Resupply

This comes a few days late, but we had our first, and really only, resupply
the other day. It came on New Years Day to be more specific. There was lots
of good news to come with it as well, the first being that the ship would
in fact show up around 5pm, not 5am like originally planned. Considering I
didn't go to be until just before 4am, this was a plus (though I kind of
liked the prospect of just staying up all night). We did still have to do a
full regular days work ahead of time though. Other good news was the
arrival of fresh produce. I actually had not been missing it too badly yet,
since we've only really been out for a couple weeks, except for things like
potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. We eat so well here that its easy to forget
about little things like fresh tomatoes sometimes. I also got a new pair of
boots, some awesome gloves with the flip cover fingers, oh and my new
computer which I am currently writing this on.

The resupply also brought a somewhat alarming influx of people ot the Cape.
When you've spent the entirety of the last 2 months with 5 other people a
bunch of snarling, cackling, calling, whimpering animals, having about 20
new faces show up is a bit of a shock. It threw me off that there were so
many footprints in the snow and that I could not tell who they belonged to.
The other slightly strange aspect of this land assault on my precious
homeland was it was almost entirely young women.

Now I dont find krill and plankton science to be particularly attractive, and when everyone is dressed in fairly heavy duty snow gear, its hard to get particularly excited by a few new people. But when you've only seen one (human) female for 2 months, your standards can become shifted. There was
actually some worry that, as one of the only single members of our party, I
might start whimpering like a bull fur seal to establish dominance over the
harem. Luckily for everyone involved, I kept my cool and just whimpered
quietly to myself. Plus, as quickly as the came, they fled the cape for the
safety and leisure of the boat/ Palmer Station with its gym, hot tub, and
bar…

The onslaught also brought a new member to our camp, and yes he was
actually intentionally left behind. David is our NOAA Corp engineer/
logistics person. NOAA corp is a uniformed service that typically runs all
the NOAA boating and logistics operations around the world. David is here
to help fix things, improve things, inventory our piles of crap, and add
some variety to a fairly stagnant workcrew.

David is a good guy, but I have to admit, its weird adding a new person to
the tribe. We had our routine pretty well down- where people sit, which mug
everyone uses, which pee hole in the snow we are currently working on
excavating. With his addition, it throws those things off. He is quickly
figuring it out, but it still just feels like a little bit of an invasion
and makes the space feel a little more cramped (he actually shares a room
with my boss, so he isn't in the main hut all that much). That being said,
he brought all our goodies, so all is forgiven.

I hope everyone had a good New Years Eve. Ours was lowkey, but fun. We took
a group photo at midnight outside without even needing the flash. We have
also just crossed our halfway point, which is a little scary that we still
have just over 2 months to go, but also means its all downhill from here.
We keep busy as always and the days go by quickly. I am definitely looking
forward to being home again, but its not too shabby here either.

Final thought: Men, try whimpering at a pretty girl and see if it gets her
more interested in you. Women: if you see a man whimpering at you from
across the bar, give him a shot, he might just be smart enough to know a
little something.