Cold Days
Thursday, March 10, 2011
In which it is too cold and muddy to do much of anything but stay indoors…
As usual, Puck joined Collette for a snuggle that morning.
“Mama,” he said. “I slept for five whole minutes! I’m so hungry. What’s for dinner?”
The near twelve-hours that Puck had actually slept, had paid off once again, to a bright-eyed chubby little man who was, indeed, waiting anxiously with ravenous appetite to make up for that half-day of consuming nothing but air.
As Collette revived herself, Puck made penguin noises to himself.
“I will jump right out of Jesus’ clouds!” he declared, out of the blue.
Sometimes the thoughts which ran through his brain…
The wind was up.
Morning activities commenced.
Not surprisingly, Collette nearly fell over when she found the line of Chinese Emperors around nine o’clock in the morning. One of her last genealogical dreams realized.
Then she showed Puck the trailer for the new Pixar film: Cars 2.
They read books about an invisible fruit seller, digging a hole through the center of the earth, Paul Cézanne, and Violet the Pilot.
The lunch hour…
Puck was proudly balancing the container of Parmesan cheese on his head and pencils behind his ears.
And Donkey was still missing…
“Dear Jesus,” Puck prayed, “could you bring Donkey home safely? Right now, God, please? Could you do it?”
When Luke and Leia arrived, Puck immediately began reporting the current situation of any articles of interest. When Luke prepared to unplug the refrigerator…
“Look what’s the problem, Luke,” said Puck seriously. “The mice took the wire from the refrigerator.”
At 1:30 in the afternoon, the state-wide tornado drill commenced for five minutes.
“There’s a problem,” said Luke. “My uncle can’t hear the sirens. So will he get sucked up in a tornado?”
Collette explained.
Snack: chickadees crackers. Or ‘chippadees’, as Luke called them, or ‘chickens’, as Leia called them.
Into the evening…
Collette prepared OLeif’s dry waffle mix for the following afternoon when the kids were over.
OLeif was long overdue for a haircut again. But it never quite happened. Collette lacked inspiration.
And Collette continued her diet limited entirely to: meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, butter, and fruit. She never thought there would come a point in her life when she would be sick of cheese. That time had now come.
“Cheeeeeeeese, Gromit!”
— Wallace