20 OCT 25
Steady thumping of weights from Puck's room that morning...
...while Patience gladly takes a break from “order of operations”... as she later explains to her Aunt Irish... “I already know everything I need to know in math... I know what five times five is"... and so she takes that happy math-break to hang out with young R for a few hours in St. Chuck and the high beautiful wind of mid-October...
...while Yali... who is busy writing a movie script in Creative Writing class... also pauses...
...but to watch Puck distract himself from running two miles by scrubbing down my antique silver-plated dresser box with toothpaste to return its shine... while he advises Yali with simple life lessons such as... “Don't be an idiot... that's my life philosophy...”
Patience is returned in the afternoon to avoid even further math while listening to Irish and myself chat at her car outside our house where she has just delivered a discarded homemade cardboard Minecraft creeper costume to Yali...
While we discuss the government shut-down and how it's affected their family... the smell of burning paper coasts over to us from the side yard... Yali is holding a flame torch above the fire pit... “Oh... a book burning” Irish observes... // “That looks like his writing book...” Patience speculates... // “Huh... wonder why I never tried that one when I was a kid...”
Before Irish leaves... Yali bursts out the front door... “MOM! I WAS RECREATING A BAD AMAZON DELIVERY JOB AND THERE ARE SMASHED LIGHTBULBS ALL OVER THE BASEMENT FLOOR!” **then as if to assuage any potential trouble he might have just walked himself into** “Don't worry Mom... they were already burnt out”...
After Yali cleans up the glass and it is confirmed that the book burning was not in fact his writing book... he gets busy with his Minecraft box costume...
It's late afternoon and Patience is practicing dance in the living room to Rick Astley... occasionally banshee-wailing along to it... “PATIENCE!” Yali laughs... “You sound like a muppet!”
Send them out to play in a high wind and low burning colors...
Mail delivery of eBay calculus textbook and pack of menthol gum from an Indian minimart in London... throw some beef and spices together for dinner... and “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” on the television for Yali and Patience...
...while trying to calm Patience out of running around the house in frantic circles attempting to alleviate a foot cramp... “OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!”...
Puck emerges to target practice Nerf missiles on both siblings while Yali is busy hot-gluing cardboard... “PUCK! STOP THAT!” he thunders... which only makes Puck grin at the success of his shenanigans... he then turns attentions to Patience... which isn't as fun of course because she isn't as annoyed by it... as Yali yells at the hot glue for burning his fingers...
Somehow by the end of this foam darts and hot glue encounter... my new black moss jar candle and one of my last little ceramic ice cream bowls are both cracked into pieces on the floor as Oxbear escorts Yali to fencing class...
And while I step outside for less than sixty seconds... the dog scarfs all remaining beef off Puck's dinner plate...