The Good Places
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Before church, as OLeif buckled Puck into his car seat, Puck sneezed in his face.
“It’s ok, Daddy,” he said. “I blessed on your face.”
Everyone was everywhere that morning.
Dad was in Iowa through the following Sunday.
Mom was teaching Sunday School after working the early service in the nursery.
OLeif was playing both services and teaching Sunday School.
Collette had a VBS meeting after the second service.
Carrie-Bri was on her way to Columbus, Ohio, with Kitts, to help her check out housing and roommates for the upcoming year.
Joe was in Philmont of course.
Rose was at Memorial.
Francis was camping out with the Scouts in Forest Park to celebrate the Boy Scouts’ 100th anniversary.
And Linnea and Puck were doing the usual, both having participated, Linnea by participating, and Puck by watching, in Promotion Sunday.
Oh, yes, Promotion Sunday. Where the new sixth graders had once been taught by OLeif and Collette as Kindergartners. So odd. And, of course, Sunrise had graduated from the program.
And earlier, during the service, a new family had been introduced who was living in the farmhouse on the church property before heading to South Africa at the end of the year with MTW.
Also introduced was the church’s new secretary. The fifth in the church’s history. So far, Ivy had beaten them out in longevity. Just over five years. Then Collette at five years.
On the way back to the house, Puck asked his mama very seriously for a report on his behavior during church.
“Was I ‘bedient to you, Mama?”
He had been. For the most part. Then he launched into a brief narrative about everything that ‘God made’, including ‘trees’ and ‘pies’.
Back at the house, Rose had cleaned out the garage. And Francis, who was toasted red as a baked apple, had stories about his weekend in Forest Park, which included ‘castle wars’, a message from the Dirty Jobs guy, and an in-person appearance from one of the dudes from Myth Busters, as it had been the second largest gathering of Boy Scouts in its entire history, according to Francis. Well over ten thousand Scouts. Francis had guessed up to 20,000.
Meanwhile, after the napping hour, Mom, OLeif, Collette, Rose, Francis, Linnea, and Puck left for Ted Drewe’s. This was only after Mom and OLeif had spent about twenty minutes discussing the attributes of making homemade fries and potato chips.
It was a nice day out. And, as usual, they considered the ‘safety’ factor of each neighborhood as they passed through it.
“Hey, I could live there by the hospital,” said Rose. “That way, if I got stabbed, I could go right over there. Oh, look! Train tracks! I could watch from my window with binoculars and report any crime in process. This looks like a murder neighborhood. Oh, a Mini Cooper. Good. I don’t think murderers live in Minis.”
“Live in?” Francis asked.
“I don’t think that just because it’s a bad part of town that everyone’s a murderer,” said OLeif, laughing at her.
“Look, a lady’s grilling burgers over there,” said Francis. “It must be ok.”
“Murder burgers,” Rose replied darkly.
But then, everything sprung back into life and they were in a beautiful sort of English-looking neighborhood. And that was where Ted Drewe’s came into sight off of Chippewa.
Cold, creamy goodness. And Puck ran around with a small tub of walnuts as his consolation prize. Plus two bites of Collette’s cookie dough custard, which seemed to satisfy him just fine.
“I can’t live down here,” Rose concluded. “I’d eat too much ice cream.”
On the way home, everyone dropped in at Trader Joe’s to stock up. This included fare for another round of Shakespeare, a packaged Middle Eastern lunch for Rose and tomatoes and goat cheese, and blackberries for Linnea.
“Wash those first,” Rose instructed. “Or you could get anthrax.”
Then OLeif turned on his latest favorite hit, Gitar, followed by the Smothers Brothers.
And the evening ended with a bubble bath for Puck and a hair cut for OLeif.