Snow Day 4
The previous night…
9PM : While Oxbear and I have just switched on an episode of “Elementary”, S.M. calls… Puck is spontaneously violently throwing up at their place, can’t drive home
10PM : Oxbear returns with Puck, gets into bed, also suddenly not feeling well…
11PM : While I help Puck set up for the night (he’s freezing and shaking and briefly wonders if he’s vomiting blood; check that out; seems to not be blood), Oxbear also begins violently throwing up in the hallway bathroom
12AM : As both gentlemen are settled with what few small amenities attempt to ease pain, and surfaces have been sanitized, I’ve set up my camp on the couch and just about to fall asleep, when… Puck’s cat drops a live mouse by my pillow (nope)… cat almost immediately loses his mouse while I transfer elsewhere (that unpleasant feeling of realizing there is no other safe/comfortable sleeping location remaining in the house…)
2AM : After another live round from Puck, finally pass out on couch cushions spread over the toy-cluttered floor of Yali’s and Patience’s bedroom under a field of shining emerald stars from Yali’s tiny planetarium… as snow begins to fall…
Interim
Puck has continued to relieve his stomach throughout the night, although I somehow sleep through it, and Oxbear is quiet… then the parched teenager decides to gulp a glass of water at eight o’clock, triggering the whole awfulness once more
Kids tread quietly through the morning as I open the shades to more inches of still-falling beautiful white sugar snow, help Puck with his needs while he’s trying to call into work but no one is answering the phone yet, check on Oxbear (whole body is one big ache, but neither have fevers), clean up the severed mouse head and guts left on the kitchen floor (poor soul…), give Patience a dose of Tylenol for her aching teeth following the orthodontist yesterday, find a pair of clean socks (somehow always mismatched) for Yali, text E.D. to cancel Patience’s private dance lesson that afternoon, call Schnucks later for Puck who can now barely talk, and allow Yali and Patience to begin their Friday with tablets because, yes, the whole city seems to have been shut down once again from snow, and finally toss back another ibuprofen for the already-headache…
The kids spend all of six minutes outside, creating a small army of snow teddy bears on the welcome mat before retreat… too cold they say
The big boys seem improved in the afternoon as they sip on cold carbonated beverages and nap
And still haven’t seen the mail since last Saturday… guess they can’t get through “snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” every time
Scooch the kids back out into the snow, late afternoon, for about an hour before lavender-blue dusk
…as the big boys successfully split a can of Progresso chicken noodle soup
As dark and dinner arrive, Patience asks to peruse Lip Smackers lip gloss on Amazon in payment for additional snow removal after several more inches fell though the day
Both kids take in a little Harry Potter while I read up on St. Louis City SC’s new Swedish head coach and check out photos of yellow cardinals
Before bedtime, spontaneous hair cut for Yali… looking pretty sharp… Patience hovers, sweeping up masses of fallen jet-black mane as they laugh together through the whole thing
After the kids are tucked into their bunks, back to documentation on the couch while a colorized version of “My Man Godfrey” plays on the big screen
Must be near-edging into record consecutive relatively relaxing days in the Silverspoon household…