Sneezes & Blasts
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Theodore’s 59th birthday.
That fine October morning, Collette and Puck went shopping for hiking boots.
The air was cold and the clouds were amazing, shuffled in lines of equal puffiness across the horizons.
As they headed onto the exit ramp, sunlight splashed into the backseat all over the bouncing Puck.
“Achoo!”
“Bless you, buddy.”
At Target, Puck watched the merchandise from his stroller and cooed random syllables at the shoes on the shelves. A lady walked into the same aisle and pulled a pair of shoes out of a box.
“I see you do what I do,” she said. “Buy boys shoes in large sizes.”
Collette laughed; she had a feeling she wasn’t in the woman’s shoe department. But it didn’t matter; she found her hiking boots in a boys’ size 5, however that might translate to women’s sizes. Cherokee Jupiters.
As they walked out of the store, Puck hit the sun straight out of the doors.
“Achoo!”
Collette was beginning to wonder if the little man wasn’t partly allergic to the sun. He had the tendency to sneeze on sunny days.
On the return home, large orange signs were propped up on the side of the highway reading:
“BLASTING AHEAD”
“TURN OFF 2-WAVE RADIO”
Out of the ordinary, anyway. However, they didn’t hear any blasts.
Meanwhile, Wednesday night, OLeif had made a discovery. Apparently, they had owned basic cable since they had moved into the house, and never knew it. He spent his evening wiring everything up to various electronic devices around the house. By the time Collette had returned from the store, the television was as clear as a bell, and Andy Griffith and Lucy Ricardo were once again, available.
For the rest of the day, Puck ate laundry, snuggled with his mom, and sat on the front porch watching the last of the squirrels finish hording their acorn stash. Later, he chewed on a small green and yellow gourd and tried to escape once again from his bouncy – he was becoming more talented at this fine art.
That evening, OLeif returned from work on his bike and they headed over to the park for a saunter through the field. Puck watched the grasshoppers bouncing through the reeds. Figures walked through the woods on the hills of the other side of the field – shadowy images. Collette thought of Big Foot. And OLeif talked radio for awhile.
The evening ended with cups of chocolate ice cream and peanut butter while Puck dreamt sweet baby dreams.