Well we're movin on up, To the east side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky. Movin on up To the east side. We finally got a piece of the pie. Fish don't fry in the kitchen; Beans don't burn on the grill. Took a whole lotta tryin' Just to get up that hill. Now we're up in the big leagues Gettin' our turn at bat. As long as we live, it's you and me baby There ain't nothin wrong with that. Well we're movin on up, To the east side. To a deluxe apartment in the sky. Movin on up To the east side. We finally got a piece of the pie.
I've been busy! And yes, I've moved. I now live on the "east side" of the station. Enough summer-only people have left so that yesterday many of us staying for the winter were re-assigned to the bigger winterover rooms. What a difference 32sq-ft makes! My room is very reasonably sized. I can now take off a shirt without hitting my knuckles on a wall. Also, this is an 'interior room' meaning, I have no window. At first that might sound like a step backwards, but it's not. I had a window in my last room, and had to put a piece of cardboard in there to block the light. Remember, the sun is out from August until April. And, when the sun is down, what is there to see outside? There are no exterior lights on the station so that certain astronomical experiments can occur.
Other changes: The real hero of this summers' Power Plant is leaving today. My little bro' Anthony leaves for The States today. He'll be spending the first half of the winter at Palmer on the Antarctic penninsula, then McMurdo for Winfly, then back here about the time I'll be ready to leave. His contribution here cannot be overstated.
In other news, I enjoyed my first Cuban cigar last weekend. One of the VMF guys bought some in New Zealand (where they are legal) and shared them with some of us. They were, admittedly, a bit dried out but smooth none-the-less. My humidor is almost ready for use (it's still 'seasoning',) but I am still waiting for the hygrometer which didn't make the shipment. The vendor has promised I will get it before the last flight; we'll see. Regardless, I plan on busting out one of my
better cigars this Friday when the last plane departs.
Saturday, I was walking past the Comms shop and heard some music cranking. I stopped in to find an impromtu hair salon was rockin'. Unable to resist, I ended up with a certain amount of color removed from a certain quantity of my hair. What the heck?! It's not quite as drastic as what I did in the 80's when I could have joined the platimun blond band "The Police", but fun anyway. Other friends bleached their whole head, then sculpted mohawks. I'm not ready for the Travis Bickel yet:
Are you talkin' to me?
Apologies for the long delay between posts. The satellite timing is not favorable to my schedule which, by the way, has also changed. On weekends, we used to have volunteers from among the population do the every-two-hours watch of the Power Plant. This practice has now been eliminated, and the three of us must now cover the watches 24/7. We still only work 6 days a week each, but two days a week we work extended hours to cover the guy who is on his day-off. As a result, I was in here at 4am today. 4am is primetime for the satellite these days, so this post is possible.
I'm still a few weeks away from getting the (2) bands I am doing this winter from rehearsing. One of them, will be an all-original hard rock outfit. It will fun writing music for the first time since high school. The other band will do all cover material from the 70's to the present. Why does all popular music from the last 6-8 years suck? Clear Channel. "Down with corporate radio!!!" Interesting, creative music simply cannot get played on McDonalds Radio.
Ok, enough of the soap box.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!
I almost forgot, we had an 82% solar eclipse last week too. I saw it through a welding helmet. It blocked enough of the sun to drop our temperatures to record low's for the day. It was about -54F during the event. Below is a picture series compiled by friend, bassist, beaker Ethan D.:
I'll try to keep this more up-to-date.
5000.
