New Year, New Me!

Here we are, finding ourselves in 2026. Did you ever think you’d see this year? Thinking back in my life, 2026 seemed like a future so distant I’d never see it. To think I started the year in Antarctica, even crazier! But here I am in the blazing hot (30ish°F) Antarctic summer, in a tee shirt enjoying the sunshine and snow… mostly.

I’m also dedicating myself to diet and exercise and a better version of me. Inspired by a quote from the television show M*A*S*H,

“It’s too big a world to be in competition with everybody else. The only guy I have to get better than is the guy I am right now.” Col. Potter.

I started the year strong hitting the gym everyday and eating far less. I downloaded an app to count calories and track my fitness. This is a plan I’ve made every year and by weeks end failed. This time, I’m not going to fail. Because this time… that whole paragraph is bullshit!! Ba-hahaha!!

I’ve been working on a song, and if it works out I’ll post it. But as of now, it’s sucks. I know I’ll get it right at some point. But it’s about being an absolute shit heel for the next year, so that 2027’s New Years Resolution is just being “normal” again. Making achieving that resolution attainable!! Sounds funny to me, just need to work the details out.

On the Antarctic work side of things; upper management, who aren’t even on the Ice, are in a panic that we will not have the runway ready by the end of the gap.

If I haven’t explained, I will now!! We have two air fields: Phoenix snow runway for wheeled aircraft and Williams ski way for skied aircraft. During the summer months Phoenix closes so we can level town (move the buildings and build up the snow under them) and do some maintenance. It also gets too warm to maintain proper compaction on the runway. Think about putting your ice cream in the fridge rather than the freezer, it softens. Then squeezing it to try reforming it. It just oozes around your fingers. That’s what the runway does if we take the weight cart out. Our lightest car is 37,000 lbs. and we work up to 167,000 lbs for max compaction. So, in the summer months our ice cream runway can’t support that much weight. However, what upper management fails to think about is the temperatures will lower and we will get compaction back. From what I’m told, year after year this has been the case. And year after year it still comes back together. And year after year, upper management panics!!

Every company I’ve worked for, there seems to be middle or upper management that creates chaos where it doesn’t need to be. In our situation, we are following the guidelines established by scientific study. Science shows that there is a max temperature at which the weight will not help but hinder. We are waiting to get back to that temperature. If we do create damage… To recover a 3” deep break in the surface it takes a minimum of 6 days. So, premature compaction puts us back almost a week.

Alright, enough bitching!! It’s a new year!!

More about McMurdo life, with photos!! And at the end, a magical moment!

First, Ice Stock. In my opinion a bit of a letdown. But I think I had too high expectations and I also haven’t been into drinking and partying. Some of the music was good, some terrible. But that’s the life when people do their best! What I really mean is here, we have people doing their best, and that’s great. And when they sound terrible, it’s real. It’s not over produced studio music. They practice a few times together then perform. Not doing take after take to get it perfect, no producer or sound engineer, no autotune. Just real and authentic sound. Some people should perform, some should not. But the reminder that the “real world” isn’t even real. It’s formulated and produced. But again, it was and interesting event. The costumes people brought or ordered or made. And the coffee from “Sawbucks”!! This will probably be the last year for that, hard alcohol sales will end in February this year. Sawbuck was making coffee and Bailey’s drinks for everyone free of charge! And see below for the hilarious stir…

In a shift, (sorry if this post is a little more chaotic) Mother Nature seems to never stop blowing my mind. It’s amazing how the immediate surroundings change. From sunny and 36°F, everything melting and soft to freezing fog and lack of sun and everything frozen again so quickly. Our waterfall went from flowing quite a bit to solid overnight. I know what you’re thinking; night time is colder. Yes, but just barely here. The sun is still up 24/7 and just circles the sky from north to west to south to east and back to north. But yes, it cools a few degrees at night but not enough to stop the waterfall. The freezing fog sure did!! Cooled everything down, which is what we need!

Now for the photos: