It's Monday. Here's Your Brown Paper Bag.

Oh man, why do I feel compelled to post every day? What is wrong with me? I'll tell you what's wrong with me: I'm an addictive personality and when I find out that I like something I just keep going with it. I'm that rat in the cage who hits the lever to get the dose of crack or candy over and over and over again.

I probably wouldn't even be up yet although I like to get up early, but the phone rang at seven a.m. and the caller ID offered up the name of an old lady who calls here quite frequently, confusing me with her neighbor. I know this because she called once at one a.m. to say that she'd seen my light on and wondered if one of the children was sick. I was not that neighbor and she apologized and I've noticed that she's been calling more often and she's always embarrassed and so I think it's nicer and more polite just to let the machine pick up so that she can suffer her embarrassment alone and hope that I didn't hear the phone in the first place.
No big deal and I'll be that confused old lady before you know it.

It was a good weekend for the most part although I have one spot of poison ivy on my leg and whether it stays that way or blooms into a mass of weeping eruption that spreads over my leg like a map of the country showing where the Walmarts are, we'll just have to see. I hope not. It's almost pleasant to have one tiny spot of poison ivy because if there is anything in the world as physically pleasing as scratching an itch, I do not know what it is. There is a sort of ecstasy to it, that relief of the itch with the nails of the hand. We know we should not do it but there is no power on earth which can prevent the scratching of an itch short of amputation of the hands and even then, I would use my feet if possible.
I am quite flexible.
Speaking of which I have yoga in an hour.

We went to supper at our neighbors' house last night. We'd never eaten at their house and quite frankly, we hardly ever eat at anyone's house. I'm always the one to do the cooking so this was quite the treat, especially since they served the best beef, without a doubt, I've ever eaten. It was from a cow they'd raised themselves and I suspect her name had been Cream Puff. It was that tender. And get this: they not only had an ash magnolia in their yard, but two other types of magnolias I've never even heard of for goodness sake! with leaves like the ash, but different types of blossoms! And there you go- you learn something every day of your life. Now I have magnolia envy.
They showed us their chicken houses and their little flock of Rhode Island Reds and I didn't envy those so much. Although very tidy and thoughtfully laid out, I like the chicken coop Mr. Moon is building much better. It fits our little acres here and is not unlike a dream-house to me with its clever nesting boxes and the way Mr. Moon has fit in a place to store the chicken feed, its salvaged tin roof and antique pecky cypress door. Besides, our neighbors (the boys, as we call them) have built their chicken condos too far away from the house for my taste. They will not be able to sit on their back porch (or deck, in their case) and listen to their hens. We will. I even suggested that Mr. Moon build a bench, right outside their run so we can sit and watch them. Better than the Sports Channel, if you ask me.

I just checked on the chicks and they are napping after a night of obvious chick-mash gorging. Their feeder is practically empty and it was half full last night when I went to bed. I am afraid to put them out into their box this morning as the sky looks iffy. I would hate to drown my babies before they get a chance to lay some eggs.

And anyway, here it is Monday morning and the week stretches out busily before me. I have a lot to do and Goodwills to visit and play practices to attend and dinners to cook and chicks to tend and company to get ready for and who knows what all? Poison ivy to treat? Oh. I rather hope not.
But I am relatively young and unlike poor old Mrs. J with her no-doubt long-suffering real neighbor, I still have some of my wits about me and I am honestly looking forward to what this week brings.

A friend who was traveling in Turkey sent me a charm against the evil eye which is hanging above my front door. I do what I can to keep things as they are because honestly, there is not much I would change about my life here in Lloyd. I took a picture of it the other day when a lizard was crawling up beside it on the window above the door and it occurred to me that the charm keeps out the evil and the lizard keeps out the mosquitoes and there you go- magic and nature all working together to do what they can.



Sort of sums it up for me.

See you tomorrow. I'll be cranking that lever again to see which falls out- candy or crack.

Either way, I always feel rewarded.