A flashback to freshman year...
10/24/04
8:23 pm
So I slept for 13 hours last night. I woke up at around 11 this morning, feeling great. After I fell asleep, I was woken up again when Matt came into the room. He was just sitting there reading and then Byron showed up. He was tanked. I forgot to mention earlier that he kind of looks like Chong, of Cheech and Chong. I heard him banging into things and he started talking to Matt. It was pretty funny. He couldn’t really form coherent sentences. Slurring every other word. Matt said he grabbed a beer on his way to bed. I heard him come into the little nook where our beds are, stumbling and banging. He kind of stood there for a minute, I guess considering the task at hand – getting up into his bunk. He turned around and asked Matt for a blanket. Matt gave him one. He threw it up onto the bunk and then tried to climb up himself. I watched it unfold. He was kind of hanging there by both arms kicking his feet until he finally found the dresser next to the bed. With his foot planted he pushed up a little and managed to slide up onto the bare mattress a bit more. He then stayed in that position for around 10 seconds. I thought maybe he had passed out. Finally, he gave one more last ditch effort to get up and in the process swayed backwards. I thought he was going to fall for sure, possibly on me. But then I caught my last glimpse of his feet and I knew he had achieved his goal. There was some additional rustling and his gloves and a few papers came raining down between the bed and the wall. Then silence.
When I woke up this morning he was gone. I looked up on his bunk. Matt’s blanket was there, neatly folded at the foot of the bed – I guess he never managed to open it up. I went and sat down on the couch to watch the news for a little while and he came stumbling in with another case of beer. He started throwing it into the fridge. It was around 11 at that point. He grabbed two six packs and on his way out the door, turned to me and offered me a beer, something like “hey, you want one of these before I head down?” It was very tempting, but I declined, playing the “I don’t like to drink before breakfast” card. He said “breakfast, what the hell is that? I think I heard about that in a movie or something” and proceeded “down”. I chuckled.
Apparently they ran out of booze at the south pole station before the winter season was up. Byron was making up for lost time.
I went and had brunch with the crew and then went to Adam and Doug’s room to watch game 1. My feet were getting cold, so I went back up to my room to grab a pair of socks and I find Byron sitting on the couch with a plate of breakfast talking with Matt. As I walk in, Byron is in the middle of a tirade, “If you fuck her right, there outta be giblets when you’re done”. Matt started laughing. I headed out the door shaking my head. I wonder what Byron’s life has been like. I get the sense that there is a lot of misogyny and womanizing here, that Byron is not alone.
So anyway, we watched the first half of game 1 over a few Speights. Adam always says “Speight’s Gold” in this kind of half-pirate, half-mad-Kiwi kind of accent. It makes me laugh every time I hear it.
Doug and I decided that we wanted to get out and do something, so we tried to go bowling. There is a two lane bowling alley here that apparently dates back to the mid-50s. It is an antique, one of the few remaining manual pinsetter alleys on the planet. Adam was telling us that Brunswick (or whoever the bowling manufacture actually is) has repeatedly offered contracts to ship the lanes back to the US in exchange for a brand new bowling facility and quite a bit of money. But I guess it is kind of a landmark down here too. When Doug and I walked in, there were already like 12 people there bowling and they all kind of ignored or scowled at us. There were two men in short shorts and black and white horizontally striped socks at the end of the lanes operating the big metal pinsetters. It was actually kind of funny to watch them drop down every time the ball came through. The would roll it back and take care of the pins. Since there was no chance of us getting a lane, we headed back, picked up Adam and Kate and went over to the Coffee House for a game of Risk. We had scoped out the board games the night before and saw that they had two Risk sets. Both of them are from the late 50s. I imagine that there are quite a few games that have been around since the early days at McMurdo. I had never seen that version of Risk before. The board is square, but the map and territories are all the same. The pieces were little plastic roman numerals or kind of 3-D asterisks. We had a quick game and I ended up winning after a few hours. It was a lot of fun, and probably one of the most laid back Risk games I’ve ever played. We reconvened for dinner where we discussed our nicknames. Kate’s temporary name is bandicoot. She was banding food boxes the other day when Adam first called her that. It seemed fitting because she is kind of small and marsupial-like in nature. I can’t remember what Doug’s original nickname was supposed to be, but he was talking about changing it to Striker. I guess he was tired of Doug. He’s a funny dude. They had decided that I was The Duece because I’m Dave II after big Dave. So Doug and I are Striker and The Duece. We sound like a team of F-16 pilots or some Burt Reynolds wannabees. I can foresee some good times in the field with the shitbox (our field toilet) and my nickname being The Duece. Apparently if you do well in the field, you get a chance to sign the wall of fame in the cage, which among other things, has the toilet seat from the ‘98-99 field season, signed by those who made it on the wall.
After dinner, we kind of hung around, I got on a computer for a little while and then we watched Kill Bill II. Great movie.
I came back and Matt and I talked for about a half an hour, laughing about Byron and talking about what we would be doing in the field, rock climbing, and being 21, among other things. I’m really starting to like him. He’s a good person. He told me he’s been going to the science lectures and has really been out exploring McMurdo. I have a feeling I would be doing the same if I was stuck here for a little longer. Surprisingly, there’s always several activities or things to do here (at least during the summer). It’s important and I think they do a pretty good job of providing those options. There must be an entire office down here that plans and publicizes activities and other social gatherings.
OK, well tomorrow is another 6:45 AM morning. A few tasks to take care of, and then I need to pack everything I’ll need in the field and bring it down to the helo pads for loading.
8:23 pm
So I slept for 13 hours last night. I woke up at around 11 this morning, feeling great. After I fell asleep, I was woken up again when Matt came into the room. He was just sitting there reading and then Byron showed up. He was tanked. I forgot to mention earlier that he kind of looks like Chong, of Cheech and Chong. I heard him banging into things and he started talking to Matt. It was pretty funny. He couldn’t really form coherent sentences. Slurring every other word. Matt said he grabbed a beer on his way to bed. I heard him come into the little nook where our beds are, stumbling and banging. He kind of stood there for a minute, I guess considering the task at hand – getting up into his bunk. He turned around and asked Matt for a blanket. Matt gave him one. He threw it up onto the bunk and then tried to climb up himself. I watched it unfold. He was kind of hanging there by both arms kicking his feet until he finally found the dresser next to the bed. With his foot planted he pushed up a little and managed to slide up onto the bare mattress a bit more. He then stayed in that position for around 10 seconds. I thought maybe he had passed out. Finally, he gave one more last ditch effort to get up and in the process swayed backwards. I thought he was going to fall for sure, possibly on me. But then I caught my last glimpse of his feet and I knew he had achieved his goal. There was some additional rustling and his gloves and a few papers came raining down between the bed and the wall. Then silence.
When I woke up this morning he was gone. I looked up on his bunk. Matt’s blanket was there, neatly folded at the foot of the bed – I guess he never managed to open it up. I went and sat down on the couch to watch the news for a little while and he came stumbling in with another case of beer. He started throwing it into the fridge. It was around 11 at that point. He grabbed two six packs and on his way out the door, turned to me and offered me a beer, something like “hey, you want one of these before I head down?” It was very tempting, but I declined, playing the “I don’t like to drink before breakfast” card. He said “breakfast, what the hell is that? I think I heard about that in a movie or something” and proceeded “down”. I chuckled.
Apparently they ran out of booze at the south pole station before the winter season was up. Byron was making up for lost time.
I went and had brunch with the crew and then went to Adam and Doug’s room to watch game 1. My feet were getting cold, so I went back up to my room to grab a pair of socks and I find Byron sitting on the couch with a plate of breakfast talking with Matt. As I walk in, Byron is in the middle of a tirade, “If you fuck her right, there outta be giblets when you’re done”. Matt started laughing. I headed out the door shaking my head. I wonder what Byron’s life has been like. I get the sense that there is a lot of misogyny and womanizing here, that Byron is not alone.
So anyway, we watched the first half of game 1 over a few Speights. Adam always says “Speight’s Gold” in this kind of half-pirate, half-mad-Kiwi kind of accent. It makes me laugh every time I hear it.
Doug and I decided that we wanted to get out and do something, so we tried to go bowling. There is a two lane bowling alley here that apparently dates back to the mid-50s. It is an antique, one of the few remaining manual pinsetter alleys on the planet. Adam was telling us that Brunswick (or whoever the bowling manufacture actually is) has repeatedly offered contracts to ship the lanes back to the US in exchange for a brand new bowling facility and quite a bit of money. But I guess it is kind of a landmark down here too. When Doug and I walked in, there were already like 12 people there bowling and they all kind of ignored or scowled at us. There were two men in short shorts and black and white horizontally striped socks at the end of the lanes operating the big metal pinsetters. It was actually kind of funny to watch them drop down every time the ball came through. The would roll it back and take care of the pins. Since there was no chance of us getting a lane, we headed back, picked up Adam and Kate and went over to the Coffee House for a game of Risk. We had scoped out the board games the night before and saw that they had two Risk sets. Both of them are from the late 50s. I imagine that there are quite a few games that have been around since the early days at McMurdo. I had never seen that version of Risk before. The board is square, but the map and territories are all the same. The pieces were little plastic roman numerals or kind of 3-D asterisks. We had a quick game and I ended up winning after a few hours. It was a lot of fun, and probably one of the most laid back Risk games I’ve ever played. We reconvened for dinner where we discussed our nicknames. Kate’s temporary name is bandicoot. She was banding food boxes the other day when Adam first called her that. It seemed fitting because she is kind of small and marsupial-like in nature. I can’t remember what Doug’s original nickname was supposed to be, but he was talking about changing it to Striker. I guess he was tired of Doug. He’s a funny dude. They had decided that I was The Duece because I’m Dave II after big Dave. So Doug and I are Striker and The Duece. We sound like a team of F-16 pilots or some Burt Reynolds wannabees. I can foresee some good times in the field with the shitbox (our field toilet) and my nickname being The Duece. Apparently if you do well in the field, you get a chance to sign the wall of fame in the cage, which among other things, has the toilet seat from the ‘98-99 field season, signed by those who made it on the wall.
After dinner, we kind of hung around, I got on a computer for a little while and then we watched Kill Bill II. Great movie.
I came back and Matt and I talked for about a half an hour, laughing about Byron and talking about what we would be doing in the field, rock climbing, and being 21, among other things. I’m really starting to like him. He’s a good person. He told me he’s been going to the science lectures and has really been out exploring McMurdo. I have a feeling I would be doing the same if I was stuck here for a little longer. Surprisingly, there’s always several activities or things to do here (at least during the summer). It’s important and I think they do a pretty good job of providing those options. There must be an entire office down here that plans and publicizes activities and other social gatherings.
OK, well tomorrow is another 6:45 AM morning. A few tasks to take care of, and then I need to pack everything I’ll need in the field and bring it down to the helo pads for loading.
posted by LankyPoobah at 8:23 PM
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