Noise Break
Big, beautiful green world, Saturday morning, drenched in rain. Forty shades of it. With a cooler week on tap, things were looking a little less May-y than usual. Although with St. Louis, just give it an hour and you run right from spring into summer; no warning.
Since the boys had spent the night at the Silverspoon’s again, Oxbear and I grabbed a quick breakfast before he took my car up to the dealership for an oil change. Which – as cars tend to do – turned into way more than a simple oil change.
“I might be here till four o’clock,” he texted me.
And since he had accidentally taken with him both sets of keys for his car, I was a little stuck at home. Not that I minded. Sometimes it’s kind of nice having a few hours stranded at home to take a “noise break” from the week. Only spring bird chatter, rushing highway, and the roll of the clothes dryer in the basement. A rarity, indeed.
Later, I heard tales from the Silverspoon house, after Gloria picked Oxbear up from the dealership. Apparently at one point in the afternoon, Puck had been busy singing a very operatic version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.
“If the National Anthem was really that long,” he eventually reasoned, “I’d faint.”
“That’s not the National Anthem, bud,” Gloria laughed. “Although… with Collette as his mom, I understand the confusion.”
When my boys returned late that afternoon – with a surprise birthday lightsaber for Puck from Curly and Lulu – storms framed our neighborhood to the north and the south. Dark skies. A little thunder. And eventual downpour.
Then while I got Yali in a bubble bath and worked with Puck on his handwritten cursive endangered species research paper, Oxbear went grocery shopping. He returned with one of my favorites – two bunches of “sunset roses” – red and orange-yellow. Not to mention the Hershey’s treasures and York peppermint patties, sweet man. Maybe Yali isn’t the only one who’s spoiled around here…
Meanwhile, in other news, Elmer and Jaya had packed up the little apartment and moved a few miles north as the crow flies. First-time home owners. As long as Elmer had sufficient storage room to house his armada of bikes – road and mountain – and there was space for Jaya’s future baby grand, all was well.