Hello one and all!! I am past due for an update, this I do know. So, here you go....
At the moment, I am en route, once again, down for round number two in Antarctica at McMurdo station. Thus far I've gotten as far as Christchurch, New Zealand and am now delayed due to severe weather conditions happening in Antarctica that are not making for favorable conditions for planes to be landing there. And so...such is my lot...I am stuck in New Zealand...big bummer, huh? ha ha! Well, before you get too envious of me let me just tell you...it is cold and rainy...and I'm not really doing anything really cool besides hanging out, eating, sleeping, and waiting to leave. I am more in this sort holding pattern waiting for a word that the weather has cleared each day that this delay goes on. Could be a few days...who knows and I have to be ready to go when they say, "its time!" Now, if I had a close friend or a few close friends here with me...this would be GREAT!
Last year, if you remember, I got a job as a Vehicle Operator, duties including: giving people rides around "town," shuttling flight crews and airfield workers to and from the airfield, picking up/dropping off passengers coming and going on airplanes, vehicle maintenance, and dispatch duties. It was a fun job and I was hoping to do it again this year. I thought it would be a "shoe in" and didn't apply for any other jobs. Well, there was a change over of the contractor who hires all of the "science support" people (ie. all the non-science jobs) and with that change over and low bid came HUGE cuts to all departments. (Raytheon Polar Services used to be the contractor and now it is under Lockheed Martin). Anyway, my department got cut 60%!! And so...that left most of us in my department wanting to return to that job, without a position. So, for awhile, there, I thought it wasn't going to happen for me to go a second season and I began to think about a possible plan B but then, by some stroke of fate, this random other job in another department basically fell in my lap (I had some help on the "inside" with people putting words in for me and helping to find an open position). So, this season, my job will be in a department called Supply. I don't even know myself what it fully entails yet, till I get down there and stark working, but it deals with all the shipments of cargo coming in and going out of the station. My job, as a Data Inventory Specialist, will be to check everything in and out, entering it into the computer system, making sure departments are getting the things they ordered, inventorying everything, and so on. I was told that when I first get down there, I will be helping out in the Crary lab, basically filling in areas of highest need until the full department workforce can get down there. I am excited to be in Crary lab for awhile...that's where all the scientists are doing their thing so it should be interesting!
This year, I am being shipped down a month before I was last year and I will be shipped out a little later (at the end of February). So, I think it all adds up to about 4.5 months this season. I am interested in seeing what season #2 looks like. It is nice already knowing people down there this time and also just being familiar with how things run. And so...that is basically the news on me and Antarctica. I will try and do my best to keep you updated and entertained!
At the moment, I am en route, once again, down for round number two in Antarctica at McMurdo station. Thus far I've gotten as far as Christchurch, New Zealand and am now delayed due to severe weather conditions happening in Antarctica that are not making for favorable conditions for planes to be landing there. And so...such is my lot...I am stuck in New Zealand...big bummer, huh? ha ha! Well, before you get too envious of me let me just tell you...it is cold and rainy...and I'm not really doing anything really cool besides hanging out, eating, sleeping, and waiting to leave. I am more in this sort holding pattern waiting for a word that the weather has cleared each day that this delay goes on. Could be a few days...who knows and I have to be ready to go when they say, "its time!" Now, if I had a close friend or a few close friends here with me...this would be GREAT!
Last year, if you remember, I got a job as a Vehicle Operator, duties including: giving people rides around "town," shuttling flight crews and airfield workers to and from the airfield, picking up/dropping off passengers coming and going on airplanes, vehicle maintenance, and dispatch duties. It was a fun job and I was hoping to do it again this year. I thought it would be a "shoe in" and didn't apply for any other jobs. Well, there was a change over of the contractor who hires all of the "science support" people (ie. all the non-science jobs) and with that change over and low bid came HUGE cuts to all departments. (Raytheon Polar Services used to be the contractor and now it is under Lockheed Martin). Anyway, my department got cut 60%!! And so...that left most of us in my department wanting to return to that job, without a position. So, for awhile, there, I thought it wasn't going to happen for me to go a second season and I began to think about a possible plan B but then, by some stroke of fate, this random other job in another department basically fell in my lap (I had some help on the "inside" with people putting words in for me and helping to find an open position). So, this season, my job will be in a department called Supply. I don't even know myself what it fully entails yet, till I get down there and stark working, but it deals with all the shipments of cargo coming in and going out of the station. My job, as a Data Inventory Specialist, will be to check everything in and out, entering it into the computer system, making sure departments are getting the things they ordered, inventorying everything, and so on. I was told that when I first get down there, I will be helping out in the Crary lab, basically filling in areas of highest need until the full department workforce can get down there. I am excited to be in Crary lab for awhile...that's where all the scientists are doing their thing so it should be interesting!
This year, I am being shipped down a month before I was last year and I will be shipped out a little later (at the end of February). So, I think it all adds up to about 4.5 months this season. I am interested in seeing what season #2 looks like. It is nice already knowing people down there this time and also just being familiar with how things run. And so...that is basically the news on me and Antarctica. I will try and do my best to keep you updated and entertained!
