Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Trapped inside a fridge inside a blast freezer – not my idea of a good time.
Gee Lex … It’s that darn global warming again — you know the climate change that Obama’s administration is going to beggar the country to alter? Mother Nature has decided to do the job of moderating global warming all by herself. But don’t worry. The new Administration won’t miss a step. They’ll just apply all our hardearned taxpayer dollars to universal health care — another great idea that has worked so well in Great Britain and Canada.
The fun never stops, does it?
Marianne
Hmm….
Condition One or Great Barrier Reef?
Condition One or Great Barrier Reef?
Decisions, decisions…
Does that mean the VXE 6 supply flight won’t be coming today?
YAK: Here is your choice too – better be quick: Island caretaker job offer in Australia – get paid $150,000 to swim, snorkel, and do some blogging.
http://current.com/items/89706438/island_caretaker_job_offer_in_australia_get_paid_150_000_to_swim_snorkel_and_do_some_blogging.htm
TINY URL is: http://tiny.cc/lShSz
I have always been averse to single climate environments, especially pristine white one’s that didn’t have sand.
Actually, that looks like fun! It’s only going to get down to 25 below here in Wisconsin tonight. Downright balmy! I’v seen video of people joining the 300 degree club in Antarctica. They get the sauna up to 200 then run outside when it’s 100 below…sober!
It’s -18, which all things considered isn’t all that bad. The diesels all started, I cleared the driveway and chained up the pickup to help pull a neighbor’s vehicles out of the snow, a fire in the woodstove in the machine shed and a pot of coffee on top, it’s not so bad. The house is warm, the wife and child inside love to pick the icicles from the beard, and to the young one this is a new and exciting phenomenon. Ice and snow and cold.
She’ll get used to it.
It’s not really the cold, it’s not really the snow. It’s the wind. Wind lashing so hard that exposed skin freezes in a minute or two. Exposed skin you didn’t know you had, like at that slight gap between jacket sleeve and glove gauntlet. Or that part of your cheeks you can’t cover without your breath freezing upon your glasses. That little raw spot on the point of your nose and tips of your ears that the clothing never seems to cover.
When I first became of age to help with the chores, they were fairly simple. Feeding the farm cats, collecting eggs, that sort of thing. Had yet to graduate to feeding the cattle and the horses.
Winter arrived, and my sainted grandfather helped me tie a rope between the chicken house and the home proper. Said it was so I didn’t get lost when the wind blew the snow. Slightly later, reading the Little House on the Prairie books, I read of the same idea being used.
I used to think the old man was exaggerating a bit, adding a touch of that “we went to school barefoot and walked five miles uphill both ways sort of thing.”
He wasn’t.
-40 is frosty, but survivable. -40 and 40-knot winds is survivable, but darned cold. -40 and 40-knot winds and unable to see where shelter can be found? Tends to kill ya.
I still have my rope to the horse-barn. And the chicken house. May not need them that often, but then I’ve never needed seat belts either.
Oh, and what do we do in these times? Surf a few blogs, play board games, and cook. A lot. Chili and soups and stews and gumbo. They can be placed in tupperware and set outside for a larder, and in case of power outage can be reheated on the wood stove.
It ain’t exactly taking the family to the opera, true, but it’s 10 miles to a town, 20 to a supermarket. We’re in a defensive posture until March.
I’ve often wondered, as I’ve run out of my favorite snack or the kid needs diapers and I’m looking at an impassable road without some outside heavy lifting involved, what thoughts go through the heads of submariners when they stow their gear and ponder the length of the cruise.
Would be a bad time to be a smoker, I’m thinking.
– Max
It’s a sub standard night here in Central Wisconsin. We recieved 6 inches of snow Monday, the dry powdery stuff, and now we have sustained 25mph winds, so the wind chill is down around -25. We are scheduled to get another 5-7 inches Tuesday night.
I own a small John Deere utility tractor, with an end loader mounted on it, and would very much like to get it out, and clean up the snow, but it does not have a cab, and just sitting on the seat, working the controls, is a very, very cold job.
Ah, well, by the end of the week, we will be on the downhill side of January, and it will be March in just 6 weeks, so we Badgers like Scary and I will just have to stay close to the potbellied stoves in our burrows, and tough it out. At least we get 4 distinct seasons, there is that much to be said for Wisconsin.
The folks in Antarctica probably do the same thing we do when we are snowbound here in Western Michigan in the lee of the Big Lake…and the howling wind helps cover the sound from the howling wife…
Was just chatting not 5 minutes ago to a Lieutenant headed to FT Sam for a year for the PA course. Just bought 6 year old 2700 sq ft. home near Randolph AFB for $150K. I can dig it. Even if I don’t care for San Antone.
Now you can understand why there is the problem of over-consumption of alcohol during the long night of Antarctic winter.
We are not Emperor penquins.
Back in Operation Deepfreeze 71 &72, our huts did not have nice metal doors, just wood. Still it was cozy inside with our very own oil burner keeping us in t-shirts at 72 degrees. Our past times, were watching very very bad B movies, playing cards, “reading” Playboy, and drinking in the lounge after working hours. The good old days when we were young.
Thanks for the hail-o. The time I was on the Ice was the best adventure experience of a lifetime for me as a photographer and a sailor.
Wow. And I was going to bitch about the cold weather we are about to get here in New England the latter part of this week.
Not a word.
What do they do when conditions are like that? Probably make use of the contents of those 47 cases of condoms they were shipped. Just sayin….
Back when I was young and naive, Antarctica was my #1 pick on duty station request. #2 was a VP squadron and I got talked into putting down “carrier” for #3. Lo and behold, I got number 3. What else?
After I got out I spent a year in Chicago. I tell my Chicago buddy that I am sure glad he likes to live there … so I don’t have to. So here’s to the polar bears and penguins. Salute! I’ll take Texas.
F*ck that!
I remember a few years ago I was on a detachment off of the coast of Korea on a Spru-can DD (which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) in January. We had reported to the Engineers and the Electricians that the heater in our shop wasn’t working several times over the preceding three weeks.
Weren’t getting a lot of traction there, I tell you. We were told that there wasn’t anything wrong with the heater it was that we kept opening the hanger doors to move our stupid helicopter in and out that was the problem.
So, as I am climbing the stairs into the helo hanger one day I get snapped up at the top by my LPO, Brian.
“Dude Drew, we’ve got a stalagmite in the shop,” he says, excited.
“A what?”
“Come check it out, a stalagmite, I’m serious.”
I walk into the shop.
There, hanging out of the heater vent, is a nine point three inch (we measured) icicle.
Pictures were taken. Engineering was informed that either they fixed the heater or we’d e-mail the pictures to our squadron.
The heater was promptly fixed. Until the following week when the electrical junction box (located in the helicopter maintenance shop) for said heater caught on fire one night at about 0230 and it didn’t work again.
There is also the added effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder, probably so-called because it produces the cute acronym of SAD. The idea is that since we’re wearing clothing over every exposed part of our body and the sun is only shining for roughly 20 minutes out of the day, whatever gland it is that turns sunlight into vitamin D is missing out on the sunlight, and we get depressed.
I’ve been told by reliable sources that the Scandanavians compensate with spas and alcohol in massive quantities.
There is another reason for sadness in times like this, however. Weddings are held in September because it’s finally cool enough to wear those huge dresses. Kids are born in October because it was too cold to do anything but shiver in January.
Took about 3 hours to get home this evening. Hit the supermarket to stock up the pantry, checking the shopping list off as I went. A package of hot chocolate mix and some of those mini-marshmallows went into the cart, sort of a self-indulgent impulse buy. Bought another 10lbs of potatoes, you can never have too many, and hash browns with eggs over easy and toast seemed a necessary fuel for chores the next morning. Going to be -18 again, they say.
Driving home in a minor blizzard, the snowplow has cut a path on the interstate and I can see the edge line for part of the way. The further we go, the less I see of it and the center line starts to appear. I-90 is zoned at 75mph, I hit 60 in some spots. But I’m used to this stuff, and only drive as fast as I can see.
Off the interstate, onto the state highways. 30mph, there’s a road under here somewhere and I think I’m on it. Speeds between 20mph and 30mph, if I can see the end of the drift I speed up to bust through it. If not, I slow and study it, then drive like hell. I’m lucky, they weren’t that deep or packed.
Off the paved roads, on my own now. Drive like hell — it’s only a couple of miles to walk if I get stuck and we don’t want the milk or baby food to freeze. Make it home. Get stuck in the driveway. Huh! Guess that stuff packed a little harder! Sure enough, can’t open the doors and so climb out the window with the gallon of milk, and walk across the drift to home.
Freshly attired in appropriate coveralls, I bring tractors and shovels and snowblowers to bear on the task and the car is freed, the driveway clear, sustinence for my family is carried to the front door, there to be stowed by My Good Wife.
One might think, if one was a guy, that the Spousal Unit might notice the minor blizzard, the husband all bundled up with frosted glasses and icicles in his beard, and exclaim, “Oh, you sweet hunk of Norwegian stud, you’ve brought several weeks of food for the family. Let me take you to bed and ravish you!”
One might think that. One would be wrong.
Instead I received, “Why did you buy the hot chocolate? I could have *made* you hot chocolate. From scratch. Better than this stuff.”
And dang, I forgot to bring in the mail too.
I give up. I’m going to try the heavy drinking and see how that works for me. Just as soon as the snowplow goes by and I can get to town for some whiskey. Ought to happen by Friday.
– Max
Max … wow.
Hey, Max, seems a trifling strange to me that y’all like to pick on the Great White Up. Frankly, my dear, I be thinking that I would much rather live here than there. You have my sympathies, sir.
Wisconsin -18F (-25 wind chill), eh? That’s a winter high in northern Saskatchewan where I was pupped. We plugged the car into an outlet at night to keep the block from cracking. Record low when I was young was – 49F (-40 not so rare) – wind and blowing snow for extra fun.
All of which explains why I live in Alabama.
LOL
“Plugging the car in” … now there’s an old memory. Not something they even comprehend here on the East Coast, thankfully. Instead they have the salt on the roads eating holes in the cars. Not so much out west.
But I also recall it had to be -40F at the airport at 6:00 AM for school to be cancelled – or I think more accurately, before the busses wouldn’t run. Glad I’m not there any more. Still, I could do with a southern beach at the moment, I could.
Wedge, you’re a smarter man than I am.
I’ll probably think differently come May or June, but for now? Texas or Florida looks mighty appealing.
– Max
Huh. I was gonna complain about how cold it’s supposed to be here tomorrow but you Northern Folk (aka Yankees) have frozen that complaint right outta my head. Just reading the comments made me want to find my long underwear.
Ummm… MissBirdlegs (or others as may wish to opine), can one be a Yankee if your state didn’t exist during the War of Northern Aggression?
We were admitted into the Union in 1889, you see…
Max, Someone has to be from the Dakotas and it might as well be you…
and yes, despite the fact that your state, North or South, did not exist during the War of Southern Hubris… you are most assuredly a “Yankee” and therefore a winner… welcome … and keep warm. Best
Miss BL, you spelled it wrong. You left out four letters when you said “Yankees”. Unless you were speaking of the 25 time world champion baseball club, then it is ok.
Nose, my mother would climb outta her grave and hunt a hickory switch if I’d used the four letters of which you speak. I try to be careful about that, much as I’d like to see her.
…and I try to never speak of that baseball team.
Snake, that was tacky of you – as usual.
Max, no matter – we can’t call you Southern, so you’re Northern (aka Yankee). I realize that we can’t all be Southern, so I make allowances. Try to stay warm, but please excuse me – I’m on a quest for my longjohns & cashmere socks to wear to work tomorrow.
Scariest landing on the Ice was during white out conditions. The Super Connie that opened the 71 OP DEEPFREEZE season crashed landed at McMurdo . Took the crash crew 3 hours to find the wreck that was only about a hundred yards away. Fortunately no one was seriously injured. Coldest I ever felt was when leaving boot camp at Great Lakes in December, I never felt so cold on the Ice even at -40 below zero. Difference was clothing.
There may be another reason I was feeling a bit down the other day. A neighbor to the south of me died of a massive heart attack while pulling his neighbor’s car out of the snow. I didn’t know until this morning.
Good man. Sort of stout at 5′5″ and 220lbs, he had the broad chest and hard muscles of his upbringing. Farmer, handyman, electrician, plumber, we used to joke that his old F150 with topper looked like it was constantly driving uphill because he had every tool he’d ever owned in the back. He wasn’t yet 60.
He was pulling his neighbor’s car out of the snow with his tractor when the chain slipped. Going back to re-attach it he bent over to reach under the vehicle and never returned to an upright position. By the time the people in the car figured out this was abnormal, he was gone.
Paramedics arrived about an hour later. Remember where I’d said I was on my own once I was off the paved roads? I meant it.
Just as well, he’d have hated spending time in the hospital, and surely wouldn’t have wanted to waste away in a retirement home in his dotage. He died helping a neighbor, as fitting an epitaph as any for a man like him.
Going to miss him, and giving him the 1-finger-raised-from-the-steering-wheel wave when we passed on the road.
Folks, if you don’t yet know CPR, learn it. It takes 20 minutes of your life to learn, and may save the life of another.
Now if you’ll pardon me, while I can’t get to town for a bottle of whiskey I *am* going to raise a glass of Leinenkugel’s 1888 Bock to the stars and spill a little to remember a neighbor. It’s -38 tonight, and the plains seem more cold and lonely than before for some reason.
Aw heck, I might even have a second glass.
– Max