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!