February 10th, 2025

Dreams... digging through thin strata of archaeological layers... ancient un-popped popcorn kernels in the bright orange layer...

Yali and Patience are at the card table... cowboy music accompanying their math flashcards review... but they're distracted, imagining an invention together : a spritzer that holds liquid butter...

Eleven o'clock at the orthodontist... while Yali waits for his turn, he loudly shares the entire story in all its detail from the time he and a buddy got sucked up to their chins in a giant mud pit down by the river during their forest school days... he loved it...

The repairman is working on the oven at home so it's spontaneous happy meals and fifteen minutes at the park before driving south again...

During Patience's appointment, attempt to work finances on my laptop while Yali provides an intensive Dummy 13 tutorial for me complete with all sound effects (no one else is in the waiting room)...

The whole drive home Yali and Patience discuss their hopes to morph the lopsided plastic shed in the back corner of the yard into a clubhouse... they've got big plans for it...

Home for an ibuprofen and housework...

The kids get working on that shed... ladders and archery targets and bric-a-brac strewn around the old honeysuckle patch...

Puck is lifting weights in the basement, pauses to take an online multiple choice flags of the world test with me for fun... he's surprisingly good at it though never having studied flags, until he sees : DR CONGO... “What. Doctor Congo? That's not a country...” // “That's Democratic Republic, Puck...” gives his old mom a good chuckle...

Somewhere a cold wind is blowing towards this old town... more snow and other things like it...