19 AUG 25

In yet another “dangerous heat” day for St. Louis to the choirs of surging cicada...

...kids are asking for pancakes... so Patience begins mixing batter while Yali eagerly stands at the island waiting for the first stack... about half an hour later all batter has been griddled and consumed in crunchy buttery edges dipped in maple-y syrup...

...followed by a scalp shearing for Yali... piles and piles of hair so black it has a little blue shimmer to it accumulating on the bathroom tile... he is very pleased with the results... “I look like a superhero!”...

...followed by Japanese TV and intense costume modifications and mugs of tea and a nose bleed for Yali...

It's afternoon and Puck is back in Produce...

...shortly before the rest of us drive south towards Manchester for a visitation for the elderly mother of Patience's former First Grade teacher... Yali and Patience listen carefully about Miss R's mom who contracted polio as a baby and how she became a nurse when she grew up... then chat with Mrs. P about her trip to Germany that summer to visit her old neighbors who inherited a farm outside Frankfurt...

Back again for an hour to plate dinner... before scooting Patience to the studio – while Oxbear calls in from Colorado Springs – and grabbing Puck from work...

As the boys and I run an errand that may or may not have included a fat cheeseburger... we land behind a car with Ontario plates... which inspires Puck to provide detailed opinions on the country of Canada and how he's glad he doesn't live in a place that fines someone $25,000 for walking into the woods...