October 17
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Puck woke up that morning asking for his milk to be warmed — his latest novelty.
“’Worm’ up my milk, Mama?”
About nine-thirty on Saturday night, while watching Monarch of the Glen with OLeif, Collette had given him what she liked to call, ‘The Doctor Who Hair Cut’, which was more or less an eyeballed attempt every couple of months. And so he walked out the door to church that morning looking a little more spiff than he had on Saturday.
Linnea was also looking well — very grown up, in black skinny jeans, a gray sweater tunic, and white hoop earrings. She was light-years beyond her sisters at thirteen. If Collette recalled well enough… in those embarrassing old days…. she had still been in the pink and white polka-dot short overalls, white lace-collared short sleeved blouse, ankle socks, and pink jelly sandals. Oh, the horror of such days!
Back at the house…
Rose had received a photo of Pompeii from Alfonso, who was still with Velvet in Italy.
And lunch around the table was specified as pork roast, salad, fruit salad, and hot rolls… what might have been labeled as the ‘near-quintessential midwestern dinner’.
Later, Joe returned from visiting First Baptist of St. Peters with Yaotl West with a welcome goody bag that included a coffee mug, a small loaf of homemade pumpkin bread, a John Piper book: Seeing & Savoring Christ, and a sermon on CD from their pastor. He had also picked up an Old Spice Fiji gift set for himself, a Joe must-have.
Joe then joined everyone else in the living room, but for the napping participants, where they were all practicing pronunciation of words in British and New Zealand accents. And Francis was napping on the floor by the dog until he was roused to incite Puck into a pillow fight, followed by Linnea’s entreaties that Puck walk on her back to massage it.
In the afternoon…
Joe was off to film himself biking about Klondike with his camera attached to a mini tripod, strapped with duct tape to the top of his bicycle helmet.
And for Dad, Mom, Collette, Francis, and Puck, it was time to visit Grandma Snicketts who had need of a chair being installed in her shower.
Recovery was going rather well for her. And it took Francis little time at all to put together the chair while Dad replaced the batteries in the old kiddie 1980’s tape recorder for Puck to play with and listen to his voice over the microphone.
On the way home, Dad talked about his upcoming comprehensive final for his PhD, which he would begin on Wednesday. Fifty pages of 150 research essays.
“A fellow at work had been asking me about it,” Dad was saying. “So I explained the details of it, because he wanted to know more. Then when I was finished, he said, ‘Well, that sounds just great. I’m gonna go out and have a beer.’”
Back home…
Joe was editing the tape of his trails at Klondike, a new black pocket organizer/calendar Moleskine was sitting on his desk, and Collette explained his upcoming Organizational Behavior examination to him.
Carrie-Bri, Rose, and Linnea had taken in their share of sun for the day and Linnea was enjoying the contents of a large bag of M’nMs.
As they left for the evening…
Joe did handstands in the living room.
Carrie and Rose were preparing to watch the BBC version of Jane Eyre.
And the rest of the family came out to wave them off as usual, as Joe jumped in the adolescent maple tree in the front yard to shake off the dead leaves.