Cold calibrations and Sunday evening movie

Today was less fun than most with high winds and a bitter fog hanging over the ice runway making it feel like one of the coldest days since we have been here. This afternoon I calibrated both of my systems and as my hands were starting to feel frozen, Jason brought over the Herman-Nelson heater (the yellow box with the green hose) and heated things up right away. It was so hot that it started to melt the ice next to me. So I shut it off as I finished things up. It is nice to know that if need to work outside for long periods of time, we can find some heat to keep us from getting too uncomfortable. Luckily, I can calibrate the upward looking radiometer inside the aircraft. This was much warmer, but took much longer because 4 of us were trying to work on the same rack (Lee on the laser altimeter, Glen on the water vapor instrument, and Jim on decoding the navigation system feed). Here is picture of Lee working behind my calibration system (the black cylinder on top of the white power supply). This plus the fact that we are sitting right next to the door means that we have to move when anyone is trying to get to one of the forward instrument racks. I am not complaining, it was much warmer inside, just took a bit longer. Otherwise, we had a fancy dinner tonight, with big/ thick strip loin steaks, potatoes, and green beans. It was too much food. But a special treat. The fog of the morning finally gave way to a light snowfall at night. While I had some work to do, I heard that the Sunday Evening movie at the Coffee House was a good one: "Rabbit Proof Fence". It was a nice break, the first movie I have watched since I got here. And the first time I forgot that I was in Antarctica. Coffee House is a nice place because it is not too loud and they sometime have live music there. While I usually don't drink much coffee, I have started to drink more since I have been here because it is a quick way to get warm and the caffeine helps keep me awake in the afternoons. So things are pretty easy here, much easier than for the first scientists to work at McMurdo Station.