Back for More?

Due to popular demand, Sunny Southern Beach will publishing a new season of Antarctic exploits and antics.

The reason? I'm crazy enough to go back for more.

Just to help you fill in the gaps, I'll give a quick rundown of my life for the last few months.

After leaving the Ice, I went wandering through New Zealand for a couple of weeks. It was easily one of the best trips of my life. For anyone who thinks they'd like to visit NZ, I will gladly give you a thousand and one reasons why.

Following that, I came back stateside. After scrounging around a couple of months to find any kind of job, a friend of mine was able to get me a job selling and delivering HVAC equipment. As an amusing side note, the air conditioning in the store did not work, even though we had access to a large supply of parts and new units.

While I did have fun at that job and was learning new things, the money wasn't really there. I had been offered another contract to return to the Ice, and seeing little in the way of better options (along with a strong personal interest in returning), I decided to accept the offer and come back. I will be working again as a firefighter this year.

That pretty much brings everything up to date. I am currently sitting in my hotel room in Denver recovering from a long day at orientation (and a long night out on the town catching up with some old "A" shifters who live locally and aren't coming back)

Yesterday, we had our annual recertification burn for our Airport Rescue Firefighter training. Myself and seven other returnees ran through multiple scenarios with the aircraft crash simulator. Though we were a little bit rusty, we actually did pretty well, with only a few relatively minor things needed to improve on.

I was actually paid a fairly high compliment yesterday as well. During the first burn, I actually got to run the line. A fairly rare event for someone who has spent most of his time on a ladder truck. Anyway, one of the instructors mentioned at the end of the day that the guy running the pipe on the first burn made a very aggressive attack on the fire.

Not bad for someone who doesn't really do the hose thing that much. Also, amusingly enough, that instructor was also a truckie. I wonder if that detracts from the compliment? Anyway, I'm done tooting my own horn. For now.

If you're wondering why I seem to be leaving much earlier than last year, you're right. I'm coming down to the Ice for Winfly this year, about a full month and a half earlier than last time. I'll be on the first flight to McMurdo since early March, which will be interesting. I'm sure our sight will be a welcome relief to many of the winterovers who are starting to get a little crunchy.

Anyways, that pretty much fills you in up to right now. Tomorrow I have one more day of orientation training and then we fly out to New Zealand again. I have to get busy packing and getting ready to go again, so I'll end it here.

One last thing; it's been great hanging out with all my Ice friends again.