Thursday, 8 October 1970

This turned out to be the morning to make a baby! I.E. yesterday Bonnie’s temperature was down sharply—indicating ovulation—hopefully. So we followed Dr. Settle’s [1] method for sex selection. Douche with water and baking soda—we tried to time it as close to the time of ovulation as possible—and we had abstained for two weeks to increase the sperm count—so if all went well, it’ll be a boy in 9 months. Θ+. Bonnie stayed in bed to remain in a horizontal position. I got up, gave Debbie her breakfast, also brought Bonnie hers in bed. During the morning I worked on the Deacon’s Bench. Bonnie got up about 2 hours after we’d had sex—but she was very lethargic—about 1:00 she fixed lunch. Early in the afternoon I finally finished the bench—sanding and all. I then cleaned up the dining room. Also earlier I’d received a phone call from Gary Wait, more details re: Sunday Service—and he’s coming up tomorrow so that we can leave for Schenectady on Sat. In the afternoon Bonnie stained the deacons bench, and I did some surveying and calculating concerning the shelves Bonnie wants in the kitchen. Went to the building center shortly before 5:00—got advice, tomorrow materials; I fixed supper when I got home. We watched TV—CBS news. Early in the evening we called Paul + Marty; went to Patriquins to watch Ironsides; Kay informed me that Scobe is baptizing the Harris baby—which I had refused; came home about 10:30—called Don McGaw; bathed, OBLO c 12:25.

Friday, 9 October 1970

Θ with foam—up about 8:30?—we had breakfast, then all got into the car and went to the Building Center. I bought a beautiful level—$9—but it’s a good one. Also bought the odds and ends for making the kitchen shelves—plus pine—the plywood for the doors will have to come next week. Just as we were arriving home the mail-man arrived—so I looked through Life magazine + I.F. Stone. Then I got to work on the shelves—we ate in the carpentry mess about 12:30. For the whole afternoon Debbie either played in her room or slept—and I went ahead on the shelves. I took a break around mid-afternoon. Bonnie got home about 5:15—then I went about rounding up my work—when I finished we cleaned up the dining room. I got the planks in place—next week I’ll do the framework and mount the doors. We worked on getting the house in order until about 6:45—then I went to the train station. As usual, the train was late—about 7:10. Picked up Gary Wait, who is here for the weekend to house sit, cat sit and preach for me on Sunday. Gary had never been to our house before—and it has been a long time since we’ve seen him to visit for any length of time. After supper we conferred on the Sunday service and bulletin—but we also had a chance to visit before and after I did the bulletins; we started heading for bed about midnight. Bonnie and I bathed together—OBLO, c. 12:45.

Saturday, 10 October 1970

Up about 8:00—we were eager to get on the road, but several things had to be done. After breakfast, I shaved—2 days worth—then Gary and I went up to the garden. We wanted to bring some vegetables with us to Paul + Marty. Got several eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers. When Gary and I got home, we then walked down to the church—I wanted to show him where it was, the procedures for the service, etc. We then came home, a few minutes after 10:00. Then Bonnie and I busily began loading the car. We had wanted to get off by 10:30. But we didn’t quite make it. We didn’t leave Rockport until about 10:45. We made several stops on the way—for lunch at a lousy Howard Johnson’s—for a rest stop, for gas. We finally got to Paul and Marty’s place about 4:15. Their boat, the Abi Yoyo [??] is setting right outside their home—so the first thing we did was take a tour of it. Debbie seemed quite interested. We unloaded the car, relaxed—then set about fixing supper—I gave Marty some assistance. We ate about 5:45—a delicious chicken dish—with pecan pie for dessert. In the evening we viewed slides of their trip up the St. Lawrence River. Kay and Ellen came over—but everyone was rather tired, so it wasn’t a late night; OBLO by 10:30.

Sunday, 11 October 1970

Up about 6:45—hardly my idea of sleeping in on Sunday on vacation—but we wanted to get an early start to the lake—we left here just after 8:00—had to stop a couple of times to find a service station to get air in the tires. But we finally were whizzing on our way—the 5 of us in Paul’s car—in rain + drizzle. But by the time we arrived at the launching place (called “topaz”) near Lake Geo Village—the rain had stopped. There was still heavy overcast, fog. But we launched anyway—there was plenty of wind, which was rather chilly. Debbie seemed to enjoy the sailing, but the boat proved to be too small for someone so active. We sailed probably for more than 3 hours—we had lunch shortly after setting out. When we got back to the launch place, where we left the boat for overnight, we were pretty tired. Marty drove back to Schenectady—we piled into the house. Paul + I collapsed. Debbie was active since she’d slept in the car. Bonnie + Marty fixed supper. We ate about 5:30. The evening was spent “rotting our minds”—as Paul puts it, i.e., watching TV. We did this until about 9:00—then turned it off. Then we just sat around gabbing for a while—too pooped to do anything else—finally we headed for bed. OBLO, c. 10:55.

[1] Actually, Dr. Landrum Shettle— updated version of his book

David’s Diary, October 11, 1970

©2017 copyright owned and transcribed by David Madison and Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2017/10/19/davids-diary-october-8-1970/