Saturday Night is Party Night

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January 24th 2009

Published: January 25th 2009

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argallnaut

Oden

Ice Breaker

The last few days have been filled with a lot of running around trying to prepare everything for one final day of work when it comes. I got a spare pre-amp, a device that amplifies a signal prior to it being transmitted through a cable to the processing unit in order to make the signal stronger than the noise it picks up along the way, in the mail from the South Pole. It was dated 1999 and even back then nobody had an idea what it was. There were a couple notes with question marks all over it.

I went to a Spanish club meeting a few days ago and chatted in Spanish with a few people, and every now and then we get together for lunch or supper and practice with each other.

I am still exchanging and charging batteries at the helo hanger. I have gotten to know a couple of the mechanics who look after it on the night shift. Pretty cool bunch.

I do a lot of sitting around, too.

Yesterday was cool, though! After waking up super early to check on some batteries and going from the pitch blackness of my room

Lawrence H. Giamella

Fuel ship

to being beaten with sunlight outside, I decided to figure out how long I could sleep if there is no light to wake me up. So, I went back to bed around 6:30 and finally got out of bed around 9:30 thinking that I could sleep a whole day through if I didn't have to get up to pee every hour or so (I drink a lot of water here, it being a desert and everything).

The refuelling ship came in a couple days ago, so I went to check that out, and it is friggin' enormous. I did not actually get very close to it (off limits), but did not really have to. The ice breaker Oden was parked along side it and was dwarfed. I met a General Assistant (GA) there who was looking after the lines to make sure they did not leak and found out that the ship was delivering over five million gallons of fuel (a year's supply) and it cost about $56,000/hour for it to be docked at station.

I continued along to Hut Point and walked the loop there, which is about 3 miles. After that, I ate and went to

Ships

say that while holding your tongue!

a swing dancing class. We learned some Charleston and a couple of really awesome moves that I cannot really describe.

That night, the waste management people had a party in the waste barn (not full of waste). The workers here are pretty close and some joined together to form bands, so several of them played a few songs throughout the night. It was pretty awesome! On the back wall of the barn is a giant painting of Oscar the Grouch.

At the end of the day I decided to conduct another experiment: how long I can stay awake if the sun never sets. All night, as it turns out, and pretty easily at that.

Today so far I have read, watched a film festival, and turned the timer on the battery charger. The film festival was really great. An ice core drilling team at a field camp called WAIS Divide made a time lapse video of the whole drilling process!

I will probably go on a hike around Ob Hill later, then read and be bored while waiting for the batteries to finally finish.

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