Night Ballgame
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Another scorcher.
Carrie-Bri was making banana crunch yogurts for breakfast, topped with two slices of banana and cinnamon on each. For not liking hardly any food that was actually good for her, Collette enjoyed it.
After Carrie dipped Puck’s wow into the yogurt and placed it in his mouth, Puck sucked a moment, and thought. Then he pulled out his wow (unintentional or not), and handed it back for more.
Collette brought a catalog of Dutch flower bulbs for Mom. Collette had already decided to get a box of alarming red lily bulbs and maybe English bluebells.
Puck was very excited that afternoon. He was learning more and more each day how to grab the little bear above his bouncy seat. His legs kicked with all the strength his little self could muster.
For the rest of the day, Collette was dazed, typing Carrie’s old journal. They laughed so hard over her ridiculous entries through the eyes of a 15 year-old, that Collette thought she might actually wheeze to death.
Once again, Linnea’s neighbor friend was over with her Webkins for most of the day to play. Trooper found the Webkins and took it.
“Eeeeeew! Trooper got slobber all over my Webkins!”
“Go brush it off with a damp cloth, Linnea,” Collette told her.
“Bath! We can give our Webkins baths!”
“Baths! Yay!”
Linnea and her friend spent the next twenty minutes or so in the kitchen with a pile of Mom’s kitchen towels and washcloths.
Come late afternoon, Mom and Rose headed out to the movies with Joy and Juliet Tecumseh. Carrie was off to work as usual. Joe was off to the Hobcoggins as usual. And Dad returned to mind the kiddies and find them some dinner – fast food, no doubt. Whenever Mom was off the premises, out came the junk food.
On the way home, Puck studied his feet, trying to make them do what he wanted them to do. Sometimes he got frustrated when they wouldn’t cooperate.
Meanwhile, OLeif and Carrie had tickets from Grandma to see the Cardinals play that night. It had been five years since she had seen a game, and this, only her third out of her 22 years.
And Denae took little tubby for the evening to watch while she was at a Boy Scout meeting.
There was something fascinating about attending a Card’s game at night. OLeif and Collette found their seats high above the crowd after locating a parking lot over a half mile away, charging only five dollars as opposed to the twenty dollars necessary to park within sight of the stadium.
Once she had fully taken in the scene, Collette began to pay attention to the fans around her.
“Come on, Jimmy. Hit is straight.”
Collette heard an older woman talking behind them, as Jim Edmonds came up to bat.
“I’ve adopted him. He doesn’t know it yet, but I’ve adopted him.”
“Mrs. Potato Head,” Collette thought to herself.
The outtakes from “Toy Story 2” showed a clip of Mrs. Potato Head talking to Mr. Potato Head about adopting the three green rubber aliens.
“Let’s adopt ’em!” She had said.
Sounded just like the lady behind her.
Anyway, the air filled with butterscotch and hops.
A family in front of them included two small red-headed children. The girl, who was older than her little brother, had a pink ribbon tied around her arm. At one point she took it off and rolled it up.
“It’s Bubbletape,” she told him.
Her brother didn’t believe her.
“It went down your throat?”
“Really, it did. I just ate a piece.”
The boy forgot about the ribbon and concentrated on the banana his very expectant mom had just pulled from her shoulder pack.
It was a good game. Padres batter lost control of his bat, slinging it into the crowd. The crowd cheered. Padres runner tagged out at second; wasn’t expecting it. The crowd really cheered. The wave lasted four times around the stadium. The crowd continued cheering. New Card hit a home run, adding three more to the scoreboard. The crowd super cheered.
As they left the stadium with a five to nothing victory, the fireworks burst into the night, finishing with a grand finale as they reached their car.