Today was a lovely day. Went hiking with Rolf (meteorologist) and Megan (heavy equipment driver) around the coastal town of Sumner, up over the Scarborough Bluff down into Taylor’s Mistake. Yes, that’s really what it’s called. Consensus as we hiked was that, since USAP was still trying to stage supplies to support the C-130’s out of McMurdo, they’d hold off deploying any non-essential folks for at least a few days. Helpdesk? Non-essential, in my book. So I began looking forward to yet another day of being on call. Talked with the folks at the Canterbury Aero Club, and arranged (tentatively, of course) to rent a C-172 for a couple of hours’ aerial tour around the north end of the island.

We ran into Megan-the-firefighter and Ben on the bus back into town and of course, the conversation turned  to speculating when we’d finally deploy. I opined on the non-essentiality of the lowly Helpdesk, and Megan-the-firefighter shook her head; having a Helpdesk guy on site to do the laptop screening and new account registration. This would free up the the wintered-over sysadmin to return to her primary job. Helpdesk was definitely, in her opinion, part of the vanguard.

I wasn’t going to argue, of course, but just couldn’t see how anyone planing logistics could call Helpdesk an essential position.

Heh. Returning my room, I found the note tucked under my door: pickup is at 0515NZDT tomorrow morning; Rolf, Megan and I are on the manifest for the first flight out to McMurdo. Yow – Antarctica, here I come!