Coronavirus Question

[Odyssey]

Social distancing is the norm for an eccentric (flaky) recluse (hermit) such as myself, although I do enjoy the odd bit of social interaction from time to time. Going for a cycle today to wipe away the winter cobwebs I stopped a number of times to talk briefly with passersby on the trail, at a respectable social distance of course. And later on it may have been just my imagination but the fellow grocery shoppers were particularly gracious as we narrowly averted shopping cart collisions in the aisles, each other struggling to find the appropriate social distance between pork loin (20% off) and the party sized shrimp cocktails (who's having parties these days?). I enjoyed myself in any case. There's still fun to be had and pleasant social discourse from a safe distance even in these unsettled times.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Social distancing is the norm for an eccentric (flaky) recluse (hermit) such as myself, although I do enjoy the odd bit of social interaction from time to time. Going for a cycle today to wipe away the winter cobwebs I stopped a number of times to talk briefly with passersby on the trail, at a respectable social distance of course. And later on it may have been just my imagination but the fellow grocery shoppers were particularly gracious as we narrowly averted shopping cart collisions in the aisles, each other struggling to find the appropriate social distance between pork loin (20% off) and the party sized shrimp cocktails (who's having parties these days?). I enjoyed myself in any case. There's still fun to be had and pleasant social discourse from a safe distance even in these unsettled times.

Pretty much normal for us too. I did enjoy outings to go to dinner as that involved a road trip to the "city". The lake is still iced up and that has me peeved though it is a month too early for ice out in normal years. Grocery shopping aside from not finding things we expect leads to pleasant social discourse on what to do to "make do". At the appropriate distance of course.
Rumor has it it will get to 60 F today though I don't see how. We haven't seen sun in days and the temp hovers in the 30s. Time to re energize the Christmas lights.

Gee Brad I am envious of your biking.. I have seen some cyclists around but they are all bundled up. Can't be worse than snowmobiling. I do miss board games with the neighbors. They are absolutely scared to death of this. Their kids have effectively quarantined them .. We all put out the garbage cans in the central area for trash pickup and when they saw us they ran.

 

[Canotrouge]

So far up here we are doing better then most of the rest of Canada.... But for how long? I work mostly from home and the wife is a teacher who is off work for an other 2+ weeks( 4 weeks total). But people are not acting properly just yet... Still going to bars and restaurant and some events(the one that didn't cancel) or gathering together between friends cause they don't know what to do by themselves.... Hope everyone is doing ok!!

 

[Guest]

Well that was odd.

I did our normal every week to ten day grocery store run yesterday morning. Even with an early morning visit the sprawling Giant Food store was sold completely out of some items on my list. Thank gawd we don’t yet need toilet paper, that was acreage of empty shelves. We did need Kleenex, also denuded.

The other empty shelves:

No cooking spray. Zero, even the Pam grill top stuff was gone.
No cans of tuna.
Almost no mayonaise. I scored an orphan jar of “Canola oil” mayo.
No rice. I found a family-sized box of “Yellow Rice” on an out of reach top shelf.
No frozen vegetables. Two lonely packs of frozen “organic” green beans.
Not a lot of bread. I wouldn’t have bought Sara Lee wheat otherwise.
Not a lot peanut butter. Or cheese.

The weirdest part was the coffee aisle. That was a big arsed empty and I settled for a giant can of regular Folgers, not even Black Silk Folgers.

I mentioned that WTCF (What The Coffee F&*#) to my son and he nailed it instantly. Folks are working from home, folks who routinely stopped by the coffee shop on their way in, or suckled from the office coffee pot. People need their freaking morning coffee.

The Liquor stores in Pennsylvania are all closed (Maryland still open as yet). I laid in an emergency bottle of 101 Wild Turkey, and may pick up a bottle of 151 rum to mix as a redneck Cuba Libre with Diet Pepsi. Well, a proper redneck Cuba Libre would be 151 and Doctor Pepper. Or Mountain Dew.

May you live in interesting times.