as my friend david says:
'condition 3 is peachy, condition 2 is sketchy, condition 1 is downright
unacceptable.'
right now it is condition 2. in condition 2 you can't see the mountains and
you're not allowed to go anywhere you don't have to. in condition 1 you cant
see your hand in front of your face. it's at least -20f out now. yesterday it
was +20f. the day before it was 7. i am at the internet kiosk at hotel
california (the dorm next to mine: mammoth mountain inn, aka MMI, aka 'the
ghetto' - we're in the suburbs.) and the movie 'american pie' just finished and
now it's silent adverts of what's coming up this week in mcmurdo, just like
community programming. nov.7 is tap dancing night in the laundry room. tomorrow
night is bingo at gallagher's. catholic mass at the chapel is everyday at 9:30.
protestant mass is at 11. the hairdresser is open tomorrow and can be reached
for appointment at x2246. 'into the woods' will be our christmas play, but i
think 'santarctica' will be much more amusing.
the first flight left for Pole 2 days ago, the day we got our first batch of
mail (4000lbs) and freshies (fresh veg - 12,500lbs, ihave never rejoiced so
much over the taste of watermelon). now they are delayed. just as flights to
mcmurdo have been delayed in chrsitchurch for weeks and people are making
double their salary there while they rent cars and visit towns and botanical
gardens and listen to birds. cargo is 400,000lbs behind schedule, an LC130
plane to pole is grounded here in mactown due to a malfunction in the fuel
pump, and the air force has loaned us several other planes so we can get our
shit together. fuel alone costs $20,000 per flight and if it boomerangs it
costs just that much more and nothing gets done.
i wonder every day why all this happens.
oh yeah. science.
it;s amazing how much money is being sunk into this. and how little is actually
going to the science part of it. 90% is for support, flights, food, etc.
last week on my day off i went to the main science building (crary lab) and
hung out with an anthropologist who took me around and gave me a private tour
of the facility. i saw videos of live eruptions of mt erebus, and antarctic
fish that were growing weird things on their heads, and a giant frickin laser
beam that is supposedly really bright in the middle of winter.
there are no more sunsets. i saw the last one the other day when i climbed ob
hill. it wasn't really a sunset.the sun was just making it's rounds around the
horizon, and the trans antarctic mountain range happened to be in the way,
which made pretty colors in the sky for about 40 minutes.
mcmurdo is like a college campus. it is about the size of a college campus. but
htere are many men with beards. everyone lives in a dorm and has a roomate or
roomates. everyone eats in the same place at the same time. when you drink,
everyone knows you are drinking, so it's best not to make an ass of yourself.
or, if you do make an ass of yourself, make sure you are at least cocky about
it. this guy john got naked a couple weeks ago at scott base and now he's known
as 'naked john'. he's got a reputation that he plans to live up to. i've seen
him naked at least 5 times in 3 weeks. we are all taking bets to see how long
it will be before he's kicked off the island. in the meantime, we are enjoying
his jackassery.
there are vegetarian meal options at every meal. they are good. i wouldn't
expect there would be 2 chefs here who only do the veggie meals. especially
with all the bearded men who drive heavy equipment. you wouldn't expect them to
eat tempeh cakes in a white bean sauce with roasted red pepper aioli. i think
next year i want to be a heavy equipment operator.
this is a funny website: http://www.crazyus.com/phil
my coworkers are all getting carpal tunnel, spraining their ankles, getting the
crud (common cold). i had the crud a week and a half ago and i'm still pulling
loads of weird snot out of my head. on my 3rd day of work, i was wondering how
i could score a different job here. maybe i could beg air pax services and they
would see that i was so valuable that they would decide it would be a waste for
me to remain as a dishwasher. but october 23 was the first day i went crazy.
among my other daily tasks of scrubbing industrial cooking pots and pans of
various sizes, feeding dishware into a machine, or sweeping/mopping, i was
scheduled to 'clean and sanitize the drains'. this means all of the places in
the galley and kitchen area where water and crap drains into the floor. i
realize that these things need to be cleaned. and i am not above this. food a
crap congregate in these areas and need to be removed by my green playtex-
gloved hands led by my safety-goggled eyes. but sanitized? they go a little
overboard with the sanitizing here, and i decided that this was going to be
funny, so everytime someone tells me 'sanitize' something, i laugh and go do
it. sanitizing forks and spoons and bowls, and plates, and pots and pans and
other utensils i can understand. several different people put those things in
their mouth during a single meal service. however, the drains in the floor, do
not need to be sanitized. neither does the floor behind the garbage cans, which
is the area i was told to sanitize today. sanitize is a funny word to me. it's
synonymous with paranoia. and it sounds like 'satanize'. so i call it
that. 'larysa, did you satanize that rack of glasses yet?' 'amy, is it
necessary for me to satanize the mop bucket?'
in an attempt to be professional and take my dishwashing job seriously, i find
myself asking questions that are really dumb. like 'is havarti cheese sharper
than cheddar?' or 'do these milk nipples get ties in a knot or do we cut the
ends?' 'do we have to wear safety goggles when we pour tabasco sauce, or will
my glasses suffice?'
safety is king here. everything is about safety. there are several meetings
every week on safe lifting practices, which has now become the bane of all of
our jokes. 'way to practice safe lifting with that juice container, riana!' and
safety is not just reinforced in the galley. nay, attendance to these meetings
are required by every member of the community. before i was allowed to venture
off base, i had to watch a 1/2 hour video on outdoor safety, yet it failed to
address what to do in the case of an emergency. all i rememeber is that black
flags mean certain death, and yellow flags mean 'you can urinate here.' red and
green flags mean something important, but i fell asleep before i found out. i
hope i don't fall into a crevasse during my copious amounts of time off where i
will spend days on end hiking and discovering this beautiful continent i have
surrendered myself to till february or march. (just kidding about the 'time
off' bit. i work 10 hours a day. 6 days a week, with no possibility for change.
good thing i love my job.)
by the way, i make milk. milk here is made from what i call 'the powdered cow'.
then i churn it with a giant dildo named THOR. the same process is used to make juice.
the day i went crazy was the day i decided that i am going to love my job. so i
started 'dishroom olympics'. there is this sink in the dish checkout line,
where people file through at the end of their meal to bequeath us with their
dirties. there are 3 positions here. dish1, dish2, and dish3. it is the
responsibility of dish1 and dish 3 to spray and feed dishes through BERTHA, a
giant dish machine i will send you pictures of later. dish 2 collects them as
they are spit out the other end, cleaned and SANITIZED, and to put them in the
place where they belong for the next person to consume their edibles on. so
dish1 and dish3 have these giant spray hoses to rid the plates of the major
debris. the debris collects in the sink and looks like art at burning man.
ysterday i challenged heather to a game of lima bean soccer and we tried to
spray a lima bean into each other's garbage disposal. then i sprayed a soggy
piece of ham off a plate and saved it for hte next free minute we could volley
the sad piece of food back and forth again. then a firefighter passed me a
plate in the line that had been smeared with jelly into a heart shape and
covered in sprinkles. bless him.
david walked across the kitchen singing 'yay! we got a new mop! this is what my
existence has been reduced to!'
yup.
tomorrow is my day off. i think i'll ask if i can drive a bulldozer and help
move some snow off the ice runway. the weather is getting worse now, and there
are 2 flights scheduled to leave for Pole tomorrow. it will take half the day
to clear the runway if the condition doesn't stay crappy all night. 7000
gallons of fuel was spilled near the runway the other day. i heard they dug a
moat around it and stared at it for a while wondering what to do next.
it's weird to say that it's 'night', when it's so bright out. we all have to
sleep with heavy black shades velcroed over our windows.
i don't miss birds. we'll probably get skuas soon. penguins are not here. meybe
they'll come around when the sea ice shelf breaks up. i would like to see a
penguin.
pass this on to whoever, since i can't figure out how to make a mailing list.
i'll get it together soon. i have a meeting with the IT gal tomorrow who will
finally help with me getting pix online. you know how it is, government
program, blah blah, security this and that, blah blah, i'm a fricking idiot,
blah blah, i wash dishes and freeze my ass off, blah blah.
btw, i am sandwichgirl1 on yahoo messenger (i am 4 hours behind and a day ahead
of pacific time, and 7 hours behind +1 day ahead of EST) and internet is slow,
so messenger attempts may be futile.
hey bro - i got the card from brianna but no pics. and i recieved blue's
postcard! thank you! mail is like christmas! send me things!
good night.
sandwich
Sandwichgirl.com