Ch. 173; Vol. 10
Bacon, biscuits, eggs, avocados, cherry tomatoes…
Gloria was ready to serve four and a half hungry men, and myself, on a muggy, drizzly Saturday morning. Claus and Rupert were making plans for St. Louis sight-seeing prior to Game #2. More of the Texan crew called in via Skype to join the family gathering before the sausages and orange juice were cleared. And a few friendly jabs either way…
“Man, you’re just rubbing it in, aren’t you?” Claus chuckled, when Puck and I walked in wearing Cardinal red. “You know, back when the Rangers moved from Washington in ’72, we didn’t have any of those t-shirts. We had to write in marker on white shirts instead.”
“The Cardinals must sell more t-shirts than almost anybody,” Rupert grinned. “Everyone wears red here.”
“I’m a little embarrassed, Mom,” Puck told me as he pulled me out to the deck and down to the tree swing.
He might possibly be the most social child I have ever met, but it still sometimes depends on his mood. Of course by the time the morning concluded, he was giggling with Rupert over a stacking shapes game…
“Could you get me some glue?” Puck asked him, to keep the wobbly tower straight.
Theodore pulled out a fancy paper airplane book for Puck from Kitty featuring papers printed in deep space, ancient maps, and other cool stuff that a six year-old boy would love to have. This was a new idea. Paper airplanes with pictures on them.
“But I’m not going to make one with the map,” Puck insisted, showing it to Rupert. “Could you find out where we are on this?”
There were also mosquito repellent coil bracelets. And a STL pullover for The Bear from Gloria, who – to date – had currently owned no Cardinals merchandise.
Rupert and his wife were travelers. So he pulled out the iPad to scale through photos from Utah and Maui.
After a family photo, and the gentlemen had packed up…
“Where’s the comment card on the desk?” Claus teased…
Gloria drove with her brother and nephew to the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Kirkwood after Rupert [who lives in Denver] shared some parting words for Puck…
“Now, Puck, you make sure you tell your mom and dad that Colorado is a great place to visit, ok?”
Claus and Rupert are the kind of family you wish lived nearby. Sort of like seeing the Combs family every month or two.
Theodore and The Bear picked up Papa Murphy’s, including a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough. Puck dug into a bowl of sweet strawberries, a 1926 World Series stein of child-appropriate water, and – yes – Minecraft.
Thunder.
Just a few tiny spots on the radar, but nothing to keep the gentlemen from their 6:15 game yet..
The Bear worked off another headache while Puck laughed through some Pixar and Theodore wrote up some paperwork before a nap. Casual Saturdays are sort of fun.
Because Izzy had just turned 20 on Friday, the original plan had been to celebrate his birthday. But he was driving up from Nashville to join Claus and Rupert at the game, so the celebration – with Jacob’s – would have to wait for another Saturday.
I sat on the deck in the agitated wind and rustling green, perpetual thunder rocketing off someplace in the north. A little light mammatus. Morning dove in the old oak.
“You want to play UNO now, Puck?” I asked later.
“No…”
“His default is to say ‘no’ to anything these days, if it wasn’t his idea,” I explained to The Bear.
“I don’t say no to bacon! See, Mom? You don’t got no proof!”
“’Don’t got no proof?’ What? Were you born in the sticks?”
Theodore and The Bear took turns playing dodgeball with Puck against the garage. Fun times. Fun ideas.
One. Big. Sweaty. Mess.
Gloria returned with peppery salami from lunch on The Hill after the house tour…
“I felt like you today, Collette!” she said with a grin.
After Puck somehow cut his tongue trying to climb the fence – ? – I plunked him in the shower for the twice-weekly Circus Maximus.
Dinner was the salami with sharp white cheddar, cracker pepper and olive oil Triscuits, avocados, and strawberry shortcake with fresh homemade whipped cream.
