When we last left our hero…sorry, I couldn’t help myself. After flying home, I had to get ready. While they supply us with lots of Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear, I still went out and got some of my own gear. Otherwise, I had to complete forms, get a physical (which was the first time I found out I was borderline High Blood pressure), etc. I’m still a little hazy on the details of what I did between getting hired and deploying to “the ice”. However, it was a busy time.

Oh, I do remember one thing. They flew me back to Boulder for training with the radiotheodolite  system for the upper air balloons that we launch. This was for Kathie, myself and one of the summer mets. We spent two days, I think, working with the equipment and launched a balloon. I then went back with the electronics technician that would be wintering over with us, Chip Dunn. I then flew back to Fennville, to await deployment.

One thing that I realized, is that I can add some video, once I get to the point where I’m flying down to Antarctica, I dubbed my copy of the video that we made to remember our times, onto DVD. I can load that up. I need to get a slide scanner, or at least have my slides scanned. They are stored in a good place, but it would be great if I could share some of the slides through the year.