Midnight Delta Driver

Not only is that the name of one of my favorite songs, it is also now—well, me.  We got Tina Marie back from the garage and I took her out to do some wheel packing, which means driving back and forth over mushy piles of snow that develop on the snow road.  And even though it’s light outside around the clock there is still an appreciable difference in the sun’s angle, providing dusky pinks and oranges from 1 - 5am.  It is also quiet as most of the rest of town sleeps, particularly so as it’s been overcast and the weather has kept planes away, meaning I get plenty of time in the office with my knitting project.

view of Hut Point from the beach, 1am

Quite a stretch of cloudy skies has also meant soothing heathery grays:

inadvertent modern art sculpture at the airfield

So far the hardest part of working nights is figuring out what day it is.  Instead of making plans for “tomorrow,” my fellow midrats say, “See you in the lounge after the next sleep.”  (Midrats is a fun term leftover from the Navy days, shorthand for “midnight rations,” a.k.a. lunch.  It’s what we call the nightshift.)  So far the best part of working nights is waking up on my Saturday morning, eating breakfast, and heading to the bar to hear some bands because it’s 9pm.  Even after partying with my daytime friends ‘til they pumpkin, I’m barely halfway into my day off.  Then the nighttime hush steals over McMurdo once more, and we midrats revel in the speedy internet, explore unlocked corridors, and sit uninterrupted in the ethereal underwater murk of the observation tube to listen to seal space-laser noises.  Click to listen!