Welcome back to this installment of my blog where I try and articulate my life as I work and live at McMurdo in Antarctica. I have typically been trying to find some kind of general topic for each my posts, mostly to keep things somewhat organized in my head, but for this post I think I just want to write of the top of my dome and let everyone reading know what kinds of things I have been up to since my last entry.

Halloween has come and gone in Antarctica. Celebrations were had and there were many a costume to parade the halls of the dorm buildings. I actually mean that in the most literal way possible. On the Saturday night that most closely aligns with the holiday, people dress up in whatever costume they can manage. Most are fashioned out of thrifted clothes but for the most dedicated, they sacrifice some of their precious luggage space to bring something with them to the ice. I saw way to many guys in dresses that were too small. There is then a parade though the main dorm building hallways, outside, through town and into the large gymnasium where they hold a party until the wee hours of the morning. I know the question on all of your minds is what did I dress up as, and the answer is I did not. Maybe I'm just not as young as I used to be, but the idea of dressing up and then standing in a sweaty gym with a bunch of intoxicated 20 somethings does not sound like an enjoyable way to spend my one night off. I did check out the scene for a bit and then retire to one of the bars on station for some conversation and a beer or two before heading in for the night. To be honest I was in bed and asleep by10:00 pm. I have always had a hard time staying out late at the end of a work week. After 6 days of 10 hour shifts, I don't know how people have the energy to party all night. More power to them. The winner of the costume contest was actually one of my coworkers though, who somehow managed to fashion together a great Benjamin Franklin getup. 

There has been a bit of a change up at work this week that may be worth mentioning as well. The water operator who was contracted to work at the South Pole station ran into some medical issues before he left the US, so one of our operators will be leaving us to go and run that plant in his absence. This has left us shorthanded here at McMurdo, and without our lead operator. Since I will be taking over that position come the winter season in a few months anyways, I will be filling in as the lead here until a more permanent solution is sorted out. I will have to cover the lead operator responsibilities, and well as my typical mechanic work orders, as well as keep up with my SAR responsibilities. Needless to say, I will be busy over the next couple of weeks. To be honest though, I would rather be too busy than bored with not enough to do. 

Speaking of SAR, this week we headed out to the crevasse training area off base to practice crevasse rescue techniques. The crevasse training are is a large horizontal trench dug into the snow about 15 feet deep and 30 feet long, and is a nice controlled area to practice setting up anchors and rope systems without actually having to get into a dangerous crevasse. The weather has been extremely good the last week or two. Temperatures are around 15 degrees farenhight, and there has been very little wind. With a few layers, it is quite comfortable to recreate and train outside, and if you are working, it is easy to start sweating. 

Lastly, the election on base was less of an event than you may think. Talking with some coworkers who were here during previous election years, this one was very tame. To be honest, I heard very little from anyone regarding any of it. This was nothing but a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Living in such a tight community, political divisions and infighting amongst coworkers is not good for anyone. I did manage to catch most of the late night election results due to the time change, and was not surprised by the outcome. Some people back home may even remember me calling the result almost 6 months ago. Regardless of your own personal feelings, the days will go on and I still have an important job to do here. I will not use this space to rant about my own personal political leanings however, at least not anymore than you may be able to infer already.

With that, I will sign off for the time being and leave you all with a photo of Mt. Erebus that I took while at the training crevasse (which is also know as the SARchasm). Fun fact, Mt. Erebus is the most southerly active volcano in the world and just so happened to be "pluming" while we were training. I'm not actually 100% sure if "pluming" is the correct terminology, but basically there was some smoke coming out of the top. Lol. 

Until next time!