Halloween and Fire Department Life

Last night was the annual Halloween party, considered the biggest party of the year and man what a blast it was. I started working on my costume around 1600 yesterday. 4 hours later, 2 rolls of duct tape, a roll of foil tape, and a shit load of cardboard, I had a pretty bad ass robot costume which rivaled some other costumes at the party. I have to admit there were some amazing costumes last night...some of which some people put a lot of time into. Underneath my costume I wore just a pair of boxers and gym shorts along with my tennis shoes. On the few places of exposed skin I had I wrapped foil tape to authenticate my costume. With the gym being a 1/4 mile walk, it was quite cold walking around dressed like that in 10-15 degree weather and 15 knot winds. I'm not sure when the party ended but I left around 0030 dreading the walk back to my dorm. I figured everyone would be still at the party or mid-rats (midnight rations in the galley) but to my surprise and dismay, there where hordes of drunks roaming our halls. Instead of trying to go to sleep I decided to get out of my costume and head down to mid-rats to hang out with a few firefighters from my shift. A pretty great end to a fun night.

Today is just a typical Sunday: very little to do and asides from emergency calls, there isn't a whole lot expected from us. I've spent most of my time today looking for a particular pair of mountaineering boots on ebay and sending out emails to people. I've been thinking about applying to the Lieutenant's position that just opened up in our department. I've been apprehensive about doing so because I still really don't know a whole lot about day to day operations down here but then again, our chief, one our captains, and several of our lieutenants are first-years as well so I guess it can't be that bad. I know I'm qualified as far as certifications go but I don't know if my attitude or experience is adequate for what they are looking for in a candidate. I don't know. Several people are pushing for me to apply so I guess some people are supporting me. We'll see

The Good Life In Antarctica

I'm really starting to get excited for SAR tryouts. I've been studying the USAP field manual, I've been practicing, and I've been hyping up everyone else that has applied. I'm looking to talk to the head guy of the team, Kevin Emery and see what I can pick from his brain. Another firefighter here has got me thinking of climbing Mt. Cook in New Zealand which again, I'm pretty stoked from just thinking about it. Life here is pretty good. When your inside it doesn't feel any different than a college dorm or a military base with a little bit more freedom. Walking outside is when you get reminded that you're not in the states. All around us on the horizons snow-capped mountains soar into the sky. The Ross Sea disappears in the southern part of the horizon. Our last sunset was on the 22^nd so now we experience 24 hours of sunlight which create some of the most beautiful sunsets that last for hours. One loses track of time very easily when you look out a window at 12 AM and the sun's hovering over the world like it was 8 PM back home in the summer. The air is always crisp. USAP does a decent job of operating "green" down here so you don't smell a lot of pollution down here. I really love it down here and I'm already planning on coming back next year as well as for years to come.

Fun Days in Antarctica

My days off this week have been spent with my neighbors and firehouse coworkers Dave and Joe and boy have those days been lazy. We're still pretty relentless with my new neighbor but for the most part, he's having fun. At the firehouse, everything is starting to fall into place. Fore the most part, with the exception of a couple other people, our staffing is almost at full-capacity. I'm a released engineer in the company and most of my time (with the exception of yesterday being on the ambulance for some reason) is spent driving and I love it. We're still getting new people in a few times a week so just when you think you've gotten use to the faces around base, a couple hundred more people show up. It's actually not a bad thing. More opportunities to meet new people. One of the opportunities that I had been thinking about since I left our fire department training in Salt Lake City has arisen. The JASAR Team (Joint Antarctic Search and Rescue Team) posted applications for "try-outs" to get onto the team. I have no idea what the try-outs entail but I was told that it was a lot of practicing mountaineering skills, rope rescue, and crevasse rescue which I'm absolutely stoked about. I finished my application today and to my surprise I was the first person to hand in an application. Hopefully not many people do and I get a chance of landing a coveted spot on a small team. I've been looking for NASAR (National Association of Search and Rescue) classes for the past 7 months but I could never find one that agreed with my schedule. So far, I've been making a list of classes, both SAR and non-SAR related, I want to take and that list is growing quite large. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my time after the ice. I've been thinking about a Pacific island after a week or so in New Zealand but I can't make up my mind. Hopefully I can do something climbing related. I guess I still have time...

Last day off...

Something about days like today is very soothing: productive without really doing something extraordinary. Laundry, cleaning the room, studying, sudoku, peace. I met someone yesterday who had just arrived in town who is looking to start a Spanish club here on base to help people learn Spanish. We made an agreement where he'd help me learn Spanish if I help him (as well as help myself) learn Russian. An equal trade if not better for me since I'd be picking up all of the Russian that I had forgotten since I volunteered at Cabin John. The base is starting to get flooded with packages so I'm getting pretty excited waiting for all of the stuff I sent down before I arrived. Until next time...

After talking to my friend Dana, life has been pretty well for me here. The days are brighter, my moods chippier. I've been able to have a lot more fun versus just trying to take my mind off of things. I spent my Kelly day hanging around my dorm and a few other peoples, working out, and attending a mandatory outdoor safety lecture so that I may eventually venture out onto the trails here on Ross Island. It's amazing how fast time flies because I didn't realize that I had been here for 11 days until today. Lonnie and I got our 3^rd roommate today and he actually turned out to be pretty cool. When he first showed up, we fucked with that pore kid relentlessly. Everyone that was in on his hazing acted like they were the biggest racists on the base…including me. On top of being racists, Lonnie pretended to be a huge drunk and I pretended to be a registered sex-offender. I even went as far as writing a note to our new roommate stating that Raytheon and the Commonwealth of Virginia State Police required me to notify him that I was a registered sex offender. I even found a sex-offender registry form on Virginia State Police's website and posted on our door for when he got back. At first, he was scared shitless. When he realized that we were messing with him, he took it rather well. Since then, he's been one of the group. A lot of today was spent just hanging around with friends from the firehouse and as well as a few others such as Christine, Dana, Aaron, and a few others that escape my mind right now. It's amazing how fast one can make friends down here. I found out that some people actually opted out of living in Building 155 because of the college dorm-like atmosphere. So far that's been the best part of being down here. Ever since I cut my trip to Morocco out of the picture, I've been trying to find something to do for a couple of weeks after I get off the ice. It'd be a shame to go straight home after spending 5 months in Antarctica but there's so much to do I've been at a loss for trying to figure out what the hell I want to do. I guess I have plenty of time to figure that out…

A New Day In Life

A brand new day in life always feels good. A lot of the bad feelings I had been experiencing the past week or so is for the most part gone. I don't know how or why. I'm weird like that. I still feel that perpetual feeling of loneliness which really hasn't changed since my dad died but for the most part I feel really great today. I have three days off which will be nice but I gotta figure out how to spend it. Maybe doing nothing, maybe hanging out with Meagan or anyone else with a Tuesday Kelly day (for now she's the only one I know that has a Tuesday Kelly day). Hopefully my boots and my climbing shoes are in this week which will get me out and away from the base for a bit. I was told today that we're looking to put the old Nodwell tracked vehicles in service which got me pretty excited. Hopefully I'll at least get a chance to drive it a few times even if they don't go in service this year. Until then…

Alone

Well, it's Midnight and the wind hasn't let up yet. I slightly overestimated the weather down here on the ice shelf. The wind is blowing around 45 mph sustained and the temp is down to -25. Station 2 doesn't have a bathroom in it. The bathrooms we use are in another trailer about 45 meters away from the station (I've decided to try to get in the habit of using the metric system…one step closer to easier travelling) which makes having to pee pretty interesting. In this type of wind and cold, it makes it near impossible to open your eyes when you're facing the wind. By the time I make it to the bathroom and back, I'm completely dusted in wind-drifted snow. We were supposed to get another plane in tonight but they have decided to stay at the South Pole station until tomorrow.

I called my mother a few minutes ago and I'm beginning to feel bad for doing so considering I don't have a calling card yet and I have to call collect every time. With everything I'm going through now it's really great to hear her voice. I'm still having a pretty hard time dealing with the death of my uncle. The sad thing is is that it really hasn't hit me yet that he's gone. I went through the same thing with my dad. I'm still going through the same thing with my dad. There were times at home when I'd hear my mother open the front door after getting home and I'd think it was my dad coming home from working with my uncle. My mother told me that the funeral is tomorrow (Monday) which really is tearing me apart considering that I wasn't there for those last moments with him, I wasn't there to be with my family as they grieved, and I won't be there when he's buried. Right now, all the other problems in my life are pretty petty compared the pain I'm feeling over my uncle and even after hanging out with my neighbors and her and our friends last night, even after the days and nights before with my friends, I feel pretty alone….a feeling I haven't felt since my dad died.

Drunk One Night Working the Next

I woke up this morning very confused. I knew that I had been drinking the night before but I had no idea how I ended up in the bottom bunk of the other set of bunk beds far on the opposite side of the room from my normal bed. Anyways, I got my uniform on, brushed my teeth, cleaned the room up a bit, made myself a cup of tea, and headed over to the station to start my shift. The night before, the firehouse had tried to page some of us while we were at the bar to tell us that we needed to be at the firehouse 30 minutes early to head over to station 2. Great. So all day today, we get to hang around in a little trailer until that inevitable disaster doesn't happen. So far it hasn't been too bad. I've gotten in the habit of checking the weather conditions before I leave the dorm. The problem with the weather information down here is no one really knows how to get a hold of information from all of the automated weather sites. All our information comes from one of two sources which are either 1) the daily forecast which portrays the forecast for the base and not the runway (I didn't think this either when I first got to the base but the difference in the weather between McMurdo and the ice runway which right now sits only ½ a mile away from each other can be quite great) and 2) the weather condition model which tells you which parts of the area are in conditions 1, 2, or 3. Now the weather condition model will tell you what weather condition the runway is at which means shit until you either get hard information or experience the weather down there yourself. It's funny that despite being in condition 3 (the best you can get) the wind has been blowing at a constant 20 to 30 mph and the temperature is well below -10 compared to the 10 degrees everyone's experiencing in town. Earlier I got blown 15 feet across the ice while I was still on my feet. I almost broke the hood on one of the F-550 ARFF rigs when the wind caught it.

Life down here is pretty good. My neighbor across the hall is trying to hook me up with one of her co-workers which is pretty flattering but sorta unwanted right now. Since February I figured I wasn't looking for any time of relationship with anyone because of the complexity of myself and my life. On top of this spell of depression I've been going through, I don't think it would be fair to anyone to date me. I don't know. I met the girl last night and she seemed pretty cool. I hope that she hasn't fallen for me or anything and I hope my neighbor hasn't been talking me up. I somehow managed to meet half the town last night. I think I counted close to 15 people that said hi to me within a 10 minute period outside of the galley before I went into work. The sad thing is I really don't remember a whole lot of names. I mean, I'm pretty bad with names to begin with but being drunk last night didn't help any, either. Oh well. I guess I better get back to "work".

Skua

As I stated in one of my previous posts, Skua is the name for a scavenger bird found here in the outer parts of Antarctica. They're known to be pretty fierce and feisty. They'll attack you as you're walking from the galley with a sandwich in your hand. Skua is also used as a term to describe the recycling of things that people don't want any more…sorta like a McMurdo thrift system. Today, after getting off duty, Chris Cavanaugh and I decided to do a little dumpster diving in the skua recycling bin (or "skua diving" as I dubbed it) for our building to see what we could score. Despite only finding a Sudoku puzzle book, a t-shirt, and a bunch of Mardi Gras beads, we did not consider ourselves empty handed. Never the less, we decided to head over to the Skua Central building where everything out of the skua dumpsters for all of the dorms ends up. Christ walked away with a bunch of things I can't remember. I walked away with a few shirts, a newer telephone for my room, and some Q-tips. Needless to say we'll be doing a lot more skua diving in the days to come.

I'm still feeling pretty depressed about my uncle dying. I think for once, ever since high school, I'm starting to grieve like normal people normally do. Considering I forgot what that feels like, it's pretty hard for me to deal with it. My friends here are definitely taking my mind off of what I'm feeling and for that I'm pretty thankful. I've been trying to avoid large groups of people but the few friends that come by on a regular basis really. I don't know what I'm going to do tonight. A lot of people want me to go to Gallagher's tonight to see a bunch of "local" bands play but I don't think I'm ready to deal with a large mass of people yet. I'm pretty funny that way….

What a crazy ass day. For some reason, I love it when things don't go as planned and you have to come up with solutions to problems on the fly. I guess that's partly the reason why I love the firehouse so much. Shortly after I finished my written test for pump operators within the Antarctic Fire Department, I was assigned as the driver for Engine 2. After that, when our dispatcher had to go to lunch, the driver for Engine 1 had to come off the pumper and act as the dispatcher which meant I ended up driving Engine 1 while my friend Thomas drove Engine 2. After Lunch, I sat in on a Wilderness First Responder protocol class which turned out to be pretty interesting as how Raytheon and USAP combine their own SOP's in with Wilderness Medical Institute's protocols. The lecture also got me interested in McMurdo's SAR Team as I had stated in my last post. Anyways, I was back to driving Engine 2 only to get a call a couple hours later. My first call driving! I may seem like a dork to those of you in the department (or anyone reading this for that matter) but it was pretty significant to me. Albeit a bullshit fire alarm (Which in which I've been versed quite well after 5 years in Ashburn), I still was pretty excited driving. Haha, I could tell Tom wasn't as enthused as I was. When we got back we slacked around until dinner time.

Another Day In Life

I sat around my room most of yesterday instead of going out after word of my uncle dying. My friends helped me a lot as far as keeping me from going insane with depression but I managed to stay pretty low-key for the remainder of the night. Today is going really well but I'm still feeling pretty shitty. Such is life dealing with death. Today started with dealing with our tracked ARFF rigs. Both of the ones with the better tracked systems were in the firehouse today getting work on them. To my surprise, I spent most of the morning getting checked off to drive the engines and the tanker. Because of lack of staffing, I was assigned as the operator of one of our engines before I was able to complete our written DPO test and go out and do some pumping evolutions. My Lt and Capt both agree that since I have prior experience dealing with engines…particularly Pierces than it shouldn't be a big deal for me to get rushed through the process to help with staffing. Today I actually got to drive Engine 1 for the first time as well….albeit 200 yards to back it into the bays. Something about driving fire apparatus gets me really excited. As we speak, I'm working on some pre-planning while sitting through a Wilderness First Responder Protocol refresher which is making me interesting in volunteering for the SAR team down here. I think it would be a lot of fun and a great experience considering it combines 3 things I absolutely love: Technical Rescue, Mountaineering, and EMS. As I've been thinking about various things to take my mind off of the pain of the death of my uncle, I had been thinking of various things to do with my life over the next couple of years. One of them has been Search and Rescue (SAR). I had actually tried to join Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group in Vienna, VA but it wasn't even three weeks after I started showing up to meetings when my dad died. Now, that I'm down here, I can start partaking in such activities which will also take my mind off problems back home. I don't know about this year but I'd definitely love to do a winter-over down here.

Rest in Peace Uncle James

Bad news sucks….especially when the shit happens 13,000 miles away. Today I got word that my uncle died on Monday. To be honest, I feel pretty terrible right now…more so than when my dad died. At least when my dad died, I got a chance to speak to him one last time 8 hours before he died. Down here I had been procrastinating calling home all week. I kept telling myself I wasn't going to call collect, I was going to buy a calling card and call my mom and call my aunt and uncle, I was going do this, that, etc. But now I missed my chance and what's worse is that I missed it by almost an entire fucking week. I was going to go out tonight to the New Zealand base but between the weather and this horrible gut-wrenching feeling, I'm just going to get trashed in my room and sleep till duty tomorrow. Rest in Peace Uncle James, I'll definitely miss you. Everyone else, have a good night…

Somewhat Exciting Day

Boy I love productive days. Yesterday benig my day off was spent trying to keep myself from sleeping for 8 hours during the day because of a Halo-a-thon the night before at the firehouse. I cleaned up our room, took a shower, read a little, worked out, did laundry, and a whole bunch of other things to take my mind off my fatigue and the problems back home that have been plaguing me the past couple of weeks. I managed to find a company that would ship packages via APO (Thank you amazon.com) which means in a couple weeks I'll have a brand new digital camera...one I'll take better care of. It definitely couldn't make it any sooner because it really sucks not being able to share what I've experienced down here with everyone back home...

Today has been a lot fun. After shift change, a few of us drove to Station 2 on the runway to relieve the crew that had spent the night out there. Apparently, the Air Force requires that a fire department with ARFF capabilities be present on any airfield where a military aircrft will be parked. So that is why Station 2 gets staffed 24 hours a day. Anyways, upon our arrival, we began to shovel out the stairs, check the apparatus, and go over some basic runway operations training. I was very excited because it was the first time I had been assigned to drive anything since I've been down here. My assignment for the morning was Red 6, one of our F-550s that uses MattTraks instead of wheels to move around. On top of that, I was by myself in the rig which was even more exciting. The funny thing was that I knew damn well we weren't going to get a call or anything of the sort. Our job for the day was to be present when a New Zealand C-130 took off for Christchurch and a US Air Force C-17 landed with fresh souls for McMurdo. When one of the engines on the 130 broke down as they were taking off with the 17 20 minutes away, our enitre plan for the day changed because of the fact that the 130 would be staying on the ice for a few more days...which meant that a crew had to stay at station 2 that night. Luckily, that wasn't me. 3 people stayed at station 2 while myself and two others headed back to town. Again, I found myself driving which I take great joy in doing...even if it's just an ambulance. The rest of the day when we got back was spent working on preplans, area familiarization training, ems training, and relieving the crew at station 2 for dinner. Who knows what else the following days will hold...

Things to Get Use To

Things I'm still getting use to:

Static: Fuck me, there is a lot of static in this place. Not just a lot....I mean a lot of static. I have been shocked on places of my body that I didn't think could be shocked. I even shocked, ahem, "myself" on my zipper because I moved wrong while I was walking. Yesterday morning when I was getting up for work, I was walking blindly in the dark to the light switch and a bolt of electricity reached out about 8 or 10 inches from my hand to the door handle. I shock myself every time I touch my bed, my computer, a door handle, etc. I shock myself when I touch electrical outlets. Getting into bed creates a light show in the dark that rivals the southern lights. My legs are constantly in pain from the electric charge in the hairs of my leg...

Perpetual Light: It's light 24 hours of the day. The sun may set at 2000 and rise at 0500 but it doesn't go far below the horizon. Several of us at the firehouse stayed up till 1 playing Halo 3 and when we walked pass the window, it looked like it was still 2000.

Cold: Now, before you label me an idiot for complaining about the inevitable cold in Antarctica, I'm talking about anything below -30. The temperature has never risen above -20 (I'm including wind chill) since I've been here. So far, for the most part, I've gotten use to it. Yesterday the winds picked up to about 35 knots which dropped the temperature to about -60. Now that, my friends, is fucking cold.

Static: Did I mention static?

Small Community: It's a very small community down here. Everyone knows everyone and if they don't know you, they've seen you around. My face, being one of 5 or 6 black ones, is a pretty distinguishing face which allows people to remember me very easily. I recognize faces, but trying to remember 200 names really is hard in the course of a week.




Yesterday was an eventful day. We ran two calls (trust me, in Antarctica, that's a lot) and did a lot of training. It's nice to be able to unwind after 1700. With the exception of the one medical call we had, we pretty much slacked around till we went to sleep. Today, my day off, is a day to catch up with laundry, take a shower, work out, play some volleyball, and meet a few people at the bar. I hope you all have a great day as well.

A Crazy Yet Seemingly Typical Day

One of my first close-to-normal days here. I woke up this morning around 8 only to come down to the training room of the firehouse and work on some pre-planning whilst most of the crew slept. The Antarctic Fire Department decided to try something new in regards to the 24 on/24 off schedule that they had been using for years. The schedule remains virtually unchanged with the exception of the Saturday and Sunday shifts. Who ever is working Saturday begins their shift at 0800 and goes off shift at 1200 the next day versus 0800 to 0800 on a normal 24 hour day. The crew coming on after them starts their shift at 1200 and works till 0800 Monday which is pretty nice because that crew can do whatever they want Saturday night and instead of waking up at 7 Sunday morning to get to work, they can sleep in until 1100. Anyways, breakfast (or brunch since it was 1000 when we went to eat) was amazing. It still ceases to amaze me how good the food is here. As I just stated, shift change occurred at 1200 marking the end to my first shift with the department. If I hadn't said it before, our room was a disaster when we first moved in (we being Lonnie, another firefighter on A-Shift, and I). I began rearranging our room the second I got back.

Now, the term dorm could not better explain the living accommodations in which we reside. In our room, there was a bar someone built, a lot of old alcohol, lots of "tasteless" posters, and an entire dresser drawer full of porn. The first thing I did was I gave away the alcohol to my neighbors only to find it in the recycling bin 20 minutes later. Down here we have a recycling program called "Skua" named after the large scavenger bird that comes in the summer and wreaks havoc on us all. Skua is a building here on base where people can pick up or donate things they want or don't use for free. Say I have a pair of pants I don't want. I'll drop it in the bins marked "Skua" in our dorms and they'll be taking over to the Skua building. Say I'm looking for a pair of pants, I can just walk over to Skua and pick up whatever's available in my size. An awesome system developed down here. Anyways, I donated a whole bunch of crap from our room to Skua. Then came the debacle with the bar. Now, I carted the barout of my room into the hall way and left a note on it free for the taken (a fire hazard, I know). Apparently that bar had been in that room for a while because I had a lot of people stop by inquiring why I was getting rid of something that had been there for so long. Someone stopped by later on to tell me if "Moose was getting rid of the bar or not." Not knowing who "Moose" was I just played dumb. Apparently, one of my next door neighbors (named Moose of course) owned the bar and had left it in my room from a previous season. He had no objection to it being left in the hallway which was good because it wasn't going back in the room after all the work I had put into it by then. About an hour after that, I heard some young kid yell out, "Sweet!!!" which was eventually drowned out by the sounds of squeaky polyurethane wheels as he skirted away like a squirrel with a new-found nut. Problem dealt with. After getting the room set up, I decided to hang out with my neighbors some of which were firefighters with me. I met one of my other neighbors who had a pretty extensive porn collection and definitely did not mind having any more. Needless to say that problem was taken care of as well. My addition to his pornucopia helped me out tremendously as I had an entire drawer cleaned out and ready for use. The rest of the day was spent eating dinner, playing a game of foosball, watching a few movies, going to the weight room and cardio room, and sitting here in the computer lab.

Living down here is a play on the senses in itself. The temperature today never got above -15 yet when you walk from building to building, as long as you have at least your jacket on, you can easily bear the cold. It's amazing to me how your body works like that. Every once in a while, however, I'll get a blast of wind down my throat so cold that it sucks the breath right out of your lungs. Haha, its actually a pretty cool feeling. The world here is not as white as everyone thinks. McMurdo actually sits on volcanic rock on Ross Island in the Ross Sea. Now, the sea itself is frozen and serves as the runway for most of the year. The only true white we see is looking out across the sea as we stand on the ice shelf. The mountains and the land have a brownish, speckled hue to it. Still, its beautiful none the less. The sun sets at 8 and rises somewhere between 3 and 4 still it doesn't set to far below the horizon for it's light 24/7. I really can't wait for our first condition 1 weather day. Oh well. Tomorrow, training and work. Take care.

Another 48 hours

We woke up 0430 Friday morning only to leave for the Antarctic Center at 0500. After checking our luggage, more briefings, and breakfast, we boarded our C-17 and began our flight to Antarctica. While in line for our boarding passes we were given ear plugs for the flight. I came to find out that while in flight, they were definitely needed. The flight was one of the smoothest flights I had ever experienced. The only thing that really sucked was that the only windows in the cargo belly of the plane where on the troop doors however it did force us to get up and stretch our legs if we wanted to get a look outside. We really started getting excited when we started seeing ice flows, icebergs, and finally the continent. I can honestly say without having any windows to look out from the longest part of the flight was the time after we were told we were descending. Even when I was sitting in the middle rows of the 747 we took from L.A. to Auckland I could still see land and city lights out of the closest windows. In a 17, there was no looking out of a window to guage when we'd hit the ground. All of a sudden ...we were on the ground. I was expecting cold. I was expecting bone ringing cold. It was actually quite comfortable in our cold weather gear. The one thing I'm still getting use to is breathing sub-zero air. As customary by now, we were driven into town for another briefing. We got our room assignemtns, learned a little more about living on base before we went to meet our supervisors. For us (the firefighters), we met our chief and walked 400 feet to the firehouse where we went on a tour of the firehouse. I didn't spend much time elsewhere on the base last night. We got dinner, went to the bar for a bit and then I headed back to my room. I was so tired after waking up at 0430 after 4 hours of sleep, I went straight to sleep before only unpacking my uniform.

Today, I was up at about 0630. After a shower and breakfast, I went to the firehouse early before the beginning of my shift at 0800. At the beginning of the shift, I received my turnout gear and began to go over the apparatus at the station. We had a flight to stand-by for at 12. I had always wanted to know how things were run at station 2 so today was my first lesson in ice-runway operations. We hopped into Ambulance 2 which was parked outside of the hospital (which is next door to the firehouse) and drove 10 minutes out to Station 2, a small double-wide on the runway. Every building out there was a small building on skis. The air traffic control tower, the firehouse, the support buildings...everything. It didn't dawn on me how different the weather was going to be on the runway considering that the runway is over an ocean. I think the weather in town was -15. Out on the runway the temp was around -20 or -30. Today, to me, was the moment of truth for I had wondered how my turnout gear would fair in sub zero weather. To my surprise the only part of me that was remotely cold were the small parts of my face that were exposed for a long period of time. Even the part of me underneath my nomex hood was moderately comfortable. It's amazing how beautiful it is out on the ice, staring out across the Ross Sea. The land is flat enought where you can see across McMurdo Sound 70 miles to the other side. We spent the first hour doing apparatus checks. I definitely have a lot to learn about the vehicles on the runway and I can't wait. I got word that this Monday I've been signed up for some type of airfield driving and operations class which I'm pretty excited about. After our checkouts we came inside to hang out until the C-17 touched down. Now, on top of Station 2, there is a thick plastic bubble that gives you a 360 degree view of the world around the Runway and the station from an elevated position. We spent a lot of time up there and got an excelllent show of the 17 landing. It definitely looks a lot more dramatic from the outside. We came back shortly after the 17 took off around 1600.

So far this job has been great. I'm having a lot of personal issues at home that have been leaving me severely depressed but being at work and being around my coworkers has been helping. Now, I can't wait for the next day or days to come...