Reported to work today...

We reported to work today. Our duty hours are 0730-1630, 6 days per week (Mon-Sat). Greg, Jennifer and I will work at the McMurdo Clinic and of course Jon will be at the McMurdo Chapel, known as the Chapel of the Snows. More military are due to arrive but not for another couple of weeks. They are all administrative types and will work out of another building. Everyone working out of the clinic has arrived now. Gina is the Nurse Manager, she is an ICU nurse here for her second season. Don is the Doctor, he’s an OB/GYN doctor that is on sabbatical from his practice (no there’s no OB here). “Dr. Personality” is the other doc but he is leaving soon as he wintered over. I’m sure this is the reason for his bubbly personality. Lori is the X-Ray technician; I believe this is her second season. Tara is the civilian Flight Nurse, this is her second season and Harry is another doctor that is also the clinic director. Oh, I almost forgot…Kim is the dentist, this is her first season. Today we helped the clinic staff with odd jobs in between organizing our own operations. My first job was to prepare a large box for shipment. The only reason I want to mention this box is for the humor of getting it into the supply truck. The box was tucked away behind the hyperbaric chamber. It was large (about up to my waist) and fairly heavy with “fragile” stickers all over it. I taped up the box as I was told and the supply guy appeared. We’ll call him Grizzly Adams because that is what he looked like to me (he must’ve wintered over too). He was definitely friendlier than Dr. Personality, he reached out grabbed my hand for a handshake and introduced himself as Grizzly from supply. Next, he jumped on top of the box (no need to worry about that fragile stuff) and started pushing the box and the crate it was on out from behind the hyperbaric chamber. Paying no attention to what was in his path he is pushing this box with all its might and moving it quite fast straight into everything on the way…the hyperbaric chamber, the stuff along the wall…everything! I’m behind him trying to slow him down a bit and move things and Dr. Personality is in front of him enticing him to move it faster and with more might! The next thing I knew Grizzly had left the room and the next thing I heard was a vehicle engine and a big crunch. Dr. Personality opened up the door which led to a loading dock just as Grizzly had backed up to the dock and slid into the dock. This didn’t seem to bother Grizzly as he jumped up on the dock grabbed hold of the box and moved it into the truck bed. Dr. Personality threw the crate in the back of the truck, since the box ended up off the crate in the move, and Grizzly drove away. Goodbye Grizzly, have a safe trip. Back in the office, Greg and Jennifer are organizing. Jennifer is updating the continuity book for Tara (the Civilian FN), this has basic AE information on equipment, aircraft configuration etc that is helpful for her. I join in and we organize files, find the “J” drive that has everything electronically stored and talk to Martin (the computer guy) on getting things downloaded so that we can view military forms. Greg did paperwork on 2 patients that will go on Monday’s return to Christchurch. Both of them routine patients. We also received pagers today. Greg will take call every 3rd or 4th day, I will take call with him to give Gina a break. Gina also asked that Jennifer and I help out at the front desk during peak times. We will start on Monday.
Today’s high was -2°F, the low -15°F with a wind chill of -35°F, winds were at 21 kts. It is -60°F at the South Pole!
Today’s McMurdo trivia: Antarctica was not sighted until 1820. It is believed that no one actually set foot on the continent until 1895.