Friday, September 11, 2020

Shelling Peas And Memories Of Another Kind Of Terror Than The One We're Living Through Now


That is approximately six or seven Netflix-streamed episodes of "The Office" worth of pea shelling. In that bowl are two different varieties of peas and some of them, as you can see, are dried and brown because they stayed on the vine too long but they cook up fine. 
Here's a close-up. 

The green-bean looking pieces are what we call snaps. They were picked a bit too early and their peas are immature and although you CAN shell (or shuck) them, sometimes we just snap off the ends and then snap the little beans into pieces. They are good like that too. Here's a really close close-up with a quarter for scale. They are quite small. 


Ten to the quarter or so? Something like that. Shelling them is indeed time-consuming but as a mindless chore to be done while watching TV, a pleasant task. And they are delicious. So it's worth it all the way around. I did get quite a few ant bites while picking yesterday but that's just the way it is. 

Isn't this exciting?

I knew you'd think so. 

When I went to Costco today, I asked the sweet guy in the liquor store if he'd done anything exciting lately. He said that no, he was just trying to keep his head above water, working, and not much else. He asked me if I'd done anything exciting lately. I said, "Coming to Costco is about the most exciting thing in my life lately. So to me, you're living the dream, buddy!" 
He laughed. But Kevin is quick to laugh. He's just a nice man. 

I went to Publix too. We were out of bananas. And almost out of limes. Danger, danger, Will Robinson! More bananas have appeared on my bloom but they won't be ripe for quite awhile. One must have bananas. And limes. Of course I managed to find about a hundred dollars' worth of other stuff to buy, too. As always. 

Besides that stuff, there's been little else. It's been raining again, on and off. It is, of course, the anniversary of 9/11. We all have so many memories of that day. That morning in particular. I was with Lon and Lis. Lis had had her appendix out and Lon and I had gone to fetch her from the hospital and the TV was on in the room and she pointed at it and said, "Look what's happening," and none of us could comprehend it and when we got in the car to go back to Gatorbone, Bob Edwards was on NPR and trying to make sense of it all for us and no one really understood what was going on but his voice was so calm and I still appreciate that. Then came the the other destructions and the endless loops of the devastating disaster videos and I drove home across the state, the sky empty of planes, my mind empty of answers, just knowing I had to get home to my children, my husband. 
It is still unimaginable after all this time. And yet, more people have died now from Covid than they did on that day of terror. 

I have no way to tie any of this up in a neat square knot. It's impossible. So I'll just say that it's Friday. Maurice is tormenting me by trying to walk across my keyboard as I write, rubbing her back on my chin. I think she may actually be mellowing a bit in her old age. She seeks out Mr. Moon when he is in his chair and yes, she still growls when he moves but she's not as apt to grab with her terrible claws and bite with her terrible fangs. Time has had its way with her just as it has with everything including me and you and our memories of that day when planes crashed and people died in the most horrible of ways. We haven't forgotten and those of us who were here will never forget and I still weep when I think of all of the pictures people posted of their missing loved ones, when I think of the heroes and the innocent who are gone. 

Well. On that cheerful note I believe I will ask my man to make me a martini. "Olives or pickled green beans?" I will ask him. And I'll make supper and we will eat it and the rain will continue to fall and we will sleep on clean sheets and sleep as if the world was a safe place, a good place, which may be true here and there for a moment or so but then change on a dime, on a whim, on a breeze, and yet, we go on as if we had no idea because that's what you have to do. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon



 

20 comments:

  1. "Sugarplum fairy, sugarplum fairy"-Another day in the life, and the little greenies look marvelous. Smoke doing its worst up here but the babies came today and tried to figure out what peanuts do.

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    1. Yay for the babies! Did you show them how to eat peanuts? My brother who lives up your way says the smoke is horrible.

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  2. Lovely post. And yes, one foot in front of the other.

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  3. I was working as a cashier ( teller) in a bank on 9/11. A customer came in and said something dreadful was happening in NY.We put the TV on in the rest room and saw the horror unfolding.Shortly after ( I was only part-time) I picked up my then 13 yr old son from school and we got home and watched TV. I remember telling him it was important " history" and we should watch.
    I think that what you call peas...we would call beans!

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    1. 9/11 was one of those events. We ALL remember where we were, what we were doing. I'm sure your son remembers too.
      I've discussed the beans vs peas thing. There are some beans that we just call peas here. Black-eyed peas, for example. And some that we call beans. Black beans, pinto beans, etc. Don't ask me why. They all come in a pod.

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  4. Fresh Peas are indeed divine! I wonder how, as a Country almost 20 Years ago, we could come together during a terrible disaster and now, we can't come together during an even more epic and Global Crisis? How some could view 3,000 perishing with compassion and yet the very same people now barely Care that we're nearing 200,000 American Dead, mostly due to a Leader they Voted into Power? It's strange, has our America changed that much? I fear it has indeed. One day at a time is how we're coping too.

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    1. I don't know the answer to the question. I think the absolute shock and horror of what happened on 9/11 transcended everything else whereas the slow illnesses and deaths from Covid can far more easily be ignored or disregarded entirely unless it happens to someone we know or love. And of course, the orange one has contributed mightily to that.

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  5. I'd been in NYC on business and flew out the night before 9/11--my last glimpse of the Twin Towers was from the window of the plane before leaving EWR as a thunderstorm cloud ultimately it from view. Coming home in the darkness, I flew in to DCA and looked down over the Pentagon just before we landed. Was at work in DC the next morning (not far from Capitol Hill), when the attacks took place. WDC became frantically gridlocked that morning as people tried to get away from the city and other possible attacks. I stayed alone in my office until mid-afternoon and then drove home on empty highways.

    We used to think danger would come from from those outside our country. Now we know it comes from within.

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    1. Wow. That's quite a story, Mary. I can just see those empty highways...
      And yes. The greatest danger always seems to come from within.

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  6. no need for terrorist attacks on the US anymore. Putin figured it out. we are destroying ourselves.

    I do miss having a garden but I don't know if I have the energy to start over. or where. the old spot is just a huge mound of weeds and now there is a house on the property and on the other side is the spray from the septic system. I don't have as much sun over here though I could probably find a spot on the other side of the far flower bed. something to do this fall and winter.

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    1. Remember Nikita Krushchev saying that the US would destroy itself from within? Oh, how we laughed!
      He was fucking right.
      If you don't feel the need to garden, don't do it! It's a lot of work and the reward is not always really worth it. It's nice when it is but it sucks when it isn't.

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  7. I love your voice -- hearing it in your words. Soothing and just perfect for these times. Thank you.

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  8. Those peas look great! I've been eating them (with the accompanying "snap") all my life. I like steaming okra on top of them, too.

    As to 9/11...it may sound like a terrible thing to say, but the 3000 people who lost their lives on that day are a drop in the bucket compared to the 200,000 and counting who have died from Covid and half the country doesn't give a shit about THEM. Some days, I just despair.

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    1. I've seen okra cooked like that too!
      You're absolutely right about the numbers not reflecting the concern. Humans are so illogical and often times just plain stupid. I despair as well.

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  9. Covid has given us death equivalent to sixty-five 9/11s, and more every day. But yes. There is still goodness in pockets of our world. Clean sheets and rain. Heaven.

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  10. I was aware of the anniversary of 9/11 but I didn't mention it or, to be honest, think much about it. Next year it will be 20 years -- we'll probably hear a lot more about it then. Surely one of the strangest and most horrifying days of all our lives.

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