My brain better come up with something sassy in the next six seconds because that picture sums up the most interesting thing I did today.
Six...Five...Four...Three...Two...One!
Nope.
Okay. Those bricks are what I found and dug up in the area by the fence that I'm clearing. I also found a piece of a coke bottle, a very small piece of pottery, and an iron railroad spike. It's too bad those things aren't worth a dime because we have many in this yard.
I also dug up the stump of an old cabbage palm which did not transplant successfully some years ago. That sounds more impressive than it was because the poor old thing was rotten enough that I could dig it out with my trowel which I did because I was too lazy to walk all the way over to the garden and get a shovel.
Oh well.
Honestly, I really enjoyed the work today. It is hot but in the eighties, not the nineties, so that was okay. I'm getting pretty good at digging crocosmia bulbs. While I worked I listened to my latest borrowed audio book from the library and I am enjoying it. "The Keeper of Stories" by Sally Page. I thought it was going to be too saccharin and it is pretty sweet, but it's got enough cussing in it to keep me interested. Pretty good characters too. Sometimes I feel like I have listened to every book our area libraries have to offer or at least the ones that I have any interest at all in listening to. This one has a good narrator too and that always helps. So that added to my pleasure.
With my eyes I am reading Sheila Kay Adams' "My Old True Love" and although I cannot believe I've never read it before, I seriously do not remember one bit of it so maybe I haven't. I just looked her up and she is not just a good author, but also a seventh-generation ballad singer and claw hammer banjo player. She was born and raised in North Carolina and comes by her stories and songs naturally. I very much recommend "My Old True Love."
Now. Speaking of North Carolina- the latest news from Black Mountain is that Vergil's family has power! Somehow a crew got up that mountain and hooked them up. I hear the crew was Spanish speaking which does not surprise me. I do not know where they come from but sure, Trump, go ahead, round them up, put them in camps, and then "remigrate" them. And then watch the American economy tank because there's no one to do the work that keeps this country fed, housed, and tended to.
The restoration of power up there had to be quite some achievement. The way the family is getting on and off the mountain is by using the tractor on the trail they've cut, down to where there's a road and their cars are parked. And I hear that some schools are reopening. The strength and spirit of people just amaze me. I think that if it had been me up there I would have just crawled into a hole and died. And I am not kidding.
Well, I guess that tomorrow is Halloween and as usual, we will do nothing to recognize the holiday. Not that we have anything against Halloween but no one in Lloyd seems to Trick or Treat or at least not in our little area. There seem to be no children which, come to think of it, is pretty odd. We're all old people! I used to buy some candy to have just in case someone was brave enough to try and get through the palm fronds blocking the pathway to our porch which, even without decorations looks pretty haunted. But I finally realized that we were just going to end up eating the candy because you know I only bought our favorites. Sometimes my grandchildren save their mini Almond Joys for me which I love. They're all getting together tomorrow night at Lily's house for a fun supper and cousin Trick or Treating together.
Here's a picture that came up on my Facebook memories today from six years ago.
I'll take that any day.
Good news on Vergil's family! And y'all are so right about what's gonna happen if that lunatic does his mass deportations, don't know who is going to harvest food, hang sheetrock, frame houses, replace roofs, etc, you get the idea......
ReplyDeleteOr be nurses or doctors or restaurant workers or- you know, all those jobs that true-born American are lining up for.
DeleteI'm glad you're doing better. I do nothing for Halloween because to me its significance has nothing to do with candy and costumes. Not that local kids will be deprived by my nonparticipation!
ReplyDeleteI never knew of Halloween as anything but a time to dress in a costume and go out and night and knock on doors for candy. It wasn't until I was much older that I knew it had any other significance at all.
DeleteAs a parochial school student, I loved Halloween because we had the next day off, The Feast of All Saints (hallows) being a holy day of obligation. We knew what it meant and still enjoyed the night’s costume and candy collecting rituals. Margaret
DeleteI am happy that your medication is doing its job. I sometimes cry in the mornings too. Since I resigned at FedEx and won’t have to get up as early for the new job, that should help some. Happy Halloween!
ReplyDeleteIt's just the worst, isn't it? But hey- I guess when you wake up and cry, the day's pretty much guaranteed to get at least a little better.
DeleteI'm glad to hear that Vergil's family has power again. I can't even imagine going that long without power. I have noticed a huge increase in ads for generators on the CNN channel, since the hurricanes, and freeze dried food.
ReplyDeleteI just finished a lovely book, "The Borrowed Life Of Frederick Fife" by Anna Johnston. It was about a good, kind man. It was heartwarming.
I'm also glad the meds are helping. I'm already dreading the darkness that is coming but today I used my new (to me) elliptical trainer for 15 minutes. I'll work my way up to longer and I hope that will help with the darkness depression.
I really don't know if I could live in a place where it gets dark for long periods of time. You are smart to have a plan in place. I hope the exercise helps.
DeleteI think that anyone who goes into the sales, installation, and repair of generators can possibly make a very good living these days.
I will be looking for that book. I think I'd like it.
I don't think you could Share that Adorable pix too many times, it's precious. Good to hear Vergil's Family have power again, being without power is hard. We don't get a lot of Trick-Or-Treaters since our area is Aging Out too and most Multigenerational Families here are now all Adults. I still Decorate and get ready to hand out Candy to the few tho' and look forward to seeing the popular Costumes, even tho' now I have no Idea who they're supposed to be? My Great-Grandchild had Costume Day and School and my 19 Year Old Granddaughter and I had to Google Picture Identify the Costume since we had no Idea who she was supposed to be! *LOL*
ReplyDeleteOh gosh. I'm in the same boat. I know NONE of those super heroes or whatever they are. Show me a pirate or a cowboy!
DeleteThat photo is so precious -- I love it every time I see it. How could so many years have gone by?
ReplyDeleteI keep asking myself that, Elizabeth.
DeleteOh my stars, that photo! So cutesy.
ReplyDeleteMy mother suffered all her life, even as a teen with depression and anxiety.
She had every medication available. She also had many in patient episodes involving electric shock treatment. All to no end. She commited suicide. She just wanted it to stop. I was angry for many years. As an only child I felt abandoned. I've come to terms with it now.
I have had two bouts of depression but nothing for the last 25 years. I do suffer from anxiety and my meds work incredibly well. I do get anxious in certain circumstances but i can manage it. It's not so immense anymore.
A book that i recommend is The Noonday Demon by Andrew Soloman. It helped me understand, which in itself helped.
I'm no martyr, I take the medication!
I love those old bricks, aren't they beautiful. I wonder who made them and what they built?
For some people, depression is a terminal illness despite medication and other interventions which are available. I am so sorry that your mother suffered so much and that you suffered subsequently. My mother had depression too and threatened suicide from the time I was very young until the last time I saw her. That sort of fucked me up too, even though she never did it.
DeleteI'll look for that book.
And I have no idea about the bricks. They may be relatively new-ish because so many people have lived here and done different things to the house and the yard.
Sweet August and Maggie. You're stronger than you think Mary, you would NOT have crawled into a hole and died. you would have put on a pot of soup then gone out and started bailing water or something else constructive. Those old bricks are lovely and maybe you could incorporate them into the new brick patio.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who needs antidepressants, but they make him psychotic which is so much worse.
What a horrible side-effect of a medication! I hope they've tried different ones.
DeleteMany different ones, all of them no good for him. He has many other issues as well and just bumbles along from day to day. On good days he'll paint pictures, or make something with moulds and cements.
DeleteThat's wonderful news about Vergil's family (and a testament to human spirit), and I'm so glad your anti-depressants are helping too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Liz.
DeleteGlad you are feeling better. Trump climbed into the wrong end of the garbage truck!
ReplyDeleteI saw that. What a total shithead he is.
DeleteI have been so amazed at the strength and determination of the people in NC. Very glad your family is managing. It has to be tough.
ReplyDeleteI like those old bricks.
We often dress up and do stuff for Halloween. I really enjoyed the witches broom dance, but could not do it this year with this knee still healing. Next year! We seldom have anyone come down our spooky driveway for treats, so if any show up, they will get $1.00. Easier, and no candy for us to eat!
The Witches' Broom Dance? Oh my. I doubt I've put a Halloween costume on in forty years. I just don't like costuming except for when I used to act. Then it was fun.
DeleteSuch a sweet pic of those cuties! I get to take 2 of my grandsons trick-or-treating today. I haven't done that since my own kids were little so I think it will be fun. Good for you getting a lot of that yard work done. I'm glad you are feeling better, too!
ReplyDeleteOh, I do hope you have fun with your littles!
DeleteI love Magnolia's curls.
ReplyDeleteShe was a true doll baby of a girl.
DeleteGreat that the NC family has power. The hardship in NC is unthinkable and nobody knows how long it will take to rebuild/restore the communities. Like you, I would have run to new lands. Thankfully, we are not all the same. People are living like pioneers starting over again. Fortunately, you have a great doctor to work with and secure the right medical solution(s). I'm glad things are working for you.
ReplyDeleteAugust and Maggie are the cutest in that Halloween photo.
I, too, would move to new lands but let's face it- I would never live in the mountains anyway. I am a flatlander for sure. But a hurricane could take us out any time.
DeleteAren't those two darling babies?
glad to hear Virgil's family has power, and yeah, you dick, kick those people out of the country and watch the economy collapse. except that's exactly what Trump and Musk want. we rarely got trick or treaters when we lived in our inner city neighborhood, the one my mother thought wasn't good enough to even park her car in because it was a mixed working class neighborhood, and have never gotten a single one out here. no kids, all old people.
ReplyDeleteWhere do all the kids live these days? Certain neighborhoods and newer housing developments, I'm guessing.
DeleteEllen, I am so tired of waiting to see which way this country votes that I'm about to lose my mind.
Awwww! What a sweet image of August and Magnolia! August seems to be dressed as a swan or maybe it's a duck....or a goose... perhaps a seagull? Anyway it is so sweet. Yesterday I read an American fellow's short account of how he brought his lab coat and a syringe home for Halloween. When kids knocked on his front door he would open it, brandishing his syringe and saying, "Have you come for your injection?" Well - it made me chuckle anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I always thought of that as a swan costume but it could be a goose. It's cute, whatever it is.
DeleteOkay? That guy with the lab coat and syringe? I'd run screaming from that house.
I am happy you had a good day and that the meds are working!
ReplyDeleteI may have spoken too soon...
DeleteBut I might be doing better.
so happy for Vergils family! It's been a long road....and will continue to be, for all of them. Yeah.....I can just see people lining up for the zillion jobs that would be unfilled if you know who might happen to ..you know......(I can't even say it). I'm getting some major election *dread* going.....ugh
ReplyDeleteSusan M
Let us hope that The Incredibly Orange Man gets taken out in the back part of that truck he could hardly get into yesterday.
DeleteGreat news about Vergil's family! That must be such a relief to him (and all of you). The world has now moved on to Spain for flooding news, but I'm sure they'll be cleaning up and rebuilding in North Carolina for months to come. I think I remember that picture of Maggie and August! Very cute.
ReplyDelete