12 OCT 25

Yali leaving Sunday School in his new black suit which he now wears to help Oxbear “elder” at the early service... pulls two quarters from his jacket pocket... slaps them into his friend's hand... his friend confirms payment and is pleased... Yali's two thousand dollar betting debt from last Sunday School is now paid off...

Driving home he slips a black velvet bag from another pocket and hands it to me... “What's this? Uh... Yali... why is all my gold-ish jewelry in here? And... are those all the beads from the necklace I wore at my wedding?” // “Don't worry... the necklace was already broken Mom..." then adds as if this should clarify everything... "I'm in the CIA”...

Partially to allow Mama maybe an hour of quiet... maybe... that early afternoon following lunch... Oxbear walks the two no-longer-tots down to the seed festival at the neighborhood chapel... they later return with a small box of tomatoes and a large pumpkin...

Then out to the Big House for another conversation-smorgasbord while cousins grub through packs of novelty erasers and packs of Play-dough and the sandbox and “Grandma” serves pumpkin lattes while Oxbear helps build a cardboard superhero gauntlet for young T...

Home again where Puck is ready to discuss and/or intensely argue about AI superintelligence and cultural flood myths and the problem of evil til nearly dusk...

...while Patience skips in and out several times for plates of grilled sandwiches throughout another episode of Nelly and Percival in “Little House on the Prairie”...

...to which Yali eventually thunders at her... “STOP WATCHING THE SAME EPISODE OVER AND OVER AGAIN PATIENCE!”