This Is How I Hold On Some Days

The house next door where the dogs I fed yesterday live is a nice house but to my mind, the very best thing about it is the oak tree in the yard. It is literally and technically one of the largest lives oaks in Jefferson County. That picture is not a great picture of the tree for several reasons, one being the shed and one being the trailer there. However, when I tell you that the tree is bigger around than the shed by far, believe me. This is a tree that makes the one in my front yard which is no small tree, look like a miniature version of itself. It is a tree to be worshipped. It is a tree to stand under and be struck dumb by.

It is a tree whose branches extend out to cover and amaze all of those beneath it. 

It is a tree that Ross's admonition for us all to "look up" is a holy reminder. I am sure it's at least a few hundred years old. 
I'm sorry about the gray skies but that's what the sky looked like yesterday when the storm was approaching all those miles to the west. 

I was really surprised that we got all the rain and some fairly strong winds from a storm that far away. I believe we got at least four inches of rain and there was a lot of what I'm calling limb litter left behind. This was to be expected. But all in all, we survived nicely. It was still coming down hard when I went to bed but even with the window open above my head I slept through it all. I generally do sleep through these things. Glen didn't sleep well at all because we opened windows instead of leaving on the AC and that man is just incredibly sensitive to temperature, especially when it comes to sleep time. And it never really did get that cool but what made it most difficult for him, I'm sure, was the humidity which is still up in the 80-something percentile. And it warmed back up to the upper eighties again today. 
I was sort of hoping it would still be raining today, giving me an excellent excuse not to get outside and start cleaning up the yard but it did not. It was somewhat overcast but it wasn't raining. 
Sigh.
So I put on my big-girl overalls and pulled the garden cart out to the front yard and picked up everything from twigs to biggish branches. Nothing huge though. Not one huge branch. In the front yard, at least. And while I was out there, I decided to do a little trimming up and weed pulling and so I probably spent about two and a half hours out there and it does look nicer. I only got one minor wound and that came from a palm frond I cut. I'm not sure what sort of palm it is but I think it was originally supposed to be a house plant. The stem of the frond is sawlike. As so many of these things are. Little sharks' teeth line each side of those stems. Evil, evil baby shark teeth. 
Glen gathered and picked up a lot of downed limbs from the back yard and hauled them to the burn pile where I'd dumped my garden cart contents. That is one hell of a burn pile now. We're going to have to wait for things to dry up at least a little bit before it can be used for its purpose, even with the amount of accelerant that Mr. Moon uses on those piles. That word, accelerant, cracks me up. 
I don't think it's pure gasoline but it could be. I have no idea. 
I do have an idea that I am going to be sore as hell tomorrow. That was a lot of bending and pulling and hauling and so forth and I have been such a slug recently. So it was very good for me to get out and do a little physical labor and all that stuff that makes me feel worthy as a human being on this planet. 
It's been a good day when my overalls are filthy and drenched with sweat at the end of it. A little bloody wound only adds to my strange masochistic joy. 

I shall quickly address the pork chop recipe I made last night in just a few words: Not worth it. 
I probably screwed up a few things, taking suggestions from the comments, and I know I overcooked the poor things but the flavors just did not make me happy. Glen wasn't thrilled either. So next time it's either back to the Shake and Bake or I'll use another NYT's recipe for pork chops with onion gravy. Glen loves that one. I like it fine myself. It's a no-recipe recipe and calls for sautéing "an enormous number of sliced onions." 
Gotta love that. 

Tonight I'm keeping it pretty simple though, with yet another recipe from the same source, this one for scallops. "Seared Scallop Pasta With Burst Tomatoes and Herbs." 
This one is tried and it is true. I remember after I broke some ribs that it was the first meal I cooked when I felt I was up to that sort of thing again. So you know I like it. 

I do believe that's all I have to talk about tonight. However, because I have had this eerie song in my head for a few days even to the point where I find myself whistling the notes of it as I stand over my cutting board with a knife and a vegetable, and because it's a fantastic video in all ways with the old boys showing how it's done, especially Keith and Mick and Charley, and because I am the boss of this blog, I am going to post it. 
As I always say, don't watch it if you don't want to. I'll never know and besides that, I do realize that the Rolling Stones are not as strong a force for sanity in these times of complete insanity for everyone as they are for me. 
Public execution by firing squad? 

Paint it black.

Love...Ms. Moon