December on opposite sides of the planet

First off: Happy Birthday Andreas!

I have been thrilled with the holiday whirlwind. The week after thanksgiving I complained about being bored but it’s been non-stop fun ever since. I’ve been doing my best to support the economy, I’ve spent a lot of time with old friends and even met some new ones. It doesn’t seem like I have any time left over for Mom and Dad! We did get to spend some time decorating; this is our Christmas tree this year. I haven’t been working while I am in NC, who has the time? It looks like I may have some work in January and I may even be taking some work home with me; I’m thrilled with that possibility. I’m keeping an open dialogue with Raytheon, but there is no news on that end. I am still an alternate for the Laboratory Operations Assistant Supervisor at Palmer Station for Mar-Oct.

Reinhart flew from South Pole to balmy McMurdo on December 3. He was happy to get back to McMurdo where they can comfortably spend time outside, go for hikes, and visit New Zealand’s Scott base to hang out with the Kiwis. The day after arriving back in McMurdo he took a helicopter ride out to Black Island to do some maintenance on their communications facility. They work about 10 hours a day, 6 days a week in McMurdo, they eat three yummy meals a day in the cafeteria, and they seem to be able to create a party around any excuse. All of that sunlight leaves many hours a day to do some nifty things. In his free time he has had the opportunity to drive the remote sub I saw on the Today show back in November (http://scini1.mlml.calstate.edu/) and he took at trip with some kiwis out to the new collaborative wind farm (http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=1527). He also saw the season’s first penguin show up into camp while out on a day hike.

He flew back to South Pole on Dec 20; that’s Dec 19 for us. He was thrilled to get back to the South Pole where he knows so many people, enjoys their after-hours entertainment, loves the hard work, and has a room all to himself. He’ll spend an entire month at South Pole and then plans to spend one more week at McMurdo before heading home. It appears he may make it home around Jan 30.

Reinhart has taken over 3000 pictures at this point and he has uploaded 177 of them to our picasa site (link above at right). Wait, it looks like he added several more since I started this post (a cookout at Pole!!??); he's up to 189 now!