As I was walking to work this morning I was just thinking about the beauty of this place. The sky is absolutely clear. The sun is still very low in the horizon and casts a beautiful glow on the Royal Society Mountains. The temperature is forecast to rise to +9F today and the wind is just wafting by. The only thing scheduled to fly today are the helicopters and I sure would like to be on one. I am also hoping for this kind of weather next Tuesday for Happy Camper School. I’m on the downside of this little cold and just thinking how great life is. I’ve been watching the news from back in the States and picturing myself back in Minnesota for the changing of the leaves and the season. Wherever you are I hope you have a great weekend.

For those new to the blog this year let me give you a couple of quick definitions. A Skua is a relative of the common sea gull. It is about twice the size and brown and very aggressive when it comes to attacking unsuspecting FNG’s (friendly new guys) for scraps of food from the galley.

When people leave the ice they normally leave many usable things behind. These things end up in the Skua Store. Kind of like a Goodwill Store except everything is free for the taking, first come, first served.

I tell you this because I mailed three boxes here from home with things I wanted to have here but wasn’t willing to carry on an airplane. I needed a pair of sweat pants for happy camper school on Tuesday and a needle and thread to sew up my laundry bag so away I went to the Skua Store. Of course it’s up the hill and into a stiff wind to get there so I bundled up in my ECW and headed off. I found the sweats and some thread (actually light yarn) but no needle. At bingo the night before, in the course of conversation, the movie Casablanca came up (don’t ask me how, it just did). A couple of us said we hadn’t seen the movie before but had always wanted to. Oddly enough as I was about to leave the Skua Store I found a VHS copy of the movie on the book rack. As my sister Barb would say, “SCORE”. I snagged it and went back to the room and watched it from start to finish. Good movie. I’ll pass it on to anyone else who is interested. (Did I just make a really short story long?)

At dinner I sat with a woman I met briefly last year who, at some time in her life, was involved with improv. We had some fun talking about that and she said she thought there were some other improv people here this year and that we should get together. Two other folks joined us who just arrived two days ago for their first trip to McMurdo. I gave them some “old timer” pointers on things to do. They took it all in and like most first timers they were smiling all the time and couldn’t wait for each new day of the adventure to unfold.

The weather yesterday was very snowy and windy with little visibility so there was no flying, not even the helicopters, so I was able to go back to my room for some rest. I’m still trying to shake this cold so I can go to happy camper school.

Check out the photo gallery on the blog today. I’ve posted some new pictures from this year. The top row of pictures from L-R is:
Winfly (first flight of New Year) passengers disembarking from C-17
First C-17 of the year landing
Dawn of the new spring looking at the Royal Society Mountains
View from the cockpit of the C-17’s bubble window of first flight passengers

Second Row and first two pictures of the third row are of the aurora australis (southern lights) as opposed to the aurora borealis (northern lights)

It’s snowing again today and very pretty. The nice thing about snowy days is that the wind usually does not blow as hard and even though it is still cold it doesn’t feel “as cold”.

Everyone is beginning to settle into a groove and each day more people arrive, some new faces and many friends from last year. Last night was the first night of bingo and we had great fun although I didn’t win a single game.

Yesterday I also met one of the helicopter pilots who’s from France. His name is Flo (for short). He just came here from Angola, Africa where he was flying to oil drilling sites. He is very handsome and has a great smile and personality. He stopped by our bingo table and we showed him how the game was played. Funny how you just assume everyone in the world knows how to play. I also met two women one who lives in Chicago, near Lincoln Park. A good friend of mine lives very near that. We had a great time talking about our favorite places and things in the Windy City. The other is a “beaker” (McMurdoese for scientist). She is here doing graduate work with Weddell Seals. As I’ve said before it is interesting meeting new people and discovering what brought them to this place.

I had breakfast with one of the weather observers who was coming off of a midnight shift. Last night he said the wind gusted up to 38 knots and the temperature with wind chill dropped down to -62F. Boy was I glad I was snuggled up in my bed. I did think about one of the tech guys who is out at happy camper school. I hope he brought all of his ECW gear!

As I walked, shivering, to work this morning I was looking out over the ice runway and all the buildings out there. It was a very surreal view because all of the buildings were shrouded by a thin layer of ice fog and appeared to be floating on a cloud. The base of Mt. Discovery’s base was also shrouded and gave a fantastic view. I wanted to stop to take a few pictures but it was just too darn cold.

There is a generic illness down here that we fondly refer to as “the crud”. It’s like most winter illnesses everywhere else but seems to be especially acute here. Last night as I was leaving work I thought I felt that little tickle you get in the back of your throat at the onset of the illness. I went back to my room got in bed took a couple of packets of “Emergen-C” to bolster my vitamin c level and didn’t get up until this morning. I don’t have the tickle this morning so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Monday morning and it is snowing. Hard! The C-17 has cancelled for a maintenance problem and a New Zealand C-130 (Kiwi) also canceled. The helicopters won’t fly because of the weather so it looks like we will do a little classroom training today.

The snow here is always a powdery consistency because of the dry air so it blows around and drifts up against anything it can find. It kind of feels like a Christmas morning here.

Last night we had the first science lecture of the year. The lead researcher for the emperor penguins gave us some great information on how they set up the “penguin farm” and how they work with the penguins to attach cameras and other types of monitors to them. He said normally they catch the first few Emperors. After that other Emperors see the group and wander down to see what’s going on. The researchers herd them into the corral and they then become part of the research group. They are such curious birds and have no fear of people at all. One of the amazing facts to me is that they have recorded dives down to 5oo meters (over 1500 feet). When they dive most of the oxygen in their bodies (47%) is stored in their muscle tissue as opposed to their lungs like you and me. This research has application to humans in the treatment of heart attack and stroke victims as well as extending the length of time transplant organs can be stored before they are implanted, fascinating.