Saturday, January 23, 2010

Pilfering Prickly Pears

So, first things first:

1) If you haven't had a prickly pear margarita, you've only been half-living life.

2) I'm prone to impulsive little "adventures" that often aren't well thought out - which is what makes them fun, but also sometimes disastrous.

There's a prickly pear cactus at the entrance to my office park.  It looks like it's on an easement so it probably doesn't really belong to anyone - or it belongs to everyone.  I don't know.  I drive past it every day, and for the past few weeks the fruits have been ripening, and I've been thinking, "I really ought to pick those and figure out how to make some prickly pear syrup and then have some margaritas."  But it's always on my way into the office at 8am, and I always forget about it five minutes later.  I left work early Friday afternoon to run a quick errand, and on my way back in I saw the cactus again and decided to finally get those fruits.   There's no shoulder, so I just pulled up on the curb (bad idea #1), put the hazard lights on, and hopped out of the car.  I scrambled up a little embankment (another sign this was doomed) and got to the cactus.  Now, I was totally expecting spines on the cactus pads.  I was prepared to avoid those.  I was artfully bending around 2-inch long spines and I grabbed one of the fruits, and it hurt.  And I thought, "Dammit, I thought I avoided those spines, I need to be more careful."  I picked the fruit and tossed it in my little bag and grabbed another.  And another.  And another.  And every time, it hurt.  So, I looked down at my hand and there are these little, tiny, hair-like things (which I now know are called glochids) sticking out of my skin, like splinters.  So I touched one with my finger tip, and it HURT.  And I tried to pull it out, and it hurt even more.  I looked more carefully at the fruits and realized they're completely covered in these sharp little things.  I paused for a moment, considering my options: I could quit with my meager harvest of four prickly pears and and have nothing to show for it, or I could forge ahead and at least make the pain I've endured thus far worthwhile.  Being absolutely brilliant, I went with the latter.  A couple dozen pilfered prickly pears and a whole lot of cursing later, my right hand was so covered in these things I could barely grip the steering wheel with that hand anymore, and I'd managed to stick myself in about four different places with the bigger cactus spines as well.  But, I had my prickly pears, and I will have a margarita by the end of the weekend, dammit.

In other news, I need a pair of tweezers.

4 comments:

  1. Duct tape will get rid of those glochids really fast! Take it from someone who sat in a cactus patch in her front yard at age three and STILL remembers the pain. It may require a few swipes.

    Duct tape is also splendid for glass and wood splinters.

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  2. Silly! I could have told you about the spines on the fruit. I may hate the entire natural world but I know a thing or two about it.

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  3. Vakumlanabilir Torbalı Saklama Kutusu’nun dahiyane tasarımı, size bir yandan şık bir saklama alternatifi sağlarken, diğer yandan da kullanışlı bir mobilya parçası kazandırır.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vakumlanabilir Torbalı Saklama Kutusu’nun dahiyane tasarımı, size bir yandan şık bir saklama alternatifi sağlarken, diğer yandan da kullanışlı bir mobilya parçası kazandırır.

    ReplyDelete