still crazy

Well, we finally got all of the South Pole crew shuffled off to their new home at the bottom of the world. Wish I was going wth them...
But with the population down to under 1,000 and another night baker here work is almost under control. Of course, now the holiday madness begins to set in-we need 2,500 dinner rolls, 150 pies and 14 or so sheets of goodies like pumpkin cheescake for Thnaksgiving and lots of stuff for christmas.
Here in Mac Town life is very... normal. People have regular schedules, and regular hang-outs and so on, so for days on end you can almost forget where you are. Then you get to go out of town for a few hours and you can see just how tiny the town is compared to the continent. And how LOUD the place is. While we love the hum of the generators (heat is a good thing down here), as a ubiquitous background noise it gets a bit wearing. I got out to Cape Evans-about 14 miles away, and we could feel the quiet. A group went out to check out the hut that Scott and his crew stayed in on the expedition that he never returned from. A wierd, guy, Scott. His big regret at getting to the Pole was finding out he wasn't the first person there. With that as the main drive to walk across this place, it's no wonder he froze in his tent. I guess he didn't know that the journey has to be it's own reason for going....
Lots of folks aking me "why did I come down here?!" these days. I guess that the facts of work, even in Antarctica, are starting to overwhelm the sense of adventure. And here at McMurdo it's hard to get close to the Science. At the Pole, with only 200 or so folks around, you know everyone. Here the beakers often seem to skip the idea that a person cooked that food, cleaned that bathroom or made the heat in their lab work. And with my wacky schedule I even get to miss the science lectures. So it's easy to think that you're hear baking for a crowd of folks who are here cleaning and maintaining the place so they need a baker, and around and around. And town seems so big when you're in it-you can go from home to work to the gym to the library and not look out and see the mountains or the sea-ice.
If any of you know a scientist down here- send them by the bakeshop between 9PM and 730AM, especially if they're cute. Thanks.
And a modification to the wish list-
NZ customs won't send whiskey through the mails. They pour out the booze and SEND THE EMPTY BOTTLE!! I learned this by whinging at the mail room that no-one loved me enough to send me any. Now love yourselves even more and ignore all of that noise and DON'T send me any booze. I will have to find a person to hand-carry some down from Christchurch on an inbound flight. Hmmm-wonder wht the flight-crews like for dessert.....
Well, time to return to the salt mines-
I can now bench-press more than Nick, the other Lead Baker. When he saw this, he blushed. Tee-Hee!