Biathlon II

The morning of Puck’s school biathlon, the weather was fine. Fine enough for Puck to continue his current interest in scrounging through the dirt for treasure.

“Um, Oxbear … Puck is digging a hole in the front yard with a shovel.”

“Hmmm…”

I opened the door. “Puck, move that to the back yard, bud.”

About ten minutes later, I saw him dragging the garden hose out back. I realized after he had been soaking the ground for awhile that he was trying to loosen it for the shovel. About fifteen minutes after that, he knocked on the glass patio door and handed me a small pebble.

“Who knows,” he shrugged. “Could have been the pebble that Joseph threw.”

I guess we should brush up on that Bible knowledge…

When he came in for a shower, he was soaked in sweat.

The sky had grown over with a pretty consistent blanket of gray by the time we arrived at school for the races. Puck had taken this experience seriously, pushing in some extra biking that morning in preparation.

Most of the family joined the crowd: Gloria (just back from Tennessee), Dad, Mom, Carrie-Bri, Rose, and Francis.

Puck took his start at the back of the line, being one of the taller and bigger kids in his “heat”. And he pumped his way through the entire thing, peddling hard, then running hard to the finish line, just passing fellow classmate Mickey, who had a big grin on his face.

Sometime later, another medal hanging around his neck, I saw him sitting with his buddies on the curb with fat cups of Italian ice. Then he ran around in the field with Yali, clearly showing off for Violet, who participated in the running herself.

“You do think he’s showing off?” Gloria asked.

Right then, Puck tumbled a few somersaults on the field as Violet came running over.

“Oh, yes. Definitely.”

After a quick baseball chat with the headmaster, we hit the road. To end a very-proud-of-our-oldest-son afternoon, Oxbear ordered Pizza Hut for dinner.

CARDINALS:

St. Louis: 5-1 win against Brewers; Carpenter out with tight hip.

3 games up on Pittsburgh: 98 and 57; 7 games remaining.

Magic Number: 5.