A critical piece of field gear….and one of my favorite things
I’m wrapping up my final preparations for Antarctica, and enjoying the long weekend with my family – my kids traveled home to see me off. I am inspired by Nicole’s posting, and the awesome podcast (https://www.nasa.gov/mediacast/jpl/season-two-episode-8-diamonds-in-the-ice. So I invited my son Jacob, a journalist, to help me draft a blog entry. His normal beat is the Middle East, so the culture of Antarctica (and how that intersects his mom) is a stretch assignment. He suggested a Q&A.
Q: Mom -This is your second jaunt to Antarctica, what is it that you’re most looking forward to?
A: For sure it’s hanging out with the team – John, Brian and Jim for the second time, and getting to know/sharing secrets with my new teammates
Q: What secrets?
A: How much butter I can eat, how much bacon I crave and how many socks I am bringing.
Q: Can you talk more about socks?
A: It turns out I have a lot of socks – I kinda feel like Imelda Marcos of socks (Cindy’s note: a ca. 1987 reference to the lavish shoe collection of the former first lady of the Philippines). I plan to have socks for every occasion. My toes will be toasty.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish?
A: Find lots of rocks from space. My colleagues at JSC are afraid that I’ll find too many terrestrial rocks or too many itty bitty ordinary chondrites. But there are never too many meteorites.
Our conversation went on to discussions about the meteorite collection, and details of daily life on the ice (Jacob’s Q: Perhaps, I shouldn’t be asking this because I’m your son – how do you go to the bathroom? When I provided the answer, his response was – OK – I won’t ask further). He wrapped up the interview with the question below:
Q: Mom – when you’re out on the ice sheet, what is it that you’re most looking forward to regarding coming back?
A: Taking a shower, wearing flip flops, reuniting and breaking bread with family & friends.
But first – I am looking forward to getting to McMurdo, and then Davis–Ward ice fields!