Showers and Flurries

Mark your calendars (retrospectively), Wiley has officially taken his first
shower in Antarctica. I changed my underwear too for all of you who I know
were very concerned...

That's right, on Monday Nov 10 I took a shower. I believe Oct 30th was my
last shower before that. Its not good when you have trouble remembering you
last shower. Our shower system here actually isn't too bad. It is indoors,
a real shower with a curtain and everything. You just have to heat snow,
fill a 5 gallon bucket, walk outside through the snow to get to the shower
room, place a hose in that bucket that connects to a small pump, step in
the shower, flip on the pump, enjoy those first few bone chilling seconds
where the left over water from the previous shower that is now at near
freezing temperatures sputters at you like a series of icy sneezes, then
finally get your few minutes of warm water. Of course, 5 gallons goes
pretty damn quick, so you have to turn off the pump as you soap up if you
want to have any moments to enjoy the warmth. Otherwise its like a race to
the finish- Wiley vs. the shampoo. There can only be one victor. Luckily I
finished with a few moments to just sit and enjoy my not quite hot enough
water- its also a fine art to get just the right water temperature by
mixing near boiling and freezing cold water in a bucket. Its these little
skills you learn over time I guess. This is how old people built character
right? Beats showering outside at least.

Speaking of outside, the weather has really been hit or miss the last
couple days. Sunday was amazing and warm. Tuesday was similar. In between
Antarctica skipped a beat and decided to be cold, windy, and snow. Right as
I was getting over my stage fright of peeing outside in the snow while
penguins watched, the weather forces me to pee in the outhouse. No matter,
when the sun came back out, so did I and the penguins could get back to
their judgemental stares instead of just getting half buried in snow
(that's actually not a joke, many at the breeding colonies were actually up
their chubby little waists in snow. They become like lawn gnomes in a black
and white film with hats that have fallen over their faces. Or something
like thiat...).

When I took a journalism class in college, one of the things they taught us
was that paragraphs shouldn't be more than a few sentences long to keep
readers interest and not seem too daunting or something. If you have made
it this far, you have now read two unnecessarily long paragraphs about me
showering and me peeing. You're welcome.

In more scientific news, we set up 2 of our telemetry receivers on two of
the hilltops around the Cape today. One of these stations automatically
scans through a series of tag frequencies and records who is there, much
like I did for half of my masters. The other station is linked directly
into the project leader's room here at camp (also lovingly know as the Old
Fart's room). The tags have not gone out yet, but as animals start to show
up, we can put these VHF tags on them to see when they come and go and how
long they are gone for.

We also found a young male leopard seal today. We tried to put a tag on it,
but it was too awake and did not appreciate our attempts to get close. The
usual technique is wait for the seal to fall asleep, creep up behind it,
grab a flipper, throw a tag in, and run. It's a lot like your first kiss
where the girl looks at you and you pretend you aren't even looking at her,
but for some reason you keep drifting toward here, then suddenly it all
happens and all you can do is run away snickering. Except this time the
girl might literally rip your throat out if she had the chance. (I was
going to go with a stealing money from your dad's wallet after he has
fallen asleep on the couch analogy, but since I have obviously never done
such a thing, I went with the kissing. But kissing is also gross and should
only be done by professionals).

Alright that's going to wrap up this round of nonsensical rambling from me.
Oh we did get a report from the penguineros of a possible female fur seal
sighting this evening, so work might be picking up and we should be getting
puppy seals soon! I wish I could share photos because I got some GOOD ones
the other day. I guess those will just have to wait. Oh but also keep an
eye on the link below (can't remember which one exactly) that links to info
about the camp and our weekly "Sit Reps." We submit them every Monday and
they should get posted online not too long after that. They have lots of
technical info about the number of animals we've seen, camp maintenance,
etc. but they also will occasionally have photos and other things. So check
it out!

Shirreff out.