A little more creek

Yali feverish in the morning... already scheduled for an annual physical reveals inner and outer ear infection delegated by cold virus bacteria... but he's not so miserable that he can't appreciate the fact that he's also now graduated to the 1st percentile in height...

So while he relaxes back at home with the rest of the boys... it's just Patience and me driving south to Mastodon State Park meeting Linnea-Irish and girls at the creek via spontaneous invitation for the morning...

It's a crowded rock beach but not so much that we can't enjoy an extensive exploration of rock and mineral and the occasional possible tooled stone object... maybe a little fossilized bone... as "G" in her little white-blonde curls squeals happily in the cold water and "A" finds many chunks of rock to show me “because now she thinks that every triangle rock is an arrowhead” Irish explains... while Patience assists between them and shares Lara Bars with "A"...

Skip home by one o'clock... pausing for just-filled prescriptions for Yali's poor ear... he looks up wearily from the king-sized bed where he's been camped out with his tablet near Oxbear working at his desk... administer antibiotic and ear drops... relief coming...

Storm's in the west... creeps in... kids sit with me outdoors as Oxbear leaves for a school board meeting followed by an elders meeting... rain blasts... thunder ripping lightning into turf someplace...

Some hours later... all kids warm and filled with crispy beef and baby potatoes... read “A Wrinkle in Time” to the young ones in their bunks until Yali falls asleep...

And Oxbear back shortly later calling me outside... enormous rainbow arcing full across the little field of our yard in a peach and honey glow...