Yesterday while Doug was out picking up his glasses we received the longest distance long distance phone call that has ever rung into this house.
Aaron must have known I was pinin' for his coconuts because he had a minute to make a call from McMurdo Station way down south Antarctica way... I almost had a stroke, I couldn't believe he was calling us from Antfuckingarctica!
"It's the military, they know how to treat us," he told me.
He's staying at the base for a few weeks with his team, doing some projects that need attention before heading out to the field for most of the remainder of their trip. I asked him about his journeys thus far, he told me about his hellish flight from LA to New Zealand, described Christchurch NZ as the most beautiful city he'd ever seen, with the most amazing botanical garden ever. He said NZ makes Hawaii look ghetto and told us to start saving up for a mandatory life fulfilling trip to visit that beautiful country.
He is staying in a dorm style building, rooming with some guy from NASA, told me about some balloon bigger than Tiger Stadium that they're putting up in the sky, described a volcano 25 miles away from his seat which he could see clearly and perfectly.
Sounds to me like he's having the time of his life. He says he hasn't yet really processed some of the things he's been exposed to or has seen, and that it will take a while for things to sink in, but ... woooooo! He's stoked.
I felt honored to receive a call, and when I told Doug he said "I hope he called his wife too."
That'd be funny if he only called us and not Michelle! (Not. Michelle would kill his ass). So Michelle, if you're reading -- give us a call or email me. Let me know he wasn't insensitive to you. And I'm sorry Doug missed the call, I know Aaron would have been excited to talk to him.
I hit *69 to see what the area code would be from Antarctica, thinking I'd get the recording that the number I was trying to track was untraceable, but it was a 978 area code -- Massachusetts. Doug theorizes that it's sattelite phone they're using. Perhaps from there they make a local connection for the call so it doesn't cost a lot. Who knows. It's all a mystery to me... but regardless, Senor Coconuts called from the south pole and that's quite a trip if you ask me. Huzzah!
Anyway -- there isn't much else to report really. I've spent a ton of time reading the archives of some of the newer journals/blogs I've picked up so that's burned some time. I also have to get a shower. I spent a lot of time napping and lazing around yesterday so today I must be slightly more proactive. The Patriots have to win today for their hopes of any sort of football future in this season will flourish. That game begins in 25 minutes. After said game, a trip to the market is in order. We ended up getting Chinese take out (or take away as I believe the saying is in Great Britian and other parts of the world) because we literally only have bread left in the house and I wanted something more substantial than French Toast or PB&J. Thank you Doug for going and picking it up. There's a decent place about 1 mile from our front door, up at the end of our street, so it's nice and convenient. I just wish they delivered, but we live in the woods so delivery is something reserved for slightly more urban and "worth it to do so" locations. They deliver pizza around here though...
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