A Real Sunday

We've had rain from dawn to dusk today and it is still drizzling. I went out in it to pick some collards and salad greens and that rose was bent over the garden gate. All of the blossoms had their heads bowed, heavy with the rain. We've gotten some huge and close cracks of lightning and thunder too, during the day, a few of them shaking the house with their great and powerful energy. 

I picked the greens and lettuces for Mr. Moon to take to a friend whose wife just died a few days ago. He's a hunting buddy and I'd call them close friends. They've driven up to Canada and back together a few times and Glen enjoys the man's company. His wife has been ill for quite awhile but still- it's always a shock when death happens somehow. There is no real preparation for the actuality of it. 
So Glen asked his friend if there had been a lot of food coming in and he said, "Not too many casseroles. Mainly I'd like some salad or green beans." 
This is not the food that one generally thinks of to take to grieving friends but if that's what they want, that's what they want. My green beans are almost gone now, the few I have left that I canned, but the collards and mustards are in a state of plenty so I figured that since he was a southern boy, he'd appreciate a pot of those. So I cooked them up with onions and a ham hock and I washed the salad greens and dried them and they're in a bag waiting to go to. I also made a little pan of cornbread and it's all ready to go now but Jim, the friend, is not answering his phone so...perhaps he'll want them tomorrow. 

Jessie and her boys came over in the early afternoon. They had been decorating their Charlie Brown Christmas tree and half the lights suddenly stopped working so Jessie took the boys to Waffle House, which she had promised them she would. They've never been to the Waffle House which is sort of a sin in that it is the Waffle House which feeds and sustains us here in the south with its always hospitable welcome, its hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon, its never-ending coffee and yes, sometimes its waffles. Day or night they welcome you, and it does not matter if you are sober and dressed for church or drunk and living rough, if you can sit on a stool or a bench and have the money, they will take care of you. 

Here are the boys drinking the coffee creamers which is a time-honored thing to do in diners for children who are lucky. 

If you were/are an Anthony Bourdain fan (god, don't we miss him?) here's a five minute video of him eating at the Waffle House for the first time. 

I highly recommend that you watch it. 

It was so good to have Jess and August and Levon here. Of course the boys wanted nothing more than to play Wii with Boppy and watch TV and Jessie let them. I asked her if she'd work a little on my back and neck because I've felt as if that area of my body has been so tight that it is impeding the flow of blood to my brain. I swear. And so she did, finding and soothing and smoothing out the knots there and I felt so much better afterwards. 

Vergil had discovered through engineering sleuthery that the problem with their Christmas tree lights was that Sophie had bitten through them. 
Sigh. She loves the Christmas tree. 
So I asked Jessie if she would like some of my decorations and perhaps, lights, to take home and use because Lord knows I ain't gonna be using them. We tromped upstairs to see what was there and we found a huge box of lights that Mr. Moon had once used to put up outside when we were younger and had just recently moved in to this old house, and cared about things like that more. Jessie was thrilled! She went through the plunder in the closet upstairs and found some other things she said she'd take home. It feels good to let these thing go where they will be loved again. 
We also found Jessie's old Cookie Monster blanket from when she was a little thing. I do not remember who gave it to her, but I sure do remember that blanket. And then, I found something that thrilled my heart. 

Three Mary nightlights! Okay. Go ahead and laugh. Some years back, before we moved here, for mysterious reasons still unknown to me, I started buying these things at the Dollar Store. And then, I would decorate them. I spent hours and days on this project. I painted them with nail polish because it was relatively cheap and you can buy any color of nail polish and it is shiny and it can be sparkly or glittery. And then...I would add beads and sequins and glitter. Oh, the tubes of glitter I had! I got tiny miniature roses at craft stores and they, too, were used. I swear- this was the most intense craft project I ever embarked on. Every minute that I worked on those things was a happy minute for me. I knew, even as I was working on them, that it was all rather ridiculous but...I loved it.

I do not have even one of the decorated ones left. They have disappeared into the ether, I suppose. Or, more likely, various trash cans. 

But here's the thing- I do not care. The joy I had in making them was...well, not exactly appropriate to the result, somehow. 
Who can explain these things? 
So when I found these upstairs in the closet, my heart was happy and I swear to you, I am going to get to work on doing another one to see if I still get the same pleasure from painting with that tiny brush, tweezering on the beads one by one, placing them just so in the glue. 

Sigh. 

I may be shit at knitting and crocheting but I am an artist when it comes to funkifying a madonna night light. 

Or at least I used to be. 

The boys were very excited at getting new Christmas decorations so that pleased me too. "You want this?" I'd ask, and August would say, "Yes!" and reach out his arms to take it. 

When it came time for them to leave, I gave them each one of the tiny cupcakes I'd bought at Publix for Maggie's visit. 

Jessie agreed with my original assessment of them in that they were surprisingly delicious. The boys simply loved them. 

And so they cheered this rainy day for me as did finding those silly nightlights. Here we are in this sturdy old house whose floors and walls may shake at thunder but which stands strong despite that. 

I have been feeling pretty low and under the weather lately but it is good to be reminded by my loving family that there is indeed joy amidst the gloom. 

I kissed the boys very lightly and politely when they left and August told me he loved me infinity times infinity. Levon, who has no tolerance for such silliness just said that he loved me. 
And oh- I love them. 

Ay. It's raining fairly steadily again and Mr. Moon has just left to take the collards and salad greens and cornbread to his friend. Maurice and I both feel a bit unhappy with his leaving. 
"Meow?" she asked me. 
"I know," I said. "I didn't want him to go either. But he'll be fine."

I have no idea if she believes me but he will be. 

Love...Ms. Moon