Rennovations
Wednesday, January 11, 2011
Another cold morning. But not so much. The highs for Thursday were supposed to be only in the 20’s…
Out on the ranch, Carrie’s room had been returned to its original skeleton. Completely repainted in neutrals. Carpet up. Bunny heaven was about to enter Stage #2. In the process, on unearthing 26 years of carpeting and collections, Carrie had discovered several ransom notes. One of them seemed to be in Collette’s handwriting from many year ago…
“Finders keepers, losers weepers.” – The Mafia
Linnea-Irish and Puck fought over ownership rights. Joe stormed through a stack of pancakes slathered in slabs of Kerrygold butter. There was also some discussion about the names and inscriptions etched and written on the rungs underneath the bunk as it had been disassembled in Carrie’s room.
“Now, if you see ‘Saxon stinks’ under there, that was me,” Carrie laughed. “Saxon almost ruined my career. That was the worst.”
Joe was going to be best man again in another buddy’s wedding. Brett Grill.
“You’re going to be responsible for the bachelor party.”
“I still think you should have Magnus jump out of a cake.”
“Yeah,” Joe grinned. “Or Aristotle.”
Then as Joe departed for work, Linnea, wearing a collared blue and white striped shirt over her “morning clothes” (as Puck called them) with an old Old Spice mug of tea, and Francis, commenced their arguments as they jostled for position in front of the mathematics lecture…
“What are you wearing?”
“What? It’s a swimsuit cover-up.”
“It that Francis’ old shirt?”
“Yeah. Move over, Francis.”
“Find another spot.”
“Move, Francis.”
“You’re eating oatmeal?”
“Yeah. So?”
“That’s for horses, you know.”
Meanwhile, Mom hit up the stores and Puck, on his day off, got busy watching kids documentaries of paper shredders and giant telescopes.
After lunch, Carrie placed a batch of soda bread in the oven. She had a 3:00 tea appointment down by Concordia seminary. Mom napped. Dad had a one o’clock phone conference. Collette heard some shouting from the back room. Puck, who had earlier marched up from the basement with a small silk magnolia from Collette’s wedding tacked to his shirt collar and his Chick-fil-A cow watch, was not pleased with the sentence passed on him by Linnea. Collette discussed the problem with him. Puck was serious.
“The only thing I knew to do was panic,” he explained. “The only thing I knew to do was to yell.”
He then amused himself with a drawer of puzzles for Quiet Hour.
At two o’clock, Mom and Carrie departed toward the CWE. Puck got busy playing bouncy ball games up and down the stairs with Linnea, worked his way around the basement in black size 9 roller skates, and threw snap dragons on the patio with Francis. Collette and Linnea checked out cruises to Mexico, the Grand Caymans, and Jamaica.
And church was a mass of sixteen yelling, shouting, running runts.