Winter Over (IX)

Richard W. Frank

Winter Over (IX)

After today, I have only two more brunches to go!! After a year down here, one is tempted to reflect back on the last twelve months and come to some revisionist conclusion as to how to remember them for the remainder of one's brief life; to take out of a mental cubbyhole and dust off on occasion before putting it back. What will I think when I am thousands of miles and years away from this harsh tranquility? Will I think of sunsets that lasted all day, the sound of my boots crunching on the frozen snow as the wind burns my exposed skin and sears my lungs in the noonday darkness, the impossible tedium of work that never ends, the isolation in body and mind? Should I try to limit it at all? This is a world unto itself regardless of improvements in communication technology. It is impossible to convey the power, the difficulty, the satisfaction in doing this. With my meager abilities I will not even try. As the ancients said, ""This, too, shall pass.""

Do I want it to?

I want to thank you all for keeping in touch with this lost ice troll. We have stood on the shoulders of the giants that explored this last frontier at the beginning of the century. I tried to keep in touch and expect to do better when my job becomes adventure in a few short weeks. The loose plan is to trade in my flight home for a trip to Fiji for awhile, back to New Zealand for the summer, then on to Oz, then......

I will have this new e-mail address while I am on the road. I can check it in numerous cybercafés around the world. You have no idea how cool it is to get mail from the home front (there is a world outside of Antarctica?). Thanks again for everything!!

Until October 10th I shall remain:

Forever Winter-over,

Ricardo, el cocinero

To World Trip #1

Back to Antarctica

Back to Winter Over (VIII)

Wahoo......wooppeeeeee!!!!! That is the overwhelming sentiment around our little village as we pack up, have myriad going away parties, buy travelers checks and plane tickets, and sit around trying to stay focused (ha!) until the Air Force comes to rescue us.

I am the last galley winter-over scheduled to fly out on October 10th. Some say I'm crazy (which is relative down here) to stay that long while others are leaving on the 4th. I am doing it to take advantage of a paid day off and several boondoggle trips. I will get to take a free sea-ice mountaineering course and go out to the ice caves at Cape Evans. There are also several friends coming down on the first flights I would like to hang out with. It is not like work will get in the way. I have already received my performance review for the season, and these new folks have taken the torch from Holly and me.