A day at the Pole

Getting up at 0300 to catch the early satellite time. Email and web work. Central Time is 19 hrs behind New Zealand time. Early morning coincides with the work day in the US. Breakfast time. There is a dessert for every meal. The food is fantastic at the SP station. The SP staff calls for help. Boxes of food need to be unloaded and need to be stacked in the freezer inside the station and outside on the balcony, the natural freezer. We make a human chain and carry boxes for an hour. At 0800 there is a daily work meeting with the IceCube group. I am here to help commission the new DM-Ice dark matter detector. It is sunny outside. I take a walk around the Pole. 24 time zones in 15 min. The weather can change quickly here. An hour later visibility is poor and ice crystal clouds are everywhere. In the morning everyone is usually busy because the internet is accessible. Then it is time to check on the icetop tanks and clean up the ICL. It is time to have lunch but ... the satellite is still up. Trying to catch the last few minutes of internet connectivity.