June 20th, 1977

June 20th 1977-Monday John (Sandquist) took us to the hospital this morning.  We both had blood tests today and I couldn't eat till after mine so we ate lunch in the hospital cafeteria.  We sat with Terry Gough and Dr. Krause.  Dr. Krause called Pete's current condition "a miracle" and I had to agree with him.  I let Pete have some mashed potatoes and gravy with his lunch (still my favorite, it should be noted-PL), but I ate some of them.  I had a piece of pecan pie and gave Pete a bite of it, which seemed to satisfy him.  He liked it so much that he begged me to let him have some someday for his "spinal treat" (a reward for being good during the Spinal Tap treatments I was going through at the time).  John picked us up again after we'd finished and took us to Ontario Pharmacy for Pete's  Metharexate (sp) then we went through the drive-in window at US National and I cashed a check for $10.00.  The gave Pete a sucker-not so good.  Betty called this afternoon to say she was cleaning cupboards and would I like some glasses...and what else?  I don't have many glasses that match tho I have some solver rimmed ones in different sizes.  Told her I'd like some glasses and some cereal bowls.  I still haven't used the glass coffeepot she gave me but I intend to soon, because the metal one is starting to make metallic tasting coffee.  Pete picked me a bouquet of dandelions this morning and wanted me to take a picture of it so I'd "have it forever" so I put some film (I only had black and white) in and took two snaps of him with it.  We played catch and "WalkityKaboo" on the front lawn, he rode his tricycle in the back-doing stunts, one hand, one foot, no hands, no feet (not too successful), and we watched TV and drew cars.  Petey was really grumpy today-said he didn't feel good.  Betty Phipps was sitting on the back steps talking to me about her daughter's garage sale, (which netted $350) and Pete kicked dirt on her.  When I put him to bed tonight he said "Mama, I don't like myself."  He'd spilled his grape juice, broke a glass when he was helping wash dishes, had a temper tantrum because I put the bacon in the pan instead of letting him do it (one of the slices had molded so I threw it away, cooked some really thoroughly, and put the rest ina different bag.  Hope it doesn't make us sick but it looked, smelled, and tasted ok), his milk in the cafeteria was sour, his Tinker Toys swing set fell apart...in short, he had a lousy day.  It was hot muggy, and sticky, and there's still a water shortage so I couldn't fill up his pool, and I wouldn't take him to the Dairy Queen either.  Tonight's paper said saccharine causes bladder cancers in males so I guess I can't even let him have a diet pop any more.  He did play with his boats in the bath tub for nearly an hour before bed.  Then I read him The Nock Family Circus-a story about what circus people do when they're not performing.  He typed a "letter" to Carol Carr and I wrote in the translation so she'd know what he thought he'd said.  He said "I hope you live safely".  I read Fenisong's Deadlock (not as good as Widow's Plight, which had a memorable Hungarian widow) and Ferrar's Blood Flies Upward, which was highly improbably but temporarily diverting.  Need to go to the library and get some cigarettes (unless I quit tonight) tomorrow.  Pete brushed his hair tonight "to be clean for Dr. Baskerville".