The Best Sort of Day
Sunday, April 3, 2011
In which the wind is high, as it ought to be in the spring…
Collette dreamt that night of a group of people who, by ritual, walked in a straight line, endlessly, through whatever was necessary, until the wind changed, and then they would follow the direction of the wind in a straight line once more…
At their 6:15 breakfast that morning, Puck watched the squirrels racing the power lines.
“Why are squirrels ‘chantering’ for food at dark time?” he asked, pondering the world in his usual way.
The morning was shaping up to be fantastic. The winds were wonderfully high and singing.
While OLeif rehearsed with Judah and the others at 7:30, Puck walked in continuous circles around the inside of the sanctuary, like a sentinel.
“I’m protecting the church,” he said importantly, with a grin.
During the morning service, Puck was very happy to sit briefly awhile with Baby Hesed in the back row. He patted him carefully on the arm as Hesed grinned huge baby smiles at him. Puck also shared his banana yellow matchbox car with Hesed until he was escorted by Evangeline to the nursery.
The roof of the church creaked throughout the service and during Sunday School.
Back at the house the wind was no less wild. More so, in fact, with gusts, they said, up to 50 miles an hour.
“Another ghost!” Puck would often declare during lunch, as the wind whistled through the open windows.
Lunch: a huge glazed ham, prepared by Rose.
Muffins, by Francis and Linnea.
And fruit salad of apples and blueberries mixed with crushed mint and sugar.
Heath cookies for dessert, by Carrie.
After lunch, Joe attached half a dozen plastic Easter eggs to his hair and helped Linnea clean up the kitchen, Linnea, who had her long-awaited dark pink rubber gloves for washing the dishes.
Collette drove out to Whole Foods in the early afternoon with the wild winds driving through the yards. White rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, and xanthan gum later, back to the house where…
Linnea was deep into phone calls with Cherry.
Carrie was telling Joe how embarrassed she would be if she had bought a bag of White Castle coffee grounds like he had. Joe thought this was funny.
Francis was busy checking the severe weather reports…
“Well, it looks like it’s going to be less severe early on,” he said, “because there’s a picture of clear raindrops, and maybe more severe later because there are dark blue raindrops…”
“Mama! Lila gave me a sugar sandwich!” the red-cheeked baby in front of her in gym shorts, soccer shirt, chucks, and wind-blown hair explained with wide eyes.
He had apparently had his first taste of an ice cream sandwich with his Lila and the neighbor girls. They spent hours together playing in the wind and the sun.
Joe was chatting with buddies on the phone as well, including Magnus.
“You’re on speakerphone,” he laughed. “Talk to everyone!”
Magnus adopted his character quickly.
Hey, Puck! You want to chat with your Uncle Magnus? You like peanut butter, do you? Hi, Linnea! It’s your Uncle Magnus. You still doing gymnastics? You should keep on doing that there. That’s good for you. My knees are so old, I don’t think I could do it…
The girls took some sun in the early afternoon and some cool wind in the later, as Collette crown-braided Rose’s hair, which was now officially long enough. Then Linnea’s.
Back home for some baked potatoes and seminary class presentations from OLeif to the boys and Collette, followed by a first attempt at gluten free peanut butter cookies and British comedy for the boys.
And Mom and Dad concluded their third day in Lisbon.