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there is a 22-yr cycle of drought showing in them. The very same years of dust bowls in N. America! By lunch time Ghislaine & Bob had arranged for a 2:00 PM snowmobile try-out. We had lunch & got dressed for the field. At the garage, Randy from Las Vegas, had two Skidoos loaded on a trailer so he trucked on down to the edge of the sea ice. We each tried pulling the rope to start a machine -- one godawful job. I did it but fell on my rear in the process. He explained about going into reverse, turning a wide circle, & let us go. Other Skidoos were down there so we ea. had one. We roared off toward Mt. Discovery -- the Royal Society Range straight ahead. The sun was bright, the sky blue, the air cold but delicious. I had a glorious time. The freedom, the exhileration! ^[[The ice hummed in an intriguing way.]] We circled and turned, backed up & sailed toward Erebus. Took pictures. Put on extra gloves, and roared around some more -- almost to the airfield on the sea ice. We could see the edge of the ice shelf beyond, Willie field & Scott Base. We could have gone to the Penguin Colony in 1/2 hr. if we had permission. But had been told it was too far. 10 mi as crow flies; 20 by skidoo. Randy will take us if we get the OK. 

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Back home to clean up. After dinner I had a long talk w Davida Kellog who invited me to come & give a talk at U. of Maine. She told me in effect that Peter Williamson is an Emperor w. no clothes on, & Jennifer Kitchell is wonderful. We got the wrong evolutionist at Harvard. After a strong swig of Wild Turkey & Dinner we went to the Berg Center to hear the introductory survival school lecture. This one was for a batch of navy men who would winter-over. In the stifling hall, the darkness, & the whirring of the projector I kept dropping off to sleep. Lecture finished, and the troops getting ready to prussick [[prusik]] up ropes in the bldg. We went home. Gh. [[arrow]] lounge and I to biol. library again. When I came home at 10 she was in the room, but she told me I had locked her out - she came in the window by herself! We need a system.

All the McM buildings are hot -- we open the windows. In the night it turned cold -- at 4:00 AM we both got up & put on our robes to sleep in. 

[[underlined]] Tues. Dec. 8 [[/underlined]]

At 7:05 Ghis. whispered to me the time: breakfast ends at 7:30. We roused out and made it w 5 min. to spare. This is our day for showers! Also, we did hand laundry and used the dryer. Reorganized our stuff. I wrote to Dorset for Xmas (unlikely to get there), took over the mail, and went back to the store for a laundry bag & more kleenex.