Migration to Summer Camp

Lately the temperatures have been hovering around -45 F, which makes it feel like summer. I only have to wear 2 layers beneath my Big Red instead of 4. Accompanying the warm temps are high winds so snow is blowing around everywhere creating giant drifts right where we shoveled the drifts a couple weeks ago for our summer opening tasks.

Two days ago, after breakfast, the winds died down and the sun had a sweet halo around it. I got the sudden urge to move from my A1-118 room to the J13-3 room. The jamesways are about a 1/2 mile from the station. Walking to them from the station ain't bad since the wind is almost always against your back, but waking up at 2:30 AM and walking to the elevated station, walking into the wind, with a windchill of -70 F and sleep still in the eyes and no coffee and no bathroom (just an empty bottle) to go potty in is a big wake up call. I've created the habit of having my ECW and chef clothing next to my backpack in the jamesway room so that when I wake up all I have to do is throw my chef gear in my bag, bundle up and walk to work, head down fur up just follow the dozer tracks until I hit the stairs of DZ.

Here's a synopsis of the move.

I packed up everything in my room into two suitcases and the two orange bags that they give us in Christchurch, NZ. Half of my stuff is blankets and chef outfits, the other half is fake flowers, black lights and gym clothing. I drug the bags outside of DZ and shoveled out a wee little yellow sled.

I then pulled the bags to my new home.

There are still huge piles of snow around the jamesways so it took a bit for me to wander through the snow maze to get to J-13.

Home sweet home.

Inside the thermostat is at 65 F and it is 65 F right next to the heater, but against the walls in the rooms it's more like 45 F. That reminds me, I need to bring out another 3 blankets today to insulate the walls because last night I had snow drifting onto my matress right next to my feet. The jamesways are well aged and look as if they were pulled out from a vietnam war US military camp, dropped onto the Ice and had a heater thrown onto the side. There are cool drawings all over the place and eerie red lights keep the hallway lit.

This is when I first got to my room. Boring.

Here's the view of my room (to the left) and another room (to the right) from across the tiny hall.

After a few hours I had the room tronikfied (yes, that's a new word, but the galley staff will understand).

This is way more like it. The first Basler plane has been delayed several times and the earliest we will see new faces is Wed. of next week. That means I get the jamesway to myself (: for a bit longer and it will keep quiet. Lying in bed you can hear/feel the ice crack and I wonder where that cracking is coming from... maybe it's from two miles below me where there are giant mountains and hidden waterfalls and possiblly penguinish aliens.

Here's the view of the frontyard.