In other news, the results of the South Pole station election were:
Ralph Nader (Green): 32 votes
Al Gore (Dem): 30
GW Bush (Rep): 7
Harry Brown (Libertarian): 4
Mike Gomez (Welder): 7
various other station personalities, 1 each
I guess we don't represent the States...
In real news, we've had a couple days with enough wind and blowing snow that the main doors to the dome have been closed, and people buddy up to move between buildings outside. No visibility, very spooky. Between our weather and a storm in McMurdo, we haven't had flights in a while and the winterovers who have been trying to leave since last Thursday have been getting twitchy. Every time the pax (passenger) flight is delayed and delayed before finally getting cancelled, more people sit or stand around tensely in Comms waiting for the word to come over the radio. Yesterday, the pax flight was delayed until 10pm, then cancelled; today, the plane got to within 100 miles (hoping for better visibility), circled until it ran low on fuel, and then went home. They'll try again tomorrow.
On the plus side, that meant more friends at the Halloween party which we finally had last weekend. We had a bunch of great costumes and a whole lot of dancing. I was only there from 9 to 3 but I hear the night shift kept it going until 6am. I was a black widow spider (thanks Lulu), that's Latrodectus Hesperus to you. Simple black dress with the red hourglass marking, I had to give up on the cobwebby stuff because I was snagging too many people on the dance floor. I try to be selective, you know. Good fun and not too serious. My two co-workers, Victoria and Dean, were each there in drag - good enough so that many people failed to recognize either one.
Oh yeah, I'm actually working my real job now: computer support and email admin. I get to hang out in the computer room and help people with their email, teach classes, run the admin stuff, like that. It's a lot of fun because a lot of people who come here have never touched a computer before and this is the perfect place to pick up new skills in a no-pressure environment. The motivation is staying in touch with family and friends back home (since we don't have much for phone service) and people want to learn. I also get to do more advanced skills with people who need to use computers for work. It's a good job. I still hang out in Comms and help out when it's busy, give people breaks, etc. Aside from that, some of the normal summer activities have started: yoga, dance class, etc. No thumb-twiddling time here! Matter of fact I should go to bed now.
Hasta luego,
-Sarah