Tornadoes & Spitballs
Monday, June 13, 2005
Monday morning, a triple birthday, was set aside for preparing for Tuesday evening and such. Mom and Linnea picked up Collette in the morning, and all three dropped by Hobby Lobby to search for Rose’s and Grandma’s birthday presents. Linnea selected a wooden horse for Rose and a small patched bear figurine for OLeif, with her own savings. Although she had difficulty deciding between it and a small porcelain clown.
“I can’t decide,” she wrinkled her brow at them, one in each hand. “I really like the clown… But I think I’ll take the bear.”
She slipped him into the small cart, and pushed it onto the next aisle after picking up a bag of Laffy Taffy for herself.
For Rose there was also a leather box fit for an archaeologist with a pattern of world maps grained into the leather and studded. Grandma would receive a smaller version of this box to go with her bracelet from the gypsy fair. To add to Rose’s birthday trove, a wall piece of the Colleseum in relief, was also added to the cart.
Afterward, they visited the grocery store, leaving with two full carts. Collette washed her laundry, boiled and shelled three dozen eggs, and began writing her book of Li Mei (a young Chinese girl) and of her capture by Norse Vikings in the early thirteen hundreds and her rise to “goddess-hood” in present-day Canada.
Rose had gone off to Kansas City without any difficulties, and Carrie was planning on spending a week in July with Paige Popp in K.C. before her man, (a tornado-chaser), shocking red hair and all, came back from Iraq to propose. She and Carrie decided they should enter the police academy together. Lucia was also currently keen on attending.
Meanwhile, Blessing’s surgery had gone very well, (much to everyone’s relief), and Collette wrote her a get well card, sending it to Brit’s and Lili’s house, as she was staying with them until she recovered.
In other news, Dad had been troublesome for the past several days. When the storms howled through Monday afternoon, and the winds blew furiously, breaking branches across the lawn before their eyes… he refused to let Carrie open any windows.
“I don’t want this place getting any more humid,” he bellowed at Carrie.
And at the Finn Inn, he had blown a spit ball into the back of Carrie’s hair, giggling the whole time, red-handed.
But the storms had been fierce that day, with gales nearly snapping the trees in half. During the lull between storms, Carrie-Bri and Collette walked around the yard gathering the first mess of branches and throwing them on the bonfire. Then Francis and Linnea returned from their swimming lessons, Linnea’s lesson having been canceled during the height of the storm.
“Tornado warning! Tornado warning!” Francis squealed in delight, bounding through the house.
“Yay!”
Linnea bounced right behind him, helping to set up and light candles all over the house when the electricity went out.
Francis was soon outside before dinner with his binoculars, scanning the storm-heads. Several hours later, after Mom and Carrie had taken Collette home on the way to order a cake for the next evening, the electricity was still out.