COVID 19 #28 FOOD SHOPPING

 Another week gone by  - and I am a day late, my apologies.  

We went on one of our Covid food shopping sprees yesterday.  The shopping took about 3 hours and then wiping down and storing the items another couple of hours when we got home.  We last went food shopping in mid January on a similar adventure.  We have been doing our food shopping trips to a Walmart Neighborhood Market.  The Walmart stores around here are much smaller than elsewhere and have only small food departments not the large supermarkets that Walmarts have in other area.  Walmart has among their other chains, one called Neighbor Market.  These stores are supermarkets and pharmacies and what is normally carried in stores such as this – not the big assortment of items carried in their regular stores.  This particular Neighborhood Market is their highest grossing in the US and has been turned into a “retail lab” to find out why – I could tell them why without all the work of making it someplace I really don't want to go, it is the only Walmart supermarket in the bi-county area! The Neighborhood Market is 2 miles along the road from the local regular Walmart near us (where we get our prescriptions) – so it is sort of an add on to the local regular Walmart.   We did fill in bread and some items once or twice between January and now at our local Walmart when we went to renew prescriptions or needed something right away.  

When we started doing these food runs last May (2020)we were not as organized as we thought and yesterday's trip was actually the most organized and relaxed of all our shopping trips since we started staying at home last March (2020).  I am guessing that I have written about our first trip – by the time we were done shopping husband felt so bad that he had to wait in the car for me while I checked out – we later figured out it was due to his blood sugar having fallen from the (negative) excitement, his panic, and the sheer amount of running around we had done.  

After our third shopping trip I figured out that what we needed to do was to make TWO shopping trips at the same time.  First we go into the store and buy all the items we need which do not have be kept cold – canned and jarred foods, boxed foods, bagged foods, cleaning supplies, OTC medications, soap if we need, any office supplies and such.  We then check out and bag all the items – we have to bring our bags or buy paper bags from the store due to a change in law which went into effect in the middle of the pandemic and the paper bags they have are small.  I bring A LOT of bags and pre double bag them.  We take the bags out to our car, in this case our van as our car is in for service for over a month as they cannot figure out what is wrong, and our van is better for this anyway as it holds a lot more.  We then locked the van and took our cart and more bags back into the store.  We then bought all of the cold items – refrigerated, meats, and frozen items and then checked out again.  We even remembered to use 2 coupons for several dollars each – sent to us by a manufacturer due to a problem with a product a few months ago.  By the time we were done we had 16 double bagged bags plus 2 (not really) “gallon” pails of ice cream.  Amazingly we were not exhausted and not yelling at either as we have been on these food runs in the past.  Two good is that I drink as little water as possible with lunch as I don't want to have to visit the ladies room in a store right now and – husband finally realized this – he has to eat enough for lunch before we go to have enough glucose in system for his blood sugar not to fall while we are out.  We also go around 2 pm so the stores have smaller crowds in them – people working, children coming home from school etc then – easier to move around and almost no line checking out – plus not as many people means more space between us and them right now.

When we come home we wipe down most items with alcohol on paper towel.  I say most items as some items are double packaged – such as dry cereal in a bag in a box or fruit bars which are individually packed in a box – with these items we open the outside packaging and dump out the inner packages instead of wiping down the outer package and toss the outer packages right away.  It is an exhausting process and I came up a way to make it a little less.  Since I don't have to worry about canned and jarred goods being out as they will not attract bugs or other vermin, I leave the cans and jars in their bags and set aside the bags until later in the evening.

This entire process took us about 5- 6 hours this week not including later wiping down and storing the cans/bottles.  But we won't need to food shop again, other than some fill ins for about 2 months.  Why do we do this?  Well, we don't want to go out more often than we need to.  Hopefully by the time we need to do a full shopping trip again – it will be safer for us to do so, especially as we should get our second vaccinations next week.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

How organized are your shopping trips, especially now?  Do you buy only items which are needed (to be honest we were doing that  before “stay at home” came into being and I did not like it)?   Do you plan ahead to make sure that you don't run out of things?  Do you make a list as you run low on food and related items so you will know what you need.  (Since we started doing these food runs I actually inventory everything we have and make a list in computer spreadsheet than sit with husband to decide what and how much we need to buy of items – also since stay at home, I sort the list by, more or less, which aisle in the store the items we need are in – and print out the list of what we need to buy and take it with us.)

COVID 19 #22 STORING AND LISTING FOOD SO YOU CAN FIND IT IN THE FREEZER

 Last week I told you about our food shopping trip.  One thing I have to do at some point not too long after we go food shopping is write up new lists of what we have in the freezers so we use it all up and don't let anything go to waste by lack of memory.  

Everything that had to be was pushed into a freezer when we got home – other than a few items that were not frozen and could stay for a bit in the refrigerator, but needed to be frozen for longer time storage – such as fresh meat that will not be eaten for awhile.  I was not able when we got home to put a number of things in the freezer that makes more sense – meaning I try to keep packages that we pull out the items one or two at time in the upstairs freezer in the refrigerator – such as a package of hamburgers – so I have to run downstairs when we have same and pull out one burger for each of us – or just one for husband if I am eating something else.

Last Friday night I boiled the chicken we had bought.  Half of it was to be used for a Brunswick stew for Sunday night and the other half to be frozen for later use either in another of same or some other dish.  Since it takes quite awhile to cook the stew and the chicken meat has to cool down between being being cooked and being pulled off the bones for the stew, I often boil the chicken in advance so this is not unusual.  My plan was to make the actual stew Sunday afternoon.  I have to keep an eye on the stew while it is cooking so I also planned to do several chores downstairs at the same time so I would be nearby to check the stew and give it a stir every now and then.  

One of the things I planned to so was make new lists of what is in the freezers and see if I could switch anything around between the two so items I need to have in the kitchen are there and not down in the basement.  

I had cut a sheet of paper into 4 list shaped pieces across the width.  I used unused paper for this so there was nothing on the back of the lists to dirty the refrigerator door.  (I normally reuse paper that has been printed on and was an error, was something some website printed multiple pages when I only needed one part, and so forth- the back of the pages and often part of the front have no printing and it makes great scrap paper – full sheets or cut up.)

First I went to the basement to make a list for down there and see if I could juggle anything around to move some larger items (like second container of ice cream) to the basement freezer to have room in the upstairs freezer for the items I would prefer to keep up there for convenience.  This was not to be. I brought 2 pieces of the paper cut to make lists and a pencil – and a large towel that we have using to cover the kitchen table when we bring in new food items to let the alcohol they were rubbed with to kill any Covid 19 on the items.  I had to take things out of the freezer downstairs shelf by shelf to see what was there – there are 3 shelves and I put this on the floor so the food is not sitting on the floor itself.  I mark one list basement (or B) and “meat” on its top.  The second one is also marked on top for the basement and as “other”.  Technically not everything on the “meat” list is meat – it actually means main dish type item.  The “other” list is vegetables, bread, and so on that is not a main dish.  I rearranged the freezer so things fit it into better and listed the items on the papers.  

We have been buying what I call “frozen box meals” - by this I mean those meals intended for a family that are popped into the oven, cook an hour or so and are a main course and often also the vegetables and starch are mixed into the entree – examples of this is a prepared lasagna, turkey bake, and things such as small meatloaves or Salisbury steaks – these latter two need to have the side dishes cooked separately for them. We buy 2 each of a few kinds of each and have them Friday and Sunday nights when we used to go out for dinner in the normal days before the corona virus.  I stacked them so that the same dishes were together with the older ones on top of the newer ones so that when I take one – it is the older one.  

We have a few items which take up more room than they should for what they are.  Back in May husband ordered a 5 pound bag of frozen corn and a bag about the same size of french fries from BJs when we ordered from them.  I am maybe halfway through the bag of corn and it takes up a lot of room.  I just finally opened the bag of french fries – we also had 2 normal sized bags of french fries that we had to use up first before opening this one.  Add to that husband bought a bag of meatballs when we went to Walmart back in May and it was almost the size – and he does not like them.  So after one dinner from them, they were sitting in the freezer taking up space – possibly to do so long after the pandemic ends – so I decided I would eat them for dinner when he has something I do not particularly like.  Unfortunately one of the reasons he does not like them is that they have too much garlic.  So when I have them I have to go upstairs and rinse out my mouth with mouth wash after wards.  They are small meatballs and 6 are suppose to be a serving.  It will take at least a month and a half or longer to finish the bag, so last week I upped the serving size to 8 meatballs – every 3 weeks is one week less I will be eating them and one week faster that I get the space from them back in the freezer.  When these 3 items are finished and gone from the freezer and a normal bag of french fries and a normal size bag of corn are there instead the freezer will hold a lot more things.

As I am removing all these things from the freezer and rearranging them – periodically I run upstairs to check and stir the stew.

I then went upstairs and started on the freezer in the refrigerator.  I took out most of the items on the bottom shelf and put them on the kitchen table.  These 2 lists were the labeled the same way as downstairs except they were labeled as “upstairs” instead of “basement”.  I rearranged the items in this freezer as I listed them and then put them back.  Up here are things like leftover gravies and cranberry sauce. (Did you know can freeze these things?  We only use half a can of gravy and I froze ¾ of the can of cranberry sauce in ¼ of the can size in small plastic containers (pudding sized) when I opened the can and we had the first ¼ can with sliced (deli type) turkey.  Also on this shelf is frozen bread (none yet from this purchase) and frozen hot dog and hamburger rolls so they last longer as we are shopping much less often than normal.  I then took out the items on the top shelf and did the same.  Our top shelf is a lot taller than our bottom one and I had bought a good sized plastic “basket” that I put small items into to keep them together and also stand up bags in so it is easier to see them and I can take out the entire “basket” to check what it is in it.  I have frozen eggs in this basket, as well as frozen meats in portions to use.  Husband had ordered from BJs back in May 3 boxes of eggs (3 pounds) but they did not have them and he accepted a 5 pound restaurant pack of eggs instead.  We don't eat eggs early (or breakfast) and needed them to cook things.  We had worked our way through one of the two layers when the good by date came up and we froze the rest.  To freeze an egg one has to crack it open and mix the yolk and white so that the yolk is not intact.  (If left in the shell or the yolk intact they will expand too much and break the shell and/or the yolk.)  In the old days when I did this with maybe four or five eggs I would put them in plastic, lidded pudding cups – but I did not have dozens of cups.  I put a plastic sandwich in each of 5 cups at a time and put in some cups one egg and others two eggs – if we do eat eggs – a bag of 2 is used for each, if we need 3 (say for a cake mix) take a bag of two and a bag of one or 1 for something we take – we take a bag of one egg.  I have the 2 eggs in one plastic zip bag and the 1 eggs in another.  I list of all of the items up here the same way – main dishes on the
“upstairs meat” list and the rest on the “upstairs other” list.  To make dealing with and finding the frozen vegetables easier – when I open a bag of same I put the contents in a labeled quart zip bag which is labeled with the vegetable name and the date it is good until.  I reuse these bags when I use up the contents and change the good until date.  I have them – ready for this?  In alphabetical order in the lower shelf in the kitchen freezer door – easy to find.  

Having finished dealing with the freezers and listing their contents  (while stirring the stew in between) I put all of the lists on the refrigerator door with magnets (no point to having the downstairs freezer list downstairs – then I would have to go downstairs to see what I have – if all the lists are upstairs it I can see everything while upstairs.

These lists would not work as well when we are shopping normally – they would have to updated instead of replaced  - they work now being replaced as there are major changes each time due to the length of time between shopping trips.  

Since the stew was still not finished (it cooks a LONG time), I then stored away my July Lucy and Me  figurines from the living room and put my September ones – the August ones never went out.  Again, I was close to the kitchen to keep checking the stew.  

When the stew was almost finished I made some biscuits from refrigerated biscuit dough (this is not the same as the frozen biscuits, although the same brand) to go with the stew.  Freezer contents listed, frozen food arranged a bit better and easier to use, Lucy and Me bears out for the month and dinner cooked – all at the same time.  A good day of organizing and a bit fun in changing the bears.

THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK -

1 – If you have do something to do that takes awhile, but must be watched – see if there are other things you can do in the same or nearby physical location so time waiting to stir or check on the pot is not wasted.

2 – List what you have in your freezer (and for some people – also what is in your refrigerator – so you know what you have.

COVID 19 #10 PICKING UP MEDICATIONS AT PHARMACY AND ORDERING FOOD ONLINE FOR DELIVERY

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. 

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.

PREPARING TO DEAL WITH THE CORONA VIRUS IN AN ORGANIZED MANNER

I am not a medically trained person, but I have to talk about the corona virus as it related to being organized. So, do not take anything I say as medical advise, I am just talking doing things sensibly and what I have learned from life over the decades.

I tend not to panic quickly. My husband leans the other way. So I have been working very hard at not saying anything to get him started. But there are realities to the situation that must be dealt with.

I was suppose to go to NYC to a client this week to deliver her corporation taxes and help her mail them out, do her books, and calculate the amount of of sales and sales taxes owed on them for the year ending February 29 so I could go home and file her sales taxes online – as they have to be. I was not happy at the thought of going to Manhattan even before some cases of the corona virus came to the NYC metropolitan area – including in my home county, but I needed to go. My husband was in a panic of my going. I told him that I had figured I would wear a pair of disposable plastic gloves from my car, on the subway and walking until I was at the client and inside. I would then turn the gloves inside out as I took them off and throw them out. I would then put on a second pair – carried in my briefcase – to come back to my car and toss them out the same way when I got back to my car. He was still upset. I finally gave in and mailed the tax returns to the client after calling her and telling her I would do so. I also asked her for her February sales so I could prepare and file her sales tax return. I completed the corporation return and it was mailed to her this past Monday – due the end of the week on Friday. I then prepared and filed her sales tax return and told the state to debit her bank account (the only way to pay the sales taxes) on this coming Monday, so that on the off chance she did not have enough money in her bank account she would have time to get some money into the account. Today I telephoned her and she had just received the tax forms so I was able to help with the returns and I also told her how much to subtract from her checking account for the sales taxes. Breath a deep sign of relief. I was sure that the tax forms would go astray or she would have would have problems dealing with them alone. While I wanted to ignore the threat of the Corona Virus and go to work – I was realistic about it and made my husband feel better.

Last Sunday when we went to Costco and Bjs as we do for something to do on Sundays, they were no longer handing out samples at Costco for fear of the corona virus and large sections of the store – mostly paper goods - were empty. He had planned on buying more toilet paper despite our having at least half a huge package we bought a couple of months ago there and was starting to panic that they did not have same. The store was also limiting how much of certain items one could buy. We drove up the road to Bjs (a similar type of store) and were able to buy his package of toilet paper. They were not as sold out as Costco was. Apparently there have been major runs on toilet paper. When husband brought up buying more I mentioned that we had most of the package yet – but he insisted. Per a segment on a news show, apparently it is considered a comfort item that makes people feel better to have an excess of.

He has also been looking for hand sanitizer (We have two large, unopened bottles, plus a started one, the smaller bottles that we transfer it to for use, two very small bottles that we carry in our pockets (which normally do not have to constantly be refilled – but right now are refilled nightly), and, as I pointed out to him, whatever we have in the house of items like this – is also in our little RV.

Over the recent years we have become rather bad at food shopping. While I used to keep a list on our refrigerator of what I needed to buy, would check for sales & try to buy food items on sale, and would do regular shopping (Mondays for the week, Fridays to fill in any extra for the weekend) that has all slowly disappeared since husband is home with me all the time. We have gotten to the point that other than stocking up before storms, we basically eat lunch (at Wendys) and then go out to buy “something for dinner”. We have gotten to the point where we basically have 3 or 4 dinners we make, buy deli turkey once a week for dinner and eat out (or take in Chinese food) Friday through Sunday. So deciding what to buy and shopping for it without getting him into a panic was not easy.

I brought up the idea after dinner the night before - rather off hand “I guess we should have some extra food in the house just in case.” At lunch I brought up the subject again. As we left from lunch he asked where I wanted to go for the food – we food shop at Walmart Neighborhood Market, at different supermarkets, and at a regular Walmart (same are smaller here than elsewhere) which is next to a supermarket which by default is the one we normally shop at. At the same time that the corona virus is starting to spread – our state's law on stores not using the standard lightweight plastic bags went into effect on March 1. So people are panic shopping and learning to deal with bringing bags (or buying them at the store – although our county was not one of the ones requiring a fee per bag, stores are allowed to charge for the bags – and they do – better we should have a fee as it would be cheaper than stores are charging for the bags) at the same time.

I suggested we go to the Neighborhood Market first as we tend to buy items that do not need to be refrigerated there. It was like it had been announced that a 2 week long snow storm was coming. Shelves and refrigerated cases were empty. (Then again, this store over the past several months has not had full shelves – and cans are often dented and boxes look like they had been stepped on.) We bought what we could find. We were looking for the soups that husband has before dinner (½ can of either Campbells Chicken Noodle or Vegetable soups) or the heavier soups that he likes if we eat lunch home (Campbells Split Pea, or Progresso Lentil) We bought cereal (we have for late night snack) and some items as we could find them – the soup shelves were almost empty so we bought what we could and moved on. I did have enough bags in the store with us for the purchases. (I have been keeping the bags when we get them - and using them for other things - so we have years worth of plastic bags and before that I saved the paper bags. I am combining the contents bags that we use in the bathrooms and bedroom for garbage pails liners so 1- 2 bags are tossed out with the garbage of all 4 pails.) He has started panicking over having hand soup also and this Walmart did not have – any.

We drove to the supermarket and stopped in at the small Walmart next to it first to see if it had the common items – soup and hand soup – that the Neighborhood Market did not – neither did this store.

In the supermarket the “what should we buy to eat” started. I bought at least 2 weeks worth of the foods we actually eat. I had actually come up with 4 meals to be repeated and that would still leave us 6 meals short. We bought eggs – not something we ordinarily eat, but could be used for lunch or dinner or in one of the cake mixes we bought – if we end up stuck in, something to eat that we should not eat, if not – they will keep for holiday dinners. Made sure to buy enough diet soda to last. We bought a loaf of bread = I was actually surprised that they were not out. I knew I was low on some frozen vegetables and we bought some to fill in. (Good thing basement freezer is running again.) Bought some potatoes as I had stews on the list of things to cook.

So we have a good start – but going to the stores and seeing the shelves empty put him into panic mode. He is trying to over come same, but it not easy. We wrote up a new list and will go out tomorrow to buy some more items.

We renewed the only medications we take that were not recently renewed.

We don't plan on being stuck in the house - but if we are, we can go for at least two weeks now. We need to keep up filling what we use to keep the 2 weeks of food in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – Prepare but don't panic. Government divisions in the most countries seem to be acting properly and making decisions as needed and telling people what to do without overdoing it and causing panic.

While instructions and information seem to vary, good common sense is your best friend.

In articles I have read about the world wide flu epidemic  in 1917 there were considerably less deaths in the US and other countries which shut down places that large numbers of people would be than those, such as England, which did not. So avoid crowded places as much as you can.

You know the rest – you have been hearing it on the TV and radio – wash your hands frequently and/or use hand sanitizer frequently. Apparently even just rubbing your hands together vigorously if nothing else is available will help.

We will get through this as people have gotten through epidemics back to the start of history. I hope that you and yours will get this as easily and with as few problems as possible.