59 : A Little Bit of Everything
“I’m going to get up at 6:30 Saturday morning and trench that gutter on the side of the house,” Oxbear told me earlier in the week. “Before the sun gets going.”
I think we both knew that nine o’clock was more like it. By that time, Theodore showed up after visiting Rocket out at the barn. And they spent about three hours or so digging out that trench. One step closer to selling the house.
Meanwhile, Yali and I had our first Spanish lesson out in St. Peters. About time to finally take the whole language-learning seriously. And what better way than at the hands of a native Puerto Rican, also a fellow church member. We spent an hour looking through flashcards, discussing accents, and making a plan. Yali had fun tossing the cards around.
When we returned, Puck had already earned his keep by washing three cars: Theodore’s truck, Oxbear’s Mazda, and Gloria’s Mazda, after she had joined the party to make a late breakfast for the men. After Puck’s scrubbing was completed, he suggested payment in the form of one dollar per car. Theodore had something a little more generous in mind.
“Ever had a five dollar bill before?” he apparently asked him.
“I’ve never had a five dollar before.”
“What about a ten?”
“I’ve never had a ten dollar before!”
Puck slipped it in his wallet for safekeeping.
Then it was Lowe’s. Paint, brushes, rollers, etc. While Oxbear ordered the paint – a bland “Churchill Hotel Ecru” to cover up nine years of colors in a more “circus-y” template – the boys looked over paint swatches for their future new bedroom. They waffled back and forth between a metallic gold and a shocking parrot green. But then…
“MOM! Yali and I can make our room look like FIRE! Here, buddy! You take this yellow, and I’ll take this orange!”
Once the paint was returned to the house, we had just a few minutes to kill before hitting the movie theater for “Finding Dory”. It’s been tradition for us to watch every Pixar movie in theaters, and this was already Yali’s third visit. So while they stuffed themselves to the gills on buttered popcorn and cold lemonade, they also guffawed through the entire film. By the end, Yali sat reclined in his brother’s lap, trying to laugh as loud as Puck at whatever funny business hit the screen. Like brother, like brother.