Viewing page 41 of 94

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[underlined]] Thursday, December 31 [[/underlined]] Last day of 1981. What a place to spend it. What a year. This was my landmark year. I turned 60. That meant I could retire if I wished. That put a certain security beneath ne. A safety net. We celebrated all year. Bird-watching in Morocco in April. To Berne and N. Italy in August. To Tucson. And my adventure in Antarctica. My first year here was very short & not quite a respectable taste of the job. This is the real thing.

John called us at 7:40; said we would stay close to home today. Overcast & mild -- 16[[degree symbol]]f. We spent all day collecting meteorites some of which had already been flagged. All of us kept finding meteorites -- most of them small, but all authentic and thrilling to see. John surprised us by having us come home for lunch. Spent an hour here. Back to the same area over the crest of the slope to the west. There was light snow in the morning - about windless -- a perfect collecting day. The total crap was >50 stones; at 5 PM John found the last one of the day -- a big cantaloupe-sized stone. Celebration! It was a great day.

At about 5 PM we finished collecting and Bob & Gh. came home. John set out a magnet of Dan Braunstein to collect dust & I went to see him do it. Also collected a bag of ice.

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

For New Years Eve we invited Bob & John for dinner: shrimp - lobster tails, lima beans & carrots. Bob began on Martini in his tent -- continued w. Benedictine here. At ~ 10:30 PM he came back to my tent & demanded some of our Wild Turkey -- John is transcribing the day's notes & Rob playing cribbage & drinking (?). He is much concerned about the fact that we left a box of Red Label behind. Evidently he is an alcoholic -- or close to it. We thought up to now, he was being funny. This episode was not funny. Gh. gave him water in a cup he held in our tent. Then he saw our Red Label & demanded it. Poured a big shot & gave it back. Perhaps it is lucky I claimed my own Wild Turkey this AM - Rough on John.

I took a picture or two of the New Years Eve sun at 10:30. Now it is 11:00. The last glimmer of '81.