HI! This country’s administration currently recommends you live as if there is no pandemic, because they are concerned about how their stocks/businesses will decrease in value if you don’t work/shop as usual. They are not doing the entire equation: if they did the math to the end, they’d see that your illness/death (and/or the illness/deaths of people you love) would ALSO cause you to work/shop less. So ignore them and listen to the girl with the math medal AND the business/economics degree who DOES care if you live or die.
I am having some trouble not wanting to just sit and refresh Twitter for hours. I don’t need any advice about this, I just wanted to say it in case others are having the same trouble. I’m going to finish this post, and then I’m going to go into a different room from my computer, because as long as I’m sitting at my computer I keep going over to the Twitter tab.
Yesterday’s cleaning task: washed the other half of the kitchen floor. That’s it. Some days we exceed expectations, some days we barely meet them.
Speaking of math, we are trying to figure out when would be a good day/time to go to the grocery store. I’m trying to imagine us snowed into a prairie cabin or whatever: we wouldn’t have to worry yet about starving, it’s just that it would be NICE to have ground beef and bananas. Or you know all those books about families living in terrible poverty, where they’re scraping together little pitiful scraps to eat: we are nowhere near that point. We don’t have to go to the store yet. But what if it would be better/safer to go now and worse to go later? Is it better to let the groceries supplies go back to normal a little—or will they get worse before they get better? Will contagion be more or less of an issues as more people show symptoms? Well, this is one of those useless fret cycles: we don’t have any of the information we need to make the decision, so we just go around and around. For now we’re making this decision: We don’t have to go yet, so we won’t.
A good hearty cookie/snack recipe for a time when you want to balance resources with nutrition: No-Bakes. Oatmeal! Peanut butter! Also butter and milk, so maybe it’s too late to make them if you’re running low on those—but if you still DO have butter and milk you might feel they’re well-spent. Nice little calorie/nutrition-packed bundles of deliciousness! I made a batch last night, then added oats to our ever-growing grocery list.
Yesterday’s press conference made me SO MAD. We are in this problem because they didn’t take it seriously for weeks and now that we are, we want to stop after a week. And I work for the federal gov’t so I assume we will have to stop teleworking and go back to regular travel. And I get frustrated with people saying that there will never be a good time to open back up so we might as well now. NO. Things will have to open eventually but we can wait until the worst is past.
I’ve taken up adult coloring, so that is where I am at now. Send help :)
I’m considering deleting Twitter from my phone, because that’s where I click onto it. And honestly, it’s getting me nowhere.
There is absolutely no right answer….but….the advice our local government is putting out is to go once a week. If you wait until you are down to nothing you have (want) to buy so much that it at least looks like hoarding. The thinking is the supply chain can handle it better if everyone shops for what they need for a week, once a week. Go once a week, send one member of your family, wash your hands before and after, get in, get out, don’t breathe on anyone.
THIS! So much this. I am working from home (have been for decades) and Twitter is on in the background constantly. Every few minutes I refresh and fume and laugh a bit and rage and go back to work. It’s not good for my health, I’m sure.
We were going to go to the grocery store this morning (I, personally, have food for a month, but my husband needs new food every few days, in particular, CHIPS) but I have been dizzy since last night and decided it wouldn’t help anyone if I fell over in the grocery store. I’m sure it is just my anxiety (migraines, check!) because I am otherwise feeling fine.
I know everyone says, “don’t panic, there will be plenty of food” but who really knows.
I can’t stop with the Twitter refreshing either!! I just muted a few people, in order to give me less to read. But that doesn’t really address the addiction to refreshing it for something new.
I’m a preschool teacher whose district is far behind the curve on distance learning, and who works with low income, Spanish speaking families, who are just trying to survive this mess. I worked hard to create an amazing classroom family, and I miss it so much!! I will do my best, but the thought of not being with my littles ever again makes me so sad. And, full circle, being on the computer/phone, trying to figure out this brand new world of learning, sends me to Twitter to refresh and avoid.
I’ve heard about preschool teachers going to their student’s neighborhoods and waving from their cars. If there’s a song you sing with your littles often, you can sing together from a distance.
They cancelled school for the rest of the year in my state yesterday. It will be five months before the kids go back. I know my husband kept predicting this, but still, it’s… a lot to take. We’ll be fine, but what about the single moms with two jobs?
We were supposed to be listing our house this spring and moving to a new location – but yeah, that’s all up in the air now. Our real estate keeps telling us everything is fine, but I just think right now is not the time to be looking for a new house 12 hours away. (hotel rooms, eating, etc.)
All of these people online are talking about having all this free time and… I just don’t. I’m a mess. I can hardly focus at all on anything.
And, the government… just wow. I hope all of these representatives/senators/etc get some sort of punishment for all this stock craziness.
And, all these people who depend on person to person interaction for their business. Holy smokes. Our state shut down all businesses where you cannot maintain 6 feet between people. What are all of the dentists, chiropractors, masseuses, acupuncturists, hair dressers, waxers, etc etc etc supposed to do? I know these are unprecedented times, but I feel like there should be some sort of economic relief package available BEFORE you take these measures. What were these people doing for months while this was building up?
Sigh. I can’t think too much about this.
Hi Gwen! Fellow Virginia resident here. I’ve been thinking about all those personal care folks, too. My son and I were due for haircuts before we went into hibernation so we are already getting shaggy. We were due for our eye appointments, I was overdue for my annual gynecological visit…
I think Congress is going to need to send money to everyone. Actual cash money. Right now. And every month for the next year and a half at least.
Also, my son is a high school senior. No prom. No graduation. He’s resigned to it, but is absolutely ready to lose his composure if his first semester at NYU is delayed.
yes, I am shaggy as well. I think my husband is going to need to start using the scissors on me. I guess it doesn’t matter if he messes up, there will be time for it to grow out…
We live in a rural area of the state with a lot of impoverished families. They’ve been delivering food via school bus, but I can’t even wrap my head around what these parents are going to do. Single women with two jobs, poor families where the parents HAVE to work, what are they going to do for these kids? Someone has to get to the food drop offs, and school? We don’t have great internet options here – required online schooling is going to be a no go.
I have always felt a little ‘old’ for NOT being on twitter or Instagram. I barely use Facebook. I do refresh my blog often – always looking to meet new blog friends there, but after reading this I think I am glad for acting old or at least out of the loop.
We have been going to the grocery store almost daily. (Well, last week I think the kids went Mon or Tues, Wed and Thursday and then I ran in for a few things when I realized they had finished the milk on Sunday). I cannot believe you aren’t going more, Swistle, with all the kids home. My kids eat things and don’t tell me they finish it. I don’t eat bread and graham crackers (because I can’t not because I don’t want to!) so I didn’t realize they had eaten so much of it. One college guy is apparently eating over a 1/3 lb of lunch meat on one sandwich. No one has ever accused him of being selfless, so shouldn’t be a surprise.
We are running low on a few things but I am making everyone wait. Reg has new glasses that he desperately needs to get and once they arrive at Costco I will run to get them and grab a few things on the list that I can get there. They won’t adjust the glasses, but I am fine with that for now.
How about this gentleman !!!?!
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick – https://www.newsweek.com/gop-lieutenant-governor-faces-backlash-saying-grandparents-dont-want-sacrifice-economy-1493883
He apparently has no loved ones who would miss him. I’m not about to sacrifice my parents or in laws to help the economy!
Or this doofus:
https://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/thousands-of-liberty-university-students-expected-to-return-to-campus/article_af2d0986-fd21-5a66-9f9b-a7a755f57b76.html
I wonder how that fits in with a ban of groups of more than 10 people. I guess the university is private property, but it seems as though anyplace that gets the benefits of being a nonprofit ought to be required to show that it is entitles to a waiver on gathering restrictions.
I forgot to add, I go shopping once a week. Last week the stores weren’t horrible, but they were out of things like bread, pasta, applesauce, dried beans. (obviously toilet paper, paper towels, and I didn’t even look but I expect hand sanitizer and all those 99.9% of germs cleaners and wipes) This week I expect things will be better. I don’t know. The shoppers were giving each other a wide berth, BUT they are completely out of cart sanitizer everywhere – except food lion (at least they were around me last Wednesday) which didn’t make me very happy. Also, ALDI was still doing their cart switcheroo thing, but perhaps they will soon stop that?
I’ve been going to the grocery every few days. I vary between Walmart, Giant, etc. I usually end up with about half the things on my list. One place has no milk today but the other one does. That one has bread but the first store did not. Neither had cheese. Etc. It’s like a game of roulette.
I lucked out at the grocery store yesterday. I only needed onions (ours somehow turned into a disgusting liquefied mess in the bottom of the pantry), but managed to get cheese and tomato sauce as well. They also had tons of bananas and other produce- but not potatoes. We have a lot of frozen chicken and ground beef in the fridge. We will survive, even if it means we eat tacos and fajitas only for the duration.
We are also following the recommendation to go once a week, and buy what you need for the week only. If we were to get sick, we’d do grocery delivery. My advice would be going right when the grocery store opens (we send my husband). They stock throughout the night and early morning so you are more likely to get those coveted, selling out items. We’ve had no problem getting everything on our list (and we live in a densely populated area). The only thing is our particular grocery store is doing seniors only for the first hour 3 days a week, so we just have to make sure not to go on those days. I also feel like going in the morning = less germs as I assume they are cleaning / sterilizing at night and there hasn’t been a million people through the store yet.
We’re in a particularly hard-hit spot, so I switched to online grocery delivery. It’s hard– the first time I tried it, I filled my cart but at checkout there were no delivery windows available! I kept the tab open and eventually I was able to snag an open spot– 3 days out. But ever since then I’ve been adding stuff to my online cart as we need it, and then once the cart is full I keep adding groceries and watching for a new 3-day-later delivery spot to grab. So far we’re getting deliveries about twice a week. The first round was the hardest, because I had to figure out which service to use and how to navigate their website and which things were in stock. But now that I’m in more of a routine I think I’ll probably keep using this for some groceries even once we’re all back to normal.
I have decided to try seriously to hunker down, and am exploring delivery options. I am a Costco member, and it turns out that I can get both 2-day (some items) and 1-day (other items) delivery from them at a reasonable (IMO) cost (ostensibly “free” but the items cost more than in-store, about which they are totally transparent, so…). One-day delivery right now doesn’t mean things will be delivered next day (or same day), it seems just to mean they’ll be shopped out of the local store rather than shipped from a distance. I place a 1- and a 2-day order 2 days ago and both are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so…
We cannot get everything we usually get that way, but with some substitutions and/or not (i.e. we may not have every single food item we usually have access to), we seem to be able to get lots of what we need (as well as plenty we don’t actually need, e.g., oreos) for now.
And — yes. Our current administration’s current approach to this is contributing to my inclination to hunker down more rather than less.
Our entire costco is sold out of almost everything I would want. I’m glad your area has it!
I tried to go to Costco last week, and they were limiting the number of people in the store and there were maybe 100 people in line? No idea what was or wasn’t in the store, as I gave it a pass.
Ordering has been hit-and-miss. Some things I can order for 2 day but not 1 day delivery. Some things I couldn’t order when I started filling my cart Sunday I have been able to add to my cart since. Some things may not show up? But, again, we are reasonably well supplied and thinking long-term, so we’ll take what we get tomorrow and then reassess/regroup.
I’m also shopping once a week for the whole week. I’ve asked my main snacker to restrain himself a bit, and so far so good. I’m also calling it good if I need to buy things (brands, types of things) I ordinarily don’t prefer rather than go to more than one store or more than one trip. Flexible and chill, that’s my motto right now (not that I can live into that at all, but it’s a dandy motto)
This is unrelated to your post Swistle but I just read The Lager Queen of Minnesota and thought you might enjoy it. It struck me as similar to some books you have recommended in the past. So- isolation recommendation!
I’ve read it and I DID like it, so you were right!
I stocked my freezer and pantry with what is probably a little over two weeks worth of supplies, and now will be going every ten days or so for regular groceries. The goal is to go infrequently but never run low just in case.
It is very hard not to sit and fret right now.
Not sure if you saw it, but this was from Kevin Farzad on twitter:
“My Quarantine Routine
I just wanted to share what works for me. This is just to give me structure and a sense of stability
9 am – 2 am: wake up & stare at my phone”
Also, if you’re looking for recipes without butter/eggs/milk, and you have other non perishable staples, this is Smitten Kitchen’s variation on Wacky Cake.
https://smittenkitchen.com/2017/10/chocolate-olive-oil-cake-more-book-tour/
Or you could go back to the Depression Era Chocolate Cake that you love so much ;)
I have thought to myself “Watch this whole thing end up forcing me to appreciate that cake.”
Today in the Food section of the New York Times THERE IS AN ARTICLE ABOUT THAT CAKE. I of course thought of you instantly.
I am desperate to return to a time when I go to the grocery store and everything I want is just THERE. I have a kid with hard to deal with food allergies (milk, eggs and wheat) and his favorite food is something people are hoarding, black beans. There is only one brand of gluten free bread he can eat and it’s been snatched up everywhere. It is so frustrating. I refused to stock up on toilet paper a few weeks ago and now we are at risk of running out in a week or two and I have no confidence that toilet paper will be back in stock by then. I bought a ten pound bag of flour two weeks ago, but that was not enough to quench my stay at home stress baking needs and now flour is out of stock everywhere. Anyway I have no advice and I realize this is all just complaining. THIS SUCKS. Oh I went to the grocery store the other day at 8pm and boy that was a stupid idea, they were out of tons of stuff, make sure to go first thing in the morning, stock is better then.
I am also spending way too much time staring at my phone/computer screen, refreshing my politics blog, and checking Facebook, all of which is heightening my anxiety.
We are aiming for Thursday for grocery shopping, which will be 10 days. I don’t want to get so low on everything that I have to spend tons of time in the store. My husband and I are dividing up the duties (not sure why we decided on this course of action, I guess so neither of us has to be out and exposed to multiple places for long?). I will try Costco and maybe Target for what’s on our list, and whatever I can’t find, he will try our local canned food store, CVS, and regular grocery chain. We plan on going after the morning rush – someone I know got to Costco an hour early and was successful in getting eggs, but all I could picture was him standing around in a LINE with OTHER PEOPLE for an hour, and it seemed an insane thing to do. I’ll take my chances with not getting everything we need but being at the store with way less people.
Tomorrow’s task will be figuring out how to make a mask for myself, since I’ve had mild cold-like symptoms for about a week and a half now. Also, I will touch my face much less if I at least have a handkerchief on.
I made no bakes tonight, in fact! Such a comfort food for me.
I went a couple times early last week and then I did a complete inventory of our kitchen shelves and fridge and freezer so now I have a nice excel sheet sorted by category and it is very reassuring to know that we have 55 servings worth of different half-used pancake mixes and at least two of them are “just add water” so if nothing else we will stay alive on carbs.
But there’s also only two of us and I get a weekly delivery of local veggies from the farm co-op. The delivery is convenient in normal life and clutch right now.
I do wish I had a bigger freezer, though.
Like someone else posted, Virginia closed schools for the rest of the year, so my life now consists of sitting on my couch with the cats and trying to figure out how to teach kids to play instruments over the internet. There’s a lot of heartbreak on facebook over school right now, which makes that not so fun to scroll.
I think I’m going to try sewing facemasks tomorrow. There’s been info online about people sewing and donating them for front line people with no PPE (a hand-made mask is better than nothing, is the idea I guess) so that seems like a way I can be productive.
This post and comments made me feel a lot better about my grocery frets which are taking over my life. We haven’t been in over 10 days and like you said, not running out but running low on certain things. I am mustering the courage to go tomorrow, before the weekend and also my husband is teaching figure drawing Thursday, remotely of course. In my neck of the woods many cafes, bakeries and even beer and wine shops are now selling eggs, dairy items, bread and tortillas.