Our team here in McMurdo can't do any field work for a while, as I mentioned yesterday, due to our supplies and plane being held up for operations from another base. So, we occupy our time as we can. We all have some work from home to do, of course, but we also want to help out with other duties around the station as well - mostly helping our team members from PASSCAL (who provide and service our instruments) with duties that don't strictly fall under our project. Today, we sorted through years' worth of random nuts and bolts and other weird hardware bits that have been tossed unsorted into boxes after long tiring days in the field. It was a pretty daunting task that we thought might take a couple of days. But, with the right motivation, we managed to finish within an afternoon. What was our motivation? One of our PASSCAL team members promised to eat a bowl full of the frightening Shriracha-flavored ice cream served in the galley. Needless to say, we finished, and he ate a bowl full of the horrible stuff (even though we took pity on him after a few bites and absolved him from his duty). He's not feeling very well now...
And speaking of not feeling well, I'm a bit under-the-weather myself. I seem to have caught the "McMurdo crud" - colds run rampant here due to the close living quarters and the constant arrival of new people (thus new cooties). Hopefully lots of vitamin C and sleep will help. Or, it would if I could sleep. 24/7 light makes sleeping a challenge under the best of circumstances, and tonight, I have a new one. My bed broke a short time ago. This injured my pride more than anything else. And really, having now dragged my mattress onto the floor, I don't think this irritating/amusing incident will actually affect my sleep.
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