Frozen Dishes : life after the ice
Monday, May 31, 2004
Last Friday it was -95(ambient) and it felt every degree that cold. We are anxious for it to reach -100, hopefully soon. But, today we are in a heat wave with the temp hovering around a mild -45. The weekend was a fun one. The martini party was a big hit and a nice crowd attended. My power plant duty went off without a hitch and I didn't kill the power to the station during my shift. So, that was a good thing. Had some yummy BBQ'd ribs on Sunday night. Cloudy today, no stars or auroras.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Tomorrow we wake up to Saturday. That means one more day of work & then the weekend can commence. A friend is havnig a midnight martini party, that starts at 11, tomorrow night so that should prove fun. I also have power plant duty this weekend, but that shouldn't be too hard. Everyone has to do it at least one weekend so that the power plant guy can have time off. It's basically just walking around every other hour making sure all the generators, water pumps and various other machines are running properly. The weekend is split into two shifts that you decide with your partner how to divide. Lucky for my partner & I we only have to worry about Sunday this weekend. I'll be doing the Sunday afternoon shift and am planning on just hanging out in the plant watching movies between rounds. Hopefully nothing will go wrong during my shift. Losing power would be a bad thing indeed.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Well, that didn't last long. Someone has volunteered to do my dishes, so what could I do?
I've got three more hours of work and a bunch of people sitting at the bar in our dining room are trying to temp me with white russians. I've said no a couple of times, but I'm only human.
Friday, May 21, 2004
Tonight after work today I watched "I am Sam". Great movie & yes I cried. Tomorrow we greet Friday, always a good day even when you work six days a week. The store has recently been doing some rearranging, so it's been closed since Tuesday. I'm anxious to see the new look and also anxious to buy some snacks. Time to get some sleep.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
A while back a few folks were inquiring about romance down here. Here's the scoop at the pole: 75 people, 18 girls. This is how the 18 gals break down: 2 are married, 2 are playing for the other team, 3 have lovers back home, 9 of them are dating lads here. So if my math is corrrect that leaves 2 single gals. Not exactly what one would call a huge dating pool. If a guy comes to Antarctica looking for love, then he is not very bright. But, sometimes you get lucky. I personally have dated a few amazing girls myself whilst at mcmurdo. I think it was Howard that asked if there was a problem of ex lovers seeing each other and not being able to escape them. That doesn't seem to be a big issue here, but at mcmurdo those things happen often. It is particularily bad when a relationship goes North during a winter. That is never a pretty thing to watch, especially if one of them hooks up with someone new. The close quarters down here can indeed make for some sticky situations.
To quote Ice Cube, "today was a good day". Today I wore a hat to work I haven't worn all season. It's a cool 70's-ish leather cap. Got a lot of "nice hat" comments from the community. It is indeed a cool hat. I cut my finger pretty deep today, but even that didn't deminish the overall goodness of the day. Besides the new hat feeling, the work seemed to flow smoothly. I'm happy to report that the ice cream machine is behaving once again after acting up last week. Hung out with a few friends after work and had some laughs. Some people are now starting to count down the weeks until we leave. 20 more weeks I heard a few folks say today. Doesn't seem like a long time, but the next few months should prove interesting. Saw a shooting star as I walked home from work. Tomorrow is Thursday and that means the weekend is close at hand. All is well at the pole.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Last week seemed like a long week. After an amazing run of no problems the ice cream machine started to play the ole freezing up game. This time it was the chocolate side, which is something new. So, I had to hang the dreaded "vanilla only" sign on it Thursday. A sad day for all the chocolate fans here. We are hoping it works tomorrow when I turn in back on at lunch. Lately I've been having trouble sleeping and am struggling to leave the warmth of my bed in the mornings. I'm hoping this week pans out better in the nocturnal sense. Tuesday we got a hot tip at lunch to go outside to view some auroras. It was like a green river flowing across the sky and at the end there were swirling pools that looked like eddys. They were moving pretty fast and I finally saw some red colors. My weekend was a good one. Saturday night after work some folks gathered in the galley to play pictionary and drink margaritas. It was fun watching people try to draw on the big board and the drinks were tasty. Then today a few fellas got together and bbq'd up some delicious viddles. Think I'll end my day with a movie and an early trip to bed.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Happy Cinco de Mayo mi amigos. Saw the lunar eclipse this morning. The rest of the day the moon had a halo around it and that was a lovely sight. Today was a cold one. -92, -155 w/c. The wind was blowing pretty good, so I didn't linger outside too long. Even with my parka hood up and a hat on my head got a touch cold.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Big News: Honey Bear movie can now be seen online. For those of you just joining in, I made a movie about a honey bear in January and finally it can be veiwed online. A quick disclaimer, there is some sex, so be wary. Included on the site containing my honey bear movie are a few other gems. The moive my buddy & I made a bit ago is on there along with a really nice sunset video made by the guy responsible for getting this all together. In his video he uses a song that was from a band of mine a few winters back. I'm playing the theremin and the other instrument is a ukulele. A grand sound methinks. Okay enough small talk here's the low down: http://gcrgweb.sdsu.edu/penguin/south_pole_videos.html I hope you enjoy the show.
Today it dipped down to -92. A chilly one, but the wind wasn't blowing over 7 knots, so it wasn't too bad. Although, my face got cold very fast as I took out the trash. It was totally my fault as I wasn't wearing my face mask. A silly mistake. I made some Rice Krispy treats for the people today. A big hit. Speaking of big dessert hits, our very own Likewise sent me a delicious recipe that everyone loved. I'll get some photos posted one day. I also made some yogurt today, but am not holding my breath as to the fate of it. I couldn't seem to get it hot enough for a really long time, so I'm not sure how it will set up. Cinco de Mayo tomorrow. Looks like it's going to be a long Thursday for most of the station.
