Friday, July 15th, 1977-In which Stewart is a No Show (to everyone's relief), our Pastor pays a vist, and Pete meets a Hermit named Herman

Well, as I had more or less expected, Stewart didn't show up today.  He had told Chuck Smith he was going to call Dr. Baskerville immediately to get instructions for moving Pete (removing, that is) to England, but John Sandquist called Dr. Baskerville and Stewart hadn't been in touch with her at all.  John said he was calling the Bell Telephone man in Boise to see if they were still interested in Stewart.  He said that he didn't think the confidentiality of his office extended to law breaking or to matters concerning health and safety.  He gave me his home phone number in case I needed to get in touch with him over the weekend, and said if Stewart were to see Petey they'd arrange it so his visit was supervised and Petey wouldn't be left alone with him.  Woke about nine this morning.  I think I heard Marilyn leaving the tickets for the Magic Show because when I looked out there they were.  We ate lunch (Pete helped me make hamburgers) exactly at 12:00pm for once.  Pete wanted to sleep in the big brown chair and I'd just gotten him tucked in when the doorbell rang.  Pastor Petravisik (sp) had come to call.  He said the old house we used to live in (the one replaced by a doughnut shop) had been moved down to the end of Carol Wallace's road.  I told him how frightened I was of what would happen to Petey if Stewart had custody-it helped to talk about it.  He had just left when Dad phoned to say he was on the way in to put bolts on our doors.  He did the front and back and checked the French windows in Pete's playroom but they have a deadbolt so there was no point in doing any more (anyone who wanted to in could just smash the glass in one of the doors anyhow-the  bolts are simply a "delaying action").  Then, while Dad was here, the doorbell rang and it was Carol Carr and Gretchen back briefly from the beach, so Pete was able to thank them personally for his presents.  Gretchen had her pet, Herman the hermit Crab with her and Pete got out his Seahorse book and showed her the pictures of the hermit crab in it (don't know how he found it).  He touched Herman, very tentatively, too (Herman is a fresh water crab).  It was so good to see Carol again-she looked happy, tanned, and not nearly so tense as the last time I saw her.  She, Jeff, and Gretchen are staying in parents' house in August  so she gave me the address, and I gave he one of our Western Bank photos.  She said our s was the the only letter she'd gotten.  She left, Dand finished the bolts and had a cup of coffee-then he left.  Then Lori  called to see if Pete could come over.  He went at 4:30 for "Sesame Street" and "Mr. Rogers".  I napped, and then he and Vicky came back here for "Electric Company".  Vicky called him about 4 times today.  I'm going to have to make some rules about phone calls at nap time.  They're going on vacation next week.  Called to give Sylvia my phone number again.  Dave said "You're going tomorrow night aren't you?"  His company came at noon today and he missed them because he couldn't get off work.  I took a bath and washed my hair and used a cucumber mask (green face) tonight-sheer defiance.  Pete had his Methatrexate today and whined a lot about not feeling well.  We read an old Humpty Dumpty tonight. 

I had a frightening thought today.  I've always felt that each day Pete and I have together is a gain-one more golden memory...but the doctors only gave him five years (if the treatment worked) when he got sick.  Suppose, instead, each day is one less of the total we have to spend together-a whole year of them has already flown by.  Each day is such a fragile thing! 

Pete wanted to play "Walkity Kaboo" today and be "tied up" and put in a suitcase to practice his "escapes".  Maybe he'll be as interested in "escapes" as Betty Phipps' grandson John.  I think it was John's magic show that started him off.  Then he wanted to be a puppy.  Then we played "cat and dog" on the living room floor (anyone looking in must surely have thought me demented).  We did a lot of puzzles tonight (Pete's very good at them) while listening to Dr. Seuss records, "Horton Hatches the Egg", "Yertle the Turtle", "The Sneetches", "Fox in Sox", and "Green Eggs and Ham".  Then I listened to my garage sale Irish Tenor sing "Scotland the Brave" and "Ireland My Home".  We had watermelon, cantaloupe, (using up all our fresh fruit except apples), hamburger, carrots (Pete and I did a very complicated arithmetic lesson with our Bugs Bunny vitamins today-lining up all the cartoon characters, counting how many of each we had, adding and subtracting as we put them back in the bottle.  Pete was on a counting binge today-kept trying to count up to forty, getting into the twenties, sometimes the thirties, and back tracking.  I read Ferrar's Breath of Suspicion today (spies and heroin, London and Madeira) and started Catherine Aird's A Late Phoenix.  I like her sense of humor and catch myself starting to use her diction.  If I'm not careful, I'll wind up like that San Francisco friend of mine-you could always tell what he was reading because he'd sound just like his latest book till he finished it.  Read Pete and another chapter of The Tin Woodsman of Oz today-he wanted me to retell The Wizard of Oz and the beginning of the The Tin Woodsman... several times..  I thought the Oz books too old for him, but he picked it out himself and seems to be enjoying it.  He likes the quaint illustrations, too.  Carol said Gretchen might have some more books for him.  He loves them.