Life in the time of Wuflu, Part 15: I emerge into a strange new world

The Hermit, Ignacio Zuloaga

It isn’t that I haven’t been out lately; I have. But each trip has been to a specific place with a specific mission. Go, get in and out, get home and decon. Today was what was once the normal, once-a-week shopping expedition. I haven’t done this since March sometime.

I felt a little like a hermit emerging from his hideaway.

First was what should have been breakfast. Instead it was McDonalds (yes, I know, but drive thru rules the day now and the Awful Waffle doesn’t have one), which I ate in the parking lot at the local big-box home improvement place. This was an amazing exercise in people watching. As usual, there were the usual collection of mask-wearing folks who apparently can’t get it that the mask only works when it’s actually covering your nose and your mouth. Then there was the lady who took off hers and held it by the outside, in her bare hand. And the mask laying on the parking lot. The gloves in the vehicle, contaminating the whole thing. So on and so forth.

These people are not going to learn easily.

Inside, it was the usual festival of cluelessness. 6′ of social separation was kinda-sorta observed, notable exceptions being the guy who backed into me in one of the electrical aisles, and the young and studly idiots who just had to get into that drink case I was standing next to, because lack of Mountain Dew was critical. I almost said something, but then remembered that A) I’m not 25 and studly any more, B) the odds were 4 to 1 against and C) when you carry a gun you need to leave your temper at home. So I kept my something and let morons be morons.

The local big-box pet store was quiet. There was a self-service station at the door to disinfect carts and yourself. Shelves were pretty well stocked. They were a little light on my preferred cat litter, but I got what I needed. Prices seemed to be about the same as before things went sideways.

The grocery store was the interesting stop, as I expected it might be, since this was my first visit in 3 weeks. Someone was cleaning shopping carts at the door. People tried to observe the 6′ thing, but of course it’s a little difficult in the confined spaces that are grocery store aisles. Aisles were one-way. No one was deliberately doing dumb stuff. Many items were still thin but in better supply, such as fresh meats, canned goods and frozen anything. Fresh vegetables were hit-or-miss, mostly miss. Canned meats were extremely thin on the shelves. Rice and dried beans were pretty much gone. Plenty of snack foods. I got one of the last 6 packs of paper towels. No toilet paper, although a heard someone say that there had been some earlier than the morning. Early bird, worm, etc. Prices were stable there as well, at least on what I bought. Heck, I even found some good stuff on sale.

I’ve noticed that traffic is picking up a bit in our neighborhood-more people going out more often. Still a lot of walkers. The ATV/golf cart traffic has decreased.

After I got home, I spent some time talking with my neighbor across the street. He and his wife are older and have a nice collection of “underlying medical conditions”. They’re going stir crazy. They did get out and go to drive-in church yesterday. They have been much better than I about the whole stay at home thing, but it’s wearing thin for them.

So there it is. It’s a sad statement that this is what is blog worthy these days.