Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

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I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
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It seems sort of weird to want to talk about work all the time. But, then again that is where the majority of time is spent. The other time is largely down-time and although rejuvinating largely uneventful.

We haven't had any planes for a while. People are getting annoyed with the delays leaving the ice. Commercial flight delays are pretty common for sure. The ice flights run on a schedule but the delays differ from commercial since they may be delayed a week or more based on weather and equipment. Hopefully we have a flight in from Christchurch this Saturday, maybe Sunday.

I have a meeting this morning regarding re-deployment (going home). A lot of folks take vacation when they get off the ice. Several people I know will be taking at least a month in Africa this time. It is somewhat common to purchase a round-the-world airline ticket. Generally, you have a year or 6 months to take flights (number of flights limited) around the world. If you start in the southern hemisphere going east you must stay in the southern hemisphere going east. I have heard of stories where people get off the ice and go their seperate ways only to unexpectedly to meet up with others off the ice in places like Mongolia.

The first picture was taken in town as part of my walk to work. The second picture shows a storm we had the other day (very mild for Antarctica standards) in the absolute middle of Summer.

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