June 21, 1977-The First Day of Summer

June 21, 1977
Appropriately enough it was hot today.  The water shortage continues with headlines about powers of enforcement for water violations...and in the next block someone in an even-numbered house (they're supposed to water tomorrow) was letting water run down into the street and stream down the gutters of the whole block.  I haven't even filled Pete's wading pool...tho if it's hot tomorrow, I'll do it and use the water afterward to water the lawn (at Daniel's suggestion).  Patty took us to Dr. Baskerville's today.  Pete's weight was exactly the same as last time.  If it hadn't been for all those cookies in Bible school, he might have lost, and he starts on Prednisone again next week.  Damn it's so hard to let him do things and not feel like a freak, but we will do better-we have to!  At least with the heat he's eating less.  She gave me a prescription for Pedamyacin-his nose is still draining and its yellow, not clear,  She said to go on giving him Benadryl.  Pretty soon he'll be consuming his own weight in medicine every day.  He had his Methatrexate today, too.  I also got some coffee filters for my glass pot.  We took Patty to lunch at the Dairy Queen.  Pete had a burrito-another mistake.  Pete complained of his stomach hurting tonight so I gave him 1/2 a Tylenol and that seemed to take care of it.  Pete got a letter from Lorraine Bennett today.  He sure gets a lot of fan mail.  We took naps and then played on the front lawn till he threw his ball into one of Daniel's marigolds and broke off a leafy branch.  He was sorry, but I'm afraid it really hurt the plant.  Then we decided to go for a walk.  We went up to the new City Hall so Pete could climb on the "dirt mountain" (nice white sand...would be lovely for a sandbox) behind it.  Then we walked up the block beyond ours-the green house where the lady with the CB radio lived is for rent.  Maybe that's why I only get channel 7 and channel 2 again.  We played tag and hide and seek and made a four armed octopus with our shadows.  We watched a marching band on "Sesame Street" and Pete asked me if he could be a marching man when he grew up because he's " practicing a lot"...he never plays, he "practices" for being grown up.  He's making his own bed now because Nicole (my first crush-PL) makes hers.  I called Marilyn (Cates-Nicole's Mother-PL) today and we plan to go to the park at 10:00 am tomorrow.  She said said she has some sunscreen for Pete-we'll both be glad of it.  We were all out of bread so Pete and I baked muffins tonight and he took the box for his store.  We built a Ferris Wheel with Tinker Toys and a park for his stackup men with Legos  and talked about all the rides I'd tried.  Pete wants to go to San Antonio to ride in the boats and on the baby elephant (it must be grown by now!)

PL Comments/Context:  I guess I should have pointed out before now that I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoceutic Leukemia when I was 4...thus the many references to doctors, hospitals, and medications (since I was still in treatment during this period).  The "Daniel" mentioned earlier was Daniel Eiguren, our landlord and neighbor in the duplex we were living in at the time.  Daniel's wife, Maria owned and operated an antique store in Ontario for many years (as I remember it, it was nestled between what is now Eldredge Furniture and Fiesta Guadalajara downtown).