31 JAN 26

Oxbear returns from an early business meeting with a friend to scoop Yali off to the Derby...

...while Patience and I grab some hot breakfast sandwiches and wind the opposite direction to the studio for Patience's three hours of dance... she hops out in about a 1 degree windchill as I then hustle back west towards Yali's festivities...

Arrive for the final race where Oxbear and Theodore are watching two rows back... as Yali's car thunders down the track for another win... the top spaces are separated sometimes by only thousandths...

While final scores are being tabulated... the five present Arrow of Lights are called up front to provide advice to the younger Scouts for future derbies... as the microphone is passed down the row to Yali he pauses to think then says quickly... “Be brave”... the audience approves...

Then the long list of trophies is awarded one by one by one until the top three of the whole pack are announced and in third place is Mister Yali... holding his shiny award for a photo with friends who will all gather for Districts again next month...

Yali's had a busy week... back home with a sack of McDonald's cheeseburgers... he pauses to show me the sleeve of the long-sleeved tee he's wearing underneath his Scout shirt... “Do you know which shirt this is?” he asks solemnly... “It's Puck's old shirt he gave me... I miss him...”

Half an hour later he once again swings on his green velvety elvish cape for the movie theaters... it's another director's cut this time of “The Two Towers” for the boys...

...while I collect Patience from the studio for an also-thrilling afternoon of dishes and clutter-cleaning...