Billy texted this to me a little while ago. It made me laugh. It really is that hot although I know it's going to get hotter. We are still in June here. Okay, soon to be July which is pretty scorchy and then August which is at least as hot as July but by then we have completely spent all of our ability to deal with the heat and we're just plain old fucking miserable. I imagine it's not unlike how you people who live in cooler climes feel about the cold by the time it finally starts to warm up in June or July or whenever it thaws where you are.
But let's go back to the part about where I said that meme made me laugh. I love to laugh. Who doesn't? And sometimes I make myself laugh so hard that it's truly inappropriate. It doesn't happen often but when it does, it delights me and for days afterwards every time I think of it, I laugh some more.
And it happened to me last night.
Again, I was in bed. Again, I did not have my glasses on. Again, I looked up to the same exact spot where that spider had been a few days ago and for the love of god, there was another bug there. Same exact place.
I sensed that this was not another spider and picked up my phone and as before, did the best with the telephoto lens setting I could and I was right. It was not a spider. It was a roach.
Y'all- we have roaches. I don't mean we have an infestation of them. I just mean that anyone and everyone in Florida has roaches. Some people call them "palmetto bugs" which sounds so much more refined and almost acceptable but they're just roaches. And I do not waste any time whatsoever debating whether or not to kill one when I see it. Or try and kill one because those little fat fuckers can move like the devil and they are masters at escaping to unreachable dark places.
So I don't actually kill that many no matter how hard I try.
But last night I decided that Glen could take care of this roach the way he took care of the spider the other night, and indeed, he got the broom and he smashed that dang thing with great purpose and force and as soon as he'd done it, for some reason unknown to me I opened my mouth and what came out were the words, "That was a right smart smack!" I said it in a highly approving manner. A cheerful manner. And then immediately I said, "I've been reading way too many British novels," and then I just cracked up and so did Glen and before I knew it, I could hardly breathe for laughing.
Now you may not find this amusing in the least but I have never in my life said anything even resembling, "That was a right smart smack!" and I have no idea where it came from unless it was really was a side effect of reading all those British novels although I have no idea if English people go around saying "That was a right smart smack!" or anything like it but it seemed like maybe they do.
I felt like I was channeling someone other than myself.
I wonder if I am developing multiple personalities. Remember just a week or so ago when I completely lost it and a Gorgon burst forth from my mouth when Mr. Moon mentioned that he might be interested in another project? At least last night's bizarre comment made us laugh instead of making Mr. Moon cringe in terror.
I remember doing this once before when Levon was a little guy and I was reading a book to him. "The Best Nest" by P.D. Eastman and the voice I did for the mother bird which again, came out of nowhere, was so hysterically funny that we both laughed until we cried. We still talk about that and it truly was one of the best moments of my life.
So that was the funny thing and you may not find it funny at all, that right smart smack comment but I was so amused.
I cut zinnias today and it hurt me a little bit. I loved what Ellen said in her comment on yesterday's post about picking zinnias which I shall copy here:
Exactly! Their joy glow is gone.
Well, I put the ones whose glow I stole in the funky vintage teapot I got a month or so ago and set it on the hallway altar table.
I am thinking I need and want to completely change up that space. Or, well, at least change it a little bit.
I definitely need to change it in the sense that it desperately needs some dusting and polishing and the beach glass needs washing and all that stuff. But it's hard to think about turning it into something completely different because almost everything on it has deep meaning and memories associated with it. Not the new things I made in pottery but the pictures and tortoise shells, the seashells, and a few things you can't really see like the little monogrammed silver mug that was given to my parents when I was born, which holds a piece of black coral that I found on the beach in Cozumel for which I probably could have been arrested for bringing home but was not.
And especially, ESPECIALLY, my carved wooden folk art image of the Virgin of Guadalupe which I also got in Cozumel although in a shop, not on the beach. I love her.
So, I don't know.
I see that vanity/altar at least twenty or more times a day as it is directly across the hallway from my kitchen door and I must pass it to go either to the right, which is the path to the back porch, or go almost straight when I take the inside route to the guest room, laundry room, our bedroom, and my bathroom, or head to the left to go to the Glen Den.
Maybe I need an entirely new piece of furniture there.
I've also been thinking about the little lamps I got in Monticello to supposedly take up to the cabin but which have been just sitting on a crowded chest in the dining room for a very long time and wondering if they should take up residence on that altar.
Remember this couple?
Terrible picture. Sorry. Oh well.
Somehow I do not think they'll be making it up to Lake Seminole.
Perhaps I should put them on the shelf in my bathroom above the sink which would require an entire clearing and cleaning which is not a bad thing at all.
Oh. I just don't know. But this is exactly what I was talking about recently- letting go of things that are simply here due to emotional attachments which might not even be valid anymore.
That does not apply to the things on the vanity in the hallway. At all.
But the things on the shelf in the bathroom?
Yeah. A lot of that I can let go of.
This, however, is not anything I want to let go of.
Remember to laugh at yourself when it's appropriate. That's all I have to offer today.






That was very funny! Yes. It will now be family lore. Sounds more Tennessee to meee, but what do I know.
ReplyDeleteOMG. Mr Moon and those peppers are to die for. Those lamps MUST stay with you..... perhaps get rid of something else to make room...... but they are *you* IMO. I did not view Billy's text, but will do so later. I love the little *altars* (for lack of a better word) that you have all over your house..... just makes me smile....
ReplyDeleteSusan M
That was a pretty damn big roach, y'all grow 'em big down there.
ReplyDeleteThat Teapot Bouquet is so Cheerful and Lovely. And you grew some very nice Peppers!
ReplyDeleteRight smart smack sounds very British to me.
ReplyDeleteRoach(es) in the house - oh no - worse than spiders.
I only ever met a roach in AZ. It was in the bathtub. I was freaked. Maintenance said the condo complex was scheduled for fumigation the following week and there would be no more roaches for a while.
Your altar is charming. Can you expand it to include the lamps?
I love everything on every surface , every wall of your house. It is so difficult to subtract- I have tried but then moments later...nope- addition is better. Is there even such a thing as minimalist, or beige? Are they dead?
ReplyDeleteThat is a pretty ex roach on the wall- I have only seen one cock roach in my life- it scooted from the bananas I bought at the grocery. I let it live, because I was in the checkout line , still in the store.