{"id":4187,"date":"2023-03-10T10:41:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T15:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/?p=4187"},"modified":"2023-03-10T10:41:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T15:41:52","slug":"james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/2023\/03\/10\/james\/","title":{"rendered":"James"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

James demonstrating proper snowmobile riding stances to Jani, Minako and Alex (from 2016).<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Sadly, it’s time for another memorial post- \u00a0this one long overdue. \u00a0About a year ago we lost one of the all-time most-valuable members of ANSMET’s support team in McMurdo, \u00a0James Meinert (aka “Butch”, “Speckled Trout” or “Black Bart” back home in Wisconsin). \u00a0Veterans of our project know a couple of things; \u00a0first, \u00a0that snowmobiles are as important to us as horses are to cowboys, \u00a0and second, \u00a0that nobody put more care and technical savvy into keeping ANSMET snowmobiles working than James.<\/p>\n

Forgive me for making this just a little bit personal- \u00a0but I definitely had a “bromantic” interest in James. \u00a0First off, \u00a0 both being Wisconsin boys, \u00a0I couldn’t talk to the guy without getting homesick as hell from his beautiful accent and the whole humble, pseudo-negative-but-really-positive “things could be worse, eh?” vibe. \u00a0Second, \u00a0he had \u00a0(in my humble opinion) an unparalleled connection to the small engine that I was insanely jealous of. \u00a0I’ve certainly spent a great deal of time breaking and then repairing (or trying to repair) snowmobiles, mowers, and other smaller gas-powered devices; \u00a0but for me, \u00a0it has always been a fearful, \u00a0knuckle-twisting, low-confidence-it’ll-work endeavor. \u00a0By comparison, James was the Snowmobile Whisperer. \u00a0 \u00a0Every winter he would tear down ANSMET’s snowmobiles completely, replacing any part that might cause us issues. \u00a0And he’d tune the machines, so the engines would run smooth at appropriate altitudes and the suspensions would survive us bashing them agains the blue ice. \u00a0 And yet we never saw an ounce or an iota of impatience from him, \u00a0or any sense of anger, \u00a0when the season would end and we’d bring the machines back to his shop, \u00a0bruised and broken. \u00a0 James got it; \u00a0these were beasts of burden that we all loved, \u00a0but that we had to abuse to get our jobs done- \u00a0and frankly, \u00a0why not do it with a sense of adventure and caring as well? He gave us permission to fail in our fixes, and try new things, as long as we didn’t lose sight of the basics (fuel, spark and don’t break the pull-cord). \u00a0There were uncountable times in McMurdo and in the field when our field team members (and especially John and Brian and other mountaineers like Shaun) would work on a mysteriously disfunctional snowmobile with James quietly directing us through careful sage-like wisdom, often guiding us through some complex organ replacement surgery over a satellite phone connection. \u00a0We were utterly grateful that James joined us in the field several times, literally putting his expertise on the front line to everyone’s benefit.<\/p>\n

James was an absolute legend not just in Antarctica but across the world, \u00a0and I heartily recommend you read his obituary from the Ozaukee County News Graphic<\/a>\u00a0to learn more. \u00a0 \u00a0I’m absolutely sure that the next time we’re in the field, \u00a0elbows-deep in a broken Skandic during a howling wind, \u00a0James is going be there on the breeze, quietly guiding a bolt into the right hole that we just can’t see. \u00a0And on that wind we’ll hear a quiet, chuckling voice muttering, \u00a0“you know a guy could maybe drive a little slower next time”? \u00a0 \u00a0 We will miss you terribly, \u00a0James.<\/p>\n

–<\/em>Ralph, \u00a0from deep within the impending snowpocalypse, \u00a0Novelty \u00a0OH.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sadly, it’s time for another memorial post- \u00a0this one long overdue. \u00a0About a year ago we lost one of the all-time most-valuable members of ANSMET’s support team in McMurdo, \u00a0James Meinert (aka “Butch”, “Speckled Trout” or “Black Bart” back home in Wisconsin). \u00a0Veterans of our project know a couple of things; \u00a0first, \u00a0that snowmobiles are as important to us as horses are to cowboys, \u00a0and second, \u00a0that nobody put more care and technical savvy into keeping ANSMET snowmobiles working than James.<\/p>\n

Forgive me for making this just a little bit personal- \u00a0but I definitely had a “bromantic” interest in James. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Continue reading… James<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":2605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/111\/2016\/12\/01201021\/Alex-Minako-and-Jani-listen-to-James-smaller.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187"}],"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=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4192,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions\/4192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caslabs.case.edu\/ansmet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}