November 5, 1975: Wednesday

John Oliver Rule today.

John Oliver is the diver who runs all over the place instead of walking (Dave Bresnehan rule).

Loaded the truck for a helo flight. Dr. Treves went to talk with 590. They didn’t come up, so he went to get fresh vegetables. Mac Center called and 590 was on. I ran down there and talked to Leon. They needed a big blue iron frame with a bulge in it, from the fish house at the lab.

Dr. Treves got on the system at the Chalet and I ran over to meet him. We found the blue doovery and drove to the helo pad, stopping on the way to heave on board four small white bottles of propane.

Had a list of things to do.

Got them all done. Hurrah.

Cleaned the lab (except the porch).

Delivered things to the BFC, Bio-Lab, and Garage.

Put things in cages (boxes and camping gear).

Got gas.

Found out the tablets they were putting in the dish water rinse at 1A were unnecessary. This from Doc Flynn.

Cleared a space for Jerry Duncan (some miscellaneous DVDP grant) in the fish hut with DVDP #3 so he can do thermographs of it.

Then things began to happen. Dave called, said there was an emergency at the site and the helo would be in for spare drilling parts. Then he called and sit it wouldn’t be in. Then Mac Center called and said they’d land in five minutes. But I could plainly see when I was on the phone, that they had already landed.

This is the trouble. The tides are very mysteriously fluctuating and the foot peddle clamp, used to hold the drill casing in place, got wet. The casing slipped through and they thought they’d lost the whole thing. But fortunately, when they undid the cover, they found it had only slipped a couple of feet. Now they’re checking damage.

The helo crew must have been very patient out there, with a change of mind every five minutes.

Captain Van Reeth went into the enlisted men’s mess today (like a coach and a football team) to give them a talk to keep the rumor factor about the Hercs quiet. It was very sort of impressive, with a guy taping his speech to play over the radio, and a tense atmosphere, reporters flashing bulbs. Except there weren’t any reporters.

Darv delivered some sodium cobalt (IV) hexanitrate to stain feldspars.

Bob Thomas came for a visit. He’s a RISP person. He gave me a glass of Port while I collected the mail last night.

The Kiwi’s wanted to trade some beef for mutton.

Hamish delivered mail.

Some driller has been wrapping up cans of food. Dr. Treves unwraps them when he gets back and puts them up on the shelf.

Sidebar: News from Home -
Darryl Weldon died in a motor cycle accident.
Weather is normal; abnormal.
Saved Berzel’s engagement announcement. It said they were a couple. Now they can play bridge.
Margaret Stuart “heard the word” on KFAB and won $11.
Steve Milam got married to some pretty Falls City broad.
Some Senator from Ralston stuck his foot in his mouth about removing Peru State from Peru.

In the spare moments, I listened to the music and read the paper.

Got a letter from Ann today. She’s a good ol’ letter writer. I hadn’t thought she’d write, but if she did I knew it’d be good.

Her sense of humor comes through, which is a hard thing to do.

Why do girls always tell me when they’re not dating, but don’t mention anything when they do?

She says Gary C. has a girlfriend. I think I’ll turn in my hormones.

Bio-Mike has to look up all the FSN numbers to order parts on the chits for the garage. They figure that every time they run across a Lockheed number, they’ll order it. Sooner or later they’ll get lucky and a new Herc will be sent down. Or at least enough parts to build one in the garage.