Antarctica? Seriously?

I've always been fascinated with Antarctica, starting in 6th grade when I spoke to people on the continent via ham radio. Since then, I've read lots of Antarctic history and adventure, followed a lot of the science going on there, and had many more chances to talk to people there with ham radio. When I was in the Navy, and they were doing all the support down there, I even tried to get assigned to Antarctica with no luck. So how did I get this chance to go there now? With a lot of luck and serendipity, but mostly because of two good friends of mine, Brad Keiser and Adrienne Custode. I'll get to them in a bit, but first a little background. And to the people who've heard this story before, please bear with me... I had been working at a place called Ball Aerospace for many years when I just became toast. The work wasn't engaging anymore, the management wasn't supportive, and it was time for me to move on. But what to do? I decided to take a year off to travel...

This is an account of my time wintering over at Palmer Station Antarctica. Although I've never blogged before, it seems like the easiest way to share my experience with family and friends while I'm down there. I'm not much of a writer, as I've spent most of my adult life writing technical emails of five lines or less, so I'm afraid my writing skills are circling the drain. I'm not proud of it, but at least I can admit it. So I apologize in advance for that. I don't anticipate having a lot of time to edit my posts, so stream of consciousness it is! If you have any questions for me, please ask in the comments section, or email me directly. Right now I don't think I have any restrictions on comments, but if the trolls and bots get obnoxious, I might need to turn them off. Here is a link to the Palmer Station Web Cam and current weather, as well as a little bit of station history and the science that goes on there. There are also a lot of YouTube vide...