Moving on out

Hmm, it's been a while since my last post. The season's drawing to a close with less than 2 weeks before the LMG arrives and carries the rest of the summer crew away. I've got a bunch of posts and pictures to upload before I leave, so I'll try to squeeze that into the next day or so.

It's weird getting ready to leave. Part of me was wishing for a change of pace months ago but the rest of me already misses this place. It wasn't until the new sysadmin arrived on the last boat that I realized with minor shock that the season really is almost over. The new crew is very cool, so they will hopefully have a good winter. My replacement brought a Wii so the station is finally ready for the impending apocalypse that will leave them in womb-like isolation while civilizations collapse and humanity is reduced to hunting mutated house pets in the smoking craters that were once our cities. Just wait.

There's a saying in the program (USAP): the first time you come down is for the adventure, the second is for the money, and the third is because you don't fit in anywhere else. This rings truer now that I'm considering whether to apply for another season. After 6 months the novelty has waned somewhat and I can see how one's realization that you'll have to _pay_ for things again, repeatedly explain that Antarctica is _south_, and live with the knowledge that just a few more seasons would pay for that house, operation, mail-order-bride, etc. would keep people coming back. I imagine it's a bit like being in the military: you're part of a small community with fairly specific skill-sets and division of labor, all your basic needs are taken care of, and the bureaucracy and inefficiencies of the organization as a whole are distressingly comical.