Last Days in Antarctica and Spring/Summer

I have 10 days left in Antarctica. This place has been a mad house the past few days. The ice breaker plowed the way for the fuel tanker to come in and off load up to 10 million gallons of gasoline, diesel, and JP8 fuel. The tanker left and shortly thereafter the cargo vessel showed up with a couple hundred containers to off load. Because the container off load is such a logistical ordeal, the US Navy and New Zealand Army has sent down battalions of people to have. With the coming of the NavCHAPS (Navy Cargo Handling something or other) comes fears that have been confirmed time and time again over the past years. The NavCHAPS are notorious for causing drunken brawls and desperate acts of thievery including dropping in from the ceilings. With that being said, our little town is in a furry to lock doors that have been unlocked since the beginning of the season, change schedules for anything that had a schedule, and meetings, meetings, meetings to prepare the town for an onslaught from about 400 military people. Apparently, it's been so bad in the past that the bars and the store stop selling alcohol until the ship offload is done and the navy and kiwi army heads home. With 24 hour cargo offload/onload operations going, we're in day 4 and all of the containers are already off. Hopefully in a couple of days, ship on load will be done and life can go back to normal at least for a few days before we all head home.

We're all counting down the days till we leave. A lot of people are leaving right now. The fire department is leaving on the 19th, 21st, and 23rd with yours truly leaving on the 19th. The weather is turning to shit fast. Today it's 7 degrees with a wind chill in the -20s. Williams Skiway is closing on the 17th which has truly hit home to a lot of us that the season is over.

Home is looking pretty good right now. I have to sign up for COBRA benefits and unemployment once I leave here. I'll be traveling for a little lest than 2 weeks. I've received 2 scholarships for my class through the Wilderness Medical Institute....one of them being a full scholarship. Hopefully, I can use the other one to help with paying gas needed to drive across the country. Two other people here on base are planning on taking this course as well....thankfully both of them I know pretty well. One is a good friend here in the fire department, another is a mutual friend of another firefighter that lives near me. It will be cool to have a person or two I know in the class. As of right now, I one confirmed job, one "tentative" job, and one turn down. I've filled out my tax and direct deposit forms for Las Vegas BLM Helitack. I've been offered a job with the Grand Canyon National Park on the South Rim, and I've been turned down by Denali National Park. I find out about Zion National Park sometime the week I leave. All in all, things are falling into place for the summer...