Hot, Humid, And Frequently Humorous

It's Friday and you know what that means! Maurice did help me hang out the laundry but I didn't get her in that photo. 

The day started out oddly. I didn't wake up until almost 9:30 which is an hour after I usually get up. I had slept so hard that I don't think I changed position very much in the night and when I went to get out of bed, it took me three attempts to make it because all of my parts hurt when I unkinked them from their sleeping position. How weird! And of course I was sleep-coma-ed, feeling as if I were still in the dreams I'd been having. I felt like Rip Van Winkle waking up after his long years of sleep- what had I missed? I wondered, as I brushed my teeth. 
Turns out not a lot. 
I knew I needed to take a walk. That would be the best thing for mind and body I could do and eventually, I did put my walking costume on and headed down the sidewalk, promising myself that it would only be a teensy-tiny walk, just enough to get the joints loosened up. Of course that's what I always tell myself and compared to how far I used to walk, all of my walks ARE teensy-tiny but I managed to get in a few miles before I collapsed. It is so humid here now and the heat is getting worse. I swear it's like trying to walk underwater or in a dog's mouth. That's the image that kept coming to me- a panting dog's mouth. And every time I walked beside still-undrained water, I could feel the vapor of it, smell the wetness of it, and there is still a lot of undrained water.

But, I made it and when I got home it was already past lunch time. Mr. Moon offered to take me to the Hilltop and I was pleased to go. The lunch crowd had thinned out by the time we got there and we got our food relatively quickly. The two in-residence toddlers were playing in the store area, unstocking bags of chips while one of their mothers, I suppose, stood close by to make sure that they were safe. There seems to be a surfeit of babies at the Hilltop recently. I get the feeling it's mostly a family affair and if a daughter-worker has a baby, the baby comes to work too.

For those of you who may not know, that thing on the left there is a device that you can clamp to the top of a door frame and put the baby into. The springs at the top of the strap make it so that the child can jump and jump and jump on their cute little legs, springing into the air and returning to earth safely. I mean, it's only a few inches that the baby can jump up but some kids adore those things. 
The menu that you can see if you enlarge the photo is one of the three menus posted. There is another one of subs, salads, and sandwiches, and yet another of hot foods like hamburgers, fried pork chops, and hot wings. 

Both Mr. Moon and I got chicken salad today. He got his on a sub, I got mine as a salad. A chicken salad salad, as it were. Here's what it looked like. 

I always ask for it with ALL the vegetables and as you can see, their salad vegetables are the same as their sandwich and sub vegetables. So we're not talking any sort of baby frisée  and seaweed salad with essence of pomegranate and shaved parmesan here. But you know what? I love that chicken salad salad. It comes with crackers, as all salads should, and they even ask you if you want white or wheat crackers which I think is very kind of them and rather gourmet.

By the way- that's the one scoop salad. You can also get a two or three-scoop salad. If I were a roofer or a construction worker, I'd go for the three scoops but I am not so one was more than plenty. 

I really enjoyed our little lunch date. We sat outside at one of the picnic tables and it wasn't deadly hot and there were no bugs. We laugh at the silliest things, Mr. Moon and I. I swear- I cherish the moments I make him laugh more than anything. 

When we got home it was time to start making the supper. The man has been asking me to please cook some of his venison and I told him I would. I made a nice soup, despite the heat, with chunks of the meat and many, many vegetables. 

I've also got bread rising and it's martini time. Mr. Moon just got home from some things he had to attend to at Moon Plaza involving electricity. I swear- that man is working harder and longer now than he did when he was in full-tilt business mode. He wants to paint the trim in Lily's house before they move in and he called a few of his old painting buddies. He was a painter when I met him and in fact, that is how I met him. That's another story that I may retell again at some point because it's a good one. Anyway, turns out that all of his old painting buddies really are old now, just as we are. While we were eating our lunch, he got a call-back from one of the guys he'd tried to get in touch with. He's about to go get a second knee operation and as he said, "I wouldn't be much help to you."
"Damn," said my husband. "I need to make some younger friends."

Martinis are being sipped. I need to go preheat the oven for the bread. The clean sheets are on the bed and the rest of the laundry is folded and put away. I finished reading "James" last night and I am going to start at the beginning again tonight. I am excited about that prospect. I feel like I may have missed some things and if so, that needs to be remedied. 

For at least this evening, all is well. 

Happy Friday, y'all.

Love...Ms. Moon