FRIENDLY FRIBBLE FRAPPES

I got my day off, finally, but not until Thursday when the rains came. I stayed home with piles of paperwork, took a brief, restless nap, and made a stray call or two to check on custom cabinet estimates, and an engineering assessment of the stainless steel tie rods that will keep the almost cathedral ceiling we'll begin to build on Friday, from spreading under a snow load, and flattening the oblivious occupants below. Less than thirteen hundred pounds of tensile strength times two, is that enough?

Wednesday it was Mark and me alone as Adam rolled over early in the morning and found himself in bed with an unwanted companion - vertigo - caused by who knows what. An eggplant sub? Breakfast burrito with meatloaf made from soy? Mostly he remained in bed, as vertigo turned to nausea when he stood, while Mark and I finished the sheathing, cut out all the door and window openings, and wrapped three sides with Tyvek. A tidy Christmas present replete with Mark created hospital corners at the top of the walls.

We both worked steadily, contentedly, under blue skies and sun, and touched on all manner of subjects from exercise and diet, to misogyny, Mormons, life lived too quickly with and without purpose, and, of course, power tools. Mark already knew the difference between those that relentlessly hunt for the user (circular saws for instance) and those like the sawzall pictured in his hand, that require a conscious offering of flesh to injure.

With the cozy combination of work and talk the day whizzed by until late afternoon. With the sun hinting at hot summer days ahead and needing a break, Tricia became our savior in beige as she walked out into the new room with two Fribbles in hand - one chocolate, one strawberry. For non natives, Fribbles are Friendly versions of Frappes.