How I spent my summer vacation...

Hey guys! So I figure I'd do like a summer recap, since I'm impossible to get a hold of sometimes. And Why not give you guys something to read since until the 10th of August? That's when I go for training, this blog won't kick up to high gear until then.
Where to begin... Lets see since I've been back from the ice; I've continued working at my old ambulance company, Action. It was great to see all my old friends there and meet some new faces. I never considered the EMS field "Recession Proof" but, it appears that it is a booming industry. And in Massachusetts there are so many private ambulance companies, there is always one hiring. Action hired many many new people and its been interesting to say the least. They have moved things around at Action but, I do enjoy working in Winthrop. Winthrop is Actions only BLS 911 city, and its almost as much fun as Ipswich was. I left Action just when they started working in Winthrop. The best part of working in Winthrop is that it is with some really good medics and old friends. It reminded me of the days when I first started with Action...back when they had the Lynn 911 contract. Those were the times, the whole 2 years ago.


Shout Out to: Dave Sherwood, Mike Cotton, Sheena, Steph "The Best" Williams and Jo-Jo, Kevlar, Sheila, and all my other Action Friends!


This summer, since I knew I would be trying to go down on winfly, has been full of adventures. Two of my best friends from College and I went camping/fishing in Vermont. I've gone down to visit two of my "newly wed" friends Dan and Jess at their home in Connecticut. I went to a minor league NASCAR style race in New Hampshire. And Lastly a wedding in Rhode Island. Well, technically it was on the Mass border...but I'm going to take some poetic license to make it seem that I've been jumping around New England.
That Photo is the most Patriotic ever. Dan, born on the 4th of July wearing his NRA T shirt with 4 of July Fireworks in the background. Shout Out to: Tower, Jess, Janet, Bob, Dan. (The FPC kidz) Oh and Sam Stolzar, who is at the Police Academy..he's cool too, for a cop.

I've been trying to visit all my other friends before I left, but its been tough. Partly because even though I'm "done" with Action, I still pick up shifts...and partly because Raytheon has kept me busy filling out paperwork. I think that the toughest part in getting into the Antarctic Program is the amount of paperwork one must complete to go. Literally every time I fax or turn something in...something new has to be faxed or turned in. Thank god I live 4 blocks from a fax place here in Newton. I should have bought a fax machine last year...what was I thinking?


I've been bike riding a lot around Newton as well. That photo above is from the Reservoir near Cleveland Circle. You can hardly see it, but the Prudential building is in the distance. There was a lot of haze that day....Okay back to riding bikes: I figure I'll miss being outside all the time, especially after month 3 being down in Antarctica. That is all I really feel like writing at this time. There will be a couple more entries between now and when I land in Denver. Oh and I'm getting a new laptop (My gift to myself), so hopefully the blog will be even cooler thanks to the power of the Macbook Pro! Shout out to Apple Computers? Sure, why not. Anyway take care y'all!

Open Letter to All

I GOT PQ'd! Finally too. So...This is a copy of the mass email I just made. I am posting this up here so you all can enjoy another teaser....

_________________________________________________________

For those of you just tuning into our program already in progress...Welcome.

So I will be going back to Antarctica. This time I will be going for a little bit longer of a trip. I am going to be doing the Win-Fly deployment. Win-fly is the transition season between Winter and "Summer". So you can think of it as a spring, sort of deployment. The Win-FLy season starts in August and ends in October. Then the "summer" season begins...From October to February, I will stay down there and basically do what I did last year.

So in short, this blog will be once again active and hopefully keep you all informed of my experiences and everything. As per tradition I'll do a FAQ's for you all.

Phil! I am so lost. What kind of job are you doing down in Antarctica again?

I'm going to be a Firefighter. I know it seems crazy. But feel free to review the blog and you'll see what kind of role the firefighters play down in Antarctica. It should be a fun time. So, I'll be doing the same job I did last year basically. Though maybe I'll spice it up a little bit. So stay tuned, this could get interesting...

Are you part of the army or something?

No, This is a civilian contract job through the National Science Foundation/Raytheon Polar Services. I'm not in the military at all. Unless you count the "No Limit" Solider rank that I have held since 1995. Shout out to Matt Chuckran and Greggy Smalls. The only two people who are "lol-ing" to this.

Phil, Why are you going back?

Well, Why not? To be honest, as much fun as it is to work BLS at Action...I might as well go back down to Antarctica again. No offense Action Ambulance. I mean, who knows what will happen and if I'll ever be able to take this vacation from the real world, again? Plus, this whole "recession" thing is kind of making it hard to get hired on a Fire Department. In case this isn't happening in your area of the country, many Fire Departments are letting go of guys due to budget cuts. And if Fire Departments are firing people, then they also are not hiring people. So it seems that now would be the best time to go and get some experience again. Plus, how many people do you know have worked in Antarctica? Hopefully it should make my resumé stick out when I come back and apply to some fire departments.

What's new in this blog?

Okay, Lets see. I have the weather feature perfected (sort of). To the right of this post should be a weather gadget that is from Weather Underground. They are decently accurate. I'm not sure how they get their information, but I've noticed that they have been closer to the weather conditions last year than any other non "USAP" site. Maybe I'll start every post with any new weather developments or something similar if I find this new gadget to be really inaccurate. Also, there will be the usual pictures and maybe even movies, if my bandwidth allows it.

Phil, can you bring me back a penguin?
I don't think I can send EVERYONE a penguin. And, I only a sent penguin, last year, to person who is really special. Don't get discouraged. Stay tuned!!!! I'll have a contest for a penguin or something. (Ooooo electric boogaloo!) Suspense! So that maybe a reason to read the blog...dun dun dun.

What about the polar bears?
Don't worry. I've been hitting the gym since I got back from the ice last time. And I've been listening to Chuck Norris books on tape when I sleep. I think I'm ready. Nay, I was born ready. Also, may I suggest you go to your local library and read about polar bears and the Antarctic environment.

Phil, I have this great product/thing/t shirt, would you take a photo of it by the Antarctica sign?
Absolutely! Send me the item. As long as it isn't illegal, I'd be more than happy to give you a cheesy PR shot. Yea, I am an opportunist. And why not, this is my 3rd time down to the continent...so the continent and I are like BFF's or something.

Wait, this is your 3rd time?
Yes, no joke it is. If you didn't know I came down with my grandfather on a trip my jr year of College. It was on the other side of the continent. Or the Palmer side, if you speak USAP. Pretty neat huh? That visit made me look into working down in Antarctica. So blame my grandfather and namesake for my interest down here.

Phil, What is your mailing address?

Here it is:

Phil McCully, RPSC
McMurdo Station-Firehouse
PSC 469 Box 700
APO AP 96599-1035


I can get mail regularly until November. Then it slows down a little bit. No major mail after January, like letters only. So packages of goodies are awesome. But, even hand written letters would be boss. I'm basically at Summer Camp, so you know what I am talking about. Getting mail is awesome. And you can get a shout out on the blog if I get something from you, no foolin'!

What is the temperature going to be like?

Last year it was around 20 degrees F, to 15 on average. The coldest it got when i was there was around -34 f. So I'll let you know how it goes this time around.

Phil, what will you do when you come back to the Northeast/America?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. I can't think that far in advance. I'm playing everything by ear for now. Let's shoot for February. I don't think I'll do a winter over down there, so don't worry. I have to get my "Real" life together at some point.

Phil, Boxers or Briefs?

How did that question get up here? That has nothing to do with Antarctica at all.

Phil, What is the best way to talk/communicate to you?

Email, Email, Email! Or message me here on the blog. I can call people... if you are really special. But be forewarned; there is a satellite delay. Only a handful of people I talked to last year could be patient enough to have a conversation with me.

Can I share this blog with _____?

Sure. This blog is now search-able, and since this is my second year with the USAP program I am slightly more comfortable with the whole blogging deal. But, this blog is in no way affiliated with the USAP program and the views and opinions that are expressed on this blog are of mine only. I think that is a good disclaimer. So in short, share this with anyone who knows me or wants to learn more about Antarctica.

PQ-ing or "How do I gets to Antarctica?" and You...

So I feel guilty that I haven't posted anything for a while. And I've been telling people to read this blog, even though I haven't left yet. So here is a little post to hold you all over until the official start of the blog begins...


Before one gets issued tickets to go back down to "The Ice", as many veterans of the Antarctica program put it, one must be "PQ"-ed. "PQ"-ed is the USAP's way of abbreviating the phrase Pre-Qualified. The United States Antarctic Program or USAP, loves to abrevate things. You will find that many things that have to do with the entire Antarctic program have abrevations that one has to ultimatly recognize. I don't know if I really gave it that much credit last year...But, my good friend Matt Shields (Shout out to Capt. Shields, hollah) had a great post on his blog about abrevations. And in the interest of education, I'm going to steal a couple things from his entry entitled "How do you spell Antarctica?". I don't know the MLA format on how to cite blog entrys, but this list that I am placing bellow was created by Mr.Shields. So, Thank you Matt, you have made this entry wicked easy.

Abrevations 101:

PQ - Pre-Qualify
NSF - National Science Foundation
USAP- United States Antarctic Program
CHC - Christchurch (NZ)
NZ - New Zealand
CDC -Clothing Distribution Center, not to be confused with the Center for Disease Control
MCM - McMurdo Station, Antarctica
RPSC- Raytheon Polar Services Company
OPP- Yea, you know me...

Okay back to the orignial content: So, the whole process of PQ takes a decent amount of time. One must basically fill out and fax/mail back a growing stack of paperwork to Denver/RPSC. Since I am returning, the amount of medical tests and paperwork is "smaller", but not by much. I'm fortunate though to understand how this game goes. I have until the 17th to fax in everything, and thus far (knock on wood) everything has been easy. Tomorrow I have my dentist exam, and I should have two more medical tests done later this week. Once I have all of this done, my plane ticket will be issued and I'll be offically on the roster for Win-Fly.

The only sucky thing, is that I leave really soon. And my brothers wedding makes me a little cramped for time. No offense Nat! Basically, I am flying from the East Coast to Seattle for his wedding...then the day after his wedding I'm flying to Denver to meet up with the Win-Fly team for training prior to going back to the ICE. All in theory...I'm going to be runing around with my head almost cut off for the next couple of weeks, trying to see everyone and get as much "summer" activities under my belt. So, don't be mad if I seem distant. I'm trying to please everyone and keep RSPC happy at the same time.

So that is all that is up with me thus far. I'm going to be sending out a mass email/facebook post when I am all PQ-ed, so if you haven't seen that email yet don't worry. That is all, so good night everyone and take care!