{"id":2544,"date":"2016-11-19T10:20:36","date_gmt":"2016-11-19T15:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2016-11-19T10:22:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-19T15:22:58","slug":"never-ready-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/2016\/11\/19\/never-ready-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Never ready to go."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"apple-and-bentley-kissing-3m\"

Apple (L) and Bentley (R) cuddling<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hi all, \u00a0Ralph here. \u00a0In two\u00a0hours I leave home for Antarctica. \u00a0This will be my\u00a024th trip\u00a0in 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. \u00a0I’ll be en route to Christchurch for roughly 28 hours (I didn’t get the cushy itinerary that Brian, Duck and John had). \u00a0So forgive me if I use the blog to try and calm those internal infernals\u00a0and get all\u00a0 stream-of-consciousness about getting ready to fly.<\/p>\n

Some of you may know I have some\u00a0training in emergency management. The most important\u00a0rule of emergency management is “take care of home first”. \u00a0That means when you’re called to action, \u00a0don’t leave problems behind. \u00a0For me, \u00a0that meant doing the following this past week:<\/p>\n

-Finishing up my fall teaching (Planetary Materials) \u00a0The 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).<\/p>\n

-Finishing a proposal for a concept study for\u00a0an 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\u00a0end of the supply chain?<\/p>\n

-Talking with three graduate students and two undergraduate students so\u00a0we’re all clear\u00a0on progress that can be made in my absence. \u00a0Brandon has a big experiment scheduled to start in mid-December, \u00a0but the main tasks\u00a0for all the students (Zoe, Harrison, Patrick, Paul) \u00a0are to write, write more, write again, and write.<\/p>\n

-Get the house ready for winter- storm windows in, wood chopped and stockpiled, chimney and stove cleaned, hire\u00a0a plow guy.\u00a0\u00a0I live in the snow belt of Lake Erie (annual average about 140 inches) and mother nature chose today to tune it up. \u00a0Forecasts \u00a0say 6-8 inches over the next 48 hours, \u00a0starting a few hours after I leave town.<\/p>\n

-Pay all the bills in advance. \u00a0And pay extra on the ones you can’t predict. \u00a0It’s amazing to me how many bills come due in late December.<\/p>\n

-Getting the family minivan’s brakes fixed (took three tries)! \u00a0Also the other vehicles\u00a0either put to sleep for a while or tuned up for winter.<\/p>\n

-Fixing a shower light\/vent fixture that chose yesterday morning to go belly-up and throw breakers through my house.<\/p>\n

-Packing. \u00a0Then more packing. \u00a0Then frantic repacking and unpacking to find things and repacking again. \u00a0Then second guessing. Then repacking. \u00a0 In case it isn’t obvious, \u00a0I’m a serial repacker. When asked to\u00a0rationalize this behavior, I’d argue it’s my way of memorizing where everything is and prioritizing what’s important. \u00a0Less rational (but more accurate) would be the theory that the triassic butterflies demand all things be in motion at all times.<\/p>\n

-trying not to break down. \u00a0 Leaving behind my wife Nancy and my children (Tucker, 19, in his first year in college; \u00a0Eli, 14, in his first year in high school; \u00a0Scout, 8, \u00a0in third grad) has never, every been harder. \u00a0The biggest sacrifice ANSMET has demanded of me over these 30 years is time away from my kids and family. \u00a0I do what I can to minimize my time away, \u00a0but even going into the field for short periods requires\u00a0weeks of getting there and preparations. Somewhere in my heart there is\u00a0a ledger recording\u00a0the many months of their lives I simply didn’t see.<\/p>\n

-The same sentimentality hits me with my pups, \u00a0too. \u00a0We have three dogs; \u00a0Apple (8) and our new puppy Bentley are shown above cuddling\u00a0(not shown is Jessie, our 12-year-old black lab, who isn’t amused by puppies). \u00a0They\u00a0provide the\u00a0unconditional love we all need sometimes. \u00a0When I’m in the field in Antarctica I constantly fantasize about having these fuzzy children\u00a0with me.<\/p>\n

Okay, \u00a0time to be less maudlin. I’ve gotten through the challenges of this week and I’m hoping the karmic balance means smooth travels. \u00a0And I’ve just gotta go repack a few dozen more times before I leave.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

-posted by rph, under the gray clouds of Novelty, OH<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Hi all, \u00a0Ralph here. \u00a0In two\u00a0hours I leave home for Antarctica. \u00a0This will be my\u00a024th trip\u00a0in 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. \u00a0I’ll be en route to Christchurch for roughly 28 hours (I didn’t get the cushy itinerary that Brian, Duck and John had). \u00a0So forgive me if I use the blog to try and calm those internal infernals\u00a0and get all\u00a0 stream-of-consciousness about getting ready to fly.<\/p>\n

Some of you may know I have some\u00a0training in emergency management.<\/p>\n

Continue reading… Never ready to go.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2549,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}