short timer

The American Tern left today.  I had to get up at 6:30am on my last day off to fulfill my duties as a line handler.  Remember how I said it’s feeling colder to me, well this morning was a great example of that.  Apparently a lot of other line handler’s felt the same way and stayed in the comfort and protection of their beds.  We could have really used the help today too, those lines are HEAVY!  I guess in the past there has always been ice on the water underneath the line but this year there wasn’t, so when the boat let out slack, it went straight into the water instead of onto the ice, and the lines went down deep.  We pulled and pulled and couldn’t get it with the 5 of us pulling.  We had to use one of those awesome red monster trucks to help get the line back on the ice pier and disconnected from the boat.  Kind of a fiasco.  I overheard someone on the the boat say “those guys are idiots,” so that felt good.  Eventually we got all the lines undone and the Oden towed the Tern out to the turning basin and away they went.  The Oden returned and we were paged to report to the pier at lunch time but I missed the page (conveniently).  Oh well, it has docked without our help at all in the past, so I don’t think I was missed.

It was overcast and cold this morning but very sunny and windy this afternoon.  I decided I would scale Ob Hill one last time and I’m glad I did.  It was gorgeous up there.  It was nice to see the amazing view again and know that I’ve done it, I’ve done this Antarctica thing that most people will never get to do.  It felt really good (aside from the wind whipping at me).  I tried to take the time to reflect on everything I’ve seen and done and learned.  What a great place for that.  Maybe I’ll try to outline some of that stuff at some point, but it would probably be boring.

Speaking of my time here and looking back on it, I was reminded of the weather in DC/VA that I’m missing.  What an oddity that while I have been in Antarctica, Northern VA has gotten more snow than in recent history.  What is going on there?  I would have loved to been there (because I love snow…and also to drive my truck in it) but I missed it because I was in ANTARCTICA…that just doesn’t sound right.  I am pretty sure that during the time I’ve been gone, more snow has accumulated in VA than it has here, what are the odds?  I guess it is evidence of global warming.  I don’t know if anyone thought that this experience might break me of my preference for cold weather over hot, but it hasn’t.  I’d still rather be cold than hot any day.