Saturday, February 1, 2014

An Outside Day


There are some of the faux potatoes I picked up today. Soon I will take great joy in dousing them with gasoline and burning their asses up. It took me hours, crawling around on my knees under branches of cherry laurel and nandina and also thorn vines to get those and besides that, the ground where I was crawling is heavily littered with old broken bottles and glass of every description because people have been living in this house for over a hundred and fifty years and the public dump is a fairly recent invention. I also discovered barbed wire and rusted fencing and two animal dens. I did not cut myself but did find a tick on me.
It was exciting!

Besides all of that, I trimmed and hauled dead things and watered the (mostly dead) porch plants and speaking of trash, I took that down the road including the recycle stuff and so I feel like I've earned my salt today. Which is so silly but that's how I am.

The grocery store was lovely as the grocery store always is and as I wandered slowly around the aisles I thought about how very different the grocery store is when you're an old grandma than it is when you're a young mother with one or more children, some of whom tend to throw melt-down, full-on tantrums every time they go out into public. No, it's just not the same and when I say "not the same" I mean a hell of a lot easier and more pleasant in many ways. Not that I don't enjoy going to the grocery with Lily and the boys but mostly I just wheel the kids around like a race car driver and amuse the children and take them to the water fountain repeatedly and embarrass Lily by doing silly voices and dancing to the Muzak to make the kids laugh. So today was real shopping and I meandered and I wandered and I came home with all sorts of crap that no one in this world needs like organic Rooibos tea as well as the Valerian tea and night cream which guarantees to do something about my wrinkles but it doesn't specify what. I do not expect any miracles. Which reminds me of one of my favorite newspaper comics, Pickles. There was one recently where the old lady's grandson was watching her put her face cream on. "What's that?" he asked her. "Wrinkle cream," said the old lady. "That stuff really works!" the grandson said.
Yes. I am now a woman who relates to a comic strip about two old people.

Okay. Let me ask you a question- do you ever not buy something because it's on Buy One Get One Free? I was going to buy some reduced fat sour cream today but it was BOGO and I did not want but one and yes, I could have given the other to Lily I suppose, but I probably wouldn't remember and it would just go to waste so I didn't buy any. Is that silly? I hate the idea of food going bad plus it just takes up space in the refrigerator where all the Greek yogurt and condiments and leftovers go. I did, however, buy the BOGO hummus and yes, I know, I should make my own and sometimes I do but BOGO!
It's confusing.

So it's been a good day and I got a picture of Elvis' love child. Here she is!


I do not think we need to do a paternity test.

And here's one more picture.


The first azalea on my bushes. I sure hope they don't all pop and then we get another freeze. Nothing sadder in this world than azaleas gone to brown mush. It's always a crapshoot and sometimes it's a glory and sometimes it's just not. I saw a Redbud today in full bloom on my way to the store and living in Florida does have its perks although I was just talking to Lis on the phone and she was outside and getting EAT UP with mosquitoes. And you know...the ticks. And snakes. And frogs who are (as we speak) almost deafeningly loud. And potato vines.

That's all right. As long as I'm tough enough to endure the hard parts, I'll be lucky enough to enjoy the glories. And that sort of sums up everything, doesn't it?

Enjoy your evening.

Love...Ms. Moon

13 comments:

  1. omg, I loathe air potato vine. my son brought one home and dropped it in the yard one day and it took me years and years to eradicate it. at one point I was paying the grandkids a nickel each to collect them for me. cost me a fucking bundle.

    too early here for red buds but the earliest pear trees are blooming.

    I got out in the yard today too for a while. planted a small azalea that has been in a pot getting nursed back to health. and speaking of azaleas, we have one that wants to bloom in November. a few at a time all month long.

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  2. No Maury Povich show needed for Elvis! He IS the father! ;)

    Glad for a good day and a happy night.

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  3. Stuff is blooming where you are, and it's still a cold bitter wasteland here in Canada.
    I'm so tired of winter, but I only have three months left!
    Grrrr.
    I don't know what those faux potatoes are! Never heard of them!
    You sound so good today.

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  4. I do the same thing with BOGOs too - not buy one because I only need one and it is BOGO. It is confusing. I am an ALDI shopper partly to avoid those kinds of confusing things. The sour cream is good and it is always the same low price.

    No, a paternity test is not needed. That is def your grandchicken.

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  5. You could do a random act of kindness and give the free sour cream to the person in the line behind you. At any rate, BOGO in our house always get used. My teengers eat a lot!

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  6. That gardening you did today sounds hazardous, especially to your knees!! Be careful! It sounds like you got a lot done but glass? I hope you wore knee pads. That chicken is cute. It does not look as little as I would imagine. I am glad your days are getting better and hope that continues. BOGO with food does not work for me but I like the idea of passing it on to someone else. Anyway, maybe you will do a sermon for us tomorrow? Sweet Jo

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  7. Being outside is wonderful. The sky is a roof made of happiness.

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  8. I've not heard about that false potato but it must be a potato vine. We have had those in hanging baskets. The garden is doing well here--at least the collards--after the sleet storm. This week it will be rainy and mild. I'm okay with that!

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  9. You get a gold star for your hard work, I have the same compulsion, to feel worthy by my own measuring stick each day. And doesn't yard work make you feel doubly good?
    Those potato things are a mystery, never seen them before, but I'd be out there eradicating them too. I fight my personal battle with poison ivy here.

    That BOGO crap? I won't buy them because of waste and I know they're using me to move about to expire product. I don't like grocery games, just charge me half for one and I'm in. My dad worked most of his life in the Safeway grocery chain, so I learned all the tricks.

    Yep, that's Elvis' baby - you're a Grandma again!

    I tried Azaleas here, rhododendron too and they broke my heart. That you have redbuds in bloom is the most wonderful thought. Ours are three months out.

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  10. Ellen Abbott- Strange things go on in our yards, don't they? Sometimes all we can do is sit and wonder.

    SJ- Heh-heh.

    heartinhand- I am so grateful not to live in a bitter wasteland.

    Jill- Glad to know I'm not the only one. "Grandchicken." Ha!

    Birdie- Yes, I could do that. I wonder why I don't. Lily and I do split things sometimes.

    Sweet Jo- I had on my toughest overalls and gloves and watched where I was crawling. So it was okay. Yes- that hen is almost fully grown!
    A sermon? Let me think...

    Denise- Yes. Poetically and literally.

    Syd- My greens survived quite nicely. Almost time to get the peas and potatoes in.

    Mel- We have the poison ivy too. Of course. I do like the BOGO on my favorite coffee. And bread I can put one loaf in the freezer. And canned tomatoes. Never can have too many of those.
    I have learned not to get heartbroken over plants. Maybe becoming a grandmother helped in that regard. Who knows? If something doesn't grow, thrive, or in fact dies, I take it as a lesson and move on. But it used to break my heart.

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  11. Dang, Elvis' baby has really big feet!

    Loved the Bill Murray video from yesterday's post- did you watch him shave? HYSTERICAL.

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  12. Those potato vines are such a nightmare. We've spent years trying to stamp them out on our property near Tampa.

    I don't really EVER love the grocery store. And yes, I can see how the wrong BOGO would be a curse. We don't have BOGOs here in England, but I suppose it's only a matter of time.

    Is it my imagination or does Elvis' love child have very large feet?!

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  13. Jucie- Did not see that part of the interview. Must look it up!

    Steve (and Juicie) That hen may turn out to be a rooster. Those ARE very large feet.

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