Nowhere To Go But Up

If everything goes as planned, tonight will be my last night on the ice. I just need to pack up my room, throw some stuff into storage, do bag drag* later tonight, and wait for some good weather to allow the planes to fly. Yesterday's flights never happened because of high winds here, so we never got a visit from the Today Show folks and the winter overs who were supposed to leave ended up here for another night. Weather doesn't look good for today either, so my guess is that the people supposed to leave yesterday will go out with us tomorrow instead.

We did a little group photo of the science support winter over crew for 2008:


You will notice that I'm in the photo. Yes, I'm coming back for a third straight winter. I wish I could offer the world a logical explanation for it, but all I can muster is the old Antarctic addage: you come the first time for the experience, the second time for the money, and the third time because you don't fit in anywhere else. I'm going to travel for the next three months, then return hopefully with a renewed energy (and a healthy foot). Speaking of my foot, at the request of my mother I had it X-rayed and it's not broken. It displays a new array of color each day, but I've posted enough wookie foot pictures on here.



*If you're wondering what bag drag is, I'll explain. When it's time to go away from the south pole, you have to have all of the things you are taking with you weighed before boarding the plane. Typically this will take place the day before departure. All of your luggage, your full ECW gear, and your passport are brought out to be weighed and palletized (at pole this is done at the cargo building). The next day you show up with just a carry-on for your flight and the pallet of luggage is loaded into the back of a Herc.