Transitions

After the first few days here, I settled into a routine. I'd wake up at around 5 or 6 PM, do my morning cleanup, then go up and have some "breakfast" (which, half the time, was whatever was for supper). After that, I'd work for 12-14 hours, broken up by midrats and breakfast, then I'd head to bed at around 8AM. That schedule slowly drifted until by the beginning of the week I was getting up at 7PM and going to back to my room at 10 or 11AM.

We're taking the last plane out of here and that plane leaves between the 17th and the 24th, depending on the weather.

A couple of days ago, in preparation for returning to civilization, I started breaking that routine.

I'm trying to work an additional hour each day, so that I'll be closer to a normal New Zealand day when we leave. Today I woke up at around 10:30PM (and it was shower day, so I got my luxurious 2 minute shower!) and will try to stay up until 4PM

There will be an additional break in my routine today, however. Since today is the 16th, and the weather could turn ugly at any minute, we need to have everything except our carry-on luggage packed and at the loading point by 5PM today. This means that I need to pack everything I'll need for the next week in my backpack (along with my laptop and accessories) and put out the rest of my bags.

That's not the bad part, however.

We need to bag-drag at 7PM. That means we'll need to put on our ECW gear, take our carry-on stuff and hike out to the Jamesway area to be weighed in with all our luggage. After that, we wave goodbye to our checked luggage (which will sit on a pallet until it's unloaded in McMurdo) and tromp back to the main station.

Note that bag-drag time -- 7PM. Note also that I'm going to try to stay up until 4PM today. It's going to be a LOOONNNG night...