All in a Day's Work
Monday, January 9, 2012
Collette’s day began with a cold little nose rubbing against hers.
“Mama,” said Puck seriously. “Soon I will be too old to give you ugga-muggas. When I will be married to Anneliese and live in Texas.”
He wasn’t letting go of that anytime soon, apparently. After a banana and glass of milk, with bread toasting, Puck watched the street out the window.
“Dad! There is icing on the car!” he proclaimed.
With OLeif gone at a comfortable eight o’clock, Collette and Puck resumed cleaning, organizing, and studies. Puck found his stethoscope and began inspecting the walls and other surfaces…
“I’m going to check the heartbeat of the floor, Mama,” he said importantly.
Chopped sweet potato into fries, three loads of laundry, rotating furniture, sweep-up, prep huge lunch plate for Puck, Coldplay. Ordering OLeif’s work and class schedule for the next four months of the spring semester. Plans were discussed for a possible performance for OLeif and Puck at the youth talent show and dinner fundraiser involving “Pop Goes the Weasel”; Puck was excited. A revelation out of the blue from young son at lunch…
“Mama, I’m gonna play for the Cardinals when I grow up,” he said with a dimpled grin. “I’ll invite’ya.”
He then reconvened with Quiet Hour in his yellow gliding rocker with a copy of Farscape, a glowstick pendant on a cord around his neck, and his puppy backpack clipped onto his back.
The afternoon arrived quickly with further studies and frying donuts the Daisy-Jean way, with refrigerated biscuit dough, rolled in cinnamon and sugar.
Pork steaks and mash for dinner. Collette read aloud the first six chapters of Revelation for Puck. Passages he riddled with questions. As they arrived at the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the pale horse of Death, Puck’s eyes grew wide…
“Mama! That was in the Albert Pujols song!”
He was referring to a Johnny Cash song about the Four Horsemen, which had been played after Lance Berkman’s walk-up song, also a Johnny Cash selection… The kid certainly had an interesting connective memory.
And Puck fell asleep to James Herriot’s Favorite Dog Stories on cassette tape.
The evening was best spent ordering textbooks for the spring semester, making decisions on Spanish language programs, and more John Adams.