Expidite the expidited

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I am headed to the passport office this AM to get a new passport. I didn't have time to do the expidited renewal after getting back from Japan. So I made an special expiditing appointment with the passport folks in Atlanta. I am glad I only have to drive into Atlanta, not fly up to NY or Washington DC. It seems I have had to do some expiditing everytime I have renewed my passport. Passports are good for 10 years. When you get a new passport it is a time to ponder where you will be and what the passport will look like in 10 years. The pic belows shows the wear on my now cancelled passport. it was a 50 page book (the extra pages version) and 46 pages are fully used. Many countries require 3 empty pages to enter their country. So, I got full use of the larger size passport. If you need more pages, you send the passport in and they will "sew-in" more pages. The thickest passport I ever saw was at the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan border. A truck driver I saw had a Uzbekistan passpo...

I went to medical about my ankle. The flight surgeon was quite helpful and informative. I have a minor/moderate sprain. I don't think I have ever twisted my foot so bad before. It was a good warning for me. It means that although I have been very careful I have not been careful enough. I worked in the shop today hobbling around while everyone was out in the field. My ankle is already a lot better now that I have an ace bandage on it. The startling thing has been that I can't walk as fast. People are passing me, yikes! I should be headed out to the field later this week. It got kind of nasty out there today anyway. It is 7:15 right now and four of my co workers are still on the mountains. The weather has closed in and they can't get them off. They were supposed to be picked up about 4:00. One of them sounded kind of cold up there. Whenever we get dropped off by a helo we get survival bags which includes a tent, sleeping bag, shovel, camp stove and food. I am sure hoping they won't have to be out there too long, breaking into the survival bags. The department has had an excellent history of not having to get into the survival bags. You also don't have to worry about the gloom of night. You just have to worry about the unpredicable nasty-ass weather. Storms can last up to about 3 days. The pilots and everyone else is concerned about your safety, you have had training, you have a radio and folks know where you are. Compared to a couple of people camping or mountain climbing this is much safer and secure. We have infrastructure.

Werner Herzog the director of documentaries like "Grizzly Man" is on the ice and I was supposed to fix him up with some radios today. We also received some Distinguished Visitors (DVs) today for whom we set up some wireless. Senator McCain was down last year. It was also weird getting a phone call from someone out in the field who was having a problem with their HF radio. That is fun work helping someone with an HF radio problem.

This is a picture of McMurdo General Hospital, AKA Medical.

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Expidite the expidited

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