Meanwhile, Dana, Frank, and Sean continued working on our thermal insulation layer. In addition to the blue foam layer and black plastic, there is an extra layer of thin reflective mylar. They got started on the mylar layer Saturday. We also were able to get ahold of some glue from town for the insulating layers, which was nice because the stuff we had shipped down got frozen solid and didn't work too well after that.
Garry and Richard got out our solar PV (photovoltaic) panels that will power Super-TIGER during flight. They took a close look to make sure that they hadn't been damaged during shipping, and then put them back in the box so they wouldn't get broken.
Saturday morning I also found out my schedule for Happy Camper School. Happy Camper School is the snow survival school that people going to outlying field camps are required to complete. Since I'm the backup for the Super-TIGER recovery, I get to go. Years ago, even working out at Willy Field required snow school, but this changed a few years ago. John E, Sean, and I will go Tuesday and Wednesday, spending Tuesday night out on the ice shelf. Thomas will also go for a quick refresher course on Tuesday. I'll have a lot more about snow school once it actually happens.
We got another taste of what life used to be like at LDB when the new, heated, bathrooms broke down and we all had to use the "long drops", outhouses that go to a hole drilled down into the ice. Luckily, a plumber came out from McMurdo basically right away and got things fixed.
In the afternoon, there was a weird optical illusion where the Royal Society Range, a range of mountains we can see from LDB, seemed to almost double in height. It was pretty impressive.
Otherwise, Saturday was pretty unexciting. I finally reached the point where it was time to do laundry, so I took advantage of the fact that my room is across the hall from the laundry room Saturday night.
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