The last few days have been spent getting ready for winter. The temperature is getting colder each day, it seems, though sunny skies still give the impression of warmth. The coldest yet, I think, has been an ambient temperature of -60F with a windchill of -100F... I use Fahrenheit because it's more impressive... bigger numbers! (-100F is about -74C.)

All of us are busy tying bright-colored flags to bamboo poles and using them as markers. P.J. and I spent a morning digging up the safety line from the Dome to Clean Air: it was used as a handline last year and we found it buried under three to four feet of snow!

Tonight I'm meeting with the doctor to figure out how to set up a "walking blood bank" in case someone gets really hurt. She would be busy helping the patient, so it's my job to gather people with the same blood type and get donations from them. I hope we never have to do that!

At work, things are starting to relax a little. As the sun gets lower and lower on the horizon there are fewer observations I can make for total ozone and for direct solar radiation. The other projects are still going strong, but after the sun sets we will have fewer things to do, for a while. That's when I'll concentrate on things like inventory, and ordering spare parts for airdrop, and writing reports.

More soon! Katy McNitt