October 25, 1975: Saturday

The doctor had another look at me. It’s very important that I wear a jock to prevent torque. The dispensary doesn’t have any and neither does the Ship’s Store. They don’t even have underwear small enough to do the job.

Went back to the Hotel to clean up my mess. Dr. Treves was on the phone. I told him what was wrong. He and Cal are going to the Dry Valleys today. It’s a lot of hassle explaining my condition to people. I think from now on I’ll just say, “Call me Uno.” It hurts worse than yesterday. But I still think it’s psychosomatic.

Went to the BFC. They didn’t have any jocks. Mike told me to go to special services and have the lady fit me, personally.

Dr. Treves wants another print of one of my Site 1A prints. Something about Emmett liking it. Went down to print them. I washed the negatives because they needed it, and left them to dry.

Never got back to them because Bio-Mike slept all afternoon. Dave and Emmett went to the South Pole. They were back for supper. I told him (Dave) why I was back. Dr. Treves got Dave to get me a jock from Christchurch.

There was a movie cameraman from the Air Force with Bio-Mike before lunch. He took a movie of Father Brady (an Australian micropaleontologist who came yesterday) doing things with a microscope and of Peter testing sound waves in a rock and using the Photo Micro Sizer.

When I gave him a tour, I did a lot of talking and explaining. Every once in a while I get into that kind of mood where I seem to be quite loquacious, instead of my usual stumbling inanities.

Bought a slightly damaged Deep Freeze T-shirt for $2.00, a set of glasses for $6.30, and two patches for $0.50, each.

Got to drive the trackmaster from the lab down to the garage. Went to pick up the helo party. I always get beat down there by someone else.

I wanted to find out about what a psychotherm meant and what an asymptotic hydralizer would do. We have a book entitled Composition of Scientific Words. I started reading the introduction. The author has a very keen sense of humor, like Masterton & Slowinski. I discovered that William the Conqueror made a list of all his helpers in the invasion. I’ll have to check into that. It’s something I’ve overlooked, out of ignorance. Haven’t finished reading the introduction, yet.

Erythrokephalos means Redhead in Greek, which we all know is true.

Survival in Antarctica. Hints: When traveling in parties of three it is wise to be the middle person. That way you never have to open or close a door.

They declared the Bio-lab’s coffee mess illegal, like ours because we don’t have official approval. So Bio-Mike and Dr. Flynn made up a Caffeine Extractor-Enricher-Etceterer. (A coffee pot made out of biological apparatus).

Pete Bunch caused an avalanche in the empty barrel pile by pulling out the bottom one.

Got a package of popcorn and cookies from Nancy. This is getting a bit ridiculous. Her letter wasn’t so bad this time. But I think it’s time for a little thinking. At least it shows my letters got home. Hope I get something from Joy or Cathy. I guess I’m sort of using a double standard. But a problem is a problem. I don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Addendum to the above: Unofficial class motto - Ignore it and it will go away.

Mike set up his real stereo system. Ahhhhh!

Dollars Out:
$2.00 T-shirt
$6.30 Glasses
$1.00 Patches