Penguins and frozen toes

I can now leave here happy. I saw an Emperor Penguin today at Pegasus field. Granted, he wasn't the mos gorgeous of penguins, as he was molting...badly. It looked like he had 2 tails. My pictures didn't come out very well, since my good camera died (cold kills batteries), and the smaller one doesn't have as good a zoom. Still he seemed to settle down near the airfield, so I have hopes he'll be there the next time I go out (Wednesday perhaps?). Plus, now that I have seen one for myself, I can snag Lizzie's much better, much closer pictures without feeling like I'm somehow cheating.

He was all poofy from the molting up around his neck and around his legs and butt from molting. I guess it's harder to get those areas with a beak than directly down his front. He probably would come up to about my waist if I were closer to him.

The pictures are posted in my web album. I'll stick one here (none of them are very good...too much sun today).




Thursday there was a solar eclipse down here as well. We were busy picking up about 3000 feet of hose for most of it, but I snagged some pictures of it from the community server. At one point the cloud covered the sun just enough that you could look at the sun, and still see the eclipse with your naked eyes. It was really nifty.



My roommate comes back on Friday. I'll be glad to see her, but sad to give up my single room.

9 days left. It'll be good to be back where there is darkness and warmth. The department's Fire Protection Officer (FPO) left today. The next guy, Mitch, leaves Friday. This week has started the mass exodus of people, as the flights are now every other day. Today 150 people left, the max the plane can take. At that, a lot of people are going home on LC-130's, since there are so many people to leave. The closer the time gets, the more antsy I get to be home. Or at least off the Ice. Plans are solidifying, but I'm hoping I can leave here a day or 2 early.

It's getting much colder too. Today the high was about 7F, with a windchill of -22F. Let me tell you, out at Pegasus, I felt every loss of degree. My face froze walking across the 'town' from the pax terminal to the plug line to turn on one of the trucks. And the truck I was assigned to didn't have heat (unknown to just about everyone...we knew it was having trouble with the heat, and only one heater worked, but today that final heater gave up the ghost..only cold air came out). As a result, but toes froze quite significantly. They actually hurt quite a bit on the trip home. And it seemed like the plane took FOREVER to leave. Mitch and I kept yelling at them to leave (from inside the truck, of course). All told, we were out there for about 4 hours. When we got back, Mitch and I immediately went in the sauna and took our socks off to thaw out our feet. I haven't been that cold in a while, I have to say.

And now for bed. I was up till 230 this morning hanging out with the FPO, Mitch, and my captain. It was an enlightening night.

9 more days.