Letter # 498 October 15, 1944

New Guinea
Sunday morn
Oct 15, '44
Hello sweet and beautiful;
I'm going to write to you this morning instead of at night as is my usual custom.  I've been writing my duty letters and have about time enough before dinner to write this one.  The packages haven't been sorted yet so you won't know until tomorrow if I got any in this shipment or not.
It's the usual hot, sunny day again today.  Ideal to lay around and do nothing much though, wish you were here. Best help I've ever known to do nothing much with.  Very nice person to have around at any time.  I love you honey.
The boys on guard had a little excitement last night.  Killed a baby python.  You may think I've got a poor idea of the word baby when I say he was ten feet long and the size of a man's arm.  But, after all, baby pythons aren't so small.  His momma and poppa were probably thirty feet long and the size of your leg so I guess baby is proper in this case.  Dyke got him. He ran over him several times with a peep and it didn't seem to phase him so he drove the peep on him to pin him down and then beat him over the head with a shovel.  The boys are having a big time totin' him up and down the camp and taking pictures.  I got a couple of Mac holding him.  Not me.  I don't care much about touching the critters.  Anyhow it's the biggest snake I've ever seen outside a zoo up to now.  Not many of them around here.
Nothing much else to talk about today so I'll continue on your letters.  Yes, sweetheart, you can stop teasing me about the picture and the bracelet.  I've got them both and like them an awful lot.  I 'm glad you didn't send the larger picture.  It would be nice to have but I couldn't carry it without ruining it and I'd hate to do that.  This one does very nicely.  It's a dandy.
It wasn't the leg picture I took along up the trail with me.  It was the one of you squatting under the oak tree in front of the house.  I think it's a nice one.  Anyhow I had you to look at.  If I only could have you with me as much as I have your pictures I'd be a very happy man.  I loves you and like to have you by me.  You fit there.
I wasn't so dumb was I?  I figured pretty well what you had done just to get a nice picture for me.  I know my Babe pretty well and know she is sweet enough to go to almost any trouble to do something for me.  You're so darn lovable it almost chokes me at times.  I want my babe badly.  I'm conceited enough to think that no one but me can appreciate you as much or treat you as nice as you deserve. Of course I know you are being very well taken care of but I like to think I can do a much better job of it than anyone else.  That's cause I love you so much.
You did a very good job job of keeping your secret surprise so long.  I can almost see you popping your buttons.  You wanted to tell me about it so badly.  You just bubble when you are trying to keep a secret.As you told me, you are still only a kid in lots of ways.  Makes you very lovable so don't be trying to change yourself. I love you but when you're just you.
Leckner just came in to show me an identification bracelet his wife sent for his birthday.  I had been showing him mine the other night and he wanted to let me know I wasn't so smart, he had one too.  It is very nearly like mine only it doesn't have the nice little message on the back.  His serial number is there instead.  That little message on the back is what makes it so precious to me.  Anyhow, mine's best.  I like it.
I didn't get any packages in this shipment, darn it.  Mac got one small one with some La newspapers in it from his gal.  No goodies for us today. They'll probably come in in a few days.  The mail clerk says they have stacks of packages at base waiting for someone to get time to sort them.  The quantity of packages coming in is unbelievable. I did get one Gazette, Sept 12 and one Colliers Sept 30 and that is all so far.  I'm sure glad I get much better service than that on my letters.  I'd be hurtin if I didn't.
Now for Oct 3 letter.  There wouldn't be anything wrong with the furnace.  No need to wait for Carl to check it over.  Light her up and let her go.  It should be a little easier for you to handle this year.  You don't have to leave so soon in the morning.  You can run down, fire up and go back to bed until it warms up to your liking.  Quite an aristocratic life you're leading these days.  Go to work at 11 and don't have any bothersome husband getting you out to get his breakfast at 7 in the morning.  No one dirtying up the house all the time or making a lot of dirty clothes to wash and etc. Great life isn't it, honey?  Like hell!
Jean should really be getting acquainted with New York soon.  I thought it queer a while back when you said Gus wouldn't be home until after Christmas and Jean couldn't go see him.  I wondered what was tying her down. I know if it had been us in that situation, I'd have wanted you to come and see me.  Make hay while the sun shines is a good motto to follow, honey.  When the sun comes out again I'll sure start making plenty hay, or something.
I see that even my girl friends aren't forgetting me even if I am out of sight.  You probably don't give them a chance to forget me.  My publicity agent.  Katy and Dorothy sending me things.  Thanks for the warning.  I can start to compose some of these thank you notes.
I have the same questions and comments about how I can write you a letter every day and so much too.  People just don't understand.  I know most of them are much the same as all the rest.  Repeat the same things over and over but what's the difference?  As you said, we say the same things over and over when we're together and don't seem to mind so why worry about it in a letter?  We may be wasting a lot of paper and ink and effort to say the same things but I sure like to read them, even the same ones over and over.
I'm sorry about the books, honey.  They are Australian but I never thought they wouldn't be an international publication.  If I can find any way to get them over here I'll send them along.  Don't know exactly when they were published but I'm under the impression that it's in the past decade.
I'm tickled you can get part of what I was trying to tell you about the trip.  I made it rather brief to do a very clear job of description.  It would take a volume to even begin to tell it all.  Wait until sometime when we have time and the inclination to talk.  I'll tell you the rest then.
Well, honey, I'm going to stop now and maybe this afternoon I'll work a little more on my surprises.  I'm a tease but all the time I'm teasing, I'm loving you more.  I do love you all the time.
Your soldier.
Norm.