Charging
Huge crashes of thunder before midnight. Wasn’t expecting it; a little shocking, it was so loud.
But by morning the evidence of storm had basically been erased.
Puck watched El Oso drive to work with a flood of rainwater sloshing out of the bed of his truck. A little jumping up and down with excitement; something thrilling about watching cascades of water fall out of places they aren’t supposed to be, I guess.
Quiet Hour is still rarely quiet these days. Equilibrium can’t always be fully met. This time, it was all about plastic grocery bags. Coupled with that whole cardboard box of shopping-bags-packing-material from Addis, Puck had put them all to good use.
“CAN I HAVE THE PLASTIC BAGS TO MAKE A BAG FORT?”
“Why…?”
“I’m going to bathe in them!”
Granted, he didn’t mean actual water-in-the-the tub style. Just mounds of plastic bags on the bunk bed. I gave permission, mostly because I just didn’t really feel like arguing about plastic grocery bags during the one supposed hour of quiet during the day.
A few minutes later I heard him talking documentary-style from his room. “Hundreds of bags, bags of all kinds. Bags, bags, bags. Watch the video about bags; it’s really cool. Bags are cool.”
Fortunately he didn’t ask me for an opinion on the subject.
One nice thing about having neighbor kids run in and out all afternoon is I have a little more time to do other things while they are all amusing each other, like practice Spanish. Still almost incapable of rolling the r’s. About time I get this thing going.
Two rounds of Anna and Eddie later, and Puck was ready for a hot shower and a seven-minute video of his latest covet:
“Mom! You’ve GOT to see this! The UEV-440 OFF-ROAD CAMPER! IT’S AMAZING! Once (my baby brudder) comes home, can we get it?”
As El Oso explained to him later, “Well. If we come across a ton of extra money – and I’m not expecting to do that – and we spontaneously pick up rugged off-road camping in Australia, I don’t see how we can’t get one.”
Confused just enough to not be disappointed.
El Oso came home with another grocery bag: almond thins and shredded shiitake. Diets are basically disgusting.
I didn’t tell him that, of course.