August 29, 1975: Friday

Got up once to go to the bathroom. I’ll never get used to the toilets here. They’re very deep, with hardly any water. The other part is way up on eye level. The flush thing is a device that looks like a key on an old cash register. It releases an absolute torrent of water.

I get up early, shower, have trouble getting the water hot. The controls need getting used to. Breakfast is corn flakes in a cup, bread with jam, and tea. It’s free.

We blew a fuse and are out of electricity ‘til the electrician gets us more.

We take a taxi out to get our clothes. I buy some shampoo and soap after we get our P.X. passes. Didn’t need it to get the stuff, though. Mailed the nine post cards with nine ten-cent stamps. That’s air mail.

My clothes are all right. They look official, like I know what I’m doing. We dress and take inventory in a cold drafty cement-floored room. It reminds me of football, especially Rock Port, sitting in longjohns, lacing up heavy shoes with tube socks, and funny pants on.

I feel dumb, having to copy everything Dr. Treves does. But it’s the only way to survive. I ask dumb questions. I can’t see the purpose of the actions we have to do, but finally I understand what’s going on.

Lunch is in the Non-Com cafeteria. One dollar twenty for pork chops and stuff. I’m eating more than I ever have in my life down here, without getting full. It’s unusual.

Dr. Dick (PhD, Wisconsin) and his assistant need blood samples to see what kind of germs we’ll infect the Winter Over people with. I gave my share.

We go to the NSF headquarters and meet Mr. Jack Hoffman and Mr. Bob Thompson, important people with the New Zealand Antarctic Program. We talk about the problems at McMurdo, look at a map of the drill sites and make provisional plans and ideas for alternatives.

I’m learning more all the time. There’s a big map (three dimensional) of McMurdo. Cal shows me where everything’s at. I get used to the place, because it looks all right. Sort of what I expected, only more sophisticated.

We go to the airport, catch a bus, and walk back to the motel. I wish I could remember the funny things Dr. Treves says, but they’re just throw away lines, playing on the conversation and being only funny at that specific moment.

McMurdo is on Ross Island with Mount Erebus.

Calvin got bumped by a biologist and has to go down on Wednesday. I wonder if he wonders why I (as having least seniority) wasn’t the one demoted. I feel it an honor to be on the first-day flight.

We ate at the Shanghai Restaurant, again. A dollar ninety-five for sweet and sour pork. We went window shopping. It was almost like Christmas shopping with the cold and the happy feeling. We wanted to see a movie. We looked at The Night Porter and I suggested Tommy. I hope they liked it and don’t blame me if they didn’t. I feel guilty about forcing them to do something they didn’t enjoy.

It was a buck fifty, plus all sorts of commercials and a Newsreel about the Queen Mother, Margaret. I told them that seeing Tommy twice was cheaper than buying the album.

We returned home. Wrote to Kay. Why am I putting off writing to Andria? I want to be in the write mood. I must contemplate tonight, grokking her fullness. I like Stranger in a Strange Land.


Today’s Expenditures:
$1.20....Lunch (pork chop)
$0.75....Soap and shampoo
$0.50....Bus ride home
$0.90....Stamps
$1.95....Chinese supper
$1.50....Tommy