30 NOV 25
Some hours into the morning post-church I find myself with the boys completely rearranging Puck's bedroom at his personal request... he's tired of sleeping on an army cot...
During this continued remodel Yali and I find ourselves collecting frigid cinderblocks onto a flatbed cart at Home Depot... as Yali detours to check out the spray paint and grabs himself a snack-sized BBQ Lay's on the way out...
And it's the usual inching yawn of a morning up at the Oireachtas for Oxbear and Patience... who tells me later that her teacher told her she danced “so well she was almost crying”...
Afternoon plunges Yali back into the snow under white sun in a blue sky... all the usual roaring growls and battle cries from the yard...
While Patience suddenly video calls me in a quick batch of confused and demoralized tears closing out a hard-worked and frustrating year in competitive Irish dance... “I don't understand it”... her little hand tries to brush the tears away but a few more keep choking out...
After the boys sympathetically listen to their sister's somewhat inexplicable results...
...Yali leads me to the hall bathroom with an announcement... “Mom... I've changed my mind and I don't think we should ever sell this house now” // “Why not?” // “Because...” **solemnly** “...no one would want to buy it after they see this...” **gestures his hand around the bathroom and hallway... all walls now christened in a fine mist of fake blood** “They would think there had been a murder here”...
It's another icy wind that evening as the boys share chocolate peppermint shakes from Freddy's while Yali and I switch on The Return of the King...
And Oxbear and Patience start the long drive home intending to crawl in somewhere past midnight...
For grins : partial Googling record of November...
- What are neodymium magnets?
- What is enochlophobia?
- Who won the World Series this year?
- Do the Ozarks technically include any mountain ranges?
- Moose sounds
- History of Byrnes Mill
- Are Dorothy's ruby slippers trademarked?
- Why are the flags at half mast?
- What do Germans call chips?
- Dr. Sundance O. Bilson's (Australia) braids in the fabric of space
- Map of Coldwater Creek
- Images of 19th century poplin dresses
- How are the Northern Lights different from the Southern Lights?
- When did the first police force originate?
- What is gabagool?
- Oldest university in the world?
- Is there a “bee season” in California?
- What did Martin Luther believe was the unforgivable sin?
- Is John Allen Chau possibly still alive?
- Do clownfish eat their own eggs?
- Official definition of “transmogrify”
- Is Robert Irwin's mom American?
- Could a poison dart frog survive in the wild in the Midwest?
- What are the ingredients in pemmican?
- Origin of the soap opera