Going, going....

Partly to inform you, partly to bump that costume picture off the top of my blog, I'll let you see what it looks like here at noon, sun-wise.

This was taken on Monday at solar noon (when the sun is the highest in the sky...not 12:00), as that was the last clear day that we've had. Today was -14°C with a 55km/h wind. The windchill was hovering right around -40°C!! Guess what day it was in the lab schedule too....that's right, flasking. So, I was outside for a solid 30 minutes straight.

The sun is dropping by a sun's width every day, and by early next week it'll be gone for good. The days will still have some light to them (as you get for 20 or 30 minutes after a sunset) but by early November it will be midnight dark almost all the time :) I think I'm a little crazy in that I'm actually looking forward to that. My favourite times up here last term were in the dark, and I can't wait!

After the lull in plane arrivals, we've had two in the past two days, bringing 34 new (or returning) people to station, changing out more than half of the population! It'll be a few days until I have people's names down, that's for sure.

When I took the above picture, I also turned 180° and snapped one on the Northern horizon which displayed a great near-full moon. I'll admit that these aren't the greatest shots, but a good camera doesn't make a good photographer :) There's actually a photo contest on up here right now with several categories. I've got one image that I'm going to submit, and if it does any good I'll post it up.

With the Toronto Boss gone, life is settled down to the standard routine. It's a nice and relaxed pace that will hopefully let the days fly by until December 23rd, my newly tentative, pencilled in, probable, potential end date :P After last time, I'm not making ANY plans for a good week after that, but if all goes to plan (from plane schedules, to mechanical failure, to meteorological events to the pilots just not wanting to fly that close to Christmas, etc) then I could be home as soon as early, early morning on the 24th (if it's a charter). Don't worry...I'll be home before you all know it!!

Miss you all,

Graham