The Stand-Up Pee

The Windless Bight Welcome identification sign.

What the bathroom looks like on a regular day at work.

Freedom! What the bathroom looks like on a stand-up pee day. (notice the seat position...Yeah!)

A picture someone other than myself took of the sea ice. Obviously taken a while ago as there is sun present in the picture.

Science working on the antenna on one of the towers at Windless Bight.

My boxing santa pen that I skuad. It provides me with more entertainment than I can admit. It even lights up when you write with it.

The new BFC stencil. Curious....I don't see any guys in the picture.

The day we found out that the company that makes the tents we were working on pays their employees $65 an hour. We aren't getting paid anywhere near that and are likely doing the same work. (I'm pointing to a patch we put on it.) We emailed this pic to our boss who then forwarded it to the company. We want fair wages!

Every other week, I work alone for one day. The two ladies that I work with both have SAR (Search And Rescue) team training every other Thursday. I’m not exactly sure what they do at every one of their training sessions, but more often than not, it includes some sort of trip out of town to traverse some kind of ice covered mountain or practice crevasse rescues, etc... I usually look forward to SAR day. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy working with both of my co-workers, it is just kind of nice to be alone for a day. That being said, I usually end up feeling kind of lonely by the end of the day, and look forward to seeing them the next morning and swapping stories about our Thursdays. They always have more exciting stories to share about their day out of the office than I do. They tell me about how they all roped up and traversed the side of a mountain, and I tell them about the new sharpie I found or the plumber who came in to exchange his 42’’x 28” overalls for the 5th time. You get the idea. Occasionally, I fill in for my boss at a conference call meeting with all the other science support people. We all sit around a speaker phone and talk to the guy who is in charge of all science support operations back at the office in Denver. Although, my day is obviously less exciting than theirs, I do still enjoy it. And, the best part about SAR days is that I get to pee standing up while I’m at work.

As I have mentioned before, I work with two ladies and we share one bathroom. I am outnumbered 2 to 1 when it comes to any gender related issues. It became obvious to me early in the season that it would behoove me to pee sitting down while at work. This decision helped to eliminate a number of issues that may have surfaced if I chose to stand up when relieving myself. Early in the season, I told the ladies about my decision to only “sit down pee” when using the facilities at work. I explained my reasons to them and they obviously supported, if not enforced it. By informing them of my urination technique, I was letting them know that if they ever saw pee spots on the seat, or drips on the floor, that they need not blame me for any of it.

Apparently, at one of the SAR trainings, my name came up during a conversation and the ladies leaked out the information that I sit down pee at work, except for SAR days when I take full advantage the absence of females in the building by leaving the seat up all day. As information of this sort does, it quickly spread around town, and shortly after people were making all sorts of jokes and teasing me about it. First, this cartoon showed up in our bathroom at work. http://www.dustinland.com/archives/archives366.html

Shortly after that, the same cartoon showed up on the door of my house. Of course, I am confident in my decision to sit down, therefore I’m not really bothered by any of the seemingly good humored jeering from the other dudes on station. It never fails on Friday at lunch someone asks me how my day alone at work the previous day went. I know exactly what they mean by the question, so try answer with something like, “oh yeah it was great, took 14 stand up pees and never put the seat down once.” Of course, I always have to be sure to put the seat down before I go home at the end of the day. I am rarely the first to get to work in the morning and if I forget to put the seat down, I’m sure to get an earful first thing the next morning, maybe even sat down for a talking to.

In Other News

-Cheese update- still abundant.

-The Famous Dead People Ball was a huge success. People went all out. A number of folks actually cut hair or shaved facial hair just for costume purposes. My favorite costumes were Gandhi, he looked just like him, and a guy who came dressed as Chris Farely from the Chip’n’Dales SNL skit. He even did a strip tease for the birthday girl. Talk about an instant youtube classic.

- I saw the aurora for the first time and it was amazing. It blew my mind. I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

- I fashioned a sweet pair of sweat pant capris out of a skuad pair of sweats. They disgust a lot of people but they work perfect as my yoga pants.

- Preparations have been started for midwinter celebration. According to everyone, midwinter is the only true Antarctic holiday, and we celebrate it on a level it deserves.

-A couple of weeks ago I went out to Windless Bight with Science to fix an antenna on one of the transmitting towers. For an explanation of what Windless bight is go here http://www.sethwhite.org/infrasound%20station%20at%20windless%20bight.htm. It was nice to get out of town, especially during a time when we had a couple hours with a little bit of light, but the ride back to town was a bit rough, we both completely zoned out and sat in silence for an hour and a half our minds wandering off to sunny, warm places.

-I’m starting to think that the exercise class I attend twice a week is no different than an aerobics class that would be held back home. While I’m not always the only guy who attends, I am one of two, and definitely the one who comes on a more consistent basis. We do use the little steps that old ladies and Richard Simmons http://www.richardsimmons.com/j15/ use, but I think it’s a bit different. I’m definitely not ready to admit that I attend aerobics class on a regular basis. Lately, I’ve had a sort of dual with one of the ladies who has been attending. She usually gets to class early and takes the weights that I normally use. I think she knows that they are my regular weights, and I wonder a bit if she is doing it to just mess with me. I’m monitoring the situation. I hope no action has to be taken.

-The guy who runs the waste water treatment plant, affectionately referred to as PooBacca, has put out an invite for people to join him for a “dive” in the sewage tanks. Apparently, it is something that is done every winter. The invite included a list of attractions you would get to see if you signed up to help with the tank drainage. Included on the list was the infamous “Hive of hair”…I’m not expecting the volunteer sign up sheet to fill too quickly.

-My racist baker boycott is still going strong and helps give people at our normal lunch table something to comment on when there is a lull in conversation.

-I am also boycotting the serving of TVP (Textured vegetable protein) https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/all_about_textured_vegetable_protein.htmin the galley. The stuff is nasty and doesn’t agree with anyone’s stomach. On days that TVP is served, I refuse to go into the galley for any meals. Like my baker boycott, I realize this doesn’t really do much to solve to problem, but eventually one of the cooks may pick up on the pattern. Regardless, it makes me feel better.

-The forecast for tonight’s weather including the wind chill is -76 degrees F. I’m still trying to figure out what this actually means, since it always seems like night outside.

-I’ve been drinking sugar free hot chocolate lately and have to admit that I don’t really notice a difference between it and the real deal. This embarrasses me a bit and makes me wonder if I’ve lost my taste buds.

-They set up a light room for everyone to use in the one of the dorm buildings. I went and looked at it the other day. Instead of filling a room with a bunch of full spectrum lights, which is apparently what was done in the past, they just filled a room with a bunch of fluorescent lights. This means that instead of a room to go spend time in to feel more energized and normal, it is a good place to go if you want to get a headache and feel like crap while you listen to the soothing buzz of fluorescent lights. It is going to be hard to stay away and there will most likely be a long line outside the door at all times….dumb.

As always enjoy the weather back home and feel free to send pics or anything else my way.

In the mean time,

and the in-between time,

Y'all gotta take the time,

To love one another.

Word.

SMW....Out.