Hedgie Adventures 1/29/09
Well, here it is another beautifully planned day. Hedgie, being the neurotic worrier he is, broke down and called Raytheon 10 days ago to politely confirm his ship out on the 21st of Feb. Due to a slight error in communication, his ship out had been moved up to 1/28/09. After I revived him, we dealt with the flurry of emails re: housing, training and other incidental information sure to make Hedgie loose more hair out of stress.
I called a friend (Thank Liz, you are a lifesaver!) to check which dorms would be most Hedgie friendly. Turns out what I had marked on the forms were not what would best suit. There are 3 dorms (209, 208, and 155). Originally I had marked second and third floors on 155, then 208 and 209 in order of descending preference. After a chat with my MacTown guru, I amended it to reflect second and third floor 209 (bayside in order to see that gorgeous sunrise, since I am after all only staying till morning). This is not a likely happening (getting bayside rooms, not the staying till morning), so I then marked 208 second and third floor and lastly 155. It seems my guru in the know informed me that 155 is the party dorm and also houses the cafeteria – ideal for those who have no intent of getting outside. It also seems the first floors on dorms 208 and 209 were a tad chilly last year.
So, having secured a room for Hedgie, I got him to quit chewing his nails to the quick (it also helped when I pointed out he may want to keep those simply for traction in the snow on arrival in MacTown). Moving onto the next issues: training in Denver . Training at HQ was completed with the assistance of the techies (Thanks Darrell and Johnna!) and I was able to set Hegdie up with his direct deposit, health care, employee notifications and other electronic necessities set up. Training itself had great info sprinkled in along with the filler. Hedgie volunteered our bags for excess equipment that needed transport to the Ice because even after I packed Hedgie’s toys, we came up at a whopping 62lbs. Several electronics, slit lamps, and other paperwork was transferred, we finalized at 66lbs total. Not bad for a first run down given that 100lbs was the limit I was shooting for but the Raytheon printed limit was 140 lbs (to include 22lbs of cold weather gear to be issued in Cheech). We should be fine on the bag drag.
The airport express bus was an adventure (did I really think that statement so loud it fell onto the page??! – I apologize to Lynnette for the exuberant use of punctuation). I did not know you really could fit 483 circus clowns in a VW bug. Two minivans pulled up and loaded up 28 people and each one’s luggage (I know there were some who were over weight limit), springs sagging and the passenger rear tire going flat on one van. As one returning polie stated “This is where it gets a little dicey”. When I inquired if he meant the transport or the trip in general, he replied sagely “yes”. Thanks guys, Hedgie is now cowering the darkest corner of the carry on, awaiting the angel of death. Somehow (and I am still not sure how given the parts randomly dropping off the van in front of ours), we arrived at DIA and unloaded. I don’t think the van shocks and struts will even be the same and I was just glad I couldn’t see what fell off our van.
Hedgie is all in all traveling well for his first trip abroad. He was a little suspicious of the peanuts on the flight from Denver to LAX, but he settled right down for a long nap on the overnighter to Auckland, NZ. I was picked up the bags and ran them through Customs (making sure to have removed all contraband that Raytheon had informed us would be confiscated - like drugs, pornography, eyelash curlers. Apparently eyelash curlers are no more desirable in NZ than with our own domestic TSA employees - no one like a well groomed terrorist). Interestingly enough, Raytheon has had a recent problem with recreational equipment during customs checks of Ice employees. Recreational equipment being alternative evening appliances for when polies, MacTowners and Palmerites can’t get a good date, are lonely, and the penguins are nowhere to be found. You get the idea. Anyone having difficulties in the translation, please see Lynnette. Anyway, last year they received 5 international calls from NZ customs inquiring about the glow in the dark, battery operated “scientific equipment” . Ah, the joys of traveling abroad.
Oh, and for those of you without a handy Raytheon to English translation dictionary, here goes:
MacTown: McMurdo Station
HQ: Headquarters (Raytheon Polar Services Main Office in Centennial CO)
Cheech: Christchurch New Zealand (known as Cheech because the airport is designated CHC in three letter code)
Polie: South Pole Station resident
LAX: Hell on Earth – possibly the worst airport in the world, because where else would you even conceive of international baggage and flights to be deposited in two separate terminals with a half hour to gather said baggage and recheck it?
TSA: Terror Sans Airlines – the fun prior to your flight where you are required to drop all your worldly possessions into a plastic 9x14 bin and have them bombarded with enough Xrays in a three second span to fricassee a small water buffalo.
NZ: New Zealand