Alan Nelson's Daily Commentary for 8 September 1999

Kwajalein Island, Republic of Marshall Islands

Keeping track of time, and especially days of the week, always seems to be harder away from home. It gets especially difficult around here because any time we are in direct contact (via phone or email) with the continental states, we are on two different days by virtue of being on opposite sides of the international date line. Labor Day weekend turned that all around however.

The normal weekend here in the Marshall Islands is Sunday and Monday. My father-in-law, who is a very good golfer, would have cried to see the golf course on the island of Roi completely vacant for an entire Saturday morning (which I saw with the TV crew). Of course, it wouldn't have been vacant if he had been there! But Saturday is not part of the weekend around here. Since Monday is a normal weekend day, Labor Day was celebrated here on Tuesday the 7th. Labor Day on the continent was on Monday the 6th. But because of the date line business, our holiday here and the holiday on the continent were offset by only a few hours rather than by the usual whole day minus a few hours. But it also meant that we couldn't really hook up with anybody on the continent to do any business until our Wednesday (which was the continent's Tuesday).

The purpose of those two paragraphs was to communicate the confusion this all caused. I think I did that very well!!

I got word from home that I am now an award-winning photographer. I am being very careful to word that in such a way that it does not state that I have ever won more than one award--because in fact I just won my first. As part of the Greenbelt, MD Labor Day Festival Photo Competition, this picture was given the "Best Concern for the Environment" award. I think that's a fancy title for "Consolation Award". I took this just over a year ago while in Alaska. I have certainly been to places with small human populations! Both the Alaska trip and this trip have given me a chance to see what the planet was like before we humans started putting too much pressure on it. There are still places left where you can see that, but it's a long plane flight to get there!

During my work day, I got half of the radiosonde files from the island of Roi recalculated. I keep telling myself that if I don't get this done, the data will be worthless (after all, sonde data that don't give you temperature would indeed be worthless). I have to keep telling myself that a lot. This isn't the MOST tedious job I've ever been given, but it is pretty darn close. I figure it will take one more day to finish Roi, and another day to get into the deep archive and extract the 30 files or so that are not available in the shallow archive. That should allow me to get back to Meck to help tear down the tethersonde operation. And to go snorkeling on the side of the island that I missed last time!

On my way to the Ops Center, I pass these two signs at least twice a day. I can't imagine there is any other place with similar signs.

Just as my father-in-law would be aghast at an unoccupied golf course on a Saturday morning, he would be proud to know that the golfers here have the right-of-way over pedestrians and bikers. The Ops Center is in fact in the middle of the 9-hole golf course here at Kwajalein. One unfortunate evening, I had to wait while a six-some played through in front of me!

This sign is necessary because there is no fence around the airfield here, and when planes take off and land, they are going right over the road that we bike on. The corner of the runway extends to within a few inches of the road. It is not usual to be able to ride a bike right onto a runway. It was strongly stated when we first arrived that the quickest ticket off of this island was to wander onto the runway. There have been some very tired KWAJEX crews lately who have entertained using a stroll on the runway as a way to get home.....

Alan Nelson