July 21st

Tuesday, in the shadow of impending rain, Puck ate blueberry muffin and read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to himself, repeating over and over:
“He’s still hungry. He’s still hungry. He’s still hungry.”

Shortly later, Mom dropped off Carrie-Bri and Francis for the morning.
Francis immediately got to mowing the yard and cleaning out the gutters, continued work for OLeif’s PSP, which would be officially his after one more Tuesday of lawn-mowing.
And Puck shuffled around in Carrie’s Op flip-flops, which made him feel very important.

It was the low 70’s in the midwest, and the skies were covered in gray. The winds were up and the rain was mincing around here and there.
It was still beautiful out.
But next came August. One of the more temperamental months of St. Louis.

That evening, after Collette had made Vietnamese sandwiches for everyone, it was time to continue the tutoring for Rose’s final exam.
“Well, I guess we’d better get started with the math, Rose,” said Collette. “Do you have anywhere you need to be tonight?”
“Well, yes, I have many meetings,” said Rose.
“She turned down three dates just to be here,” added OLeif.
“Yes, well, I kept one of them, in between meetings. It will be a fifteen-minute date.”
“And she only kept that one because he has a Ferrari.”
“We’ll be driving to Texas in the fifteen minute date, because Ferraris are so fast. And he promised he’d have me back by twelve for my next meeting.”
“Midnight?”
“Yes. We are having a chili cook-off. We are testing spices with beans. Steak ‘n Shake is very interested in our results, and we may be striking a deal.”

Shortly later, OLeif went out for ice cream.