But Antarctica had other plans...and that's okay. I will get out of here eventually. I feel worse for the people who were supposed to leave on October 1st, or 3rd...or 5th or 8th...and are also still here. And those who are losing money on travel reservations that they're missing because they're still here. Because, yes, EVERYONE is still here. It's now October 12 and we still haven't seen a flight come in for the start to the summer season. The earliest we could possibly get one is Sunday, but people are talking Tuesday the 16th as more realistic, considering the amount of grooming the airfield is going to need after two weeks of Condition 1 weather out on the ice shelf. I've been officially extended to the 17th but in the next couple days I'll have to check in with my boss to see if we need to push that out even a bit more so the store can continue to open until the summer store people get here.
People are coming up with all kinds of clever plays on words to describe our situation. Usually "Winfly" (the 6-week shoulder season) lasts mid-August to October 1, and then "Mainbody" (summer season) starts. So people are calling this crazy delay "Winfly 2018-2019" (dear lord, let's hope not) or "Mainfly." I'm starting to feel the need to screenprint some t-shirts....
For the most part everyone is handling the delay with grace and an awareness that it's no one's fault, it's just the power of nature. But I'm definitely starting to see a growing polarization between the winter people who are staying through winfly and the summer people who came early for winfly. During the weeks of intended overlap, I feel like everyone was making an effort to co-exist despite our totally different mindsets--the winter people making room on station for the summer folk and tolerating their higher energy levels, the summer people showing a little deference to and understanding of the winter-overs and their relative tiredness and crustiness. But at this point, the winter people are DONE and just want to get out of here and the summer people are antsy for real summer to start and all of their friends to get here and things to be the way they always are in summertime.
When I walked across the street from my dorm to work this morning, it was completely beautiful out--Condition 3 everywhere, some sun poking through the clouds, winds low. And then as I settled in front of my computer to answer a few emails not 30 minutes later, I heard the severe weather call go out over the radio, Condition 2 in town and Condition 1 on the airfield and most other places. Scary how fast the conditions change so drastically! So "the pinwheel" continues all around us...and who knows, there might be a snapshot #34....
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