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Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Rainy Days and Slugs

Whenever I fall in love -- whether with a place, a person or a thing -- I tend to minimize the negatives.  Perhaps we all do this to some extent.  If we didn't we'd probably never fall in love at all.  And I've had enough experience now to believe that we don't love in spite of defects or foibles, but because of them.  That's what makes what we love human if they are, well, human.  And that's what makes them unique if what we love is a place or a thing.

I'm telling myself this as I get used to long, chilly rainy days here on the Oregon coast.  When my husband, George, and I arrived at the beginning of May our weather was glorious -- almost two solid weeks of temperatures in the mid to high sixties, deep blue skies, and not a drop of rain in this place where pretty much everyone told me to expect constant rain.

Still, it isn't the rain I'm afraid I won't learn to love.  After all, rain gives me the opportunity to cuddle up by a fire with a good book and drink lots of hot herbal tea.

I'm afraid I will never, ever get used to living in a place with slugs!  Slugs as, I kid you not, as big as cats.  Slugs everywhere: crawling up the outside walls, curling up under the ferns or the flowering rhododendrons, hanging out on the back patio.

No one told me about the slugs, only the weather.  When I look at them it's difficult not to recall the slimy leaches at the Wisconsin lake we went to every summer as kids.  They'd maneuver themselves from the bottom of our rowboat and onto our bare feet and calves when we weren't paying attention.  We wanted to boat, but we didn't like leaches.  I want to live at the coast, but I don't like slugs.  In fact I hate slugs.

I'm trying to remind myself when I see yet another slug, that no place or person we love is perfect.  It's usually the little things we dislike the most -- and I'm trying to categorize slugs as a little thing.  There's the proverbial raised toilet seat or the wrongly-squeezed toothbrush tube.  It might be beard clippings in the sink or the way he chews his food or loads the dishwasher.  You probably have a list of your own irritations.

I'm also remembering how once I was afraid of spiders and now I'm not; that I couldn't drink ice tea without sugar and now I can; how I was terrified to fly and now I don't mind it at all.  Perhaps I can learn to love slugs, or tolerate them a little, or love the Oregon coast despite the fact that I'm going to have to share it with these disgustingly oozy-looking, large things.  


When I learned about spiders and bats and how necessary and good they are for the environment, they stopped scaring me.  Sometimes all we need in order to change hate and fear into acceptance and even, perhaps, fondness and love, is knowledge.

I can put up with the rainy days because I know that without them we wouldn't have the lush, emerald beauty of the forest that edges the ocean here at the coast.  Without rainy days, there is an increased threat of wildfires as has been happening all over the American West these last few weeks.

So I'm wondering if perhaps I can learn exactly what it is slugs are good for and then like them a little.  I don't know.  But I'll do some research and get back to you on that.

Help me out here.  Do you know anything good about slugs?  Is there something you once hated and now you like?  Has learning about something changed fear or hate to respect or love for you?  If so, let me know in the comments.  I can use all the help I can get.

13 comments:

  1. Love this because it really is all about change, acceptance, and learning to adapt to life -- not expecting it to adapt to us. I also remember the "Bannana Slugs" of Northern California in Big Sur -- They are the size of bannanas - and should have collars and leashes, so I understand what you are saying. . . made it very hard to have a picnic!

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  2. Oh Mary I loved reading this, it felt like we were sitting down with a cup of tea and we were just chatting. I do sympathise: when we moved to sydney no one had told me about the cockroaches - the very first night we arrived and sat outside and this huge 8 cm big one just flew in and landed on our pizza (I didn't know they could fly!). I'm afraid I never found out if they were there for a reason, what's their usefulness in our ecosystem. I do know that after a while I stopped screaming each time I saw one...when we left sydney I wasn't sad to leave the cockroaches...

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    1. Now I'm with you there. Cockroaches I cannot STAND!. In the 80s I lived in South Africa and I moved from Cape Town to Durban. No one told me about the cockroaches and yes the fact that they FLY! The first place I stayed you could hear them scuttling at the back of the herb cupboard and all the jars had their labels half eaten by them. In the third place I lived I was sitting on the sofa one Sunday afternoon when out of the corner of my eye I saw movement as I wrote a letter home to my parents. I looked sideways and there was this monster heading at speed towards me. I leapt into the air and across the room only to have to damn thing take flight after me. I ran upstairs screaming all the way. It followed. I slammed my bedroom door and it scuttled in under neath ... I kid you not ...
      I flew out of the room into the kitchen looking for the can of DOOM which I dually emptied on this hapless creature. It took a while - they don't die easily - but I was the victor. Sorry if I offended anyone's sensibilities but really ... cockroaches ... I'd do the same again and again.

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  3. Great blog Mary! This reminds me of times spent in wetter climes than Colorado, watching the ground to avoid stepping on creatures of high humidity. But I've never seen a slug as large as you describe! Here in Colorado the 'worker bees' of decomposition are invisible, or have many legs. Unpleasant as slugs are, they do serve a higher purpose and are part of an intricate ecosystem. In Oregon it may not be possible since everything is so wet-- but perhaps you can create a 'slug haven' compost pile in an area that's mostly out of your sight. You need yin to appreciate the yang of life...snakes in the Garden of Eden make the beauty that much more wondrous. You may not grow to love them, but shoot for peaceful coexistence. Man is slowly learning that ridding the world of unpleasant critters just upsets Mother Nature's delicate balance. That said, I know rock salt deters them, and have used it in Maine around my garden and walkways to keep slugs out! I found many more resources for eliminating slugs than telling how beneficial they are, but here is one: http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/1998/special.html

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  4. Slugs love beer. Chickens love drunken slugs. :)

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  5. Ee-ee-uu-wwhhh! I felt the slimy repulsion at first and then you led me to curiosity.

    Regarding the rock salt comment, Google Gary Larson's Far Side comic, "Slug Vacation Disasters"!

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  6. Personally, I love the rosey glow feeling of falling and being in love. It's the part that makes everything else possible, the triumphs and challenges and that the difficult for me, in between stage. Slugs and all, is so much more descriptive than warts and all because place has slugs and rainy days. It brings out the richness and fullness of love

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  7. So have you seen your first banana slug yet? Oh yes, they're even bigger, slimier, and more disgusting! I'm with you in falling in love with this amazing place, despite some of the not-so-perfect bits. I moved here last July - we're inland a bit (in Corvallis), but after living in Phoenix for years, the rain is something I'm getting used to as well. Like you, I keep telling myself that the endless months of rain are the very reason we live in such a gorgeously lush place. I'm pretty creeped out about the slugs, but have to admit my true fear is of the monstrous spiders that keep finding their way indoors here (seriously, Shelob has nothing on them in size or fear factor). Eep! So, there's some solidarity, sister! :) Love your blog and now happily have you in my Google Reader.

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    1. Love Corvallis, Victoria. Our son is not far from there. I had a face-to-face with a slug this morning ... meditating on his eyes to see if I could any sort of special feeling for him. Kind of did. But will never, ever, ever happen with humongous spiders. I draw the line!

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  8. MAry I feel for you and slugs. After cockroaches they are my pet hate. We used to have a terrible problem in our kitchen and woe betide if you found yourself there in the small hours of the morning looking for a glass of water or something and you didn't turn the light on to see where you were stepping. Very very unpleasant.

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  9. Hmm,tricky one about the slugs, Mary. I used to go out with a head torch and a bucket of salty water in the evenings and pick off dozens of slugs from my young vegetable seedlings. I felt more in control and after a few evening forays their numbers would indeed lessen. But it never felt right, I hated dropping them in the bucket and trying not to think what I'd done and what they were going through. Now I don't feel that same rage when I see them in MY vegetable garden (mine? oh really? they were there before me). I try and grow more and healthier leaves, and keep them on trays of gravel for longer before planting them out...I wish I had an answer for you. Sx

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  10. Something good about slugs - they don't live in Poudre Canyon. Wait!! Maybe that's a bad thing

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