Today starts the final week of the tour. We are still busy, but it's now seasonably busy, not the insane rush we had the past few weeks. Today we dogged the watches, going from a 12-hour watch to 8's, so that instead of days, I'm now on nights. The guy going home gets to work nights here on the HQ, which has positives and negatives. I no longer have to play stepnfetchit for every office worker who wants something and is happy to call for it 20 times rather than email, but OTOH I'll be colder and we tend to discharge cargo at night and load during the days, and loading is quieter and a more calm process... so, mixed blessing there. I'm not complaining (for once), going on nights means I'm almost ready to go home, and that... well, it's definitely harder to be out here than it was 20 years ago.
So, last week my partner of almost 11 years out here, B, came back, and he brought some treats with him from the middle of farm country in Nebraska where he lives. B brought us 5lbs of Rocky Mountain Oysters... bull balls, in other words. I'd never eaten them, and had no particular compunction to do so. I mean, if I want to horrify people by telling them what I'm eating, I'll have a slice of haggis, which I do enjoy.
So, B breaded and fried the sliced cow scrotums, and watched with glee as I tried it. I mean, I couldn't NOT try it, and risk being thought less of.
I tried to upload a picture, but Blogger is being an asshole. I mean, it looks like a flattened chicken nugget, pretty unexciting. It tasted OK. decent flavor, a little chewy, but tasty and the breading gave it a nice crunch.
Well, there goes another thing I swore I'd never do.
6 more watches to go!