Lately I've been waking up in the middle of the night with my hand(s) on fire with pins and needles, as if the circulation in my arm was cut off, my hand started to go to sleep and then suddenly caught fire.  This is accompanied by a pain that extends from my wrist up to my armpit.  Usually this is just in the right arm.  Someone else said they had this happen to them the other year when they were a janitor.  They were given a routine of stretches to do, which I have started in hopes to treat this.  After I have been up a while the burning is gone, but my right hand and arm are usually a little inflamed, my hand has a somewhat numb feeling to it and two or three fingertips usually are just outright numb.  I also can't close my fingers completely, I guess a side-effect of the inflammation.  Sometimes when I start to use my left side more to compensate my left hand and arm get a similar but less intense experience.  Hopefully my body will adjust soon and this will all go away.  Ah well.  Since it seems to just be from not being used to the work, it should go away at some point.

I also picked up some Super Glue for 'medicinal purposes'.  Antarctica is a dry place.  Combine that with the fact they want you to wash your hands religiously to prevent the spread of germs and you're looking at a lot of hands that are as rough ad sandpaper and fingertips that split.  I used the glue on some of these splits on my fingers.  Works much better than that liquid skin stuff.