Back To School, Back To Sanity. Mostly

It was freaking hot today. And yes, cars get really hot sitting in parking lots. However, when I got in that car after it had been sitting in a parking lot, it was registering 99 degrees. It was 100 after I'd driven it about six miles down the road. 
Of course these days, a hundred degrees F is becoming normal for many areas of the world which no one ever would have imagined even ten years ago. 
Except the environmental scientists. They knew what was coming.

This morning I was in a low place when I got up. Again, I do not know why. I was so teary and getting these back-to-school photos only made me tearier.

Maggie was going for a sort of school-uniform/anime look. 
Success! 

August and Levon- this year's hug photo. 

I mentioned how much I loved these pictures of them hugging every year and Jessie sent this. 

That was five years ago when August was starting kindergarten. Levon was a baby! And August was barely much past the baby stage. 

My heart. 

So August is going into fifth grade this year, as is Maggie, and Levon is going into the third grade. All of this just seems completely impossible. 

By this time, I was ready to text Jessie and Lily and bow out of the pedicure situation but I knew damn well that seeing them was exactly what I needed to do. Forget my toes, my heart needed some tending. 
So I met them at the salon and yes, they cheered me right up. I dumped all my woes out as soon as I got there and they just listened and nodded and said things like, "That's hard," and I started feeling better immediately. 
And then I picked out the nail polish color I wanted and things got better from there. 

Pictures! 

These were both quick-quick point and shoots and I did not even notice until Jessie pointed it out that there was an almost-naked Ryan Reynolds on the screen on the wall. Lily hadn't noticed it either but it does look as if she HAS and is getting some enjoyment out of it. 

We talked about more and more stuff and my technician pretended he was using Harry Potter type magic to make the chair I was sitting in come closer or farther away from him so he could work on my feet more easily. He had a button which was pretty obvious but he was getting a kick out of it. He also said I had long legs which Jessie and Lily refused to believe, which is natural, seeing as how their legs are about fifty feet long but I pointed out to them that for my height (which is becoming less and less every day), my legs ARE pretty long. I am extremely short-waisted. 
The guy also said, as he painted my toenails red, the color I had chosen, that I now had sexy toes. 
"Something about me needs to be sexy," I said. This, too, amused my children. 
Jesus, kids! 
Here's a picture of my sexy toes. 

The ant bites and veins are especially fetching, are they not? 

Lily had errands to run afterwards and leftovers to eat at home but Jessie and I went a few doors down to the noodle place. I like this noodle place but the portions are HUGE. I got a dish called Japchae which is basically stir-fried noodles made with sweet potato starch which somehow magically turn into a sort of clear, stretchy, chewy noodle, with vegetables and chicken. I ate until I could eat no more because it was delicious and brought home enough for at least two more lunches. 

Jessie is working tonight, her first shift after getting back from North Carolina, and she needed to get home and take a nap. I drove to the pharmacy where my hormones were ready for pick-up and then came on back to Lloyd. This evening I feel far less like jumping off a bridge and thank goodness. 
Glen just got back from Tom's where he and Jim spent the day going through more things and packing some of them up. Some of the things will go to Goodwill or Oak Tree, or some place like that, some will go to the dump, and a few pieces of artwork that could possibly be worth anything of value are going to someone who can appraise them. 
This is going on forever, not unlike how long it took for Glen to talk Tom into buying the tiny house after a tree fell on his fifty-year old trailer and then doing all the work of getting it there, hooking it up to water and electricity, and moving Tom into it. 
Am I being a little, um, less than graceful about all of this? 
You bet! 
In fact, Mr. Moon seems to be more cheerful about all of this than I am. Let's face it- he's just a better human being. I have no hesitation in saying that, either. He just is. 

A few garden pictures. 

The tabasco peppers are still putting forth beautifully. I need to make more pepper sauce. 

Bee on basil bloom! 
Lucky shot. Look at its eye! 

Another photo of the basil flowers. This is the African basil. I think. It's one of those basils. 
If I were a bee, I'd be making love to those blooms all day long. Such seductive colors and tendrils and delineated come-hither features. Who could resist? I am still so very, very desirous of tasting honey made from the nectar of basil flowers. I haven't figured out how that's going to happen though. I'll let you know if I do.

Thunder is rolling and lightning is cracking right now. Whether or not we get any rain is still...up in the air. 
Jeez. I am so sorry. 
But really, I do so hope it does. 

And that's my life in Lloyd tonight. 

Love...Ms. Moon