Here We Are Again

No. This is not murder most foul and there is no need for wailing "Out damn spot!" I merely cooked the beets that I'd dug up in the garden some days ago. 

I apologize for the blurriness of that beautiful slice of beet but I didn't take the time I should have and blah, blah, blah. But you can see the whirls of my fingerprints! Still, aren't beets just the most beautiful things? I actually cook mine in a sort of pickling brine. I wish I'd had enough to can but I did not. I cooked the ones I had with red onion slices, vinegar, salt, sugar, and water. And a tiny pinch of cloves. When they were done I sliced them and they're in the refrigerator now and I saved the extra liquid I cooked them in and have two peeled hardboiled eggs lolling about in that in the refrigerator. If there's anything prettier than an egg that's been soaking in pickled beet juice for awhile, I'm not sure what it is. 
Okay. Probably not to everyone but I do love them. 

I will be eating these beets when Mr. Moon is in Orlando, probably over arugula with olive oil and goat cheese. Or maybe a little walnut oil. I read somewhere that walnut oil goes spectacularly well with arugula and so I bought a little bottle and it is very nice. It will not hurt the beets to soak a little bit themselves as they will develop more flavor every day. 

This morning I went on a Costco mission. My dear friend Liz (not Lis) decided that she wanted to join Costco because of their politics and policies. As far as I know, they have refused to give up their DEI guidelines. Also, they pay their employees a decent wage. Liz is a person who definitely puts her money where her mouth is which is another reason to love her so much. But she had asked me to go with her and hold her hand on her virgin trip to the giant warehouse and of course, I was so happy to do that. In fact, I was a little bit inappropriately happy to do that. I was so excited to tell her all my Costco tricks and advise her as to what is definitely worth it to buy there and what isn't. It is ridiculously and insanely rare when I can impart wisdom to Liz. It is always the other way around. She is so knowledgeable about so many, many things. So we had a good time there and it wasn't crowded at all and wasn't very anxiety producing. I felt so eager to impart my knowledge to her, not just about products but also employees. 
"See that guy? And see the guy working the cash register over there? They're brothers." "And that woman? She really loves her mama." I think that Brenda is off on Monday's so we didn't get to see her. The turn-over at Costco is very small and I love the fact that you see the same faces over and over and everyone seems to do every job so you truly do begin to feel a bit like family there. It feels safe, at least. You KNOW these people. 
The woman who signed Liz up is from the Ukraine and was wearing a pretty little brooch of a jeweled stalk of wheat in blue and gold. I asked her if it symbolized Ukraine and she said it did, and we went on from there. It has been three years today since Russia rolled into the Ukraine and as we all know, the fighting has never ceased and so many lives have been lost. I'm not telling any of you anything that you don't already know but I will say that this woman is not Trump's biggest fan. 

And then Liz and I went back to the Waffle House and I swear- I have never in my life been to the Waffle House as often as I have in the last year. She got a pecan waffle and I got some hash browns. We both got decaf and talked for about an hour. Since the last time I saw Liz, which was not that long ago, she has been to both the Everglades AND Alaska. Since her parents both died a few months ago, she has been catching up on adventuring which she gave up to take care of her mom and dad, and there is no holding that woman back now. I admire her so. 

I've spent the rest of the day at home. It's been gray and drizzly. My kidney stone has quieted down. I can still feel its presence but it is definitely in a slightly more comfortable place. I am so curious as to how that thing moves around in my kidney and what positions it gets in that cause pain. It's all a mystery to me and isn't it odd that we walk around with all this stuff going on inside of us and we really have no idea until something gets terribly out of whack? 

Tomorrow is pottery day and it is the last class of this session. Once again, Jessie is probably not going to make it. August has been running a fairly high temperature for a few days and is miserable. He doesn't have covid, he had a flu shot, and so who knows what the little guy has? A virus. It's always a virus. Mostly. My mother used to call mystery illnesses the hoopacudis. I have no idea of the correct spelling but phonetically, that's about it. Hoop-A-Coo-Dis.
It was treated in my home with the ever-present Red Medicine which was some sort of cough syrup. It probably had codeine in it. We used so much of that stuff that the doctor prescribed it to us in pharmacy-sized bottles. 
I kid you not. 
Anyway, I hope that August feels better soon. Parents can feel so helpless when their children are sick and running high temperatures, although of course, that is what children do. They run high fevers and they scare the shit out of us. 

I feel like this post is one of the least interesting posts I've ever written, except for the parts with Liz in them. She's always interesting. So I'll just end it here before I babble on even more endlessly about the most boring and mundane things imaginable, although honestly, pickled beets are sort of exciting if you ask me. 

Love...Ms. Moon