Ahh A Shower

Today is a wonderful day.  Not for the weather - which is horrible.  Not for the food - it's the cooks day off.  Not even for the companionship - which is better than expected.  No, it is a wonderful day because I got to take a shower.  This is the first shower that I have had since the night before we flew up to Summit.  That was 11 days ago.  Not only did I get a shower, I have laundry going right now.  What a treat, a clean body and clean clothes.

Most of the time we try and get one shower a week up here.  One of the facts that was stressed to us on arrival was the importance of conserving water.  The numbers that were quoted (I haven't checked them out for myself but I believe they are in the ballpark) is that Americans use over 575 liters of water per person per day. At the bottom of the list is Mozambique who use only 4 liters per person per day.  Here at Summit we are currently running about 55 liters of water per day per person.  A huge difference.

For the first time in 11 days I also am not wearing layers of clothing.  24 hours a day since I arrived, I have had at least 2 layers of clothing on.  I tried one night to take my wool socks off in my sleeping bag, but within hours I had to put them back on.  I am writing this while sitting in the sun in the big house enjoying the feeling of having a t-shirt on and having my arms exposed.  It is a fleeting feeling, since I have to put everything back on to go outside, but I am enjoying it.

Our current weather, as I mentioned earlier is horrible.  We had a storm come in yesterday bringing with it high winds and little to no visibility.  It is currently -6 F, 24 knot winds, with a windchill of -33 F.  The visibility is up to about half a mile.  This is the best it has been in 24 hours.  Things were so bad that the station personnel had their day off changed from Sunday to Saturday.  According to them, this is only the second time in 2 months that they have seen it this bad.

The major buildings on site are the "Big House", the "Green House", the "SOB" or garage, the "Carps Berthing" and the "MSF".  Each of the buildings has a sign on it stating it's name.  The closest building to my tent is "Carps Berthing" and of course two of the outside latrines.  All of the tents are located in "Tent City" as it is designated on the official blue prints of the station.  Two other sites are "TAWO" and the "Noone Pit".  I work in the Pit most of the time.  By the way, TAWO stands for Temporary Atmospheric Watch Observatory and MSF stands for Mobile Science Facility.