Dad Hits 48 on Super Bowl Sunday which Came Late that Year and was Rather Uninteresting Anyway...
Sunday, February 5, 2006
[7:18am] Dad’s 48th birthday! It surprised Collette at times just how young her parents seemed. Wise, yes, but still fit, fun, and youthful. She and Carrie often commented on how much younger Dad seemed those days than he had ten years before, even.
At church, Grandpa Hobcoggin shook Dad’s hand.
“I hear you’re turning 30 today,” he laughed.
At home, there were gifts for Dad for his birthday after roast beef, baked potatoes in foil, and good vegetables. From OLeif and Collette there was a music book of Frank Sinatra songs, a pair of Spongebob Smartypants boxers from Grandma Combs, Frances, and Linnea (found by Linnea), a special discount certificate for Amazon from Carrie which he could use the whole year for all his orders, and then the present from Mom and the rest of the kids (an accompanying Puritan Prayers book) which had not yet arrived in the mail. There was also a card from Grandma Snicketts which read:
“I hope you’re enjoying your week in Australia.”
And then Dad told more about his Australian experience.
“You know what I had for breakfast every morning?” He asked, as the laughter died down from candle-blowing, “Honeycomb. They actually had pieces of honeycomb there which you poured out the honey from.”
“Cool!” They all agreed.
“You ate honey?” Mom seemed surprised.
“Well, I didn’t have any. Both Bills had honey on their pancakes. But I had syrup on mine.”
“You didn’t have any honey?” Mom seemed disappointed that he had missed the cultural experience of honeycomb.
“I don’t eat honey, Adel. But there were eggs benedict, scrambled…”
“Eggs benedict? What’s that?”
Dad ignored this question and moved on, “Bacon, Canadian bacon, thicker cut, which was very good.”
“Eeeew,” Carrie said. “I don’t like that kind.”
“And there was sausage,” Dad continued, “Fruit…”
“Yogurt,” Mom completed the list.
“And the trains were very clean,” Dad went on later, “They didn’t use to be. The whole city used to be relatively on the dirty side. But now, it’s very nice and clean. There aren’t even any trashcans around. When the Olympics came, they removed all the trashcans on the streets because of the possibility of bombs.”
“Was there any graffiti?” Someone asked.
“Not really. Just a little bit.”
And then there was a long discussion on graffiti in Italy, Hungary, and on bridges and train bridges.
“It’s especially funny,” Carrie laughed, “when you see them writing something and then they get cut off in the middle, like they fell off the bridge or something. Once someone wrote “Jesus Loves You,” and there was everything but the ‘U.’”
General laughter and the chatter continued as usual.
Later, Collette continued reading Job. She found it quite fascinating – the existence of “dragons” in the Old Testament. Even reference was made to a Dragon Spring in Nehemiah during the rebuilding of the temple. But one favorite passage (of many children in particular) was in Job, which sung of monsters, dinosaurs, and sea creatures:
“His sneezings flash forth light,
and his eyes are like the eyelids of
the dawn.
Out of his mouth go flaming torches;
as parks of fire leap forth.
Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,
as from a boiling pot and burning
rushes.
His breath kindles coals,
and a flame comes forth from his
mouth.”
– Job 41:18-21
Collette thought about Diana that day. She had not heard from her in several weeks and wondered how the situation was coming along with Shechem.
“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?”
– Job 38:16