Last month I was interviewed by the NewlyGreens and it aired on WPSC 88.7 out of Wayne, NJ broadcasting over New Jersey and New York.

You can listen to the interview here.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. There is not much smell in the cold of Antarctica. New York City has a faint smell of what I think is chlorine. A felt a bit like my dog, who lives in the country with my parents but goes crazy when he visits me because there are so many smells here.

After adjusting to the smell, the next thing I noticed were the sounds. I could hear dozens if not hundreds of conversations at once while standing on a street corner. It was overwhelming and I went back inside.

After about 24 hours all has returned to normal and not even a crowded subway bothers me. At least, not anymore than it did before I left.

New York City is leaking some 20 million gallons a day. To fix it, the city has enlisted six deep-sea divers who are living for more than a month in a sealed 24-foot tubular pressurized tank complete with showers, a television and a Nerf basketball hoop, breathing air that is 97.5 percent helium and 2.5 percent oxygen, so their high-pitched squeals are all but unintelligible.

In the 1820s, New Yorkers used an average of 12 gallons of water a day. Individual water use peaked in the 1980s, at more than 200 gallons. Through conservation, technology like low-flush toilets and repairs to the city’s leaky pipes, consumption is now about 150 gallons a day per person.

Thanks to Apollo18 for linking to the article.

How do I use less water? Take shorter showers. Low flow shower head. Don’t flush urine. Brick or two in the back of the toilet. I haven’t timed it but it takes about 200 to 300 seconds to get hot water up 6 flights. I capture some of the cold water to give the plants. Do dishes soon after showering so that the water is already hot.

I've rented out my home for a year (bye-bye neighbors, bye-bye evil restuarant, hello tenant). I've canceled all the snail mail I can possibly cancel, set up e-bills where possible, and forwarded the rest (thank you Mom and Dad). I've canceled my phone (bye-bye evil phone company). I've moved out.

Now I need to pack…

In McMurdo right now it is quite cold, and although todays forecast shows a Sun icon, I don't think the sun shines there at all. Maybe they get a few hours of dawn and dusk light. The degrees are in Celsius, so it is actually a bit warmer (around -20) in degrees Fahrenheit.

For those of you in New York City, solstice is nice, but July 12th and May 28th are more special. Those dates are symmetric around Solstice and they are the days that the Sun lines up perfectly with the NYC street grid just as it sets.