Harder Every Day

So working here in Antarctica without my other half, Mr Taube, gets harder every day and I'm trying to figure out how to leave as early as possible. Any suggestions? He misses me and I miss him and, well, if you've seen the movie Madagascar, the penguins upon arriving in Antarctica express my current sentiments exactly. Now you'll have to rent and watch the movie to know. So I spend as much of my free time as I can in band room playing loud and, when he can, my friend Harry joins me and we spend a couple of hours strumming away loudly.
The Skua have returned to the station and have been doing quite well in their human attacks for food. They have been trained well and know meal times better than some of those on station. I witnessed the aftermath of an attack this morning and 2 skua were enjoying a bagel with cream cheese until the plastic plastic wrap was stuck to their bills. A couple of friends of mine with free hands retrieved the bagel and the plastic wrap, disappointing but most likely saving the birds from gastrointestinal distress. It's another blue sky day here with a bit of wind to make it just uncomfortable enough to stay inside and drink more coffee and Baileys. That said I'm off for another cup. Hi mom and dad, love you.
Liz

OBAMA!!

Well America it looks like I'll soon have the pleasure of changing the name of my blog. On Tuesday Nov. 4, 2008 America grew, matured, evolved, however you want to say it. Yes I cried tears of joy that a black man was elected not because of his color but in spite of his color. I was incredibly proud of my country and I understand what Michelle Obama meant. I believe we once again have the world behind us. No there is no quick fix, anyone that thought there would be, with either candidate, is living in a strange drug induced dream world, yes I'm talking about that fat, pill popping lout Rush Limbaugh, who's website I checked out yesterday to see what dis-information he was pushing and yes he said Obama was back pedaling when during his acceptance speech he said it wouldn't be easy there would be false starts and a long road. Does Mr Limbaugh have immediate answers, would he solve 8 years of accruing problems overnight, no. He is an acidic, uneducated, babbling, buffoon. I wouldn't wish the presidency on my worst enemy but props to anyone willing to sign up for it. The hole that was dug by the Bush administration and 6 years of a republican congress is deep. We will all need to work together to solve our problems, but then again we are once again the "United" States of America, let's try to keep it that way.
Off the soap box and back in Antarctica where they continue to try and get flights in to the South Pole by all means of flying conveyance. We now have C130 Hercs, and Kenn Borek continues to fly it's Basler and Twin Otters toward the pole but they keep turning around and landing back at McMurdo due to weather problems. My room mate manged to get off to WAIS in one shot. WAIS is West Antarctic Ice Sheet where they drill down for ice cores and bedrock to figure out past climatology to help create future models for the planet. At McMurdo my painting continues and my fabulous non skid flooring for AGAP will be flying out soon. AGAP, well I'm not sure what the acronym stands for but I thought that Another Geeky Antarctic Project worked well. I guess they may have found a large mountain range under the ice and snow and will be flying twin otters back and forth over it with ground penetrating radar to map it. They think they will eventually be able to drill there and retrieve even older ice from the valley's around it than from WAIS. I wondered if this then made the WAIS project obsolete? I was told good question. Anyways I'm playing on a volleyball team now with some friends and we are undefeated. Tune back in to see if this tour de force continues. For now enjoy a new United States.
Cheers

Antarctica Again!

Yes, yes, yes, I know it's been awhile but really who reads this thing any ways? I spent a scant 3 weeks back in the states catching up with Scott and my folks and now......Ah Antarctica, this time the other side, McMurdo Station. I'm here without my truly significant other half and am trying to make it through day by day. I've found out that several other gal pals are also here without there other half and we may form a support group or just take to heavy drinking alone in our rooms. Yes fortunately I still have a few friends here who continue to make the same mistake I do and return but I suppose during these trying economic times a paycheck is a paycheck and you go where the money is. Scott was given a job on the North Slope in Alaska and I'm sure he'll be an outstanding asset to Ice Services. He was disappointed that I was still going to head to McMurdo but it's only for 3 months I hope and I've made it through 1 week already, 11 to go. I'm helping to burn the clock by playing some music here and have recruited the lovely Ms Fabre to learn to play drums so time will tell if we make it to play out in the bars or are just happy plugging away in the band room. I've yet to take a picture here since I've taken so many in the past but I know the folks want to have something to look at so I'll do my best.
Cheers

Do you remember back in July.......................

Well, do you? I was hoping for a relatively uneventful trip to Punta Arenas and a trip to Palmer, but as it turns out it's been anything but. So yea, there was that extra stop in Puerto Montt on the way down and then there was the super fun port calls at the station, things going back and forth to the Gould by a Zodiac on the ice tied to a clothesline system, the medivac (hope you are doing well dear patient), finally the fishing line, the great and powerful mono filament fishing line that kept the boat from getting to the pier for weeks(?), finally pulled free through great effort by the Palmeranians. Well the trip across the Drake back to PA was once again placid but then there was something about a boat at the pier with some customs problems and there was no berthing for the Gould, so we slowed down to a crawl and would get in a day later. I like PA, it has some of the tastiest restaurants of anywhere I've been, yes even Denver. Well all the difficulties seemed behind me. I had a great time walking the town and eating the food and watching the people and the many free roaming dogs. Do the Chileans love these dogs or maybe indifferent to them, either way their fur can be a bit ragged but they all look pretty healthy and well fed. Speaking of well fed I was too, had a wonderful meal with the Antarctic folks at a place called Marmita's followed by one drink too many at a bar I can't remember, started with an S. I spent the next day a bit sluggish but managed to walk to the top of the town and see the Coca-Cola plant on the other side and a military base. I spent the evening with a couple of friends(Thank you Kris and Bo) at, darn it, I can't remember the name of the really amazing place on O'higgins st. It's wine rack was built into the side of an architectural boat, meaning it just looked like the side of a wooden boat. That was the topper of my time in PA. So next afternoon it's off to the airport, had a nice chat with Carola the AGUNSA staffer who accompanied me. I sat and waited out the hour and bought a Patagonia, Chile ball cap while I waited. A smooth takeoff and about 2 hours later I catch something in the Spanish over the planes speaker system about volcanic ash?!? around Puerto Montt and we are headed to Concepcion. Sweet! Another airport I haven't seen. It's about an hour closer to Santiago. Landing there, me and my fellow travelers headed to Santiago hear that there is too much traffic over the Santiago airport so we won't be leaving for 30 to 35 more minutes. Now as I gaze at my super cool Sponge Bob watch I'm deciding that I'm not making my connection to Dallas/Ft. Worth. Looks like a night in Santiago. But thank you AGUNSA for having somebody hang out at the airport and sort me out, transportation, lodging, and the all important food voucher. So that's where I am, Hotel Diego de Almagro, apparently the official hotel of the airports since I also stayed in a Diego de Almagro in Puerto Montt on the way down. Very nice hotels and I can now recommend them without hesitation. So the accompanying slide show are my most recent shots of my current place of residence, at least until 6:15pm, then, maybe I'll get to fly towards the remnants of hurricane Ike, yippee!

Headed North

Well last night there was a crazy costume party of which I have no pictures at the moment, and may not want to see the debauchery that ensued. Regardless it's a tough start this morning but fortunately all I really need to do is go back to bed and when I wake up we should be far north of here on our way back to Punta Arenas. I know I think I've started this trip before but this time I'm confident that the little LM Gould that could will indeed make it this time. The weather warmed up significantly overnight to a balmy 40 plus degrees this morning and the wind finally blew some of the ice out. A couple of crab eater seals have popped up on the ice and also await our departure. I added another room to my painting list while back at the pier between the fishing trip I just returned from and this final goodbye to Palmer. That fishing trip also included some serious sight seeing of which I have included a picture from. Okay this is all I can muster and am having a strong desire to return my head to a pillow. I'll drop a line again when I'm back stateside.
Cheers

Medivac!

Ahh what excitement on the 7th continent. So on Tuesday September 26th around 1:30 in the afternoon Palmer station members were gathered together and informed that one of our fellow Palmeranians had a possible appendicitis and needed to be medivacked. Those of us scheduled to depart on Sept. 5th now had 4 hours to pack and get ready to leave. So I managed a last meal on station, thanks Diane the cherry pie kicked ass! I also managed to glue together a sushi tray I was making, thanks Graham and Jordan. So off we went with 2 or 3 game plans. As it would turn out we headed to King George Island and the Chilean station there had medical facilities that could perform surgery if needed but there was also a plane standing by. Our patient was offloaded around 7:45 am and by 9am was in the air headed to Punta Arenas and a proper hospital. That done we waited until the plane was past the point of safe return, about noon, and then........headed back to Palmer! So I've decide to stay on the boat and help out with another fishing trip (for science)instead of moving all my stuff back on station only to haul it back to the boat on Sept. 5th. Had the opportunity to take lots of pics on the medivac trip and should have another 3 days on this fishing trip. I'll get to eat on station tonight and hang out in the bar with friends but tomorrow I'm guessing we will leave after breakfast and head out on a 3-4 day trip. So back out on deck to see if the bergy bits in front of the pier are yielding to the boat.
Cheers

Nacreous Clouds

Words and barely pictures can due these beautiful clouds justice. We've had an opportunity to see these on two separate occasions now.
Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), also known as nacreous clouds, are clouds in the winter polar stratosphere at altitudes of 15,000–25,000 metres (50,000–80,000 ft). They are implicated in the formation of ozone holes; their effects on ozone depletion arise because they support chemical reactions that produce active chlorine which catalyzes ozone destruction, and also because they remove gaseous nitric acid, perturbing nitrogen and chlorine cycles in a way which increases ozone destruction.

A 2 Day Weekend!

I'm laying here in bed listening to the wind blow and pound, what could be considered a 2 story double-wide, and thought I'd update you, whoever you are.
Last weekend was truly a weekend, we had the last day of one week and the first day of the next week off, if that's how you define a weekend. During the winters at the US Antarctica stations it is usually the first weekend of the month, April through September that they give the workers the traditional 2 day weekend. All other weeks are 6 days and 9 hours a day of work. So how did I spend mine. Saturday started off with, laundry! Yes I blew a perfectly grand Saturday morning doing laundry. This gave me a later start than I wanted to go hike and ski the glacier that sits right behind the station. With all the snow we have had recently I thought it was going to be a great day but as the day progressed so did the wind speed. The skiing was OK but I'm guessing it would have been better if I would have started 2 hours earlier. Well this 3 hour adventure left me plenty tuckered out and I'm remembering something about getting back making a tuna fish sandwich and falling asleep watching a movie in my room. The next day was an earlier morning, starting with bagels and lox with cream cheese and capers, yes, yum. I followed that by roasting some huehuetenango coffee beans. I was very excited to find out that Palmer Station had a coffee roaster and a few pounds of green coffee beans. By the way I think they roasted up very nicely. The green beans may not have been the freshest but the coffee tasted better than grinding beans roasted 2-4 months ago. Having that accomplished it was off to the glacier again this time to hike up down and out onto the Bonaparte peninsula. I chose snow shoes for this, although one can cross country ski most of the peninsula. The photos in the slide show are from these days on the glacier I hope someone enjoys them, I did. I made it back from the snow shoeing in time to catch a movie from 1995 called Underground. "This movie reflects the history of Yugoslavia since the beginning of WWII (and similar to all ex-communist countries) to the last horrible events in Balcanian countries. Behind the comedy is hidden the pain of whole generations, which have suffered WWII, The Cold War, the war in Yugoslavia, the communism, the treachery of their own leadership, the fall." I highly recommend it, even though it runs a bit long at 170 minutes for those use to the 90 minute movies of Hollywood. I should also mention you have to work a bit since it is subtitled. Let me see.........I think that evening was another early to bed but I could be wrong. That's all for now, later today I may post again and add some fabulous, my opinion, photos of a rarre sighting of nacreous clouds here at Palmer. Cheers Enjoy the slide show

Just Another Morning At Palmer

Good morning!

A Wednesday morning at Palmer. The sun is rising today at 8:49am and setting at 3:56pm.
I believe we get about 8 to 10 minutes more daylight each day. Of course we don't actually see all that sun due to the glacier that sits in our backyard but slowly we'll see more and more. The L.M. Gould left yesterday for a trip back to Punta Arenas with passengers and cargo, and will return here in a scant 13 days bringing, you guessed it cargo and a couple of workers for the coming summer season.
This past weekend or Sunday as we call it I woke up with a bit of hangover so my original plans of doing some coffee roasting, yes they have a coffee roaster here,in the morning was not to be. I did manage to get out for a bit of skiing on the glacier in our backyard. The wind was howling so simply hiking up making switchback passes was not to be so I donned a set of crampons, skis on my back and hiked straight up. I have to say I had a great time despite the wind which was gusting to around 30 knots. I skied down towards the Bonaparte peninsula and found plenty of signs of penguins but none of the little black and whites. On my hike back up I headed to the top of glacier to see what I could see and the accompanying picture doesn't quite do the view justice. Contrary to everyone saying the glacier was really icy. I found it to be a far cry from New England boiler plate. The top shatters quite easily and skiing back to the station was only difficult due to my lack of energy.
Another week started and I was back painting stairwells. The front stairwell always busy, in the back stairwell I was left to my thoughts and my ipod. Things get done more quickly when it's me and my ipod. So that's where I leave you today, me and my thoughts. Cheers

A whole week finished. I've painted nearly the whole of the upstairs of what is known as GWR here at the lovely Palmer Station. I have now moved on to the building called Bio-Lab. Attached to this building is the dining room and the science labs, an administration hall and some berthing on what could be considered the 3rd floor that I am now working on. But enough of the work. Spent yesterday morning finishing up my boating 2 class, so naturally you wonder what was in boating 1. Well to preface this, boating in Zodiacs is a recreational activity here and there are certain safety procedures that must be learned and followed. That said, boating 1 course consisted of tent set up, stove lighting and GPS work. These are learned in the event that you get stuck on one of the many islands in the area. Boating 2 was allowed only when the weather finally abated. The winds need to be below 20 knots before we can go out. yesterday dawned a beautiful bluebird day. We headed out into Arthurs bay and then around to the other side of Torgeson Island. I'll try to find a map of the islands around us to post sometime. We took turns manning the helm dressed in Mustang suits or Float coats to keep us warm and buoyant should we take an unexpected fall into the chilly waters. We practiced landing the boat at specified sites on the nearby islands and our expert trainer Lily even to a swim so we could practice our man overboard drill. as a last task of the course we needed to pick up some "bar ice". This is nice clear ice that has broken off from the surrounding glaciers and makes for an excellent addition to a happy hour cocktail. Saturdays are special days here at Palmer. It's a regular work day until 1pm when we spend an hour doing shop clean up followed from 2-3:30 with "House Mouse". House Mouse is when we all chip in, including the science folk, to clean the whole station, there is no janitorial staff here. The staff also serve as the fire department and search and rescue. This is truly a unique situation. Following house mouse we have the all station meeting, the store opens at 4pm to restock your personal supply of booze or toothpaste or t-shirt, what have you. At 5:30 Happy Hour starts in the dining room with a different drink or guest bartender serving up a specialty drink. Last night it was Cape Codders served in little shot glasses made of frozen cranberry juice, yum. From here it's dinner and what ever. The bar fills up a bit and last night there was a poker tournament in the lounge that also serves as the movie room and headquarters for "Guitar Hero". Well I think that's enough for today. If anybody other than myself sees this I hope you at least enjoy the pictures.

The Adventure Begins

Wow! I finally made it to Palmer Station, Antarctica. After a long drive from Denver to Buffalo to see the folks (Hi Mom and Dad) and store the car I flew back to Denver for a short day of orientation. I also got to spend a couple more days with my guy Scott who had only returned from Palmer 4 days prior to my departure. Finally I was off to Dallas/Fort Worth on the first leg of my journey. After a few hours there I was on a 9 hour flight to Santiago, Chile. upon arrival there I was whisked through customs by Jimmy who heads up the AGUNSA operations there. Despite all the speediness I was still looking at a 12 hour layover so I got to know the inside of Jimmy's cozy but rather chilly office until finally departing for Punta Arenas via Peurto Montt. So this is where it got interesting. Upon landing in Puerto Montt we sat on the ground for a while before I caught the words disembarque and manana( get off and tomorrow in spanish), the visibility was not good enough to land in Punta Arenas. So me and 100 or so of my new Chilean friends got off and picked up our luggage and were bussed off to beautiful downtown Puerto Montt where we were put up in the fabulous Diego de Almagro. It was actually quite nice but it was also 3am and we would be catching the buses back at 7am. So I watched "The Family Guy" and some "Simpsons" before heading back downstairs to have some breakfast and get on the bus. That all went off without a hitch and I touched down in Punta Arenas around 11:30am. I quickly spotted the AGUNSA person we grabbed my luggage and the extra crate I was carrying for a science group and off we raced to the port. The ship was supposed to leave at 8am but they had to wait for me, or maybe it was that science equipment I was toting . Anyways after quickly getting my issued clothing it was into the van and right out to the boat. We left within and hour of my setting foot on the boat. Phew. OK now that I'm here I need to decompress a bit and will try to log in again tomorrow. Palmer Station has all the whistles and bells, wireless internet, projection TV, a sweet little self serve bar, a hot tub, and a sauna. Ahhhh, life could be worse on this icy continent. Cheers

South Bound

Well, good things do come to those who put up with enough shit. I finally got a chance to go to the Palmer Station, Antarctica. After 10 seasons at McMurdo they finally had some work for me at what some say is the crown jewel of the US bases on the Antarctic continent. I'll be headed home to see the folks on the 1st of July and then fly back to Denver July 9th for 2 days of orientation before starting the long trip south. Denver to Dallas to Santiago to Punta Arenas(PA) where I'll spend a day or 2 before getting on the Lawrence L Gould to take a boat ride which may or may not make me puke over the side. This will be my first time out on the open seas. I'm psyched! My boyfriend Scott is on that boat right now, just a few hours from pulling back into port in PA. He just spent a month there and he told me I'll love it and won't want to leave. It could be the open fireplace or the hot tub or the serve yourself bar, but really I think it's the more relaxed pace of things and so few people. What ever it is I'll figure it out and take lots of pictures. I've got a new camera in mind just for the occasion. This contract will last from July 9th to Sept. 10th and then it will be back to NY and the folks before heading back to Denver again for a second orientation I'm sure before heading to New Zealand and then down to McMurdo for a summer, Oct. to Feb. So that pretty much covers the next 9 month of my life and i hope i remember to write in my personal blogosphere a bit more often. So for no this is it and I will return.

A good couple of days......

Just a quick line or two today. I'm off with Scott to see Wilco tonight at the Pikes Peak Events Center tonight and tomorrow night it's off to the Walnut Room to see one of or faves from New Zealand, Liam Finn. Music just might be able to save the world.
Cheers

Another Day

Monday, Monday, ba da .... ba da da da.................... Well the weekend was swell. Friday was spent ordering parts for our burgeoning boutique amp business. I bid a painting job on a very cold saturday morning. A North West party hosted by Mark Furnish with WA. state wine and salmon Saturday night and an enjoyable Sunday until I had to go to a regional Apple Store meeting. 'Nuff said.
So now I'm burning the clock until I go into work tonight and trying to relieve a headache. I was hoping that my government rebate check would have shown up in my bank account today so I could rush right out and stimulate the economy. Yes I feel it's my job and yours to fix the deep shit that the current ass_ministration has gotten us into. They dole out several million dollars to Americans and then we spend it and this helps me how?? Doesn't it just put the government in that much more debt? Where did they get that money from? I guess they can print it any time they want. Why don't they just pass it out on a regular basis? Alright enough questions. We could all just mail it to China to pay off the loans from them that are paying for the war. Help. America needs help from all of us but not $600 at a time.
Checking the mail and taking more aspirin.
Cheers

So today I was checking around for the lowest gas in town and I think my best bet is to use my .10 discount at the Safeway station down the street. Oh remember when Bush took office and gas was 1.46/gal.? Everyday I fear more and more having to drive anywhere but I've taken some of the hyper milers advice, keep my speed down, don't try to keep my speed when going uphill, and don't accelerate or slow down quickly. I bought a wonderful little fuel efficient Honda Fit 2 years ago May and love it but still want better mileage, and so it goes. I continue working at the Apple Store until the painting season gets into full swing or I head back to Antarctica because that's guaranteed $. Sadly with the lack of well paying jobs heading south is a solution to the problem until something happens to shift it all in the other direction. Five months of not driving my car or paying for food and other incidentals saves a lot of green.
I am growing tomatoes again this summer as well as basil, cilantro, and jalapenos. If we had more room I'd grow more food. We also save a bit by roasting our own coffee, cheaper, fresher, and way tastier. I think if we can get out of Denver we could be even more self-sufficient, solar, wind, maybe a chicken or 2 for eggs and the occasional dinner. We'd love to have an Earthship. Now will be the time when I suggest that everyone geta hold of the documentary "Garbage Warrior". Outstanding and forward thinking and inspiring. Unfortunately we continue to outgrow our planets resources and seemingly refuse to do anything about it. It seems most folks are going through the times with blinders on just expecting it to get better. I think when gas hits $4/gal it just might be the slap in the face that gets their attention.