One More Nasty Chore

My life seems to be filled with an above-average number of gross tasks. Yesterday was no exception, although at least it did not involve animal vomit or excrement. Always a plus. No, this time it involved rotting potatoes. And fruit flies. FUN!

See, I noticed the other day when I fetched some potatoes from the boxes in the Pit of Despair that some of the boxes had little fruit flies around them. Well, they LOOK like fruit flies, anyway. My insect identification skills are not exactly expert level, so they could be something else. Whatever, they're tiny little winged things that hover around. Further investigation revealed some potatoes with spots of white mold on them, and one box with a potato on the bottom that had just turned into one big pile of disgusting goo. Yum.

Have you heard the phrase "One rotten apple will spoil the whole bunch"? Same goes for potatoes. Which meant I needed to get the rotten ones out. Which meant going through every box and examining every potato. With a flashlight, because that particular room in the Pit of Despair has no light. So I stood there in the dark, pulling out potatoes and examining them with my flashlight, occasionally encountering slimy rot with my hands (GROSS), and waving away the little fly things.

It was way fun.

However, the good news is that I don't think this is The Blight. There weren't that many potatoes affected, and the bad ones mostly just had some spots of white mold on them, most likely caused by being not entirely dry when they were stored. Because it was impossible to get ANYTHING entirely dry this summer, what with the constant rain and all. Seriously, I kept expecting the Ark to show up any day and the dogs and sheep to march on two by two.

BUT ANYWAY.

So yes, I did the nasty chore. My love for mashed potatoes conquered my reluctance to sort the potatoes, and I can be assured of many, many bowls of mashed potatoes and cheese to come. Thank God.