Getting reacclimated to the real world is not a 1-day process I found out. We are all wayyy over stimulated. How much information can you process? How much information do you need? We are all seriously being held aloft from the truth by several layers of BS. If you think you can process all the information you are thown at in a normal hour or two of "normal" life you are totally wrong. Just making simple purchases requires too much effort to decide what's right. "Just gimme that thing so I can move on to the next totally overwhelming information seeking situation."
I have a lot to say about my experiences of adjusting back into the real world. A lot more than what is going on here.
I am home. I have a lot of catching up to do. The dark at night is nice.
I was asked what the sounds of Antarctica are like. In McMurdo there is always noices of machinery. The helos warming up and taking off (right next to our shop), The power plant generators, although equipped with large mufflers drone on 24/7. You are also hear diesels 24 hours a day and back up alarmas as materials, snow, or earth get moved around. The wind is continuous. The wind noise is almost aways cutting through the other noices. Out in the field noise is totally different. It is so quiet. It is so incrediblely quiet. You can year a helicopter 30 or 40 miles away. On the polar plateu the sound carries fairly well. The ice is just like dense strofoam. It squeaks like styrofoam and sounds bounce of it (and transmits vibrations) just like stryofoam.
I am still connected getting the lunch menu from the ice. It is tough to decide. mactown food versus home. Hmmm...
Mactown menu
Thursday - February 1 |
LUNCH 11am-1pm
Roast Pork Loin w/Gravy
Beef Chili
Vegetable Ragout
DINNER 5pm - 7:30pm
Thai Beef Stir Fry
Teriyaki Grilled Chicken w/Pineapple
Vegetarian Buddha's Delite
I am in LA. I missed my connection. I did manage to get the red-eye out tonight. So it looks like I get to spend another night on a plane. I slept last night. I probably got 4 or 5 hours of sleep. I caught up with a fellow ice person last night for the flight. We were recounting the experience. Our experiences and impressions were very similar. He was saying that he can't describe a lot of it. He went on to say that even looking at his photos, they didn't tell what he was experiencing. We agreed about how strange it was meeting the winter-overs we were taking over for when we got there in October. "They had that weird stare and they talked ok and everything but there was no emotional content to what they were saying". There is a zombie like quality to some people who spend a lot of time on the ice.
After a couple of weeks at pole he was medivaced to McMurdo for altitude sickness (there were quite a few this year). It got better and went back to pole. This guy is a body builder and you wouldn't expect anything to bring that guy down.
This is a picture I took day-before-yesterday of some fata-morgana. Fata-morgana is Antarctican for mirage. This is looking across about 40 miles of sea-ice. The temperature inversion causes this really cool elongations and inversions. I have seen small mountains upside down. It is pretty freaky when you are walking into work and you see these things.
I have taken and saved about 35 GB of photos and videos. I have not sorted through many of them myself. It will take quite a while.
I am in Auckland. I have really been enjoying sampling this and that. It is like I was gone for years. It was only 4 1/2 months. It sure is hot here. It must be 75 with a gentle breeze.
I had to give back all my ECW and Big Red last night. Those pockets were some of my safest storage places. I will miss the big red.
It is really quite a treat to have some bandwidth here too.
That C-17 is really quite an aircraft. That aircraft supports the entire USAP program (except for a few C-130s) in between the one annual cargo ship. It is is a very stable aircraft. The picture of me with the C-17 is out at Pegasus runway about an hour ride out on the permanant ice via "Ivan the Terra Bus". The annual ice-runway is used until the ice goes bad and it becomes the shipping channel as it is currently being used.
I made it to Christchurch. It has been a real treat so far. I went to Baileys last night, a traditional pub for ice-people going back to Scott's and Shackelton's time (we get a discount). I have been soaking it in. I had some unexpected feelings. What a world we all live in! Wake up people.
I didn't sleep well last night mostly because I had to dismantle my window shade system for my room inspection today. The sun coming in at 3:00 AM just wouldn't let me get back to sleep.
I am supposed to be heading out at 12:15 with an estimated launch at 4:00 PM. There could be a delay. You just never know.
I have to get rid of my keys this morning. I accumulated quite a few on a key ring while I was here. I also have a few last minute things to do in the shop.
Here is a picture of the shipping channel. It will soon start getting colder and in August they will be landing the first flight on this area of sea-ice.
I took a walk around town this morning. What a great experience.
I am all checked in and weighed. My check-in bag weighed 69 pounds. I am allowed 75 pounds. It is a good thing I sent 15 pounds back in the mail. I didn't ask what my body weighed with my carry on bag and ECW. I am going on a diet again. My survial diet down here has definately added five pounds. My flight weight wearing my helmet and extreme cold weather (ECW) gear has been 194. I figure 30 pounds for clothes. On these intercontinental flights they want your weight with your ECW and your carry-on. We first put our check-in bags on the scale and then you and your other stuff step on the scale. It occured to me that there might be a modesty issue involved for some folks, but for folks like me doing my job those aspects were lost months ago if you had any.
We had our IT department party tonight. I am shown bartending in the the "Coffee House". I was getting a lot of information about what life was like in the former Soviet-union in the '80s and '90s. In our department we have folks from Africa, Latvia, Croatia, Mexico, Ohio and other very strange and foreign lands. Being here on the ice has been a good concentrated experience for world travel (since I have not been doing much for the last few years). I will be trimming my beard and getting a haircut soon. **I won't get into the haircut scandal here on station.** Us folks in Comms (sometimes appropriately called "Kommz") are a wing of IT that gets their hands dirty. We take risks and connect what is known in telecommunications as the "last mile".
I am apprehensive about going back to the real world. I have been repeatedly told about the sensory rush I will get in New Zealand with all the biological stuff. I have fully acclimated to things here in 4 months. It all seems very normal. There certainly isn't much life here outside of the sea. In fact there is almost nothing living down this part of the globe besides scientists. I have been in the field. It is harsh out there. In town it is pretty tame.
The "Palmer" came upto the ice-pier as planned this morning. http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/support/nathpalm.jsp We had to go aboard today to get a wireless telephone hooked up.
My transport/flight isn't until 12:15 noon. So I will probably post in a few hours before I leave the ice.
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I am packed. I have to get some travel money from the finance office and ask (again) about some reimbursments that have not materialized in 4 months.
I didn't know a single person here 4 months ago. I have definately got to know a few folks in the course of this adventure. I have made good contacts. It is hard to decide what to do in the last time here. Should I take more photos? Probably. Should I go work more on the ham radio? Probably. Should I just relax? Probably.
