Home Again, Home Again

Puck’s nine-month appointment. The kid was as healthy as a horse, as Mom would say. And, as usual, he had a big head.

“All those brains in there,” Dr. Box laughed.

Then it was off to the airport to pick up Carrie-Bri who was coming from Chicago after an early flight out of Austin after Frances had made a detour by the airsoft shop (perhaps his favorite place on God’s green earth). His eyes lit up at the thought of it.

Carrie’s flight finally landed half an hour late after their plane was ten minutes away from running out of fuel. Many Chicago flights had been canceled due to high winds and Lambert was backed up, thus causing the various delays. Carrie had enjoyed Austin – the libraries, restaurants, Relevance’s and Kitts’ campus, the desert and power lines, etc. Ariel’s church, a hike on an enormous rock… She had even found the long-lost Mellow Mushroom, reminiscent of days long gone in Atlanta. It had been a good trip.

Collette randomly wondered that day where Ariel had placed his small painting of St. George from the Via Dolorosa. Never before had she met such an intriguing person. Completely genuine, fearlessly religious, and sweet in an unusual sort of way.

Meanwhile, St. Louis was beginning to be blown by arctic winds on the way back to the house after another swing by Long John Silver’s. (They seemed to have a hankering lately for chicken, fish, fries, and hush puppies.)

“I bet we’ll have tornadoes tonight,” Mom said.

In other news, Pocahontas had been to Paris over the weekend. And not for the first time in her life either. She had also been to Africa when she was young, with her parents and older sister. Oh, the traveling.

“I don’t want to even hear about any more of her trips!” Carrie exclaimed.

Yes, Pocahontas was “living the life”.

And OLeif had plans to get contacts for the first time in his life, in February. Somehow, his eyes had become better, and his glasses were too strong. After trying to install a contact in his eyeball to test it, he gave up and went back to work with his fellow nerds. It was an interesting crew they had in the IT department. The predictable dorky inside jokes. OLeif loved it.

The wind was up that day. Wonderful high winds. Puck talked to them through the window of the patio door.

All in all, the day had been pretty quiet. Rose was at the college from ten in the morning till seven in the evening. Thus the day was less amusing. But there were the usual Awesome letters to share between Collette and Carrie, which always made things more lively.

It was fish tacos for the evening inside in the golden warmth of home, while outside the wild winds rolled in the deep blue.