The Usual Delays

southpole

John Jacobsen
Monday, January 19, 2009

Home Other Posts

Earlier post CHC southpole

Later post RNZAF southpole

Woke at 0550h this morning to get the shuttle for our Ice flight to McMurdo. After a quick shower and hauling half my bags downstairs Sandy told me there is a two hour delay. At least they told us before we left for the airport!

Yesterday morning was devoted to buying extra food for the trip. Last year my stomach didn’t like the food at Pole towards the end of my stay. So I bought bananas, granola, apples, dried fruit, granola bars, vitamins… things I know I can eat that I won’t be able get there (or at least as much as I would like). I’m going to try to eat the plain stuff and steer clear of a lot of the rich food there (which can be challenging).

So, I went to the supermarket in a mall south of town (Sandy drove me which was nice) and walked back past all the lovely little shops. The day started out cool but got quite warm, probably almost 80 F.

IMG_1921.jpg

Figure 1: Trying on Baffin boots at CDC

After lunch we met out at the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) to try on all our clothes. Just to review, they give us about 40 pounds of cold weather gear, all of which has to be tried on and exchanged if they got your size wrong (or if you just don’t like it). They seem to know more or less exactly which items I take each year now so I didn’t have to give back as much stuff. Nevertheless, despite having done this eight times now, I was STILL the last person to finish!

IMG_1923.jpg

Figure 2: After the storm

IMG_1929.jpg

IMG_1937.jpg

Figure 4: Dux De Lux

We had an afternoon thunderstorm, which was a real treat. Then I had a delicious dinner at the Dux De Lux: ‘groper’ (grouper?), 4 salads, a beer and a delicious dessert called Banoffie Pie, which is essentially a banana cream pie with caramel or dulce de leche — amazing. Then I took a walk in the Botanical Gardens — Mom, if you’re reading this, I so wish I could take you there — you would think you were in heaven. They have thousands of plant species from all over New Zealand and the world. It is truly the perfect place to wander before heading to the coldest, driest, highest, most sterile desert on Earth.

IMG_1946.jpg

Figure 5: In the Botanical Garden

IMG_1956.jpg

Figure 6: Big tree, small man

IMG_1957.jpg

IMG_1961.jpg

Today, with luck, we head South. Apparently it might be on a Kiwi Herc(ules C-130) — the Kiwis take our planes, and I guess we take theirs sometimes. Several days ago when the Kiwi Hercs were away on some training excercises, they contracted an airline to fly commercial Airbus jets to fly to McMurdo! I’d certainly never heard of that. Anyways, the bummer is that the flying time is 8 hrs on a C-130, as opposed to the 5 hrs I’ve gotten used to on the C-17 they’ve had here the past few years (the C-17 is supposed to be back by the time I head North again).

So, maybe we fly today, maybe we don’t. Sometimes one delay leads to more delays, or a cancellation. We shall see. But for now: breakfast.

Earlier post CHC southpole

Later post RNZAF southpole

Blog Posts (170)

Select from below, view all posts, or choose only posts for:art clojure code emacs lisp misc orgmode physics python ruby sketchup southpole writing


Home


From Elegance to Speed code lisp clojure physics

Common Lisp How-Tos code lisp

Implementing Scheme in Python code python lisp

A Daily Journal in Org Mode writing code emacs

Show at Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center art

Color Notations art

Painting and Time art

Learning Muscular Anatomy code clojure art emacs orgmode

Reflections on a Year of Daily Memory Drawings art

Repainting art

Daily Memory Drawings art

Questions to Ask art

Macro-writing Macros code clojure

Time Limits art

Lazy Physics code clojure physics

Fun with Instaparse code clojure

Nucleotide Repetition Lengths code clojure

Updating the Genome Decoder code clojure

Getting Our Hands Dirty (with the Human Genome) code clojure

Validating the Genome Decoder code clojure

A Two Bit Decoder code clojure

Exploratory Genomics with Clojure code clojure

Rosalind Problems in Clojure code clojure

Introduction to Context Managers in Python code python

Processes vs. Threads for Integration Testing code python

Resources for Learning Clojure code clojure

Continuous Testing in Python, Clojure and Blub code clojure python

Programming Languages code clojure python

Milvans and Container Malls southpole

Oxygen southpole

Ghost southpole

Turkey, Stuffing, Eclipse southpole

Wind Storm and Moon Dust southpole

Shower Instructions southpole

Fresh Air and Bananas southpole

Traveller and the Human Chain southpole

Reveille southpole

Drifts southpole

Bon Voyage southpole

A Nicer Guy? southpole

The Quiet Earth southpole

Ten southpole

The Wheel art

Plein Air art

ISO50 southpole art

SketchUp and MakeHuman sketchup art

In Defense of Hobbies misc code art

Closure southpole

Takeoff southpole

Mummification southpole

Eleventh Hour southpole

Diamond southpole

Baby, It's Cold Outside southpole

Fruition southpole

Friendly Radiation southpole

A Place That Wants You Dead southpole

Marathon southpole

Deep Fried Macaroni and Cheese Balls southpole

Retrograde southpole

Three southpole

Transitions southpole

The Future southpole

Sunday southpole

Radio Waves southpole

Settling In southpole

Revolution Number Nine southpole

Red Eye to McMurdo southpole

That's the Way southpole

Faults in Ice and Rock southpole

Bardo southpole

Chasing the Sun southpole

Downhole southpole

Coming Out of Hibernation southpole

Managing the Most Remote Data Center in the World code southpole

Ruby Plugins for Sketchup art sketchup ruby code

The Cruel Stranger misc

Photoshop on a Dime art

Man on Wire misc

Videos southpole

Posing Rigs art

Metric art

Cuba southpole

Wickets southpole

Safe southpole

Broken Glasses southpole

End of the Second Act southpole

Pigs and Fish southpole

Last Arrivals southpole

Lily White southpole

In a Dry and Waterless Place southpole

Immortality southpole

Routine southpole

Tourists southpole

Passing Notes southpole

Translation southpole

RNZAF southpole

CHC southpole

Wyeth on Another Planet art

Detox southpole

Packing southpole

Nails southpole

Gearing Up southpole

Gouache, and a new system for conquering the world art

Fall 2008 HPAC Studies art

YABP (Yet Another Blog Platform) southpole

A Bath southpole

Green Marathon southpole

Sprung southpole

Outta Here southpole

Lame Duck DAQer southpole

Eclipse Town southpole

One More Week southpole

IceCube Laboratory Video Tour; Midrats Finale southpole

SPIFF, Party, Shift Change southpole

Good things come in threes, or 18s southpole

Sleepless in the Station southpole

Post Deploy southpole

IceCube and The Beatles southpole

Midrats southpole

Video: Flight to South Pole southpole

Almost There southpole

The Pure Land southpole

There are no mice in the Hotel California Bunkroom southpole

Short Timer southpole

Sleepy in MacTown southpole

Sir Ed southpole

Pynchon, Redux southpole

Superposition of Luggage States southpole

Shortcut to Toast southpole

Flights: Round 1 southpole

Packing for the Pole southpole

Goals for Trip southpole

Balaklavas southpole

Tree and Man (Test Post) southpole

Schedule southpole

How to mail stuff to John at the South Pole southpole

Summer and Winter southpole

Homeward Bound southpole

Redeployment southpole

Short-timer southpole

The Cleanest Air in the World southpole

One more day (?) southpole

One more week (?) southpole

Closing Softly southpole

More Photos southpole

Super Bowl Wednesday southpole

Night Owls southpole

First Week southpole

More Ice Pix southpole

Settling In southpole

NPX southpole

Pole Bound southpole

Bad Dirt southpole

The Last Laugh southpole

First Delay southpole

Nope southpole

Batteries and Sheep southpole

All for McNaught southpole

t=0 southpole

The Big (Really really big...) Picture southpole

Giacometti southpole

Descent southpole

Video Tour southpole

How to subscribe to blog updates southpole

What The Blog is For southpole

Auckland southpole

Halfway Around the World; Dragging the Soul Behind southpole

Launched southpole

Getting Ready (t minus 2 days) southpole

Home

Subscribe: RSS feed ... all topics ... or Clojure only / Lisp only