Bored Researchers Meet Bored Winterovers

Flights have been a bit hairy lately. Our weather has finally cleared up, but McMurdo's weather went down the tubes. Our closest call was on Saturday when we actually heard (and some even saw) the C-130 buzz by station, but visibility here had got downhill only 20 minutes before they arrived and they couldn't see the runway. How about you leave on time next time, A.N.G.? They had three planes in the sky when McMurdo's weather got real windy real fast, so they all turned around at once. The first plane landed ok, they had just left station, the second flight circled endlessly around McMurdo creating some 'sick' passengers and the third flight (the one that made it all the way here) aborted and landed at Terra Nova, the Italian station. They only had a few passengers, and we were all depressed that we had almost gotten on that same flight and would have been spending our weekend at a different station the few ever see. Sunday, the guard doesn't fly, but really, they should have. Monday more high winds in Mactown had them delaying and cancelling our flights all day. Yesterday was a joke, they shouldn't have even added the flights to the scroll, the last cancellation being at 7:00pm. They didn't even announce all of the cancellations on the intercom.

There are some benifits in staying longer than expected (one of them was NOT having to change my flight to Costa Rica yesterday).

1) I suddenly have no problem getting up at 7:00am for breakfast when I can sleep whenever I want.
2) I wear socks around the station all day, and don't bother with shoes.
3) Living out of one bag makes life so much simpler.
4) I work if I want to and sleep if I need to, and get paid all the same either way.
5) Free time to make travel plans I didn't make already.
6) The "midrats" dinner (at midnight) is WAY better than the rest of the meals.

Some things that aren't so great:

1) "Oh, you're still here. Weren't you supposed to leave on Saturday". Chuckle, chuckle.
2) Endless whining in the galley from everyone else who is delayed (it's easy to get sucked into that trap.)
3) Not knowing if I should put sheets back on my bed.
4) Not being able to open the door in my new room/closet even though I only have one bag (they kicked most of us out of our winter rooms.)
5) Gazing out the window at crystal clear weather and still seeing 'Weather Delay' on the flight scroll.

Since the MAYO clinic who is doing reserach on high altitude effects is missing most of their patiences who are stuck in McMurdo, and since we have nothing better to do, about 8 of us got suited up late last night in 'life vests' that monitor sleeping behavior. They are studying people's adaptations to high altitude when they first get here, but thought they would throw some well-adapted people (which I think we've got covered after 12 months) into the mix for further research opportunities. Creepy huh?


I slept pretty good last night, but when I got up this morning I felt like Elliot from E.T. ripping through his monitors.... only I wasn't in such a rush, since I woke up at 7:00am to "indefinite weather delays" over the intercome, a whole 2 and half hours before our flight was even supposed to leave McMurdo. And so, the drama continues. Brian and I pushed out our Costa Rica flight yesterday, which should cover us unless I can't get out in the next three days.

And this lovely poem from my friend, Kevin, in McMurdo, who was supposed to come hang out at the South Pole five days ago:

At the South Pole there’s a chica,
Who should be in Costa Rica,
But she’s stuck at the Pole,
It must be taking its toll,
And now she must feel like Guernica.

Pretty much sums it up.