Midrats Shift

Me, upside down

 Going to nights has definitely turned everything upside down. It is a different world. Surreal, quiet, slower paced, close-knit, isolated. It's something new for me, and I like that part.

 Still, I feel a tiny bit off-kilter. Eating pot roast for breakfast, watching Saturday night drunk people act silly at midrats, seeing the sun dip down at midnight then rise back up a few minutes later, feeling like it is always morning somehow, working with just four other people rather than twenty, and sensing the sleep of a thousand others.

Upside down Scotty

 It has worked out that we usually have a family breakfast together. Scott, Elizabeth, Kevin, the lovely Char from Bozeman, and I sit down for a lovely half hour at 6 a.m. after my shift. More often than not, I stare at my yogurt and lay my head on my palm, fading quickly. Then Scott walks me home and rubs my feet. I'm out in 2 minutes.

 It can be really fun to walk around the seemingly deserted town at night when I have off. I find myself slowing down, examining shapes and textures.

I totally warped all these pictures to try and capture the in-between-world feel of working the night shift.

Scott misses us but he is super busy out at LDB. It is such a little treat when we do get to see each other. We leave silly pictures and notes on the door for each other and giggle a lot when we take turns tucking each other in on opposite sides of the clock. It's a whole lot better than when Scott was at field camp for the whole season a few years ago. I am doing half the season on nights this year because I took a leadership position. I will be switching back to days around Xmas. 

For now we are still using the Ice Runway, just a few miles from town, so work is easy and straightforward. The C-17 is landing on about 6 feet of ice. As it gets warmer, they will shut down this airfield and move out to the ice shelf runway, Pegasus, 14 miles from town. It takes an hour to drive there in the best of conditions. We are all enjoying the calm before the storm.