30 November, 2003

After last night's multi-course Thanksgiving feast, I was certainly ready for the Turkey Trot 5K. My enthusiasm was only dampened a little bit when I looked out the window and saw a few inches of new snow on the ground and even more snow blowing in the air. It looked a lot like Colorado at Thanksgiving-and certainly promised to be a great day for a run (at least for a run in Antarctica). The race was scheduled to start at 11am. By 10 am the snow had increased, the race was postponed, and visibility on the sea ice was rated as Condition 2. The forecast was less than optimistic, if you were looking for clearing conditions, calling for heavy snows and decreasing visibility for most of the day. By mid-afternoon it was certain that we weren't going to be heading out to camp today.

Stuck in McMurdo without my laptop, hmmmmm . . .what to do?! I was forced to take a small vacation from journaling {as I write this from camp, I am still on somewhat of a journal vacation, since our telephone has quit working due to high winds and blowing snow, so I can't send any journal entries that I write} and find other things to occupy my day. It was a good time to connect with other TEAs who were in town and learn about their projects; there are currently 4 TEA parcticipants and one past TEA parcticipant in McMurdo. Deprived of Turkey Trotting, I decided it was time to spend the equivalent amount of time in the gym, using the stationary bicycle and treadmill to simulate the effects of a 5k run. Best of all, it was a great day to just sit in the Galley with a hot cup of tea and read a book. These sorts of days are all too rare.

By the time the snow quit falling around midnight, there was almost a foot on the ground. Saturday's grey piles of ice and snow were nicely covered by this new snow. Since Sunday is a day off, none of the snow removal crews had worked so the snow cover was allowed to grow quietly without any interruptions. The most recent forecast was calling for a brief clearing overnight, with a new storm scheduled to move in sometime Monday afternoon, giving us a small window of opportunity to head out to camp in the morning.

Daily Haiku:

Turkey Trot, or not

Do we run in wind and snow

Or sit with a book?

It was a quiet day in McMurdo as the snow kept falling all day.

This is Scott's hut at Hut Point. It was hard to see much past the hut during the storm.