Just another day

It's been pretty cloudy around here for the last few days. This is kind of bad because when it's cloudy, it's difficult for planes to land. The word going around the station is that they're way behind schedule on fuel flights, which means that there might not be enough fuel to heat the station through the winter. It also means that as soon as the weather turns, they'll probably start running as many flights as they possibly can.

Because it's so dingy, I've spent most of my time working. The room where I sleep, the galley where I eat, and the space where I work are in the same building, so I haven't put on my gear in DAYS. Looking out my window this morning, I can see blue sky and even some sunshine so maybe I'll venture out today.

I'll definitely make it out on Tuesday for the centennial anniversary of Captain Scott's arrival at the South Pole. There was a big celebration of Admunsen's centennial last month but this will be more subdued, partly because, well, Scott was second and partly because his entire party perished on the return trip.

At around 4PM we'll do a bit of outreach at the visitor's center, explaining a bit about IceCube while a computer displays some flashy IceCube graphics and then at around 6PM there will be a brief ceremony.

Since I haven't taken any pictures of the dingy outdoors, here's I sight I'll be experiencing again in just 6 days. This was taken while we were waiting for our plane in McMurdo. That's my heavily laden colleague Andreas in the foreground.