Hey there moms, how are ya doin'? Happy Mother's Day!!
I'm going on day 59 of the shelter in place, stay at home, hunker down "new normal", looking for clues on FB about where to find yeast and toilet paper and flour and such. Yes, I am one of those who got the other new affliction, the need to bake bread. However, my oven has decided now would be the time to stop cooking things in the middle, so I may be about over the bread thing. I picked up a loaf of rye bread at the grocery and forgot how much I love that bread, definitely a new favorite. Toasted with butter, sautéed spinach and a fried egg on top, oh heck yeah!
Luckily we are not meat eaters as I see the new hoarding item is meat. The meat dept at BJ's Wholesale was completely wiped out except for one section of organic all beef hot dogs. What? Nobody wants organic hotdogs? All you got to do is tell someone there is going to be a shortage of something, and by God it will surely sell out, a self fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.
I'm feeding my family well, we are having simple but flavorful and nutritious meals and its almost a game now to see how creative we can be with leftovers. We try hard not to throw anything away unless it has some furry stuff or green moldy stuff growing on it! How many things do you know how to fix with kale and spinach? and beans!
So, today was "Phase I" of the slow opening roll out of North Carolina. (So many new terms in our vocabulary!) Let's see how the next week goes. Friends reported being out and seeing parking lots full, stores packed, retailers were facebooking saying come see us, wheeee, we are open! So my question is....like.....yesterday?.... there was COVID 19 and today there wasn't? Did I miss a thing?
Imma stay home. Forever. I like it here. I like my family, we are getting along amazingly well, staying out of each others way when we need to, being respectful, helping each other, trying to laugh instead of not laugh. We are growing food, we cook, we read. Gerry has to go out amongst the fools that want to protest and carry their big army boy guns around, I hate that part of this the most. Check out my FB for a good photo package from Travis Long at the News & Observer in Raleigh. Beyond absurd!!!!!
Let's see... this past week.... I am having to keep a journal to remember what I do during these weeks, another good reason to blog. Thanks to my friend and tarot card reader/spiritual advisor Carolyn Hill, who by the way did a reading for Wesley over the phone for her birthday if you are interested, just sayin', it was so cool! anyway, Carolyn tipped me off to BJ's warehouse. I haven't been a Costco kinda girl since I stopped packing school lunches, but buying in bulk at the grocery store is sort of embarrassing, you know, filling a cart up with 12 packages of butter, four loaves of bread and all that.
But at BJ's, bulk is king! I bought soooo much butter! AND, I found flour, AND large quantities of snacks for boredom relief! But best of all, I got the tips on how to acquire paper towels and toilet paper. We have been out of paper towels for three weeks, we got on fine without them, but I like them for certain things, we missed them..... and LOOK how much I got. They only allowed one per customer, but I bought a 12 pack of TP at the end of February and we still have one roll left, (we been going easy on the ass wiping round here!) so this should last a few months, whoop!
Never in my life would I have imagined a time when shopping for these two items would be such a challenge for me. So I got the 411 on how to do it: Carolyn advised- I should go on a certain day, sit in the parking lot and watch for carts with these items to make sure the store got the delivery. Sure as hell, EVERY cart that came out had one of each of these in it. Oh Shit, like everybody was there for the same thing!
I hopped out of the car, followed the blockade wall constructed of vertical standing shopping carts, got a nice sanitized cart, and got in the one way only line. It was like we were a line of ants, all going to the back corner of the store for the same thing. I followed the crowd (trust me when I say this, I NEVER follow the crowd). My heart was beating a little faster than it usually does and I was chewing on my lip behind my mask and talking to myself, an AHA moment, you can talk to yourself with a mask on and people don't look at you like they do when you talk to yourself without a mask on! Cool. Sad to say, they can't see you smile at them either, and I haven't figured out how to indicate that I am smiling when I am trying to do that southern polite smile thing....
Anyway! SCORE! I got my allotted paper products just in time. The very tall shelf that was probably filled that morning was half empty. I shopped around, got lot of other great stuff and thought I would go back and check out the shelf, just to see. It was nearly empty and it was just noon, whew, I barely made it. And I was very surprised by my elation at having achieved this feat and the day was just at noon..... I tell ya, right now, it is the simple stuff, am I right?
A big shout out to the BJ's in Burlington. They were well stocked, the employees ALL had masks on, some gloves, there was plexiglass for protection, everyone was helpful, kind, polite. 98% of the shoppers had masks on, most of us were following the one way path, though I give folks a pass on this one, its a hard thing to get used to. There was lots of room to spread out, high ceilings for good ventilation. Shoppers were courteous, we all seemed to be walking around learning how to navigate this new shopping paradigm. It went well.
Feeling so good about this, I stopped at the local Food Lion in Mebane to get a few things I couldn't find at BJ's. Almost no one had a mask on, I got funny looks, the employees did not wear masks, the store shelves were quite empty and no one apparently knows how to read a One Way sign..... or keep their distance. Come on Food Lion.... step it up..... they were making announcements to do the 6' thing, but who listens to a voice coming from the ceiling?
I left my house at 11am and walked back in the door at 3pm. It took two hours to unpack and disinfect, at 5pm I sat down and pondered what I was going to cook with all these treasures I brought home. Normally I would have said, "lets go out"!
I hope you all have a safe and a grand Mothers Day! You deserve one
3 comments:
Yowza- I told you I order PT and TP from Grove Collaborative and last night I got on line to Vons as Smiths website was down and ordered for delivery this morning at 9 am. Vons is only charging 4.00 for delivery while Smiths is 10 so I may switch except Vons is usually slightly more expensive. But then I have to do the math ..
I'm too afraid to go out there just yet and this is so much easier. It does take a bit to disinfect but then we all have to do that. I guess one good thing about city living. delivery
We are soft opening here too and I went to circle the Home Depot parking lot for the fourth time this week. The line to get in was so long I once again returned home empty handed. It’s like they opened the flood gates but the virus is still out and about. And yes, people with masks observations; post office, all workers had masks under their noses or around their neck, one customer was swinging his mask around like a sling shot. Grateful for the plexiglass wall and 6 feet! Hair cutting places were open and gyms..... no, no, no..... I’m learning to love looking like a dandelion gone to seed on a windy day.
I ran down to Amish country last week to pickup flour and was happy to see the women working at the store had gloves and masks on. Nobody shops there so I was alone in the store, yippee! Same at the feed store. When the Amish store is out of yeast you know there are shortages! So happy Mother’s Day and fire up the cast iron 💖❣️
Happy Mother's Day!
We usually have a get together here for family on Mother's Day. Some family members still wanted to do it, socially distancing and dining al fresco. Jeff and I said no. It's too early, his mother and sister's mother-in-law are 92 and 85 years old! Way too risky. It's also too cold for them to dine outside right now AND we are usually a group of 12! That's over the group gathering limit. Jeff and I are cooking and delivering meals to the two senior Mom's homes instead. When I shopped at Food Lion there was next to nothing in the meat case! I was beginning to think we weren't going to be grilling chicken for them. I bravely went to another grocery store and got the second to the last family pack of chicken. It's crazy. Glad we bought a 25 pound bag of jasmine rice in February. That, and a good supply of dried beans will keep us happy.
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