Games & Good Fun
Saturday, January 19, 2007
There was already another winter weather advisory out from six o’clock that Saturday evening until noon on Sunday. Forecasters were predicting four to six inches of snow by that time.
Meanwhile, Carrie had carted Rose all around town on Thursday afternoon to have her fill out applications at various stores and eateries. After this extra amount of effort, Rose was awarded an interview at Subway, to be given on the following Monday afternoon.
Saturday morning OLeif slept in a bit to wake in time for Frances’ second basketball game. This time, his team, the Celtics, seemed to know better what they were doing. Frances even made the first points for his team, with a nice swish through the hoop. They lost ten to twelve, but all in good effort, especially as only six boys showed up that morning for their team. And Frances received a blue star for best offense at the end of the game. At their first game, he had been given a white star for the most Christ-like behavior. Collette wondered if this was partially due to the fact that Frances tended to almost polite-fully allow members of the opposing team to take away the ball.
Soon after the game, he hurried home to change for a friend’s birthday party from Scouts, which involved pizzas, air-softing, cake, and a few hours at Great Skate.
And OLeif discovered that he was not needed to come in to work until late that afternoon, so he and Collette spent the rest of the day together, talking and driving around town for various things. And the skies began to cloud over as they did so.
Come evening, Collette spent a few hours back over at the house. Carrie was already at work, Joe was leaving for the movies with friends, and Rose was off to babysit Hansel and Gretyl again while Mr. and Mrs. Plum were out for a karaoke night.
Before Joe left, however, he and Dad practiced pitching a wadded ball of tinfoil at one another between the living room and the kitchen. Trooper thought that this was a sign for him to join in the fun and eventually snatched away the ball. This was taken from him before he tore it to pieces, like everything else of which he got a hold.
Dad suggested that Joe sign up for the Community College baseball team when he began attending in the fall.
“I can’t pitch as hard as he can anymore,” Dad said that evening, as if he were getting old.
And Dad and Joe took turns trying to balance on Joe’s exercise ball in vicarious positions. Joe managed to roll himself into the piano several times and almost knocked Mom’s lamp over in the process of rebounding, hitting a table in the living room. Dad also took a spill to the side and narrowly missed another lamp and table.
Dad was also arranging plans to potentially take Mom, Frances, and Linnea to Disney World in a week or two while he was between contracts. The other kids would be too busy with the goings on of the school year to accompany them. But Frances and Linnea were both excited at the prospect. Dad had always wanted to take the kids to Disney World.
“Collette, should we visit China or Tibet first when we go?” Linnea asked thoughtfully, pondering the various parts of Disney World to explore.
Meanwhile, the snow had begun to fall.
“Dad, will you build us an igloo?” Linnea had asked wistfully before Collette left for the night.