getting (re)schooled.

this morning I attended light vehicle training, a prerequisite for anyone who needs to drive one of the fleet of ford vans and trucks for work here. the chalet has a red pickup parked out front, and we're allowed to use it to go to the food room to pick up boxes of vittles or haul stuff to the dorms. myrna, christina and I have also been known to take it over to scott base on 'official' USAP business, which of course usually includes a trip to their gift shop.

it's been a couple of years since I was a shuttle driver and spending ten hours a day behind the wheel, so a refresher course was well in order. it covered basic safety things like wearing seat belts, sticking to the 15-mph speed limit in town, maneuvering around groups of red-parka-clad pedestrians, and not opening the door into a high wind. it also covers antarctica-specific goodies such as how to drive on a packed-snow road (key words: slowly and 4WD), giving way to heavy equipment like loaders and cranes, how to brake on a gravelly volcanic-soil slope (the mico brake is your friend), sitting out blizzards while stuck in the vehicle, and how to avoid embarrassing gaffes like driving away while the engine heater is still plugged into the building or driving over your chock.

a fellow shuttle driver and I commiserated after that first season about having to re-learn how to drive in the states. we had tremendous urges to honk twice before backing up and to wave at everyone we passed on foot, and were scared witless to go faster than about 30 mph.

here's a picture of our VMF - vehicle maintenance facility, known in local parlance as the heavy shop. this is the facility that fixes and maintains all vehicles on station, from ivan the terrabus to the tiniest little golf-cart. at christmastime, the heavy shop hosts a holiday shindig, where people eat fancy hors d'oeuvres, dance to live music, watch a slide show of pictures of peoples' families and pets sent from home, and pose for snapshots with santa claus atop a skidoo snowmobile.

speaking of posing for pictures, last week my niece Tate took her first school photos. the photographer had come to the preschool armed with a box of toys for the kids to hold in the pictures. most of the girls picked Hello Kitty, Barbie, or Dora the Explorer dolls. not Tate. she insisted on carrying a helicopter.

my sister tells me that one night while putting her down for the night, Tate asked mommy to go back to the dining room and put away the CandyLand game they'd been playing earlier. when my sister said she would do it later, Tate insisted she do it immediately -- because she didn't want the ants to get to it.

Tate has learned how to say the pledge of allegiance at preschool. my sister took her to grandpa garcia's grave (steve's dad, who died before Tate was born). they laid some flowers, and Tate proceeded to perform the pledge of allegiance at the gravesite. at which point she stood still, listened, and said, "I think he's clapping."

okay, back to work. problem du jour: finding office spaces for transient south pole management, technical event personnel, and sundry grantees in the two buildings controlled by the chalet. here's the spreadsheet I use to plot this joyous task.

vroom vroom,
chalet cindy