Good news…Ed’s still alive. I’ve been tempted to smother him with a pillow, but then I’d have to do the litter boxes myself, so…nope. We took a leap of faith and went to Costco and Wal-Mart last week. Even knowing we were taking our life in our hands, it was glorious. No traffic. And we were out of Costco in about five minutes. Parked right in the front, and nobody in line at the register. They had a big sign at the entry listing all the things they were out of. They should have just listed what they do have, because it would save them a bunch of work. According to the cashier, people line up outside waiting for the store to open, the cashiers spend the next hour or so working furiously, and then the store goes empty. Luckily, they had the one thing we were looking for, so it was worth the trip.
Wal-Mart was also “less full” than we’re used to seeing. Of course, so were the shelves. The only flour was small sacks, and there were only a few of them. No paper products, Lysol, or eggs. Ed likes those little one-serving containers of Rice A Roni. In chicken. They had a lot of broccoli and cheese but no chicken. But! I was able to buy a sack of potatoes, so we’re good for a while.
Am I the only one who finds it remarkable how much life has changed in the last month? I’m even considering if crocheting face masks would be a good idea. Yes, I know I could drag out the sewing machine and whip some up, but I’d rather visit the dentist than sew. The only good thing about this forced isolation is I don’t have to worry about going to the dentist unless a tooth falls out.
It’s been so long since Ed had driven his truck, we decided we needed to drive the vehicles more. So, we also took a drive in the country on Wednesday. Pretty sure that didn’t violate any social distancing policies, because we never left the truck. Our new house policy is to drive them once a week. Just drive, not stop. Not sure if that policy is for the vehicles or us.
We passed one pickup on the side of the road. There was a guy standing there and I studied him for a bit, trying to figure out what he was doing. It finally dawned on me. He was reading a historical marker. My guess is he’s passed it every day of his life for the last fifty years and never bothered to stop. Yep. The whole world is bored and so sick to death of staying home, they’re driving into the country and reading roadside markers.
About the only thing not affected by this are our raccoons. They’re still coming around, expecting to eat all the cat food. And I do believe they’ve passed the word to every bird in the vicinity, because they’re visiting as well. Thank God for Chewy!
I’ve noticed one other thing during all this. The “stay home” policy is evidently being strictly observed by those who like to send out e-mails announcing, “your account is disabled until you click here and tell us all your personal information.” (Sigh) As if we don’t have enough to worry about right now. And I’ve also seen an increase in the number of garbage replies to my blog posts. Most of which are in a foreign language. So, I spend time marking them as spam. Time I could put to better use, like taking a nap.
To add insult to injury, it’s raining. And expected to keep on raining for the next week. Yes, we need the rain, but now we can’t even go outside and play in the garden without getting soaked. I’m hoping the rain will just wash all the virus away. Not sure that’s possible, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Free downloads of my first two novels are available through Voracious Readers Only. And I’ve seen an increase in the number of requests. I spend part of my time sending a “thank you” e-mail. What’s interesting is some of the responses. I got one the other day from New Zealand. She was looking forward to reading it, because she’s housebound, also. So, it’s not just us. Not that I thought it was, but VRO is proving it isn’t.
To me, the hardest part of all this isn’t the fear, because I’m not really afraid. Well, maybe concerned about running out of toilet paper, but I found four boxes of Puffs I didn’t know I had. (See? There are some advantages to cleaning out your storage closet.) I also discovered about four packs of dinner napkins I didn’t know I had. You can separate the two-ply napkins into a one ply and now you have a no-so-nice dinner napkin. But! You also have toilet paper, because they’re now so thin. Since that discovery, I’m no longer concerned about running out of toilet paper.
I’m not afraid of getting the virus and dying, although I might be a tad bit concerned about dying from boredom, since I’m spending time dissecting dinner napkins. But if this pandemic has taught me anything, it’s taught me this. Through it all, God’s got our backs. Because I fully believe something good will come from all this, I can turn my attention to stupid stuff, like figuring out toilet paper substitutions that won’t clog the drain and spending more time praying for the world. All in all, that’s not a bad way to live. Life is good.