Letter from Mom and Dad.
4:30 PM here. Most of the suspense I mentioned in my last letter to you is gone. Just finished reading two pieces of mail. A birthday card and letter from Mom and Dad ($50 Postal Money Order enclosed). Your June 7 letter.
I think I will type the letter from Mom and Dad:
Tue. 11:30 AM June 7, 2005
Dear Pete,
I have your letter of May 18 before me. I ordered the adapter and three decks of plastic cards from Choice. Hope you received them all. The 1-800 number I received was not the correct number (shoes)
Is something else from your letters that we failed to order - might have overlooked some request. Mom just cleaned up the floor upstairs (Dad's study) since you could not walk in without tripping on something. We put your letters in one place now.
We haven't heard from you in some time and are concerned that you are O.K. Please respond soon!
A $50 M.O. is enclosed for your birthday. Maybe you could have a little party with your pals.
How are you doing with your card games? We could send a book of card game. If we are allowed to let us know.
It is 80° and a cool breeze. A red robin has enjoyed our bird bath every morning, I change the water everyday.
We are shopping for our big weekly order and get 5% off for seniors. Will go swimming at the pool first. Went yesterday but had to leave the pool with the thundering and lightening.
We will be praying for you especially on your birthday.
Love,
Mother & Dad(Mom actually signed Mother this time; usually I get M & D)
I am handwriting a draft on the bunk now and will get typing after the 5:25 count. (The AC keeps kicking on and off for some reason, and it gets very humid in here within minutes, make. it hard to breathe.)
It is tough to stop the tears from falling as I write this. Not sure if I should bother commenting on the above letter but the "birthday package" and possible visit are off the wish list. The rest of the M&M's will be gone soon. [As a type at 6:25 PM, one bag already gone only two left.]
I will probably dig out one or two of the last letters from Mom and Dad. [Never mind that] It sucks the total lack of any thought from them. They know I can only shop once every two weeks and that the day I shop is Tuesday. I have certainly written about it enough.
They also know I am not getting any extra funds to speak of so that I would not have had "extra" to spend before receiving the birthday M.O. Getting $50 put on my account today is sort of useless in terms of having "a party with my pals." I know I am whining but I need to be able to put some of these feelings down on paper.
I have no outlet. I am not sure what to write to the female whose address you enclosed, but I guess the first contact should be short and sweet. Will let you know if I get an answer.
I guess the
Hamilton order for that C++ book got misplaced also. Good thing I keep copies of my request so all I have to do is retype it.
I note the closing line of their letter that they will be praying for me. No mention of me calling. I think the last time I called home was April 20. That was another of those unanswered question about how often they would like me to call.
Hell with it, you do not need to hear more. Just hope you might see some parental do's and don'ts. I know you are already a great parent, but you might see something that might help you at some point.
Let me deal with your letter. First of all thanks getting it out this week. As you know by now from my letter which was already on its way to you, I had a lot on my mind these last few days, and as I predicted, it would probably all be answered at the same time. I was thinking Friday but Thursday is actually a little better. I could get something into the mail tonight. [The fourth bag of M&M's is almost gone] The answers were not all bad, thanks in large part to the information included in your letter.
It is still an emotional overload, which is part of the problem. I am not going to answer my parents tonight, but when I do it will simply be to thank them for the $50.00 and their card. I will enclose a duplicate book order. [I did just send the thank you for the power adapter, so they will have heard from me to confirm I am still alive. I had hoped for a visit, I could discuss my future needs, but now will have to do it in letter form.
Damn, I just pissed Tom off with my
rapier sharp tongue. It is a wonder I do not have athlete's mouth, from putting foot in mouth so often.
I know you do not want to handle email for me but I would appreciate you forwarding a letter to both
Summer and
Annabel. Now that they know who I am, I would like to give them some direct feedback of what writing to me could be, in a positive way. I am not sure if I will get to that tonight.
I am going to have to type a letter for one of the other inmates. He wanted me to sell him a ribbon, but since I only have two left, I want to try and be able to wait another week or so before I have my parents order another six. Maybe I could try eight this time.
Count just cleared, let me set up the typewriter and get cracking.
I want you to know that your letters, complaints and all, are still the true bright spot in my existence and your last couple short but timely letters are really appreciated. Just like the joke about how to keep a moron in suspense. Tell you tomorrow. With the mail being our only communication link, I often am that moron in suspense.
I am going to type this up and see where I am time and emotion wise. See what else I fell like tackling tonight.
All typed as far as draft goes. Well it is just after 7 PM and let me review your letter for some additional comments.
Thanks for the birthday wishes.
I think you answered one of my blog questions. As I understand it, the way people comment now is more like an email message that only you can see. There is no space or option for people to leave comments that other readers can see. If that is correct that sounds like a good option for now, perhaps what we can do in the future is go ahead and reprint a comment with my response so that people still can get a sense of some interactivity between themselves and the blog. We could label the comment as one received from a reader and not even include their contact information if they did give any.
That is why you are the editor I defer to your judgment. I have the working copy of the passage and can use it in my personal correspondence if the need arises. Ha Ha.
I sent you the
vocabulary test just out of habit to show others that I really do things. You have already read the results of my score.
Would appreciate the hold up of the books I would really like to read what you send. Another of those personal challenges. By the way, if you do not have them all wrapped already, the last few shipments have been really scant on the romance stuff. I could use some of that if you have any available.
NY Times Food Section: All I can do is drool. But to be honest I really prefer to get the nuts and bolts type of information. They had some good features when they would do the how it works features but since the hardware stuff changes so fast, and it may be a while before that is an issue for me, I am okay with the little info they now post in the business section.
We saw an "airline" version of
Pulp Fiction since I think it was R. The TV we watch movies on here is a little fuzzy and tough to see much detail in those nighttime scenes.
Tonight's New York Philharmonic concert is all American.
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is coming up at some point.
Let me look at my working copies of my last letters to see what you missed. Just looked through my pile of stuff I have sent you, too many pages to check and not in the mood now. You are off the hook. You asked what else and I can not think of any burning issues right now. I think I will print and proof this and see what that leaves as far as time. Would like to get the letter out to now.
Now 9:25 PM and ready to print this page. Going to try to get a short letter out to the person whose name and address you sent me.
