Where My Stuff Will Be

Today, my boss, Susie was kind enough to give me some
time off to move the rest of my stuff to storage. And what I
mean by storage is not anything like what you would find in
the real world. ATO supplies it's folks with a Milvan. A Milvan
is a metal box. The kind you see on trains or cargo ships.
All of my things that can freeze, are in this Milvan for the
winter. We also get to keep our DNF (Do Not Freeze) items
in a small room inside Building 140. It's a very generous
storage policy and I feel grateful for it.

Onload

Now that Offload has finished for another year,
the process of Onload has begun. This involves
loading up the vessel with everything that is no
longer useful here at McMurdo. In most cases,
this involves placing cans (milvans...ie.shipping
containers) back onto the boat full of yummy stuff
such as recycled trash (including all of our leftovers),
equipment that no longer works, cardboard, etc. All
under the guise of Retro. This process usually takes
as long, if not longer than unloading the ship.
Unfortunately, I spoke too quickly a few days ago
about everything running smoothly. There's a small
hole in the side of the boat and divers are going to
have to repair it before it heads underway. This will
delay things by at least a day.

Smoking Shack

Welcome to one of the most depressing buildings
at McMurdo. The only reason it's not the MOST
depressing building here is because there are
two others just like it! This is a Smoking Shack.
More specifically, Building 702, which sits outside
of Dorm 207. Another sits outside Dorm 209 as well
as one outside of the Southern Exposure Bar. These
were put in place a couple of years ago. Because
McMurdo is a government installation, and there can
be no smoking in any Federally owned building,
smoking was prohibited in the three dorms that
allowed it and even in the "smoking" bar. As a
compromise, the Smoking Shacks were created by
cutting up some milvans (storage containers) and
making small buildings out of them.


This is a place where, theoretically, smokers
could gather and not be out in the cold. The
only problem is, the smokers won't even use them.
For the most part, they hate them, and it's not
difficult to see why.