Day 129

Today we did our typical Monday morning routine of sending the food for the next week or two up the beer can via an elevator.  The galley orders the food about two weeks in advance as it can actually take that long to properly defrost some of the meats that we have on station.  The food is kept in the logistics arch which mimics the temperature of the outside environment pretty closely.  If you were to defrost a roast by removing it from the -75F temperature and leaving it at room temperature, the meat would start to rot on the outside as the inside remains frozen.  To combat this, the galley has to slowly defrost the meat by taking it from the outside temperature to a regular freezer and eventually the fridge.

After the food push, we usually take the time to collect issue sheets around station.  These are forms that people fill out when they take an inventoried item for their work or general use.  As we are the logistics office, we are in charge of electronically issuing these items in our inventory database, Maximo.  Normally Brett is the one to collect the sheets, and I will join him from time to time.  We usually stop by people's offices and say hi.  Think of it like Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, but the South Pole version.  This time around I didn't accompany Brett during the collection rounds.  I helped him with the actual electronic issuing once he collected the sheets instead.

After lunch we assisted the galley staff with removing their trash.  They utilize an electric hoist to carry the food waste down to the ground, and the hoist can only be used during temperatures warmer than -80F.  Our current temperature is around -75F so it was getting close to the cut-off.  When using the hoist, some individuals will remain on the deck with the hoist while wearing a harness (safety first!) and the rest of us will be downstairs at ground level, waiting for the hoist to drop.  One person will also grab the rope tethered to the hoist to help it navigate its way down to the ground.  From there, we grab the trash and sort it into respective triwalls (food waste, landfill, recyclables, etc.).

When enough people help, the whole process can take less than thirty minutes.  It still feels like forever sometimes as we are standing outside in the cold, exposed to the wind.  Luckily today the moon was out so we were able to actually see what we were doing.  Relying upon a red headlamp (they need to be red lights as white light interferes with some of the science that occurs) is not always the most beneficial, but, when it gets really dark, it is better than nothing at all.

This evening I think I'll continue watching Game of Thrones.  Yesterday Jason and I began watching season three of the show.  Remember how I mentioned the South Pole not really being all that adventurous a few blog posts ago?  Yup.  Still isn't all that adventurous.  Life here is pretty boring most days.