Bunnies & Baseball
Friday, October 14, 2011
In which bunnyland increases and victories continue…
Upon arrival at 7:02 that morning…
Carrie announced that she would be fostering a ‘grandpa bunny’, an eight year-old lop whose owner, Louis Tecumseh’s aunt, was moving to Florida and could not bring him with her.
“Earnest has been needing a friend for awhile,” Carrie explained.
Meanwhile, the Honda dealership was not cooperating. Dad was getting rid of the Odyssey, as a result. And Carrie had chosen the perfect replacement for him and Mom: Mini Cooper convertible in cream with Moon River license plate.
Grandma Combs arrived with packs of M’nMs and Skittles and a Hallowe’en bag for Puck that she had made with foam pumpkin, googly eyes, and his name on the front with, inside, a package of retractable crayons and notebook, in time to join Mom, Francis (just returned from the guys’ breakfast), and Puck, for the Transportation Museum to see the trains.
A quick belly-laugh slap-fight between Dad and Joe while Carrie and Joe talked cars, Carrie listened to lectures, and Collette got to work, which also included reading up about Tamworth Castle, haunted by a nun who cursed her 25th great-grandfather, or something like that…
Shortly after one o’clock, Collette, escorted by Joe, returned with the adopted lop. Sort of golden-cinnamon in color. Earnest went on the attack when his cage was prematurely invaded. But soon things were sorted out, at least temporarily. And it didn’t take long for Carrie to decide on his name: Ketseh “Koo” Hooturah, the latter being the Arabic word for ‘gravity’… because he was so big.
And the wind continued, crazed, really.
The crew returned over four hours later, having taken four rides on the mini-train at the hand of a conductor who worked on the old Katy Trail line when he was 16. Grandma had also purchased a blinking railroad signal light, and a wind-up tin-type Rolls Royce for Puck, painted black, yellow, and red.
Cool winds, gray skies, tumble of leaves.
Into the evening…
Linnea had another game.
Francis began to put up the volleyball net for Sunday night; but first he burned the box in which it was packed… towering inferno. Then he showed Puck how to pump up a volleyball…
“This is how you give a volleyball a shot,” he explained.
And Carrie had a hair analysis appointment. The process of de-blueing and de-greening the undertones had officially begun. Zapping out the indigo, one method at a time. And who should be assisting at the hair hospital, but Samantha Bee. Just at 20. If anyone looked like she ought to be a Cards wife…
OLeif swung by to pick up Collette shortly before seven, and then to Puck who was just preparing to feast on Chick-fil-A.
Rose reviewed her nerve-wracking tests over breakfast with her Rick-Steves-like-boss from San Diego, with whom she later debated about which city was better: St. Louis or San Diego. Just after only four hours of sleep and continuing endless hours of study for certifications.
As they departed for home, Puck was already thinking to the next day…
“I want Nana food tomorrow, Mama.”
And then…
“Your family’s beautiful, Mama.”
And for movie night (subtracting, once again, Carrie and Magnus), OLeif’s selection arrived in the form of The Fighter, graced by packages of the typical Cheez-Its and Vanilla and Strawberry Sugar Wafer Cookies. [Collette had made it through five days of zero breads, sweets, chocolates, etc.]
Resulting inspiring observations of the ’90s…
“You know what I discovered just this year?” said Joe.
“That pastels will never go out of style?” asked OLeif.
“Exactly… Yeah, I just found out this year that hideabed wasn’t just a single word. It’s actually ‘hide-a-bed’.”
And, yes, there was another Cards game that night. Still in St. Louis, with a whopping score of seven to one, Cards victory. They now led the race. And yet the ever-illusive question still remained: would Albert Pujols remain in the city that loved him best…