Warmth of the Fireplace

Every Saturday, it's my job to take the minutes
at the NSF (National Science Foundation) Town
Meeting. Along with the NSF Station Manager in
attendance, are the key department heads of Raytheon
that are on Station, the Scott Base Manager, the
head of NASA on Station and the SOPP (Air Traffic
and Weather)Supervisor. A couple of times a season,
Scott Base hosts the meeting, and this time Glenn, the
Scott Base Station Manager had something new to show
us. As I've blogged about here in the past, Scott
Base is in the process of remodeling it's Galley and
Bar and will have it done before WINFLY. Just this
week they finished their fireplace. Yes, their
fireplace! They are now one of only two Stations on
the continent that have a fireplace and it runs on
propane. Palmer Station on the Peninsula has the
other and it's a wood fireplace. I was told what they
use for wood. Not going to talk about it here though.
So as we sat in the meeting, everyone talked about
pertinent things happening in their department and I
kept thinking how nice it was to be sitting by a
crackling fire, even though it wasn't crackling since
there wasn't any wood. But it was still relaxing. I
wish I could just sit there with a nice cup of hot
chocolate, a book, and a really comfortable couch with
a real cat or dog at my feet. No, unfortunately that's
not a real cat in the photo but it certainly has a
similar effect. Soon though as we're three weeks from
WINFLY and nine weeks until we leave at Mainbody.