Hospital Visit: I spent part of the day watching sports on television; a little soccer, a horse race or two, and the Olympics. The remote got a pretty good workout. But around 4:30 we headed out for a visit to a downtown hospital. Two days ago a good friend was operated on for a tumor in the ear. It was small but growing and the doctors had been watching it for a year. The operation was essentially brain surgery. I anticipated seeing Dan with a swollen head and some bruising. He looked remarkably better than that. Already the doctors are confident that he lost no control of facial musculature. And although he had been warned that he might lose his hearing on that side, he says that he thinks he can hear faintly in that ear. The only thing he has to overcome now is loss of balance. It’s still early, only 48 hours since the surgery, but he has been up and has walked twice. He has to be able to deal with stairs before they release him. He won’t go home for several days but things are looking very good. By the way, I should mention that I first met Dan when I was a junior high school librarian and he was a student who helped in the library one period a day. That was back in ‘62. We’ve been close friends ever since. I am very relieved that the operation has gone so well.