Victoria In Victorialand

I’m on a roll now, here comes Wednesday!

Wednesdays are one of the three days that we work 23 hour shifts on. We work them Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If I’m not working a 23 hour shift on a Wednesday, I normally use that day to do laundry and clean my room. If Marsha, one of the other dispatchers and my very good friend, is off with me on Wednesday, we sometimes have Winesday. We unwind in the afternoon/evening with a bottle or two of wine and just chat.

Every other Wednesday night this winter, we’ve had Burger Bar and Trivia at Gallagher’s. The normal trivia hosts have been slightly sadistic this season. They come up with some of the most off the wall questions. But it’s fun. If I am not working, I generally go and play on the fire department/power plant team. We’re the HoneyBadgers. We generally do a fairly good job, especially if Suzy is participating. She’s the power plant representative on the team and we have adopted her into the firehouse.

But the true highlight of Wednesday night is Burger Bar. Over the winter, people can volunteer to work the grill. Some people have themed burger nights (Pirate Burger Baaarrrrrrr) and others just make some out of this world burgers. The firehouse has worked the grill a few times over the season, and Boss Hog can put together a mean burger.

On Wednesdays that don’t have burger bar or trivia, I generally hang out with a good friend of mine, Craig, and watch various TV shows. I’ve been introduced to Stargate, Big Bang Theory, Eureka and some others that I can’t remember the name of right now.

Winterbrain. It’s been rough this year.

Stay safe!
Tori

Okay, I figure this is the easiest way to get back into blogging. Going back to my daily things I do theme.

Every Tuesday I work. It’s either a 0700 – 1500 shift, a 1500 – 2300 shift or the night shift, 2300 – 0800 the next day. It all depends on how my schedule for the week falls.

If I work the day shift on a Tuesday, that means Wednesday is going to be a 23 hour shift. If I work the night shift on Tuesday, it means I worked a 23 hour shift on Monday. If I’m working the swing shift, it means I have a 23 hour shift on the upcoming Friday.

Tuesdays aren’t bad. The only exceptional thing that happens on Tuesday that sets it apart from, oh, a Thursday, is the fact that we normally have teleconferences with Denver in the morning.

The best thing about working the night shift this winter has been the aurora watch. Sure, it was dark all the time, but we generally saw auroras during night time hours. Every now and then during the shift, if the aurora oval showed potential on the spaceweather.com site, I’d put the spoon into the intercom system and duck out the back door to check for auroras. Thankfully the firehouse family is pretty big into photography for the most part, and we’d all share tripods and Jeff’s intervalometer (affectionately known as the velociraptor) to try to get some good shots. Despite the light from town, most of us managed to get a few decent shots of the southern lights, the Milky Way, shooting stars and the occasional iridium flare.

Stay cool.
Tori

Three months in Three Sentences:

It was dark.
It was cold.
The sun is back.

More information about everything in between my last post and now will be forthcoming.

I’ve recognized a pattern from my blogging last winter. I’ve been in the time of year when I truly don’t know what to write about. It’s close to mid-winter. We’re halfway through the season. T3 has hit several times. And I just haven’t known what to write about. And that depressed me. SO! I’ve decided to write about things on do on different days of the week.

This week, my spotlight is on Monday! Particularly Mondays that I have off. No one wants to hear about what I do at work on a 24 hour Monday shift because it isn’t nearly as exciting and I don’t have any fun pictures from it.

So… Monday…
If I’m off on a Monday, that means I’ve either just worked a 9 hour night shift on Sunday (getting off work at 0800) or I’ve worked an 8 hour shift and gotten off work at 2300 Sunday night.
If I’ve worked the previous night shift, then I tend to sleep most of the day. Actually, that’s one thing I’m really grateful for this season. I’ve been sleeping rather well. Last year I had a dreadful habit of waking up at 0200 and not being able to get back to sleep, and when I had a 24 hour shift following waking up at 0200, it was no bueno.

Generally, I’m up in time for lunch. I tend to go to lunch around 11 so I can eat with the majority of my fire family, then it’s back home to do chores. Laundry, sorting trash in my room, vacuuming, etc. I’ll occasionally make a call to friends in the states, depending on their timezone. Sometimes I nap. Other times I’ll go to the gym. Last Monday I had a lesson in hockey in the big gym which was followed by dinner and some time in the hot tub.

On my most recent Mondays off, I’ve gone to the kitchen to help Miles with making popcorn for Disney Movie Night in the Bog. Actually, I take that back. I go and talk and take pictures while he makes popcorn.

Making popcorn is serious business for Miles. No, really. Forget the prepackaged stuff. He makes popcorn with the most unique combinations of taste and texture. He brought some over to me one night in dispatch that was absolutely mind blowing. It had parmesan cheese and oregano and red pepper flakes in it… Oh, and have you ever put chips and dried craisins in popcorn? You should. Now I’m hungry…

One option for a hoppin’ Monday night at McM is to go to Disney Movie night, hosted by the wonderful Larry Fabulous. I gotta admit that I don’t normally go to Disney movie night, despite my love for Disney movies.

Normally, however, I go to Southern Exposure (open as a bar during the summer, and as a lounge/coffeehouse during the winter) and participate in the McMurdo 300.

What is the McMurdo 300, you may ask? It’s only the finest combination of sports on the southernmost continent. Shuffleboard (played on a table, not on the ground), Darts and Billiards. It’s a good time to unwind, listen to music, have a few drinks or have some coffee…

So that, in a nutshell, is what I do on the Mondays I don’t have to come in to work.

So, I’ve been racking my brain about what to write about over the past few days. Then I realized I forgot to include super important information in my last post:

I can see again!

After going approximately one month without glasses, I now have not one, but two pairs! Thanks to the amazing medical department, and the folks at T&S, located in Christchurch, NZ, I am once again bespectacled.

Despite the fact that I was able to successfully play horseshoes and navigate around town without glasses, I do enjoy being able to see things clearly. Of course, I haven’t seen any auroras since getting my glasses, but I’m sure I’ll have more opportunities this season. Having glasses is also helping me with other things I’ve started taking on here, like giving haircuts. I was asked the other day exactly how I fell into the position of barber, and truth be told, I’m not sure. I volunteered to cut some peoples hair, but I’m not sure why I did it. I have little experience (other than with my own hair and a few very trusting souls). People down here get desperate during the winter. I guess the job that I do with peoples lovely locks is better than nothing. I did give several people haircuts without glasses, and it turned out okay, but it took an insanely long time. And despite telling people that they don’t need to pay me for cutting hair, the barter system has been working greatly in my favor. I was given a bottle of wine and a fruit and cheese platter for my last haircut.

Other than getting my glasses, other things have been happening.

The firehouse is getting a bit of a facelift. One of our firefighters has been working hard at painting accent walls in different rooms around the station. The captain has been replacing the ceiling tiles with the help of our on-duty crews…

And speaking of on-duty crews… I’m sure in my last post I mentioned that we got three additional firefighters. The relief around here has been fantastic. The morale has been boosted. People in town are feeling more at ease about the capability of the department should there be a fire. I know there are probably some people who are curious about the working relationship of Rick and I, and quite plainly – We’re fine. He and I are still good friends and we work well together. I’m happy to have my friend back.

Also, I’m pretty sure I mentioned being excited about the freshie cargo that came in on this last medevac… However, after not having fresh fruits or vegetables for a few months, you don’t know how your body will react until you actually consume said food.

Fact: Your body reacts in ways you can’t imagine if you don’t eat fresh fruits and veggies for several months. However, it is worth it. I won’t go into detail, I’ll let you use your imagination (or not).

The food has been amazing with the influx of freshies. One of the cooks surprised me with a mango (I had told him a few weeks before that I was craving a fresh mango). You don’t realize the difference in taste between fresh and dried herbs until you have fresh ones for the first time in ages.
Okay, I’m drooling, I’ll stop talking about food.

Let’s see… Other things.

We’re starting to get ready for Mid-Winter dinner! The planning/decorating commitee is getting into full swing, and since we work long hours, Marsha and I were volunteered to help make decorations for the soiree. No problem there. But after 20 hours in a 24 hour shift, I don’t know how good the decorations that I make will look…

But at least I’ll be able to see what I’m doing.

Stay safe!

Greetings!

Over the past month, we’ve had two medevacs. Right now I’m not sure how many people we have on station. What I do know, is that we no longer have four firefighters. We now have seven. And that is a good thing. I’m posting a link in this blog to another winter-over’s blog. Ben Adkinson took some amazing photos of the medevac, as well as write an informative blog about the whole situation. I’m sitting here in my room chuckling about the nickname of the flight – OOF – Operation Old Flame. I wasn’t the only person who had an ex arriving on this most recent flight.

http://whynotgonow.blogspot.com/2013/05/antarctic-medevac-2013-take-2.html

Above is the link to his site. I highly suggest you read his posts.

I want to dye my hair blue. Not like Marge Simpson blue, but a light shimmery blue.

If you have never listened to Lindsey Stirling, I suggest you check out her music.

I’d love to have a mango.

I’m thinking about spending the summer season down here.

I’m not as good at Halo as I once thought I was.

I’d like to learn how to dance.

I am sure that I have the best family in the world.
I also know for a fact that my friends are the best, ever.

I’m hoping I get some glasses soon because I miss seeing clearly.

A lot of people think that the most awesome thing I’ve done is the whole going to Antarctica thing. It’s not. The most awesome thing I’ve done is becoming an Aunt. And I didn’t even have to do anything to achieve that.

I miss dispatching police officers. I miss a good training day, evening shift with multiple traffic units out. I don’t miss it enough to go back to doing that full time though.

I just had to get those out of my head. Yeah, I know that this is basically a “filler” post, but I’m trying to do better with my posting at least once a week.

I promise to post more interesting things next week.

On Wednesday, April 24th, 2013, two vans filled with happy winter-overs took the 14 mile ride out to Pegasus Airfield to watch the last sunrise/sunset until August.

We laughed, we played, we enjoyed the glorious weather and bid adieu to the evil day star.

Enjoy!

This past week has been a bit stressful around the firehouse. Six weeks into the actual winter season and we’ve had a medevac. Hopefully our only one this winter. For the fire department, medevacs mean that we have to have our ARFF vehicles taken back out to the airfield, and since they were “winterized” it meant a lot of work for the guys here and the workers at the VMF. *The VMF is the vehicle maintenance facility*. It also meant that every other department was busy with various tasks getting ready to safely get the patient out of Antarctica.

The big stress for the fire department also came with the abrupt departure of two of our firefighters. This means that we are down to 1 captain, 1 lieutenant and 2 firefighters for the foreseeable future.

Also, another stressor that occurred this week, was that it appears that staffing levels for the fire department for next winter may be changing. The big change for me, is that the number of dispatch positions may be cut from three to one. No final word on this, but it’s something that is now a reality that we are going to have to face and decisions must be made.

We’ve all been a bit stressed out. Understandably, in my opinion.

And what do you do in Antarctica when you’re stressed out? You find the closest slope and go play in the snow/ice. Luckily we have a nice little snow/ice hill right outside of the firehouse. We’ve all been eyeing it for a few weeks now, and yesterday was the day we decided to tackle it. After brunch, I ran to my room, switched out of my lightweight jacket to my big red, grabbed my wind pants and camera, and went back to the firehouse. Marsha was working in dispatch, so Raymond and I decided to attempt to slide down the hill. At first, we didn’t use anything extra (if you watch the video, the outtakes portion shows us attempting to slide without the plastic sheet). Then we discovered that it was SO MUCH BETTER with the lack of friction that the plastic sheet provided on the ice. So myself, Raymond, Marsha and Wes all took turns sliding down the hill. After a while, we started doing fancy slides (head first), but of course my camera froze right before we attempted those.

Next time, I’ll bring my bigger camera since the battery lasts longer.

No zombies, yet.  I have a sneaky suspicion that before long we’ll see a few of the suckers.  Not real ones, of course.  McMurdo would be a poor place for real zombies to be.  Not because we’re lacking in richness of brain matter, but because they’d run out pretty quickly.  Then what are they going to do?

Fact:  We have some people with amazing intellect on this continent.  We have several people with master degrees, ph.d’s and other various levels of education.  I know one person with several different bachelor degrees in addition to his masters.  And we have some very “street smart” people.  The few of us who don’t have college educations.  

The thing I love the most about this place is the way everyone treats each other.  We are all equals.  Race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background… who cares.  It’s an extremely tight knit community.  We all look after one another.  We all care about one another.  

Next Sunday, the 28th, is the 34 Social.  The 34 Social attendees will be the women of McMurdo.  There are 34 of us, hence the name.  It looks like it will be an excellent time, and both Marsha and I will be able to attend.  I’ll post more after the get-together.  I’m hoping that I’ll be able to talk some people into doing photo-shoots because my creative side needs an outlet.  

All in all, I’m doing pretty well.  My emotional post a few weeks ago let me get a lot off of my chest and I’m feeling much better.

Stay safe!

Tori