Dig In
Friday, June 8, 2012
Puck examined his t-shirt options for the day. The emerald green “If you can read this, make me a sandwich” was tempting…
“Should I wear this since it’s almost burger day?” he asked, holding it up to Collette.
“What’s burger day?” Collette asked.
“I don’t know…”
“Sounds reasonable to me,” OLeif called from the other room.
Two minutes later the kid was not just wearing the green shirt. He had also donned batting helmet, Superman cape, superhero mask, and plastic sword with track pants and flip-flops.
Everyday wardrobe.
OLeif dropped Collette and Puck off at the Silverspoon’s where Gloria and Kitts were leaving for Ohio to witness Kitts’ graduation on Sunday.
Puck stuffed himself through a large wedge of breakfast casserole and two ripe summer peaches. The kid could pack it. Then dove in to constructing trains and bridges in the living room alongside a giant marble collection, and the funnies. To split the hours, he occasionally walked over to Snickers and carefully pet the soft coat…
“Yeah,” he said. “Tigger and Snickers were married a long time ago…”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. If there’s fur all over the house, that means there were babies. So they were married a long time ago.”
Genealogies never really wrapped up… OLeif’s 10th great-grandfather was one of the first persons to bring horses to America, and was also exiled to America by Lord Cromwell for attempting to crown himself King of Ireland. That led into French kings on the throne in Jerusalem, and an uninterrupted name-line into the early 600’s. OLeif’s tree was undoubtedly going to be another monster.
Puck took down half a large pork steak with provolone and sourdough during lunch. Train construction was obviously an exhausting endeavor.
He was never short of energy. After lunch, he ran into the backyard to sling the tree swing around the giant trunk.
“Careful…” Collette warned, as the swing crashed through warm air.
Thunk.
“Don’t worry,” Puck assured her. “I’m as careful as pie.”
He went on to explain the techniques of swing-tossing.
More peaches and slices of cucumber stuffed down, for a mid-afternoon snack, everything sculpted into Texas-auction-style dishes, as Puck whiled away the hours with wood blocks on the deck by a sprawling Snickers above where Izzy had hacked out all the Rose of Sharon (more a South Pacific-looking flower) under the kitchen windows. Renovations were just around the corner. Somewhere in this freshly ripped desert, the dirt-stained cheeks called up to the deck that he was “just planting a tree”. And some intense gymnastics, with a running start, repetitively somersaulting clean over a large rubber ball in the grass.
Puck took his first shower.
And Joe texted in – out hiking The Tooth.
For dinner, Puck tucked away more pork steak and veg, in which OLeif also participated with slices of dark red tomatoes.
With the arrival of movie night, Bing rejoined the cast for quirky archaeologist Leslie Howard and the young dad from “Marry Poppins” in “Pimpernel Smith”.
Rose crashed in late from work grappling two heavy desktop monitors and the knowledge that she had to return to the office once the movie was finished. IT life was demanding.
Collette served her a plate of dinner, which she only bird-picked…
“Cucumbers?” she asked, hesitantly.
“Eat them,” Collette commanded.
“But they look like eyeballs.”
Attention was briefly returned to the film, until Rose complained of something in her eye…
“It’s guilt,” OLeif suggested.
When Carrie texted Rose to tell her she’d be in trouble if she didn’t eat dinner, Rose grinned proudly at herself and texted back…
“I eat trouble for breakfast.”
Back again to the film – a ridiculously enormous oil painting of nude Renaissance figures plastered the wall of the German commander’s office. Rose, of course, was laughing, something about “violated by that guy’s butt”…
“Well, what would you say if your boss had something like that in his office?’ she protested.
“I’d say,” replied OLeif, “’What’s the deal? This building was built in ’81. Where’d you get that?’”
The film was surprisingly funny for all present, including the noted level of war propaganda and amazing number of one-liners.