Day 4

Thursday, June 23, 2011
In which a very early morning is followed by attending the office…

OLeif’s 4:30 wake-up call inspired the can’t-get-it-out-of-my-head encore of Vacation Bible School’s Ten Commandment Boogie… o, the humanity.
Shortly after OLeif had left, Collette got a text.
Ran out of gas.
OLeif presumably walked home, left to fill up the gas can, and then returned shortly after five, wherein Collette woke Puck to make the drop-off. No one slept again after that.
It wasn’t until that evening, that Collette found out that he had hitchhiked back.
There was a brief attempt at sleeping when Collette got Puck to snuggle down in her bed at around 5:45. But Puck was ready to rock and roll on his fourth day straight of Vacation Bible School, and there was no way he was going back to sleep again…
Collette felt a tickle in her ear as Puck whispered in it…
“Yo yo yo!”
Pause.
Giggle.
“Yo yo yo!”
Pause.
Giggle.
Louder this time…
“Yo yo yo!”

There were a few numbers of frustrations at the office that day. Dishonest auto mechanics, stubborn copiers, and other nuisances, although Collette was not directly affected.
At 11:30, Puck marched over with a yellow balloon that read ‘Puck’, a little teary to leave his Mama behind. That 5:11 wake-up call was kicking in…

But by one o’clock, Collette had returned to the house to down some lunch and catch up on contract progression.
Puck came pounding up the stairs.
“Mama! Look what I found!”
The electric red Austrian crystal studded ring that Carrie-Bri had bought in Chicago. Collette had to prevent him from asking for another hand-out.
“Let’s see if it fits perfectly,” he said, pushing it onto Carrie’s thumb.
Then she put it on his finger.
“Will you be my honeybee?” she asked him.
And Earnest was causing trouble again. As usual…
“The other night there was all this racket coming from Linnea’s room,” Carrie said. “And Dad kept calling back, ‘Linnea! Keep it down in there!’ But he never got an answer, so finally he went back and he saw Earnest dash off Rose’s bed and run off. He had been tearing up stuff.”
Then the usual forum commenced in Mom’s and Dad’s room, involving the family who was at home, including Joe, who demonstrated the effect of BBs on Oakley’s, by video only.
“Why does this room always have to be the hub?” Dad asked.
As they made their departure shortly later, Puck told Dad that if his balloon went too high, Trooper would push it back down to him from Heaven.

Before returning home, they drove by the library for Puck to turn in his first reading sheet for the summer reading program.
“Excuse me,” he said to the thin girl, with sweet Methodist voice, glasses, and diamond ring behind the desk. “I’m all finished.”
“That’s wonderful! Let me see what I’ve got for you.”
Gregory the Terrible Eater. Puck selected that from the rolling cart of paperbacks. A Reading Rainbow selection.
Bowling coupons.
Sonic coupons for ice cream and slushes.

Home.
OLeif returned.
“Don’t let my balloon fly away, Daddy,” he said. “It’s compared [prepared] to fly away.”
Then he giant koala-ed his dad and gave him a back rub, because it was acting up again.
And at dinner, Puck was very intent on understanding his age.
“Yes, you’re four.”
“But Mama… Mama told me that I’m four somethin’, four twenty twenty four. Twenty twenty twenty five.”

The evening ended with the usual routines, a little ice cream, Rose calling about Puck’s clothing sizes so she could purchase some pretty awesome items at Gymboree’s massive sale, some arnica rubbed on OLeif’s shoulder, which was pretty achey again, and the discovery of two new words:

floccilation = fitful plucking of the bedclothes
floccinaucinihilipilification = setting at little or no value