08 OCT 25

Oxbear's knocking around the house on crutches and Yali's feeling sore all over from dragging the trampoline across the yard yesterday and a little “ick”... but they still scoop themselves out the door with bowls of eggs over easy pushed into their hands from Mama “for the road” down south to play therapy...

After Patience and I trip through math... volunteer shifts again... sorting spelling tests for First Graders under a wall board pinned with vibrant molten plastic Chihuly sculptures by the Sixth Graders... learn that the art teacher has submitted her two weeks' notice and already leaves Friday... the old school isn't living its best days...

At home for smorgasbord... Yali might be a little sick... Puck looks at him... “Eew”... makes Yali laugh... then Puck proceeds to brag about his amazing level of antibodies which he does every time he hears that a family member has succumbed to germs...

Pause to chat with Oxbear at his desk... he's accrued five and a half weeks of unused vacation time the past year... everyone's probably been working a little too hard...

We're back at the studio again... Puck calls me from home... “Yes?” // “Chicken noodle soup”... many of Puck's greetings are the name of some food craving in his brain...

And we're home again where Oxbear is making brave efforts on one foot to start a pot of rice on the stove... take over... while smacking at mosquitoes that somehow keep escaping into the indoors... serve up two batches of Mandarin orange chicken with sticky rice... though Puck is still fantasizing chicken noodle soup... winter days are coming...