The smell of hot maple syrup on blueberry pancakes fills my nose before I begin my mission. Everyone laughs watching how fast I shovel breakfast down my gullet. One day this week I made it to the galley around 7:00, the earliest I've ever been there. People joked about that too. They were disappointed they wouldn't see my normal spectacle worthy of a 4th of July hotdog eating contest on Coney Island. But I’m not starting a day on an empty stomach, and if I’m late it will cost me a case of beer for my work crew. Not that I would mind buying brew for the guys, I just want to save my money and not get into bad habits.

Stretches last a half an hour and are sorely needed to loosen tight muscles and ligaments from the previous days work. Just like many other life lessons, I learned the hard way to not make eye contact with other grubby construction worker guys while in downward dog position. I think I'm going to play a game with it though and see how many people I can make uncomfortable. After limbering up before the onslaught of work, we head down to our break shack to gear up.

Someone usually plays some high energy rock music like Tool to get us hyped to go install siding on the station. Two days ago a guy from New Zealand that we call Kiwi (how original) busted out with Seals and Crofts "Summer Breeze" on the ipod. Through the groans of some of the tough guys with tattoos and facial hair, he simply smiled as we laced up our boots and zipped up our coats. Good change of pace from the usual metal that makes me want to start breaking things with my bare hands. Summer Breeze, a light and fluffy melody that's been fermenting in the jasmines of my mind. Now I take great pleasure in getting it stuck in yours.

Our first break is at 10:00 and usually lasts 15 minutes or so. I drink lots of water and eat a bagel or some toast. Despite the amount of calories I consume each day I am already shedding pounds. Anyone complaining about his or her weight should try the new South Pole diet. I'm working on the hard copy for a New York Times best seller, but the basic gist is eat all you want, when you want. You just have to be resilient enough to endure working for eight hour shifts in subzero temperatures, but I digress. I was talking about drinking water.

There are roughly 250 people here at the station consuming large amounts of resources, in the name of science. So how does it all work? As I explained in my last entry, there are tunnels about 50 feet below the surface of the ice extending for a half-mile. Drillers create a cavity in the icecap by heating surrounding areas with hot water. As the ice melts into an upside down light bulb shape, the fresh water is pumped out, tested and filled into huge storage tanks. Reason alone attests the H2O has to be among the purest on Earth, having not being touched by any living creature or human induced pollutant in the existence of it's life sustaining molecules. When the siphoning hose can no longer reach the pool, a new hole is started.

Now the old abandoned opening isn't simply left void and wasted, but used for actual waste. Pipes funneling all human excrement are inserted into the newly vacant well. There, the literal shit creek flows until it fills the mile deep pit. Now take into consideration that the actual South Pole Station is sitting atop of a moving glacier and you wonder what will happen. Estimates indicate the glacial movement rate to be around six feet per year. I think we are roughly 900 miles away from the coastline. So according to my calculations, what that means is one day, tens of thousands of years from now, a mile deep column of vacated bowels will be spilling into the oceans. Nice mental image while you drink your morning coffee.

Consumer packaging garbage is meticulously separated into recyclable categories. At the end of the season almost nine million pounds are taken back to the States for processing. Non-recyclable materials are shipped to landfills I suppose.

As for food, it is shipped in from McMurdo Base and then stored outside until used. All of the food in the small gift store expired at least a year ago and sometimes even four, but we still eat it. That may be the case with our regular galley meals as well. It takes days for the food to actually thaw out. You would need a circular saw to cut through the ice cream when it is initially brought inside. Makes me think that steak I had last night might have been butchered a few years ago. The cooks manage to do an amazing job. Can't be easy cooking at high altitudes with food that's been frozen so hard a kernel of corn could topple over a penguin if launched from a slingshot.

What heats the food to cooking temperatures is electric power created by enormous generators running on actual jet fuel. Massive tanks were shipped in C-130s. They were engineered to fit almost perfectly in the cargo space of the planes. The huge cylinders are stacked in a separate building adjacent to the station about ten rows of five deep. I'm not sure of the actual consumption rate but burning enough fuel to heat and provide electricity to a 65,000 square foot building cannot be meager. That is why we are limited to two, two-minute showers per week. That was three twos in a row and it kind of made sense. Okay you're back. This area is also the morgue. Bodies of people that die while at the station are kept by the fuel tanks until they can be shipped out. So those are just a few of the logistics here at the station. As for me, I'm about to embark on a new adventure. I just found out yesterday I’ll be starting a new work project that has me quite excited. Now sit back, relax, forget about grey skies and dropping temperatures and think of a summer breeze that makes you feel fine.

written by  JCinTheSouthPole on November 21, 2009 from Christchurch, New Zealand
from the travel blog: South Pole
Send a Compliment

---

The subway train comment cracked me up, but not as much as imagining you doing the Downward Dog...and I can absolutely see you shoveling your breakfast. Hysterical, glad to see you're the same person everywhere you go! :-) Can't wait to hear all about this new adventure and thanks for putting Summer Breeze in my head!

written by  Tara Botwick on November 23, 2009

---

Blogging newbie so I'm not sure if this comment will end up in the right place.

John, Jeannine, Jared, and Cash here.... We are together thinking of you today. We miss you and hope you get some turkey today.

Jared is placing his thumb to his nose and wiggling his fingers in a salute for you on this special day.

I, of course, am giving you the finger as a sign of respect and love.

Cash has his Batman gloves on his feet and is pretending to be a monster. Now he wants his cowboy costume.

Jeannine wants you to beat up some people to try to get more two minute showers. I don't support this type of violence.

Love you! Have a great Thanksgiving!

written by  John Lewis on November 26, 2009

comment on this...