Headed South for the Winter (2010)

Ok, Here's the deal; "I Finally Landed a JOB!". With Raytheon Polar Services. A direct contractor to the National Science Foundations’ “United States Antarctic Program” division. 
 (Donations are tax deductible and worth every penny)

YAY!!!!!  '

 It was a bit ago, May 24th, but the interesting thing is that it is something I have wanted to do since I learned of it in 2001. It involved traveling to one of the harshest, most remote locations on the planet, AND, it crossed the equator. I have never been farther south than 24 degrees latitude. It was a job working for the National Science Foundation (NSF) through a contractor. A company I have worked for in the past at another far-off location in one of the harshest environments on earth. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A HOT (months it would be 97-115, sometimes getting up to 122. I heard it was 124 but never saw myself), dry, 330+ days a year cloudless, HOT, dirty (dirt, sand and dust everywhere, all the time), smelly place. But I digress, maybe another time I will write what I can remember from 4 years in Saudi Arabia.


But today, July 29th, 2010, I am working for “Raytheon Polar Services”, a contractor that supplies logistical, material, personnel, technical, engineering and moral support to the teams of scientists bankrolled by the National Science Foundation. Believe me, it’s a great cause! And I’m not saying it because they pay my salary. That isn’t as good as what I would get in the private sector by a long shot. Govt. Contractors have always paid mediocre. But they, more often than not, offered good stability, decent benefits, and if you were willing to relocate often, and longevity in/with a company.
Anyways, enough of my opinion of government contractors. They provide stimulus to our economy by your tax dollars buying what makes America great. Intellectual advancement.
Anyways, back to the actual subject.

“ANTARCTICA”

Interesting Links dealing with Antarctica:
http://www.icemarathon.com/ (A marathon run right at McMurdo, heard about the one last year. These people are NUTS!)
http://photolibrary.usap.gov/index.htm (US Antarctic Program Gallery of photos. All stations and gives a good overall picture of what it’s like visually)
http://rpsc.raytheon.com/ Raytheon Polar Services, for those of you who MAY be interested! Mwahahahaha!!


I would watch anything on TV about the location. It was always so remote, inhospitable (by everything I had heard, but never experienced), and flat alien. It was so far away from north America that I always figured it would be about as easy landing a job there as it would be in China. I always wanted to see the “Aurora Borealis”. That usually only could be seen at night inside the arctic, or Antarctic circles and they are 66° 33′ 44″ (or 66.562°) south of the Equator. For those The Antarctic circle barely covers 10% of Antarctica. There’s, on the average, 1,000 miles from the Antarctic Circle to the south pole.

Climate Antarctica is the coldest and windiest spot on the planet. In fact, the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was recorded in Antarctica (-129.3ºF) and the mean winter temperatures range from -40º to -94ºF. Winds are commonly measured at up to 200 miles per hour.

The South Pole is about 1300 miles from the Antarctic Circle at 66.6°.  McMurdo is about 800 miles from the south pole. When I get there I have been told I won’t see the sun for almost a month and a half. This isn’t to say it won’t get light. It’s just the sun won’t come up over the horizon until the first week in October. Should be interesting for sure.

I finally found out I PQ’d (Physical Qualification). A PQ is a combo physical, dental inspection, and serious blood work and urinalysis done. Only thing I was worried about was my teeth. Had e few crowns, and no dental work done for the last 18 months. Ended up having one filling required to be redone, two cavities and I had six fillings replaced. They were worn, ragged and crappy so I figured to avoid any problems on the ice I would have em redone. All finished.

7/31/2010

Went out today to get some clothes for cold weather. Try getting what I think will be a good choice to augment what they will be issuing in Christchurch, New Zealand. Went out today and bought Under Armor long underwear. Heavy crap it is. And expensive as hell!! Long underwear and long pull over shirt cost $50 each. OUCH! Definitely will be using the ones they issue me in Christchurch. Also bought two lycra sock liners for all my cotton socks. I was told flat out, “Cotton Kills” but this should take care of most of the problem of moisture against the skin freezing. Average temp there seems to be -20ish, cold as hell, but not the -75 they get at the south pole.Add wind chill and they hover between -30 and -75 at McMurdo. South Pole, I’ve seen days with wind chill last winter hitting the -175+ range. The lycra stuff I can wash daily by hand if I need to. Shouldn’t need it ALL the time though. Also bought a new pair of cold-weather boots from Gander Mountain. Waterproof to the top of the foot and extends up over the ankle. Will have to see whether they were worth it or not. Getting true cold weather boots (Mickey Mouse Boots) that I was issued to go to Korea back in 1981. Never needed them though, even the night we had to go out in -55 weather on top of Palgon Son Mtn. to try and fix a 8’ parabolic dish antenna. We waited till the winds died down below 10 mph.

Anyways, I have tickets as of Thursday, July 29th. They were given to me by our travel section “DCS” (No idea, much less care what that stands for) along with some bright yellow plastic Antarctica Luggage tags. I guess they give these out in a different color. Saw a stack of them on a guys backpack in the office. He musta been going down there the last 8 years at least. What a concept!!

Plans:

Live the experience of traveling on the other side of the equator, hopefully all the way to the south pole if possible. Enjoy Christchurch New Zealand as much as I can. Freeze my ASS off! (given)

Of course I will miss Kim and the Brats greatly. No getting around that. They are my life. But it’s “Only” 7 months (yea, right). We have done 6 months apart before a couple times. Not since the kids though. Reality Check; I needed a job and when this one finally came around I looked at it as a way to recharge unemployment benefits. No guarantee I will still have work after the contract supposedly ends next April 2, 2011. And, it gets me back into the RF side again, giving me actual hand-on experience along with some networking. Not supposed to be in my job description (is it ever) but my managers realized they found a gold-mine with me. An “Admin Specialist” position being filled by an engineer with network, RF AND heavy equipment (overhead cranes up to 500 ton lift capacity) repair that can use almost any tool out there and isn’t afraid of heights?

We went to Elich Gardens yesterday (7/29/2010) for a family outing. Was fun, but even the kids got bored. Been-there, Done-that. All of us. We still had a decent time getting soaked, and riding the coasters. Nice lazy day too even though it was HOT, humid (not near as bad as the south or far east) and stormy to boot.

Preparations for departure:

Mowed the lawn yesterday (8/1/2010) hopefully for the second to the last time. Kim HATES lawnmowers since her granddad lost toes to one. It was warm again, mid-80’s and humid for CO. Been storming almost every afternoon.

Had the kids bury the last water tube for the irrigation system I put in with the new sod (560 sq. feet) over the 4^th an 11^th of July Weekends. Kids did good, got to be 103 on the 11th and we all worked outside for 6 hours. They complained as kids do, but till helped all day. Went and bought them both new skateboard decks as payment for their help since both theirs were trashed.

Almost finished with Kim’s scrapbooking shelves. Had to make them a specific size to hold 14” x 14” Scrapbooks (12” pages). Only the trim is left and she has that almost completer staining. Shelves measure 41” high, x 15” deep, x 36” wide. Has three shelves and made from ¾” oak finish plywood. Dowelled, channeled and glued. No screws or nails except in the trim. Should be done today. She will put a coat of polyurethane (maybe two) on them and will be done.

Refinance the house (today), interest rates have dropped too low to not take advantage of.

Make diagrams and instructions as to how to turn off the water to the outside sprinklers so the pipes don’t freeze and burst for Kim.

8/2/2010

Day off from work. I’ve been taking Fridays and Mondays off for the last four weeks. Use-em or loose-em so burning 5 holidays and 13 hours of PTO. Starting the morning by drinking coffee, entering this to the blog, and soon will do a “Plyo” workout using the P90X system. Plyo is better than legs or core any day! Did Legs on Sat with Kim, still sore. Now that softball is over I have to find more time for exercise (Smiling while I write this).

Today we have to go attempt to refinance the house today at 2PM, I take Tucker (a friend of the family) to football practice tonight at 5PM. Kids go back to school on Monday, Aug 9^th. Only 4 actual working days left, three this week and one next week. Wed. I head to RPSC for a ride to the airport around noon. Plane flight out at 4:30PM to LAX. Gonna be a hell of a long ride to Christchurch, New Zealand and not looking forward to two days on an airplane and in airports. Been-there, Done-that!! way too many times already.

Going to go hunt up the sea-bags when I get back. Best thing in the world for non-breakables and durability plus space. Get two check ins at 70 lbs. each, then a carry on and a “Purse” LOL. Friggin camera bag again.