Last night I spent a truly entertaining evening in the dining hall. The women of McMurdo put on the 11th Annual Women’s Soiree. The show began with 3 women and 1 guy (not me) tap dancing outside the dining hall. That was fun but the real fun came later. The show is a fund raiser for the Latimer Community Housing Trust (like Habitat for Humanity). So in addition to having fun you were supporting a good cause.

The show opened with a swing/jazz dance solo number followed by Barb Propst singing and playing her guitar. (She sang and played at the live music night at the coffee house) That was followed by a story/poem performed by a longtime Antarctic woman. We were then treated to a great exhibition of belly dancing. The folks at Crary lab (the people who have a grant to come here and ice fish) presented a movie they had put together. It included clips and out takes from there season here which is quickly drawing to an end. It was very funny and a little sad as we begin to see the scientists wrapping up their projects here and heading home. It was just a little reminder that our time here is slowly drawing to a close. We then heard a song by India Arie called “Beautiful”. An upright Bass player then performed for us followed by some story telling and the finale was a rendition of “Cell Block Tango” that left most of the men wondering if they had offended a woman recently!

As you know I love live performances of any kind and found myself wanting more at the end of the show. Again it amazes me what can be done with little. I’m going to go by the science lecture tonight to find out “why the Ross Sea is green”.

When I started typing this at about 3:00 pm here it was 61 degrees in Pensacola, Fl, Columbus, Ga and Christchurch, NZ. Probably no one else in the world finds that interesting except me and that’s probably why I'm here! The warm weather has returned. It’s in the low 30’s with no wind and lots of sun. Again I find it interesting that low 30’s here can seem so warm and at home so cold. Perspective I guess.

We will be singing for the Kiwi’s at there base next Wednesday. One of the songs we will be singing is a traditional New Zealand native Christmas song. It’s very upbeat and I’m told when the choir sang it for them last year they appreciated it so much that they opened up the kitchen and served up some great food and wine.(I wonder if it was to make them stop singing.) I wish our choir back in Gulf Breeze good voice. We put on a little more formal presentation with some classic Christmas Hymns and some others not so well know to me but beautiful non the less. I know they will do great this year as well.

I don’t think I’ve shared this yet (if I have forgive me) but the janitors here have a competition every year to see who can most creatively decorate one of their cleaning supply closets. The janitor in the gerbil gym (Sharona) is very creative and is making her closet into a Japanese shrine setting. She does a little work on it each day. Today I noticed she had garnered some bamboo poles from somewhere. It’s amazing what people can do with a little material and a lot of imagination! When It’s finished I’ll take a picture of the shrine and Sharona together.

Last journal entry:

12 February 1913:
Terra Nova reaches Lyttelton, New Zealand, and the news of Scott’s death grips the imagination of the world.

If you get a chance and are interested there are many good books on Antarctic exploration. I think you would find these stories fascinating.

The picture is of a killer whale in McMurdo sound. Not taken this year.

I learned last night that two ice breakers a cargo freighter and a fuel tanker are headed our way. The Coast Guard ice breaker is due to make dock the 23rd of December. The Swedish ice breaker is scheduled for around January 1. The cargo ship will follow in early January and the fuel tanker is delayed causing some concern that we might run out of fuel before he gets here. I’m not exactly sure how “no fuel” would impact us but I’m thinking it can’t be good. One of the cool things is that if the ice breakers are able to break most of the ice in the sound and assuming after breaking it that it drifts out to sea the Coast Guard ship will be giving tours of the ship and trips around the sound. I’m really hoping that turns out to be the case. The weather has been so good and the airplanes have been running a good schedule which means all the outlying camps have been fully supplied and we are 500,000 pounds of supplies ahead of where we were forecast to be for the South Pole. Again I’m not sure what all that means but I think it is a good thing. I can’t wait to see the ships come in and then see the seals, the penguins and the Orca’s as they all come to the sound to feed. I hope to get some pictures on the blog as soon as I can.

Journal entry:
12 November 1912:
A search party led by Surgeon Edward Atkinson, finds the tent with the three bodies and leaves them where they died, under a large snow cairn.

It’s interesting that they couldn’t search for Scott and his party until the next summer.

Remember my telling you that my “Happy Camper” class was cancelled earlier this week? Well the man upstairs was looking over me. It has been cold and windy the last two days and I would have frozen my cohunes (I think that’s a word) off had I been out in the field. Picture me now wiping sweat off my brow as I sit in my warm room typing this to you!

I went to a science presentation tonight at the Crary Lab. The presenter is associated with the University of North Dakota another cold place in the world and near where my mother and sister live. He is a beetle specialist and is here looking for fossils in the Beardmore Glacier and the dry valleys. He had some fascinating pictures of fossils they have found here and discussed some of the theories as to when they were present and how they got here. They even found some small ash trees (not fossilized or mineralized) that could actually be burned (clearly they were not interested in doing that though). There had been speculation in the scientific community that these things could have existed here but these fossils now prove the theory.

A representative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) opened the meeting by sharing some upcoming events. One will be a C-17 making an air drop at the South Pole and then flying non-stop back to Christchurch to test “the system and procedures” in the event supplies must be dropped into the Pole during the winter. In addition a congressional delegation will be coming here in January but with the Democrats taking control of Congress the makeup of the delegation will now be changed. The NSF really has to stay on the good side of the powers in control of the purse strings in Washington.

Journal entry:

29 March 1912:
Scott’s last entry in his journal. Scott, Wilson and Bowers die in their tent, exact date unknown:
“Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale…”
-Scott’s final ’Message to the Public’

I have heard of ice crystals before but hearing about them and seeing them in abundance is another thing. The early morning air was filled with millions of them. The bright sun glistening on them gave the appearance of diamonds drifting and blowing in the wind. The view combined with the utter silence of the morning was magical.

I’m completing what may prove to be my last midnight shift here. We seem to have two of us who are morning people and two who are night people so the two of us who like the mornings will alternate working them as will the two night people work those shifts. I’m very happy about that. These late night shifts are very tiring especially when weather like we had last night grounded all the aircraft. I am writing this at 4:00 am and am very much looking forward to coming face to face with my pillow in a couple of hours.

There will be another attempted launch of the LDB again this morning. I may just pass on the opportunity to see this launch. There will be others so fear not I will attend one and attach some pictures to the gallery.

I hope you are all completing your holiday preparations. Deni has taken on the annual Christmas Card project. It’s one that I usually handle as I have the patience in the family to fold, stuff, stamp and stick everything. I have faith she will get them out but they may arrive just before Christmas.

Journal Entry:

22/23 March 1912:
Scott, Wilson and Bowers have been confined to their tent by a blizzard since 19 March, 11 miles from One Ton Depot:
“…no fuel and one or two of food left- must be near end. Have decided it shall be natural- we shall march…and die in our tracks.”
-Scott