Another Sleepless Night

So we have all seen the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray. It is wicked funny and never thought I would be living it but it seems, to some point at least, that I have been introduced to that feeling. Since the sun has gone down completely I have not been sleeping well. And by well I mean 3-4 hours a night 5 days a week and some nights I just don’t sleep at all. I go into work and I “running on empty” but my body is so used to this that is just keeps me going. I have tried to help but going to the gym, not eating 2 hours before I want to go to bed, stayed away from being in bed except when I want to sleep but nothing seems to be helping me so far. So I figure if I am doing all this and I am still not sleeping why not try and do all the bad stuff and see if it helps. So the long nights up watching TV, the eating before bed time and the all night partying actually helped.

Who would have thought that all the stuff that I was told over the years growing up actually helped me get some sleep. So I was a rock star at staying up until the wee hours of the morning, according to the clock at least since there is no sun coming up, and it actually help… until about 3 weeks ago. It now seems that my body wants it to go back to the “good old days” of chi-axing and going to bed early. So I figured that I would quit the booze for a bit and that helped but then my birthday came up and my liver hated me, for stopping and then going all out one night. And tada! I am back to sleeping normally again. But now 3 weeks after I am back to not sleeping again. So what am I supposed to do?

To heck if I know but I do know that I am going to keep having fun and if my body wants a break than it will figure out how to get some sleep in.

What is that sound?



A Zombie! Fire!!!!!!!!



Yes we do hunt zombies down here!

Stay Frosty
-C

Traveling

Well tonight seems to be a productive night since this will be my 3rd blog post of the month, check that night.

Well as you can see from the list of places, under my profile picture to the right, that I would like to visit a fairly decent amount of places. It has finally come time to begin planning my vacation. It is sad that the more time that goes by the more people that can’t travel. The traveling group started out with myself, Rob Weidman, Rob Gancarz and Jeremy Hirschhorn. Then Natasha Shields joined the group and then right after that Rob G. dropped out of the group followed shortly by Jeremy. Rob and Jeremy were both supposed to winter down here in McMurdo but they got the call from back in the U.S.A. for a full time job or at least the possibility of one. No hard feels because if I had gotten that call I would have bounced as well, so that left Rob W. Natasha and myself, a solid group if I must say so myself. But now Rob W is going to jam as well, and yes it is for a fulltime job or the possibility of one at least, as well, so that leaved Natasha and myself (moooo-haha-haha my plan is finally coming together).

So the plan is, as of right now… in my head… while I am typing this blog, is to fly to London, since I am ticketed to there, and go from there. We are thinking Stonehenge then off to Paris and Euro Disney, that is right bitches be jealous, then up to the coast and see the D-day beaches before training it to Barcelona. While on the way to or from Barcelona hit up Andorra (one of the five smallest countries in the world-SCotW- that are in Europe) and Monaco (#2 SCoft)then off to Italy. Italy is the place that I would like to see the most so we are going to be hitting up Venice, the sinking city, San Marco (SCotW #3), Florence, Rome and then Pompeii before heading to Greece for a leisure island hoping life style. Then from Greece to Istanbul, Turkey where I will attempt to get my 4th possibly 5th and Natasha’s 7th and last, continent since the city resides in both Eastern Europe and Western Asia, or so says Wikipedia. Then from there fly to Prague, Czech Republic and then train it Germany where we will hit Berlin, Munich and Dusseldorf (spelling I know) before making our way back to London via Liechtenstein (#4 SCotW).

As of right now I am flying from Auckland New Zealand on the 23rd of October and landing in London on the 25th of October. We are planning, as of right now, to be leaving London the 15th of December so that I can have an awesome story to tell the family at the Walsh Family Christmas Party and general booze fest on the 18th of December 2010 in Braintree, Ma. So if your plans will take you to any where in Europe during that time frame, or you always wanted to travel but had nobody to go with drop me a line or telephony call and we can make this happen.



Yea we live life on the edge down here! Thanks Scotty

Stay Frosty
-C

Life during training, winfly and at the south pole in video

Hello All,

Here is a video that was put up on the wonderful world of Youtube. com by Phil McCully. I am the firefighter in the pink stocking hat also known as the dusty rose hat. And yes that is me "John Wayneing" the CO2 extinguisher at the 3:55 mark.




Thanks again Phil from Philfirerescue.blogspot.com for the video and stay low while in the academy

Stay Frosty
-C

Burger Bar

So I sit here in the computer kiosk reading other people’s blogs about being down here in the wonderful world of Antarctica and I realize that some of the most basic things that I enjoy down here people will never know the feeling of excitement and joy that they bring me.

So I will try to explain the simple things that bring me joy. For today’s installment I choose to write about Burger Bar. A very simple name for a very simple event but the joy and fulfillment that it brings me, and most people on station for that matter, is endless. You see everyday down here events rotate around a meal time, even more now during the winter than they do during the summer. The meals are breakfast from 06h00 to 08h00, then lunch 11h00 to 13h00 and then dinner 17h00 to 19h00. All of the meals with the exception of breakfast have an early and late meal. This by no way means that people are assigned a meal time but you see the same people at early lunch (a.k.a. 1st) 11h30 to 12h15 and then at early dinner 17h30 to 18h15 and the same for late (a.k.a. 2nd) lunch and dinner. Being that I work for a 24 hour department means that our schedule transverses all time frames and status quo as to which seating that we sit for. Some times, if I am covering dispatch, I will go to late dinner but I will usually go to early lunch, when I am working. It is funny, to me at least, that I added “when I am working” to the last sentence because when I am not working it seems that I don’t have a set time, which is nice but also means that I am usually eating alone. Eating alone is not a big deal for me especially since I am usually eating at 13h00 or 13h30 instead of the standard 11h00 to 13h00 time frame. But I always seem to eat 1st dinner with only one exception, Burger Bar. That is because Burger Bar is the coveted one dinner during the week that is cooked after you order it, isn’t under heat light or in ice baths, or that is tough to the touch since it has been cooked for a while.

Now I am be no means saying that the food down here is bad or that the cooks aren’t anything short of spectacular but what I am saying is that it is nice to actually go and order your food and get it the way you want it, with very few exceptions. Today was a burger bar night, if you can’t already tell. I had not realized that tonight was a BB night (Burger Bar for short, duh!) until I got a phone call asking to borrow my DVD player so they could watch the football game (in America we call it Soccer). I was so stunned to learn that it was BB tonight that I immediately jumped for joy because I know that I was going to have some fresh cooked, notice how I didn’t say fresh killed, food not even knowing what kind of toppings were to be had or even who was cooking. This joyous occasion only happens; I say it like it is rare, once a week but the day rotates so it could be 10 days in between BB. On those weeks the natives really get restless and that is when the lines and waits are long. But overall the selection of food is really good. Last BB, excluding tonight, it was “Big Kahuna Burgers.” It was burgers topped with fresh, as fresh as you can get with the last flight being 3 months ago, pineapple and real bacon. Tonight was sauce night; BBQ, Hot sauce, mild sauce, sweet chili sauce, ranch and bleu cheese, so that you could top your wings, fries, or tots with. Two BB ago it was hot dog and patty melt night and I do have to say that I had the best hot dog sandwich in my life that night, thanks Carl!

Stay Frosty
-C

P.S.-- Dear Google Images thank you for the picture of the cheeseburger as I would imagine it would look like if I was in a place that was warm. Picture taken from http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/IMG_0314_2.jpg and hopefully that will be enough credit to not get me in trouble