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Last night when I was making my Kung Pao Tofu, I went to grab a piece of ginger root I knew I had and to my great disappointment, found that it had dried out and was shriveled and also had a little green fuzz on it so I put that in the compost and thought, "Well hell. Now what?"
And then I remembered the pot I have on the back porch steps where I've had ginger growing for at least a year. I started it with a piece of grocery store ginger root which came up and I watered it now and then. I even had a few blooms come up this summer. It's all dead looking now but I thought that maybe I could dig around in the dirt and see if I had anything and by golly- look at that! I was so pleased. There's more too. This year I'm going to make a little bed in the kitchen garden and plant more. I can use some of the bricks I've found in the area I've been weeding by the front fence and gate to delineate  it. 

Speaking of that space, you know I've been wondering what to put in there. When we moved here, there were what looked like some very, very cool, lush plants that grew abundantly. 
The abundant part was correct. 
After a few years I realized that these plants were horrible and would take over the world and when you pull them they emit a dust-like substance that gags you and makes you cough. I think we have almost eliminated them but as you know, many other invasive plants have rushed to fill in space left by them. Lately I have been thinking that perhaps I should plant Saw Palmettos there. They are native and hardy.

This seems almost perfect for my needs but there is one drawback- the stalks of the fronds are the very reason they are called "saw" palmettos. They are sharp-toothed and can rip tender flesh. However, they are very good wildlife plants, offering birds their berries and if I don't plan on getting in there and trimming them, the stalks can be as saw-toothed as they want to be. 
I have been around these palms my entire life. They are so familiar to me that I barely see them. They grow in forests and woods and are salt-tolerant so grow well at the coast. When I was a kid, we'd cut the stalks and run our trusty pocketknives down the sides, shaving off the teeth, whittling a point at the end and use them to toast marshmallows on. 
We were tough. 
I once saw a whole bunch of blue jays, flocking around some saw palmettos, flying crazily and sometimes falling from the fronds. The palmetto berries had fermented on the plant and those birds were having a fine old time, getting drunk on palmetto berry wine. 

Well, it's something to think about. The saw-toothed edges are not nearly as large or dangerous as those on the Canary Island Date palms that I used to have. I cursed those things a billion times until the power of my hatred caused them to die and Glen dug them up and we burned them.

Well, besides thinking about palmettos, here's my big accomplishment for the day. 

I finally finished that jigsaw puzzle. The accident I had, spilling vegetable broth on it when I was doing my pre-colonoscopy fasting, turned out not to be as destructive as I thought it might be. Turns out that the pieces have two layers, a plain cardboard backing layer and the top layer that has the picture piece on it. That layer is thick enough to use to set into the puzzle and in the end, I was only missing two pieces. A thousand piece puzzle may be more of a challenge than I really need. Or not. I enjoyed it a lot, even though it took me at least six months to do. 

Mr. Moon will be home tomorrow if all goes as planned. I'll be glad to get him home, not only because I miss him but also because of this weird polar weather we're supposed to be getting. Snow? Possibly. Sleet? Could be. Frozen rain? Most likely. Ice storm?
Hold on a minute.
Ice storm? What even is that? Area schools are definitely closing on Wednesday. As I said last night, this is just about going to shut us down around here. Jessie has to work on Wednesday and she joked that if the roads are icy, she could probably find some crampons somewhere in their house and hike to work. It's not that far. We'll have to remember to run the water, especially the garden sprinklers and garage spigots so the pipes don't freeze. I have no idea if my beautiful greens can survive five or six nights of freezing in a row. I surely would hate to lose them. 

So tonight will be my last night alone in the house, alone in the bed. I haven't been entirely alone in the bed. Maurice has been regularly sleeping curled up next to my legs. When I got up last night to pee, she followed me into the bathroom and then followed me back out again. We both got in bed and went back to sleep. 
I have to say, I found that very touching. 

I sat down at the piano today and once again, I enjoyed it so much that I chastised myself for only doing this when Glen's away. Am I that worried about how embarrassed I'd be for even my husband to hear how badly I play?

Probably. Okay, yeah. Most definitely. 
Well, sigh. 

I think I'm stalling here, not wanting to discuss the fact that this is the last day of Joe Biden's presidency. 
Joe- you done good. Thank you with all of my heart for governing in such a way that I did not feel that every morning I needed to reach for my phone to see what new terrible thing had happened overnight. I've felt like we're in good hands. And we have been. 
Tomorrow that changes. 

I have no idea, no predictions about what is about to happen except that I am quite sure that none of us can imagine the depths to which this country is going to sink. Every day will be like a game of limbo- how low can we go? I remember a friend of mine who, in the clutches of horrible addiction said to me, "Mary, everyone says you have to reach bottom before you can ask for help. What no one tells you is that there is no bottom."

The leaders we are about to get are no less addicted to power and money than my friend was addicted to crack. There is no bottom for them. They will do whatever it takes to get that hit of more money, more power, more adulation.

I believe that anger and tears will be in order tomorrow. And then we figure out how to go from there. 

Meanwhile, let's all hold each others' hands. Tightly. We hold each other up. We hold each other close. 
We hold each other. 

Love...Ms. Moon