January 21st, 2025
Dreams of intense kidnapping situation in the night in some kind of parking garage (feel like that's happened in my dreams before...) ... getting up to a windchill of twelve below
Yali wakes late in his bunk from his own nightmare, which usually involves clowns in some horrifying way... he doesn't seem too bothered though, despite describing last night's added content of... “I was attacked by a bear! And ripped apart by one hundred monkeys!”
After packing and prepping for Yellow Bird, Yali and Patience sit Japanese-style at the blanket chest in front of the television's version of a crackling fire, and some real candles nearby for authenticity, for more long division (their favorite)... until there is some distraction when I hand them each a banana to pad their breakfast and they begin singing their Nashvillian aunt's and uncle's smash hit → “Bring a Banana”
Puck joins the fun before his date with the basement treadmill by punching in all the incorrect answers to their online math facts quiz... big laughs from the kids of course
Before leaving, check out the clothesline of double twine Puck has rigged in the basement and spread out the wet laundry for me (the clothes dryer still fritzed)... and discuss via text with Elmer his perspective on vehicle habits from various places in the world like Peru and Cuba where nothing is wasted and junkyards often don't exist
After Patience puts her hair in low-back pigtails and all coats, hats, gloves, and even extra pants are collected, Puck and I drive them in a diabolical cold of frigid sunshine to Yellow Bird for the next five hours
Drop by McD's on the way home for Puck's breakfast platter as we discuss everything from welding programs to creationism vs. evolutionism and how the church and science don't need to be “at odds”... “Well that was a waste of time!” Puck bellows, not not facetiously, back at home when he realizes how long we've been talking, and hits the weights for an hour before another shift in Produce
Boil a little Trader Joe's gnocchi with pesto for an early lunch... while Puck pulls up a video about “flat earthers” visiting Antarctica (Puck has about no patience for flat earthers)
Yali and Patience are waiting for pick-up just before three o'clock with woven brambles and dried botanicals, oil pastels, and stories about snowball cookies, experiments with pinecones, trivia contests, and bitterly cold snowplay games
Waiting at home in my Inbox is a denial of my jury summons request for excusal, because I guess rescheduling a summons for a teacher without sub options from February to the summer is too difficult a request to grant... email another appeal to the court... (and maybe pick on my husband instead for once, who would probably actually enjoy it, because he's Oxbear)
After Patience's violin lesson, she and Yali run off to use the Blue Squid facepaints for Harry Potter scars on their foreheads
Amazon arrives with an experiment : Salt & Stone lotion in “Black Rose”... which somehow makes me think of the great Space Race...
Homemade cheeseburgers and fries as Puck returns to discuss “Squid Games” season 2 with Oxbear in the kitchen
Patience and I leave for two hours at the studio... frozen parking strip out front, kicking the heater on at intervals... Patience returns to the car ten minutes late after she and a buddy help their other buddy with a nose bleed, giggling about one day all honeymooning in Hawaii together with their husbands (big eyes emoji)