Back to Old Rose
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Another 21st-er that day: Marigold Avonlea.
And Joseph the Blue-Eyed was engaged.
Carrie and Rose had been out for a hike on Monday night. They had brought Louis and Juliet Tecumseh with them.
“First, Louis and I sprinted up the big rock hill,” Carrie said. “Rose and Juliet came panting up behind us. Then we went for the hike. And it started getting really dark…”
They had one flashlight, and the trail wasn’t flat or narrow.
“Carrie, don’t turn on that flashlight,” said Louis. “You’ll ruin our night vision. Ow!”
They continued to march over rocks and roots and branches.
“Everyone OK back there?” Carrie called from the front.
“Ow!”
It was a hazardous journey.
Meanwhile, it was back to the studies for Rose. Collette thought they would give Dad’s office a try for a new sort of learning environment. Collette decided that maybe, in the end, it wasn’t the best idea.
“So the five Descriptive Statistics… Rose, put that down.”
“But now my face is protected.”
“Away, Rose.”
Rose removed the fencing mask and placed it back on the table.
“The first Descriptive Statistic is Percentile… Rose, close that.”
“Is this real?”
“Yes, Rose, that’s real fishing line. Put it back.”
Rose put it back in the drawer and picked up something else.
“A laser pointer!”
“Rose!”
The laser pointer was also returned.
Then Rose went on to talk about wanting to become scuba certified.
“You know Dad has his scuba diving license?”
“No, I didn’t realize that. Anyway, Percentiles…”
Rose put on Bing Crosby’s “Glow Worm”.
“Should I plant a tree in the rain forest for two dollars?” She asked. “Naw. Yay for global warming.”
It was time for a break.
Later, a more sensible Rose escaped from the brimstone afternoon by turning on “Aladdin” for herself and Linnea over lunch.
Trader Joe’s was visited in the afternoon for cinnamon crumpets, spinach pie, cherry cider, and other things.
The heat was intense, humid. Carrie preferred the dry heat of Sydney, although the day before she had still biked twelve miles and hiked nearly six, in temperatures over 100. It reached 103 that afternoon, a new record-breaker.
Back at the house, Carrie put a spinach pizza in the oven and tried to hunt down her piano CDs from the library.
As Collette and Puck left that evening, Mom and Francis walked them out to the car. Francis carried an empty cotton candy bag full of water to the driveway.
“It’s my water bomb! Bwahahaha! Ready for launching! One! Two! Three!”
Explosion!