Pengies and Radio Darts

Day 19 on ice.

The pengies came back for one last visit. I heard through the grapevine that there were a couple of them in town, so I headed out to check it out. Pengies are no big deal at all in the summer-- they're very common. Around this time every year, they go somewhere else, and I never even saw one here last season.

One was with another one, just hanging around in the middle of the road. They are very tolerant of people, since they don't have any land predators. The rule of thumb is that you aren't supposed to get so close to them that they react to your presence. These guys would have bumped into me if I hadn't moved away.

Except for the last two days, the weather was pretty nasty for the last ten days. The bitter east winds were unrelenting for about a week. It was around 1F, so it wasn't that cold out, but the wind chills were getting down around -40F. Thursday it was zero F out there, but it felt like t-shirt weather because the wind died down. It's pretty constantly windy and nasty here, so it's great when the wind lets up a bit.

I'm settling into my work rhythm now. I know it's going to be a long, cold winter, so I'm hunkering down for a long stay here. It's still daylight about 24/7 now, though the sun is technically setting in the middle of the night. The path of the sun here is so different here from what we're used to in the states, that it's hard to describe. The sun will rise for the last time sometime in May, so there's still some daylight left.

Yesterday was the first weekly Radio Darts game. We went over to Scott Base and played darts with the Kiwis. The idea is to get South Pole on the HF radio, and play them too, but their radio wasn't working. I love radio darts-- it's some of the most fun I have down here, though I'm a mediocre dart player. The fun is giving each other grief for style, bad shots, etc.

Tomorrow is Sunday-- my one day off. Woo Hoo!