Fuzzy Socks

Last year on a lark, mouse gave everyone she knew a pair of fuzzy socks. Not sure exactly why mouse thought it would be fun, but yeah. When Daddy opened his, the expression was priceless. He mumbled something about hoping to have dodged that bullet.

Twice he's attempted to remove the fuzzy socks from his life. Once mouse found them in her sock drawer. When mouse asked about that, he said he didn't want to her feel left out. The second time mouse rescued them from a bag on its way out to charity. Daddy said that mouse have radar or something. But mouse always double-checks the bags. You just never know what important thing might be accidentally given away. Yes, mouse's personal points of reference on that might be TV shows from the 70s.

Still there was an important lesson to be learned otherwise you'd end up driving all over town trying to track down the one thing that shouldn't have been given away to begin with. When mouse explained it and mentioned the shows that did that, he just smiled and said that mouse was silly, no one was going to drive around town to retrieve fuzzy socks. As he left the room his laughter was heard growing softer with distance.

It became the war of the fuzzy socks.

One evening Daddy mentioned his feet were cold, he told mouse to fetch the blanket, mouse said of course but if he'd rather she could get the fuzzy sock instead. Another time, when our power went off, mouse just brought down the fuzzy socks and he said he'd rather get frostbite and lose toes.

Over summer, the fuzzy sock battle went into a natural ceasefire. Now the weather is shifting. The warm summery days of early fall are replaced by much cooler rainy weather patterns. Came home from work drenched, his raincoat was soaked his feet were wet, some fool aimed for a huge puddle in the road and splashed everyone waiting to cross. It was the cherry on his sundae.

It had been a terrible day and he just knew driving home he was coming down with a cold. When he walked through the front door at the end of the day he just looked terrible. After helping him off with his raincoat, hat and taking his briefcase and placing them close to the fire to dry, Daddy went upstairs to change out of his clothes and mouse could hear the shower being turned on, so she followed him, tossing a clean towel into the dryer for him.

His favorite scotch was waiting for him when he got out and mouse dried him off. After he put on dry clothes, he told mouse to fetch his slippers. Yes, the fuzzy socks came to her mind, but fetched his slippers and put them on his feet. Then she brought him downstairs, poured him another drink, and had him sit by the fire, while she reheated up dinner and finished getting the salad done (now she wished she had made soup).

Daddy was feeling a good deal better by the time dinner was served and complimented mouse on taking care of him, and everything else she did to make the home happy. After dinner Daddy instead of heading to his study he remained in the family room, and watched a game. At some point after cleaning up the kitchen (which actually mouse enjoys doing) she asked Daddy if he wanted anything. He was snuggled down in his chair all reclined with a blanket over him. The problem was he's tall. Too tall for the blanket.

So mouse sprinted up the steps and came back down with the soft fuzzy socks and before he could really protest she pulled off his slippers and slipped them on his very cold feet. Daddy smiled and thanked mouse. Yes, he decided that he didn't mind them so much after all.