Friday, September 23, 2022

Lloyd Is Just Exploding With Retail Shopping Possibilities!


Another completely blue sky day and not quite as hot. I took another walk and it felt easier and less heat stroke-producing than yesterday's. I hung out the laundry including the sheets which are now dry and back on the bed, smooth as a white linen tablecloth in a fine restaurant. 
I love our bed so much but clean sheet day is the day I love it the most. 


According to my plant identification app, this is camphor weed and I took that picture when I stopped to pee in a field that is sheltered from view of the road. The flowers did not mind my indelicacy, they simply beamed at me with their yellow faces, showing no judgement whatsoever. 



As I walked past my next door neighbor's house, I noticed a pink petal on the sidewalk and looking up I saw that the sasanguas are already blooming. I guess it is time. They are a variety of camellia and always flower first. Soon the tall bushes will be full of them and then the sidewalk will be as colorful as a pink baby blanket when all the petals drop. 

I discovered something today. Some of you may remember that a long while ago the little cement block building in front of the post office was rented by a man and his family who turned it into a sort of general goods/deli place. It was called Papa Jay's. I had great hopes for Papa Jay but for some reason, the store never made it. I used to take Owen and Gibson down there to buy candy sometimes for a treat and it WAS a treat. Papa Jay's mother would sit outside on nice days and crochet hats which he sold in the store. I do not think many people bought those hats. 
So Papa Jay packed it all in and that was that for him but I've noticed in the last six months or so that someone was working on the building. I've seen a golf cart and a truck there, people going in and out. A ramp was built up to the entrance. Flowers were planted by the mailbox. 


No matter what anyone does to that building, it's still a funky place. Anyway, I had heard that a woman was making it into a shop of some sort. So today, since no one was there, I decided to peek into the windows. There are small succulents in various funky containers on the windowsills and although there is not a whole lot to see yet, I did spy items which make me think that this is going to be a sort of hippie/Indian import shop. I saw a paper star lamp and a rack with a few kimono-like jackets on it, what might have been a Guatamalian bag hanging, and a table with what I am almost certain was a full display of artfully arranged small bottles of essential oils. 
Whoa! 
To think that I can buy my essential oils a block from where I live is simply astonishing! Because- you know- I buy so many essential oils. 
This is cracking me up. Who the hell is going to come to Lloyd to buy paper star lamps and essential oils? The FGD Dollar General has stuff people need and they have so little business that I'm not sure of their survival. But who knows? Perhaps they're about to build a giant planned community over there on the other side of the interstate and all of those people are going to need a reputable place to purchase the little things that make life so delicious. Perhaps it will be such a cool place that folks will exit the interstate just to shop there. 
Who knows? 
Not me. 
I think it may be a vanity project for the woman I've seen going in and out. I told Glen that I would say she was an "older woman" but in fact, I doubt she's as old as I am. 
I texted my kids about this today and May wrote back, "Maybe the woman is really a witch and the place is just a front for spells and potions."
Now that is something I could truly get behind. Leave it to May to find the silver lining. The magical silver lining. She is so good at that and has been since she was a tiny child. 

So that's the big news from Lloyd today. 

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are two pictures of the mantelpiece  altar in the library. Sort of altar. Place with meaningful and random objects is more like it. 



I sort of forget it's there. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon





 

34 comments:

  1. Now I'm getting really confused. Our camellias start flowering in late winter/early spring. Yours are flowering in late summer/early fall? Which means we both have camellias flowering at the same time.
    I can understand your lack of need for essential oils but I do like the idea of spells and witchcraft. Now THAT could be big business.
    I hear about "an elderly man was robbed" or whatever and I think poor old bugger and then find out he's younger than I am. I wonder how old your older woman actually is. Although if she is a witch she could be very, very old.

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    1. These are the camellia sasanguas. A different variety. They flower before the regular camellias do which for us is winter throughout early spring.
      Yes. Who couldn't use a good spell or potion?
      And you are right about the possible age of the possible witch. She did not look like a witch when I saw her but then she wouldn't, would she?

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  2. I wonder who's going to shop at the cinder block witch's lair? Keep us updated on this News of Lloyd please.

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  3. I witch sounds like the perfect addition to Lloyd. Please keep us posted, I am completely out of eye of newt:)

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    1. I feel certain she wouldn't be the only witch in Lloyd.

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  4. Hi Mary...that cinder block building reminds me of the development my brother moved into in Orlando in the fifties. All the houses were made of cinder block. Not too much of that in Ohio.
    If you get stumped for a post I would love to know who is in the photos you have displayed. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. I have no idea what that building was originally although it may have been the post office which is now in the old train station. Thanks for the post suggestion.

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  5. I have places where I place things and then forget they are there until someone visits and comments on them.
    That building looks like someone scooped up one of our government subsidised houses and placed it in your area. Mine is the same concrete blocks with the same red windowsills.
    I had a brief flirtation with essential oils years ago, but didn't like the "stuffy head" feeling I got from them, with my hayfever.

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    1. Like I said above, I really don't know what that building was originally but maybe the PO? Maybe the jail!

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  6. So the Dollar General isn't doing real well! It seems your ire may have hexed it. Sad.

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    1. It's probably going to be fine. I just spent almost eight dollars there!

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  7. I like the cardinal and blue jay figures. What's their story, as well as the pic in the background? So, Dollar General isn't doing well? Wow! I wonder how many of them (statistically) don't make it? I don't think I've mentioned how much I love the picture of your house at the heading of the blog. Does it have an upstairs? Thanks for the info. on the water moccasins and alligators. When I lived in Maimi, we had pygmy rattlers in the lawn occasionally and had to be careful walking my dogs. I was more fearful of coral snakes, though never saw any snakes. Just scorpions.
    Paranormal John

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    1. The cardinals (there are two) are simply thrift store finds. The picture behind Buddha is of my granddaddy, holding Hank when he was a baby. I think it was Hank. Could have been May.
      No idea about the success rate of DG's but they have such a huge company that a few losses here and there aren't going to hurt them much.
      Thanks for liking my picture. Yes, my house does have an upstairs. I never go up there. It does have a beautiful stairway.
      Pygmy rattlers are very dangerous. I've heard they're worse than the regular ones.

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    2. You never go upstairs? Does anyone? Or is it just storage space for forgotten things now?

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  8. Well that is interesting...I'm sure you'll keep us all in the loop.

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  9. Excellent definition of what an altar should be. Also the location in a library. Perfect.
    Maybe the development is for an online shop in essential oils and hippie stuff and the ramp is there to cart the boxes in and out from and to the mail.

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    1. Nope. Good idea about the shop but they've already got the counter set-up for payment with a little apple device. There also appears to be a dressing room so I guess they'll be carrying dresses too.

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  10. But wouldn't it be great if that little shop actually DID make it!

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    1. It would be fun but I just can't imagine how.

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  11. It could be the start of something big. Shoppers will need somewhere to eat when visiting The Lloyd Retail Park and where better than "The Mama Moon Diner".... "Authentic southern cuisine with a modern twist" and "No Trumpists!"

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    1. Ah, no. Thanks for the idea though. A long time ago when Lloyd was more of a bustling burg, there was a hotel right across from the railroad track and passenger cars would stop and people would get out and go to the hotel and have delicious fried chicken dinners. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

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  12. If it does happen it will be a cool little shop. We're finally getting a lumber yard/hardware store. We had one but the guy retired and he closed it down years ago. A town of 9,000 people needs a hardware store at the very least. A big outfit is moving in starting from the ground up. My one little camellia has buds but no where close to blooming.

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    1. Lloyd is nowhere near that big. The only real town in all of this county is Monticello and they do have some hardware stores. My regular camellias aren't anywhere near blooming either but my confederate rose does have a few open blossoms now.

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  13. Now we may need a detailed explanation of the items and photos on the "altar"! You started it, Mary... :)

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  14. My wife is an expert in weeds (and peeing behind bushes too now `i come to think) - she knows hardly any proper plants, but all sort of weeds- basically anything you can feed to her beloved tortoise!!!

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    1. Sometimes one just does not have the time or opportunity to find a bathroom to pee in. Men know this well. Women can do it too, although not as easily. I am sure you know this!
      Your wife has a pet tortoise! How wonderful!

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  15. I had the same thought as you -- who's going to keep that shop going? But maybe the woman who's opening it is independently wealthy (or at least well off) and doesn't care. I'm guessing the overhead is pretty cheap. I remember Papa Jay's! We went there, in fact!

    I love those napkins (?) on the clothesline. So pretty!

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    1. Your suggestion that perhaps the woman may not need the money cheered me for some reason. If she's doing it for fun and love, then hurray! I remember we went to Papa Jay's together! Was Grandma there that day? I can't remember.
      Linda Sue sent me those napkins. I love them.

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  16. like Steve, I also noticed the beautiful linen napkins on the line first thing! Gorgeous! And so interesting and *Lloyd-like* that everyone pretty much new the FDG was coming.....but hush hush on this mysterious little new retail venture? Mystery woman / man indeed. Exciting stuff for Lloydians to ponder
    Susan M

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    1. Well, there have been rumors about this new shop. But the GDFDG had to clear land to build a new building and this place doesn't. And we're sort of used to things coming and going there.

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  17. What beautiful embroidered linens hanging on your clothesline!

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.