September 19, 1946

Sept 19, 1946

664 W 13th

San Pedro, Calif

Dear Father and Mother & the rest of the folks from home,

If it is ever going to rain in San Pedro during September tonite is the night when it should. Yesterday was the hottest day if the year & quite sultry. Today the wind has been blowing steadliy from the southeast all afternoon; and by evening has rolled up a thick overcast which ordinarily wouldn’t come in till after midnight. San Francisco & points north have been having rain & it seems to be moving down the coast. If it were any place else it would surely rain; perhaps even it will here.

Effective as of last Monday the P.E. revised its schedule to provide fewer trains & fewer cars on each train. The car I was on Monday morning was sadly overcrowded and I was “peeved” when I got to work. In fact I was peeved enough to dig up the individual I had noticed who commutes by car from San Pedro and so I am now riding to work with him. Tomorrow however he is having some work done on his car so I will again patronize the P.E.

I had a letter from Vivian today; she sounds as if she were getting acquainted with some people and that in general she likes it in Humboldt. I think a large part of her lonesome feeling was the contrast between her work there & in Lakota.

I called up my music teacher last nite and she thinks that she can arrange it so I can practice at the Norwegian Lutheran Church here in San Pedro, where she is organist. I sincerely hope so and I will know next Saturday. It would be a disappointment to have my interest stifled at the present time.

My work continues about as usual. Lately I have been doing some very interesting work in connection with the catalyst now being investigated here. There are so many interesting angles to work out that you can’t keep pace with your ideas. Every time you turn your head some new and fascinating fact (well, almost every time) springs into view. Sometimes I can’t help but compare my attitude towards experiments now and when I first went to work for Shell. It used to bother me when things didn’t work out the way I expected; now an unexpected end to an experiment is not a discouragement — it is rather an indication to new & different experiments each of which stimulates your imagination. I used to dislike it when a new variable entered the picture; now another variable is an intriguing new avenue of thought & action. What I can’t figure out sometimes is whether I am getting older or younger as my attitudes along this line develop.

My new book on psychology contains a section on psychoanalysis which I haven’t reached yet. Perhaps I shall try to analyze my thinking etc after I have read it.

With love

C.P.