Back on the farm in Summer

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I trailered a towable man lift (bucket lift) from Georgia to New York. The thing that made it eventful is that I had to drive my truck. My 2017 Chevy 3500 HD service truck (with only 31k miles) is not my Tesla. I have grown very accustomed to the Tesla self-driving, navigation and general hi-tech luxury. The truck, although I am very fond of my truck, is stressful and expensive to drive compared to the Tesla. Being on the farm alone has been an eye opener. I had forgotten how quiet and in-nature this place is. Very occasionaly a car or plane comes by and disrupts the void, but only occasionally. It has been very reflective. It is the first time I have been up here from Georgia without a specific date I must be back for... or so it seems. "All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone."-- Blaise Pasacal mid 1600s. I guess I am working on humanity's problems. It can take a lot out of you. I feel good about some of the pics I ha...
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It is Christmas on the ice. A white Christmas is pretty much inevitable I suppose although it is kind of gray and a little breezy today. There is volcanic dust blowing around a bit and it feels kind of dirty and cold outside. I opened my presents I had here and Bonnie sent me photos of the others. She didn't even have to wrap them. Our dinner last night was fairly spectacular. We had lobster tails, beef wellington and roast duck. Life is harsh in Antarctica, just not here, just not today. I went the chapel at 12:00 midnight and that was sort of weird having a midnight mass with the sun shinning thru the stained glass. There is just no getting used to that sun. I gave some sneak previews of my video I will be entering in the film festival on January 22nd. I will being doing some more editing, but I think the bulk of the work is over for now.

This morning an individual comes running up to me in the galley morning, "Charlie, Charlie", he says... I didn't recognize him at first. It took me a couple of minutes. We met early in the season and has been out in the field for the last 7 weeks. He lost a lot of weight and grew his beard. He also had a peculiar look like I was the first human he had seen. And in some ways I guess I was. He had some great stories and it was interesting watching him describe stuff and decompress over his experiences of tent fires and the night he almost died. They are back now and it sounds like they did some great science. What a difference between these science camps and the main stations. There is no comparison.

I got on the ham radio this morning and made a nice contact on the north island of New Zealand. I will be going up there later to see what else I can raise.

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