Ch. 202; Vol. 10
Puck’s suspenders were a hit at church.
I’m not much for fashion shows during a worship service, but it was pretty clear that trousers-with-suspenders were tops on the “kids look cute in this” list. Especially when he goes tearing down the side aisle to Children’s Church – we indulged him – in his red chucks with all abandon.
That was after he drew more spy cameras on the bulletin steeple.
Anyway, those suspender straps make good handlebars, nice emergency breaks. I snatched him out of pedestrian traffic a few times.
Especially near the tray of poppyseed cake.
Or the hot chocolate…
Why do they proffer these child entrapments?
So…
Sunburn.
I was asking for it, I guess. When Rose told me she bought two tickets with the Padres in town – and then skipped that town for two weeks of business in San Diego – Carrie joined me about ten rows back behind the visiting dugout.
Fortunately for both of us, the sun stayed behind pale gray clouds for most of the game. But…
…not enough for me to escape red legs, brown arms, and pink cheeks.
Good game; sweet seats; crafty carrying on, and 47.4 ounces of cool clear water to split.
And I didn’t embarrass Carrie.
[That was the first question Lucia asked me when she walked through the door four hours later.]
Back on the ranch…
Lecture – Mom with Linnea in Joe’s room.
Lecture – Dad with Francis in the laundry room.
I had already given Francis another lecture in the basement…
Sometimes you run out of rooms in which to deliver lectures.
Francis was being advised on fireworks and their ways…
“You’ve got about a 50/50 percent chance of blowing yourself up if you try that,” Dad warned him before he walked out the door.
“That may be the last time you see your grandson,” Mom told Grandma, resting on the couch.
“Well, I hope not,” Grandma chuckled.
“I bet you wouldn’t go blow stuff up if Grandma told you not to go,” Mom went on.
“Well…”
“Tell him, Grandma.”
“Well,” Grandma reasoned, “that’s obvious. You shouldn’t blow stuff up.”
“Yeah, Dad,” Francis grinned. “Did you listen to your mom when you blew up that sewer lid?”
We like to remind Dad about his high school years.
So while Francis went off to set things on fire, apparently, Mom and I caught up on the porch before Carrie and I schooled Linnea on being 15.
No one was in trouble, really. That’s just sort of what happens in a large family. The younger ones all have about four or five parents.
At least.
Meanwhile, Puck was parading his talents across the street: about ten “tree stories” high in an old pine…
“I WANT TO SEE IF I CAN FIND A BUTTON LIKE SUN DID!”
A button.
I remember those days. Back when Joe and Rose believed whatever Carrie told them, including the “fact” that other worlds could be accessed at the top of every tree.
With a button…
If you had been to Genius School…
And of course Carrie, had been to Genius School.
That genius also knew how to make a good bacon-almond-cream dip from scratch.
