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1007 West Oregon
Urbana, Illinois
October 25, 1955

Dear folks,

Cold weather is really settling in now, although the trees have not dropped or even completely colored their leaves. The skies are blue and windy except for a shower now and then or one rainy day. I took out my winter coat today and Jack will be putting the lining of his weather jacket soon....

Penelope, who had a cold, is still slightly ill. She has watery eyes, and our vet friend thinks she should be examined at the vet clinic if it continues much longer. He has given us pills and ointments which helped somewhat but have not completely cured it. I built her a cat house out of a cardborad box last night and she spends much time deep inside it, on an old blanket. Warmth means a lot to a short-hair like her. Aside from her watery eyes she is pretty healthy.

I should like to have at the earliest convenient time both of your birth dates, for a form I have to fill out to give my retirement pension to you should I kick off. I took out the pension because it takes a bit of my money and pays interest on it which I can collect in full when I leave, at a good rate.

Jack has recently become interested in botany, since a good friend is employed in the botany lab making equipment for a[[strikethrough]] n [[/strikethrough]] photosnythesis experiment which has been going on for years and years here. They try to measure how much of what kinds of light rays produce how much sugar, a tough problem. They use algae, of course. I have been thinking that my old botany book on the lower plants would come in handy. Could you send it to us? It is upstairs, I think, probably in my wooden storage box by the bed or in the bookcase there.

I have also been thinking what we want for Xmas,