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Carrie-Bri opened the bag of Double Bubble I had brought over that morning. She’s a bit of a connoisseur.

“Aw, man. It’s fresh,” she grinned. “I have to age it a little while.”

This happened shortly after Mom had left on a road trip out east with Mrs. O, and Carrie and I had completed a small adventure of our own that morning.

On our way back from downtown we saw him – a sleek gray tabby on the side of the road, staring through the schoolyard fence like he was lost. We detoured into the school parking lot and Carrie walked off to get him.

A few minutes later we were at the vet getting him scanned for a microchip. Nothing. We texted Rose: want him?

“Yup. Keep him. … I’ll pick him up tonight.”

While this new addition to the already-feline-trio settled himself into Francis’ room for the afternoon, Snuggles pawed at the mashed potato bowl from Carrie’s lunch. Weirdo.

After I picked Puck up from school, he ran outside with eight neighbor kids at the Big House. He was out there for some time. And when I called him in for homework, I realized it was maybe a few minutes too late. His shoes were caked in mud, and his clothes were smeared with it. Apparently the mountain of dirt removed from the gaping hole for the neighbor’s swimming pool proved too tempting for the gaggle of boys out there. It was climbed.

Later, Puck had another confession for me.

“Mom? You know that sign in Grandma’s and Grandpa’s neighborhood, the sign for the neighborhood? Well, all of us boys vandalized it with peaches.”

“What?”

“Peaches from the trees.”

“You mean persimmons?”

“Yes … but we cleaned it off when we were done.”

We talked.

NLCS Game 4

St. Louis Cardinals @ San Francisco Giants

7:00 pm

Miscues. Many miscues. Funny how those things bite so much harder in October. But these guys eat tough for breakfast. As the Koreans would say: “Fighting!”

Cardinals: 1

Giants: 3