Dear Folks,

Thanks for the brownies. They lasted a little over 24 hours, shared with room mate, who has always shared his food with me.

Things have been pretty dull and not very encouraging the last week and over. My cold really blossomed and unlike most has persisted with no signs of improvement for more than a week. Not feeling too well at first I got grounded and then after full seven days off decided I was holding up our group too much and pretended during a let up to be cured. Yesterday was spent in a special search flight, which took five hours, but didn’t count. This morning there was a storm brewing out to sea, so you can see what progress I’ve made in the air of late.

The weather has continued to be comparatively cool, the wind still coming from the northeast, but not bringing any but occasional storms. Nights regularly get down to the sixties and have often been pretty clear. With the help of binoculars two of us recently “discovered” the star cluster in Hercules—almost not discernable—and the much more pronounced nebula in Andromeda—between the square of Pegasus and Cassiopeia. In the southern part of the sky there is of course a small area of sky one can’t see ten degrees north of here, and it has some nice constellations.

Last Sunday night I finally joined the officers’ club by going to one of the bi-weekly buffet suppers, which was delicious. The club consists of a long bar, a god sized restaurant, a sitting room and swimming pool with lockers. It is located up river only about a quarter of a mile in the ratherattractive area where the hospital and married officers' quarters also are. There is no-where near enough room here, however, for all the married officers.

Did I mention that we’re all required to have daily physical exercise, that is all operational trainees? Trying to sweat out a cold doesn’t seem to work.

Blues are now optional instead of whites ashore, so doubtless greens will soon replace khakis for daily uniform. Both of these in season are OK ashore here if not at formal occasions.

Scheduled date to get through was Oct. 31 last week, so now?

Love to All

Toots

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