Cherry Drying

The day after a midnight shift is never very productive for me. I spend the first few hours sleeping and then take a couple of naps during the day so I will be able to stay awake the next night. That was the kind of day it was.
I did meet a helicopter pilot and a helicopter mechanic. The pilot lives in Key West, Florida. A more dramatic climatological change than for me. I didn’t know it until today but he goes to Mass on Sunday and has seen me there. Nice guy. He spent a career flying helicopters in the Army and retired in 1998. He says he's down here hiding from the Army they want to recall him. I'll let you guess where they want to send him! (Same year I did) We talked about the hurricane season and how glad we both are that it was a quiet year. (so far that is we don’t want to jinx the rest of the season) I hope to go out flying with him at some point. The views he sees on a day in day out basis are spectacular.
The mechanic was most interesting though. He is homeless. He and his brother, who lives in Panama City, FL own a helicopter. They travel around the country in his off months pulling the helicopter on a specially designed trailer. They go online to look for jobs that involve the use of a helicopter and try to get jobs in that way. Last year they ended up in Washington State working for cherry growers. Apparently when cherries are ready to be picked they are susceptible to excessive moisture (in the form of rain). They pay helicopter pilots to sit around waiting for rain. After the rain the helicopters fly over the orchards eight feet above the tops of the trees and act like big hair dryers blowing the moisture off of the cherries. Apparently if the moisture is left on the cherries it causes them to expand too fast then the skin splits and the cherries are then no longer marketable. Unfortunately at eight feet above the trees there’s not a lot of time to think if something mechanically goes wrong with the helicopter.
The big Halloween party was tonight. I didn’t go as I was napping but I did get to see some of the costumes in the dining facility. It’s amazing what people can do with limited resources.
Sunday night I’m going to a presentation at the science lab on the affects of pollution on seals. I know that doesn’t sound as exciting as the Halloween party but they truly are interesting.

Short one today. I had my first emergency. A C-130 (big 4 engine Air Force transport plane) had to shut down one of his engines because of a fuel leak. It kept the evening interesting. Happily he landed safely.

The big Halloween party is tomorrow night. No costume for me this year. I might drop in before I come to work.

I will be taking more pictures as I have more free time. I December the Swedish ice breaker comes in to break up the ice in the bay so the transport ship can come in. That's when all the wildlife starts showing up.

Cribbage

I met the woman who runs the helicopter operation here last night. She brought her nephew by to see the Center. He makes sandwiches here at the deli but wants to be a pilot. I think he had a good time. She was carrying a cribbage board in her hand. I’m beginning to think that Cribbage is only a cold weather game! I was invited to join the Cribbage match held every Wednesday night at the Coffee Hut. I’m actually looking forward to playing some Cribbage.

I got to work my first airplanes yesterday. It sure felt good to be talking to airplanes again. I guess once you get it in your blood you can’t get it completely out. Funny how some things seem to come back to you so easily. We even had calm winds last night for a while. That’s something that happens rarely down here.

I had to go to a mandatory waste management class this morning. It was as interesting as a waste management class can be. As you know we recycle 100% here. At the end of the season it all gets put on a ship back to America. From there 60% is recycled and the rest goes into a landfill.

Following the class I made a visit to the aquarium. They already have some sea life of various kinds in the tanks. They have a touching tank. You get the opportunity to reach in and touch some of the little creatures. One looks like a huge (about 4 inches long) underwater cockroach (yuck!). The fish follow you around looking for food like home aquarium fish. It doesn’t take wild fish long to learn that behavior. I’m looking forward to the next science lecture on Sunday.

We still have the entire South Pole contingency here. The C-130’s won’t fly there until the temperature gets above 50 below zero. People who have been here before say it’s colder than usual for this time of year. Boy I’m glad I got to be here for a cold spring!

I was awakened from a deep sleep this morning by the pitter patter of rain on the ground. Turned out it was the sound of my roommate taking a shower but it reminded me to be thankful each day for the small delicious moments of life. The moments you let dash away like a mouse scurrying for the safety of his hole. The touch of a child’s hand, the gentle caress of someone you love, a tear of joy or grief slipping down a face… Don’t forget to be thankful for all the small wonderful feelings of the day!

Whew! That was heavy. I find myself occasionally overcome by these ever more frequent moments of estrogen overload. I used to resist them now I embrace them. What else can you do?

Hey Strait, great question! We don’t have polar bears here. They live in the Arctic or North Pole area on the other side of the world. The penguins here are very glad of that! I haven’t seen a penguin yet but I hope to soon.

Midnight shifts give you an interesting perspective on many things. The movement of the sun is one. The sun doesn’t actually set this time of year as you know. Rather, in the wee hours it drops down to the horizon and then slowly rotates around the entire horizon backlighting all the mountains as it slowly begins a conical ascent to the daily high in the sky. As the summer goes on the sun just starts its rotation and ascent higher in the sky. Does that make sense or is my brain starting to freeze?

Off to the gym.

I went to another science presentation today. It was a short talk followed by a new National Geographic Movie on the Emperor Penguin. It is so new it’s not even available in the U.S. yet. When it comes check it out. The guys conducting the research presented the movie and the penguins they are talking about are very near where I work.
In the movie they talk about a glacier called “B15”. It’s right off the coast here. It’s as large as the country of Jamaica and if melted down could supply fresh water to New York city for 5 years. They said a man (or woman) walking would take 3 weeks to cross it. It bumped into the coast not far from here and when it did it crumpled the sea ice so badly that the Emperor Penguins couldn’t make the trip to the ocean to feed. There were no chicks that year (2001) and the flock was decimated. It was very sad to watch. The calving of the iceberg they suspect was caused by global warming. The good news is that the iceberg has moved out into the ocean and no longer poses a threat to the penguins.

On the people front I met a man from Czechoslovakia today. He moved to the States in 1987. He was very pleasant to talk to and had a great sense of humor.

I slept a lot today following the midnight shift. So between church, eating, sleeping and the movie most of the day was consumed.