A Welcome Home Non-Party

Tags

Antarctica, Cat loader, Christchurch, Condition 2, Denver, Deploying to Antarctica, hockey, Jeckle, MacTown, New Zealand, Purcy the Pug, Season 3, Spokane Chiefs

After the long silence of a summer spent unemployed at home (hey, I deserved a break), here I find myself again in McMurdo – on the Ice with a big, capital “I” – and feeling obligated to update my blog so that the few of you folks back home who give a rat’s patella what I’m up to have a way of finding out.  (Wow, that was a run-on; I love those.  And semicolons; I love semicolons   So, as I have promised in the past and have somewhat delivered, I will try to keep this blog updated on a quasi-regular basis.

To catch ya’ll up:

I was scheduled to leave home on Saturday, October 3, but Mom and I drove down to Spokane the night before to catch one last Chiefs game before I left.  (On a side note, they lost, but it was a HECK of a game – good fighting!)  Mom bought me a Chiefs jersey for my birthday (or was it Christmas?) present, so now I have that to wear around as a souvenir of home.  People keep asking me “What team is that?” and I delight in telling them about our boys, our Memorial Cup win of 2008, and our close run last year… sorry, I’m getting sidetracked.

Chris Bruton after the Chiefs won the 2008 Memorial Cup (from http://afterthewhistle.wordpress.com)

So Saturday morning I flew Spokane to Denver, checked into my lush suite at the Staybridge (a 2-bedroom suite complete with kitchenette and a sitting room, 3 beds and 3 TVs in all – I almost felt a little lost), and hooked up with Eli and some other Ice-bound folks for a beer.  Orientation the next day – 5 hours of repetitive blah that I can almost recite by heart now, but some interesting info on the status of the contract rebid - and then off to the park so the boys could toss a Frisbee and do some slack-lining while Michael (FNG GA – great guy) and I enjoyed our last chance to sprawl in the grass.  Eli and I grabbed dinner at Robin’s parents’ house and played with Purcy (what a ham) and Zeke, and then off we went to see Toy Story 1 & 2 3-D double feature!! It was great.  Really, really great… Next day we wrapped up orientation and while everyone else was herded onto busses and shipped to the airport to sit around for hours on end, Eli and I (since Eli had Robin’s car) went and hung out with Cary for a bit, and then Robin’s mom took us to the airport.  Made for much less sitting around time.  Then it was Denver to LAX to Sydney to Christchurch, complete with a jump over the international dateline.  RIP Tuesday, October 6, 2009 – for those of you who lived it, I hope you lived it to its fullest.

photo by Elisfanclub (http://www.flickr.com/photos/elisfanclub/)

Flights to McMurdo had been piling up in Chch prior to our arrival due to mechanical problems with the C-17 (something with the deicers I’ve been told, but who knows if that’s just part of the McMurdo “rumor mill”) and I was hoping for a delay with some extra per-diem, but I guess I don’t get that lucky two years running.  We had exactly the two scheduled nights in Chch, which we passed by strolling along Sumner Beach and going way overboard at the Indian restaurant (seriously, there was hardly room on the table to fit all the stuff we ordered).  We bumped into a number of returning winterovers, and their stories have me excited for my potential overnighter.  (Oh yeah, did I mention I’m gonna try to winter this year?  Hence why I deserved the summer of unemployment before a year’s worth of 54-hour workweeks.)  It was sad that I only got to see Roo Roo for a couple hours, but hopefully he’ll be back down for this coming winter.  Firday, October 9 (that was Thursday, October 8, for all you people stateside), we landed at Pegasus.  I stepped off the plane, took a big, deep breath, and all the hairs in my nose froze stiff.  Welcome back to McMurdo!  Thus began Season 3 of Cedar on Ice.

I’ve been here almost two weeks, but work’s been slow.  The first week was a lot of sitting around in various trainings, although I did get to do loader training (FUN!).  I’m gonna be driving a big CAT 930 around station – everybody better run for the hills.  I’m working as part of a 4-person special project, which – in classic McMurdo fashion - has a catchy acronym: WOPR (pronounced “whopper”), or Warehouse Optimization PRoject.  It’s basically a sort of musical chairs in which we’ll be juggling materials between various warehouses in order to get some old buildings emptied so that they can be demolished, and to get some stock to more accessible locations.  Since we’ll need to be using the loaders and forklifts a lot, they’ve put us on nights to stay out of everyone else’s way.  Thus, we had two days of transitioning to the night shift last weekend.  Getting on a day-sleeper schedule is not easy, especially over a weekend when everybody’s out socializing on Saturday night and then tromping around the dorms all day Sunday.  I have so much more respect for day-sleepers now and so much guilt for the errors of my past ways.  Okay, not really… but a little.

So Sunday night was our first night shift.  We got to drive the loaders around for a few hours – mainly practice since we’re by no means experts yet – which was a lot of fun, but towards the end of the shift I started feeling shifty.  I thought it was just from lack of sleep after transitioning… but a couple hours later found me on my knees in the Highway 1 bathroom puking my guts out, so I guess it was a bit more than fatigue.  Of course, the tiniest little thing is wrong and you HAVE to go to Medical – you can’t figure out on your own that you’ve got a flu bug and you should go to bed and take the night off.  Joy of joys, I got the good ol’ 10-inch long Q-tip shoved up my nose and into my brain (my past DA comrades – you know the misery to which I’m referring).  Gotta run tests and make sure it’s not swine flu!  Anyway, I spent most of the next 24 hours sleeping, slept right through my sister’s birthday (sorry, Rhe!), but was feeling 100% the next day and went right back to work.  I was excited to get back on the loader (that baby is SWEET – his name is Jeckle, and I think we’re in love – pictures forthcoming), but the weather took a turn for the worse and we were driven indoors.  Temperature only got down to about -28 F, but wind chill was down to -50 F and possibly lower.  So it was inventory time…

When we got to work tonight it was still Condition 3 in town (of course – I’m reminded of the Zim Brothers song), but it was Condition 1 everywhere else.  Part way through the shift they called Con 2 in town (still Con 1 everywhere else).  So it was looking like more inventory.  But, as weather in McMurdo does, is quickly shifted gears around MidRats time, temps went up and visibility improved, so it was loader time.  Me and Jeckle, together again!

Anyway, that’s your up-to-the-minute update.  I’m on break now.  Hope all are well.  Hug a tree for me, would you?  Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent on ice,

Ceds

The Boomerang

Tags

Deploying to Antarctica, Travel

Crap.

Well, at least I can say I’ve experienced a boomerang now.

After spending a week plus in Chch due to bad weather delays, our group – second flight – reported to the CDC at 2200 last night. We were finally about to fly! After putting on our ECW, checking in our luggage (in some cases, narrowly squeezing by the 75-pound limit), and waiting around for about two hours watching the third Mummy (oy) and another briefing video, we were finally boarding the C17 bound for the Ice. At 0100 off we went, comforted with white-bread sandwiches, muesli bars, and chicken-, plain- and/or salt-and-vinegar-flavored crisps. Despite the ungodly hour, spirits were high, iPods charged and playing everyones’ favorite ice-bound tunes, and even the sauna-like temperatures that developed soon after takeoff were bearable; we just shucked our boots and fleeces, unzipped the legs of our wind pants, and dozed off like the winter wonderland-bound children we really are.

Then it happened. Four and a half hours into the flight – a mere half hour from Pegasus – we start to re-dress, pull our boots back on, get ready for landing, when one of the crew members gets on the loud speaker. “In a moment you’re going to feel the plane do a bit of a turn…” Many of us, hearing these words and knowing how ridiculous the last week’s been with the unsuccessful attempts and cancelled flights, thought he was playing with us and was about to say “… don’t panic. We’re just lining up for landing,” or something along those lines. Alas. Instead, he said the words: “We are taking you back to New Zealand. We will not be landing at McMurdo today.”

Son of a *(#$%!!!

Every single face on the plane fell. Some looked like they wanted to cry, some looked like they were about to start yelling, some just looked defeated. The firefighter to my left leaned in and said, “I’m taking a dip. Want one?” (No worries, Mom. I declined, and am still tobacco-free. Start saving for that tat…)

So, back to Chch we went. At least I still had some chicken-flavored crisps to munch on the way back. Nine total hours on the plane, and we’re right back where we started. I’m even in the same room I had before at the YMCA; they hadn’t even had a chance yet to change the sheets and make the bed. Oh, well. At least I know whose germs are spread around…

We try again tomorrow at 1000. Wish us luck, cross your fingers, light a candle… anything to save us from another boomerang. It’s really NOT fun.

Limbo

Tags

Deploying to Antarctica, Travel

Well, today’s the one-week mark for Chch.

I left home on Friday, the 26th of October, for a series of flights, orientations, and briefings nearly identical to last year’s itinerary. Spokane to Denver; 2 nights in Denver for orientation; Denver to L.A.; L.A. to Auckland, New Zealand; Auckland to Christchurch, New Zealand; ECW issue and briefing in Christchurch. Things got a little sticky there, though.

The first flight of Mainbody was scheduled to leave Chch on Tuesday (9/30), the same day my deployment group (second flight) arrived in Chch. Weather down in McMurdo, however, caused the flight to be delayed. Then they boomerranged. Then they were delayed… and again…. and again. Because the first flight couldn’t take off, second flight kept being pushed back as well.

So here I sit. It’s Tuesday, October 7, here in Chch, and I have been in town for exactly one week now. Not that it’s a terrible deal; the USAP gives us travel funds for every day we’re delayed, and we’re on the clock, so we’re basically being paid to sightsee. The problem is that they are now direct billing hotels and shuttles, thus enabling them to greatly reduce the per diem each employee receives, so we don’t have a ton of money in our pockets. Plus, we can’t get too far from Chch because we have no idea when the first flight might manage to get through and then it’s our turn. But we have managed to do some hiking, beachcombing, horseback riding… and EATING. We’ve almost completed a culinary world tour, having cycled through Thai, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, American (bar fare…), and Kiwi (meat pies!). So it’s been a pretty relaxing week…

…but most of us are getting anxious to get down to the Ice at this point. First flight took off today, and I haven’t heard any talk of them boomerranging, so hopefully that means second flight (my flight) will take off tonight as scheduled… at 2 a.m.