Hokusai out the window Dept.

For the last thirty hours or so we have been hearing almost constantly that "they" are about to declare Condition One. During most of this time the weather state has officially remained at Condition Two, but the snow and wind is so thick that it is already quite exciting to walk the fifty yards from Crary Lab to the Galley, so the conversation about when the downgrade to Condition One will occur has become a constant. We discuss having pajama parties in Crary Lab and busting out our "sleep kits" and setting them up on the sofas upstairs and then realize it is still Condition Two and hurry off to eat something in the cafeteria.

Three Views out the office window

View of probable Condition Three

Unequivocal Condition Two

Possible Condition One

In other news antarcticiana always stands by its story; you will find no retractions here. However, I did receive an email informing me that it was irresponsible to have recently posted something to the effect that I could hardly wait to drive my own Pisten Bully out onto the ice and turn it off and lie on my back in blissful silence. The assiduous reader of this blog will already have picked up on the subtle yet persistent theme of the annoyance of idling engines, particularly as they impact my task of recording useable film sound. One can only hope that this thread, running as it does through various entries, has been appreciated for its humourous character. Just in case it has not, let me emphasize that I am in fact well aware that driving a motorized vehicle out into the middle of a frozen sea in subzero temperatures and turning it off in order to "let the engine cool down" or "record seagulls" is a recipe for, at the very best, a long and chilly afternoon spent waiting to be rescued by a posse of diesel mechanics. I am a wuss who is among other things almost pathologically uninterested in polar swimming, so rest assured that anything you have read to the contrary is, as they say, what passes for humour around here.