05 SEP 25

A soft pop-pop-pop from the roof before seven that morning suggests that workers have arrived to finally begin replacing the scalp of this old house and all the damage from Mr. Timber back in the spring...

Kids are already a splatter of giggles crawling around on us before exiting the blankets...

Up to prepare breakfast as the walls begin to shake with louder BAM-BAM-BAM!s...

“Yali... aren't you going to eat this happy speckled guy?” I push one of the teetering bananas towards him from the fruit bowl... he looks at me solemnly... “I can't... he looks like a manatee... I can't eat manatees... it's illegal”...

The BAM-BAM-BAM!s and rat-tat-tat-tat-tat's are becoming so loud by eight o'clock that it's difficult for my two lightly hard-of-hearing children to fully comprehend me during math class...

And the dog is so shaken by the explosive sound that she's in a bit of a quiet panic... until the kids offer her a fat spoonful of peanut butter and she quickly emerges from her cower...

It's already mid-afternoon... kids are done with studies... rain begins to fall as the crew outdoors packs up all their equipment...

...Puck hits the treadmill and chats with his cat before leaving for J's... “Hello stupid kitty...” **affectionately to the fuzzy beast** “you are so stupid”...

Back to the studio for a private lesson in a cooling gray world... Chinese take-out in a mug with chopsticks in the van... Friday nights... living large...