Temporary Hold-Up

“Mom? Can you hand me my Strider bike? I want to take it apart.”

A fever of a 101-nature and painful eyeballs from the congestion of a cold wasn’t bothering my Big Guy too much that Sunday morning stay-home-from-church. It was about nine o’clock in the morning, and from his sick-eyes perch on the couch – screwdriver in hand – he was ready for some hard work.

“Why do you want to take your bike apart, bud?”

“I want to see how it works.”

“You sound like Grandpa. Or Dad. … Or your Uncle Fran.”

Clearly, this curiosity lies in the family genes. Although I didn’t have the correct tools to take apart the bike – and Oxbear was still asleep after his 4AM return from Nashville nod-off – I could offer the ice cream scoop for dissemination. And his old robot.

When Oxbear joined us after beautifying his beard over the bathroom sink, Puck and I were deep into another “Calvin & Hobbes” with clipped wires, screws, and robot parts strewn all over the floor and couch.

We opted for family devotions before the highly anticipated morning Minecraft session. I read Dad’s daily devotional followed by discussion before Oxbear offered to close with a prayer.

“Take it away, Dad!” Puck crowed.

The late morning and afternoon were great, almost balmy. Windows opened, bumbles buzzing around patches of purple crocus beginning to carpet the front yard, neighbor girls screaming out front, harnessing themselves into wagons pulled by scooters down the street.

“How are your eyeballs?” I checked in with Puck later between granola bars and apples.

“Fascinatingly good.”

After an hour nap for both my boys, Oxbear made a library-grocery run while Puck and I split our afternoon between Legos, Minecraft, the ballgame, and – of course – more Calvin & Hobbes. Doubled over in laughter at the antics of his little feisty comic strip friend.

The evening concluded early in the fading sunlight with Puck’s nightly prayer before bed ending with the most recent popular postscript, “And please let my trip to Disney go well.”

As Puck drifted into a deep sleep, Oxbear and I enjoyed a few Magnum Golds – legends of my young adolescent years – over some Chinese-American comedy.