Stuck in Con 1!

12-20-11

Mom was asking me about the lack of snow in mcmurdo town. It's b/c when we get snow storms, a lot of it blows away and then when the clouds go away, the sun is so strong it melts a lot of the snow even if it's well below freezing. Think about in ski towns where the northfacing slope has a 100 inch base will the south facing slope may be completely clear of snow. Now that's during the winter when those south facing slopes only get a few hours of intense sun. Here the sun is intense 24/7.

My back has been hurting quite a bit lately, probably from the driving and also maybe from some basketball and volleyball. I went to the doctor and he prescribed heat, ice, ibuprofen, and massage. Last night Shuttle Mel gave me an amazing massage. She studied kinesiology and sports medicine in college and she did quite the amazing healing massage. Back still hurt the next day, but it did feel much better

I was just thinking how totally amazing my friends are down here. How lucky I am! The shuttle group is awesome, but so are my friends outside of shuttles. Everyone here is so caring and helpful, on top of being funny and interesting. I haven't been here that long, but it feels like I have known some of these people forever. We are developing those strong relationships just like when you have a somewhat similar living situation in college. I've been smiling really big the last couple of days just thinking how totally amazing my friends are here. It feels so good!

12-21-11

It's the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere today, which means it's the longest day of the year, or here, it's just the continuation of one huge long day, and today the sun is at high noon all day.

Shuttles Jerod, Elisha, Mel, Shafer, and I headed to the waste barn for Waste's Acoustic Christmas concert. There were about 6 groups, all very good who played a variety of music with a variety of instruments, including some Christmas stuff. The talent here is crazy. But then the last group that went was just absolutely rediculously awesome. They took familiar Christmas songs and then added HILARIOUS McMurdo twists on to them. We were all laughing so hard. This place is so amazing!

Walking home (after a quick stop at shuttles to say hi to the night shift), I was smiling so big. I was so happy. This place is just so awesome, and I've been having so much fun. My bedtime, since I get up at 5am, is 9:30, but the last week the earliest I've been to bed is midnight, a lot b/c of hanging out with shuttlers that don't go to work until 7:30 and a lot b/c I've been trying to hang out with Cassa and the night shift.
But seriously there's the coolest people here--so unique and talented--and I have such awesome friends; it just makes me happy. And now it's to the point that I know so many people on the base, that wherever you are walking, you'll be saying hi or high fiving or giving hugs. As I was telling Elisha, I wish I could describe this place to people back home, to tell them how cool it is, but it's really just impossible. It never ceases to amaze me how much character this tiny little town cut off (transportation wise) from the rest of the world can put on such a good show.

12-22-11

Today I was airfield taxi when a huge storm rolled in. It was still condition 3 at 1030am, but by 11 it had been downgraded to condition 2. I got a radio call in from shuttle ops to evacuate the people at the airport and meet the head guy in the galley of the airport to arrange all the transport. When I got this call, I was 30 yards or so from the galley (a bright orange building), but I couldn't see it at all. It was hidden behind blowing snow. Since I knew where the galley was, I managed to drive there. When I got inside, fleet ops Carly told me that there were two SOPP folks stranded in the control tower and he sent me out to get them (about a 1/2 mile drive). All the roads have flags 25 feet apart for such conditions, but when I was on the road, I could barely make out the next flag. My defrost was on high and my wipers full blast, but they couldn't keep up, and I soon had about an inch of ice on my windshield. So I rolled down my window and stuck my head out (i was wearing a santa hat if this adds to the visual) and crept slowly along trying to find the next flag. I finally arrived at the tower. I could hardly walk against the wind to reach the tower door, and when I did, I was so plastered in snow that the tower guys asked if I had walked (semi-jokingly), especially since they couldn't see the van any more from where we were as the storm had gotten worse. I piled them into the car via the driver's door since all other doors were frozen shut. We had gone about 100 to 200 yards when we realized there was just no possible way to see any more flags. We heard over the radio that they had just changed the status to Condition 1 (which means no one can move anywhere) We radioed into shuttle ops that we couldn't see and couldn't move and were prepared to wait it out. But we knew we were so close to the tower, we wanted to get back there. I jumped out of the van, making sure to hang on to some part of it. If I had my hand outstretched, the blizzard was so intense, that I couldn't see my fingers. The viz was that bad. I got down on my hands and knees and could make out some tire tracks and their direction of travel (we had been angled at about 70 degrees off the right direction). So I hopped back in and slowly crept in the direction of the tower. We nearly ran into it before we saw it. We fought against the wind to get to the door and rushed in. The tower control guy's name was Gary and the weather man was Mike.

The tower was a great place to be stuck since they had internet and music as well as a little oven to make pizza. They showed me around the tower and how the weather instrumentation works. Winds were holding steady at 50mph with gusts to 70mph. From the tower, you could see nothing including the marker for 100 feet visibility. So we all jumped on a computer to while away the time while rocking out to some music and joked about the situation we were in. Windchill was definitely well below zero and it was not a fun few steps outside to get to the toilet. In the meantime, the rest of the crew that needed to be evacuated was back at the galley at the airport. B/c they worried about fuel running out for heat and such, they activated the search and rescue people in case the need arose. The tower guy, who ranks pretty high up, was in touch via phone with some of the big wigs and he kept bragging about how good the shuttle driver was, how I made it out to them, and how I went above and beyond the line of duty to get to them by driving with my head out the window. About 6 hours later, we were still hunkering down and in Con 1, but they got an override by the big guy in the NSF to travel during a con 1. I was not so sure about this b/c we are not allowed to do this and I didn't want to lose my job, so I called up shuttle ops. Shuttle bill answered, and he was like, just listen to the big wigs, but he said, "on your tombstone I'll have them put 'he was a brave man who listened to fleet ops', I'll put a badge over your heart, and tell your mom you were a good man. Go get 'em junior". Those at the runway (2 cargo deltas, 2 challengers (giant buldozer type vehicles), a fleet ops truck, and 1 van) and me and my van all convoyed at about 10mph back to McMurdo.
When I got back everyone was excited to hear my story about how we all survived out there. Elisha and Jarod and made me a blue flag of valor (from the flags they use to mark the roads). Of course shuttle bill just sat there smiling, so proud of his protege. He kept calling me Hero. The grin on his face was priceless. "you see ole junior out there how he rescued them folks at the tower, such a hero"

After I got off work we headed up to the corner bar, where of course Shuttle Bill continued to tell the story of me in the con 1 to all his patrons at the bar.

Being in the con 1 was actually quite fun, and we had it good b/c we were all connected to the world. I got to spend good time talking on gchat to bro, mom, stringo, sherms, and lael.

That evening at the "movie theatre", a little building attached to the coffee house with very comfortable couches and a big tv, we watched and laughed to the movie Elf.