Merle has left Alaska-- tracking says the package departed from Anchorage yesterday. Not sure of the current location as there have been no further blips on the radar since then, but delivery to ND is expected on Friday (as always take such estimates with a healthy dash of salt). While we wait for the next leg of Merle’s epic journey I thought I’d share the very last pic I took of him, just before I packaged him up on Saturday. But first, some context.
A while ago in another life (before marriage and kids) I was bi-polar. Not in the mind, but of the body
I worked for a few seasons as a carpenter for the US Antarctic Program, going back and forth between summer in Alaska and “summer” in Antarctica. Quotes there because summer in Antarctica is still pretty wintery lol. But what both places have in common during summers is endless daylight. So, going between the two, for a period of three years straight I experienced almost no night time (only during transition travel). It was amazing. This is a picture of me at the south pole on New Year’s Day 2009.
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I haven’t pulled up this photo in a long time, and looking at it now the first thing that jumps out at me is the Russian flag flying over my shoulder. I wasn’t very excited to see that, given what’s going on in the world currently. But to be clear, South Pole Station is a US base, not Russian. The flags from 12 different countries are flown around the pole marker, representing the 12 countries that signed the original Antarctic Treaty. That was in 1959 so it was the Soviet Union at the time, but that is why the Russian flag is there. Here’s another pic from a different angle on a less sunny day, you can see some of the other countries. And yes, there really is a ceremonial barber pole and mirror ball at the south pole!
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Bear with me, there is a point to all this. So, when I was there the following year, I collected a bunch of snow. I scooped it right from the geographic south pole, filled up my nalgene bottle and took it with me. Kind of strange maybe but there aren’t a lot of (physical) souvenirs available in that place. As I was getting Merle ready for the post last weekend, I was thinking of the disparate waters that he has already touched upon in his journey. So I dug out that old nalgene bottle and gave him one more dip.
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If you can’t make out the sharpie on the side it says “Snow from South Pole January 2010.” A parting shot from me just for fun, because this whole experience is just for the fun of it, right? One of the things I thought about when I had my time with Merle was the life of *things*…. If that [object] could talk, eh? I don’t know if Merle will be able to touch upon all seven continents during his world tour, but this bags the one that is surely the hardest to reach. As we go about our days the people and things that we intersect with leave marks upon us. Some impressions are visible and others are not, but these interactions change us I think, like a spiritual residue. Merle will collect dings and scratches from his travels, and develop a patina made from contacts with far flung places. It’s a beautiful thing!
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another busy day doing projects around the house while taking advantage of the 31°(above zero) temps 
