PENGUIN!

Current Temp Ambient:    1   Windchill:     -27
Windspeed (knots):            13
Sunrise:                              0227 
Sunset:                               0116

My coworker Ricky, who is new this season, got to see an emperor penguin this morning on his way to the ice runway!

He (the penguin, not Ricky) is schootching himself along on his belly using his feet to propel himself, it's called toboggining, and they can really move quickly this way, normally, (unlike this poor fella, I'm worried about him and why he's all alone).

Enjoy!

Current Temp Ambient:    3      Windchill:        3
Windspeed (knots):            Calm
Sunrise:                             0227
Sunset                                0116 


Just wanted to post this nice picture I took at the Ice Runway, that huge mountain in the back is Mt. Erebus, our volcano, the pointy hill is Ob Hill, then lovely McMurdo is on the left.

Lovely day!

Ice Runway

Current Temp Ambient:   1     Windchill:   1
Windspeed (knots):        Calm
Sunrise:                          0328
Sunset:                           0002 (12:02AM)

Down to about 3.5 hours of the sun being down, but it's light out all the time now.

The Ice Runway is officially open, it's our airfield on the frozen ocean.  Hopefully by February it'll be open water so I can see whales and penguins!  We went out there yesterday and today to setup some computers in some of the huts out there.

We actually have 2 airfields, Pegasus, which is on the permanent, 500 foot ice shelf, that I flew in on and will fly out of, and now the Ice Runway.  They build the Ice Runway because it's much closer to McMurdo and therefore saves fuel and time getting people and cargo between planes and town.

Here are a couple of pics of our "airport," and you thought La Guardia was a POS...

Hikes and Rescues (unrelated to each other!)

Current Temp Ambient:  -2  Windchill:   -22
Windspeed (knots):   12
Sunrise:                     0419
Sunset:                      2308

The woman who had a stroke at the South Pole is on a plane heading for McMurdo then Christchurch as I type this, so that is that!

As for the hike, yesterday was the first Sunday nice enough to get out and enjoy a hike, so I did!  Though I had to turn back as there was slippery slide down about 300 feet directly into a crack in the Sea Ice potentially in my future, however, it was a fantastic hike!

In the video you I refer to Mt. Erebus, which is the southern most active volcano in the world, however that's actually Mt. Terror, not Erebus, in the video, oops!.

Beautiful, just beautiful!

Setting the record straight

Current Temp Ambient:  -8  Windchill:   -8
Windspeed (knots):   calm
Sunrise:                     0430
Sunset:                       2257 (10:57PM)

As you can see, we have sunlight about 19 hours a day now, makes it easy to wake up but hard to get to sleep.

Not much new to report except that we are getting 200-300 new people each week, so that's keeping us busy at work, and waiting around for exercise equipment, food, water, and watching people stand around in narrow hallways creating unnecessary congestion (new people have an excuse, old timers, STOP DOING THAT!)  On the flip side, freshies are available at pretty much every meal.

I've had a lot of questions about the woman who had a minor stroke at the South Pole.  Apparently her daughter and family have petitioned the White House and are causing a ruckus because they think that Raytheon has the ability to get her out but they are simply refusing.  If you know me at all, you know that I am NOT a fan of huge corporations, particularly my current employer, however, there have been many a medevac and I know for a fact that if nothing else, the NSF and Raytheon don't want to get sued.  If someone needs medical attention beyond the capacity of the medical staff down here, they make every effort to get them off continent as quickly as possible.

Problem is, when jet fuel gets cold, it turns into a gel, and planes can't fly that way.  Even in the short amount of time they are on the ground, the fuel can gel.  South Pole is much colder than McMurdo, for example, it's currently -71 AMBIENT at the South Pole, and the fuel freezes around -50.  I also heard a rumor that she needs to be on a plane that has the ability to pressurize the cabin, and not all the aircraft down here have that capability.

Of course I hope she is OK and gets out soon, I think the first flight down to Pole is scheduled for Tuesday, which is earlier than normal.  They will get her out as soon as is possible without risking the lives of the crew on the plane.  After next week, anyone could get out pretty much any day they needed to.

So there you have it.  Don't believe the hype, if we need to get out, they get us out as soon as possible, even if they are a warmongering, greedy corporation.

Rant over, Zisman out...

Coffee, NASA and Dancing

Current Temp Ambient:  18     Windchill:   3  (NOTE:  there are no minus signs!)
Windspeed (knots):   12
Sunrise:                      0553
Sunset:                       2136

I hear it's windy in Denver today.  Gee, so sorry, I hope you're all OK!  My heart goes out to you all.  What is it, down to 50?  How do you do it?

So we are short a help desk person for the next couple of weeks and therefore every other day I'm back at my old job helping folks on the phone with their computer problems.  The Help Desk is now in a new building called JSOC (for Joint Space Operating Center, but we call it Just Slightly Off Center because it is!).  The Joint is between NASA and the NSF, it's where our network and servers live, and where NASA has a bunch of boxes with flashing lights and graphs and stuff.  I got a tour of the NASA part of the building recently (an old buddy who used to work in the USAP works there now) it was very boring.  Like I said, boxes with flashing lights.  BUT, what they are doing is not at all boring.

NASA monitors a lot of different stuff from down here and in fact, very little of what they do is even Antarctic in nature.  It's just a good place to monitor stuff, very little interference from cell towers, radio waves, airplanes, that sort of stuff.  So they are collecting and sending data for scientists all over the world studying the sun, the ocean, jeez, it's been 2 weeks and I hardly remember all the things Rex told me.  But it's very cool.

And they have a really fancy coffee machine with really delicious coffee, which they are kind enough to share.

Gotta go, we are having a spontaneous dance party at the help desk now to some Thai pop rap.

Freshies and Tablets

Current Temp Ambient:  5      Windchill:   -9
Windspeed (knots):   8
Sunrise:                     0553
Sunset:                      2136 (9:36PM)

How quickly things change around here.  When I got up at 5:00AM to go to the gym yesterday, it was light.  When I came home from my friends' radio show and the bar last night at 11:00 PM, it was still light.

With the hoards of new people also come hoards of fresh food. I just ate an apple, my first fresh fruit in about a month, and that's just the beginning!  Yesterday we got 10,000 lbs of freshies!  I don't know how I wintered and abstained for 5 months, not something I plan to do again (nor did I plan to do it once, don't worry mom, not wintering this year for sure!).  The woman who served me beer last night and made me a fresh egg scramble this morning told me to except salad either at lunch or dinner today. Oh salad, I hope I've never taken you for granted, I love you, I miss you, I can't wait to eat you!  And rumor has it there are avocados, too!

As for tablets, I cannot recommend them enough.  Even without Internet, my tablet is so handy.  I have loads of books, music, movies, TV shows, games, a cribbage board, all in one neat little 1.5 lb package.  If anyone is in the market for a new laptop, I really recommend you check out a tablet first!  I got an Asus EEE Transformer with a little keyboard that snaps on, and I love it, I use it every day.  And that's without Internet!

Don't ask why I combined these two topics today, they are just what I'm most excited about!

Animal pics coming soon, seals on the sea ice daily now.

zisman out

Flight on it's way

Current Temp Ambient:    0  Windchill:   -8
Windspeed (knots):     3
Sunrise:                       0609
Sunset:                        2120 (9:20 PM)

After a 24 hour delay yesterday due to an actual snow storm, with snow falling from the sky VERTICALLY for a change, we are expecting 2 passenger flights worth of people and one cargo flight.   I sure hope  my 780 thread count Egyptian Cotton Sheets are on that flight, but it's doubtful.  I'd rather have a salad anyway.

Days are longer, town will be filling up, mainbody is upon us!

Seasons

Current Temp Ambient:     -11      Windchill:   -33
Windspeed (knots):              11
Sunrise:                                0633
Sunset:                                 2058 (8:58 PM)

This will be a horribly boring post.  All I've been doing is working basically, so if you want to hear about the RAM I upgraded or the power supply I replaced, just email me and I'd be happy to tell you all about it.

We have basically three work related seasons down here.  Of course the solstice is still relevant, we are still on the planet, but we define these work seasons as such:

Winter - from about March 1st to about August 20th.  There are no flights down here during the winter season.    Though it doesn't go completely dark until about mid-June, Antarctica loses daylight at the same rapid pace with which we are gaining it now (around 15 minutes a day or so).  There are about 200 people in McMurdo in the winter.

Winfly - from about August 20th to October 3rd or so.  So that's now!  Winfly is just a pormanteau (2 words squished together) for Winter and Flight.  There are 3 flights that come down around the last week of August to get another 350 or so people down here to help the winter-overs get read for the main summer season.  Some winter overs leave at Winfly, but most stay, so population jumps to about 500 or so.  Winfly officially ends on Monday when the first flight of Mainbody gets here.  What is mainbody you ask?  What a coincidence, I was just getting to that...

Mainbody - October 3rdish to March 1stish.  During mainbody we have several flights a week, sometimes more than one in a day, and although the rest of the haggered, pale winter overs will leave, population will jump to about 1200 in McMurdo.  Although there are a bunch of people I want to see, I've really enjoyed the pace of Winfly and I'm not sure I'm ready for the hoards of people, but as I have no choice, I'll just have to adapt!  In the plus column are fresh food, mail, and and an increased work pace that will help the days go by faster.

As for the sun, when I first got here, the sunrise was around 9:00 AM and sunset at about 4:00 PM.  After just a month, we went from about 7 hours of daylight to about 14.  By the end of October, we'll be at 24/7 sun in the sky.  The weather will get nicer and nicer and I'll get to hike, so I am looking forward to that!

Wake up, the boring post is over!