August 6

In an online video of oysters around the world, there is a scenario of a Japanese woman eating a large oyster. The poor thing (the oyster, they are live when we open the shell, you know) is enormous, the woman picks one end of it up with her chopsticks, lifts it to her lips, opens, and commences slowly feeding it into her mouth bit by bit, inch by inch, chewing and swallowing as she consumes it. It is not a short process. Oysters, especially raw, are a lifetime favorite food, and I love the "selects" (large ones) of the Gulf coast. But I hesitate at the thought of eating an oyster that big.  

Yesterday we visited Sam's Club to buy a rotisserie chicken. For several years we have found theirs to be excellent. While there, I bought one carton of their Pacific oysters. Been buying them for years, about half the price of Gulf coast oysters and, though Pacific coast oysters are not 100% to my Gulf coast taste, an oyster is an oyster if it's fresh. The carton I bought yesterday was marked "small". I've also bought Sam's oysters marked "extra small" and haven't noticed a difference between extra small and small, they're all enormous. I do wonder what a medium or large one would be like. 

The first thing to do is open the carton. It's a plastic cup about the size of a large soda cup, sealed and capped. Sniff for freshness: no aroma matches, or quickens the heart like, that of fresh oysters, and these were. With a fork, I fished out one, the smallest one in the carton, salted it (because they're washed, they all need salting), and ate it. For "small" it was large, about twice as long as my thumb and twice as thick. Good; a bit metallic, which is one characteristic of some west coast oysters. 

Each one of these is more than a mouthful, so I tried my own version of an oyster shooter: glunk glunk of vodka in a glass, drop in two small (huge) oysters, or it may have been three. Shake a little salt on top (simply because they are not at all salty), swirl lightly, shake about six or eight drops Tabasco hot sauce on top of the oysters. Take oyster shooter glass and fork to table and fork oysters into mouth, chewing as you go. Do not drink the vodka.

At Sam's Club I also visited the sushi box. Nice selection, not "complete" (no traditional tuna or salmon rolls (seaweed on the outside) but nice. I bought one box of nigiri, eight pieces, tuna and salmon four each. Again, until and unless they change, I will buy my sushi at Sam's from now on instead of at Publix or Fresh Market who lay on top a paper thin shaving of tuna or salmon. At Sam's the fish pieces are nice and thick, exactly as I first ate and learned to love when we lived in Japan nearly sixty years ago.

Heavy rainstorms yesterday. We're hoping today will be fair. This morning we're going to PCB to a monthly gathering and professional presentation for caregivers. In the wake of Malinda's 2018 health disasters, two brain episodes and three brain surgeries, we are coming to know that this is going to work out such that, between Malinda's children and us her parents, we can face it lovingly and without exhaustion. From Harry Golden: wishing us a hundred twenty years.

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration. The date is fixed, August 6th every year. Not one of the seven Principal Feasts, it's one of the three Major Feasts that "take precedence of a Sunday". BCP pages 15 & 16. Because it's one of two grand epiphanies (Jesus' Baptism and Jesus' Transfiguration) we observe it again every year as the last Sunday in the Epiphany Season. In my experience, few except high church parishes that have Mass every day, take notice of August 6. So it gets its attention in Epiphany, which seems fine. Here's the Lectionary gospel for today:  

The Transfiguration

28b Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Eli′jah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, and when they wakened they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli′jah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen;[a] listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silence and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. (Luke 9:28b-43, RSV)

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The occasion seems appropriate to me and for me to acknowledge life changing, what one might call a sea change. That, as I said above, we're coming to realize that we can face and live into life as it changed in an instant, well two days, last year, in May and in October, 2018 representing not so much a mountaintop experience as commonly thought of, more a Death Valley experience. It has been transfiguring, and here we are out on the other side, both Back in 7H and Realizing That We Can Do It. The work recovering Harbour Village from HMichael will be going on for months yet, the entire Bay side has now been covered with scaffolding for the continuation; and inside 7H we are facing boxes and boxes and boxes of Things that, having lived without for ten months, I wonder if we even need to open the boxes at all. It's not like Christmas, more like arriving at the city dump. The Other is, again, seeing that as this little side of our larger family, we are going to make it.

RSF&PTL

W

Icon: Theophanes the Greek, late 14th century.