- Monday, 1 May 1995, May Day
-
I've pretty much crashed out in my room the past two nights, reading and
watching television.
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture"
was on; I haven't seen it for years. I haven't been missing much.
- Tuesday, 2 May 1995
-
It's the start of the new bowling season; I've managed to find myself one
of the co-captains of the Wild Turkeys, a brand-new team in the
"B" League. We don't have enough permanent players to field a
team of four, so we're trying to scrounge the rest of the team so we don't
forfeit our first match.
- Friday, 5 May 1995, Cinco de Mayo
-
The bowling match went OK. We lost by only 15 points. If I hadn't gotten
a "chicken" (three gutter-balls in a row), we might have won.
I did get a few spares and even a strike (my first ever), so it wasn't
too bad. Our next game is tonight, against UDAMAN (pronounced U-da-man),
Bernie Sanchez' team.
Last night at
Scott Base,
I finally got my hands on a little liquid nitrogen for parlor tricks.
Because it is so cold compared to body temperature, -320°F
(-196°C) vs +98.6°F (+37°C), you can do some amazing
things with it.
Scotty
took some photos and Woody took some
video footage.
The crowd was amazed as I poured some of the frigid fluid into my mouth
and spat it out amidst large plumes of mist and fog, like a reverse
fire-breather. Lest anyone attempt to emulate this behavior, remember
that I am a trained professional and I have been handling
liquified gasses for over 10 years. Improper handling can result in
severe injury or death.
- Sunday, 7 May 1995
-
The weather has been particularly ugly these past few days. On Friday, we
had wind chills below -100°F (-73°C) all over town. Up at
B-133,
the ambient temp was -41°F (-40°C), the low so far. After the
Friday night bowling game (in which I broke 100 for the first time), I
checked out the band room and practiced bass for a couple of hours. By
Saturday, the weather picture was entirely different. The temp had risen
overnight to +10°F (-15°C), but anytime it gets warm the winds
kick up, in this case, up to a sustained 40 knots, with gusts up to 61
knots. We went back to Condition 1, but this time, due to visibility, not
wind chill. I was in the Weather Office in
B-165
during the afternoon squall, watching the chart recorder peak time and
time again. It hasn't been too bad today, it's still warmer
than it was earlier in the week, and the winds aren't particularly
excessive. Marcello checked out the band room tonight and we jammed for
a couple of hours, me on bass, him on guitar and a Kawai synth box as
drums and backup instruments. We played a lot of 12-bar blues and a
little rock-n-roll.
- Friday, 12 May 1995
-
In addition to the regular Thursday meal at
Scott Base,
there was a birthday celebration. When I arrived on the 19:00 shuttle, I
walked into the liveliest crowd I've seen in weeks. There was pavlova,
an N.Z. dessert, and a pastry-covered ice-cream filled "cake" with
human-hand-shaped candle thrusting up from the center, burned down at the
finger tips. One special treat was L&P (lemon and paora), a distinctly
Kiwi soda pop; I've had it in Christchurch, and now, here. The dart
board was so packed, I didn't even try to play. I sat in on a
discussion of the overcrowding of Earth and its affect on the quality of
life for the majority of people. It was a pretty interesting discussion,
partially because half the group was from the U.S. and the other have
from New Zealand, each with very different standards of what constituted
overcrowding, and a very different range of experiences with urban crowding
and urban decay.
- Saturday, 13 May 1995
-
I bowled my best game ever, last night: 113. We lost anyway. It's calm
and warm right now; the winds are less than 15 knots, it's warmed up to
close to last weekend's temps and it's only getting warmer tomorrow.
This probably means that we are in for another round of Condition 1 or
near-Condition 1 weather, since what always follows warm air is
cold air (and quickly, too). Tonight is the Diesel and Drummi party at
Scott Base. I
am told that Diesel is N.Z. slang for beer and Drummi is a type of open
oven in which you cook Hangi, slow-cooked/roasted food.
- Sunday, 14 May 1995, Mother's Day
-
The food last night was terrific. It turns out that the Drummi is a 55
gal. barrel, turned into a combination steamer/smoker which imitates the
cooking technique of Hangi. Traditional Hangi is cooked in a pit that is
layered with leaves, coals, and food, with a layer of leaves and dirt on
top to seal in the moisture and flavor. It comes out a lot like
polynesian food, cooked for a luau. We had beef, chicken, lamb and pork,
along with potatoes, squash, cabbage, carrots and kumara, some sort of
Maori tuber which faintly resembles a cross between a banana and a potato.
I have never had such tender chicken in all my life; even though there
were no sauces, the food was moist and very tasty. Starting after dinner,
Bandayboo played 'til 1 in the morning, when the last shuttle took us home.
- Monday, 15 May 1995
-
The IMP-8 antenna is tied down until we can get new controller boards at
airdrop. It's a good thing they did it before today; the winds have
picked up and the temps have fallen, so we are right back where we were
at the middle of last week.
- Saturday, 20 May 1995
-
Until yesterday, it had been a quiet week. A joint broke in the plumbing
above the TelCo office, showering the phone switch and several monitoring
computers with hot water and wet ceiling tiles. Equipment was switched
off immediately, but several of us spent hours opening stuff up and drying
it out; phone service was down for most of the day yesterday and part of
the morning today. The good news is that almost nothing was damaged by
the water. The phone switch still works, as do all of the computers. One
printer fuse and one VGA monitor gave up their lives in the line of duty.
The movies have been pretty good, of late. So far this week, we've seen
"The Villain",
a western parody starring Kirk Douglas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and
Ann-Margret; Mel Brooks'
"History
of the World, Part I" and
"Wayne's World".
Tonight at the coffee house,
"Speed"
is playing.
- Monday, 22 May 1995, Victoria Day
-
I was walking back from a party at Hut 10, Saturday night, when I heard
music coming from the band room; Marcello was playing guitar with Val on
bass and John on drums. After Val and John left, I picked up the bass
and Marcello and I played some Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. The two
songs we worked on most were "Crossroads" and "Hey,
Joe". I felt particularly good when, between the two of us, we were
able to figure out the walkup for Hey, Joe", even though I left my
bass tab in my room.
- Friday, 26 May 1995
-
There were no evening activities at
Scott Base
last night - we had severe Condition 2 due to visibility. At one point
in the afternoon, I could not see Medical from
B-155.
Tonight, though, was a lively night. I started it off by going to the
May birthday dinner. The ambiance was amazing; for a little while, I
forgot where I was. The dinners are held in the O-side, with the lights
low and the doors shut. There are tablecloths, place settings, real
plates, cloth napkins and more. In short, it looks like a restaurant, not
the galley. We had stuffed steak and lobster tails. It was the single
most elegant meal I've had since arriving. Afterwards, I went bowling
and got the second lowest score I've ever gotten. If I hadn't bowled a
strike in the 10th frame, it would have been a truely dismal performance;
we only won by 15 pins. Shortly after the bowling match was over,
Scotty
picked me up and took me over the hill for Friday night darts. The most
interesting part of the darts match was that the four teams were separated
by hundreds of miles, with everybody sending in scores by HF radio. We
played 501 against Casey Station (Australia), Amundsen-Scott Station
(U.S.) and Davis Station (Australia). Casey and Davis are on the coast
of Wilkes Land and Amundsen-Scott is the South Pole. Davis won.
- Tuesday, 30 May 1995, Memorial Day
-
In honor of Memorial Day, we got Monday off. It was all go at the Beach
Party at
The Erebus
on Saturday night. The band played until the wee hours, as
usual. There was a well attended (and fun) birthday party for Hope Stout
at Hut 10 on Sunday.
Scotty
showed up with some amazing chocolate/licorice-filled pastries. I did
end up working a little this weekend; there was a tape drive that didn't
want to cough up its tapes. It ended up needing a retaining clip
realigned. Other than that, I read a bit and surfed the Web.
There's a small birthday party for me, this evening. It's just some folks
and some tunes and some snacks, but I expect it'll be fun all the same.
As someone pointed out to me, this is a pretty unique place to have a
birthday. I know I'll never forget it. On this day, ten years ago, I was
on the island of Mikonos, in the Mediterranean; today, I'm on Ross Island
at the meeting of the Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf. I want to spend my
birthday in 2005, in the most exotic place I've been to yet.
- Wednesday, 31 May 1995
-
The birthday greetings keep pouring in; I even got e-mail from my
grandmother, a librarian in a small town in Ohio. The party last
night was low-key, but fun. A bunch of people showed up early, but things
really got going after the bowling crowd got done with their league play.
People had a good time, the beer didn't run out and nobody barged in to
shut us down for noise complaints. As I said, low-key, but fun. I got a
few presents (which I wasn't expecting); the most interesting of which
were a small jigsaw puzzle of Saturn and its moons, and a hollow plastic
nose, filled with "snot" candy - disgusting but entertaining.
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