Firehouse Expo

So, I got to be home long enough to shower and change clothes before coming back here to the firehouse. It's Firehouse Expo day!!! It's been a fun day, very busy and so very warm for the first half of the day. I think it ended up being about +36 degrees for a high and then later on ended up cooling off quite a bit with lots of wind. One of the B-shift guys from New Mexico headed up the chili making of Frito Chili Pie with chilies that he brought from home. Quite tasty with a little kicker to it as well. That, mind you, is coming from a wimpy mouthed little white girl. The Expo was of course at the firehouse and is an open house type event for the community to really get to see and feel what we do. We had several stations and activities set up for the townspeople including such things as bunker gear donning and doffing, a confined space maze, search and rescue in the upstairs with the smoke machine going, extrication with old steel drums and filing cabinets, CPR with the training prop torso, intubations, ambulance familiarization, extinguisher training, engine rides throughout town and raffles to win department t-shirts. There was quite a turnout from the community and I heard numerous times from many different people, "I had no idea how hard what you guys do is and how physical it is!" It's good to have people realize that although not much happens down here, we are all well trained and prepared to deal with all sorts of situations that could potentially arise. I ended up spending the majority of the day in Engine Two driving around town and up Ob Hill giving engine rides. It was good drive time for me, but it got old driving the same route again and again and again. I'd have liked to have spent more time in the thick of it but was happy to be wherever I was needed. I must admit that I was surprised how many adults told me this was the first time they'd ever been in a "firetruck". Shocking! If only they understood the difference between and engine, ladder truck, tender, etc. Sigh... After the party ended the A-shift half of us finally got to pretend to have our day off. More like the evening off, but no worries. It was a really fun time, well received by the community and went off without a hitch. I think even if no one else had shown up the whole station full of firefighters would have had a fantastic party of our own. We do so enjoy hanging out, goofing off, joking around and the general mocking torments of all firehouses.

After a quick Superman-like change out of my uniform, we went to burger bar for dinner and then went over to the Tractor Club meeting at the coffee house. A great group of people, good drinks, funny stories, and lots of fantastic laughing with each other. Okay, sometimes at each other too! I left the "meeting" a proud owner of a new t-shirt and a lovely Ford tractor. I also left with the task to take one of the club flags, "The Jolly Caboda" and display it proudly in a subtle way the next day. How do you think I did?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

What a gorgeous morning. It's Saturday which is our Thanksgiving down here. I loaded up all my bags for the next 24 hour shift out on the runway and headed towards the firehouse. To my delight everything was covered in a beautiful dusting of snow. We drove out to station two in the still quiet of a holiday morning. I'd imagine most everyone was still sleeping away in their warm beds and the town was blanketed in a light powdered sugar dusting of snow. It was so peaceful and gorgeous.

As it was a holiday there were no flights scheduled inbound or outbound so it was destined to be a quiet day. During the waiting period before turkey dinner we played some games, watched a movie, spent time on the computer and had "safety" naps. Once it came time for the big feast, Captain Walters came out to pick us up and take us into town. It was such a warm day that next to the hospital there was a huge chocolate milk pond, McMurdo Pond, which was so much bigger than the usual chocolate milk puddles. Inside building 155 there were already so many people lined up to eat all the way down Highway One. Fortunately we were able to join the in town FD crew in line. The meals were served in three shifts and we were there for the middle shift. Once we made it through the line and into the galley we were faced with incredible spreads of side dishes, fresh vegetable, cheese and fruit platters, fresh salad with lots of veggie add-ons, a table of nothing but different kinds of breads and rolls, turkey, real mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagas, stuffing, roasted root vegetables, homemade cranberry sauce, prime rib, potatoes, and a dessert table of pumpkin, apple and pecan pies, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate torte with raspberry sauce and an enormous bowl of real whipped cream! Oh, how we feasted!! We ate and ate until we could eat no more. It was truly the best meal I've had down here so far and was a lot like a typical meal at home, other than the fact that there were three hundred people there rather than thirty. Mom, I took over the autumn confetti that you'd sent and sprinkled the festiveness around on the tables of all my friends. It was a hit and brightened the tables up just that much more! Thanks!

This morning back in town and off shift I made my way to brunch after spending a few hours still at the firehouse helping with preparation of the chili for the Firehouse Expo this afternoon. There was a lot of yummy food left from the feast yesterday. I had more pie as well as fruit cheese and waffle world. I couldn't eat everything so went up to wrap the leftovers. Sitting there on a platter right next to the food wrapping station were three little piggy heads all dressed up for the occasion! It was pretty funny and gives you an idea of the humor that runs rampant around these parts.

Well, I've got to run shower, change back into a clean uniform and spend the next several hours at the Firehouse Expo. Stand by for that event up next!!

Out in the Delta

It's starting to get a little warmer around here. Warm as in the +20's, not +70 degree warm... Anyhow, it's been a welcome change the last few days. The downside to the warmth is that there are huge trenches and potholes in the roads and chocolate milk puddles everywhere! Even as warm as it has been getting once it begins to get a little colder in the evening the chocolate milk puddles quickly start to freeze up and get really cool looking crack patterns in them. Yup, I think I must be losing it wasting a whole paragraph on chocolate milk puddles...yeesh!

Last night I went out on a "Delta Trip to Nowhere" as a boondoggle for helping with the setup and cleanup of the Halloween party. After dinner we met in the lobby of the galley and then loaded up in the Delta's for our ride out towards Cape Evans. It was bound to be a long ride, even though we aren't allowed to go too far. We headed out to the junction of the new and old Cape Evans road bouncing all the way. We were warned to be sure to wear our seat belts at all times so that we wouldn't be the next victim to the starred windows due to head impact. Once we got moving I understood exactly why. Bouncy indeed!! After about an hour we arrived at our "unknown" location and began the trek. We all walked us out onto the old road to Cape Evans to look at the seals lounging about over near the Erebus Ice tongue. Apparently we are a very exciting group as some of the seals decided to undulate their way to a new locale and then try out that resting spot. He must have really been tired, or incredibly lazy, as he didn't go very far at all. The weather was cloudy with very cold and bitter wind. We took pictures of the far-off seals, played around on the ice and with the flags jousting and slipping and sliding away, attempted sneaking up on some Skua who called in reinforcements quadrupling their numbers in a mere matter of seconds and after about an hour of play loaded back up into the Deltas for the ride back home. The Delta's are pretty crazy. They've been here I believe since the Navy days in the 1980's, are enormous, kind of hard to get up inside of, really slow, super bouncy and cold and foggy in the rear cab. We made good fun of the ride though and were singing chants in rhythm with the bouncing, laughing and joking around with one another. Many of the townspeople never really get to get away from the town of McMurdo and so this was a pretty cool deal for them to get out and onto the sea ice for a bit of an adventure. I had fun, but I think we firefighters are a little spoiled as we spend a lot of time out on the ice at the runways and often get to go dive tending, fishing and on other little working excursions. Once we got back into town around 10:30 pm we all departed and headed our separate ways for the remainder of the evening. It was a fun trip out of town despite the unpleasant weather and we made a good time of it all.

I awoke this morning after a wonderful night of sleep and then sleeping in until about 9:00 am. I changed into my workout clothes and headed out of my building for a workout before lunch. It was gorgeous outside! Super calm and quiet with clear blue skies and a nice bit of fresh, clean white snow covering the brown mucky mess of the previous day. A nice way to start my day. Lets hope it continues to be a great one!

I'm fishin'!!!

Sara and I were the lucky winners of a working fishing trip out to Cape Evans this afternoon. We met up with the Petzel's fishing group in the Crary Science lab and then loaded up into the Piston Bully for the long ride out to Cape Evans. It was a bouncy ride, but it was fun to chat and laugh on the way out. This was my first real fishing experience in my whole life so I was pretty excited about it all. Once we arrived at Cape Evans we went in to one of their fishing huts and right there in the fishing hole, just a few inches below the surface of the water was a gorgeous jelly fish just hanging out swimming around in there. Very pretty. This wasn't where we'd be fishing though as we were drilling new holes out today and moving the huts. Apparently the fish know better, stop coming to the same place and they have to move the huts every so often. The guys with the big machines were already out there and ready to go. Ann and Jill chose the spot they wanted to drill and the auger began it's work. It was very impressive to watch and see how easily the four foot auger can drill through the five to six feet of ice and clear a new hole. They start to drill down and we had to stand to the side ready to shovel the ice shavings out of the way to make channels from the center of the hole. Once they get down through the ice and into the water they keep the auger turning and pull it back up out of the hole. This pulls out all the snow and ice and leaves a nice clean hole with just water to fish in. The channels that we shoveled out then make little canyons for the icy, snowy water to run out of rather than back into the hole where we'd have to scoop it all out. As the auger is doing it's thing turning under the surface but not yet in the water it looks like it's a creature alive and gurgling about. It was really fun to watch and get to play in it too. The first two holes that were drilled were too shallow or on an area of shallow ground and the auger was hitting bottom. Luckily the second two were both good. After the holes are drilled the machine guys unhook the auger machine that is towed by a big caterpillar plow. They then plow the drilled ice away from the hole and then drag the huts off the old spots and over the new fishing holes. While Ann, Jill and the guys did the hut moving Sara and I walked up to Scott's Cape Evans hut with another woman Claudia who was on the trip. It was a cold day and the wind was bitter, strong and biting. We pushed through it and made it up the hill to the cross and then inside unless you have a trained tour guide to escort you through. We just walked around the exterior and were able to peek inside one of the windows a little bit. The huts are full of artifacts and kept pretty much the way they were found. All along the hillside are old wooden crates that once held food and meandered down towards the hut itself. It's amazing to think about how long these old explorer huts have been here and how rugged you'd have to be to have one of the original explorers on the continent. All of the huts are historic monuments so you aren't allowed other supplies. You can still see the cans all packed in the crates but they have obviously been quite weathered over time. It's incredible though how intact so many of the items are. Also on the sea side of the hut is the large ships anchor buried in the ground. I'm going to have to read up but I think the story was that part of the expedition were inside the hut when a storm came. Once it let up and then went outside their boat was gone and they were stranded. Again, I could be totally wrong on this historical account. After our little tour we wandered back out to the huts crossing the snow and sea ice. It's a little tricky as there are many coastal cracks that you must watch for and the ice was very slippery. Claudia was pretty tired from the uphill walk in the wind and was feeling a little uneasy about the ice walk. I held her hand and guided her back out to the fishing huts. She's a cute lady who's 59 years old and came down here with the support of her husband and grown kids. What an adventure she's having. She's pretty proud of herself as she should be.

Back out on the sea ice, the huts were nestled happily in their new locations. We went inside where they had already begun the fishing. I went over to Ann who handed me a line. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it but they quickly explained about bouncing the bait around a little on the bottom and then pulling when you felt something bite. The fish that we were fishing for are called Trematomus bernacchii. The scientists are doing research on the antifreeze glycopeptides within the fishes bodily fluids to study how they survive in the 28.65 degree Fahrenheit environment of the Antarctic and McMurdo Sound without allowing ice crystals to form in their bodily fluids. They'll die of heat at 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit which is the lowest known heat death temperature of any animal. Bernacchii are bottom dwellers which are pretty small and consequently so are the lines. It's a simple string of fishing filament with a hook on the bottom and two metal nuts a couple of inches above the hook. The filament is wrapped around a piece of styrofoam and you just hold onto the filament with your fingers. Very simple set up. Once one of the guys told me I'd caught one I pulled it up and it was just a little guy, about four inches long. I was excited until Ann told me to grab him and hold onto him so I could take the hook out. I wasn't prepared for all this and will admit I was a little nervous. I was brave and grabbed hold of the little fella. I was nervous that I'd drop him and scared about trying to take the hook out. I realized right away that holding him was enough for me and so asked Ann to take the hook. She said, "Hey, you caught him in the eye!" to which I did the involuntary whole body shiver. Every time she moved the hook his little eyeball would move in and out too. I was freaking out, in a controlled manner of course. Then she says, "Eeww, he just vomited!" at which point I nearly joined him in that activity. It was a wretching moment for us both I'm afraid. She got the hook out and I dropped him in the cooler and then noticed that there was a nasty something on my glove. I freaked out for sure at this and was certain it was a baby of the nasty, creepy, slimy worm things that are all over the bottom of the sea. I'll admit I squealed. Everyone else there was laughing so hard and trying not to cry. Ann got me a towel to wipe it off on. Although I was a bit relieved that it was not a worm thing it was still horrid that I had fish vomit all down my hand. I was assured that it's common for the fish to vomit when they are stressed but it still was ooky. I think it was a pretty traumatic experience for both me and the little fishy. After the first fish I got more brave but still wasn't ready to remove the hooks. I did finally towards the end remove a hook on my own and it truly was as nasty as I thought it would be. I think it was the popping sound that was the worst. Pretty sure I don't ever need to eat a fish that I caught myself. I prefer it to come wrapped in plastic seated on a styrofoam tray or bundled up all cozy in some paper from the fish market. This all goes back to my issues with food still having body parts when I eat it. Just can't do it... Anyhow, it was pretty funny, hysterical actually, and I wish that I'd had the whole thing on video. Schade. Between the group we caught 25 fish and one sea star (Sara got him on accident) which we took pictures with and then returned to the sea. We loaded everything up into the Piston Bully and began the journey back to town. We carried the big cooler of fish into the Crary aquarium and scooped them up counting them into their new temporary home. When the fish are in the holding tanks in the aquarium they swim to the surface and bob like they are trying to launch out and be free. It's odd and I'm told it is not a natural behavior for them to ever do this. No one knows why they do, but I suspect they are confused about not having ice above them. Hmmm, any ideas? Before leaving the aquarium Sara and I visited all the other creatures that are living there. Lots of sea stars, sea urchins, fish and other things in various stages of development. The cutest was the little tank of baby sea stars and sea star eggs. The look just like the noodles in Chicken & Stars soup and are about the same size. I don't imagine that they'd taste too great though.

"24" hours of heroin

Friday was my first official shift as a D/O and we actually had a couple of calls that I could have had to pump on. The first was an alarm at the hydroponics building and the second one (which was conveniently about 2:30 am) was reported as "...smoke showing from the waste barn..." Neither of them really turned out to be anything but they both had some potential to have been exciting. Earlier that same night at the station, Kyle all of a sudden comes roaring into dispatch with lights and sirens of the Petau kind. He's jumping around on the station's "Rad Board" and practicing up for some boarding out at station two next shift. It was hysterical! He's likely one of the funniest people I know. Lucky for me that I work with him on occasion back home. He's with Wheatridge FD and so I've run a few calls with him while working on the ambulance for Pridemark. Too funny...

Sunday morning comes about and we are at station two again. It's really foggy and getting more windy as we are driving out from station one. Consequently, the two flights that were supposed to be coming from Christchurch were delayed and then cancelled due to weather. We took that opportunity to scrounge for food again. Omelets and cinnamon toast made an acceptable breakfast. Then we managed to get ourselves all sucked up in the heroin we like to call "24". We started by watching one episode from where I'd left off. They wanted to see the first four episodes, but I didn't have the patience to re-watch them all as I was desperate to get on to the next one. The one turned into two, then four, then eight... We did take bathroom breaks nearly every hour but couldn't pull ourselves away long enough to go find lunch food at the galley. Instead we went with the bulk frozen cheese & bean burritos that live in the station two freezer. One minute and 50 seconds and you have quite a surprisingly delectable mealtime option. I must admit that I was a bit wary of them, but they were more than good. They were delicious! Reminded me of the Lynn Wilson burritos of my teenage years. Mmmm!!! By the end of the night we had watched twelve straight hours of the show and had to force ourselves to put it away and get some sleep. At one point one of the disc's kept freezing up and we had to manually try to fast forward past that spot. As we have only a PlayStation out there to watch DVD's on we had to use the game controller. Kyle got tired of holding down the finger button so he rigged up his shoe to do the job for him. Likely not too funny, but after that many straight hours of such intense work it was the funniest thing ever. Let me tell you, trying to spend so much time smack in the middle of an attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and then dealing with kidnappings on top of all that was exhausting! It's nice that we have Sundays where we spend so much time in the luge position. Without my daily Starbuck's I've got to feed my addiction some way, don't I?

Tramping about

Holly, Sara, Diane and I decided at lunch that it was a great day to ski the Armitage Loop trail from McMurdo to Scott Base and then walk the road back. We went to gear issue to get skis and were crushed to see that we'd missed the open hours. We decided to go ahead and do it anyhow but just hiking, or tramping as the Kiwi's say. The day had begun with fog and cool temperatures, but by the time we left the fog had lifted completely leaving us with a gorgeous warm day with clear blue sunny skies. It was a nice walk but wearing Big Red was not the best idea. It was just too heavy and way too warm for the weather. For a good part of the hike I wore it on my shoulders with my arms out free. It did start to get windy once the trail turned toward Scott base and was pretty nippy on the side of my face. The snow was pretty soft with a few inches of fresh snow and it felt like walking the whole way on sand wearing hiking shoes and all your snow gear. It was a long hour and a half. We were all a little tired of it by the time we arrived at Scott Base so we went in to the store to buy a snack and to use the bathroom before the forty minute walk back to Mac Town via the road. I think next time I'd rather do it on skis. We arrived back in town, checked back in with the firehouse, went to the galley for a leisurely dinner and then our separate ways before hitting the sheets for a reasonable bedtime.

Drivin' in the Antarctic!

Finally after several weeks we have finished our D/O class. We took our final written exams the other day and then yesterday did the driving course and then pumping practical today. I had sprained my wrist pretty bad playing dodgeball a few days before the exam and had to take my entire written test, hydraulic calculations and all, with my left hand. It did remind me of how difficult writing, especially numbers, is for kids when they are first learning. I was exhausted by the time I finished. During the pumping evolution we flowed a couple of different length and diameter hoselines to different pressures and made new ice out near the transition. It was pretty fun and I'm so glad to be finished with the class. There were four people per shift in the class and I was the only one to pass the written tests on my shift the first time around. They all re-tested and then passed. Funny me, taking it seriously the first time around. :-) That night after passing the practical exams I went with the rest of the students to Gallagher's for a celebratory drink. When we arrived there we discovered it was karaoke night. I of course, did not sing, but it was hysterical to watch some of the others. Mostly I'm just so glad to be done with the class and get to have class-free days off again!

Today I'm out at station two again. There was the most amazing mirage this morning driving out. If I'm remembering correctly, the mirages are called Fata Morgana and they happen because of the dryness and cold...I think. Anyhow, they are different every day, sometimes appearing larger than at other times. Mt Erebus was steaming and looked just gorgeous. We also discovered the Antarctic scorpion out there this morning. Very rare indeed! Midway through the day we were notified that we needed to take a rig out to Willy Field for a C-130 to do a skied landing on the new packed snow runway. Lt. Myers (Trent), Sara and myself took Red 3 and headed out. We arrived and took our hard stand position waiting for the skier to arrive. Sara had packed reinforcements along and we had Pecan Sandies, tortilla chips and a nice cold bottle of water. Eclectic perhaps, but quite luxurious down here! The plane finally came into view and flew directly over us to check out the runway. They turned, circled around and landed a beautiful landing. Once on the ground they circled around out past us to head back to the end of the runway. Sara and I were standing outside the rig on the mat and the tip of the wing came about 15 ft away from us as they taxied by. They were all waves and smiles and we were too. It was pretty cool to be so close! After they passed we were immersed in a jet wash of snow from the engines. They taxied back around and took off flying off and out over White Island and back to the Ice runway. I found out afterwards that the Air Force ARFF inspectors that were here around the station the day or two prior were on the plane. That made all the cheery waving and all make much more sense. We headed back to the ice runway for the rest of the day and night of hard-stands with singing and dancing in our seats. At one point along the drive we stopped, hopped out and decided to try to lift more than the legal 40-lbs. We did wear our hearing and eye protection though so we should be covered for the safety guy down here. Hah! We all had such a fun crew together and just laughed and were completely goofy the entire 24 hour shift. It was a hoot!!