The Return of Joe!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The day had finally arrived. Joe’s homecoming!
But first, to church, where Puck was having a difficult morning, but finally settled down for Sunday School and greeted little Anneliese in her pretty blue dress, with a Noah’s Ark set. Anneliese began serving up the animals on plastic dishes.
Back at the house, Carrie-Bri and Linnea were already in the process of preparing to bathe the cats. This was not going over so well… Linnea-Irish had dumped the fat black one into a plastic laundry hamper with holes throughout, and on the lid. She lugged her into the tub and started filling it. Puck stood at hand with the shower-head ready for the wash.
“MEOWWWWWW!!!!”
Pumpkin was one mad cat. She made a jump for it. Linnea caught her just in time and stuffed her back in. Her hair was so matted that shampoo did very little to relieve the tangles. Even a comb didn’t help much. After a good rinse, Linnea wrapped her up in a towel and comforted her. Then it was time for Snuggles…
After the second service, OLeif and Collette returned with Dad’s order of Cecil Whittaker’s pizza.
“I love it when your mom’s not home,” OLeif teased.
Meanwhile, Carrie and Linnea prepared a ‘Welcome Home’ sign, which Puck also aided in coloring, and Carrie baked a family-sized chocolate chip cookie, which she then iced in bright colors, reading:
Welcome
home
Eleanor
Andy!!!
Inside joke…
Lazy, quiet, heat…
Finally, shortly after five o’clock, the Odyssey pulled up the driveway. Puck was already out the door in all excitement, hurrying to greet the passengers. There was a hug for Uncle Joe, who emerged a wild animal according to the locks of uncut hair upon his head. And the usual wildman eyebrows, which Carrie immediately made plans to help tame. But Joe looked strong and healthy as always, with a few scars back into the mix from bike crashes and being thrown, albeit accidentally, into chicken coop wire… and with many stories, of course. Hugs for everyone.
Then the stories began being told over many laughs as gifts were passed around by Grandma, which included a beautiful pair of buckskin moccasins for Collette, a sun necklace for Carrie, Rose had her Indian blanket, and a plush ‘Bandit’ (from Johnny Quest, though a raccoon because a white dog could not be found) for Puck.
Joe loved his room, they chowed down on the cookie while Linnea-Irish and Puck returned from the neighbor’s with a handful of cherry tomatoes, which Puck quickly packed away, there was mention of Rose having joined Joe and ‘the guys’ at the Denny’s 45 minutes away from base for ‘syrup shots’, Joe was eager to get back to driving the cars again, Puck wanted to show Joe everything and ask all kinds of questions that had nothing whatsoever to do with New Mexico or the Boy Scouts, Rose hadn’t wanted to come back home (“I can actually breathe out there,” she said), etc., etc.
There would be many stories to tell over the next days as Joe returned to common life. He seemed pleased to be home. And once again, the family circle was complete.