Relationships And How They Sometimes Work

That's the Japanese maple that I planted in our yard when we moved in. The man we bought the house from brought it to the closing and gave it to me which I thought was a lovely gift. It has grown quite a bit in the twenty years that have passed and for once, I seem to have planted something in the right place. It does very well there, by the yard of the old kitchen. I can see it from my back porch where I spend a good many hours of my day. Every fall it does what Japanese maples do which is to appear to catch fire when the sun is shining on its leaves. 

It's been a slow, lazy day. I seem to be making a habit of that. Mr. Moon got up early, early to go duck hunting. That season has begun. He went out for breakfast with a buddy afterwards and I made myself a sort-of Sunday breakfast, including two biscuits that I baked in my tiniest skillet in the air fryer/toaster oven and they may have been some of the best biscuits I ever made. Biscuits are nice in that you can make only two if that's what you want. Just a little self-rising flour, some butter, some buttermilk. Pat your biscuits out, put them in a tiny pan and bake them at a slightly lower temperature in the toaster oven than you would in the regular oven. Not only do they come out fine, they take far less time to cook. 

Then Glen got home and went to work on my car which he has been cleaning and detailing for several days now. There is sort of a story behind this. Ever since we got married, it has been part of our unspoken contract that he deals with all of the car issues from getting the oil changed to getting repairs done if necessary, to making sure my car looks halfway decent. I do get my own gas. Usually. But overall, he is the Car Guy and I am the Car Guy's wife. It's not unknown for me to drive my car through a carwash but I don't do that very often. 
To my mind, it's always been sort of like the fact that there's no question who is going to do the cooking. That is what I do. 
Relationships all have these unspoken agreements, I think. And if someone seemingly is not holding up their end of the unspoken agreement, things can get...uncomfortable. You have to finally speak. Communicate. Etc. All those relationship things. 

So my car had gotten to a bad point. It looked terrible. Even to me, who generally does not give a damn what her car looks like. It was, according to The Car Guy, spotted with mildew. Whatever it was, going through the car wash twice did nothing at all to make it look any better. But I just didn't talk about it and figured that eventually the man would take care of the situation. 
Then Jessie pointed out that I might have roaches in my car. 
The horror! 
Although this is far more common in Florida than you'd think. They just fly in and take up residence if there are crumbs about and yes, I do eat in the car sometimes and yes, I let the kids eat in it too. So no big mystery there. I got some roach traps and informed my husband of the situation. 

And waited.

Finally, I reached my limit and one morning recently I went to him and said, "Why have you let my car get to this point?" and a great, wet tear slid down my face because I had been feeling, if not unloved, then slightly ignored. And it's not like the man hasn't been busy. Oh my god, he's been busy taking care of all sorts of business. 
Still. 
And he heard me and he spent days cleaning and waxing and vacuuming and scrubbing and now my car is absolutely beautiful again. 

And I feel loved. 

What we really need is a carport. We have the GarageMahal but it's about a quarter of a mile from the house. Well, not really, but it's more than a few steps plus you know damn well there is no room in that giant building for our cars. It is filled with ongoing projects and tools and boats and deer-processing equipment and lawn mowers. We have discussed a porte cochere which is a lovely sort of attached carport but we're not sure how we could add one of those with the design of the house. We should explore this option though.

I pulled some more border grass and croscromia out by the front of the house and I am thinking I want to plant muhley grass there. Remember that stuff growing behind the GDDG I took a picture of a few months ago? 

It looks like this. 

It's native, not invasive, and I think it's pretty. And as soft as a baby's curls. I need to make a trip to the plant nursery. 

And that's all I need to talk about this evening. It's time to go cook some fish and some grits. I wanted to cook collards to go with them but I am saving all of those for Thanksgiving. Phew,  y'all! The day is almost upon us. I need to make one more (please god, only one) trip to the grocery store and I need to make my angel biscuit dough and the cranberry sauce. Is that all? Hell if I know. I suppose I could precook the collards and heat those up. It wouldn't hurt them. They're always better the next day anyway. 

Meanwhile, here we are. Another Sunday in north Florida and oh! I forgot to mention that yesterday when we passed by the little plot of land where the Lloyd Farmer's Market sign has been for months, there were a few people set up there, selling things! And there were people there looking around, possibly buying things! I am so excited! I need to check this out. What a great thing for Lloyd this would be. And it will funnel folks to the My Gypsy Soul Boutique which is right there beside the farmer's market. Perhaps there is hope for that woman's dream after all. 

We shall see. She has surely hung on longer than I would have ever predicted. 

Love...Ms. Moon