Planning Redeployment

It's hard to believe, but the first Redeployment Meetings are
less than a month away. It seems like we just got here, and
now I'm planning not only my escape from the frozen south,
but the departure of 1000 or so other individuals as well.
Redeployment Meetings basically are a ninety minute session
describing what to expect when departing McMurdo and how
to fill out the paperwork necessary to do so. We have to hold
some people's hands more than others. Some folks that have
been coming down for years sometimes need the most help
with their paperwork, while others that are brand new can
make it through like a champ. My first step of the process
happened this week when I meeting space in the Galley in
Building 155. The Galley is the main room where everyone
eats, but it is also the largest room on Station and as a result,
large gatherings happen here. It's my job to coordinate the
travel section of the presentation, but presentations will also
be made by Housing, Finance and Human Resources. I act as
a defacto Master of Ceremonies for the whole event. We will
be having eight of these meetings during a 3-4 day period at
McMurdo and then I will be making the three hour flight to the
South Pole to help conduct the meetings there. I'll be getting
some help both at McMurdo and Pole from Janice, who is a
member of the Travel team in Christchurch. She'll be a
valuable resource since she can answer a lot of the questions
that I might not know the answers to. So there you go. This
time next month, I should be wrapping up the McMurdo stage
of the presentations and planning my trip to South Pole Station.
It's going to be a very busy couple of months after the holidays.

Almost Time to Go

I can tell that it is time for me to leave
The Rock. The smallest things are starting
to aggravate me. I went through the breakfast
line this morning and decided that pancakes
looked good. However, they had no syrup. Ok,
that can happen. They ran out of syrup midway'
through breakfast right? No...they had no
syrup when they MADE the Pancakes! If you know
you have no syrup (which probably 95% of the
world's pancake-eating population puts on their
pancakes), why would you make pancakes to begin
with? Yeah...

Blue...Really?

The future is here. And I'm not liking it.
A project that is seemingly taking all summer
is the painting of Building 155. And what a
horrible color it is too! Not a happy sky blue.
Not a cheerful robin's egg blue. Blue...I have
no words for what color of blue it really is
although I plan to find out. It reminds me of
the dark blue chalk that comes in one of those
multi-color boxes teachers use on chalk boards.
I've heard that almost all of our buildings will
eventually be painted this color. The reason?
Because all of Scott Base's buildings are painted
one color. However, their buildings are all
Chelsea Cucumber (a kind of mint-chocolate-chip
green). This is just ugly. The blue does give
more credence to my roommate Ben's theory about
the color blue in the Galley though. The color
blue causes one to want to eat less, therefore
saving the Program money. That's why so many
things in the Galley are blue. Trays, cups,
paint trim, the clock, the Dining Attendant's
shirts, the tile floor... So, why not paint the
entire building that houses the Galley blue as
well. Will our appetites be beaten into total
submission by the color blue...or just our eyes?

Old Habits

We recently had a southbound C-17, which meant
that we received Freshies. On the way out of
the Galley, I spied bananas. I'm not a huge
fruit consumer, but I do like bananas, apples
oranges and grapes so I look out for them. I
went over to the bananas and the first thing I
did was look at the sticker. Where was it from?
ECUADOR the label said. So I grabbed two! Why
so fussy? Well, Lynn and I got into the habit
of eating delicious Ecuador bananas when we
lived there last summer and when we came back to
the States, we only bought bananas from Ecuador.
None of those "nasty" Guatamalan bananas! Would
I have left these bananas in the bowl if they
weren't my favorites? You bet!

What to do?

There is never a shortage of things to do at
McMurdo during the day. However, during the
night, it's another story. Especially when
you have to stay out of your room because your
roommate is sleeping. I'm lucky enough to be
off for a three day weekend, but when you can't
stay in your room it's especially difficult.
So, I've been spending quite a bit of time on
the internet, hanging out in the Galley, watching
movies on my laptop and reading magazines. It
would be nice to take a three day roadtrip, but
alas, that's still about two months away!

What's For Dinner?

Meals here often tend to be a mystery as it
is, but this one really has me scratching my
head. Are there 40 cloves in each pan?
40 cloves for the entire community? 40
cloves per person??? If that's true, we
definitely won't have a vampire problem
anywhere near McMurdo!

This Year's Go Picnics

Again this year, instead of offering people on
flights "Flight Lunches" made by the Galley, we
offer passengers "Go Picnics". They are a little
tastier than in years past, but they are kid-sized
and not as filling. So before, they were larger,
but tasted funny. Now they taste ok, but are smaller.
Something amiss there...

The Long Day

Today turned into a long day. Everything actually
went very smoothly for most of the day. Flights
actually made it to WAIS Divide and to Byrd Surface
Camp. No small accomplishment considering the
weather in those places lately. Just after 4PM,
I needed to conduct a crew tour. Pretty standard
stuff, but Store was closed so I drove the crew
to a few additional photo-taking spots. When
I dropped them off at the plane, I was instructed
to stick around. I would need to pick up four
generals and their escort from the LC-130 Herc
and take them to the C-17. However, when I picked
them up, they decided to wait in the Airfield Galley
until the plane left. Not a big deal at all, but
by now the clock was spinning and my day was getting
longer. By the time I dropped them off at the
plane going north, I had been at work for 13 1/2
hours. Ugh. Just in time to eat dinner and go
to bed.

Chunk of Ice

Fleet Ops (The guys and gals that run the
heavy equipment) drug this large Ice Boulder
into town and placed it in the Galley Pad.
Their equipment was coming across chunks
of ice this big while creating the Sea Ice
Runway this year. I've seen some bigger
pieces of ice out there, but they were ones
that had been churned up by an icebreaker.
Nonetheless, it was no small feat just to
get this big icecube into town.

Yum

Last night, I joined a large group of people, including
my ATO co-workers as possibly the last people in the world
to eat Thanksgiving Dinner. Not only did we have to wait
until Saturday to celebrate Thanksgiving, we had to wait
until Midnight to do so. It was worth the wait as our
happy little ATO family got together and ate our brains
out in the Galley. To be honest, I pretty much behaved
myself and even took my dessert home for later since I
was full. We topped it out with a quiet evening (morning)
at the Coffee House, relaxing. Overall a really pleasant
day. Ugh...now back to work tonight.

Olives?

I try not to complain too much about the food here.
Especially since the kitchen staff is given a set
number of ingredients and they have to do their best
with it. However...tonight I have to put my foot down.
Who the f**k puts olives in Tuna Salad. Sorry, for the
bad language but on a mid-rats dinner night where a
sandwich was going to be the star attraction due to
an occurrance of Chicken Pot Pie Soup, I was drawn
quickly to what seemed like enticing tuna salad. Not
so fast Tuna-boy! What is that stuff in there...onions?
Oh no...God-forbid there be onions in the Tuna Salad.
Someone might be allergic to a diced vegetable that has
been around for thousands of years. Yes, tonight we
had Tuna Salad, generously filled with...Olives. Not
even big pieces of olives that you could pick out.
Someone had to go through the paces to dice them into
tiny pieces. This is yet another case of "Just leave it
the heck alone". Sometimes the galley just tries too
much. Comfort food is not a bad thing. Especially
when the nearest comfort food is thousands of miles
away. In the meantime...hold the olives.

Eatin' the Mexician Food

While strolling into the Galley at McMurdo the past few
months, my mind frequently wandered toward Mexican food.
Now I'm going overload...I've eaten Mexican food...including
Taco Bell, 5 out of the last 8 days! For some reason, I
feel a great urge to speak Spanish...I don't know why...

Pierogies!

A little over a week ago, I ran across the website for
the Pierogi Fest in Whiting Indiana. This is not far from
my parent's house and although I've never attended, it
made me miss Pierogies an awful lot. On a whim, I copied
the website address and sent it to Angie in the Galley and
asked her when we would be having Pierogies in the Galley.
Expecting a flat out "No", instead I received a "No problem.
We'll make them this week some time". I was pretty pumped!
So Francis spun his creative web of Eastern European cookery
and fixed Pierogies tonight for dinner. Not for everyone
though. Mostly for the Galley crew, a few others and Lynn and
me. Wow! I was amazed. These were awesome and just the
perfect pick me up for this time of year. We even had Ham
and Scalloped Potatoes with the Pierogies for dinner. It
felt just like Easter! So, Thank You Francis! Dziękują!

Mid-Winter Dinner

Last night we attended the Midwinter Dinner. It's the
one time during the winter when the Galley looks a lot
less like the Galley and more like a restaurant. The
food was great, the decorations were wonderful, the crowd
was smartly dressed and the company was a hoot! I'm
pretty sure a good time was had by all.

Bring Out Your Dead

OK...maybe it's not that bad...but every year about this
time, the Galley has a shortage of bowls. There aren't any
less bowls here. Something didn't transport them away to
another land or they didn't "move the island" like in "Lost".
People just take bowls and dishes to their rooms with food
on them and never bring them back. We do the same thing, but
generally wash them before bringing them back so food doesn't
sit on them and get crusty...ugh. I remember when I was in
the Housing Department and I would go into some peoples'
rooms and there would be weeks of dishes piled up in the
corner...all nasty with old food on them. It's lucky we
don't have insects or rodents here because some people would
have a serious problem. Yes, these are our neighbors. But...
most people are good and return their dishes. That makes me
think that the few people that are not returning their bowls
and dishes have a heckuva lot of them in their rooms. I
envision people closing their doors very quickly so the mountain
of bowls filled with old Flank Steak, Blazing Redfish or Chicken
Florentine doesn't escape their room. Not a pretty picture.

Freshies...Glorious Freshies!

When the plane left on Thursday, it deposited amongst other things,
thousands of pounds of Freshies. Fresh fruit and vegegetables.
We actually had mushrooms on salads Thursday night! I LOVE
mushrooms so it was a special treat. If you are a fruit lover,
almost more different kinds than you can imagine! Alas, these
won't last very long, but after having limited fresh produce
for two months, and sharing what we did have with 97 other people
who are now gone, it almost felt like grocery shopping while in
the Galley. Several times I heard people make that comparison.
A trip to the world back home without the high prices that fresh
produce usually brings. Lynn's favorite are the apples and I'm
partial to oranges...but fresh stuff...any fresh stuff is popular
this time of year.

The Camps are Closed

When the last helo came in today from Marble Point,
the last camp closed and except for the last week
of song and dance, the Extended Season is drawing to
an end. It's odd to see people in the Galley that
you have no idea who they are. If they've even been
to McMurdo the last two months, it was for a brief
weekend visit and then back off to the Dry Valleys.
I doubt there will be an Extended Season again for
a while, but it's been interesting for sure this
year.

Dish Washaaaaa

Do you know of a movie that you're constantly quoting
from? Ok, so maybe you don't. But Lynn and I do.
Several in fact...but the one that comes to mind after
tonight is "Dragon...The Bruce Lee Story" Toward the
beginning of the film, his boss at a Chinese restaurant
tells Bruce he will always be a Dish Washaaaaa. If he
didn't do something with his life, he will always be a
Dish...Washaaaaa.

Well, I thought I had been doing something with my life,
but I find myself again becoming a Dish Washaaaaa. You
see, it's winter (kind of) at McMurdo and everyone...women,
men, old and young, have to wash dishes. Tonight was our
first shift of the season and just walking into the Pot
Room is like stepping into the belly of the beast. Too
many pots. It seems that there are too many pots and pans
being dirtied for the amount of people that are being cooked
for. I'm sure that the cooks need all of these dishes. I'm
just not sure why. It was nice that a couple of the cooks
thanked us for washing tonight. Like we had a choice.
On the other hand, I did get a nice compliment today from
Angie, who is the Food Service Supervisor. She told me that
that I was a big reason that the Dining Attendant
(Dish Washaaaaa) program is a success this year. Mostly
because of the work I'm doing on the schedule and finding
subs when people call in sick (hmmm). Washing dishes was
my first job in High School and now I'm finding myself doing
it yet again. Maybe I'm meant to be a...Dish Washaaaaa!

C is for Cookie

Wednesday. Hump Day? The only day with 9 letters in it's name?
A day that's hard to spell? Yes, to all of those. But...in
McMurdo, it's also COOKIE DAY! Yes, you know it, you love it,
you can't live without it. Cookie Day in McMurdo. People fall
into routines here. Saturday dinner is ALWAYS Italian...ugh.
I like Italian food, but I'm really tired of it on Saturday
nights. Wednesday is also Mexican day for Lunch. Again...shake
it up a bit, ok? But...who could EVER get tired of Cookie Day.
Watching people fill their pockets with saran-wrapped cookies
is almost an event. How many cookies will actually fit in Big
Red. Which will burst first...their pockets or their waistlines?
Cookie Day...an event? A fashion faux pas? A risk to the PQ
process? Yes to all.

Foraging For a Fork

From back when airlines used real silverware...heck,
when airlines served real food...Lynn somehow acquired
a set of silverware from Air Canada. I think they might
have originally arrived to her possession through some
mysterious garage sale purchase...Hmm...dishonest
Canadians selling stolen goods over international
boundaries...sounds just like those Canadians....
(Just Kidding of course). However, for years now,
Lynn and I have been carrying small sets of silverware
with us wherever we travel, finding them useful for
impromptu picnics from Thailand, to Paris, to Mitchell
Nebraska. Never did I think, especially in this day
and age of TSA agents rifling through one's bags did
I think that I would lose any part of this silverware
set here in Antarctica. This is home...I live here.
You don't lose stuff often in a place you live. Yes,
you misplace it, but later find it. I was using the
silverware set because we forgot to get utensils from
the Galley one night for use with our dinner. By
accident, the fork was picked up with other dirty
dishes and taken to the Galley. Upon discovering it's
absence, I figured it was gone...long gone. Not that
anyone would want a fork with a maple leaf on it, but
considering the folks that populate this small bastion
of odd-ness, it might be seen as a cool gift or even
something good to clean one's shower drain with. I
went to the galley later that night and carefully
looked through the forks (without touching them of
course). It was like looking for a needle...in a
stack of needles. This place has hundreds if not a
thousand forks. Didn't find it. Gave it up for lost.
Regardless, I asked Lead DA Larissa to keep a lookout
for it. Three days later...tah dah! The missing
Canadian fork was found...no worse for ware (HA...)
So now it's back in it's purple pouch. Next to it's
Canadian brother and sister...the knife and the spoon,
awaiting it's next picnic. It's already travelled all
the way to the Galley at McMurdo...where will it travel
next?