Pre-Patrick
“Crackers, I don’t think you understand English, but those birds are just doing their jobs. They’re trying to feed their kids. And theirselves. Oh, by the way, your name is Crackers, if you didn’t know.”
Puck’s effort to communicate with his pet doesn’t always pan out the way he envisions. Crackers continued to stare at the birds in the front yard. Puck was also busy, packing up Buck and Donkey for the ride to church, punching a thumbtack through the lid of their carrying box:
“How are you doing in there? … Good, good. I’m glad you understand. Sorry if I poked you in there. I was just trying to make air holes.”
Summer sausage and cheeses for lunch. Simple small before simple big, that being the traditional St. Patrick’s Day feast. We were celebrating one week early due to the road trip plunging us way south for the big day. Rose, however, was getting tired of all the brogue-y music Mom had playing on Pandora:
“I’m glad we’re not Irish,” she announced indignantly, exiting the room.
“We are though…”
“Not pure. ‘Cause otherwise we’d have to sing stupid stuff like this.”
Naturally.
Grandma came over after 3:30 with more goodies. Puck gave her a tutorial on iPad games. She made him promise to give her another try next time we got together. Earlier, Puck had displayed some of his iPad skills to Dad, sitting with him on the couch:
“So how do you remember so many things, Puck? Where do you put all those memories?”
Puck just sort of shrugged, “I just have a good remembery. I even remember from last BBS (VBS).”
Carrie had made the corned beef, cabbage salad, red potatoes, and pans of yeast rolls. It was all consumed with everyone present (subtracting Joe and Jaya) with the usual sorts of conversations, like, “Which president would you like to meet if you could?”
“Probably Grant. Or Lincoln.”
“Why Lincoln? He was terrible! I’d meet George Washington.”
“He was a Satanist! They were all possessed by shape-shifting reptilians!”
These conversations sometimes – usually – escalate very quickly. This turned into a story about how Annamaria tried to freak out Rose in the shower by hunting out a knife in her kitchen drawer, before Rose caught her in the act. You know. Normal things.
Then Rose’s laptop archive of old home videos displayed on the television: cats, lightening storms, ant “fights,” and Francis falling asleep in cars. Pretty entertaining stuff.