August 3, 2020 – Monday night
I need a diversion.
A friend of mine is dying. I adore this man and I hate to have him gone from my life … but that is all I want right now – for him to go.
It’s hard watching his decline. This last week it’s been a slow slide … the last two days there have been gigantic changes. I don’t want him to suffer any more … I just want him to let go and GO.
2020 sucks.
In so many ways.
I’m looking for a diversion but …
I’m tired of everything. I’m tired of being home. I’m tired of doing projects. I’m tired of wearing a mask and of covid and of all of the horrible pain and suffering of so many … too many. I’m tired of the mounting deaths. I’m tired of being alone. I’m tired of freaking out if I go to the grocery store more than once in 10 days. I am tired of all this political crap. I’m tired of stupid Trump and his ineptitude and excuses and moronic jumble of words that are supposed to pass for coherent sentences. I’m tired of his immature power plays and his empty promises, his lack of responsibility and I’m so tired of his voice and his orangeness and all his lies. I’m tired that he’s still in office. I’m tired that there are so many enablers in this country’s government. I’m tired of all of that crap. I’m tired of losing people I love. I’m tired of not having a dog of my own. And I’m tired of the weather.
And I laugh at myself as I write that because it can be ANY year and I will ALWAYS be complaining about the weather. It’s not warm enough. It’s too wet. It’s too dry. It’s something else. I’m sure whenever I move I will once again be able to complain about it being too hot! But, right now – that’s not an issue. Even on one of our warmest days – I’m off walking the cliff in the evening with a sweater and a coat. It’s August! WTF.
And I realize … that has been my diversion … my nightly walks and animal counting. Last night and tonight were prime nights for slugs. The roadway was mowed and that left a nice, cool, damp buffet for anything slug-like. And there were plenty of them. Last night I quit counting at 25 … I only saw 10 tonight. However, tonight I got a really good photo of one climbing up a flower stem. It must have smelled yummy to put in all that effort! These slugs I’m talking about are all brown or black and are fat things … think squishy, somewhat melted Tootsie Rolls. They all are about five-six (or so) inches long but can curl up into a fat, blobby ball when touched. Tonight I rescued about five of them from the road … putting them back into the grass. I sure hope I didn’t return them from where they were starting out if they wanted to get to the other side! If so, oops, sorry fellas! I wiped my hands on my pants and continued on … the slimy, sticky goo is hard to get rid of. But … I’ll do it again if I see one sliding along mid-road!
And this made me wonder … what are these things? Snails and slugs. I have both at my house. They appear on my deck at night, on the siding, or on my garbage can … they can be ultra tiny (and so cute) or rather fat and grotesque. The snails live on the front of the house – more by the flowers and in my gardens. They hang out on my siding and in the lattice work around the bottom wall and in my flower boxes. Sometimes after a rain I’ll find ten or so of them in the grass … like they’re having a small snail rodeo. Where do they live? What is the difference between a slug and a snail? And where do the shells come from?
So, while eating my perfectly ripe watermelon after my walk, I did a little sleuthing and this is what I’ve come up with:
Snails and slugs are gastropods. I knew that – thank you, Mr. Guthrie from junior year’s high school geology class. I don’t know why we were talking about these guys in that class (you’d think it would be covered in bio) … but I distinctly remember joking around with the guy I went to prom with in that class about said slugs and snails! (Maybe they were in fossil form!) Weird.
Anyway – they are in the phylum Mollusca … as are all snails and slugs whether from saltwater, freshwater or from land. And they are in the same family as octopus, clams, squid and oysters. Who knew?
Snails have exterior shells … and, contradicting websites say that they can/not leave their shells. Baby snails are born with their shells. Slugs have no shells. Both have two sets of tentacles … the top pair is where their eyes are located … and another set, lower down, is for smelling. They live in moist/rainy/wet areas. Since their bodies are made up mostly of water, they tend to dry out quickly. They are nocturnal and prefer to come out and feed at night or after rains. They secrete a mucus to protect their bodies over hard or sharp/bumpy terrain – as it helps them to glide over surfaces without harm. It’s also a deterrent to predators as the mucus is not tasty! A group of snails is called a rout or an escargatoire of snails … a group of slugs is called a cornucopia. Most land snails/slugs live 1-5 years but most are annual. And, if need be, they can go into hibernation (which also happens over the winter) for 3 years!
So, that’s about all I want to know right now cuz I’m envisioning what is under the siding of my house … it’s probably just lined up with thousands of slugs that come out at night and others that are hibernating or sleeping … and ew … that’s just too gross … even for me!
And, yet … I do love my slugs and snails … and they are always a good diversion.