Merry Christmas From The Bottom of the World

I hope that all of you have a wonderful and joyous Christmas filled with love and happiness! Be sure to give your loved ones a warm hug! Tho I am spending my holidays here and away from family and friends, know that all of you are in my thoughts and prayers. I miss everyone. Be safe!

Today I work up to a Winter Wonderland! It is still snowing and looks like we will have a White Christmas!
Here's what it looked like when I woke up this morning:

SNOW!!

I guess when it's all said and done, we should get 6 inches of snow! Don't forget, it's summer here! Well, I guess it is now Fall since it's after the 21st.

My weekend was spent doing all kinds of fun things but the best fun thing I did was go out on another Pressure Ridge tour at Scott Base. It was cloudy, windy and cold that evening so the pictures are not as striking as the first time I went, but it was still fun! I spent 2 evenings at the Coffee House and got to enjoy some Egg Nog Lattes! Out Christmas party for the Fire department is on the 26th and that should be fun. We are doing a White Elephant - it should be interesting!! Oh and if you are on Facebook, check out the Flat Russo page that my friends at MPD have started! It's pretty funny although I will pay them all back! And my roommate, Sarah works in the kitchen and got us some fresh avocados!! I haven't had one since I left to come here!! YAY and YUM!! Here's some pictures from the Pressure Ridges the other day and the avocados!

Weddell Seal - they were right on the trail!

Avocados!!

Merry Christmas From Down Under the World (and So Far the World Hasn't Ended)

It is December 21st here and so far the Mayans have been wrong! I have a day off today! In fact I get 3 whole days off in a row!!! I know...shocking! Wes and Marsha arrived here yesterday and have brought our dispatch corps up to full staff - 4. That means no more 6 days of 10 1/2 hour shifts! I will have some time off again to do fun stuff !! Yes, I'm more than a little happy about it! Tonight I am going out to the Pressure Ridges at Scott Base again. It is cloudy with a little snow in the air so my pictures will not have the striking contrast like the first time I was there but it is so beautiful there I can't pass it up!

I get to go back to work on Monday, Christmas Eve. We are having our formal dinner that day and I have signed up for my "seating" at 3:00PM. After work I am going to Church. Then on Christmas I have to work day shift but then there is a big party at the VMF (Vehicle Maintenance Facility) that night. Then on the 26th is the Fire Department Christmas party at Hut 10 (a nice little house type building with a living room and big screen TV, dining room and kitchen - outside there's a deck that over looks the ice and a BBQ grill). and then on New Years Eve (I am off) we have Ice Stock. It's a big party outside with bands, booze (of course), a chili cook off and dancing.

Here's some pictures of Christmas down here. No lights because the diesel fuel for the generators is expensive and difficult to get down here so they don't want to waste it on Christmas lights.

Christmas Decorations - the Firehouse is in the Background

My Room Door

Ob Hill Loop Hike

Today I went for a hike on Ob Hill Loop with 2 firemen - Michael and Jeff. We hiked the 2.7 mile loop around Observation Hill. Here is what our intranet site says about it:

Ob (Observation) Hill Loop

Current Status: Open

Last Updated: October 02, 2012 10:41 AM

Requirements Footplan Required? No Radio Required? No Solo Travel Permitted? Yes

Distance: 2.7 miles loop

Travel Times

Very High Activity Level - 1 hour

Exercise frequently, can hike 10-15 miles with ease.

High Activity Level - 1.5 hours

Exercise regularly, can hike 5-10 miles with ease.

Fair Activity Level - 2.0 hours

Exercise infrequently.

Low Activity Level - 2.5 hours

Exercise rarely or not at all.

• Description
  The Ob Hill Loop trail takes you out to Cape Armitage and around the back side of Observation Hill (see Ob Hill trail description) via a land route. Peace and solitude are experienced as you approach Cape Armitage from either direction.

  Route
  The Ob Hill Loop trail begins with a road walk at either end. You can access the trail from the road to Scott Base (just off the road as it begins a climb towards Ob Hill) or you may access by walking past Crary and the Helo Pad, across the pedestrian bridge and then by following the road as it climbs back up towards Ob Hill.

  
  

  The trail is 1.37 miles long and the total loop distance is 2.7 miles. The trail can be walked in either direction with a steep climb as you approach the side slope behind Ob Hill. Care should be used if snow has covered the trail particularly in this area. The trail is marked by red sleeved bamboo poles.

  

  Current Hazards
  There is a steep side slope behind Ob Hill. Snow collects on the trail and can cause hazardous footing. Please report any trail hazards. The trail is located where lichens and other small plant life grows in the summer months. To minimize environmental impact users should remain on the designated trail at all times. During the austral summer the Helo Pad is off-limits for pedestrian travel.

  Proper Gear
  While ECW clothing is not required for Ob Hill, it is recommended that you bring layers of clothing as hikers heat up quickly as they climb, and cool rapidly at the summit. Bunny boots should be used only if no other sturdy, warm boot is available.

We had a nice day with the temp at 30 degrees, light winds and overcast skies. It took us about 90 minutes. It made for a nice day off for me today! Here are some pictures.

A piece of coral on the trail

Mike Wetzel and Me

Dispatches From the Hinterland

Had a busy day at work today on the Dayshift. That's right. I said busy! There is much more activity on the dayshift than on graves. Most of the activity centers around answering phones but I actually had a "real" call today! We had a LC-130 take off from here to fly into a field camp at Pine Island Glacier (aka PIG) and shortly after takeoff the tower came over my radio to declare that the aircraft has a hydraulic problem and was returning to the skiway. (A little background, the Sea Ice Runway is now closed - the ice is no longer thick enough to hold large planes. That runway was about 1.5 miles from the station. Now all aircraft are flying in and out of Pegasus Airfield which is about 15 miles from town. It consists of a runway on ice and a couple of skiways - planes have to have skis to land and take off from there. This will be the airfield that I will fly out of when I go home. I flew into the Sea Ice Runway when I got here.) I asked the tower if they had an "In Flight Emergency" and they said, "Back at you". I had no idea what THAT meant! All I know is is that having problems with hydraulics on a large military aircraft, a problem so bad that they were going to return to the skiway MUST be bad so I toned out the station and treated it like an IFE! They had a plane fuel of cargo, 1 passenger, 9 crew members and gasoline and propane and an "issue" with hydraulics! Of course I pissed off the tower by treating it this way because they didn't SAY there was an IFE. Whatever. My chief and my boss said I did the right thing because as it turns out they circled the airfield for 40 minutes trying to get things to work (and burn off some fuel if the gear/skis could not come down and had to belly land). The plane landed safely on the skiway.

Also today and yesterday they have been setting off explosives to bust off corners of the ice pier to get it ready for first the fuel ship and then the supply ship to come in. Here is a link to view yesterday's blast:

https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/y2/r/5l8_EVv_jyW.swf?v=295306620590734&ev=0

As you can imagine I had to do a bunch of stuff at work before the blast like make announcements over all the radios station-wide and send the crews out to make sure no one gets hurt. I could feel and hear both blasts in the Firehouse. Pretty wild!

Our television and radio service is provide by the Armed Forces Network. We have a radio station and a TV station here where people volunteer to spin records and the TV station has 2 channels that show movies, another channel has announcements about happenings going on, i.e. travelogue times, science lecture info, what the hours are for medical, what's for lunch and dinner, etc. and then 4 other stations that show football games, news and some network TV. They have a contest each day to guess the common theme of the movies shown on one of the movie channels and if you win they show your picture and give you some candy. I won yesterday! Here's what was shown on TV:

 And finally for today, I am missing some things. I am missing 2 ply toilet paper, nighttime at night, my animals and as Laurie K. mentioned, Egg Nog Shakes from Jack in the Box. Thanks for bringing THAT one up L2! But today before I left work the chief sent us all an e-mail about redeployment! It looks like it will start around February 15th! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I am one of the first ones on the first flights back home!

The Transitition

I am writing this from the Coffee House - my favorite place in town down here! It is 8:45 am on Saturday 12/08/2012 and I have the day off! I got off work yesterday morning at &;30 am and am going to DAY SHIFT!! I am more than a little happy about that! I don't mind working all night or even sleeping durning the day - it is ALWAYS daylight here so that doesn't play into things. What does make me unhappy is that I like to go to the science lectures. They are on Sunday and Wednesday nights and usually start at 8 or 8:15 pm and I never get to stay for the whole lecture as I have to leave at 9 ish to go to work. Now I will be able to stay for the whole thing! YAY!! Speaking of science lectures, they are amazing! Last Sunday we had a lecture given by a Shuttle astronaut, Dr. Stanley Love and on Wednesday the lecture was about Europa, a moon of Jupiter and how it's made of of ice and resembles Antarctica. OthersI have been to included WAIS Divide Drilling Project, Weddell Seals,  and  the Ecology of Antarctica after all the dumping the military did through the years. I'm such a geek!

So the "Transition". I was up every hour on the hour last night. No surprise since I've been on Graves for 3 months and then trying to force my body to sleep when it is not used to doing so at that time. I only slept 5 hours yesterday when I got home thinking I'd be tired enough to sleep in the evening. I even went out for an hour and a half last night to the...bar. WHAT?! The Geek went to the bar?! It was one of the Captain's birthday and the guys are constantly asking me to meet them there so I broke down and went last night. I did get to meet and talk with the scientist who gave the lecture on Europa and she was thrilled that a non- "Beeker" was at her lecture! Anyway, I got there at 8:30 and left at 10 and drank 2 Diet Cokes - with caffeine so I'm sure that didn't help things. So I have been up since 6 am doing things...like laundry and the gym and some Christmas decorating of my room. Oh and speaking of my room, my roommate left for the South Pole for 5 weeks so I am again roommate-less. It has been nice having the place to myself for a couple of days and I am stressed out as to who (or what) I may get. At least I am on day shift and will not have to worry about trying to sleep when the roommate is off work on the weekend. I hope I can sleep tonight as I have to be at work at 7:30am tomorrow!

Ice Runway and Skiway

I don't know if this will work but the Pegasus Ice Runway and Skiway were closed today because of weather. View the video and you will see why! It is a video from one of the firefighters down here.

https://s-static.ak.facebook.com/rsrc.php/v1/y2/r/5l8_EVv_jyW.swf?v=4182905091727&ev=0

Fata Morgana

What is "Fata Morgana"? It's not a fat chick named Morgana. It is a mirage that occurs usually in polar regions. Here's what Wikipedia says about them:

A Fata Morgana is an unusual and complex form of superior mirage that is seen in a narrow band right above the horizon. Fata Morgana mirages distort the object or objects which they are based on significantly, often such that the object is completely unrecognizable.
This optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed.^[1] (A thermal inversion is an atmospheric condition where warmer air exists in a well-defined layer above a layer of significantly cooler air. This temperature inversion is the opposite of what is normally the case; air is usually warmer close to the surface, and cooler higher up.)
A Fata Morgana is most commonly seen in polar regions, especially over large sheets of ice which have a uniform low temperature. It can however be observed in almost any area. In polar regions the Fata Morgana phenomenon is observed on relatively cold days, however in deserts, over oceans, and over lakes, a Fata Morgana can be observed on hot days.

Here's some pictures of Fata Morgana. I have taken some but they are not as good as these. I was trying to explain it the other day to LK and would have taken a picture but I was in my room and the window was filthy!

Fata Morgana

C-130 Tails Distorted From a Fata Morgana