WEEKLY REPORTS--M. Howe. Written during the two and one half months' experience: June 15 to 19, 1965.

I must say that this week for the main part, is a week of preparation and adjustment. Peter was brought upstairs on Monday. He seemed happy and contented with his new home, but as yet he has not ventured outside. I tried coaxing him during one meal but no go. I may force him out next week just to get going.

I have been so busy getting ready for this experiment at the beginning and had two very disappointing times of filling the completed tank rooms only to find leaks. Once I was ready and the rooms were flooded to twenty-two inches I found that there were a lot of last-minute things to get and hence a day of in and out of the flooded room. On Tuesday night I was fairly settled.

The first few nights in the flooded room were awful. I was uncomfortable and hardly slept. Later I seemed to adjust to that and by Thursday I was fine. I found that it was very tiring just to walk across the flooded room. Everything I do takes more energy than it normally would; but I take a nap in the afternoon and that seems fine.

Peter is his energetic self and a bit nippy on the toes. I carry a long-handled broom with me for that and ward him off. This is not always the case, of course: we have had several long "loving" sessions. The water is deep enough for him to roll over and this he does for tummy rubs. He sleeps just next to my bed . . . some nights he has been quiet and others he just has to yell and splash around. He is always hungry . . . and usually wakes me early in the morning to tell me to feed him.

Lessons have gone fairly well . . . I start with counting and shapes. I am stopping, however, for the moment . . . go back and get Peter into the habit of listening. Speaking. He seems to have lost his sense of conversation. He often overrides me. One thing at a time. I cannot teach him if he is going to yell every time I open my mouth. He has said, for the tape . . . one clear word, "BALL." This came in the middle of one of his ramblings by himself and it could contain no meaning. But it is good pronunciatior . . . in a nice comparison with Pam's "Ball."

We have several games--the most promising of which seems to be a retrieving game with the dishcloth or the ball. I throw the cloth, squeal "Go get it" to Peter . . . he dashes away . . . brings it to me . . . and willingly flings it in my direction. This seems endless. I would like to work it into a business of "Bring ball" or "Bring cloth" and get him to tell the difference. A step in the right direction.

He had picked up a nice business of following the inflection in my voice . . . "one, two, three, four" . . . with an upturn on the "four."

We have played several times with his brush . . . he loves to be brushed gently with it. I usually do this in front of his mirror where Peter spends a good deal of his time. I name the brush as I use it. So far Peter has not copied this.

Several personal notes that I will put in here and be done with. I find that clothes are no problem. I spend the day in a bathing suit . . . shower before dinner and put on the top of a leotard. I have not been cold yet, at night I do not use the wet suit. The room is warm, the nights are not . . . I have not had the problem of cold that I had with Pam.

The bed is usually damp by night, but it wipes off and half the time I don't use the quilt. I have sprayed several times for bugs, but they have not bothered me.

Cooking is fine.

Cleaning is interesting. I find that I must do it several times a day, the waterflow is in my favor. Each morning most of the dirt is neatly deposited at the foot of the elevator shaft. All I have to do is suck it up. This I tried with the vacuum from Miami . . . found it did not pull enough; I put a hose through the elevator down to the sea pool, fill it with water to start a siphon, and find it has a good pull. Only problem is a small mouth. Perhaps a funnel at my end of the hose will fix that. Also the dirt collects several times a day . . . so I have to do this several times a day. Outside is another problem: algae grow on the walls . . . I clean it daily . . . cleaning the floor is not so easy. There is a stronger flow there and the dirt scattered. It will not collect in a pile. But in general the place stays cleaner than I thought it would . . . and the seawater is always clear . . . not milky.

In the shower I have been using a children's shampoo; it does not sting the eyes. Peter stays under the shower with me and does not seem the least affected by the soap so I will assume that in a large quantitY of water its effects are negligible.

When the phone rings . . . it usually takes me a while to get to it . . . and on the way I explain . . . "telephone" to Peter. He often hears me talking and starts in vocalizing . . . very loudly and in a competitive way some time . . . it is amusing. I encourage this. (See photograph. ) Peter uses the mirror . . . talks to himself . . . scolds . . . shoots water at his image. I plan to get a microphone over him to get some of these private conversations. A good deal of the talk that Peter does when he is "alone" is now in humanoid. Interesting and encouraging.

The one thing I really don't like is Peter's loss of ability to listen. He must learn this soon or I will be tempted to get Pam up here. Peter is good and loud and humanoid but he is slow to really pronounce . . . and he is forever interrupting. But I will give him at least another week.*

Another interesting point . . . I found that when I listened back to the tapes I had made during the week . . . I was much more encouraged than I was at the actual lesson. I do not get to listen to the tapes during the week. I have just spent all day Saturday checking up on records, bills, and tape listening. I may change my schedule to Saturday out of the tank but working in the electronics room on work done previous week . . . and take Sunday out of tank and use it as a free day.

Outside work is being done . . . I looked at the wall around Pam's future tank. It is about four feet high all the way around, it may be finished this week . . . in which case we can get the water systems in and make it ready to get Pam up the following week. Pam and Sissy are both downstairs in the algaefied sea poo,l. But that will have to go for the moment. New concrete should be in soon to fix that situation.

To sum up . . . a good few days' beginning . . . and several nice games, lessons, habits started. I am pleased . . . and look forward to the next week.