Great Scott!

The last couple of days have been okay. Work on Thursday was really busy again and so cold riding backwards in the open cab of the tanker. My hands, face and feet get so icy that they never really unfreeze the whole shift. Our plane landing was really lengthy as they had two small structures to remove after the eight pallets of cargo. It took forever to get the structures off the plane. It was kind of entertaining though watching them try over and over to make a building that was way too big to remove fit out the way they were trying. After many tries they had it free and after five and a half hours we were finally back at the firehouse at 10:30pm.

This morning (Friday) I ran home, changed into my ECW and went out to dive tend again. Today we went out to Cape Evans and surrounding area. It was about an hour and a half ride in the little "PistonBully" and more bumpy than the back of a school bus. Once we arrived at Cape Evans we checked out Scott's Hut and area and oogled the first seal that we've seen. We were able to get pretty close (about 30ft) to him as he just layed around on the ice. He didn't seemed phased at all by our presence. Emily and I both managed to fall knee deep through the snow out on the sea ice and land flat on our bellies. Quite graceful, but not too unusual. When the sea ice gets old and crappy, it gets the Antarctic version of potholes where the salt is leached out of the ice and leaves pockets of fresh water. I have to say it was a bit scary as it was a huge wide and long strip of snow on the ice and I wasn't sure how far down I'd go!
Before departing to the dive site we had to stop for a quick pee on the sea ice. Crude perhaps, but really the only place to go in the middle of nowhere.
--Side note-- The cold does a funny thing to your body. Pretty much anytime I go outside I feel like I have to go to the bathroom. They say that the cold tightens up your kidneys and causes this reaction in a mild state of hypothermia. I'm sure I'm living constantly in this state!
Here are a few of the pictures that the divers took down below. This was a spot where the land mass, a cliff wall falling into the sea, meets the glacier. Gorgeous pictures of the sea life and a seal. Diver Rob said the seal was swimming past the hole but he never popped up for us. Apparently, if you didn't enter and exit to an icy white environment you'd think you were in a tropical diving locale. They all agree it's the best spot that any of them have ever dived.

Once home again, welcomed some new firefighter friends, had dinner, had a good much needed stress-relieving workout, did laundry and then watched a movie in bed. It was a rough day, but I made it through mostly unscathed.