Bugs

The mood of the station has really changed a lot in the past three weeks.  The Sun is just below the horizon and the sky has turned blue.  Everyone is looking forward to what they will do when we get off the ice.  The first plane in eight months is due to arrive on October 15 and with them they will bring new people and new germs.  I'm not looking forward to the new people, even though there will only be eighteen of them on the Basler.

They are going to be all be excited, talkative and loud, all gung-ho and industrious... grrrr. Things at the Pole for the winter-overs have become a quiet, routine relaxed and efficient at getting the job done.  They are going to want to talk to us and we are not going to want to talk to them, eat with them or otherwise associate with their germs.  No one has been sick here for months and it never fails that the germs brought in by the new people may make many of us sick.  Coughing, sore throats and sniffles here we are, defenseless and weak - come and get us, bugs.