America Spoke

When I titled last night's post and the words "The Great State of Georgia" were in it, I had no idea whatsoever that this woman would be the proof that Georgia is, indeed, a very fine state. 
Keisha Lance Bottoms. 
I am ashamed to admit this but I truly knew nothing about this amazing woman. I had no idea she'd been the mayor of Atlanta at one time. I had no idea she got a Batchelor of Arts in communication degree at FAMU- the Historically Black College in Tallahassee I wrote about recently.
I knew nothing about her. Not that she has four children with her husband, Derek Bottoms whom she married in 1994. Not that she served as a senior advisor to Joe Biden during his term in office. Not that she can trace her roots back five generations to a plantation in Crawfordville, Georgia where her many-greats grandfather was bought for $1,400 to work on that plantation. And I did not know that she is obviously a warrior/goddess/brilliant person but now I do. 
I saw a thing on Facebook this morning where a young Black woman kept repeating, "My governor's name is Keisha. My governor's name is Keisha." 
I cannot even begin to imagine how this woman's example is going to affect thousands and thousands of little girls with skin the same color as Keisha Lance Bottoms, many with the name of Keisha. But it's going to be amazing. 
It IS amazing.
As were so many of the election results. So many states turned blue despite having been red for many, many years.
It is a huge disappointment to me that Florida is not one of them but what can we expect? It is absolutely monumental that we will have our first Black governor but the fact remains that he is a Republican and was supported by Trump so you know damn well we are not out in the streets celebrating. 
Still. I think we have to give him some respect. We shall see how this turns out.

It took me quite awhile this morning to come to grips with what had happened. I think my soul has been so crushed and my hopes have been so destroyed during all of Trump's reigns and the Republicans' rule and the Supreme Court's right-leaning ways that I could not take it in. But in pottery today where all the talk was about the election, it began to sink in that yes, this was really happening. Had really happened. The American people spoke in resounding numbers and what they said was that we don't want the fascist, billionaire controlled, Constitution trashing, ICE agent murdering, Iran war starting, lying, pedophile protecting, racist, misogynistic, testosterone obsessed, grifting pieces of filth running our country any more. 
Are we done? Have we had our little experiment in Nazism and are we ready to begin the process to take our country back? 
All will be revealed and nothing is going to change overnight. There is a lot of work to be done. So much work to be done. 
But now, at least, it can begin.
And while I'm at this, FUCK ELON MUSK!

I am thinking that Jack Smith may be going through his millions of files as we speak. I am also thinking that there are a hell of a lot of Republican major players who are already lawyering-up. 
I am not at all surprised that people like JD Vance are doing whatever they can to throw Trump under the bus. As if that's going to save them.
I am hoping that Putin is shitting his pants. I am imagining that Greenland and Norway and Canada and, well, a whole lot of countries, are raising glasses of whatever it is their country drinks to celebrate. 
I am wishing Woody Guthrie was still here to witness this. 

Have I already posted this video? If so, oh well. 

Much Love...Ms. Moon

We Visited The Great State Of Georgia

This is what the road in front of our house looked like about half an hour ago when we got home from the little day date we took to Valdosta, Georgia. Unlike the other night when it was all pink at that time of day, tonight it was yellow. 
This morning Mr. Moon said, "I want to do something with you today," and I said, "That would be nice," and then he told me that I should pick out a destination and I was like, "Why me?" and then I suggested we go shopping to try and find him a table to put beside his chair where he can put all the stuff he seems to need to have right at hand from the chair and it's gotten so crowded there I can barely get close enough to lean in and get a kiss. 
He's been looking for one for awhile on Facebook Market Place but has had no luck. He wants it to be narrow, like a hall table and it needs to have drawers. 
So we agreed that taking a drive up to Georgia to check out antique and thrift stores would be a good idea and of course lunch would be involved. And so got ourselves ready and boarded the brown Subaru and off we went. 
We drove through the little towns we've driven though many times before on our way up to North Carolina in the summers. We stopped for gas in Quitman, Georgia and I took this picture of their post office. 

There are so many buildings made of brick in Georgia which makes a lot of sense- bricks are often made of red clay, and honey, Georgia has a wealth of it. We passed cotton fields where the cotton was in full bole and looked ready to pick to me. Glen and I both thought of what an incredibly backbreaking, soul-destroying task it must have been to pick cotton from can to can't meaning from when you can see to when you can't, day in and day out and returning to your "quarters" (shacks) while in the distance you can see the hugely columned mansions of the owners. Not just of the fields, but of you too. And your mama and your man and your babies. 
The south has a lot to not only apologize for but to atone for, as well. 
So does every damn part of this country. If the area you come from didn't use workers in slave-like ways, then by damn that area was owned by the native people and was stolen by the Europeans who decided that this land was theirs, and fuck the red man. 

Yeah. I have a lot on my mind today. It is, after all, election day. 

By the time we got to Valdosta we were hungry and with the help of Google found a restaurant that looked promising and although these things do not always turn out as promised, this time it did. 
We ate at place called King of R&B Restaurant and it reminded me so much of a place we ate in Quincy, Florida a little over a year ago. Same color scheme, same well-stocked bar in one section of the restaurant, and even the same sort of wall decor with a sort of plastic garden thing going on. 
This must be a thing. 

Here's the place in Quincy.

And here's the place where we ate today.

There were pictures all up and down the wall of various icons, mostly musicians ranging from Johnny Cash to Bob Marley. I'm not sure what Marilyn was doing there but if you think it about, when it comes to rhythm and blues, she understood. She knew. 

The food was so good. I got grilled salmon, Mr. Moon got shrimp Alfredo. 

We both got fried okra. It was so right-out-of-the-fryer that it was smoking hot. 
Praise the Lord and pass the hot sauce, y'all. 
Our server was darling, all was very fine. 
On the way to the restaurant, I'd noticed several old motels of the sort you'd see in the late fifties, sixties, and seventies, one floor of rooms, each next to the other, all rooms with access to the parking lot. (In case you needed to make a fast exit, I suppose.) 

We passed this one, the Del Mar Motel and Mr. Moon had just told me that he'd had a girlfriend once from Valdosta. 
"Did y'all stay at the Del Mar Motel?" I asked him. He claimed never to have done such a thing. I told him I didn't need to hear any more but he did tell me that her daddy owned a Chevy dealership. 

So as we were eating our lunch and it was raining outside and cozy inside, I told my husband that part of me just wanted to sit at the bar all afternoon drinking bloody mary's and then go check in to one of the motels. 
"Why not?" he asked. 
But we didn't. Maybe next time we'll take our toothbrushes and a change of underwear and do just that. In the olden days, if we'd had the opportunity to do that, nothing on earth could have stopped us. 

Instead, we went to some vintage places, some thrift stores. Neither one of us found a damn thing we wanted. Glen found a table that looked perfect until they cleared all the vases and doilies and whatevers off of it and he realized it had some fairly major flaws. 

I was mostly just overwhelmed. We went to one place that advertised itself as selling antiques but if they did, we didn't see any. Instead, there were rooms and rooms and rooms of furniture and useless things to put on shelfs and tables and lamps, lamps, lamps galore. Mostly boring lamps. Pillows, things that supposedly make your home smell lovely, rugs, and honestly, I was so overwhelmed I can't even remember. 
When we left I told Glen that there must have been millions of dollars worth of merchandise in that place which he wasn't quite sure was true. I pointed out, however, that if all that shit only cost one dollar apiece, it would still be a million dollars worth of stuff. 
I used their restroom (which was lovely) and my hands still smell like the soap I used to wash them with there. 
I am not kidding. 

So. Okay. Here's the one thing I did buy.

A packet of sewing needles and they are gorgeous. They will probably last me for the rest of my life. 

Oh! And here's a tiny hibiscus that was in a pot for sale outside at one of the "vintage" stores.

That bloom would have fit in the palm of a small child with room leftover. I should have bought it. The plant looked like it might have been on it's last legs but so what? I bet if I had cut it back and let it be, it would have grown. It enchanted me. I knew, even as I passed it up that I was going to regret that. 
And I do. 

Here's a picture I liked despite the fact that the hands are all creepy and wrong. Hands are hard. 

I should have bought that too. 

Are you watching returns? I'm not sure I can. 
We'll have a lot to talk about in pottery tomorrow. I hope my bird has been fired so I can paint it. 
It's raining softly and I am grateful. 
That's what I'm focusing on right now. 

See you tomorrow.

Love...Ms. Moon

The Prayer I Would Pray If I Believed In Prayer: Dear God. Let Us Vote Those Motherfuckers Out

Here we have a lousy shot of one of the five crows who come around to eat at the Stump Cafe but you'll have to give me grace on this one as it was taken through the screen. The birds do not like it when I sit outside to watch them, even if I'm just sitting very still on the top step leading onto the porch. I suppose I could try sitting still for longer periods of time every day but these birds are never going to be my pets. I probably shouldn't even be feeding them, and trying to lure them closer to me doesn't seem right. 
But I will be honest and tell you that I would be incredibly delighted if I had a crow buddy who liked to ride around on my shoulder now and then but I don't have that sort of patience. 

Man, I'm adjusting to this time change thing really easily! I slept that extra hour on Sunday morning like a boss, and then was ready to go to bed at least half an hour earlier last night than I usually do. 
Sleep really is just about my favorite thing despite the weird-ass dreams I have from which I wake up so very thankful they were only dreams. 
But my biggest achievement in time change adaptation was that for the first time since I got my car, I was able to reset the dashboard clock without searching Google for a video on how to do it! And it only took me two tries! 
I now know how Frito Ass Brain felt when he correctly identified the rhinoceros! 
I'm flying high on this accomplishment tonight. 

I met Jessie in town to do Costco shopping around noon although the only thing I got was a bag of avocados. She needed more than that. It was just so good to walk around the store with her, talking about stuff. She had a few things to return to Walmart so I went on to the restaurant where we'd decided to eat lunch (you KNOW we were going to eat lunch) and ordered for both of us. It's a long-time Tallahassee place where you can get good sandwiches, soups, and salads made out of real ingredients. Jessie and I both wanted the Mediterranean tuna salad which is really delicious. It has tuna, yes, and the normal salad vegetables, but it also has navy beans in it. I've tried to recreate it at home but just can't get it exactly right.
We talked about more stuff, of course and a good deal of that talk concerned tomorrow's election. We have thoughts. 
As do we all.
But I imagine you know in which direction our thoughts are aimed. 
I can't even bear to talk about it here. I was SO fucking sure that Hilary would beat that piece of rancid fatback in 2016 that I was truly stunned when she didn't. My opinion of the American citizenry sunk to a level I did not know existed and it has only gone lower in the last ten years. Same with the level of corruption, lies, scams, ass-kissing, and a Senate and Congress who have been afraid to call their king out on anything. 
And, as they used to say on the Ginzu knife commercials- SO MUCH MORE! 
I could go on and on about my fears of vote rigging and government intervention in the process and all of that but I just cannot. 
I wonder what I'll be saying tomorrow at this time. Of course the votes won't all be in and counted at that time but we should have some idea. 

Moving on to a far happier topic, Levon's birthday is a week from today and he has made a wish list for presents. 

We were all mystified as to what a sygaro chain is but Jessie told us that it's actually a FIGARO chain, as in a necklace, and that he has researched chain types and this is the one he likes. 

This is a child who is about to be nine years old. 
As I said in the group text, "Dude is a dude." 
He was born a dude, he'll always be a dude. 
Unless of course I am totally wrong and he tells us a few years down the road that he's actually a woman and although in this case that would surprise me, I would not keel over from shock. 
Not in this family. 
All that aside, I love his list and the way he categorized it into "name" and "picture." Let us not get confused.

Alan is still with us. His heart must be so strong. 
The long-term care place where he is now got a new patient today. That person is suffering from West Nile virus which is also mosquito borne.
We are entering a whole new world of disease due to climate change. As I said to Jessie today, at some point we're going to be looking back on the good old days when mosquitoes were just an annoying pest instead of every one of them being a potential threat of disease and death. 

And on that happy note, I shall end this and go and make a salad. 

Sigh.

Love...Ms. Moon

So Much

Here's little old missy sleeping under a very soft cover on our bed. That pink knitted thing there was going to be part of a poncho situation but I never got around to finishing it. Probably because I just don't wear ponchos. But the wool is soft and the color is pretty so it makes a lovely little blanket for our spoiled girl who decided to take a nap on our bed today. It isn't really cold but I've been chilly all day and you know how it is- when Mama's cold, the children have to wear sweaters. She didn't seem to mind it and stayed right under it until her nap was over. 
I still don't feel that she's quite back to being completely normal. Possibly because she hasn't been as feisty (bitey) but she is eating and obviously she must be drinking and she doesn't sleep all the time. Also, she knows when it's time to ask for treats so all of that is reassuring.

We've been getting a teasing amount of rain today. Even though it's drizzled on and off most of the day, I doubt the dirt is wet even just under the surface. We're supposed to be getting more in the next few days so we shall see. But it's been very gray and overcast and just plain damp. Humidity doesn't just make the heat feel hotter, it makes the cool feel cooler, doesn't it? And the humidity here right now is 83% so basically, we're air-swimming. It is definitely not crisp if you know what I mean. 

The crows were very demanding this morning. A couple of them flew to the branches of the pecan tree right beside the back porch and yelled at me. I know that technically they are cawing but I always feel as if I am being yelled at. And then one of them flew directly to one of the stumps where I feed them and yelled a little more as if to point out that there were no mealworms, no peanuts, and that I should remedy this situation immediately. 
I did.
Everything is the boss of me. 

Glen was up and gone before I got up this morning. He went in to be with Alan and Kathy. The night shift people somehow did not get the message that Alan is now on comfort care and had him sitting up in a chair which was ridiculous. Would be ridiculous even if he wasn't just on comfort care. That little detail was taken care of. There are no huge changes and everyone is just going with what's happening in its own time and that's how it should be. 
Before Alan got sick, he and Kathy had wanted to buy our Toyota Camry which we've had for years but which is still an excellent car. After Glen bought Tom's Subaru, he was ready to let that one go, albeit reluctantly. The Camry is going to their granddaughter for her 16th birthday which is on Tuesday and today I got to meet her mother when she and Kathy came out to get the car which Kathy has bought. It should be a great car for the granddaughter and I think she will be very happy with it. I know it made Glen happy to be able to make that happen as it was what Alan had wanted. Glen went over that car with a fine-toothed comb before he let them drive off in it. You know he did. We've been on some very nice journeys in that car. It has taken us up to North Carolina and brought us back many times. 
So that was good. 
And Glen spent the rest of the day at home and we just did little home things. I actually worked on the jigsaw puzzle for quite awhile and enjoyed that. He asked me if I was ever going to finish it and I said, "That is yet to be determined," but I think it will. It may take another six months but eventually, it will all be pieced together. 

Last night, of course, was Halloween and all of the grandchildren and their parents and Hank and Rachel got together for chili and then trick-or-treating in Lily's neighborhood where the houses are fairly close together and the candy is given out in abundance. Here's Levon with his haul. 

Can you believe that? I think that also includes the booty he got trick-or-treating in a neighborhood right down the block from their house which is famous for its Halloween decorations and generous donations to the pediatric dentists' boat payment funds around here. 
The Weatherfords have some system of candy dispensing which involves chore completion or something like that. I'm not sure. But it's definitely not an eat-until-you-get-sick situation. I'm sure it's not at Lily's house either. 
I just have to say that the quality of candy being handed out is definitely about a million times better than when I was a kid. We'd get those little cellophane packets of candy corn and if we were lucky, a Snickers bar although those were few and far between. There were jawbreakers and red hots and fireballs and the lolly-pops with the loop cord handles. Remember those? 

Here's what the kids looked like in their costumes.

I am not sure what August and Levon were dressed as but it was some sort of anime thing, I believe. Magnolia was obviously Dorothy Gayle (isn't she darling?) and as you can see, a witch took this picture. I think it was Jessie Witch. Here's a picture of Jessie Witch with Vergil the cowpoke. Or something like that. 

I love how Vergil just completely goes into character. Rachel said that he kept saying, "Howdy, y'all!" 
But my favorite is Gibson. 

He was Aries, god of war, and Rachel told me that he kept up a deep, stage voice while trick-or-treating and saying, "Thank you for the gifts. Aries blesses your house!" 
I do believe that marching band is being a very good influence on our darling boy. 

And here's Witch Rachel with Dorothy. 

And one last picture. It's a bit grainy but it has Owen in it. He didn't dress up this year as far as I know. 

My babies, each and every one. 

The sky tonight. Pink and eerie. Not exactly what the mariners of old were talking about when they said, "Red sky at night/Sailors delight." 

I'm going to give you a link here of a video that fed my soul today. This is a song that I frequently think of and when it worms its way into my ear, I can only be pleased. And I always hear it in Joan Baez's voice. I can't find another place to see this particular video although I have tried. This link leads to a Facebook post so you may or may not be able to access it. I do not know how these things work. There are a million (or perhaps only a thousand) different versions of Joan Baez singing this song online but this one caught my heart because it is recent, it was so intimate, and I think that in her older age, she is only more magnificent in all the ways than she ever has been and that is saying a hell of alot.
She is a goddess. 

Love...Ms. Moon

If Talking About Death Is Not For You, Neither Is This Post

I picked my last pumpkin of the year this afternoon. They have all found their way to the top of my Hoosier cabinet. I think they are nice as decoration although I am looking forward to eating them. As I pulled the vines I could see there were still baby pumpkins, born of the brilliant yellow flowers, and I felt almost criminal for halting their growth. 

However, my conscience was salved by cutting them up into tiny little pieces and adding them to the soup I'm making which is a chicken soup that's going to lean into the Greek category and I say that mainly because there will be lemon and oregano in it. 

The baby pumpkins are basically squash and they have a vaguely sweet flavor. The mature pumpkins are very sweet but these babies haven't had enough time for all their insides to turn to sugar. 

I made chicken soup because I was trying to think of something that would be soothing for Mr. Moon tonight. He was at the long-term care place all day from early morning until late afternoon. Alan's final journey has begun with the removal of some of the devices that have been keeping him alive. 
Comfort is everything at this point. 
But Mr. Moon has come home tonight and Alan's wife is going to go home too, although she has hardly skipped one night being with him unless Glen was there to take over the vigil for at least that while. 
Some people need privacy to go on while others seem to need loved ones around them and I believe the thinking right now is that if Alan is one of those who need privacy, let him have that. 
This is a process, not unlike labor which I have compared to dying, having attended at both of those. A process which should not be rushed nor should respect for whatever the person who is transitioning a new life from that world to this or the person who is transitioning from this world to that might choose, even if that person is unconscious. 
I truly believe this. 

So I've had a day in which it's been hard to concentrate on anything, my mind and my heart with Glen. I did a little weeding in the garden, I made the observation when I pulled the pumpkin vines that we have nematodes in the garden which I have noticed before and it is not a good thing. Look it up if you have any desire to know what they are. 
I cleaned out the bin of the in-the-door ice maker which had frozen up as it has done many times before and yes, we need a real repairman although doing this chore makes me feel capable in a way that hardly anything else does. My tools are a butter knife, a small-headed hammer, and a hair-dryer. This all requires me to be on the step stool and the feeling I get when I thaw out the ice which is blocking the mechanism of the ice maker is pretty rewarding. And then I wrap up the industrial strength electric cord which the hair-dryer was plugged into and I feel like Rosie the Riveter. 

All of these things mindless chores. 

Glen seems very much at peace with what's going on with Alan, and part of that is the fact that Alan has begun receiving morphine. Glen says that Alan looks more peaceful than he has since all of this started and he is glad of this. 
I am too. 

Love...Ms. Moon

Beauty And Strength

I'm pretty sure that we can safely say that the number of pictures I have to post when I sit down to write every evening is an excellent gauge of how my day has gone. 
Lots of pictures? I've probably been pretty content with my world and appreciative of so much in it. 
Few to no pictures? 
Eh, not so much. 

Yesterday there were pictures. Today, well, okay. Here's a picture.

That is, according to Google Lens, a Christmas wreath lichen. 
I'll buy that. 
When I took the sheets out to the line to hang this morning, I realized that a rather largish branch had fallen from a live oak which saddened me because that tree isn't old. In fact, I would think that the owners of the house before us may have planted it or else it sprang up and they let it live. So maybe twenty-five to thirty years old which is a baby in live oak years. 
But there it was. And it was in two pieces so it was not a healthy branch at all. 

But what a pretty patch of lichen it had allowed to take hold. 
I think the part of it which is bordered in white, rather than the pinkish red looks like a photo of an ocean taken from high, high in the sky. Can you see what I mean? 
And the part that is bordered in the pinkish red could be an arial photo of land far beneath, the red bumps hills and mountain ranges. 
Sort of reminds me of when someone first gets stoned and comes up with the theory that perhaps the universe is just the vastly enlarged image of an atom, a molecule, a building block of creation. 
Hell yes! 
And it may well be. Who knows? 
Not me. 
I'm saying that a lot recently, aren't I? 
I do not use those words lightly. I don't even know enough to know what I don't know. 
But still- pretty lichen on oak tree branch. 

I got my regular Friday stuff done today, washing sheets, hanging them on the line, making the bed up with them, smoothing the covers over them as best I can, coaxing out all of the wrinkles below them. 
No matter my mood or outlook, this simple act does give me pleasure and satisfaction. It is self-care and it is husband-care. He may not really notice on a conscious level but that's fine with me. I know I've done my best to make his rest easier. And my own, too. 

I went to town to pick up a few things I needed and to drop some things off at Oak Tree Treasures. While I was there, I ran into a woman whom I immediately recognized as someone I knew and quickly realized she works at The Wharf, a restaurant we eat at quite frequently. She recognized me too and asked if I ever eat at the Wharf and I said that yes, and that's where we recognized each other from. We ended up having a very good conversation and I learned that she's worked at the Wharf for seven years, has loved it, and loves the people she works with but that she's leaving soon to move to Austin, Texas to live with her long-time, long-distance boyfriend. She's a little apprehensive but she's ready to spread her wings. 
We ended up talking about everything from sewing to knitting to jigsaw puzzles to, well, a lot of stuff. I knew I liked her before today but now I know why. 
She finally asked me what my name was and I told her and asked her what her name was and it is Katy. Or Katie. I don't know. 
And that was truly the high point of my day, making that connection, hearing her story. Or at least part of it. 
You know how much I love that. 
She is a beautiful young woman and I wished her all the luck in the world. 

There's more to say but it's not yet time to discuss that particular subject and so I won't, but things are a little emotional around here this evening for Mr. Moon. 
I will say that when I first met him, I was astounded at his physical strength. I will never forget watching him pick a boat up and putting it in the back of his truck. 
Okay, the boat wasn't THAT big or it wouldn't have fit in the back of his truck but it was big enough to require a red flag on the end of it which stuck out. 
But over the years I have watched his emotional strength grow until I do believe it surpasses his physical strength. And that is what he is about to be called on to use. 

Martinis. Clean sheets. 
Trying to keep the perspective of looking at the universe in ways that help explain so much from both very near and so very far. 

I believe I should go kiss him now. And then start our supper. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon

What A Difference A Day Can Make

Whenever I remind myself to look up, or to remind all of us to do that, I am quoting the words of this man. This is Ross and today would have been his birthday. According to Facebook, he would have been 79 which seems impossible but I suppose it could very well be possible. When he died four years ago, it seemed to all of us that he'd been taken tragically young. He never did seem in the least bit old, although his hair and his beard grew gray. I think it was those eyes of his that defied age and the diseases which wracked him for years before he died, including suffering the effects of the napalm he was exposed to in Viet Nam and several forms of cancer which may well have been a result of the napalm. 
But look at those eyes. Have you ever seen kinder, sweeter, more beautiful eyes? And the smile to go with them. He was a beautiful man in all of the ways. Even in his last days at the hospice facility, his nurses and caretakers remarked on how beautiful he was. They weren't lying. 
I doubt there's a day that goes by without me remembering to look up and every time I do, I think of Ross and when I look at the sky and the trees above me, my soul does feel that much better. 
And now I'm tearing up which is only to be expected. 

I've had a good day. A day at home which I desperately needed. Maurice did a funny thing this morning when Glen got up and left the bed. I woke up but decided I wasn't quite ready to start the day myself and just laid there in that neither-here-nor-there place between sleep and wakefulness. Maurice, however, didn't do her usual thing which is to just settle back down to sleep some more when her dad human gets up. Instead, she walked to the head of the bed and just sat and looked out of the window for awhile, as if contemplating the morning, the day. And then she came over to my face and looked at me which I pretended not to see, closing my eyes as if to feign sleep and that cat bent her head down and I swear, I thought she was going to gently kiss one of my eyes but no, she licked it. I do believe she was trying to get me to open my eyes, wake up, and get out of the bed which I did not do but she did. 
And by the way, she has never once bitten or clawed anyone on the face as far as I know. 
This is good. 

I did the regular stuff around here today. Laundry, plant watering, garden watering (we need rain), sweeping, bed-making, and so forth. And then I put on my overalls and went out and worked in the yard, using the big pruners to trim back a camellia bush in the front yard which was actually the only camellia on this property when we moved in. It never blooms very much and was shading a palm I planted years ago. I also cut some of the palm fronds blocking pathways although not nearly as many as Mr. Moon would have wanted, I'm sure. He has a thing about that. 

He claims he can't make his way to the front door due to the fronds on the two palms I have planted there and he has a point but if he actually uses the front door more than twice a month, I'd be surprised. I keep telling him that eventually, the palms will be so tall that their fronds won't be in the way at all but to be honest, that is going to take some time. 

I got back to work in the area beside the front gate and got a little more crocosmia cleared out as well as pulling some horrible briar vines off some of the guy wires coming off our electric pole. I cut them at their bases but they'll be back. These plants are truly of the devil and their roots are ridiculously deep and huge and every damn one of them in the state is connected to all the others. But it feels good to get rid of them for awhile, anyway. I also cut back some Chinese privet, or at least that's what I think it is, as well as some nandina. These two plants may not be of the devil but they are at least related to Satan's nephews. 

And the thing is, I enjoyed doing this so much. It wasn't too hot. There was some perspiring going on but it wasn't ridiculous. I was listening to a Stephen King novel, "Never Flinch," and I am enjoying it. King can be sort of hit or miss for me but I cannot deny that the man is a decent writer and can tell a good story which holds my attention and that's about all I require sometimes, especially when it comes to yard work listening. 

I am seeing far more anoles than I believe I've ever seen before. They are everywhere, both outside and on my porches. Here's a little guy that was on the bin where we're stashing the sunflower seeds. 

As I was taking it's picture, I realized there was another one not a foot away. Good Lord! 

But anyway, it's been one of those days when I am appreciative of my house and my yard so much, despite all the work that both need, despite the imperfections and briars and invasive plants and the need for paint and carpentry work and yes, dusting and vacuuming and cleaning of windows. It was a day of falling in love with all of it again. 

And speaking of which, Mr. Moon and I continue to be as cozy as lovebirds and perhaps even better, we are making each other laugh so much. What a wonderful combination! One of my favorite things in the world is making that man laugh. Real, sincere, and deep, deep laughter and then that makes me laugh in the same way and if there is anything better than that, I'm not sure what it would be. 

Here's what I found when I went to kiss Mr. Moon last night when I was headed for bed. Maurice was back in the nest he makes for her on his lap. The placemats are for protection from random claw activity.
She seems good. Perhaps not one hundred percent back to her old self, but so much better. 

All right. Spicy mustard shrimp with cilantro lime rice are on tonight's menu. I use a packaged mix for this and Rachel is the one who introduced me to it.

It is damn good and you know I would not lie to you about that. And it has good ingredients in it, not a bunch of chemically enhanced flavor shit so I feel fine about cooking and serving it. 

And I guess that's all. I feel so much better today than I have been feeling and isn't that the way these things go? Just when I feel my life has lost all meaning and I cannot seem to find my joy or even my semi-acceptance, things just suddenly...look up. 

Happy birthday, dear Ross. 

Love...Ms. Moon