December 8, 1975: Monday

Obliterated shipping boxes of wrong addresses with gray paint. Put photographs up on the wall. Identified negatives for Dad.

In the afternoon the Japanese and I went to Miers Valley to look for salt deposits. Billy Blackwelder and Andy Auskaps were the pilots. Andy had found a Zebra Rock. He was so proud about it. He wanted to show everyone. I explained to him how limestone fractures and magma runs in between the cracks. He wondered about the way the two parts were exactly alike, except one was gray and the other black.

He was going to cut it up and give some to Blackwelder and Dr. Treves.

But Billy had to tell him it was just paint, before he cut it up. So Andy wants to pull the trick on someone else. I told him I’d try to set her up.

Tex and I talked awhile about Kathy. She drank at Las Vegas Night, but under control. Almost everybody in the building tried to put the move on her.

I commented she probably enjoyed that.

Tex was of the opinion that Kathy doesn’t quite have her head together, over personal matters.

I have to agree.

We landed at Adams and Miers Glaciers, and halfway down the valley, near the stream, which was trickling.

The valley floor is glacial debris, underlain by a few feet of ice. This precipitates salts. First, mirabilite (CaSO4•6H2O), which looses its water and reacts to become thernaldite (NaSO4•2H2O) and, finally, gypsum (CaSO4). Calcite (CaCO3) is formed on the surface.

Mirabilite looses its water very quickly when exposed to air. It goes from a clear crystal to a powder.

We found a sponge in the ice, halfway up the valley.

Ran x-rays in the evening, for Cal and Dr. Nakai. Cal’s were closer determinations of the Christmas rocks and two salts for Dr. Nakai. They turned out to be gypsum and calcite. Very pure.

Told Kathy that Andy had found a Zebra Rock. Almost laughed when I said it. I though she hesitated for a moment, then believed me.

I told Cal the true story.

Later on I brought up the subject. Cal didn’t play the game and it was insinuated that Andy’s leg had been pulled, again. I don’t know if Kathy was sitting there putting two and two together, or if Cal had told her while they were in the back.

Anyway, there’s still a joke in it, on Andy.

We made Henry a Doovry out of assorted junk. Went to mid-rats and toddled off to bed, leaving Cal, Kathy, and Dr. Treves behind. He said we had to be up at the lab at eight to sort boxes. He said it very pointedly, in my direction.

Either work late or get up early. I’ve never been able to do both.