1 December, 1997

Hi Everyone,

Another good day here at McMurdo. NOthing wild and exciting just general work. A nice weather day, barely above freezing and no wind, not sunny but not bad either. The planes are flying, we were able to get a load of "freshies"

in last night and they sure tasted good today. 500 lbs. of mail also came in so everyone was at the post office to get that package from home. That is real important if you are going to be here for months. I worked

in the lab all morning. I had to weigh my samples after they had gone through the hot furnace to burn all the organic material away . I then caluclated the %organic carbon and had to record these figures. Kathy was able to help me use the spread sheet. I was a fair operator but just did not knmow all the short cuts that really help out. Every teacher should be a student every now and then. Kathy knew so much more than I did about it and I'm sure that it irriated her to have to slow down and help me. She has a lot of patience with this old guy. I do appreciate her efforts though. Was able to get in touch with Rice Univ. ( our project computer center) even though it was Su nday there and we are trying to put together a Cee-u-Cee me video session for several schools. Hope that it will work. I have to get a computer operator here up at 5:00 am to get it going with the time difference. They were very cooperative. I should be on the air at 7:00 our time. I then have to get ready for a Helo trip back to the Dry Valleys at 8:30 so I will have my bags packed and stashed at the Helo pad before I try to get the session going. If ever thing clicks it will go. Hope so. Been lots of work and communications for many people. If it does not go we'll try again in another week. I should be back into McMurdo in another 5 days. Met Sandy S. ( the other TEA here) last night. She is leaving Tomorrow for ChristChurch and is anxious to get out of here. Her project is over and she is heading home. I'll feel the same way in another three weeks I'm sure. Better go, it will be a short night with my early breakfast appointment. I also need to make sure everything is laundered up before I hit the Dry Valleys again. Hope that they missed me. I'm fine everyone. See ya