Change-Up
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
In which OLeif attends all-day lectures and Collette and Puck prowl around for awhile…
OLeif had all-day lectures at seminary, given by a reverend from Milwaukee, so Collette and Puck decided to join him in the endeavor. Not in attending lectures, but in exploring the campus.
On the ride in, Puck was deep in thought as to what he would like OLeif to purchase him for breakfast. Chin in hand, he pondered this difficult question with a series of sighs, until he concluded that a cookie would be the best option.
“Where is Southifornia?” he asked shortly later.
“In your head,” Collette replied.
“No, it’s not. It’s far far FAR far FAR… away. And you can travel to it in a boat. And how do you get to the bottom of the Earth?”
When broaching subjects not entirely appropriate for discussion while in the public eye…
“I can’t speak about those things in [puglic] though, right, Mama? We’re in [puglic] now, right?” And immediately changing tunes to observe the sky… “Uh oh… I see darkness!”
McMuffins, McGriddles, and coffee for the boys in The Valley.
Traffic, and what appeared to be several stalks of cotton growing by the roadside in Ladue…
An early 8:00 arrival provided enough time for OLeif to read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to the Puckster before sliding off to six hours of lectures. Puck then managed to erase an ancient fragment of Hebrew on the green-board without hardly thinking and disband several straggling rubber-bands into a handful of parts before entering the local wildlife for the morning, which seemed a safer realm for the growing tot.
The swings were hit in chunks that morning and early afternoon: 409 pushes on one, 213 on another, and 329 on the third. Puck could not have been happier flying under skies that no month but the perfection of October could invite. Bulging grays hinting rain and rolling whites across spreads of spilling yellow and orange rustles.
They returned to the lounge, Puck in tussled hair, for a package of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies from the vending machine for the little man and a viewing of the 1967 Academy Award winning Dr. Dolittle. This set the chap up nicely for the remainder of the afternoon. That, and some amateur Foosball with several of the seminarians between classes.
When 3:15 had arrived, OLeif returned to pick them up from the cafeteria-lounge.
And on to a surprise visit to Straub’s.
It had been awhile. Not since the university days, while still in high school: around 2002. Chocolate-covered peanuts and premium French soda: pomegranate-blueberry for the boys.
After a trip to the library in the middle evening for the boys, OLeif conked before nine, after testing his smartphone’s face capture technique on Collette. Somehow, it mistook her for a full blood-moon.