[Sksouth-l] First light

[Sarah Kaye]

There's just a little bit of light out there - enough
to see where the sun is circling below the horizon,
not enough to see by yet. When it's behind (and below)
the El Dorm you can see the box shape up on stilts;
when it's behind the Dome you can see its curve. It's
not much yet but it makes us all feel happy. It also
means that we're seeing our last good auroras: the
moon will be up soon, and by the time it sets again
the sun will be much stronger. Fortunately we've been
getting some good, clear days with all the stars and
auroras out. Unfortunately, the day I scammed a work
trip up to the New Station roof wasn't one of those!
Oh well, no harm done.

We've still got a ways to go yet but McMurdo will be
getting their 4 Winfly flights starting in just a few
days. 90 people out, 340 in. I'll be back on radios
for backup support, but they might as well be flying
to the moon for all it'll affect us: they're 800 miles
away, a lot warmer, and a lot brighter. I thought that
this would be the hardest part of the winter: knowing
that McMurdo has people in and out, mail, freshies,
change, etc, and we've got 2 months to go yet - but I
don't feel like that right now. Even though the
routine is a bit monotonous and I'm looking forward to
leaving, I still feel like cherishing what we've got
left of winter. My counterparts in McMurdo get to face
6 weeks of working with annoying new people, training
them, explaining the system, etc: once we get new
people here I'll probably be gone within a week. Just
enough time (I hope) to say hello to incoming friends.

I finally got around to implementing my new work
tourism program: I spent a day working with the
electricians, and a day with the plumbers. Good fun,
something different, and an increase in my general
understanding. I'm hoping to visit the carpenters next
week - ssshhhh - haven't asked the foreman yet.

Station life is mostly cruising along pretty smoothly,
although we've had some minor fusses that got
escalated due to nobody having anything better to talk
about. The proper disposition of 2 bottles of sake
left behind by summer staff was a discussion topic for
a whole week a little while back. Oh my! If that's the
worst we've got, no complaints. Fingers crossed for
the next 2 months.

Our July came in as the coldest July since
record-keeping started in 1957, and the second-coldest
month recorded period. We're all pretty happy about
that, especially the weather observers - they were
both pretty smug when we bagged the record.

No website at the moment, murkworks got hacked pretty
bad - big thanks to my friends who run it, for
recovering the server and getting email back online
while in the middle of moving, surgery, and an arson
wave. Whoo! Some folks have all the excitement. So if
your email to me bounced a little while back, please resend.

Okay enough chatter, it's dinner time. Take care,
thanks to folks who have sent me pictures!


Best,


-Sarah