January 4th, 2025
Spend some time exploring North Africa on Google Maps with a chocolate long john that morning… so much uninhabited desolation of desert… intriguing
Oxbear and Yali begin playing Portal together… I forget Yali is a pre-teen already…
Puck texts from O’Fallon… “I would like 40 dollars… For the pizza I bought… On accident” (ha)
Before Puck leaves for work, he discusses weight equipment at length with me, while scrubbing rust off various tools with sand paper… he then suits up for four hours in Produce down at crazy town as the last shoppers wildly deplete shelves of their contents as if preparing for a week-long 19th century Dakotas blizzard
Research origami snake tutorials for Yali’s art submission to the STL Symphony
Kids FIGHT through the afternoon… so much fighting…
Oxbear bravely enters the sprawl of shoppers in the late afternoon for things like sliced cheddar and kettle chips to accompany the dinner menu
Assist Patience with arrangement of her own psychedelic art submission, providing direction-only of paint in shades of turquoise and canary and tomato… later adding the paper panda cut-outs
And because the day just isn’t lazy enough… begin browsing more of Compassion’s lists of longest-waiting children from Central and South America… cracked heart… but E sponsors another youngling in the process
Puck returns from work to snap together his new rubber mat flooring in the basement
Oxbear serves homemade cheeseburgers off the smoker
Everyone watches a little “Beast Games” to see what that’s all about… the contrasts between ultra-poverty and snatching at opulence…
Scooch all the cars into the driveway to make space for snow plows… salt already down on the road
Assist L in sponsoring a brother/sister duo in Bolivia… melt
The saucer sled does not arrive from Amazon as expected… delayed up to four days…
Watching “Elementary”… church (and the whole city) already canceled for tomorrow… waiting for the snow to drop around ten…