playing with bubbles

Today was a strange working day; that's right, I was working on Saturday. Our work week in McMurdo is Monday-Saturday for 10 hours each day. During the winter, we get one two day weekend per month.

During the winter, because we have such a small group of us on the station, we each take terms being the Dining Attendant (D.A.) for about one meal per month. Being a D.A. involves washing dishes as people finish their meals, scrubbing and washing pots and pans, taking out trash, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning off tables.

My shift came around today. So, I went to work for the morning, had my dish washing duties from 11am to 3:30pm. Besides having a headache all day, I don't mind washing dishes; it's certainly not my favorite task and I definitely don't appreciate ketchup splash-back when I'm spraying down plates (so I wore safety glasses), but these tasks are representative on how we work together as a community here. Each person has a place and a task to keep the community running smoothly and this is one thing that everyone has to participate in.

I was filling up my busing bins full of soapy water today for people to soak their dishes in and accidentally put way too much soap in the bin. I amused myself with the bubbles, though. For a few minutes, I was trying to "hide" all the foam by scooping it out and dumping it down the drain; but eventually, I owned up to it; there is nothing wrong with playing in bubbles; especially if it makes a menial task more enjoyable.

In the afternoon, the station had a Safety Stand-down at 4pm before the weekend began. These occur when the fine folks at my corporate office in the States determines that everyone in McMurdo should attend an extra safety meeting addressing a particular failure. Fork lift training was on Saturday's agenda. It's an interesting concept to give 153 people training on a task that only about 1/3 of those people on station are required to accomplish. Basically, I think this got everyone out of work a bit early and, as I looked around, many of those used that to snooze through the lecture or work on their knitting. Needless to say, Saturday was not a good day for me to get a whole heap of anything done in my 2.5 hours of work in the morning.

Other news from around town: the sun is beginning to hide behind the mountains for longer periods of time. There is a person, or two, responsible for setting up a "light" room for people to brighten up on those dark and monotonous days to come.

I decided to check out for our rock climbing wall. Last week we had a training course and this week, and I checked out to be able to use the wall the rest of the season. I am also going to be a craft room volunteer a couple nights a week which should be good for my creative spirit this winter. Once a month, or so, I will also be a shuttle driver for Scott Base night when we can go over the hill and see the Kiwi station.