More Pictures and Problems Solved

Well, I think I finally figured out what was wrong with my computer and the card reader. It would seem that the card reader is being read as drive (I:/) or something else. Well, this is also the drive number for the McMurdo intranet where people stick their pictures and such all the time. I figured it out when the card was coming up as an option in the 'Safely Remove' options but still wasn't being read in my explorer. Of course it wasn't being read...it was already there as a map drive! At any rate, the dispatcher tonight is going to show me how to change the drive map letters, so hopefully we won't have this issue any more.

The good news is that I got my pictures uploaded, and can post more pictures now. I also downloaded a program called 'Picasa' from Google, which is a free bit of software to edit pictures. So I changed some of the more photogenic pictures I took to black and white, or sepia. They came out damned good, if I do say so myself.



We did a drill today on saws. We used the saws we carry to further cut apart the truck that burned up last month. It was fun, throwing sparks all over. No pictures of me, that I know of, but I took some of some of the others cutting.



After we cut up as much as we could (we were running out of blades, and we're not sure where we can get more if we need them), we headed down to the ice pier to help out Fleet Ops. It seemed that one of the culverts that goes under the road to the Ice Pier was blocked by a large chunk of ice, and they wanted us to come down to try to melt it with our warmer water. It only worked so well, but we did get a large chunk of ice out of there, and now all that's left is a piece of what we think is wood. But the water is flowing much better now, so there won't be any ponds down there. It was kinda neat...we set up a hose at the one end, and opened it at a high pressure, and at the other end, we tried to grab at the ice chunk with pike poles. We did finally get it out, and then the back-end loader came in to help dig out the rocks and gravel that were blocking up the pipe a bit.

The Roto-Router Team.


It has been above freezing for the past couple days, and even the nights have been in the mid-20's. The water is running freely now, and there are several major rivers running down the ditches the crews dug weeks ago (that's what I call planning!) All the snow from up on the hills above us is melting and running into town. When things aren't muddy, they're dusty, and my sinuses have been complaining. Not badly, just letting me know they are not happy about the situation.

After we were done playing Roto-Router, we headed back to the station and changed for the gym. I did a good deal of lifting today and one of the A shift guys gave me some pointers. One of the A-shifters is a certified personal trainer..unfortunately, she's on the opposite shift as me, so unless I meet her in the gym when she goes, I won't be able to take advantage. I am planning on meeting up with her though and seeing if she can help me work out a program to get things going. I probably won't go to the gym tomorrow, since the whole town has off on Sunday, and it tends to be crowded then.

However, I will be going to the pressure ridges for a tour tomorrow. I'm pretty psyched about it. They only offer these tours for 2 weeks, and while they try to get everyone out, it isn't easy, so I'm pretty lucky to have gotten a spot. Basically they take you out and you walk along and between the ridges. There are often seals laying around, since the ice tends to be thin (or non-existent) in spots, and they can make holes easily. I can't wait.

And here's some more pictures from when we went Discovery Hut and Hut Point, and from when I was out at Pegasus.