May 13

The morning began in the best way: thunder and lightening. It was followed by cool rain as OLeif fed Puck his breakfast next to the open patio door.
For that cool wet morning, Collette and Puck stayed indoors and listened to Burl Ives; (Rose had brought back three of his CDs from the library for Puck’s enjoyment). Puck bounced to the tunes of “The Little White Duck” in the kitchen while rummaging through the pots and pans cabinet.
Puck brought Hobbes on his afternoon walk around the neighborhood. He loved all of his stuffed animals. But he brought Hobbes everywhere.
That evening, in the cool blue-green, Joe dropped by with OLeif’s tuned bike and Grandma Combs’ chairs, which she had given to them.
“Hey, look at this!” Joe shouted from the van, as he was about to drive away. “I almost screamed when I saw this last night. It’s the coolest ruler ever!!”
A bright blue rubber ruler.
“I’ve just been holding it all day waving it around,” he said. “I love it.”
Then Joe took off with his prized ruler to study math with his pal, Luke Annie.
Then Collette watched Andrew Zimmern in Ecuador, eating “lemon ants” and piranha in the rain forest. Maybe Carrie wasn’t that unusual after all.
Later, OLeif and Collette were in the middle of a movie night. Somewhere around the time they began to get bored with the politics in “Astronaut Farmer”, they began what might be good-humoredly called “My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad”:
“You know that my dad is probably the secret President of the United States,” Collette was saying. “Maybe the world.”
“Well, my dad wrestled bears in high school,” said OLeif.
“Well, my dad wrestled, ran track, played football, and… was an expert pole vaulter.”
“My dad played football since he was an infant.”
“My dad’s the head of the CIA and all the undergrounds… in the world.”
“But my dad’s in charge of all the overgrounds.”
“But the undergrounds control the overgrounds.”
“Well, my dad could beat up your dad.”
“Nope.”
“My dad’s a foot taller than your dad.”
“Is not.”
“I just called your dad ‘5, 3”,” OLeif laughed.
In other news, Carrie-Bri had been sort of struck by lightening.