To finish up about picking up our prescriptions – I called on Thursday to check that all had been renewed for each of us and all were ready. We get our prescriptions at the pharmacy at a local Walmart – they have been really great and helpful even before the current pandemic. They do not, however deliver. For some reason none of the Walmarts on Long Island deliver anything – ever – or, currently, have pre order and pick up – they will, however, bring prescriptions out to the car. So on Thursday we donned our masks and drove to Walmart. We parked near the exit and I telephoned. A very nice employee brought out our prescriptions and had a remote reader so we could use our credit card to pay for them – it is not usable for anything other than prescriptions – I had asked if they could add 2 tubes of denture adhesive to the order and they could not. She sent me a text with a list of what had been charged. We thanked her and drove home.
We had expected to see based on what we have seen on TV news shows and what I have heard on the various groups I read online that there would be a line to get into the Walmart (and the unrelated supermarket next to it) with one person coming out of the store and one going in, people going in and out of the store wearing masks – spread out and not near each other. As we sat waiting for our medications to be brought out – the Walmart looked more crowded than it does at Christmas!! No spacing of people coming out. Few people (other than employees) wearing masks – we were shocked. The supermarket did not have anyone at the entrance either, though it did seem emptier than the Walmart from outside. It was our first chance to see what was going “the world around here” and it was not what we expected, had seen on TV or heard from others online.
When we arrived home I stopped in the porch. I sprayed alcohol on pieces of paper towels and wiped down the medication bottles and handed them to husband in the kitchen. One medication which we each take was not in a bottle as usual – it was in boxes with strips of punch outs for the individual pills. I pulled the strips out of the boxes and did not wipe the strips, just handed to husband. The boxes, along with the paperwork for each med went into a zip plastic bag to hold for awhile. Husband's box of insulin pens, I should mention, was wiped down and put in the fridge first. As I went along I realized that we were missing two items – husband's blood meter strips (had mine) and one of his blood pressure pills – not the one that we had been told we had to wait for Thursday to get them. We also could not figure out the texted payment statement.
I telephoned the pharmacy – they had forgotten to give his meter strips. They had not been able to renew the bp medication as it was too soon by 2 weeks. I expressed surprise as I had received paperwork from our medical insurance company had said that early renewals were allowed. She went over the charges with me. I then called our insurance company and complained about the no early renewal and questioned what we had been charged for the medication in strips – apparently we had received the name brand version not the usual generic, hence the extra charge – only US$14 extra for the two of us – so not much, just wanted to know why. The other item that was a problem I knew what the problem was and it will work itself out and we get a refund of the overcharge.
So next week – I will call in his strips and his missing medication again and we will have to go there again to get them.
On Monday, husband decided that we needed to order more food. He had a list of what we needed. I had a list of what we needed – no they were not the same, but there were overlaps. He went online and put in an order from Walmart. I had expected what happened with BJs would happen with Walmart – order taken, but then contacted that most things out. No, Walmart listed items were in stock – some even said that were 3 or 5 or whatever low number were left in stock. The first items were to be delivered today, Wednesday. First item came yesterday! 6 boxes came today – 5 more items to come tomorrow – most items are coming sooner than told – that is good. A number of cans were dented (40%), some cardboard box packages were dented. Two bottle of cooking oil had been, we presume, jammed so hard into the box hat the top of them is bent and does not pop back up – maybe they will when they are opened. Husband emailed Walmart. They apologized and refunded the damaged cans. Not happy with the damaged items – but at least they stood behind the deliveries.
Again the boxes went into our side porch. I opened the boxes and wiped down each item with alcohol sprayed paper towel pieces and handed to husband. If we could open a box in the porch and dump the contents into a plastic box of ours- we did and tossed the boxes. After all this I then had to find “homes” for all we bought.
No refrigerated or frozen items. We will have to go out sometime in the next two weeks to buy additional meat items and frozen items – especially vegetables. Husband said so to me – I have been afraid to mention to him and have him go crazy.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When an emergency comes along life changes. Never thought we would ever order food delivered – but we need to avoid going out. One does what needs to do to adjust and live on.
Please make sure that you and your loved ones are safe and continue to be. Wear a mask when you go out – if you don't think you need one - it couldn't hurt could it? Stay away from others when outside – why take a chance? I want you to be reading – or ignoring – me for a long time to come.
For those in the U.S.- have a safe Memorial Day. For those who are veterans – Thank you for your service.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Thursday, May 14, 2020
COVID 19 #9 PATIENCE WITH ERRORS AND DELAYS
I hope that all and their loved ones continue to be well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
This week in the wonderful world of isolated at home we have been working on two problems.
First over a week ago I found that the hot water tap in our downstairs bathroom was leaking. I tried to use the shut off valve under the sink – but of course it did not turn. I had to call husband to deal withit. He could not turn that shut off valve either but, being taller than me, he could reach the bigger shut off – just for that sink – in the basement. So no leak and no hot water in the sink in the bathroom off the kitchen. Hands either had to be washed upstairs, in the kitchen sink or in cold water. Since I would forget to wash my hands before coming downstairs to work in the kitchen and did not want to risk washing virus into the kitchen sink – it was wash with cold water.
In normal times we would have gone to Home Depot and bought the replacement cartridge and fixed the sink – after much screaming and yelling about what was being done. (It is not a household repair around here unless there is a lot of screaming and yelling.) But we were not going to go out and look for the part in Home Depot. Husband looked it up online and found that the Home Depot we go to did have the part and would bring it out to us in our car - but in looking to see this, he found out that there is a lifetime warranty on the cartridge and the manufacturer would replace it free – and by mail. So I telephoned and they were mailing the cartridge. Tuesday we had not received it and I called to check and it was traced and here at the post office – along the lines of “a small world” the woman who checked for me happened to mention she used to live in this area – in the community I grew up and I told her that. She then mentioned the school her children went to – and it was the one that my sisters and I went to – gee, they might have gone to school with one of my sisters (I am too old to imagine that for me as she would be, well, as old as my 91 yo mom).
The cartridge arrived in the mail today and with a small amount of concern of everything going right – we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom – and it does not leak – my hands are very happy not to be in cold water again. Well, the isolation led to us saving the cost of the cartridge as he would not have looked online and found out about warranty on it if it was not that we are not going out.
Second – we have put off renewing our several medical prescriptions until now when they have to be renewed – will be out of one medication for husband on Friday morning and he did not like my idea of splitting up some old pills of same medication to make the correct dosage for him.
On Monday during the day I telephoned our pharmacy – Walmart – about what arrangements they had for pickup as we did not want to walk into the store. Around here, Walmarts are not delivering and there is no pick up service currently in general. They do have pickup service for prescriptions only (not even denture adhesive could be added). I was told to call before we come and then again when we are in the parking lot and we would pay at our car. I telephoned on Monday night and put in the renewals through the pharmacy's computer.
On Tuesday (yesterday) we received a call that they were out of the strips for my Diabetes meter and it would take until “Wednesday” for them to come. I told them that was okay – and then asked about same for husband – since I had listed his prescriptions first, he had gotten the last of the strips. No problem, we had figured on going today (Wednesday) any way. So far, so good.
Today I telephoned the pharmacy to check that the strips had come in. They had, but now they were short one of husband's blood pressure medications and it would not be in until “Thursday”. Okay, we can go tomorrow. The employee was looking over the list of the medications to make sure all the rest were accounted for. She happened to mention his insulin and the price - $141. Problem – it is suppose to be $47. I double checked that they only were filling same for a month. (Our other medications are for 90 days, but he only wants one box/month's worth of insulin at a time since if something happens to our fridge it will go bad and is expensive (more than it appears from the copay for it). It was for a month.
So I telephoned our insurance company. I got a very nice employee – he explained what it could be – I explained that the deductible had been met for the year. He checked the records and agreed it should be $47. While we were speaking there was an echo on his phone – whatever caused that made it so he could not call our pharmacy and he transferred me to another employee – with apparently notes about our discussion on our files as I did not need to give her the pharmacy's phone number again. She though insisted the $141 was correct as it was for 75 days of insulin! I explained that it was for a one month supply and the prescription is written for same – one month, one box. She finally figured out the problem and called the pharmacy to change the price. I then called the pharmacy to make sure it was all corrected. So hopefully when I check tomorrow all the prescriptions will be ready and we will go and get them.
Third – Yesterday in the mail we received mail from our cable company marked “urgent” - so I opened it before sealing the mail in the “Tuesday” plastic zip bag for mail. I left it open and facing the bag to be able to read it while it was in the bag. It said that our cable would be shut off as we have not paid our bill. Back last month when the cable bill was due we were short on money in our checking account due a timing problem to pay our cable bill. Normally we would have gone and transferred money from another account – but if we cannot go out, we cannot easily transfer the money. I tried telephoning our cable company to new avail, then we tried to “chat” online with same – to no avail until I went to what I had learned to do during the crisis – I went online in the middle of the night to chat with them. A very nice employee when I explained the situation and asked for the courtesy of an additional week to pay the bill told me that he did not give me the time – there was an automatic 60 day allowance on payment of bills. I checked with him again that nothing needed to be done and he said nothing – it was automatic. So we paid our cable bill from last month and our cable bill from this month – together – earlier this month - 30 days after the first bill was due and in time to be on time for this month's bill.
Then yesterday I received the notice. I tried calling the cable company to no avail – busy. Meanwhile husband went online into our cable account online – it showed the payment and but had for an unknown reason a $10 balance. I checked with our bank and the check had cleared our bank on April 11 – seems to me that it should have reached them timely if it was back to our bank by then. I checked the notice – it mentioned a $10 fee if one did not pay by automatic payment – was this something new that they had done?
Later that night I again went on the cable company's website and turned on chat and waited for about 45 minutes. I put in the background of what had happened and then asked about why I received the notice if I had 60 days grace on the late payment from last month and this month's was timely paid – and did I now have to pay a $10 fee for paying with a check instead of by automatic payment? Per this employee - there was never a blanket 60 day grace period – same was for people who lost their jobs, was only offered through mid March, and people had to apply for it. My check reached them – one day late, due per her May 8 and arrived on May 9 (mailed on May 3). I mentioned that we have been with them over 30 years and NEVER paid late. I was not charged for a fee for paying by check – it was for late payment. She waived the fee. She also said that she would let them know about the incorrect information I had relied on which I had been told during the earlier chat in case other customers were told the same incorrect info.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Everything now takes a bit more time and more checking to make sure it is correct. Try to keep calm (I did with all of these problems) and be nice – so many people are so upset and on edge that customer service people appreciate even more when a customer is nice to them. (And believe me, I can terribly nasty when something has gone wrong due to stupidity -such as employee giving incorrect information.) I have also been sure to thank the employees for continuing to working for all of us to have the needed services/items and say that I hope they and their families stay well.
Thursday, May 7, 2020
COVID 19 #8 - FOOD BUYING
Husband is getting serious about our needing to buying food. Last time we went food shopping was in mid March. As far as I am concerned we have plenty for another couple of weeks. He was looking at BJs (similar to Costco in case you don't know BJs) website to order from them as he had a coupon for free delivery. It is a nice company. Periodically, in normal times, they put the chicken patties we buy on sale and we go and buy the 3 pack of packages. We also normally buy our gas from them as it is much less expensive (when gas was still an expensive thing compared to right now) than the other stations. There are few Costco stores which have gas stations here and they are not conveniently located. But it is rare we find anything else to buy from them. There are only two of us and many of their food items are in packages which involve cooking the entire package at the same time and would be months worth of the particular item for us.
But the seem to meet his current criteria – they will deliver, they seem to have time slots available in a reasonable time frame (any place else he looked at is a 6 week wait), and they seem to have food items that he thinks would be good to have. As we sat at our desks this afternoon he was reading off the foods which interested him. I told him to make a list of what looks interesting – in this case, peanut butter (2 huge jars in a package, he does not normally eat same, and I am only eating it as we are eating lunch home and want to leave the better lunch foods (such as canned soup) for him. I am not sure if we will actually get to another jar of peanut butter and how long the 2 jars will last us – years, a decade? And BREAD! We normally do not go through a lot of bread, often do not even any in the house and he has always refused to freeze bread. He looking at buying “2 or 3” packages of 2 loaves each. I am guessing we will sit and draw up a list of what we would buy from them tomorrow and figure it out. My attitude has mostly been through all of this whatever he needs to feel secure as long as it too not far out there.
Back in November the weekend before our last food shopping trip we had picked up Chinese food from our normal place for the last time also. We picked it up on Friday night and the wife told us that they would be open the next day and then would be closed until April 1. Both of us thought that we would go back the next night and take out again as it would be a couple of weeks before we could go there again – and eating in restaurants, still open for eating in at the time, we did not feel comfortable going to. Of course then our brains kicked in ' Why are they closing for 2 weeks? Is someone sick? We did not go back the next night.
Week before last husband decided that we should pick up Chinese food for dinner – it is a small place and would be much safer (in his mind) than going to a supermarket and he would not have to eat my cooking for one night, well two nights, which will make sense soon. I tried calling them a week ago on Sunday night. The phone alternately kept ringing or was busy. We figured that they must be terribly busy and were no longer taking orders for the evening. During the following week I telephoned during the day and spoke to the wife and they were open, though closing 2 hours earlier than before – which should not have affected us when I called. We decided we take out on Friday night and we would buy 2 meals plus extra rice. (Husband has found out how nice rice reheated in boiling water so the grains expand big and it is filling.) I tried telephoning them – again it was either ringing or busy. This time for some reason my cell phone would cut off the call as I waited to see if they answered the phone after 4 or 5 rings “the party is not available”. So we tried using our land line – we don't normally make outgoing calls with it as it has no included minutes (why pay for same and for unlimited cell phone minutes on my phone when we can just pay for the latter and use my phone for outgoing calls and the land line for incoming calls.) This time when I called a message -“This party does not accept calls from hidden telephone numbers.” Husband was starting to panic. We went upstairs and called on his Magic Jack line (he has for business). We got through to the place and found a message telling us to order through their website. We did so – technically through a third party site accessed through their website. It was fairly easy and straightforward to order with – even had a place for husband to specify bok choy instead of broccoli in both main dishes. Paid through the site with our “use online, by mail and by telephone” credit card.
We then went downstairs to prepare for the adventure that we anticipated was to come, Husband had read to wipe down food containers coming into the house with alcohol wipes – we only have one – old – package of same, so I cut 2 paper towels in quarters and found the spray bottle of alcohol in the basement – we use it while making sure we don't get bed bugs again. I put all of this together in the kitchen on the counter near the door. I then pulled out an assortment of plastic containers and a bowl. He had also read that the food should immediately be put in one's own containers and the restaurant's containers be throw out outside. I took our masks, 2 plastic sandwich bags (I use them as disposable gloves – cheaper than same and we have a lot more of them and they fit my small hands better) and 2 plastic shopping bags and we set off. Our idea was that I would go in and he would wait in the car. I would open the door to go in and then out with one of the bags and have the other one on my hand as I carried their shopping bag to the car. We would then put their shopping bag(s) in ours so theirs did not touch our car floor.
When we arrived in their parking lot I noticed 2 things – lots of people with masks on waiting around outside the store and the door was propped open. I walked in to give them my name and found out why they had closed for 2 weeks. The inside had been converted to non-contact pickup! Oh, did that make me feel good. Over their counter was a plexiglass wall with a small slot opening for ordering menus to be passed out to people and then returned for those ordering in person. Were there had bee a walk through from the customer area to kitchen was filled in by wood making a door with a trap door in it and a shelf attached to our side of the wall with a railing around the shelf. I started to wait off to the side and noticed a sign that if one had ordered one should text to a phone number, wait outside, and would be called when ready. I went back out and texted my name to the number with the info we had ordered online. I then figured out that was not enough info. I texted additional info as I waited after explaining to husband what was going on. People waiting did not have, to put it mildly, the best concept of staying 6 feet apart – or they had no idea how far 6 feet is. One woman came up and started approaching me (I always look like I know what is going on – I inherited same from my dad.) A woman started coming closer to me - about to be too close. I told her to stop she was coming too close and she did though seemed to not really understand. I answered her questions. As I stood their waiting it occurred to me that I should have included the order number in my text. I texted again, apologizing that I had not done this sort of thing before. Finally my cell rang and it was my turn. I went in. A young woman I had not seen there when things were more normal held up their copy of our order, pointing at our name, and I shook my head yes. She passed the bag through the trap door and after it closed I picked up the bag – wearing one of the sandwich bags on my hand. When I got to the car husband was waiting with our bag and we put the bag of food in it and drove home.
I stopped in our small side porch with the bag. I took out an item with the second sandwich bag on my left had and wiped with it down with a piece of paper towel soaked in alcohol. I then passed it through the door and husband transferred the contents to a plastic container in the kitchen. (Most of the containers are old soup containers from the same place, from when life was normal.) We kept doing this until all of the food was in containers, except the main dish we were having that night was in a big bowl.
Oh, what a treat! Soup and big main course. No cutting back on what we would normally have as a meal to make the food last longer. After they cooled down soon and we finished eating the rice and second meal were put I the refrigerator to keep them until we were ready to eat the food on other nights. Last night we had the second meal. We will definitely pick up again and pick up for one meal now that we know it is safe enough to go there. - Yum.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
We are fortunate enough to be able to continue to pay for our food. But I never thought the luxury of a full meal instead of smaller than we normally eat meals would be so wonderful. I guess it is true that when one is deprived of their regular life, the little normal things mean a lot.
Please continue to stay inside if you are in area with these rules. I would like for all of you and your loved ones to continue to be well.
But the seem to meet his current criteria – they will deliver, they seem to have time slots available in a reasonable time frame (any place else he looked at is a 6 week wait), and they seem to have food items that he thinks would be good to have. As we sat at our desks this afternoon he was reading off the foods which interested him. I told him to make a list of what looks interesting – in this case, peanut butter (2 huge jars in a package, he does not normally eat same, and I am only eating it as we are eating lunch home and want to leave the better lunch foods (such as canned soup) for him. I am not sure if we will actually get to another jar of peanut butter and how long the 2 jars will last us – years, a decade? And BREAD! We normally do not go through a lot of bread, often do not even any in the house and he has always refused to freeze bread. He looking at buying “2 or 3” packages of 2 loaves each. I am guessing we will sit and draw up a list of what we would buy from them tomorrow and figure it out. My attitude has mostly been through all of this whatever he needs to feel secure as long as it too not far out there.
Back in November the weekend before our last food shopping trip we had picked up Chinese food from our normal place for the last time also. We picked it up on Friday night and the wife told us that they would be open the next day and then would be closed until April 1. Both of us thought that we would go back the next night and take out again as it would be a couple of weeks before we could go there again – and eating in restaurants, still open for eating in at the time, we did not feel comfortable going to. Of course then our brains kicked in ' Why are they closing for 2 weeks? Is someone sick? We did not go back the next night.
Week before last husband decided that we should pick up Chinese food for dinner – it is a small place and would be much safer (in his mind) than going to a supermarket and he would not have to eat my cooking for one night, well two nights, which will make sense soon. I tried calling them a week ago on Sunday night. The phone alternately kept ringing or was busy. We figured that they must be terribly busy and were no longer taking orders for the evening. During the following week I telephoned during the day and spoke to the wife and they were open, though closing 2 hours earlier than before – which should not have affected us when I called. We decided we take out on Friday night and we would buy 2 meals plus extra rice. (Husband has found out how nice rice reheated in boiling water so the grains expand big and it is filling.) I tried telephoning them – again it was either ringing or busy. This time for some reason my cell phone would cut off the call as I waited to see if they answered the phone after 4 or 5 rings “the party is not available”. So we tried using our land line – we don't normally make outgoing calls with it as it has no included minutes (why pay for same and for unlimited cell phone minutes on my phone when we can just pay for the latter and use my phone for outgoing calls and the land line for incoming calls.) This time when I called a message -“This party does not accept calls from hidden telephone numbers.” Husband was starting to panic. We went upstairs and called on his Magic Jack line (he has for business). We got through to the place and found a message telling us to order through their website. We did so – technically through a third party site accessed through their website. It was fairly easy and straightforward to order with – even had a place for husband to specify bok choy instead of broccoli in both main dishes. Paid through the site with our “use online, by mail and by telephone” credit card.
We then went downstairs to prepare for the adventure that we anticipated was to come, Husband had read to wipe down food containers coming into the house with alcohol wipes – we only have one – old – package of same, so I cut 2 paper towels in quarters and found the spray bottle of alcohol in the basement – we use it while making sure we don't get bed bugs again. I put all of this together in the kitchen on the counter near the door. I then pulled out an assortment of plastic containers and a bowl. He had also read that the food should immediately be put in one's own containers and the restaurant's containers be throw out outside. I took our masks, 2 plastic sandwich bags (I use them as disposable gloves – cheaper than same and we have a lot more of them and they fit my small hands better) and 2 plastic shopping bags and we set off. Our idea was that I would go in and he would wait in the car. I would open the door to go in and then out with one of the bags and have the other one on my hand as I carried their shopping bag to the car. We would then put their shopping bag(s) in ours so theirs did not touch our car floor.
When we arrived in their parking lot I noticed 2 things – lots of people with masks on waiting around outside the store and the door was propped open. I walked in to give them my name and found out why they had closed for 2 weeks. The inside had been converted to non-contact pickup! Oh, did that make me feel good. Over their counter was a plexiglass wall with a small slot opening for ordering menus to be passed out to people and then returned for those ordering in person. Were there had bee a walk through from the customer area to kitchen was filled in by wood making a door with a trap door in it and a shelf attached to our side of the wall with a railing around the shelf. I started to wait off to the side and noticed a sign that if one had ordered one should text to a phone number, wait outside, and would be called when ready. I went back out and texted my name to the number with the info we had ordered online. I then figured out that was not enough info. I texted additional info as I waited after explaining to husband what was going on. People waiting did not have, to put it mildly, the best concept of staying 6 feet apart – or they had no idea how far 6 feet is. One woman came up and started approaching me (I always look like I know what is going on – I inherited same from my dad.) A woman started coming closer to me - about to be too close. I told her to stop she was coming too close and she did though seemed to not really understand. I answered her questions. As I stood their waiting it occurred to me that I should have included the order number in my text. I texted again, apologizing that I had not done this sort of thing before. Finally my cell rang and it was my turn. I went in. A young woman I had not seen there when things were more normal held up their copy of our order, pointing at our name, and I shook my head yes. She passed the bag through the trap door and after it closed I picked up the bag – wearing one of the sandwich bags on my hand. When I got to the car husband was waiting with our bag and we put the bag of food in it and drove home.
I stopped in our small side porch with the bag. I took out an item with the second sandwich bag on my left had and wiped with it down with a piece of paper towel soaked in alcohol. I then passed it through the door and husband transferred the contents to a plastic container in the kitchen. (Most of the containers are old soup containers from the same place, from when life was normal.) We kept doing this until all of the food was in containers, except the main dish we were having that night was in a big bowl.
Oh, what a treat! Soup and big main course. No cutting back on what we would normally have as a meal to make the food last longer. After they cooled down soon and we finished eating the rice and second meal were put I the refrigerator to keep them until we were ready to eat the food on other nights. Last night we had the second meal. We will definitely pick up again and pick up for one meal now that we know it is safe enough to go there. - Yum.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
We are fortunate enough to be able to continue to pay for our food. But I never thought the luxury of a full meal instead of smaller than we normally eat meals would be so wonderful. I guess it is true that when one is deprived of their regular life, the little normal things mean a lot.
Please continue to stay inside if you are in area with these rules. I would like for all of you and your loved ones to continue to be well.
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