July 5th

It was cold and rainy.
Another thunderstorm had come through at about nine o’clock the night before, just as the exploding fireworks lit up the night air around the neighborhood.

At the table, everyone finished leftovers from Saturday and discussed who was related to each other and who was not, which was always a ridiculous subject to discuss. And then about who shot of fireworks and when, etc., etc…
“Yeah, last year Larry was shooting them off towards the neighbor’s house,” Joe was saying.
“So that’s why they were shooting them back over at us,” said Dad.
“Fireworks wars,” Carrie laughed.

That afternoon, Malaya and Kitts arrived to shop for things with Carrie.
Kitts played trains with Puck on the living room floor for awhile, running them underneath bridges made out of blankets.

And that night, after Puck had been put down for the night, about an hour lately he called softly from his room:
“Water, Mama? Please, water?”
The little sweetie.
OLeif and Collette decided to call him ‘Gordita’, which meant ‘little fatty’.