great days, part I: end of nights

A few fun and exciting little things have taken place in the last couple days and I plan to write a few blog entries detailing some of the greater (and lesser) events!

Starting with the lesser:
Wednesday night I worked my last night shift. As of Monday morning, my working hours will be 05:30 to 17:30. The thought is a bit overwhelming since I’ll be awake with over 800 people, rather than about 100 at a time. The number of vehicle checks and maintenance that we do will drop, but the amount of driving increase! I’m finding a bit of disappointment in that I won’t get to see some of my new friends from ATO (Antarctic Terminal Operations), but there will be a whole crew of new people in my department to meet, I suppose!

Another fun and exciting thing that happened Thursday morning after I got off my last night shift was my run. I didn’t use a treadmill; it was actually still a balmy 25 degrees, so I was able to make use of the ice runway road to jog out to Ice Town and back! I can’t express how happily I ran along the ice and snow, thinking that I’d never done anything quite so peculiar to get exercise before!

I also received a package from REI with some new sock liners, a mouth gaurd with a snowflake on it and Laura’s Christmas present! It is so fun to pick up a package with all sorts of treasures inside!

And, I have another exciting package arriving soon, too! Part of being a participant in the USAP (United States Antarctic Program) is that various companies will offer us promotional deals on their products. We typically have to contact the company, let them know what we are doing and supporting, and then wait for the company to confirm our employment. I ordered my first pair of boots from Keen as the gear issued boots are a bit like water bottles for your feet; sucking the moisture out of them, so you can slosh around in the shoes! I know this is a “cheap thrill” but I received a better than 50% discount on these shoes!

I know these are small joys, but they are part of what keep life exciting and rolling along here! The warm weather in itself seems to insight some excitement among people. Big Red gets bulky and just leaving him behind is a welcome relief!