Redeployment Meetings

We held our last Redeployment Meeting yesterday.
The Redeployment Meetings are always a highlight
of our season in Air Services and a sign that the
end is near for the summer season. This year,
Leighton, who is in charge of the Christchurch
travel office came down to present the gory
details of the travel options to all of the RPSC
and NANA folks. Susie presented other Air
Services info at five of the meetings and I
made our presentation at three of the meetings,
including the two held for night shift employees.
Now, the not so fun part comes along...entering
all of the data from everyone's Redeployment
Form into the database, including travel options,
hotel choices, dates etc. I'll be wearing out
my eyeballs, staring at a computer screen for the
next several weeks, doing my part to enter over
500 person's forms. It will be good when this
part of my job is done for the season.

The Day in Denver

Lynn reminded me tonight that in all the busy-ness yesterday,
we had both forgotten that my Dad passed away, one year ago,
on September 24th. I miss my Dad terribly and I think of him
almost every day. However, I think he'd be ok with the fact that
we forgot as we are making it through the grieving process.
Although not having him here with us is not easy, I hope it will get
easier with time.


So...today, I started the two day process of orientation at the
Raytheon Polar Services Company in Centennial, Colorado. It
seems like the information changes very little year after year, but
attending is one of the requirements of working on the Ice, so
it's something we all deal with. I liked these flags that were flown
at the Pole that are on display at the entrance to the building.


After my orientation was over, we received a message from our
friend (and my boss) Susie. She had left a binder and her itinerary
at the office and asked if we could bring it to her at the airport.
Not a problem, as we drove it there and saw our friend Liz there
waiting with her. For those of you that might remember, Liz
traveled with us quite a bit in Ecuador and Peru. I will see both
of them in Christchurch and have dinner with them the evening
before they head to the Ice. The day before me.


We enjoyed an excellent dinner at a restaurant called Citron New
World Bistro in Denver. We had been here several years ago when
it was still a Marie Callender's Restaurant. Definitely a nice last
dinner in the US for quite some time.


Of course we still had the evening ahead of us and one of
our favorite cheap things to do is going to Border's Books.
We had a big pot of tea and read some books and magazines.
Yes, not exactly an exciting Friday night, but something we
like to do. A relaxing last night in the States.

Pursuing The Rebid

Today we were informed that our current employer, Raytheon
Polar Services Company "is pursuing the rebid of the Antarctic
contract". It will be "teaming with Aecom Government Services
(AGS), SAIC and Chenega". I don't know anything about these
other companies they're teamed with but as RPSC joins 56 other
companies in the pursuit, this rather unexpected bid could be
interesting.

Good Times!

Even though we have to work on Mid-Winter's Day and the
folks in the Denver Office get to have a company-paid
picnic on the same day, it looks like a few of our folks
from the Ice snuck off and joined the fun!


And look...they even took the kids! Good times had by all!

Bah Humbug

It seems that all RPSC employees are not created equal.
(Not that there was ever any doubt about that anyway)
While the full-time folks in Denver are treated to a
"Summer Picnic" on June 21st, the contract employees
on the Ice have been told that our Mid-Winter day,
which is traditionally a day off of work and a pretty
big day for all other Antarctic stations, will be a
work day. I guess I should contact our Morale Committee
representative to find out what we can do instead for
Mid-Winter...oh wait, there isn't a Polar Morale Committee
on the Ice...it only applies to folks in the corporate
office...half of which have never been in a Polar Region.
Do I sound bitter?

Left Holding the Bag

Of course this photo is a joke...

When have you seen a plane this empty lately???

Today I read an article >here< that American Airlines
is now going to be charging for each piece of luggage
brought onto a plane, beginning with $15.00 for the
first bag.

"AA says its elite frequent-flier members and those who
purchase premium tickets (first, business or full-fare
economy fares) will not have to pay the fees. The fees
apply only to flights within the USA and Canada".

"Additionally, AA says it also "has increased its fees
for certain other services, ranging from reservation
service fees to pet and over-sized bag fees. The
increases mostly range from $5 to $50 per service.
The company estimates that new and increased fees
announced this month will generate several hundred
million dollars in incremental annual revenue."

What's next?!?! I'm guessing that carry-on items will
be charged and soon each person will be charge based
on their height or weight as they arrive on the plane.
To save weight, we may be asked to strip down to nothing
before boarding the plane. Sound ridiculous you say?
Maybe...but charging for items that once seemed
untouchable a few years ago, such as a checked-in bag
would have sounded crazy a few years ago.

I've been told that this won't affect international
flights and all connecting flights to an international
flight would be included in the no-charge clause.
However, the recent trend within RPSC employees of holding
orientation in Denver for Summer and Winter folks coming
south will cause two separate flight segments...just to
get to LAX for the flight to New Zealand. Is Uncle Ray
going to eat this cost of paying an additional fee to get
our bags to Denver? Hardly. I believe we have seen the
last of the Denver orientation sessions and will be going
back to holding these sessions in Christchurch, which in
my opinion were a bit of a cluster. Either way, it will
be another huge expense and it bodes poorly for the USAP.

Irony...

Here's the timeline...
Last week, I post a blog entry entitled:


"Just Smurfy!"




This morning at 0730, my boss holds a monthly
All RPSC/NANA Safety Meeting in the Galley, and
the topic is: "Death and Destruction in Antarctica",
focusing specifically on the fires many years ago
that destroyed the Chapel and the old Vehicle
Maintenance Facility. Some great video footage
of historic fire tragedies that took place before
most of us had even heard of McMurdo. The focus
of the meeting was to keep people aware that
disasters can happen here and that we should
always be prepared for them.


This morning at approximately 1023, I'm sitting
at my desk working on a report when I hear over
the scanner that "THE SMURF SHACK IS ON FIRE".
I think two or three of us in the office simultan-
eously said "Oh Crap!" and moments later I was
racing down to Building 165 to perform my duties
at the EOC (Emergency Operations Center). The
reasons are still unknown what caused the fire as
the closest people to the Shack were miles away,
in town at the time it is thought to have begun.
Almost 500 gallons of fuel used to heat the shack
were lost and the flames were easily seen from
town, over a dozen miles away. We've asked Don
if we can have our next Safety Meeting cover the
possibilities of having everyone on station win the
Lotto since he seems to have some kind of precogniscent
ability to forcast upcoming events!

A Pain in the Back

There seems to be a big push down here lately
about ergonomics and most importantly, back safety.
All the RPSC and NANA folks had to participate in
a "Safety Stand Down" this morning at 0730. Ugh
way too early to listen to corporate stuff regarding
our welfare. Especially on a Monday after a two
day weekend. I think my ergonomics would have been
a lot better if I could have spent that additional
hour in bed!

Stupid Things I Have Done

We had our monthly All-RPSC/NANA Safety Meeting today
and my boss likes to keep it pretty informal since it's
held at 7:30 in the morning and he doesn't want people
to fall asleep. As a result, he walks around the galley
with a microphone and asks people to give anecdotes on
the particular topic. This month, it was "Stupid Things
I Have Done...And Lived To Tell About It". Lots of good
gnarly stories about people losing fingers, coming close
to losing limbs, etc. I volunteered to tell my story
about how on the way to a Safety Meeting in 2002, I fell
and tore my quadraceps tendon resulting in two months of
crutching it around, followed by three months in a ankle
to hip cast. But the story I really wanted to tell that
I always enjoy telling to gross people out (I was
successful this time as well) is the story about my
co-worker and friend, Joe, who I worked with at the Marriott
in Detroit. Joe used to work at a company called Thornapple
Valley. For those of you not from the Midwest U.S., this
is a company that makes sausages, luncheon meats, etc.
When making meat products, there are a lot of leftovers.
Parts of an animal that would make most people turn into
vegetarians if they were to see it processed. All of this
is "useful" and sold to companies that make soap and
makeup. Yes, the stuff women put on their faces. To
store all of these "leftovers", they're kept in a semi-
liquid form in big vats. Almost like swimming pools of
leftover parts. Well...Joe was walking on a catwalk over
one of these vats, slipped and fell in...over his head.
His co-worker had to grab him by the hair and pull him out.
Otherwise he would have drowned...in liquified animal parts.
Ugh...I love this story. Even though I think Joe might be
full of crap and was making it up, it could be true for all
I know. The best part of this story...he told it to us
while we were eating lunch. Ah Joe...classy guy.