Sky Captain and the World Beaten Barren; Forklift

Today I reported to work. It began with a meeting and department-wide stretching. Then I participated in a powerpoint course on driving trucks and light vehicles, then I took a test, then I participated in another powerpoint course on driving forklifts, then I watched a movie on the supply, use, and storage of pressurized gas tanks, then I took a test. All of that took me from 7:30 to 10:30. I walked with my supervisor to the division where I am working for the next two months.

I am in Supply. Supply is spread throughout McMurdo, small offices in most of the buildings. So, for example, there is a Medical building. Supply has an office in there. Whenever the EMTs need something, they talk to Supply in Medical. The Heavy Machine shop has its own Supply division, so when they need some big tire, or some big engine piece, or some small bolt, they talk to the Supply office stationed within the building. I'm in Supply in the building where the science takes place. It's called Crary.

I arrived Crary at 11, met my boss, my coworkers, then counted plungers and separated them into zip-loc bags. Lunch runs 12-1. After lunch I met with my boss and we did the hands-on portion of the forklift training. I spent the rest of the day driving pallets around with a small, green, articulated forklift called the M4K, nicknamed the pickle, for its greenness. I am no pro, and I don't know I could spend 10 hours a day with the forklift, but I could easily spend every afternoon forklifting pallets here and there, a worker ant, ear mufflers mandatory.

I hiked Observation Hill (Ob Hill) this evening after dinner, about 8pm, with a friend from orientation, Will, a university student from Puerto Rico who had never seen snow before stepping off the plane. It isn't too long a hike, four or five hundred vertical feet. We got to the top via an access road around fuel storage tanks. There were views of McMurdo, views to the south across the expansive intersection of the McMurdo ice shelf and the Ross ice shelf. To the north is Mt. Erebus. The cross on the top commemorates the deaths of Sir Scott and his crew during their return trip from the pole in 1912. The cross is an original, erected in 1913 somewhere in the footprint of McMurdo Station.

I'll soon post pictures mostly online, and that way label what they depict, or signify. Until then, the format below will have to suffice, without explanation. Have fun. I did. (I just previewed the post, and what I see isn't what shows up in the text window. Uploading takes too long to do again. Click on the images if you want the real picture.)