Monday, November 20, 2006

September 20, 1975: Saturday

What a way to start a day.

Dr. Treves came in to wake me up. I over slept. Then he said here was a time and a place for work and a time and a place for taking pictures, and they do not mix. I nodded my head. If I’d been in a worse (or better) mood, I would have argued the point with him, having grown up as work being the taking of pictures. Also I can only think of three specific instances that I have not helped, but all are questionable. I take my lumps, for they are there to be had. And to learn by.

The storm has abated and the Southern Foothills are mantled in a light powder of purity, Mount Debrushka cloaked in the softest fur of white that I have ever seen. It is beauty. It is right.

The Life Cycle of a Thin Section: First, Dr. Treves tells you to practice on benmoreite. Then you ask Cal what a benmoreite is. Then you cut the rock with a rotary saw until you get a piece the size of a cover slip.

Then you pour 180 grit on a revolving wheel and make the rock smooth, with no grooves. Then you pour 400 grit on another revolving wheel and polish until it’s glassy, with no scratches.

Then you pour 600 grit on a revolving wheel and grind until it has sharp edges and no scratches. Then you put it in the oven to dry. Then you frost a slide by rubbing it in grit and drying it.

Then you mix up this epoxy glue. (Heaven knows in what proportion. We experiment.) And stick the rock to the slide.

Then let set.

This Life Cycle will be continued after it has thoroughly set.

Jim Newman came by. And he, Cal, and me went to take pictures of the ice runway at Williams Field. I feel guilty.

After supper I act as a good luck charm for Dan playing poker. Then I go and have a heavy intellectual discussion with Bio-Mike and Doug.

Is the Human Race a Success or Failure? Will the Human Race Survive, if it Changes its Own Environment so Drastically? (Big Nuclear War Argument.) Given the Same Conditions Present on Earth, How would Life Evolve on a Distant Planet?

Finally it got around to good ol’ College Days. I had thought that my life was filled with fullness and flavor. But I perceive that these High School memories do not hold weight amongst those who have gone on in life. Even though the ideas are the same, high school is a bit immature. Yet college is Good Times. Besides, I am not a natural story teller, and it takes a lot of explanation to convince someone about Auburn.

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