Cooking with Rodents
I forgot a couple of things yesterday. First, orchardgirl’s question about special lighting on the ship to simulate sunshine.
In case you haven’t heard of this, some people get depressed from lack of sunlight (Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, quite an appropriate acronym). I confess I have no idea how I’ll react to a month of seeing the sun just four or five hours a day. There are many reasons I love living in California, and the amount of sunshine is one of them. I enjoy it, and am so accustomed to it that I get crabby during a month with too much rain. Crabby and depressed are two different things, of course, but being a horror writer, I can’t help imagining worst-case scenarios. (Huddled in her dark cabin, unkempt, unwashed, and convinced that the water just on the other side of the hull is filled with seagoing zombies, the writer reaches desperately for her last gumi worm…)
As far as I know, there are no special lights aboard the ship. I should probably check with Raytheon about this, but I haven’t heard anyone talking about it. This possible problem occurred to me fairly early on. A friend of mine who is prone to SAD told me he had invested in a travel-sized SAD light, so I researched it, and discovered the TRAVelite. But the darned thing weighs 2 pounds. I was working on my packing list earlier today, and honestly…I don’t want to be one of those people who have a heaping pile of luggage and need a cart to schlep it around. But a month is a long time, and it’s Antarctica. I already have things on the list that I would never consider bringing on most trips. (Chocolate, aforementioned sour gumi worms, a water flask and drinking cup, an exercise ball and toning bands for the gym, more about which soon, etc.)
So I expect I’ll leave the TRAVelite and take the gamble.
Second thing I forgot to do in the last post is explain about “mid rats,” the fourth meal of the day. The first time I heard this, just for an instant, I thought of something very unpleasant. Note that I am the author of a somewhat notorious story entitled, “Cooking with Rodents,” which features a recipe for rat soufflé. But no, “mid rats” is perfectly innocuous. It is short for “midnight rations.” Which, now that I think of it, sounds like something the Vampire Lestat might enjoy…
This is the view from our terrace a couple of weeks ago. The weather here on the San Francisco Peninsula is turning toward summer, and each leaf, bud, and quail I see is vivid in a new and heartbreaking way. Summer is my favorite season. I wait all year for it, and all that comes with it — dream-filled hours in the vegetable garden; the scent of crushed grass beneath bare feet; the copper light of morning; the flavor of fresh apricots; the relief of a cool breeze after the heat of the day. For me, summer will be short this year, and the winter that takes its place will be darker and colder than any I have known before. Yet I lie awake at night, eager and half afraid to start South.
orchardgirl has asked a couple of very good questions. Hiya, orchard. 
First, how big is the Nathaniel B. Palmer? The NBP (as she is fondly known among those closest to her) is one of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Research Vessels. She was built in 1992, and is 300 ft. (93.9 m) in length and 60 ft. (18.3 m) in breadth. Her four 12,000 horsepower Caterpillar diesel engines allow her to break up to 3 ft. of ice at a speed of 3 knots.