back next week. I can herdly [sic] wait. This is work - and this is 150 miles below the equator - and this is hot.

Below the equator means I am now a shell back. If you don't know what that is, it means I used to be a polywog but now I belong to some kind of an international fraternity that got that way from crossing the line and going thru a pretty brutal initiation rites [sic] administered by some pretty crusty shellbacks just aching for a chance to get even with somebody for the beating they took when they got theirs.