The Whole Wide World

Woofah. I am tired this evening. I was full of energy during the day and as a result, it was a productive day at work, but I am zonked this evening. I had my coffee shift this morning, so it was an earlier than normal start, but a caffeinated start, which might have had something to do with the extra productivity at work. Yesterday was the complete opposite though, I drank too much caffeine and ended up being extremely unproductive because when I am overly caffeinated I lose the ability to focus. Go figure. Balance, Annemarie, balance.

After my coffee shift, I got a walk and session in the gerbil gym in before heading to work. Later on, I got an extra two-miles in on the treadmill on a break in the middle of the day. Not only am I extra sleepy this evening, but I am physically feeling a bit bleh as well. Before I share why I suspect that is, let me preface things by being very clear that I am not complaining. I appreciate all the food that is cooked for me, SO much. Our winter kitchen team are amazing and the food is super yummy and there are always lots of choices and they just do an all around amazing job of it. Every now and then, however, there is a meal that is too heavy on the salt and I feel that in my body. Tonight was one of those nights. I am aware I have a very low tolerance for salt in my food, so again, not complaining. I never add table salt to my food at the table, not here and not in the non frozen world. There are people down here who love when the meal is extra salty, but for me it’s a no go. Lots of water for me tonight.

Before lunch, our station manager sent an email out letting us know that Operation Dark Sky was taking effect mid-afternoon. Star-gazing, yes please! Operation Dark Sky will happen a few times over the winter, today being the first time. At the end of our work day, we all turned out the exterior lights to our work centers and dorm buildings. The goal, to reduce as much light pollution as possible. The lights will stay out all day tomorrow through Monday morning. Fingers crossed my pager goes off for auroras.

After work, I met up with my friends and we took a walk out to Hut Point for some star-gazing. It was -17F without the windchill. I don’t know what the windchill added to that because it was out of range this evening. Sometimes that happens. We all bundled up and took off in the extra dark, dark. The stars were fantastic and the Milky Way was…super milky! I tried to take a picture with my phone exposure set to ten seconds. I got one shot and couldn’t bear to have my hands out of my gloves any longer than the ten seconds it took to get the shot. It took another ten minutes for my fingers to warm up again. There were six of us and it was nice to walk together as a group and make a sweet little memory.

That’s the photo up above. Lots of stars, but also very frosty. Brrrrrr.