Winding down

Sunday, April 18: High: 17F Low: 0F Length of Day: 20h 05m
Monday, April 19: High: 7F Low: -4F Length of Day: 20h 31m
Tuesday, April 20: High: 13F Low: -4F Length of Day: 21h 00m

Sunday morning I wake up early and go see the Go North! teams' dogs. They were chained up outside near the end of the hangars. The chains were keeping them separated which is good since one dog and bitten another dog the day before. The victim dog was really sad when I got there with a a big mat of bloody fur on the left side of his face. Obviously the omega dog, he sat there all dejected even while an ambulance goes roaring by with its sirens blaring. All the other dogs howled at the sound, but the omega dog just sat there, looking at the ground. I was hoping to see some of the team out there, but it was pretty early and they hadn't returned from breakfast.

Sunday is still a manic data copying day, because the mission is winding down, and I'm running out of days. During the evening science briefing, it's decided that we'll fly for the next three days, pack up as quickly as possible and leave late Thursday morning. A lot of focus was on me during this meeting since I'm the person that will take the longest to pack up. If they fly on Wednesday and bring me data at 4pm and we leave less than 24 hours later, that doesn't give me a lot of time to get three copies of the data done and pack up. I assure them that I will try my best, and everyone is really gracious allowing for us to leave Friday morning if that is necessary.

The next four days are probably the roughest of the entire trip. The team flies Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and while making a third copy of the earlier data, I'm also making three copies of the new data. I don't sleep much, and the sleep I do get comes in bits and spurts. At this point, I can't afford to lose a lot of time because of a failed copy or a dead disk. In order to leave Thursday, the system must be monitored pretty much 24 hours a day.

I do manage to do a couple of fun things while working my tail off. The days are really getting long, and the amount of time each day is lengthening is accelerating. The "nights" aren't dark at all any more, and by Friday the sun won't even set. I setup a camera on Sunday night to take pictures every 15 minutes to try to capture what the 24-hour sun is like. I'll have to see if I can make some sort of time lapsed movie when I have some more time.

On Tuesday, I go back to the laundry to talk to Erlinda and pickup the boys' jackets. She has put a dog sled on the back of each one and it's really awesome. She also gives me an embroidered panel of a picture of Greenland with a picture of Dundas Mountain, a dog sled, and the four flags of Thule - Greenland, Denmark, Canada, and the United States - that says "Thule Air Field" at the top and "Greenland" at the bottom. I'm absolute floored by her generosity. I stay for a cup of coffee, and we talk about her up coming trip to see her daughter in Denmark. She's worried about the Iceland volcano that has closed most of the airports in Europe as she's leaving tomorrow. Hopefully the ash cloud will clear out and she will make her trip. She also talks about taking recordings of one of the TV channels on the base that is broadcast by the Community Center. They air a slide show of pictures from all of the events they have had such as the dog sled races for Armed Forces Day and the trip we made to the ice cap. She's hoping to show her daughter the recordings to give her an idea of what it's like at the base.

That gives me an idea for a present for her and Miss Dell. After leaving the laundry, I head to the BX and pick up a couple of memory sticks. I then go to the Community Center and get a copy of the pictures from those two events. I then go back to the hotel and copy those pictures, a bunch of pictures that I've taken this trip of the DC-8 and Greenland from the air, and also a couple of pictures of they boys onto the two memory sticks. It's not much but it's about all I can think of to give these lovely ladies. Even if they aren't interested in the pictures, I'm sure the memory sticks will come in handy.

Tuesday evening, Miss Dell volunteers as staff for the front office of the Thule museum, and I figure this will probably be the last chance I have to see her before I leave. After checking on all the backups, I head over to the museum. I get there about 20 minutes before her shift, so I walk around and take a bunch of pictures of the displays. They have a dog sled and several things about the local people of Greenland. But the majority of the items are from the base over the 50 years the base has been opened. They have lots of old computer equipment including a DECwriter and a tape drive. They have several displays about different incarnations of the monitoring stations or BMEWS which stands for ballistic missile early warning system which is the main reason the base was built to begin with. There's an entire wall of stickers from various missions to the base, and I regret not having given one of the Ice Bridge mission stickers to Miss Dell.

Once she arrives, we sit down and talk for a bit. I give her one of the memory sticks and purchase some DVDs of documentaries and CDs of pictures about the Thule air field. She gives Erlinda a call, and she heads over from the laundry. I've brought the tapestry with me, and when Erlinda arrives, I give her the other memory stick, and I ask her to sign the tapestry. I vow to bring a sticker sometime before I leave, and in a hurry to get back to the backups, I take off knowing it'll be the last time I get to see these ladies. I do get Erlinda's address with the plan to keep in contact with them and send them some nice thank you gifts when I get home.