Apple (L) and Bentley (R) cuddling
Hi all, Ralph here. In two hours I leave home for Antarctica. This will be my 24th trip in 30 years (my first trip was in 1987). Still, I’m as nervous as I’ve ever been! There are Triassic-sized butterflies in my tummy. I’ll be en route to Christchurch for roughly 28 hours (I didn’t get the cushy itinerary that Brian, Duck and John had). So forgive me if I use the blog to try and calm those internal infernals and get all stream-of-consciousness about getting ready to fly.
Some of you may know I have some training in emergency management. The most important rule of emergency management is “take care of home first”. That means when you’re called to action, don’t leave problems behind. For me, that meant doing the following this past week:
-Finishing up my fall teaching (Planetary Materials) The loose end here is term papers, the students are sending them to me in McMurdo via email for grading (with strict size limits on the file).
-Finishing a proposal for a concept study for an asteroid mission called DAISEE. Let’s just say that I’ve been PI on the asteroid mission called ANSMET for a long time, so why not be a PI and study them at the other end of the supply chain?
-Talking with three graduate students and two undergraduate students so we’re all clear on progress that can be made in my absence. Brandon has a big experiment scheduled to start in mid-December, but the main tasks for all the students (Zoe, Harrison, Patrick, Paul) are to write, write more, write again, and write.
-Get the house ready for winter- storm windows in, wood chopped and stockpiled, chimney and stove cleaned, hire a plow guy. I live in the snow belt of Lake Erie (annual average about 140 inches) and mother nature chose today to tune it up. Forecasts say 6-8 inches over the next 48 hours, starting a few hours after I leave town.
-Pay all the bills in advance. And pay extra on the ones you can’t predict. It’s amazing to me how many bills come due in late December.
-Getting the family minivan’s brakes fixed (took three tries)! Also the other vehicles either put to sleep for a while or tuned up for winter.
-Fixing a shower light/vent fixture that chose yesterday morning to go belly-up and throw breakers through my house.
-Packing. Then more packing. Then frantic repacking and unpacking to find things and repacking again. Then second guessing. Then repacking. In case it isn’t obvious, I’m a serial repacker. When asked to rationalize this behavior, I’d argue it’s my way of memorizing where everything is and prioritizing what’s important. Less rational (but more accurate) would be the theory that the triassic butterflies demand all things be in motion at all times.
-trying not to break down. Leaving behind my wife Nancy and my children (Tucker, 19, in his first year in college; Eli, 14, in his first year in high school; Scout, 8, in third grad) has never, every been harder. The biggest sacrifice ANSMET has demanded of me over these 30 years is time away from my kids and family. I do what I can to minimize my time away, but even going into the field for short periods requires weeks of getting there and preparations. Somewhere in my heart there is a ledger recording the many months of their lives I simply didn’t see.
-The same sentimentality hits me with my pups, too. We have three dogs; Apple (8) and our new puppy Bentley are shown above cuddling (not shown is Jessie, our 12-year-old black lab, who isn’t amused by puppies). They provide the unconditional love we all need sometimes. When I’m in the field in Antarctica I constantly fantasize about having these fuzzy children with me.
Okay, time to be less maudlin. I’ve gotten through the challenges of this week and I’m hoping the karmic balance means smooth travels. And I’ve just gotta go repack a few dozen more times before I leave.
-posted by rph, under the gray clouds of Novelty, OH