September 28

Over at the house, Carrie had ‘presents’ for Puck. She had bought him a Pixar Cars bike helmet and knee pads. Puck was thrilled to put all three of these pieces on himself, and walked around for almost the entire morning wearing the knee pads.
“That helmet is for a five year-old,” Carrie laughed. “But it looks so funny.”
Somehow the helmet fit his head, but it still looked enormous. Puck didn’t mind, however. He was very pleased with Carrie’s purchases.

Meanwhile, Carrie was making a slow recovery, just like Dad. Her cough had not yet improved. But she was still lively enough to talk about Tesla with Collette and various other topics of the day.
She had baked a chocolate chip cookie and prepared more cider for Puck, who raced into the kitchen to inspect, where Joe’s masking tape marks were still affixed to the floor for his bike sprint measurements. He had hit 10 mph from the hallway to the stove over the weekend.

The winds were up that day. Cold beautiful winds under sunshine. And Puck played out of doors for as many hours as possible.

In the afternoon, on the pretense of Puck napping, Collette left for her second of three doctor’s appointments in the space of five days. Monday’s visit was to be tested for tuberculosis. So after a quick poke of the needle, she was on her way to the grocery store, and then back to the Puck, who had, according to Carrie, likely never snoozed at all.
And Rose’s latest purchase, Bill Peet’s autobiography, had arrived in the mail.

That evening, Collette cooked up a large batch of regular and blueberry pancakes while Puck requested song selections. Mostly Jesus Loves Me with sign language, as he watched with huge grins, numerous times over. And of course, Waltzing Matilda.
And OLeif got to his papers after finishing his autobiography for the adoption agency.