Weekly snapshot #31

Sorry, it's kind of a boring photo today. Here are the stats (I've really got this screenshot thing mastered; watch out):

And here is your completely black photo. You'll just have to guess whether I took this outside or accidentally photographed the inside of the bag I carry my camera in. (Hint: It was outside.)

On a more exciting note, this afternoon everyone on station who was willing went outside together to take a group picture. If the auroras were out, we were going to use it as our official 2016 Winter group photo, but they weren't really, so probably instead it will just be our less formal mid-winter picture. And mid-winter is only three weeks away now, which is unbelievable to me. Hopefully I'll be able to share the results of today's glamor photo shoot then.

Yukimarimos

I didn't even know these existed, but we have them! Here's a link to the details.

Weekly snapshot #30

Yes, folks, she can be taught! Here is a screenshot of today's weather. (We'll see if I can still remember the lesson in how to do this by next week's weekly snapshot...)

MUCH warmer out than last week, and my room has returned to a totally comfortable 65-67F, the ice along my window covering receding a bit. And so funny how -60F suddenly feels "warm."

And I THINK it shows in this picture, if you look closely enough...the moon is nearly full and casts so much light you can see all the way to the telescopes this week!

XX Days Since My Last Alarm

After a day when a fire sensor down in the cold arches where I work went into alarm mode, sending the whole station into emergency response...and not once, but twice, just about an hour apart...one of the wise-guys here made this pocket flap for W, our fire tech. Pretty silly but it did work quite well. No more alarms for awhile after that.

(P.S. Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but fire-fighting readiness is a REALLY BIG DEAL in Antarctica. It didn't make sense to me at first because it's so cold here and there's so much snow; how long could a fire really last and how bad could it really be? But then I realized that if fire seriously damages the walls of the station we live in to the extent that they are no longer effectively insulated, that's pretty much the end of getting anything done down here until help can arrive...in October...as we'd be spending all of our time and energy huddled in whatever warm spaces there still were and being in survival mode...and that's the best case scenario.)

Weekly snapshot #29

Some fun stuff today. First, I have been mocked for writing the date and temp on a card every week rather than just using the weather posting that's available on our intranet. So I give in, I'll just give you the intranet screen each week. Then I was further mocked when I took this picture with my camera rather than just emailing myself a screen shot, so maybe next week I'll truly get with the program. But for now....

So you'll notice we've gone below -100F. It's actually been below -100 for three days now. This is a big South Pole thing, as there's a tradition called the 300 Club, wherein when the outside temps are below -100, people go in the sauna at 200+ degrees for as long as they can stand it (at least 30 minutes is advisable) and then run naked outside to the geographic pole marker, giving their body a 300-degree temperature difference shock. This tradition is frowned upon by program management, so I can neither confirm nor deny that there have been any new entrants into the 300 Club the past few days. I can only say that the temps have been a big subject of conversation and excitement. And that the very low outside temps (the record low recorded here is -117F, and there have been years when it has never gotten below -100F, so maybe this unusually long, unusually early cold streak is a sign we could break the record this winter?) mean a colder station as well. My room has been about 56F every morning when I wake up, and there is major frost accumulating on the edges of my insulated windowsill cover. Chilly!

Anyway, the other fun thing about this week's snapshot is that the moon was just starting to rise behind the telescopes when I took today's picture. So that's the orangey dot you see in this shot. Enjoy!

Joyride

These videos are from early April, but hey, why not post them now? H and K and I took advantage of a warm (-55F) but blowy day before it got really dark out to go for a ride in an LMC to look for glycol drums that the power plant is going to need this winter. The first video is riding in the vehicle (named "The Wrench") and trying desperately to see out the front window, and the second is pulling it back into the Vehicle Maintenance Facility, where it lives for the winter so that if it's ever needed, we can actually get it started. Fun!

Weekly snapshot #28

Weirdly warm out today for a South Pole May day, though it's supposed to get down to -90F or so later this week.

Same boring, black view out to the telescope, sorry!

Though there were some Auroras shining off to the left that kind of show up in this shot:

 And here's your bonus pic for this week: H, showing you what we look like anytime we go outside these days!

Bubble wrap party

Last weekend my co-workers/friends (there should be a new, single word that accompanies this dual identity, I think) K and H and I held a field day for the whole station. We had about 40 trash bags full of bubble wrap (everything we receive in our department tends to be packed in bubblewrap that we remove while counting and labeling each item in a box or crate) that we wanted to get popped, so we started by covering the floor--especially the dance floor--with several layers of bubble wrap...

...had a bubble-wrap costume-making center...

...filled a triwall (instead of an actual tub) with bubble-wrap (instead of hot water) for the South Pole version of soaking...

...and for good measure threw in a bunch of games with makeshift equipment, like horseshoes (the shoes were made of foam), shuffleboard (for awhile we were using very expired, frozen, uncooked hamburger buns as pucks), and bowling (with tennis ball tubes as pins and a volleyball instead of a bowling ball.

It was a great time from beginning to end, especially when a sumo-wrestling contest was suggested. I'll let you experience that one for yourself:

When all was said and done, the completely popped bubble wrap fit into just 8 garbage bags, which will save a ton of plane space when it is finally transported off station next summer. Success!

Weekly snapshot #27

It's not actually THAT cold out today, but the wind was really blowing and it felt relatively humid (for the driest continent on the planet), and the result was a very chilly-feeling day. And it is dark out today, dark dark dark. Coworker/friend K and I were walking the kilometer out to the ARO building and I was extremely grateful for the flaglines...and kind of wishing the flags were a little closer together. The compensation was that the auroras were AMAZING--best I've seen so far, bright green and dancing across the entire sky. I could even see some purplish/red twinges, which is less common to see with the naked eye. Just gorgeous. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me then, and two hours later when I was taking the weekly snapshot, the auroras were gone and the frame is black, as I think is going to be pretty much the case for months to come. I included a bonus shot at the bottom of what happened when I first tried to take the snapshot but forgot to turn off the flash. Lots of snow suspended in the air and wind. And, like I said, dark--so dark that when I turned around to walk the six steps back into the station, I had some trouble locating the door!