Well, the good news is that the first 1/2 of the team is back on the schedule again for today (12/17). The bad news is that we’re back-up for the flight back to Christchurch NZ, which means we seem pretty unlikely to actually fly (since they can land in Christchurch in pretty much any weather). Yesterday (12/16) the 1st half of our team travelled out to the field, but their flight was cancelled almost as soon as they got there because snow flurries started up, reducing the visibility. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 4 delays in 4 tries so far…all for good reasons. Still, the next time I hear someone complaining about delays at Newark Airport, I’m going to feel compelled to point out that “things could be worse” (I will not try to correct them on that point if it is Newark proper that they are complaining about).

Before I get into the truly important aspects of today’s blog, I do feel the need to correct an inaccuracy in yesterday’s blog. Shannon posted that we were delayed due to Ice Fog. While I am sure that is what it felt/looked like to Shannon, those of us with keener sight saw the true cause of the delay…Dementor Attack! It’s not Shannon’s fault mind you (cough…muggle…cough), but still I thought the true truth should be shared. (Luckily members of the Ministry were here to put things back to “normal” today.)

Now, one of the most important things for a delayed field party to do is to keep their morale up, otherwise they can start to go a little stir crazy (as these blogs probably demonstrate, I’m well past “stir” crazy, so there’s no helping me). This is particularly a problem when you are continually on the flight schedule like we are…you need to be ready at a moments notice, so you’ve already gotten everything done/ready/prepared. You also can’t wander off on hikes or other time consuming activities where you can’t easily be contacted. This limits our recreational activities a bit.

Now, there is a very famous saying about boredom (something about idle hands…I forget the rest). Therefore Ralph acted as entertainment director on our cruise yesterday, and found a “new” challenge for us…Cribbage. As you will soon see, Ralph was not only finding interesting things for us to do, he was making sure that each and everyone of us enjoyed it thoroughly!!

For those of you who don’t know, cribbage is a card game where you score by making runs, pairs, three-of-a-kind, and combinations of 15; you keep score on a special cribbage board. It is a complicated and old fashioned game that has largely fallen out of favor in the modern world. Thus, of course it is very popular down here in McMurdo, where we seem to be rapidly approaching the mid- to late-20th century.

I love cribbage…it is my single favorite card game. I learned to play from my Dad, and for those of you knew my dad, you’ll know that he was a bit competitive about…well…everything. For Dad, winning was great, but winning while able to tease the other person to the point they either cried (hey, I stopped crying after high-school) or get violently angry was much more greater (that’s some special grammar for my Mom as well).

We decided to play 4-person cribbage. Johnny, *Ralphy, and I are experience players and Christine volunteered to “learn” the game. You’ll understand my suspicions soon (or just look at the pictures). The first game went pretty normally, I won, Ralphy lost, and everyone else finished somewhere in between.

*(Side Note: In honor of the Christmas season, and in honor of one of my favorite movies of all times, I’ve decided that Ralph is henceforth Ralphy until the new year. Also, this is preferable to what Ralph would prefer us to call him in honor of one of his favorite movies…King Ralph.)

The second game started off well enough, we even let Ralphy get a big lead for a little while. Near the end of the game, Christine stopped “learning the game”, and started whooping everyone’s be-hind. Now we might normally have just chalked this up to beginners luck, but about this time Christine started wondering things aloud like “we’re playing for money, right” and “do you guys know any difficult games”. I do think the victory lap around the coffee house and touchdown celebration were a bit much, however (think Happy Gilmore for a visual aid).

If you’re wondering what happened to Ralphy’s big lead in the second game, you must keep in mind that as a Brown’s Fan, Ralphy is required to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at every opportunity. I particularly liked when Johnny stood over Ralphy after a particularly bad hand and made dollar signs over his prostrate form. Still, Christine had the best zinger of the day, when in response to yet another 4 point hand from Ralph, she busted out one my favorite put downs: “Huh your progress is incremental, just like your science.” Science Burn! (It is possible that one of the voices in my head said that…but I’m pretty sure it was Christine.) The most impressive thing was that Ralph managed to lose the third game as well, even though we only played two!

We need to give two special thanks, however. First off, a huge thank you to Liz Sutter who let us borrow her cribbage board, despite the fact that she needed it for a tournament that night. Now, ANSMET would always take good care of other peoples things, but since Liz is in charge of deciding who goes back to the real world and when (flights North to Christchurch), we felt we needed to take special care of the board, lest we end up accidentally wintering over. Thus, despite attacks from a mob of Skua, roving bands of vicious Kiwis, and a polar bear attack (don’t buy the whole “North Pole only” propaganda), we were able to get the board back in the nick of time.

The second thank you goes to our own Shannon Walker, who acted as judge of our game. Without her insightful comments of “Huh” or “whoever is arguing with Ryan must be right” as she occasionally glanced up from Tablet, the game would not have been possible.

And finally, it is time to continue our “Lessons Learned” series:

Lesson Learned #5 – You can sunburn the back of your hands! Not only that, you can burn ONLY your hands. Not sure how I did this, but I did. I think this also means that our early lesson learned about using suntan lotion in Antarctica may now be invalidated.

Image Caption 1: Here we are playing cribbage in the coffee house.

Image Caption 2: Here is Christine just as she pulls into the lead (she’s the yellow pegs), but just before the victory lap.

– Posted by Ryan at the Coffee House, McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Earth on 12/17/14