Letter # 79 - June 30, 1981
From Donny To Diana

Love you, miss you, etc.

This is letter #2, the 1st one being sent June 25. I gave Mom your address. She says she wants to write to you, so you should be getting a letter from her soon.

Now with what's happened since last time:

I left off, having just finished making two blankets out of the country cloth. That evening I went with Dwight to play volleyball. John and Joan, etc, have started playing again.

The next day, Friday June 26, I decided to take the last remaining country cloth (the light brown one with English thread) and make a chief's robe for Daddy. I must say, it came out perfect. I used my gara shirt as a pattern, so the robe is only as long as a shirt, and the sleeves are open to the waist, like on my own robe, but they are triangle shaped so they are not as heavy. It has a big pocket right in the front and also a cap. The material came out exactly also, with just a few inches left over. It took me about 8 hours to sew it all together.

That evening we all went over to Mom and Dad's house where we barbequed hamburgers and Patty made a chocolate cake. Afterwards, Daddy opened presents. Patty gave him a recorder (like a wooden flute).

Carolyn and Hank bought themselves an Attari set, so now they can play games on their TV. The only trouble now is that they have to wait until the TV gets back from the repair shop. I don't know what was wrong with it, but it is still under warrantee, so it is not costing them anything. They bought theirs at the same place that we bought ours.

By the way, Mathew also caught the chicken pox. At the momenthe is all covered with spots, but they are beginning to clear up. (You didn't catch it too, did you?)

On Saturday morning, June 27, I decided that I had to actually "do" something with the 3 days remaining of my vacation, so I dropped the dog off at my mom's house, took my bicycle, my sleeping bag, tent, 2 extra pair of socks, 1 extra drawers, 1 extra shirt, 1 long jeans, and my food (6 baloni sandwiches and 3 apples) and 2 canteens full of water, ... I took all this and off I went.

I went up El Camino Real all of the way to San Francisco and then crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge. I then went another 25 miles and ended up on the coast by saturday night. On the way, I bought a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and jelly, a bag of cookies, and 3 peaches. I ate all of the baloni sandwiches that first day. The next morning I started back down the coast, crossed back over the Golden Gate Bridge, and down to Valerie and Jim's house. They weren't home so I went another 10 miles down the road before I stopped for the night. Monday morning I started back over the mountains to home, and I reached by lunch time. For Sunday and Monday morning, I finished off the 9 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that I made, along with the cookies and fruit.

I am glad that I only went on a 3 day bicycle ride, and not the 10 day ride that I had planned before. I was plenty tired of bicycle riding after those 3 days. I am starting to get the urge to go out and ride again now (just 1 day later), but while I was out there riding (mostly uphill against the wind) all I could think about was stopping to rest, and each night trying to sleep in my sleeping bag, I kept thinking about being home sleeping in my own bed and wishing I was there.

I haven't been able to sleep good any of these nights (even in my own bed). I am sure that it is because I miss having you there beside me. I need you to cuddle up to, and it is going to be hard to get used to sleeping all alone.

I started back to work today. As always happens, I found that they couldn't get anything done while I was away, and so they just saved everything until I got back. This week won't be too bad, though, because we get this Friday off (4th of July).

I got paid today and also got bills for gas, Master Charge, and our house. We owe Master Charge $584, but they don't seem to be bothered by us owing more than our credit limit, as they are only asking for a $23 minimum payment. With this, I think my money will stretch out to the end of next pay period without having to borrow any money from Dad, even though he is willing to help out.

Daddy started work again (Monday June 29) at our company, CSD, but now he is a janitor (sweeping floors and cleaning out waste baskets). The pay is less but it is steady work. He starts at 4 in the afternoon and then works for 10 hours, 4 days a week.

No more room. Bye bye. Love you. Don't forget to write.

Love,
Donny