More hodge-podge

We're all getting pretty antsy to go and see the outside world and smell flowers and feel humidity in the air and start the travel plans we've been making! Small planes have started coming through, including bringing the first of the summer people to the station. This is a picture someone took of me as a group of us were standing outside watching the Basler that stopped here on its way to McMurdo last week--the first plane that's been here since the medevac in June.

Last weekend, we had a "leftovers" party were everyone brought all their extra beverages and treats from home to share, which was a cozy, fun time.

And I went to yet ANOTHER balloon launch (can't stop--it's just so fun!). If you're paying freakishly close attention, you'll notice that it's now warm enough that NOAA has switched back to the latex balloons from the more hearty (but much more expensive) plastic balloons that they used in the winter. The peak of early spring ozone depletion (I guess that's an oxymoronic way to say that...) has passed, as well, and it's kind of just back to business as usual with the balloons.

(That's me in the green and black jacket getting ready to clip a piece of equipment onto the balloon just before it's released. Seems like I know what I'm doing. Really, I just know how to work a clip.)

And my boss/friend K, watching the balloon head up into the sky. Or marshaling in a very strange looking airplane. You can decide.

Weekly snapshot #51

This is the first time I feel like the weekly snapshot is really reflecting the BROAD DAYLIGHT that has returned to South Pole!

The temps are consistently warmer, and if the wind doesn't get in the way, we're expecting the first 8 summer folks to land here in a Basler on Friday (with two more of our winter crew leaving on that Basler for various reasons). I can't quite wrap my brain around that, but it's really happening. Here comes summer!

Hodge-podge

Just a few random shots for you this week, of some of the general silliness that sometimes goes on around here....

...of the AMAZINGLY huge pretzels that our two German stationmates made for the Oktoberfest they staged for us at the beginning of the month...

...and the NOAA weather/atmospheric balloon launch I participated in during the heart of the ozone depletion season. The balloon is that jellyfish-like object in the sky. I've posted balloon-launch pics before, but now that it's actually light out you can see the balloon as it heads away from us, about 20 second after I let go of it. Long after the launch, you can sometimes still see the balloons looking like stars in the sky.

Here's the balloon flight profile from our trusty NOAA rep, which he sent to us with the following info: "The flight was great: didn't get quite as high as the last few flights because the balloon popped and came back down quickly instead of leaking and floating, but that was actually the goal, so all good.  The profile was fairly similar to the last one (which was so far, and will likely end up being, the season's low) up until about 24 km, at which point there was a bunch more ozone all the way up to the burst, so the total ended up significantly higher."



Weekly snapshot #50

It's kind of hazy out today, but if the snapshot's brightness doesn't convince you summer is nigh, the rising temps of the weather report should! I don't remember it ever getting colder than -45F or so when I was here during the summertime, so the fact that we're starting to get close to that ballpark is very promising.

Plus, today is a big day: I took this week's pic a few hours after a Basler came through en route from Canada to McMurdo--the first plane we've seen since the emergency medevac in June! And in another couple hours, a Twin Otter will also be passing through en route to McMurdo. So the outside world has not completely forsaken us, and stuff is happening....

Tie-dye

There's been all kinds of craftiness going on down here this winter. One fun thing is that the station management left a mid-winter care package for us all to open and enjoy in June, and it contained a whole bunch of white t-shirts with tie-dye supplies. So it's been a tie-dying extravaganza down here. Recently most of us who have been making shirts gathered together (a dizzying proposition)...

...and took a group photo donning our creations. Such fun, and more than half the station is represented here!

I totally failed to take pictures of the tie-dying process--or of the screen-printing free-for-all that followed, but I'll be bringing samples home with me, for sure.