Sorry about not posting last week. Things got away from me a bit.

Anyways, it is now full dark, and we’ve been getting auroras pretty regularly.

Aurora over the station. The bright spot is Guy driving the groomer.

Aurora over the cryo building. Photo taken by Carlos Pobes, with
a nicer camera than mine.

It is really amazing to walk outside and see them, along with the night sky in general. There are so many stars out. So far the auroras haven’t been super bright, but I’ve heard from others that they get brighter and more colorful later in the season. There are times that they get bright enough to read by. I can’t wait!

On the cryo front, Guy built a snow ramp up to the main bay door of the building. Now Steffen and I can drive the sled right up to the door, unload the dewar and park the snow mobile inside, rather than leaving it out in the cold or driving it back to the garage while we fill.

Buzz hanging out in Cryo

We also had to switch snow mobiles. Mad Max had a bad seal, so whenever we took it outside, it would start leaking oil. Now we’re using Buzz Bomb, and it seem to be working better. Another change is that I am moving to nights for the next couple of months. Since BICEP follows a sidereal schedule, the LHe fills have to follow the same schedule. So, for the next month and half deliveries will be in the evening, and then move to the middle of the night, then early morning, at which point I’ll probably switch back to days. My plan is to get up early enough in the afternoon that I don’t miss too much of the social stuff, otherwise, the only person I’ll ever talk to is Steffen, and I don’t think I’m okay with that. Tonight is my first night shift. Wish me luck.

For rec., we finally got soccer organized. It was way fun. I’d gotten used to running on the treadmill and biking and doing short stuff in volleyball and kickball, but running up and down the court continuously left all of us sucking wind. I think Jared described it as feeling like he was drowning. I don’t think it was quiet that bad, but it definitely felt like doing had intervals. Still fun.  Also, the South Pole Pool League is starting up soon. The league ends in a tournament. There are four of us, Jared, Shawn, Heather, and myself, who will be completing for last place. We’re all pretty bad, but I think that since we started practicing at the beginning of the week, I’ve gotten worse.

This morning Marcus made strawberry frappucinnos and Travis modeled the Loch Ness pool floatie that was hanging out in the galley for some reason.

Travis, pool-ready

Blog note: If you click on the Picture of the Day to the left, it should link to my photobucket account, where you can take a look at all my photos. Please let me know it it works or not. Thanks!