Ok, Now it is really cold.

So yesterday must have been some kind of heat wave or something. Today is has dropped to -15 degrees with a wind chill of -38 below. I did not feel very well this morning so I stayed in bed and skipped the morning meeting maybe my body somehow knew of the impending cold and was refusing to be subjected to it. After sleeping in a couple hours I felt fine so I went out to the substation to finally start working on what I was sent up here to do I had not been there more than a few minute and the temporary construction generator shut down leaving us in the dark. The emergency lights stayed on for about ten minutes then they too shut down seems there was also a power outage in the night and the emergency light batteries had already been depleted. I guess the generator does not like the cold as much as the rest of us. It is kind of a sobering thought that everything up here relies on power from a diesel generator and if it stops working we are pretty much abandoned to the cold.
We are back to cloudy conditions so the sky gets bright but you never see the sun itself. It is now getting dark around 3:30.
Well I was wondering how I was going to get away with sneaking away to watch some Alabama football so the lack of power in the substation must be a blessing. I can now use the excuse there is no power. Now I must slip in early to gain control of the remote. Roll Tide Roll

Friday, or at least that is what I was told.

Every day seems to be the same here. The other ABB guy that I was working with left today so it will just be me for a couple days until Roland arrives on Monday. It was a balmy three degrees today. The wind died down so it actually felt like the temperature. I am waiting again this time it is for a cable that will allow me to communicate between my laptop and the relays that I need to test. I have a cable at home and forgot it so when I got up here Roland gave me his. It did not work so I had to order one and have it shipped in. It is a good thing that it did not work yesterday, today about ten my contact here said that the engineer had sent new settings and not to use the ones he had sent the day before. If I was BP I would not trust anything from this guy he changes his mind every two days. Oh well, when my cable comes in I will use which ever revision is current at the time and if I have to do it over two days later so be it.

High Noon!

So the request has been made and the Lord has provided a clear day for pictures. Here are a few of the sunshine at twelve today. The top photo is towards the South the middle photo is also to the South with the sun shining through the rig. The bottom photo is toward the North.

Little Warmer Today

It warmed up a bit today, see photo. The wind picked up so it actually felt colder today than it did yesterday. The sky has cleared up so tomorrow stands to be much colder.

Weather 11-06-09

The wind died down so all you really feel is the temperature. It actually felt pretty good out today. I had to switch back to my light weight jacket as my big down coat was making me sweat and that is the last thing you want to do out here.

Afternoon Sky

Here you go Wes the afternoon sky at 3:36 pm looking towards the Southeast. Maybe I will be able to get one at noon tomorrow.

Polar Bears

A lone polar bear was sighted about two miles from camp today and warning came across the radio. I did some research online to find out more about the bears and their characteristics and found that they can maintain a gait of 3.5 mph for several hours. That in mind if this bear was to catch a whiff of something good to eat(bears can smell a seal over 1 mile away buried in the snow) and started heading our way it could potential reach the camp in less than an hour. Given these variables why do we not see more bears around camp? The only conclusion that I can reach is the food here smells so bad that the bears are not interested in it. Unfortunately visibility today was less than 1 mile so you could not see it from here. It was about 300 yards off the road and I missed a ride into town which would have taken me right by it because I was in meetings most of the day. Speaking of meetings, I read Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni last night. Great read. It could inspire anyone to overcome the mistakes that cause meetings to be boring and unproductive. I recommend it for anyone who finds themselves in a meeting once a week.

Disappointment

Well I had gotten all excited from a meeting yesterday they had decided to send me and a couple other guys down to Anchorage for a meeting. Now the word is that we are just going to teleconference in from up here. So I am stuck on this Island until further notice. Well here are a couple of pictures of the arctic fox I saw during my trip to town yesterday. It was directly in front of the Caribou Inn in downtown Prudhoe Bay. We had to wait for it to pass by before getting out of the truck as 80% of the fox population up here carries the rabies virus.

Another sunset on the Beaufort Sea

This has been the first day you could really see the sun. On previous days the cloud cover has been so great the the sun itself was not even visible.

Wind Chill

Okay cold has now been redefined. Negative 14 degrees wind chill is really cold. We are in what is called a phase I condition. The wind is so high that work is being confined to indoor areas only. Unfortunately or fortunately i still have no work to do so I sit in the office shivering everytime someone opens the open. Went to "town" yesterday not much there. Picked up a few items at the general store: Shampoo=$12.00, Case of Monsters=$69.00, Flashlight=$52.00, and a pack of AA batteries=$24.00. They do not have much up here but what they have they are really proud of.

It is bitter cold, only about 18 degrees but the wind is up about 15-20 mph. After about ten minutes outside my face is toasted by the wind. Thankfully my gloves arrived today. The one I bought when I got up here for some reason I picked up the wrong size and my hands barely fit in them. Now that my camera is here I will try and get some better pictures so far all the photos I have posted have been from my Iphone.