Sunday, October 10, 1993
Hello to All,I have survived an entire week on the Ice so far. My trip here was not too eventful, but it was enjoyable. I departed Denver on Monday, September 20th via an airplane for Southern California. I had just finished (barely, for both time and space) stuffing all of my junk into a storage shed. That was a complete nightmare. I had originally planned on leaving on the previous Friday, so that I could have the weekend in SoCal. Through much confusion and hassle I was not able to do this. It ended up giving me more time to procrastinate on my move, though. After a very quick three days there I departed for New Zealand on the redeye flight. I got in there Saturday morning, thus giving work on Monday. My stay in New Zealand was fun. I worked while I was there, just like last year. Not as frantic work as it was last year, though. Things are working smoother this year. I made the big trip down here on Friday, October 8th. I had to work the next day, but I then had Sunday off to acclimate again. I am in the same room as I was last year. We have not set it up the way we did last year with all of the beds in one room, but we will probably do it sometime soon. I have already finished reading a book, so my reading program is going well. I mailed most of my books down here, but we have not received any package mail yet, so I will probably have to borrow my next book to read. There is too much cargo and people to be brought down to fit the package mail into the schedule yet. They have been bringing letter mail down, though.
I have not had very many adventures so far, but some remarkable items have happened so I shall remark about them now. My moving experience was the usual three ring circus that follows me through life. I borrowed a full sized pickup from someone at work. I had procrastinated the move to the breaking point, which meant that I was rushed to get everything done. I took one load to the storage shed, which was about six miles from my apartment. On the drive over, which was slow and easy, one of my garment boxes fell off the truck in the middle of a busy intersection. I pulled over to the side of the road and ran back and recovered my box, which had split open in the fall. I didn't have to dodge too many cars in retrieving it, fortunately. I then loaded it back on the truck and continued on my way. When I was boxing up items for the second truckload there was an intense hail storm which lasted for about fifteen minutes. That wasn't too bad, I just swept out the inch of hail that had accumulated in the truck bed and loaded up. While packing boxes for the third trip it began raining. It rained for a couple of hours, pushing back my already tight schedule. The storm ended and the sky cleared enough that I loaded up the truck and headed over to the storage shed around 8 PM. I was unable to get into the storage compound, though, because they had lost power during the storm and the electric gate to let cars in did not work. There was a sign saying this and to come back Monday. Well, that was no good as I would be on a plane to L.A. that morning. I drove home in disgust, left the truck packed and hoped it would not rain. I did put a plastic tarp over my stuff in case it did. In the morning I removed the tarp, which was covered with dew (good thing I put the tarp on) and drove to the storage shed hoping for the best. The gate still did not work, but there was a walk-in gate that I could use. I was desperate, so I proceeded to carry my queen sized bed and box-springs the eighty yards, or so, from the gate to my shed. That was awful, and after carrying a few more incredibly heavy (and getting heavier) items I decided that this arrangement would not work. I took a good look at the gate and determined that by removing one large nut you could manually open it. So I headed home to load up again and get the necessary tools for the job. When I returned, to my delight and dismay, the gate was already open and an electrician was working on fixing it. The rest of the moving went reasonably smooth, about four more loads worth. I completely packed the 5'x10' storage area, up to an average height of about seven feet. It was close fitting it all in. Later that evening I heard that the storm of the previous day had ripped the roof off of an apartment complex about seven miles from my apartment. The winds reached somewhere around eighty miles per hour, but it was not a tornado. The winds were in a straight path and is something called a micro-burst.
In my room in McMurdo the beds are set up as bunk beds. So real late on my first night here I go to get into the top bunk to go to sleep. I am trying to be quite since my roommate is asleep in the lower bunk. The instant I hit the mattress the supports holding it up let go and down went myself, mattress, box spring, and the ¾'' plywood sheet which previously supported all this onto my sleeping roommate. I rushed to pull all of this off him and figure out if he was alright. I got a mumble of acknowledgment from him that he was. Fortunately he was sleeping on his stomach, so it all fell on his shoulders and not on his face. In the morning we discovered that I actually suffered more injuries than he had. I had acquired several scrapes in the fall, and my watch was ripped off my arm. It did not sustain permanent damage, luckily. We fixed the bed later that day and it has held just fine, so far.
It was quite cold here the beginning of this week, but it has warmed up a bit and the wind has calmed down. It was colder this week than it was all of last season. South Pole was colder, but I am just comparing McMurdo temperatures. It was -26F the day I got here, but there was no wind. Then this last week it was still that cold, but it was real windy too. The wind chill brought the effective temperature down to about -70F.
I have been quite busy at work, since not all of the Information Systems people are here yet. I am covering for two other persons, in addition to my job. That should end sometime soon though. We have not had a flight in about four days due to the poor weather, so many people are over due in getting here. One of the persons that is supposed to be on the infamous "Next Flight" is one of the people I am filling in for. Yea!
Friday, October 22, 1993
Work has settled down some. One of the persons I was filling for showed up, but the other one is still in Christchurch. She is sick and cannot make the flight. Friday nights here are not quite as lively as back home since we all have to work tomorrow. Still, a number of people like to pack the bars. Two years ago there used to be four bars here and they were in the Navy style (Officer's Club, Chiefs Club, Enlisted's club, and an All Hand's Club called the Erebus), but the winter before last they turned the Officer's Club into a nonsmoking coffee house. The Chief's Club and the All Hand's Club alternated between smoking and nonsmoking clubs. This last winter they closed the Enlisted's Club and turned the Chief's Club into an All Hand's Club, and always nonsmoking. This year the nonsmoking bar (formerly the Chief's Club, but still not renamed) is much more popular than the smoking club (The Erebus). So, on the only night of the week when you can stay up late the two small bars get quite packed, considering that there are over one thousand people here. You are probably wondering why the one bar is called the Erebus. Well, it is named after the volcano that we are sitting at the foot of, which was named after one of the two ships that John Ross sailed here in when he discovered what was later named Ross Island. The Erebus got it's name from a Greek God. The other ship was named the Terror, which gave it's name to the other tall mountain on this island. So much for the history lesson. Two of my roommates (I call them that because we will move all of the beds into one room this weekend, i.e. Sunday) are off bowling. They are in a league and their team bowls twice a week. I am on a volleyball team and our first game is next Tuesday. We will be playing twice a week, also. Last summer my team made it into the finals, but we got eliminated fairly soon. This seasons teams appear better, but we shall see on Tuesday.
I shall end this letter now so that I can get it into the mail to you. I plan on sending one of these every month. That is about the pace I did last year. Bye for now.
