The Big Return

Spring birds. You could hear them back again already, and just about two and a half weeks early. Of course, you couldn’t tell by stepping outside. Even in the sunshine the windchill was still 12.

The first three and a half hours of my morning flew by. It’s amazing how fast it happens when there’s always a truckload of bullet points on the to-do list. But I had to wrap it up faster than usual. And for one very good reason.

Spring Training Game #1.

Yes, it was that time again. Crackly Mike Shannon on the radio feed over at the Big House while Carrie-Bri touched up my roots with a second coat of muted bleach. It was about time. For the game, I mean. Two hours and sixteen minutes of good time baseball.

Somewhere in between we coasted over to the Valley to do a quick tank top check at the outlet mall. We do shopping fast – weren’t exactly charmed by the prices – and returned empty-handed before the game was even through the 7th which became a Cardinals win on the first day of a game series that ultimately counts for nothing. But it’s fun all the same.

Puck and I had our late afternoon and evening all planned out. After he came running out of the gym in his yellow Lego shirt, we hit the road while explaining that his good behavior had landed him on “white” again. Usually these days – amazingly – it’s for shushing the class.

As we walked to the car, he filled me in on how Mr. V’s daughter had tossed her groceries during math hour in the other 2nd grade class and had to go home.

“Wait a minute,” Puck thought aloud after awhile. “She’s really lucky! She got to skip math!”

Then – go figure – he whipped out a green pencil on the ride home and did half his math homework without me saying a word.

Anyway, back home it was Disney’s 1987 “Benji The Hunted”. Puck was spellbound for 89 minutes over pork steak and buttered sourdough. Not a bad way to wrap up a Thursday night on one of – hopefully – the last really cold days of the season.

Oxbear finally pulled up the driveway at 8:45 that night, home to a huge hot pork steak after a very long and tense “re-org” at work that involved himself and some of his good buddies. They talked it over at The Scottish Arms before calling it a night. He was also pretty excited about the cast-iron skillet he brought home.