2-3/1



Finally some activity! After a day and a half of spent unloading the
traverse, our temporary tenants drove back to DDU. We said goodbye just
after lunch and as soon as the last person stopped waving, I started the
hunt of Gianpierro, the man who would drive my boxes to the AASTINO and at
the same time, take the SUMMIT antenna down from the roof (I need to dust
the instrument). The chase lasted about 10 minutes; it was difficult to
track him down since he knows the station pretty well. Eventually I found
him hiding in the kitchen. Under threat, he agreed to take care of my demand
right after he finished unloading the Twin-Otter that was due at 2:30pm.



In the end it was Marco and Claudio who came and helped me. Gianpierro had
spilled jet fuel all over himself and preferred to go take a shower instead.
The job was done in half an hour. The SUMMIT is now waiting patiently in the
tent for the time of its surgical operation. Eric joined me for the opening
of the boxes. We brought inside most of the things that I could work on
immediately or that had a neat place to be stored in. We started installing
the spare computer. The first step was of course to give it a name. Eric
came up with an excellent idea: Simone. It's the title of a movie we saw on
New Year's Day. In this movie Simone (Simulation One) is a virtual actress a
producer is using to become famous. Obviously Simone's physical assets (and
acting?) conquer the audience and the film finishes on the usual happy
ending. So after we installed Simone and introduced her to the rest of the
network, Eric went back to the DIMM. Still in box mode, I decided to build
some heated aluminium boxes to protect the batteries from the cold. I was
not quite finished with them when Eric came to pick me up for dinner,
something my stomach has for the first time forgotten to warn me about. I'll
go back to the AASTINO after dinner. The inactivity of the last few days has
made me very eager to use my now atrophied hands.