Gone, Baby, Gone

Well, I left Antarctica almost a week ago- on the 20th, to be exact. Got into Christchurch at Midnight, after sitting on the runway while the mechanics made sure that the right engine wouldn't fall off in flight. And wqe get here and it's HOT and muggy and therre are lots of bigs. I almost crawled right back on the C-17 for a return to good weather.
I've spent the last six days enjoying the scenery and the whole light-dark-light thing. And the stars are nice to see again too. The mior sun-burn is a bit of a hassle, but it just itches. I have one more week of lounging about before I return to the States on March 6th.
I'm looking forward to being home, or at least in a place where I understand the traffic, the advertisements and the way things work. There are some things here in NZ that are just odd. I'm sure the many Kiwis who go to the US have the same feelings, but hey-this is my blog!
I have applied for a job with Cook's Illustrated magazine-if they like the article I emailed them on the 22nd I will be going East for a few days to work in the Test Kitchen. If I'm really in luck, soon I'll be moving to the Boston area. Otherwise it's a stretch on unemployment while I try to :
a)get back to the South Pole, maybe
b) get a job in Chicago somewhere, along with housing, etc,
c) decide to move to Alaska.
The whole life-thing is in flux at the moment. (did you know that that was an old name for really nasty discharges?)
So this particular blog has about lived out its natural span-when I do (really, I will!) post those last few pics I will still let you all know.
Becky

RePack! For the end is near!

Well, I have been amazingly lax about posting anything at all to this poor, neglected blog this month. Partly, that's because nothing much has been happening. Sadly, much of what I wanted to post pictures of became un-noteworthy in the execution. Because the string was a week late in arriving on the Ice, the kite festival had a total of 3 kites in the air-one of them brought over from the NZ base. The other kite-makers have gone flying, but only one at a time. The shot of one lonely kite in the huge blue sky was just too depressing to post.
The weather is starting to get colder out-I'm back in Big Red the parka, instead of a fleece jacket. The Sound has lots of open water this year-a few years ago the huge ice chunk named B-15 parked itself at the opening of the sound and caused the annual ice to stay put a freeze up instead of flowing away North in pieces. It broke up late last season, and so far the ice-edge has been getting steadily closer. The first official sunset will take place on Feb 19th, and sunrise will appear about 36 minutes later.
And while there has been wildlife around- whales cavorting in the Sound, for example-I tend to see the spouts from so far away that a pic looks silly. The Coast Guard Icebreaker Polar Sea offered cruises to about half of the population-there was a lottery, and I was not chosen. I let Paul go off to Snow Survival School, also called Happy Campers-I was offered the chance of going on 2 hours of sleep, and Paul hadn't gotten to go on any fun trips at all-he had a blast, but I stayed home. (It was his night off anyway-so he had had plenty of rest)
And now the end of the season is looming. Some folks have already headed home. Most of the scientists are long gone, or are leaving today. (Leaving on a C-17, don't know if I'll be back again....)
The big arrival this week is SUPPLIES. The tanker that delivers our fuel was here for three days, and now our container ship is here. The next ten days are called "vessel offload" or vessel for short-and the next year's worth of food, toilet paper, beer, chips, welding stuff, paper, staples, lumber, paint, parts, and so on, is here, somewhere in a big orange metal box called a milvan. They get lifted off the ship with a crane, and driven around town on anything big enough to carry one-big forklifts, flatbeds, converted Deltas, etc. Any day now I expect to see gangs of folks hauling them along on rollers, like the Egyptians building the pyramids.
My flight out is now scheduled to be on the 20th of February. I will be hanging around in NZ for about 2 weeks, and hope to back in Illinois (home Sweet Chicago!) on the 6th of March. In early April I will be off to Barcelona for a week or so, with a detour to the Valhrona chocolate factory on the way.
After that, who knows? I'll probably apply to return, but can't say if I'll come back down. I may get a better offer in the meantime.
Boxes have been mailed home so I don't have to lug crap all over New Zealand that I just won't use-like my knife kit. The pool cue- thanks again Josh!-I am taking with. It just might help me chat up cute guys!