Cat Hair
As Carrie-Bri pointed out later that Sunday afternoon, it felt a little like we had skipped over October and landed right in November. The mornings were chill now. I could feel it seeping into the bones when I landed myself in the church nursery for two and a half hours that morning, keeping an eye on three kids, solo.
After an internationally missions-themed lunch following the service, Puck had some thoughts about digital watches on the drive back to the Big House. We had discussed it off and on for the past few weeks.
“I think it’s time for you to have one,” Oxbear agreed. “We’ll look at options and order one this afternoon.”
“Okay, Dad. But could it be one of my own choosing?”
The one of his own choosing ended up being a large black one with orange accents, of course.
It was still three days before Linnea-Irish’s 18th birthday, but since the play-offs were coming, we decided to burn this particular Sunday afternoon on Linnea’s excursion of choice: walking down 5th Street in Old St. Charles.
Riverside Sweets. It’s been there for as long as I can remember. Some of the kids browsed the buckets of ice cream. Others, the fudge. But it wasn’t the sugar that caught Puck’s eye. It was the Halloween display. This kid is a sucker for Halloween decorations; takes after his grandma. So when he held up a little corked orange ceramic jar – also his favorite color – that read “Cat Hair”, I knew it would be difficult convincing him to save his pennies for something more … practical?
“PLEASE, MOM!”
I’m not one for random kid-purchases. Except for those ping-pong balls the other day. So it didn’t bother me too much when Oxbear gave the “thumbs up”. Since I’ve deprived him of holiday decorations throughout the years – except for Christmas; and a bowl of green glass shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day – I figured there wasn’t too much harm.
As Puck walked out of the shop a happy man, I’m pretty sure he was about 50% convinced there was real black Halloween cat hair inside that jar.
CARDINALS:
Atlanta: Game One: shut-out loss.
Atlanta: Game Two: shut-out loss sweep; regular season concluded.