11-21-11

Snowed hard all day. After work, since I love being out in the snow, I went for a ski. Typically it takes me somewhere between 19 and 22 minutes to go to the ice runway and then the same time to come back (it's about 10km roundtrip) plus some rest time for a drink and dessert snack at the ice runway galley. But this time, it took me 18 minutes down (a bit of a tail wind). However, as I was resting in the galley, the storm really picked up and a huge wind came in. It took me 28 minutes to come back and would have taken me much longer if it wasn't for the fact that I knew dinner was ending soon, and I didn't want to miss it! Skate skiing is pretty exhausting, and I work up quite a sweat doing it. I usually just do the route in long underwear and a t-shirt. Everyone looks at me funny since the temp is in the single digits to low teens, but I seriously just get so hot. But I'm also known as the t-shirt guy around base, b/c now tha the temp has warmed up a bit, I just wear my snowpants, a t-shirt, and this super warm down vest I have. Most people are still bundled up in their big reds though.
Once a week they have these things called travelogues where people talk about adventures they've done. I've avoided them b/c I don't want to hear about more places I might like to visit and give me more ideas, but last night was on South America, so I decided to go watch that one.

Got 4 packages in the mail this week! 2 from mom, 1 from the bighorn, and 1 from Ildi from her camp at marble point. Thanks!

11-22-11

Two of the new girls on the shuttle team came out to volleyball last night. They're pretty intense since they played college v-ball. Elisha is quiet and seems quite cool. She's spent a lot of time travelling and has lived in places like Kazakistan. She went to some school in N. Cali, but now lives in Couer D'Alene, Idaho. Melanie is quiet loud and is always talking. She is from N. Dakota, but has been ski bumming in Steamboat for a longtime and fighting fires out of McCall, ID. One of the other new guys to the team is Matt. He spends his summers in Bali surfing.

11-23-11
The storm is still here, though snowing less today. Bill took me off dispatch today to have me build a trench to bury our electrical wires we used to keep the vans warm. He said the last guy that did it, did such a poor job, and he wanted someone he knew who could do it well.

Apparently b/c of my hardwork, I was given 1st choice to decide whether I wanted to go on nights for this next period or to wait until the last period. It was a tough choice b/c this period would be a bit shorter and I would get to spend more time with my mom crush, Jen,, but in the end I decided to postpone a lot b/c I wanted to be working days during the Christmas holiday since I kind of missed Christmas 2 of the last three years being in Buddhist and Hindu countries and b/c I am having too much fun with all the activities at the moment. Also, Cassa will be working nights on the last shift so that is cool. At pickleball, Jen, told me she really wanted me to be working on her crew, but she said I probably made the best decision and since she is a mom, she always wants her kids to make the best decisions for them.

Busy night with pickleball, basketball, and pub trivia.

11-24-11
Happy Thanksgiving! B/c of schedules here, our thanksgiving celebration will be on Saturday instead.
A bit of a calm in the storm with huge flakes and no wind. Snowed about 3 inches early in the morning, but then some wind intensified and the base was put on condition 3. On my delta drive out to Happy Camper in the morning is was pretty hard to see anything but the flags they put up.
By afternoon they had evacuated the airport, since it was obvious no flights would be coming in. Since airport was evacuated, we didn't have much to do as drivers, so they let us go home almost 5 hours early! That was pretty awesome! Fran was having issues with her kiwi love interest from scott base, and she wanted to talk to someone about it, so we went out for some hot cocoa to the coffee shop to talk about it.
Cassa, Fran, Bobbick, and I spent a couple hours at the corner bar where Bill was of course pouring stiff drinks. Met a guy there, jean pierre, who has lived in estes park the past 18 years working for Mark Holler.
Since us shuttle drivers didn't have work on friday, we all headed over to the kiwi base for american night at their bar. Some guy put 600 bucks on the bar, so we had free drinks all night, so as you can imagine free drinks there, mixed with Bill's free drinks and everyone was in fine form and special ted had mde an appearance. When we got back to the american base, we decided to hit the bars there b/c Fran is converting over to night shifts so she needed to stay up late to acclimate to nights. Once at the bar there, we were apparently a riot and all the NASA guys were buying us drinks. When the bar finally closed we headed over to midrats (lunch in the middle of the night for those on nightshift) to chow down and make the people laugh there. After midrats we just kind of ran around the dorms having some fun. Special ted was definitely out in full force b/c the next day so many people came up to me commenting how hilarious we were and how I must have been having quite some fun. Rumours of special ted have gotten around the base and everyone wants to meet him now.

11-25-11
Went out with Fran for an early morning ski on the armitage loop. Couldn't see much b/c of the raging storm, but still fun nonetheless.