Carbon Monoxide!?

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Weird. The smoke alarm went off, not incredibly odd when I am using the fireplace, but it wasn't the smoke detector. It was the CO alarm. I was totally surprised. It had never gone off as long as I have had one, over many many years. Yep, after resetting it a few times. It was getting a reading over 200 ppm CO. When I took it downstairs I got a reading near 300 ppm. I started getting light headed at this point. After thinking maybe the furnace heat exchanger failed and puzzling around a bit I figured out what happened. As part of the huge winter storm that recently covered almost half of the US, we lost our electricity. So, being well prepared, I rolled out the generator and started doing what I normally do. The generator (although it was completely outside) was creating CO to get in the house. Using the fireplace draft (and possibly other leaks) the whole house created a vacuum around the seal of the basement garage door. After the CO got into the house the forced air heat...

I am getting the sense of the convergence of folks going to the ice. I can sense the community coming together. It is almost October. This month marks the begining of the primary exploration season for the last 200 years. There are friendships being renewed and there is optimism to create new friendships. Through email activity you can see that it is rapidly approaching showtime for the austral summer on the ice. The show seems to start in earnest around Halloween. I am thinking about what books I will take with me. I think I will leave the books about Antarctica at home. I suspect the Mactown library is full of them. I have received my agenda for training in Denver although the dates are not set yet. I will not stop thinking about the Heroic age of exploration and the different eras of exporation in Antarctica. I suspect (next year as a matter of fact) that we are entering the next era, the era of participatory exploration. Where tourism is harnessed as part of exploration. This year It is exciting to be part of the Technological Era of exploration in Antarctica.

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