This and that
Things are getting exciting here on station. Tomorrow the first flight of the summer comes in. There haven't been any flights in or out for the last six weeks while the summer runway has been built out on the sea ice so we have gotten used to the same 390 faces around. Tomorrow's flight brings in 125 new people and takes about 25 of the winter-overs off the ice. Most of the winter-overs are ready to head home or travel for a while. All of the 100 or so winter-overs still on station have been on station since at least February some for a year or more. By the end of the five flights this week we will have 500 new people on station. Even with a large number of the winter-overs leaving the population here in MacTown will double by Friday.
The weather has been clear and the sun has been out for four days now. After a week of blizzards last week I'm not sure what to do with myself.
The days are getting longer here too. Last night I walked out of the windowless library at 9:30pm to see the sun about to set. Someone at lunch told me they saw it at 3:30 this morning. Last weekend was also the start of New Zealand Summer time so we all "sprang forward" our clocks. The station manager had given us two hours off on Saturday afternoon to give us all a rest before the flights come in and to make up for the hour of sleep we were going to miss. It was much appreciated and I celebrated with a nap before my evening work-out.
Working out has been going well for me. I've taken off a couple of pounds since I started and my over-sized work pants are getting obnoxiously large. Hopefully I'll still be able to find a spot in the gerbal gym when the main crew gets here.
Last week we all got a jolt when there was a vehicle crash just off station. One of the big, old tracked vehicles was carrying 14 people back from a survival excercize and lost its power and brakes before rolling off the road and down a 60 foot cliff. Luckily an empty fuel pipeline kept it from falling down a bigger hill and rolling onto the sea ice. Nobody was majorly injured: one sprained ankle a strained back and a few bruses were all that came of something that could (some say should) have been much worse. I heard about the accident but didn't get any news about my roommate sean who I knew had been on board until dinner that night. It made for a very tense afternoon. The day before I had been trained as an emergency medical tech for large accidents and I was glad we didn't have to be called out with the stretchers and triage tags. The whole "incident" brings home the fact that this is a dangerous continent that puts a lot of strain on people and equipment. All the crosses around that are memorials to dead explorers are a little more chilling now.
It's the end of lunch now so I'm heading back down to work. Most of the winter-over tradesmen down there are leaving on Friday and the rest head out next week. The project is officially on hold aside from some small jobs for me to work on over the summer so it's going to be a big change from the last six weeks.
The weather has been clear and the sun has been out for four days now. After a week of blizzards last week I'm not sure what to do with myself.
The days are getting longer here too. Last night I walked out of the windowless library at 9:30pm to see the sun about to set. Someone at lunch told me they saw it at 3:30 this morning. Last weekend was also the start of New Zealand Summer time so we all "sprang forward" our clocks. The station manager had given us two hours off on Saturday afternoon to give us all a rest before the flights come in and to make up for the hour of sleep we were going to miss. It was much appreciated and I celebrated with a nap before my evening work-out.
Working out has been going well for me. I've taken off a couple of pounds since I started and my over-sized work pants are getting obnoxiously large. Hopefully I'll still be able to find a spot in the gerbal gym when the main crew gets here.
Last week we all got a jolt when there was a vehicle crash just off station. One of the big, old tracked vehicles was carrying 14 people back from a survival excercize and lost its power and brakes before rolling off the road and down a 60 foot cliff. Luckily an empty fuel pipeline kept it from falling down a bigger hill and rolling onto the sea ice. Nobody was majorly injured: one sprained ankle a strained back and a few bruses were all that came of something that could (some say should) have been much worse. I heard about the accident but didn't get any news about my roommate sean who I knew had been on board until dinner that night. It made for a very tense afternoon. The day before I had been trained as an emergency medical tech for large accidents and I was glad we didn't have to be called out with the stretchers and triage tags. The whole "incident" brings home the fact that this is a dangerous continent that puts a lot of strain on people and equipment. All the crosses around that are memorials to dead explorers are a little more chilling now.
It's the end of lunch now so I'm heading back down to work. Most of the winter-over tradesmen down there are leaving on Friday and the rest head out next week. The project is officially on hold aside from some small jobs for me to work on over the summer so it's going to be a big change from the last six weeks.
posted by Adam at 4:37 PM
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