I love Kelly Days

Today is the start of my Kelly day. I do not have to be back to work till Sunday, when I go back 2 hours early to cover for a friend who is running a race that day and needs to sign in.

I desperately need to sleep in tomorrow. I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately, and last night was the last straw. I generally like my shift, but I can't stand inconsiderate people, and that's what they were last night.

But I went for a run today, and made it down the hill and up to the hut without stopping. I walked up to the edge to see if there were any seals, but I didn't see any, so I just stretched out and walked back down to the hut (where my iPod died from low battery). I started running on the way back, but it was hard to concentrated without the Pod, and I didn't do as well. I did manage to get in some interval training though.

It's hard to run down here, cause even when it's nice out (like today, 32F), it's still cold, and it freezes my lungs and makes me get out of breath even faster than normal. I'm debating going to the gym this afternoon...I may just go back and start some laundry and sleep. We'll see what happens.

Tomorrow, Mandy, one of the dispatchers, and I are going to hike up Ob Hill, which I haven't done yet. It's supposed to be gorgeous weather tomorrow (something the weather people said about penguins wearing sunglasses), but weather is subject to change at a moment's notice, so you never know. I've been wanting to go up, but it's usually bad weather, or I can't find anyone to go with me. Supposedly, you can see open water from the top. That'll be cool. The ice edge has made it to the Dellbridge Islands (Inaccessable, Tent, Big Razorback and Little Razorback Islands) which means about 10 miles from station now.

Yesterday was a bad day. I got sent to Station 2 at the last minute so I had to scramble to get my stuff back together, I had to drive the ambo back (it was in the shop), and refuel it, and spilled diesel on my glove, and didn't get a bottom bunk (so it was the couch for me), and got sent to Pegasus. I was supposed to leave at noon, but then the LC-130 guys decided they wanted to do touch-and-go's at Pegasus, so at 10am I got a call that I had to leave in half an hour. When we all got out there, we got the word that they would not, in fact, be doing touch and go's at Pegasus, but instead would be doing them at Willy Field. It wasn't all bad, I got some other pictures taken and stuff, and we hung out in the Fleet Ops shack and had a small lunch. The C-17 came in and there were a bunch of DV's (Distinguished Visitors) coming off. They were all congressmen and staffers, here for the new South Pole Station dedication next week. According to the captain, they got off the plane and immediately started shaking hands and (if there had been any) kissing babies. He was amused by it all. I was more amused by the people getting off the plane all decked out in ECW gear, Big Red's zipped up, and there were cargo guys walking around in their Carharts and short-sleeved T-shirts, and our captain meeting them at the plane in uniform pants, regular boots and a fleece jacket over a t-shirt. It was warm and sunny yesterday.

Anyway, I got back and was tired, and wanted to go to bed early, but I couldn't since I was on the couch. We played a bit of Outburst, using new rules (half the pieces of the game have been lost), and then at 1130pm, the guys decided to start Monopoly. I wanted to go to bed, so I went in the other room (where the TV is) and took one of the couches. They were pretty loud in the beginning, but I managed to fall asleep until about 0330, when I was woken up by the TV. They decided to watch Rome on TV, and it was LOUD. I was particularly irritated cause 2 of the 3 guys who were watching TV had snagged the bottom bunks, and it was nearly 4am. I moved into the other room after asking them to turn the TV down a hair, and I still couldn't sleep. Once on the other couch I slept ok, though I had some bizarre and bad dreams.

So today is laundry day, and tomorrow is sleeping day, and hiking day (I won't run tomorrow cause the hike will be enough cardio for me, though I might still go to the gym). I might even go to the gym today.