Work, Work, Work
Saturday, October 1, 2011
In which much work is done…
The perfect month.
Puck came in at 6:23 that morning with thoughts on his mind.
“Puck, you should go get dressed so you don’t get cold,” Collette advised him.
“I can’t,” he sighed. “Putting on morning clothes would destroy my appetite.”
But when he returned shortly later in gray Nike sweatshirt and…
“Are you wearing jeans?” Collette asked him.
“Yup. You can’t see properly in this light, can you?”
As Collette fired up the stove for breakfast, Puck walked through the kitchen with his old googly-eyed vacuum.
“Thanks for vacuuming, buddy.”
“I was just vacuuming because I was grumpy.”
Not long later, he was tucking into his porridge like a giant taking a bite out of a mutating cumulonimbus.
He proceeded with an hour of matchbox cars at the kitchen table, with phrases such as…
“Gravity… oh, gravity.”
“Never put pepper on cakes, Mama. You might achoo.”
Collette had plans to spend the whole day editing a third of her next work. So the boys departed, after a freshly last-of-the-season mown yard, to the Silverspoon’s, while Collette got down to seven hours of editing with the company of the creaking-ships-rigging of the fridge offering six glasses of ice water and a red velvet cupcake that OLeif had brought back from a work party the previous afternoon…
“They brought in all these food trucks. Tacos and cupcakes and frozen egg rolls…”
And before leaving, the boys decided that Puck would learn how to play the accordion.
The day passed as quickly as any. A walk of 47 minutes and a cup of strong Tazo Passion tea, including hibiscus flower and cinnamon, to cut the afternoon.
As Collette wrapped up 44.1% of the total editing load, The boys returned with half a loaf of baker’s bread, a bag of raspberry Ghirardelli chocolate from Gloria, and a black desk fan for OLeif at work, which Puck requested be switched to high speed for the night to lull himself to sleep.
Meanwhile, a little outrageous comedy before calling it a night, during which the matter of pharmaceuticals was discussed…
“What if there was a nuclear holocaust? That’s what I always think about if I had to go on mandatory medication.”
“I’m pretty sure if there was a nuclear holocaust, we would all die.”
“Or if all the pharmacies just shut down. Or some sort of armageddon…”
“Then we wouldn’t survive.”
“Sure we would. Library. River. Fish.”
Shortly later, when OLeif mentioned another run for the border, in the words of Mom and Dad, namely Midnight Truffle Blizzards… Collette began to think that he was slowly planning her imminent demise.
“Clever. Trying to kill me off and no way to prove it once I’m a goner. Hmmm… Keep your receipts.”
OLeif just laughed.