Hi all!
It's SNOWING! REAL snow! I can't help but walk around with a big shit-eating grin (where does that awful phrase come from?!) on my face.
Snow. We are having a powder day. The kind of snow that forms in the atmosphere and falls down to the ground, not the kind that we normally have, the kind that comes from the ground, blows around and around, and returns to the ground. Snow crystals with little arms, not just little grains with their arms long since blown off.
It's wonderful. Like being home, like going real skiing (not skate skiing, which is fun anyway), wondering how much we'll get. It's hard to tell exactly how much we have because there is some breeze, but around town it's about ankle deep, or more?. This is a lot. I hear the continent gets about 10cm/year, but that's continental average, not here necessarily. It seems like a lot we have now (way more than we've had total since I've been here), but hard to know.
Anyway, I'm loving it. It's warm out too, like normal snow day temps, the snow is wet enough for snowballs, cool. Not that I've really been out or thrown any. Just having it snow is so cool. A white blanket like in the mountains.
The fact that I don't get to go out and suck up a powder day, well, I just let that go.
I also don't focus on what this does to my chances of getting up to Erebus, the volcano, anytime soon (like this year?!). I'm on the helo schedule for tomorrow, but not till nearly 5pm. Have not looked at tomorrow's weather.
But today it's Sunday and it's snowing and I'm loving it.
Each day last week my Erebus flight was postponed due to weather, which turned out to be ok because a week of minimal work was wonderful. I realized how deeply exhausted I was, slept a lot, and now feel better than I have since I"ve been here. Recovered for rest of season (2-1/2 more months).
Powder Day on the ice and I went indoor bouldering... of course. Yest. skate skied long enough to get the feeling of it (fun) but not long enough to get frustrated. It was with Erika, who is way cool, lives not far from me back home, and is married to one of our guys Allen. I hope to know them for years to come.
Thanksgiving was quite nice. They had a great tofu dish, very nicely flavored, so with the veggie stuffing they made, and cranberry sauce. They have a real veggie cook on board, and he says bland food is for nursing homes. It's not spicy-hot, just well flavored and interesting. It was fun to dress up, but would have been nice if we had more time in there. They fed us in shifts, then of course needed to get it all cleaned up. They work hard and do a great job.
Apparently the thing to do is to bring a tupperware bowl and take seconds with you. I think half the joy of the day is going back for a second and third meal later in the day! Plus all the preparation.Well, I'm going to go out and walk around in the REAL SNOW for a few more minutes till dinner. Gotta get fat as know Erebus will be wicked cold and at altitude (sudden arrival, unlike mountaineering), I will no doubt feel the altitude and not want to eat for days. Bad, esp in the cold.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend, hopefully with friends and family, and wishes for a wonderful snowy winter to you.
Take some turns for me, and of course some face-plants too.
Love to all, Susan
