November 13, 1975: Thursday

Had some core last night, three boxes. Cal had it all done. Spent the morning doing ice deflection, depth, and weather measurements. I gave Dr. Treves all the information over the radio. I ask him to bring out Dave’s address, which I left on the desk. He asks me if I’m thinking about going to go to the Academy.

The rest of the morning I got things organized after Cal went to bed, what to do and how to do it. I describe some wash samples that came up. My job is to record what it is as it comes out of the hole and get it ready to fly to McMurdo, the type of sediment, color, grain size, angularity, sorting, lithology, and anything else unusual. Wash samples go home in plastic bags, with meters below the surface on it.

Start to read Penmarric. The first few pages are all right.

They get the projector going. We watch the second two reels of The Creeping Flesh. The sideline jokes are very good. Max has a good sense of humor. It’s the kind of movie you drive by at the City and watch, but never ever think about going in, unless it’s the second feature and you have a back seat full of minority beer.

The helicopter landed just as it ended and just as the first core on my shift came up. I drove 590 over to unload the helo. Dave B. was out. He and the helo crew were suitably impressed by my core. The core goes in boxes and is packed very carefully, without strips of cardboard, and is labeled “Keep Frozen. Handle with Care.”

I really don’t know what to do to describe this stuff, so Calvin does the next two. I finish wash samples. Every one is standing around taking pictures of this real core. It looks official. I wish I could find my camera.

I watch the drillers. I think I understand the system. They have an outer casing, then the rod that they keep raising and lowering, then the core bit and core holder inside that. It takes two different winches.

Got a Newspaper and a letter from Janet and Cathy (as a Halloween card, gees). Janet is just plain crazy. And Cathy, well, it’s my favorite, the kind of letter that makes sense out of a 2:30 a.m. phone call. And everything is beautiful.

Both she and Joy went to functions with Myron. Myron doesn’t know that they know that he’s taking them to dances on consecutive nights.

Jean E. is getting married to some Plattsmouth guy.

Janet’s sister, Mary Kay, had a benign brain tumor, but is O.K.

Yesterday they went to New Harbour to get some more rod. There were people all over the place. Jim tells the story very well. People diving, people setting up camp, people running up and down the hills. They turned a corner and some guy was taking a dump on a wee toilet. He tried to pull up his pants when the truck came around the corner.