SUN!
The sun came out today!
I was told to prepare for being blinded with light when I got to Antarctica but until today all I had seen was the gray, overcast late winter sky. Today was perfectly clear and while I wasn't in the right place at the right time to see the actual sun today there was a great pink sky around sunrise and sunset.
Lots of odd tasks today to keep me busy. A 6-foot tall ventilation hood got misplaced in one of the orange shipping containers that seem to be everywhere on station. It got narrowed down to a row of about 20 or so but there was a lot of shoveling to get the doors opened and look inside each of them. From there I got sent up to "the pass" to bolt some covers onto the openings of a couple of large heat exchangers in storage for the new powerplant.
"The Pass" is between two 1000' tall hills and has a road running along its base. It is between the American and New Zealand Antarctic bases and on the American side it has been widened so cargo containers can be stored there. Needless to say the wind can get moving quickly through the pass. I got back from working up there for about an hour to hear the windchill had hit -80 which is probably the coldest I have ever worked in. I was surprized I didn't feel colder but my government issue big red parka (known on station as "big red") seemed to keep me warm.
The most surprizing thing was seeing how fast my goggles froze up. They were good for the first 10 minutes or so but then I saw an ice crystal in front of my eye and within a minute they were opaque. I'm also wishing my thick work gloves had a little more dexterity in the fingers since had to take them off from time to time and could see the hairs on the back of my hand white with ice before I put them back on.
I may be crazy but for some reason I love the cold, especially the feeling I get once I come back in from it and realize how cold it really was. One electrician down here was working outside on the runway lights today and said his electrical tape would shatter if he tried to cut off a piece. He had a huge grin on his face while he was talking about it and mentioned while he could be comfortably back in the States he loves all the little adventures that happen while he's down here.
Maybe that's part of it... For now I'm going to get some hot chocolate, read a bit and call it an early night. Work will be starting up tomorrow (Saturday) at 7:30 like it has since Monday. It's been a good week but a long week and I'll be glad to get my day off on Sunday.
I was told to prepare for being blinded with light when I got to Antarctica but until today all I had seen was the gray, overcast late winter sky. Today was perfectly clear and while I wasn't in the right place at the right time to see the actual sun today there was a great pink sky around sunrise and sunset.
Lots of odd tasks today to keep me busy. A 6-foot tall ventilation hood got misplaced in one of the orange shipping containers that seem to be everywhere on station. It got narrowed down to a row of about 20 or so but there was a lot of shoveling to get the doors opened and look inside each of them. From there I got sent up to "the pass" to bolt some covers onto the openings of a couple of large heat exchangers in storage for the new powerplant.
"The Pass" is between two 1000' tall hills and has a road running along its base. It is between the American and New Zealand Antarctic bases and on the American side it has been widened so cargo containers can be stored there. Needless to say the wind can get moving quickly through the pass. I got back from working up there for about an hour to hear the windchill had hit -80 which is probably the coldest I have ever worked in. I was surprized I didn't feel colder but my government issue big red parka (known on station as "big red") seemed to keep me warm.
The most surprizing thing was seeing how fast my goggles froze up. They were good for the first 10 minutes or so but then I saw an ice crystal in front of my eye and within a minute they were opaque. I'm also wishing my thick work gloves had a little more dexterity in the fingers since had to take them off from time to time and could see the hairs on the back of my hand white with ice before I put them back on.
I may be crazy but for some reason I love the cold, especially the feeling I get once I come back in from it and realize how cold it really was. One electrician down here was working outside on the runway lights today and said his electrical tape would shatter if he tried to cut off a piece. He had a huge grin on his face while he was talking about it and mentioned while he could be comfortably back in the States he loves all the little adventures that happen while he's down here.
Maybe that's part of it... For now I'm going to get some hot chocolate, read a bit and call it an early night. Work will be starting up tomorrow (Saturday) at 7:30 like it has since Monday. It's been a good week but a long week and I'll be glad to get my day off on Sunday.
posted by Adam at 12:23 AM
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