December 1

Saturday night is my weekly time off work. I'm not sure where the whole night went, but it's over already. I was invited to a rave at the post office cargo bay but declined, choosing instead a phone call to North Carolina. At the midnight meal, I ate with a dishwasher who is also an ecologist and studies owls in the back country of the northwest United States.

I learned that McMurdo sends weather balloons up into the atmosphere twice a day every day. The balloons are made of latex and carry devices that measure many things necessary for weather prediction. The balloons eventually fail and come down in their own time. They aren't recovered, so at least 100 balloons have been scattered about the continent and it's surrounding waters since I arrived. All so I can know what the weather may be (and presumably, the information is necessary for the airplane and helicopter flights).