Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

Well, I got the real word tonight at follows: Charles, This email is to inform you that you have been physically qualified for deployment. Your P.Q. status is good through 03.01.07. If you have any questions please call 1.800.688.blah Blah Option 3. Congratulations, and have a good trip! Thanks "Well, The first thing ya know old Chuck headed to the ice.,,, etc..." See previous blog for context. "Hills that is ... Terror and Erebus, scientists and malcontents" I am headed to the ice for the 2006-2007 USAP season. Yee Haw!

Well, I got my stress test done. The results of course were fine. I impressed myself on how fast you can get something like that done when you really are compelled. I could find no one in the greater Binghamton area that could do it in less than a month. I was hung up on at one point inquiring at a local cardioligist office. I started looking in Syracuse and was attended to very efficiently by CNY Heart Center on Genesee St. I made the appt., got it done and was back home by 5:30 PM. They helped out a lot. Just about everybody is willing to help someone with a plan like mine once it is properly communicated. Plane tickets next? I suspect I will be leaving on the 14th.

The Antarctica folks decided they want me to take a stress test before they PQ me. Hopefully, I can get that done today.

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 ...

I am getting a little ahead of myself. It turns out I am not quite yet PQ'd. My medical should be approved Tuesday. My blood chemistry looked great in the sheet that I received. I am healthy. Not only am I healthy, I am healthy enough to go risk my health in the world's most desolate, highest, dryest, windiest, coldest, most remote continent. I ordered a new carb for the bobcat. I still have to order some extra camera batteries and SD cards. I think my laptop is in pretty good shape and I think I am feeling a little more like I am ready for this experience. The interary had me a little freaked out since it had me coming back to the States in April. April is emergency evac time from Mactown, not summer help coming home. I am planning on leaving on or about the 15th of October and returning in mid February. I will be in Denver for a couple of days on my way to the ICE. I have been reading and reading about Antarctica. Everything from the history of early discovery to detail...

I have to check on my itinerary for the big trip to the ice. Something doesn't make sense. Today I am feeling a bit nervous about the trip to Antarctica and the known and unknown dangers. The following article speaks well about getting a job like I did. The great thing is that I have a fantastic job. I am a senior communications technician. I will be fixing and installing radio and communications systems. My job will have me traveling out into the field so that is a triple plus. I will be out and about working on stuff I love to work on. What could be better? I still have a lot to do. Used without permission from http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0305/workinantartica.shtml Work in Antarctica Getting Hired Is Difficult, But The Rewards Are Worth It By Benjamin Murray No matter how deep the world’s uncharted places that zealous travelers go, there is always one destination mocking their efforts: Antarctica. But I found that persistence, paperwork, an...