Hats

I find that in my later years in life, at the grand old age of almost 30, that I absolutely love hats. I pondered this fact last night while I hung hooks for the 4 hats that I brought with me to Antarctica and thought about all the lonely hats I left behind in the States in storage. Obviously, it wasn't a night for deep contemplation.

Since I'm a hat fanatic, maybe it's not so different that I feel like I wear a lot of hats here at Palmer. First and most obvious is the Systems Administrator hat, but that's an old one as I've been doing that for years. Next would be community member and fellow House Mouse-er (weekly station cleaner) and GASH-er (Galley and Skullery Help-er - i.e. weekly kitchen cleaner). Also, there's fire team, OSAR and GSAR, all carrying with them more responsibility than I'm accustomed. Finally and unexpectedly, since they haven't hired a Communications/Satellite Tech for the winter, myself and the network engineer are wearing that hat as well. Mostly this entails answering "Palmer Station" radio calls and replacing radios and radio parts. However, this hat has become even more prominently worn lately when a couple of weeks ago, I had to learn how to measure the angle of our satellite and when last week, we had to take an adventurous walk to an outlying building in the dark in 30-40 knot winds to inspect the premises when we were having radio trouble. Though this new role was unexpected, I try not to feel overwhelmed but try to enjoy the chance to learn new things that otherwise would have passed me by.