15 OCT 25
Oxbear's off work preparing for his flight to Quito the next morning...
...while Puck is gathering together the pieces of his car... the whole drive-shaft and disassembly in a large Tupperware to deliver to a mechanic in Lemay for further analysis and many hundreds of dollars...
An hour later I'm sorting papers for First Grade at a table in the common area while around the corner the whole art room spontaneously begins screaming over the discovery of an eight-legged intruder... “SPIDER! SPIDER!” // “GET IT! GET IT!” // “SQUISH IT!” // “SOMEBODY SQUISH IIIIIIIIT!”... someone must have squished it because a few moments later the room is thundering in applause...
Back home Puck is marching up the stairs in a full sweat from another work-out chugging out of his Army National Guard issued water bottle... Patience notes this and asks him... “Wor-kin' hard or hardly wor-kin'?”... Puck tries not to smile too much over this and asks about lunch...
Patience and I are already plating various pastas and leftover roast... and a loaf of pumpkin bread is ready for the oven... another Puck-request... pack him up now with all the good stuff he won't get “in Army” come winter...
While I'm also checking out local snake species for Yali and calling back the dentist and also helping Yali find foam scraps for his superhero body armor he's been crafting together with hot glue and buckles for the past couple of days...
...and Puck is in his room commenting on the fatness of his cat... sitting him up like a fat golden bear in his own fat rolls...
Then Oxbear calls from the road... Ecuador has been canceled... car bomb in the city where he was meant to visit all those kids... sadly re-route...
So while Oxbear and Yali leave for worms for the snake and a fishing license at Bass Pro...
...it's Puck to work... “Bye skinny green bullfrog!” Patience caws at him from the backseat of the car... he pretends not to hear this...
...and then Patience to the studio for the early evening... as she dumps her Stanley thermos of ice water all over my handmade book bag of titles featuring a variety of topics from miracles to string theory...
We return a couple of hours later where Yali has apparently decided to now become a cowboy... he's twirling a toy pistol under a straw cowboy hat and looking very very cool as he always does... “Move over random citizen!” he announces to his sister...
...while I prep two pans of chicken thighs for the oven...
...and Oxbear switches on Yali's first western with all the good guys and all the bad guys... he's intrigued...
It's past dark again and Puck is back from work waiting in the kitchen for his dinner plate chomping into a pale bar of something that looks a little like soap... “What is that?” // “Fudge from the pocket of your car door...” // “What” // “From when I was at the Renaissance fair...” // “What? Yuck! Why are you eating that?” // **the young soldier just laughs** “It's fine... it's fine...” **chomp chomp chomp... thinking...** “Does fudge need to be refrigerated?”