The wind blew yesterday and all last night. It’s one of those winds that make the windows rattle as it howls by on it’s lonely trip to oblivion. It’s a cold wind that makes you shiver just listening to it but more than anything it’s a signal that indeed summer is at an end and winter is nearly here. People move with an urgency now. The ship is unloaded after 5 days of around the clock activity. The loading has begun and the ship will be little more than a memory Saturday night. The only bar that will remain open over the winter will be operating Saturday night for the first time in over a week. There was a vote taken of all the winter over people and they voted to keep the smoking bar open. I know my sister Nancy can relate to that. It seems people still like to drink and smoke and for some in the nothingness of the long night there’s nothing else to do.

I received a blog reply from Greg (a blog reader who knows my niece April) yesterday. He asked about global warming and if there is much debate on the subject here. I told him there is universal agreement here and the only real debate is how to get more people to acknowledge it and to figure out ways to mitigate the damage we, as a human race have already caused.

As I get closer and closer to my last day on the ice I find myself thinking about you. I know many of you who have been checking in on my blog but many of you I don’t. I have enjoyed reading your blog replies and appreciate the encouragement you have given me. I want to thank Deni particularly for setting this blog site up for me as she continues to drag me kicking and screaming into the computer age. A special thanks to Mrs. Mischke’s second grade class for your questions and especially for the Christmas cards. Who knows if I will ever return this way again but I do know it has been an amazing experience and your love and support has made it just that much better. THANK YOU

It’s been kind of fun the last few days watching the unloading of the cargo ship. Our dorm is on a hill high above the ice pier so we have a great birds eye view of all the activity. The whole process is very well organized and flows smoothly 24 hours a day. After the containers are off loaded they are moved to a staging are between the dorm and the dining facility so we get a great view of these activities from the other side of the dorm. The guys who drive the fork lifts moving these huge containers around are unbelievably skillful. They routinely set semi-size containers next to each other with about one inch between them without a scratch on the containers. Then the unloading crew opens them and small fork lifts distribute the contents to their final destination in town. I was happy to see two brand new treadmills in front of the gerbil gym today. The volcanic ash and heavy use take a heavy toll on these machines.
I can tell you it has gotten cold enough this last week to cause me to break out “big red” again.

One of the problems here is volcanic ash is everywhere. When it is covered by snow or its wet we have no problem but when it gets dry as it is in December and January it gets into the air when anything moves across it, like vehicles driving over it or even people walking on it. Sooo a company ( I think in the States because who else would come up with a name like Rhino Snot) came up with this product that is ecologically safe and acts as a bonding agent for sand, soil and yes even volcanic ash. The product was used extensively in Iraq to bond the soil for things like heliports and roads. It is being tested here this year and all things being equal it will be used extensively next year. We are keeping our fingers crossed because this volcanic dust is pretty nasty stuff to both humans and machines.
Tonight after dinner I went to a travelogue on the Camino de Santiago which apparently has branches all over Europe. The particular segment we heard about was from western France through the north of Spain. The Camino at times was a well traveled paved road and at other times nothing more than a trail. Isaac, our tour guide, traveled the Camino for 800 kilometers in 2002. He covered that distance in a month and mainly stayed at pilgrim hostels along the way. The scenery was beautiful and as I have been shown many times while I have been here there are an incredible number of gorgeous places around the world that are well worth visiting.
The picture is the tanker Paul Buck leaving port with the ice breaker Polar Sea in the background.

I walked out of the dorm this morning to see the parking lot between the dorm and the dining facility fenced off by orange plastic construction fencing. This area is used to bring all the “tractor trailer containers” loaded with supplies for the continent. Each container is opened and fork lifts place the pallets on the ground, sort them, and then, as time permits, carry them off to their destination in Mac Town.
This process goes on around the clock (I started to say day and night but its still just day here all the time). You know the beep beep beep that you hear when tractors back up? Well now imagine that sound outside your bedroom window 24 hours per day. Sleeping will be difficult for the next week or so until all supplies are unloaded and distributed. By the way the majority of the shipment is food for the winter and next year.
I’m off today with no specific plans. Maybe a trip to the greenhouse for a little reading.