SORRY TO MISS A POST AGAIN - DEALING WITH RUNNING ERRANDS UNDER COVID

 My apologies for missing last week's post.  The night I was to write and post was the start of the holiest day of the Jewish year and I could not do so, the following day is the main day of the holiday so I could not do so that day either.  (Writing and turning on/off electrical devices of any kind are among the things not allowed during the holiday.)

The days after were taken up with a problem in switching our business bank account. We went in Wednesday (before the evening when the holiday would start) to open an account at a credit union we use.  I had telephoned first due to the pandemic to see if we needed and appointment.  The main office said we did not and told me items I needed to bring to open the account.  When we went in on Wednesday we were told – and there were signs around – that an appointment was needed to see one of the “platform people” (did you know that what the people at the desks are called).  We had to go home and made an appointment as they were fully booked or else they would have accommodated us.  I went home and made the appointment for Friday – after the holiday. Oh, and the list of what I needed to bring was missing some items from the printed list I was handed while in the credit on Wednesday.

Thursday night after the holiday I put the needed paperwork and also some other items for us to deal with while at the credit union – such as two deposits to go into the new account when opened and paperwork to make an IRA withdrawal to transfer money to our personal bank account elsewhere.  (I am not working or getting paid as I normally would as I am not going to clients.)  We spent Friday going to the credit union and then the bank.  Friday night I realized the credit union employee never did give us starter checks for the account, so I cannot order any. Luckily it is rare these days we use the account so when we get our ATM cards and go in to pick PIN numbers we will ask for the checks.  

And so between these larger matters and the smaller matters of every day – a week passed and I realized that I had not posted – again, my apologies.  

THOUGHT OF THE (TWO) WEEK(S) -

Try to group your errands outside the house.  It makes no sense to go to the same place (whether it during the current pandemic or in normal times) more than once if you can go there once and do everything you need to do.  (When we went to the credit union I did transactions for us, our business, and for our reenactment unit in the same trip and then went to a branch of our bank about 3 blocks away to save time out running errands.)  

Similarly if we are going to do something in the community “L” and eating lunch out – we eat lunch in the community “L” and not at the location nearer us  - but not in that direction – where we prefer to eat lunch.  Saves time and we will look for any other things we need to do that we can do while in that community/area.  

The supermarket we are currently using for most of our grocery trips has a Home Depot across the street.  It is not a Home Depot we particularly like as it is small and in an older store (a small Kmart) they took over so nothing is located anywhere that makes sense, but it saves time to go there as it so close to the supermarket. 

NICE WHEN A WEEK ACTUALLY GOES RIGHT

A better week.  

Day after I wrote last week's post I was surprised to receive the renewal for our van – since it was suppose to take until sometime next week to reach us.  Weather has been terribly hot and we are not going anywhere, so we have not changed the window sticker yet.  (Van parked on our driveway so not a problem that the old sticker is still in the window.)

And – after being told that I could not renew that prescription both by our pharmacy and our medical insurance – we received a call Monday asking why we had not picked up the prescription yet and we only had 2 more days to pick it up before it went back into stock!  We went in to pick it up – I was sure that they were going to charge the full price for it – after all, it was the only insurance saying it would not pay for it yet that stopped it from being filled – and if that was that was the case – I would say to put back into stock for now.  Surprise!  It was charged at the usual co-payment.  Not exactly sure how this happened, but it did.  

When we went food shopping last week we stopped at a Wendys near the supermarket for lunch.  This particular Wendys has never been the best, but it is greatly lacking right now – not sure if change of management or if we just never had lunch there before – we used to go for dinner on some Saturday nights.  

How nice it was to go in the supermarket, make only one trip into it, and do our entire food shopping and not even have a problem fitting all the bags in the cart after we shopped.  We have not shopped for a normal sized shopping order in over 15 months.

And then, also on Thursday, we did something else we have not done in over 15 months – we went out for dinner!   Back in the normal times we would go to an Asian buffet for dinner on Friday nights.  We went on Thursday night as we figured it would be a lot emptier than it would be on Friday night.  Very pleased that they handed us large gloves to use when going to the food bar and masks were required for same.  A number of unused serving trays on the food bars  – but not sure if this is due to it being now or if this was always the case on Thursday nights, though we presume the former.  

Everything we do these days continues to involve being organized.  We have to remember to bring our masks (no longer required by state or local government, but often required by the various businesses we are going to  - plus we feel safer with them on.  I carry at least two plastic sandwich bags in my pocket when we go anywhere – we can open doors (at stores without automatic doors) etc with them on our hands instead of touching the doors with our bare hands.  The Corona virus counts here may be very low and we may be fully vaccinated, but I know of too many people who will not the vaccine and feel safer not touching doors that everyone else is touching.  

When food shopping to prevent needing to continuously up and down the same aisles or need to go back to the store in a day or two as we forgot something – we make sure to shop with a list.  I have a strip of paper on the refrigerator for us to list items we are going to run out of – try to do this in time not to run out.  Unless we are going for less  than 10 or so items I write them into a computer spreadsheet.  On one of our early trips into the supermarket during the pandemic I listed by type items that we might use by aisle number – though it is my numbering system – the first aisle we go to in the store I have as aisle one, the next one as aisle two and so on through the food items.  After food is listed non-food items -  cleaning, vitamins and such.  Next on my list is refrigerated items – which involves walking back to the far end of the store, followed by meat items and lastly frozen items.  As we walk through the store we can pick easily find the items we need to buy.  I try to keep each section of the list to match the order in each aisle.  Putting them in this list also helps as my handwriting is terrible and I can always read what I printed out – while I cannot always figure out what I hand wrote on a list. While we are a bit more comfortable walking around in the store, we don't want to be in it longer than we need to be.  I am packing the cold items in different bags than the non-cold items as I am still wiping everything down with alcohol when we come home and want to make sure that I get to all the cold items quickly.  

When we go out food or other shopping we have to remember to bring bags with us these days.  Just as our area went into the pandemic last March, it became illegal for stores to provide plastic shopping bags and either a county or large city could impose a fee for paper bags or the stores in area which did not do so were allowed to charge up to 10 cents a bag for paper bags.  Our areas does not have the fee so it is up to stores if they are going to charge and whether they charge the entire 10 cents (plus a penny a bag in sales tax) or not.  Most, of course, are charging the full 10 cents.  One dollar store which is location of a chain store will automatically put one's items in a paper bag and charge for it – not ask if one wants a bag, even if one is buying one item.  They got me once with this.  The two times we have back I quickly say that we have our own bag.  What we have been going is carrying some of the old plastic shopping bags with us into stores other than when going into the supermarket for more than a couple of items when we bring double bagged paper bags with us.  If the plastic shopping bags are folded down correctly I can fit 4 of them (maybe even more) in each of my two back pockets leaving my hands free until we are done shopping and I am bagging the items we bought after we ring them up.    So, I have to organize our bags also.  When I first read a book about organizing the author said that one does not keep bags - “Have you ever walked into a store and they did not have bags available?”  I still went on keeping most of the bags we got which were normal sized or larger.  Husband made the same comment to me as the author had printed and I replied “you never know”  Up until this law went into effect I had been using those plastic shopping bags as free garbage bags for our bathroom and bedroom little garbage pails.  I now still use them – but dump them into (upstairs) the office pail and (downstairs) the kitchen pail and put the shopping bag into the little pails to use again unless they are messy.  My stash of bags that I would “never need as the stores always have them” will last us for years at the minimum, since they are being used over and over again.

What have you been doing differently to deal with all of these sorts of things this past year plus?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Who ever thought that going food shopping for just what one needs in the coming week would become something looked forward to.

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 #21 - FOOD SHOPPING DURING THE TIME OF CORONA

 We went shopping for food this past Monday.  We almost made it through August without a full food run – just a small run to our local supermarket for Diet Coke (first time we have bought since before the stay at home – we had been drinking it only a half glass with Saturday night dinner, and then only since the start of May.  We also bought some other items which are not sold at the Walmart Neighborhood Market at which we have done our food shopping.  

I have been using a ¼ strip of a page of paper on the refrigerator for a shopping list and then when we start to talk about going shopping I have been copying the list into a spreadsheet file.   I try to sort by where I think the items are located in the store as I don't want to take out my pen and to cross items we have found off of the list and want to avoid having to double back for missed items also. This trip I did two related things – I brought a pencil stub to write with (if I felt it should not come home, I could toss it out when we left the store) and I also used the back of the shopping list (and the pencil stub) to list generally the items in the food aisles, especially those we buy.  I realized my shopping list was pretty close to where the items were located anyway – I did have 2 aisles reversed in the list.  Next trip I will try to list what is in which aisle of the non-food items.  

Before we went I had started making a master list of items we buy or might buy in the supermarket to make sure that when making future lists I don't forget anything.  (List is mostly made by husband saying or my realizing that we just took the last of something or have few enough of the item left to last beyond a week or so or one of us saying something like - “hmmm, wouldn't it be nice to have “Brunswick stew” (or something else) for dinner – do we have what we need to make it?”  After I returned home I resorted the master list by which aisles I had found the items to be in.  The master list is in 3 columns (so more of it can be seen at time while making up the shopping list – in a 4th column) – food, cold food, and non-food.  By looking down the list as I make up our shopping list for the upcoming supermarket trip I can make sure I don't miss anything.  Maybe we will continue to shop for more than a day or two at time, like we used to in the old years when I did the food shopping alone while husband was still working outside the house, it does work very well.

We found most of the items we were looking for – I could swear that supermarkets carry Chinese hard noodles – maybe it is just this store that does not.  It took him 10 minutes to decide which “I think want different cookies this time” he wanted.  He likes nicer than white bread when he has a sandwich, so he bought an Italian loaf baked in the store and wanted to buy rye bread.  The rye bread is small compared to the white bread and the what we call – the store bread so he decided to buy 2 loaves.  (We bought 4 loaves of white bread, use one and part of one fresh and freeze the rest as the expiration date approaches.)  In normal years we maybe buy one loaf of white or store bread and maybe don't have any bread in the house for long periods of time.  He could not decide between the “hard” and the “soft” rye breads from the same company – I told him to buy one of each and then decide which he liked better for next time, we did.

I figured while we were shopping we should buy some ant traps – generally need them on and off.  We could not find the bug spray section.  I asked an employee – he pointed at a rack hanging from the end of an aisle.  None there – I mentioned this and he sent me to Aisle 16 – made sense to me that was dog food and stuff for the house – only another rack hanging from the end cap – guess there is not much of a calling for bug killer stuff in the supermarket?  When/if we go to a regular Walmart I will check there and buy same.  

And now – the big disorganization happens.  In the trips we have taken to this Walmart for groceries – about 3 or 4 times since the stay at home started – there have been no lines at checkout other than at self checkout. This time it seemed there were big lines at all of the registers – and the lines ran up the aisles and people were close together.  Husband picked a line.  I was concerned that it was a small number of items or less checkout and went up to check.  I then saw that where we normally check out seemed now to be empty.  I went and checked and it was – problem – not going to take out cell phone with gloves I have on and he won't check – so I had to run back to him and then back to stand at register while he figured out how to get there.  (Umm, go to back of store and up the big aisle that comes forward – this took a lot of thinking? And he walked there so slowly.)

The system he has developed for food shopping is he wear gloves and pushes the cart. I wear gloves and select the items and put them in the cart.  (To his mind this keeps the cart and food unvirused.)  So I have to take the items out of the cart and put them on the belt for the cashier.  (Before the pandemic we only did self-checkout, now we always go to a cashier.)  I put the heavier cold items first and then the lighter cold items, followed by the heavier not cold items and finally the lighter not cold items.  We want the cold items bagged together so we can deal with them first when we get home before they warm up – both for wiping off with alcohol on paper towel piece and then figuring where to fit the items in the freezers (one is part of refrigerator and the other is a small dorm refrigerator sized one in our basement).  Fitting them in is not easy.  An example – we have been buying what I call frozen box dinners – these are the precooked, heat up, commercial company frozen meals in the freezer cases. I told him we had room for 7 of them (based on what we had used and the room I had for stacking them).  He picked out 6 of them – okay, that's better as more room for something else, right?  He then decides to buy a box of frozen fried chicken (which I reminded him he did not like last time and that there was much less in the box than it looks like it will have) – it almost the size of 2 of the boxed dinners.  I explained to him that we could buy that – but one of the box dinners has to go back due to space limitations.  He found a bag of fried chicken strips instead.  

I started putting the items on the belt to be rung up. It is again a huge order as we are buying for a month and hopefully beyond.  He is standing there watching me – remember, only I can touch the food.  I finally suggest he go to the other end and watch how the cashier is bagging the items.  He comes back.  The cashier is not bagging them – they do not have any bags!!  He starts to panic.  I unpack as quickly as I can and then start reloading the food she has rung up into the cart, thinking all the time what to do.  Oddly I had looked at the two reusable shopping bags we had gotten back at the end of February when the state was going to no disposable plastic bags and thought about about bringing them, but did not.  We had brought one disposable bag as he sprays the cart with Lysol before we start using it and I like to hide in the van as it is in such demand this days.  I figured we must have other bags in the van and told him we would be okay.  When I asked the cashier if this was something permanent – they had run out of bags at 2 pm.  (This was 5-6 pm.)  Not sure if it was a question of people doing extra food shopping as heavy rain was to come for the rest of the week (which is why we were shopping Monday), it was the last day of the month or what, but good to know it was not a change in policy.

In the car I had about 4 disposable plastic shopping bags, a paper shopping bag (bigger than a supermarket bag from some other store), and clean plastic garbage bags – I am guessing leftover from craft shows we have done and used them to carry woven items or such.  I put the breads in the paper shopping bag – just fit all of them (including a pack each of hot dog and hamburger rolls).  I put cold items into the 4 plastic bags which took most, but not all of them.  I then used one garbage bag for the rest of the cold items and a couple of garbage bags for the non-cold food.  

When we got home we dealt with the cold food in the shopping bags first and then I used the empty shopping bags to bring in the rest of the cold food.  After the cold food was put away, I started on the non-cold food, again using the shopping bags to bring them in – bread came in last.  

After all of this time and work – we came up short a rye bread!  We thought we lost it on the way on home after paying for it, but when we checked the receipt – we had never paid for it – either it fell out of the wagon, did not make it up the belt at the register – or a fairy took it out of the cart – and with how things are lately, I am so not sure it was not the last.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It pays to make a shopping list before going shopping all the time – better than a trip back for a forgotten item.  Even more so now with the Corona virus about.  It helps one deal with a larger order quicker and with much fewer running back for items not remembered as one went through their aisle.  Today much more so than even before – one wants to go in, shop, and get out as quickly as possible to spend as little time out near people as possible.

A good Labor Day holiday to those in the U.S.

COVID 19 #11 - FOOD DELIVERY AND SHOPPING

On last Thursday (the day after I posted) we received another delivery for the food ordered. Again cans were dented – 5 of the 8 cans we received. I am sure I have mentioned that we don't ordinarily order things – and this is one of the things we worry about.

After we dealt the delivery on Thursday husband decided that it was time to go to the supermarket. His logic was that if we went during dinner time (around 6 pm) there would be less people there. Yes, we could go to the special hours for those who are older or at risk, but we are not morning people – we are barely asleep at 6 am when most of the special hours start. We have a Walmart Neighborhood Market at which we normally do a good deal of our food shopping. It is a supermarket and related items – no clothing, gardening etc. He went online and checked that items he planned to buy were in stock – they were.

He had me bring a can of Lysol spray and used it spray the cart – good idea (no, no one was wiping the carts off and even if they were – we had to bring from the parking lot to the store and would have had to touch it to do so). His plan was that I would push the cart and he would put the food in it – both wearing gloves of course. There was no one at the door counting people in and out as we expected there to be – nor anyone checking that we had masks on (we did). The store when we went in was emptier than the Walmart we had gone to for our medications looked from where we parked and looking in the exit doorway. There were directional markings on the floor, but so small I did not notice them and husband did not notice them until the second aisle we went through.

I had thought we were just there for “cold” items – but our first stop was soup – as he looked for and found some varieties which had not been available online – and the cans were not dented. People ignored the 6 foot rule – and even bumped into us. (Okay, this was the first aisle and we were going in the wrong direction – but still – walk into people when there is room to pass them by at least 2 feet?)

We then headed to the meat department. We normally buy regular foods – not organic. Only chicken breasts they had were organic – so we bought organic – 2 packages of 5 breasts each – a reasonable amount under the circumstances. Next some whole chickens caught husband's eye. “Can you cook a chicken?” I shrugged. “I guess it must be the same as turkey – just less time.” We bought a chicken – He was going for two, but I was concerned that maybe it wasn't the same roasting a turkey.

This led us into the freezer department. He added a number of frozen entrees for families that we had bought before - just not this many. I found the frozen vegetables – they had green peas and green beans that we needed (bought multiple bags of course – they are small), but no carrots. We did find frozen mixed vegetables which included same and I needed them for stews – so figured that was good and bought 2 bags of them. He also bought 2 boxes of frozen fried fish – something I don't eat.

As we headed over to the cheese and hot dogs aisle he stopped in the canned vegetables aisles – not really any vegetables we were looking for left – except – canned potatoes. He had looked online to order them and there had been none listed for delivery or pickup in store. We bought 6 cans, they are great in stews. We continued on – he bought 3 packages of 16 hot dogs – I did not point out that at 2 hot dogs for dinner once a week for him – that was 24 weeks worth of hot dogs. (I used to love hot dogs, but became ill after having them once and since then – it is not even easy for me to smell the while I cook them for him.) Added some American cheese and real cheese without whey that can he eat. He found one package of chicken strips similar to the chicken patties I eat when he has the hot dogs, close enough and one is better than none. Also bought 2 packages of presliced packaged turkey – good for dinner or lunch.

Then he headed to the household items. He uses baby shampoo to wash and finish the pieces he weaves and need more. He has been getting some weaving done while we are in the house – just set up his loom to weave 2 dish towels – something he has not woven before, but seem to be popular. A quick stop in the plastic bag aisle to pick up more zip bags in different sizes and we started for the check out. Our cart was the most full of any cart we have had in 40 years of marriage – more than when I would buy for Thanksgiving dinner for our two families and my regular weekly shopping at the same time. I was feeling good – he had overcome his fear of going out and we would probably not need to buy meat again for several months.

As we approached the checkout he turned pale – he did not feel good – really bad in fact. I told him to go to the car and wait. I checked out. Also had the biggest priced order we have ever had. I went out to the car he was terrible looking sitting in the driver's seat. He pushed the button to unlock the back hatch door so I could put in 9 large bags of groceries. (I had made sure to put all the cold items at the front of the order so those items would be bagged together for when we arrived home.) The parking lot was on an incline. I was holding the cart with one hand and trying to open the car hatch with the other and it was not opening. I finally managed to wedge a foot around a wheel so I could use both hands to open the back. He had to drive home as otherwise he would have been sicker.

When we arrived home sent him upstairs to lie down in bed. When we bring things such as food into the house (including the orders when we received them) I have been wiping them off in the porch with alcohol sprayed on pieces of paper towel and handing them in the door to him – he would then put them either in the fridge or a large towel layed out on the kitchen table until I could decide where to put them. Since he was not there I spread the towel on a small counter between the door and fridge. I brought a bag of cold food into the porch and started each item off and putting it on the towel – I had to stack items on each other. When all the cold items were in the house. I ran upstairs to check on husband.

He had tested his blood sugar and it was low. Apparently between the excitement/anxiety of being out and having trouble breathing through the mask – he had burned off the blood sugar he had and low blood sugar added to the trouble the breathing and anxiety made him ill. I brought up a bottle of a sugared drink he uses when he has a low and when he finished it, I left him to go to sleep.

I looked at what was on the counter – I was not sure it all would fit in the freezer where just about all would need to be stored. For the moment I stacked the already frozen items in the freezer – it just fit – and stacked the cold. Not frozen items in the fridge. I then went out and brought in a bag of non- cold items at a time and repeated the process of wiping the items down and putting them on the towel on the counter until all of them were in the house. (Having also done this earlier in the day with 4 cartons of food delivered I was exhausted.)

I looked at the clock and it was close to 8:45 pm. I went up and checked on husband – he was between sleep and awake and not yet ready to get up and come downstairs. I went back down and wondered – after getting all this food delivered or purchased and stored – what to make us for dinner as he would need to eat SOON. I started water boiling and added some pasta – I figured it was easy on the stomach and would give him carbs to offset his low blood sugar. At around 9:15 I checked with him again – he realized we needed to eat and I told him what I had done – he was unsure, but willing to try. He came down and was able to eat and agreed it was a good choice. We then also had some of the presliced turkey in sandwiches for dinner.

We could relax a bit – we now have plenty of food for a long time – well at least until he comes up with something else we need.

Oh – On Friday the last of the orders was delivered – including 8 pristine cans – no dents – why? These were packed in their cardboard base with shrink plastic holding them in place and small plastic pillow filled air around them to keep them from denting – the other cans had some pieces of paper as the only packing around them and the other food in the cartons and they bounced around – though at least 2 of them had to be dented when packed from the extent of the dents.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Fear is a problem if it stops us from doing something we need to do (or even really like to do). I was so glad that he overcame his fear. Generally our fear is worse than the thing we are afraid of. I am glad that we were able to go out food shopping for the first time since mid-March – next time we know what to expect and it will be easier.

Everyone – hoping you and your family stay well.

LIVING WITH THREAT OF COVID-19

Well  - it has gotten much more serious dealing with the Corona Virus or COVID-19 as it is now being called.  I certainly hope that all of you and your loved ones are well and stay so. 

Last week I called and canceled a follow up doctor visit for mom as she should NOT go out – she will be 91 the end of this month.  Doctor's office was very nice and told me the  - very good  - results for mom.  I have not made appointments with two other doctors she needs to go to – they can wait until it is safe for her to go out. 

During this past week our lives changed.  We had changed to going to the post office, lunch at Wendys, an attempt to find comfort items for my husband – more hand sanitizer, more hand soap, more alcohol, and/or more food – did get some more hand soap in small bottles and a bit more food.  Shelves remain empty day to day, though I did point out to husband that we do go late in the day and that may be the problem.  One of the local supermarket chains is opening early – 6 am to 7:30 am – special for only senior citizens – we just qualify for same, but 6 am?  I fall asleep at 5 am.  We may go if they continue to do this and we continue not to find things.  We are not in danger of running out of anything for a few weeks – but my husband is from a very nervous family and panics easily.  I keep reminding how much of these things we have, which always ends with “and we have more in the RV”.  We then would go home without going to other kinds of stores to walk around.  Last Sunday we did not go out to our usual Costco, BJ s , big Walmart as we normally do for fun, but it was the same as the other days. 

This week we went to the Post Office once to mail out paid bill payments,  still daily to Wendys for lunch – but, of course, we can no longer eat in Wendys – just home and eat at home.  One day went back out to supermarket – still the same. 

Last Saturday night we took in Chinese food (no dinners out any longer and that was before they ordered to only have to go/delivered orders) for dinner.  We did not go to the movies.  The theater we go to is an independent and they had sent out an email that they were going to spread the showings out further and clean/sanitize between shows – especially the seats and arm rests, bathrooms and food counters, but we still decided not to go.  We stayed in a watched a movie on TV. 

Now, everyone has been making fun of people running to buy toilet paper right?  In the middle of the movie we each received a text message.  MY sister texted me to see how my husband was doing as she knows he panics. HIS sister texted him as she never knows what is going on in the world and – yes – she suddenly found that there is toilet paper available and she is out of same for her family, let alone the news is also, but we would never be that on toilet paper ever, and she needed her big brother to help her find some.  (Eventually her husband found someone selling toilet paper at a 7-11 and bought for who knows how much money.)

Well, I have our food organized  - cans all in rows, lists of what is in the basement freezer on the refrigerator, - and we are eating less than normal at dinner.  Husband said that he would stop going to Wendys and picking up lunch – but each meal we do same, leaves more food in the house.  I am no longer using paper towels to wash the dishes – but husband did not want me to go back to using a sponge – it swirled around in my head – then I remembered – I have my old kitchen towels that are raggedy and  use for cleaning up in the kitchen – I cut up one and I have 6 pieces to use – one a day – to wash the dishes and then they will be washed. 

I normally put out clean towels on Monday and on Wednesday and Friday do so again in the kitchen and on Thursday do so in the two bathrooms.  I am now changing the towels every other day. 

My hands are raw from washing them – the cuts on them from same worry me – but what else can I do. 

Oh, today husband had a text from his sister – do we know where she can buy fish – she suddenly claims she can only fish or she gets sick (in the past it was because it was less fattening) – I guess she will be getting sick often as one will have to eat what is available.  Then again, I had expected him to hear from her upset that they could no longer eat out (every meal) and her gym (she goes daily) was closed. 

On the other hand – being in the house all the time, I am getting work done – on client's taxes and  household clearing up. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Please stay safe – listen to what the instructions are for where YOU live and follow them.  Stay away from those outside your home as much as you can and far enough away for safety.  If we are all careful there should be fewer people ill or worse.  One day this will all be over and we will be able to put our lives back together again. 

Oh, and for something to relieve the stress – do a search for penguins at Chicago aquarium .  Since there were to be no visitors they were allowed out to walk around the building  - they look like tourists seeing the other exhibits!

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.

REPLACE THE REFRIGERATOR?

Well the ants were resolve as of last week.  I have been very careful - I wash the dishes, etc immediately after we eat, then dry them and put them away, then dry the drying rack, dishpan and sink.  So far, so good.  (Fingers crossed.)

The refrigerator is a different story.  I have spent weeks now watching the thermometer in it - it is a remote read so I don’t have to open the door.  I understand that there is some play in the temperature of the fridge and I sort of know how it works.  For food purposes it has to be kept at 40F or less and for insulin related reasons it has to be kept at 36 F or higher.  It can go as high as 46F, but since the food has a lower top limit, I basically have to keep the fridge (house or RV) between 36 and 40 F.  I try to keep both at 38F and between 37 and 39F to allow some play or in case the thermometer is off. 

I know how to adjust the temperature - turn the knob colder if the temperature is too high until the compressor just clicks on, it if too low then turn the knob just warmer so the compressor clicks off.  I am at good at this.  In the RV I have been known to jump to the back when we stop for gas to make a quick adjustment. 

Recently our house refrigerator has been acting wrong.  I look at the thermometer and it is 37F.  I leave it.  I look again maybe 10-15 minutes later and it is 40F.  It should not jump that much that fast or without seemingly hitting any temperatures between.  It is then hard to get the temperature back down to where it belongs.  I am not adding large amounts of food at all, let alone food that is not already cold.  I thought I was just missing the adjustments and started setting the timer in my mobile phone to go off every 15 or 20 minutes to remind me to check the timer.  Still missed the jumps.  Husband and I have been discussing what to do.  For what a repair would cost, it would not pay. 

So we have been looking refrigerators online and in stores.  Since we have a small house, we have a small kitchen and a relatively small fridge.  When we moved into this house 30 years ago we owned a refrigerator that we had used in our apartment and brought that with us.  Sending the one that came with the house (from the prior owners) to the garage (which did not have electricity) where its main use was to have our, then, Christmas tree stored on top of it.  One July 4th week we were away and came home and found that while we had been away the fridge had died.  As we threw out most of what was in the fridge, we thought to and tried to plug in the fridge in the garage - it no longer worked.  So we bought a new fridge. 

For our apartment we had bought a 15 cu ft refrigerator.  Due to confusion the company that we bought it from took about a week to deliver it to us - and they delivered an 18 cu ft one - with an ice maker and told us to keep both when I called that they were wrong.  (Apparently they kept mixing us up with another customer which led to them claiming that originally they tried to deliver and I was not home - I was home and on the phone, by coincidence, at that time.  We bought the fridge in 1982 for the apartment.  I know this as I was working on a piece of embroidery at the time, worked on it all work while stuck in our apartment waiting, and it is, yes, dated 1982.  I am not sure of when we bought the first one for this house or its size.

When we had our house treated for the bed bugs in 2009 we found afterwards that the refrigerator which we had replaced that one with was no longer working.  Since we found several individual bottles of water in the fridge and its freezer which were not ours, so apparently the bed bug crew had stashed their water bottles in our fridge (it was a major heat treatment) and had been opening the doors all day - so our fridge died. 

At that time we bought the fridge that is currently in our house.  It is 20.9 cu ft.  Like all of our other ones it is white and a top freezer.  I did not particularly like a number of things about it, but we were in a rush and bought it - it has served us well.

Monday night we decided that we had to replace it.  We both looked online and found that there seemed to be 3 possible replacements of about the same size.  Tuesday we went to a major house/hardware chain to look at what they had. None of the 3 excited me.  They had oddly arranged shelves (all were actually from different companies - not just the same company with different nameplates) and such.  Husband had heard about fridges which allow one to set an actual temperature and the fridge will keep that temperature - not the usual turn the dial a little this way or that and stick a thermometer in the fridge to check the temperature.  I found one that was “only” $300 more than what we were looking at - or to look at the extra price another way - it added the equivalent of 50% more of the price to the price.  This was something he REALLY wanted.  He had given me measurements at home before we went out and this one did not seem that much larger in size and we left it in consideration.

We then went to the other major house/hardware chain to see what they had.  Basically the same, but the model that we had seen and husband was interested in, was slightly different - or at least it’s number was. 

We have bought large appliances from both in the past and based on same decided that we wanted to buy from the first company, but decided to go a different store in the chain which was larger and “maybe” would have something different.

They did not.  So I made the decision.  As much as I would hate the fancier fridge - it was side by side and I was not even sure a turkey would fit on the tiny shelves and we had to take it in stainless as white add another 50% to the price, it made sense for the problem we have with keeping the temperature in such a small range.  We bought it.  To be delivered and set up on Friday.

We then went home and measured the front door - it was about an inch too small, but we figured that they could take the fridge doors off as there was a measurement without same and it would fit. 

One thing husband had read about is that the freezer in this type of fridge has a small “door” to the main compartment which opens and closes to take cold air into the freezer and it makes the main fridge section warmer.  We have a small freezer in the basement - from when we used to grow vegetables and I would actually shop at sales to buy food and would store the extra in this freezer.  Now it is mostly empty  - when I went to see what was in it - everything had a date to use by in 2016.  I tossed them out.  I then took all of the items in our fridge’s freezer downstairs to the freezer. Only things I left in the upstairs freezer are some of those liquid filled plastic things that one freezes and puts with food or meds to keep them cold in transit.  I then turned the fridge’s freezer temperature almost all the way to the warmest temperature.  (We would need to move the frozen food to same anyway as it takes a day for the new fridge/freezer to reach temperature.

Overnight the same thought came to each of us - the fridge also had to pass through 2 doorways in the house - and they were narrower.  Then husband went downstairs and laid out the measurements of the fridge we ordered - it was huge!  It would not only block part of the entry into the kitchen from the dining room, it would also block access the (only) light switches in the kitchen.  I measured the old fridge and came in about 3-4 inches smaller front to back then he had measured.  We went back to the store and canceled the order. 

Now what to do?  Well, the fridge had been working okay since yesterday (Tuesday).  Maybe it would keep working - at least until we return from a trip next week.  The sale on the various refrigerators continues to July 10, so we could still get the price when we came back.  We looked at the 3 fridges in the right size and decided which one we would get - but we figured we would buy it after we returned from our trip.

Husband decided he wanted a chicken pie we had in the freezer.  I went down and took it out.  Temperature in the fridge was 37F - great!  I put the pie in to cook and was playing games on my cell phone.  I wanted a glass of soda - in taking out the bottle that was there, I notice we would need more and added a bottle - a room temperature bottle - to the fridge.  When I looked up again the temperature was 45F??!!!  By now we have several thermometers sitting in the fridge - the one we normally use seems to always be the odd one out.  In this case the others all showed the temperature to be 40F - could it be a thermometer problem?  We have spare of the remote read and I set that up and took the first one out - same problem.  Even with the temperature set to the coldest setting  - it was not getting colder, the compressor did not seem to be on.  We unplugged the fridge and then plugged it in again (it seemed to help twice before since the weekend).  No effect. 

Extremely s l o w l y the temperature dropped.  After dinner, we went out and ordered the fridge that we had decided to order next week. I don’t love it - but hopefully it will work and it is better than the huge side by side husband wanted - and it should fit through all the doors it needs to.  It is suppose to be here Friday. 

Now for logistics -

We have an automatic ice maker to old fridge - as we had one before, we had bought it again.  We are not getting one for our new fridge - we rarely use ice and end up tossing out the shrunken cubes that are in the freezer.  We can do it “the old fashioned way” and have frozen trays of ice in the freezer.  But we have to shut off the water to the fridge and get rid of the water in the line.  Husband found it and turned it closed as far it as it went.  I threw out the shrunken, dried cubes in the ice bucket and turned the ice maker on to use the rest of the water in the line up.  We either have much more water in the line than we thought, the ice maker uses much less water than we figure - or the water is not actually off and has a leak in the tap as we keep getting more ice cubes - right now they are just shells of ice, but they keep coming.  Just heard more drop.  We bought a “cap” for the end of the water line - just in case the water is not and cannot be shut off completely. 

Freezer, as mentioned, is basically empty.

That leaves our fridge section.  There is an open package of American cheese slices, an open package of cream cheese, 2 hot dogs, and 6 eggs in it. I have 2 of husband’s insulin pens in it.  If we cannot keep them below 46F, I am not going to worry about it as they will need to be used within 42 days - and they are 20 days worth, plus husband is in the middle of pen - so they should be used up long before the 42 days.  The rest of what is in there does not really need to be in a fridge “to keep” - soda, sealed bottles of ice tea, condiments (no mayo), and similar.  Our RV is currently plugged in to charge the batteries (done twice a month, just happened to be doing it now) and we will turn on the fridge in the RV tomorrow and put the food from the fridge in it until we can move it to the new fridge.  (Hot dogs could just be frozen and put in the basement freezer.)

I soooooo hope that this is the last of the stupidity that has been going on.  (Well, I do have to make a 3rd call to an insurance for our reenacting unit - so, still repeating chores over and over.)  I really cannot take any more!


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When one thinks that everything is resolved - something isn’t and will need to be dealt with and redone.

Oh, and things always break at the wrong time.

Oh, and when all these things are going on and one goes down to do laundry and pours water out of the dehumidifier all over the basement - the laundry can wait!

 

CATCHING UP A BIT

Yesterday we took mom to the doctor and it worked better than we anticipated.  One problem was that the medication she had been placed on is out of stock - everywhere.  I spent a good part of Sunday afternoon calling pharmacies.  The doctor called the pharmacy he uses.  None.  But his pharmacy suggested a compounding pharmacy.  If you don’t know what this is - it is a pharmacy that mixes medications as needed.  For example - a child has to take a liquid medication but won’t take cherry flavor medications - they can mix up the same actual medication with a different flavor.  In our case they can mix up and make pills for mom of the medication she can’t get - at a price of course, and insurance not accepted.  Worth the extra money for her to have medication - plus they delivered it to her today so we did not have to get it and then travel to her to give it to her.  We also have an appointment with a specialist for 2 weeks from now and that doctor will be better able to adjust her medications.

Night before last (Monday night) husband printed up the pictures of samplers that I had found for the talk I gave today.  I spent last evening putting the photos into plastic holders and printing up information about them - each one had a paper in the back explaining about the picture - and a number for the order they should be in (in case I dropped them).  Some had only a descriptive title and date - others had a full page of information.  I then had to write up my treasurer’s report and an agenda as I was not sure if I or the secretary was going to run the meeting since neither president or VP would be there.  I also printed up a membership list for the membership chair as it is renewal time for our group. 

When I finished the talk this morning - which was very well received - I felt so good.  I had gotten through the mess of everything one after another by staying calm and getting each day’s work done and preparing the night before where we could.  We have another problem coming up with Sunday, but we have ways of working around the problem - and if we know in advance that it is going to rain on Sunday and where we are to go will be canceled - that would resolve the problem.

On my way back from the meeting today I went to the post office and picked up the mail - only one ad, as we did not get to our box yesterday.  I then went to the pharmacy and picked up husband’s prescriptions as one has to be refrigerated and we also had to go and buy food that also needed to be kept cold and did not want to have either sit in the car as we bought the other. I then came home and we went out for lunch and shopping. 

I had the rest of this afternoon through Saturday to catch up. I went through one of three piles on my desk - scan, enter into computer, to do.  I first worked on the paperwork from some new members in our reenactment unit - two of them also joined our national group and now their paperwork is done and ready to be mailed to national. 

I paid some bills for us and worked out what money has to be transferred where to pay them.  I did some other small tasks that needed to be done.  The to do pile is now down to one thing to do. 

I normally put out the garbage from the kitchen on Sunday night for Monday morning pickup but did not have a chance to do so.  I put it tonight along with our upstairs garbage which would normally go out on Wednesday night (tonight) for Thursday morning pickup.

Husband is finishing up a weaving project and has had a section of the kitchen in use by him, but he moved it all so I could go down to the basement and put in a load of laundry to wash.

I actually feel with all of this as if I accomplished something!

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Tasks in general tend to work out better than one fears in advance.  If one goes ahead and does what one needs to do - it is amazing how well it all can go sometimes and then one is done with whatever the original problem was.  Go ahead - start the task and see how it goes.  Doing nothing is generally not an option and it will probably work out better than you think it will!

           

USE YOUR CELL PHONE AND COMPUTER TO HELP STAY ORGANIZED

Yesterday I had an idea for this post.  Between then and now I forgot. That seems to happen a lot these days.  I will admit to being in my mid 60s.  As a child people said that I had memory of an elephant.  I still do for some things - my husband can tell you that I remember things from decades ago that he has forgotten (or remembers totally wrong), but from one minute to another I might not remember.  Not sure if it is aging and an actual memory problem or lack of interest in remembering something - although I am sure that is not why I forgot what I was going to write about.  So I will write about remembering things to help get organized (unless the other idea comes back to me.)

One problem in organizing and getting rid of stuff is remembering what needs to be done when.  For example - one needs to do food and related shopping to keep the household going.  I used to have a paper list on the fridge.  If we were running low on something I would put it on the list.  Husband knew if he was running low on something, he should add it to that list - and he did.  Originally I went food shopping on Thursdays - why?  Well, my mom did her shopping on Thursdays!  We have tended to eat on weekends for most of the time we have been married.  So food shopping on Thursdays actually made no sense - the food was sitting around for 3 days  before we even started to use most of it. 

I switched my food shopping to Mondays.  In those days the weekly supermarket sales started on Sunday so by switching to Monday not only did I have fresher food (nicer looking produce) I also was more likely to find the sale items in stock.  I found out the first year that we were married that I should not take husband food shopping.  He was on vacation from work. (He was on a school year schedule and had several 1 week vacation plus 4 weeks in the summer.)  I invited him to the supermarket with me.  We left with nothing.  Why?  “I don’t feel like this for dinner tonight.”  Me - “No we are buying this because it is on sale and we will buy extra and freeze it.  We don’t have to eat it tonight.”  So after doing my food shopping on Monday, I would go again on Friday if anything was needed for the weekend.  My week at that time was Monday - run household errands, Tuesday through Wednesday I would work, go out to clients, etc., Friday I would do our banking, buy an extra food, run errands and enjoy lunch out - alone (cheap).  My big joke - remember I work by myself - was that “the office voted to go out to lunch together on Fridays”.   Saturday and Sunday was our time together.  This worked very well. 

Over the years other chores were added in that had to vary through the week.  For about a decade we were both in two rotating art exhibitions.  This involved bringing his work - cut paper, leather, turned wood - and my work - textile/multimedia dolls - to a showcase at each of the two sets of exhibitions we were in.  Various libraries, local government offices, & businesses would come and select whose work they would like to have at their locations.  The exhibitions were for 1 or 2 months.  The artist would bring the work and set it up at the locations and then at the end of the month take the exhibitions down.  Since the exhibitions had to be set up/removed during the day, I would do it for both of us.  I had to juggle setting up/removing 1 to 4 exhibitions a month over a 2 county area.  Not an easy thing to keep track of or to do.  But - it was actually easier when I did this alone than when husband stopped working and was doing this with me.  I knew the different locations and what would fit and how I had arranged the pieces in prior years.  Some locations were really great and I would do a big exhibition with papers explaining the work and which pieces were which and some of the locations had room for 3 pieces.  Some of the work was hung on the wall (or on standing panels) and some had to go in cases.  Some had employees were who were excited and nice about what was being hung - some were annoyed that we were there.  I had computer printed forms I brought with me to list to pieces on for it to be signed for.  I also have a data base for each type of work in my computer so I know which pieces had been exhibited where and when.  I had an appointment in my computer calendar/cell phone to remind me to call and make an appointment to bring the exhibitions in to set up and another to remind me to make an appointment to take them down at the end of the month or 2 months.)

Similarly I used to have to go to clients on a monthly or quarterly basis.  I had to remember which client to go to when and what had to be done when I went there.  At first I made notes about what to do at each client and put it in my, originally, paper calendar book, later in my cell phone.  Of course over the years I basically knew what to do at each client by memory, but kept my notes.  I am now down to one client except for annual income taxes and it is easy to remember what to do there.  Also over the decades the client’s records all were put into my laptop computer to make it easier.  I still have reminders of when which taxes are due for client and for our personal businesses. 

Friends are amazed that I remember their birthdays and anniversaries.  I would mail cards to friends children when they were young - I remember the excitement of getting something in the mail.  All of this was in special calendar book that I just kept same in so it did not need to be carried to a new book every year in the old days.  Now it is all in computer calendar and  automatically is there every year.

I have alarms in my cell phone and computer that remind me when something needs to be done - including when to stop working at my computer in the office and go down and make dinner.  (This happens 15 minutes before I need to go down so I have a chance to finish up - and back up.)  Reminders for birthdays and anniversaries go off a week before each event.  I also have a memo/to do/note program in my cell phone (and syncs with my computer) to keep track o f information.  The first one is a shopping list - I have various stores/types of stores listed and I add in items we need to buy.  Since I find that I am using much fewer coupons these days (as there are so few which match with what we need) I will put “coup” after the item if I have a coupon for it.  (Coupons are in sorted holder in the car.)  I have a category in this memo for Christmas - this way I will remember next Christmas if we need to replace strands of light or if we have enough card and wrapping for next year. Another category in this memo is things that we cannot find here, but can find in Pennsylvania on trips.  I have one memo which holds the specifications of various things in the house that we might buy items for  - such as sewing machines so I can buy bobbins for them.  Another memo has which light bulbs we need for where.  Yet another says how much fabric I need and which buttons I need for reenacting clothing in case we come across something interesting.  You get the idea.

THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK -

If memory or a need for reminders is part of what keeps you from getting organized - use your computer or cell phone - or even an old fashioned calendar/agenda book and a shopping list on the refrigerator - to help you keep track of everything. 

Those of you who were hit by the storms across the middle of the U.S. - I hope that you are safe and warm and the results of the snow and rain disappear quickly.
                                    

THANKSGIVING IS HERE AGAIN

For those of you in the U.S., Thanksgiving is tomorrow, at least as I write this (by the time you read this, it is probably today or yesterday for you).  Rather than retell the story of organizing for Thanksgiving past, I will post links to my prior Thanksgiving posts at the end of this post.

This year is rather worse than even most recent years.  Until this past Monday we were still debating - cook dinner or go to an Asian buffet (they do put out a turkey for carving - and each person carves their own serving). 
On Monday we bought our turkey.  It is from the same specialty supermarket that we bought from last year and the year before.  Due to our letter about our problem last year  with the turkey not being fully cooked (the breast was blood raw) after following their directions, they sent us a gift card for about 3 times the price of the turkey.  So this year’s turkey (and next year’s and part of the year after’s turkey) was free.  Due to the warnings this year about problems with turkeys and salmonella, I was concerned about putting the turkey - even though it is still in its packaging - on the right hand top shelf of our refrigerator, the only one tall enough to hold the turkey - even though it is lying down.  So I was going to put it on one of my platters - but then realized that they are pottery and might absorb any leaks and any salmonella in the leaks.  I thought and thought where I might have a large enough glass plate to hold it.  So it is sitting on a lovely large dessert serving plate that we received as a wedding gift.  (Yes, we have used it to serve dessert over the decades.)  That left 2 small corners at the front of the shelf to put anything on it.  Husband, a few weeks ago, had decided that the caffeinated diet soda he has at lunch made his shoulder/arm feel better.  So we have a started bottle of decaf soda and one of caffeinated soda in the fridge.  I put the decaf one on the right corner of the shelf.  I then went to put the caffeinated one on the left corner of the shelf - I had forgotten that one of the reasons I hate this fridge (even before we bought it, but it was the closest to what I wanted that we could find in the emergency situation of our old one - around 30 years old - dying) is that the light bulb is in the front of it - in the middle of the fridge and one cannot put anything tall there - so the soda bottle could not go there.  I managed to balance it - 3/4 of it on the center of the shelf and the front end sticking off.  I warned husband - so he would be careful not to knock it off the shelf  - and made him repeat to me what I said - so he cannot say I did not tell him.  Of course right after this, he stopped drinking soda and switched to ice tea, so I have been drinking the decaf soda to get rid of the extra bottle.  It is down enough that the bottle can lay on a lower shelf as there is so little soda left, it does not reach the neck of the bottle while it is lying down.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went out shopping for the other things we need for the dinner.  Of course the stores (we went to 2 different supermarkets and a Walmart) were jammed and out of things.  I am annoyed that since we waited this long items - milk, stuffing, eggs and such - that I would normally buy in Walmart as they are cheaper there, had to bought at the supermarket and we probably blew at least $5 on the difference.  (I think I have said that I am cheap.)  We had to go out again today for items we did not find yesterday - another Walmart and a different supermarket.  I never did get the mixed (green) beans I wanted.  Somehow everything we picked is what he wanted, the mixed beans were what I wanted - plain green beans it is. 

I have not cleared out the dining room yet.  Nor have I cleared off the kitchen counters to have room to work.  I guess whatever is in the way in the dining room will be pushed to far end - hey, it’s only us, I would like it nicer, but between dealing with his shoulder and the RV winterizing mess (which will be continued next week) I am soooo behind in getting ready.  In reading my prior Thanksgiving posts (I found I already repeated myself at least once, and not repeating myself was why I read them) I was reminded that I have to go to the basement, move all the boxes of Christmas decorations in front of the very small closet that has our gas meter, a blanket cut in half for reenactments (in sealed plastic bags and rarely used kitchen stuff and get the platter for carving out and wash it.

I don’t know if you go shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, we do not.  Never found anything worth getting.  I have to wonder if people buy new TVs every year as that always seems to be the big draw.  Then again, as I have mentioned, we do very little gift shopping, as well as little shopping for us.  For us if we are shopping something needs replacing or there is something very new (and not expensive) that husband has decided he needs.

Remember that what you buy has to be paid for and you don’t want to be in debt forever for something that is gone in a year or two or less.  Also - everything you buy has to be stored - either by you or the person you give it to - think about that when buying items for yourself or as a gift. For example husband decided last week to buy a chair at Ikea. It is a small kitchen table chair and it has a low back and is smaller than our regular chairs.  He had noticed the chairs at Wendys where we have lunch are more comfortable for his shoulder and arm - after jokes about maybe since we go there so office we can borrow/rent a chair from them, he decided to look in Ikea after dinner last week.  Now, we are the type of people who can shop for a package of hair pins for a week or two, but he sat in several chairs and then announced one was perfect (and “only $39") and we bought it and assembled it that night and he loves it. This left me with the chair he used before (and hopefully will again).  It is now in the dining room against the wall (we keep furniture against the wall in the colonial “room at rest” manner) - out of the way until we need it again and looks decorative.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Those of you in the U.S. - have a nice Thanksgiving. 

All of you - think before you shop during the holidays (and in general) before overspending or buying unneeded items which will quickly be unwanted - by yourself or as gifts.  One of the movie theater chains we used to go to had a trailer to sell its gift cards for holiday gifts.  It has people receiving gifts that were not appropriate and of course those who received their gift cards were happy.  I will never forget one sequence - a man receives a sweater as a gift.  The sweater is huge - his arms are lost in the sleeves and the sweater covers him to below his knees and he is so sad and upset and shaking his head.  You don’t want to be the person who gives a gift like that!  (And no, I am not pushing movie gift cards.)

Prior Thanksgiving posts -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2015/11/thanksgiving-and-other-holidays.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/11/
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/11/semi-unorganized-thanksgiving.html

BISQUICK ALL OVER !!

Well another week has gone by already - hard to believe.  We, again, did not go away last Friday as it was not only to rain, but there was a chance of snow also.  That is 6 one day trips planned (to more or less the same place) since the start of the year- and one trip taken. 

As an accountant I have been busy doing income taxes - well, not so busy - I used to do many more returns than I do now - but somehow it takes the same time - I am sure you all know the concept of the work expands to fit the time.  I have 3 returns sitting here each missing one piece of info to finish.  I have extensions and estimates to prepare for one client who is not ready to file yet - an annual practice as he is away the first part of the year.  I have another client who owes me info for 3 - yes 3 - years of tax returns and promised to send it.  I would hate for them to lose their refunds. 

Today we went out food shopping - sometimes one just has to do a big food shopping instead of just fill in.  So there was a lot of food to put away when we got home - luckily none of it for the fridge or freezer.  Well, I had planned to get butter free with the order and buy eggs, but the coupon for the butter was from another market - oops - and they did not have any extra large eggs.  So we were able to stop at the service station and have our mechanic install two air filters he ordered for us.  So when we got home, of course I just left the food out in the kitchen and went upstairs to pay bills and check for tax info.  This left shopping bags and and a box of food around our tiny kitchen.  It needed to be put away before I cooked.

Of course I got downstairs late to prepare dinner and had to do it around the groceries as I did not have a chance to put anything away.  I had bought a box of Bisquick which I planned to use to make biscuits tonight to have with dinner - chicken, cream of mushroom soup, and vegetables over the biscuits.  I have make biscuits like this many times, although not for this reason.  The recipes I use is no longer on their boxes, so after coming downstairs late - I had to go find my backs of prior Bisquick boxes collection - in a folder of loose recipes on the shelf with the cookbooks.  I knew where it was, but I had to climb over stuff to get to it and find which box back had the correct recipe.  So now I am running late, have bags and large box taking up most of the space in my kitchen, have used more time looking for the recipe and I am about to start cooking. 

Chicken defrosted in the microwave.  We each have a different soup - but it is the second night we are having same so I can dump it into pots as both were split in half last night.  So into the pots they go.  I look at the recipe for the biscuits. Hmmm. They can be made as dumplings.  I didn’t know that.  Well, that is basically what we are using them for.  I’ll make this recipe instead.  And so started a nightmare.  The dish I was cooking was simple - chicken breast cut in bite sized pieces and browned in the skillet.  Cream of mushroom soup with 1/4 cup of milk for sauce.  We wanted vegetables - husband carrots and me peas and carrots - so frozen vegetables had to be boiled - not a problem, it goes quickly.  I made it into major cooking and a major mess.

I put up a medium pot - a couple of quarts - of water to boil as the recipe said to drop the mixed biscuit batter onto the boiling stew.  Uh oh, says cook 10 minutes with no cover and then 10 minutes covered but that should be okay as we would have the soup before we needed it anyway.  I mixed up half the recipe as it was just for two.  I dropped the batter into the boiling water by the spoonful - per the recipes.  I actually got the right number of dumplings - per the recipe.  I then stepped away to cut up the now defrosted chicken. 

I hear a noise at the stove and look over - the water is boiling over even though I turned it down to medium.  I run over to see as it is the burner that has a bad thermostat and it sometimes goes to high when one is cooking at a lower temperature.  No, the water is boiling over and the dumplings are, well, messy.  I grab a large pot and slowly and carefully pour it all into the larger pot - after all - the problem must be that the pot is too small for the water and the dumplings.  No, that is not the problem and the water is soon boiling over again.  I finally get the stove to a low enough temperature for the water to be simmering and not boiling over.

I made the rest of the dinner.  Husband comes down for dinner and I am still cooking as in addition to be late starting and working around the groceries it is taking much longer - and more pots - than I expected.  The entire sight when he comes down is sort of like the end of “Woman of the Year”.  For those who do not know this movie Katherine Hepburn does not know how to cook.  She is coming back to her husband played by Spencer Tracy who she left a couple of days  into the marriage and now she knows she made a mistake and has returned.  She is a writer for a newspaper and is the Woman of the Year of the title and does not know how to cook or keep house.  She attempts to make coffee (in an drip pot as was used then) and make waffles.  When he comes into the kitchen he sees her struggling and sits down to read the newspaper.  When it gets to the point that the coffee is shooting out the top of the coffee pot and the waffle has an air bubble in it that is about to burst and she starts crying he finally goes and shuts everything off.  Well that is what the entire kitchen looked like tonight.  (If you have not seen this movie - this one scene alone makes it worth while and is one of the funniest scenes ever filmed.)

My husband is surprised that he does not smell biscuits baking when he comes down and sees what is going on.  Dumplings?  Well, I figured we were using the biscuits as same anyway and I found the recipe on the box...  He was disappointed.  I tell him that if it is awful I will start over and make the biscuits - after the decades we have been together he takes this sort of thing passably well.  (I suggested to him that he look at it as if we are newlyweds and I am still learning to cook and making a mistake - it would make us feel young again - he did not appreciate the idea.  So in the end I had 3 dumplings and some small pieces instead of 5 and at least they were cooked through and we could eat them. 

But  - the problem was the mess.  The stove was covered with goo that was the Bisquick and water that boiled over.  The stove needed to be cleaned as a result of this.  (Well, it needed to be cleaned anyway.)  Luckily I managed to pick up most of the goo with paper towels and a large spoon and toss it out.  I took the burner out that it had cooked on as it needed cleaning too and then I saw that It had oozed under the burner pan and I had to clean underneath also.  “Oh well, there goes my night” I thought  - not even sure I would get to write a post tonight. 

I washed the dishes and other pots then dumped the large pot from the dumplings out in the toilet bowl - the stuff was too liquid for the garbage and too solid for the sink drain.  I then set the pot to soak in the sink next to the dish pan I use to wash the dishes and started on actually cleaning the stove - having just sopped up the goo from it.  I dropped the decorative rings around the burners and the burner pans (not their foil liners - they were tossed out) into the dishpan which still had hot soapy water in it to soak.  I cleaned the stove - with lots of spray cleaner and paper towels. 

When that was done I turned to the burner pans and rings. I had to go at them with steel wool and got them mostly clean.  They are currently air drying in the dish washer (remember it doesn’t work and I use it as drying rack).  The skillet from dinner still needs to be cleaned - it is cast iron and needs to go on the stove afterwards to heat to get water out of it so it doesn’t rust, so I figured that I would let the stove parts dry a bit first while I started the second load of laundry (I managed to get the first load started before starting to wash the dishes) and wrote this post.

Well, the stove needed cleaning anyway and now that is a job that can be checked off the list.  I had spare foil pan liners for it and climbed up in the closet and got them out - ready to go into the burner pans when they go back. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Put stuff away as soon as you get it home.

The entire mess tonight would have been easier if I had put away the groceries when we got  home.  I would have at least the space to work.  I still would have ended up making a mess and having excess stuff plus the stove to clean, but I would not have had to drape a towel over the groceries so that if water dripped on them they would not get wet - as they would not have been next to the sink.

I have since put away all the groceries. 

WHAT A WEEK - AGAIN!

This was another whirlwind week of not much done. 

First - more Christmas followup.  I have packed most of my bear figurines from the living room and will soon put out my February bear figurines from the same set.  Large Santas and elves stored away on top of the main tree’s box and the basement was put back into order so that all could be used again down there.

Last Saturday night after we came home from the movies husband went upstairs to go online.  I was in the kitchen downstairs on this laptop doing the same.  Husband came running down the stairs a short while later.  He asked me if I was cooking anything as he smelled something burning.  I was not and went upstairs with him.  At the top of the landing I smelled an electrical burning smell. 

When we went into the office I knew it was coming from my side (the nearer to the door side) of the office.  I unplugged everything plugged in on my side.  We waited and the smell cleared up.  I then started plugging things back in, one at a time.  When I plugged in the printer the smell came back.  Unplugged it - smell went away.  We took out the paper tray and the toner cartridge and looked - nothing stuck inside.  We left it unplugged to explore what could be the problem.  After looking online and contacting the manufacturer we determined that the printer was no longer safe to use.  If plugged in the burning smell returns - blowing out of the side vents.  We were lucky that we were home when it started and we got the printer unplugged before it or anything else caught fire.

Now, we do/did have another printer set up in the room - it just costs more per copy - so that is not a problem.  It is all in one so we also lost the scanner, copier and fax.  Well, I also have a copier - it predates the computers but still is used and works well.  That left the scanner and the fax lacking.  We each have a scanner from before this one.  Husband went to set his up  - it does not seem to work with Windows 7 (or 10).  He managed to get it up and working with an older computer he still has set up which has Windows XP.  I have not tried to set up my older scanner yet - it will probably have the same problem and need to be set up to use with my laptop if we don’t replace the all in one now.  The fax function - well, we only fax a few times a year - mostly for medical matters so I am not as worried about same.

Husband immediately went out to buy a new unit - we saw what he thought we should get - a duplexing color laser all in one unit, which also duplex scans.  Pricey, but it is for my work.  Then he read the reviews and it did not rate well - actually none of the units seem to rate well.  He was in a hurry - I told him we should wait and take our time.  While in an office store over the weekend we saw a similar model - except it has no color.  Husband’s printer prints color, but he has not been happy with the color printing, so he was happy at the thought of a different color printer.  But, if we get the same unit without the color it is half the price - so that it was what we plan to go with. He took the old unit downstairs yesterday - we get a credit if we trade it in towards the new one.  Important - we made sure that there is nothing in any memory that might provide personal information to anyone - I checked with the manufacturer on what needed to be cleared and how to so so.  Tomorrow we plan to go and buy the replacement unit (on sale only until this Saturday and it will double in price if not bought by then).   I am sure setup and getting to know the new unit will take awhile. 

I also had my embroidery group meeting this week - I am on the board so I have to prepare a report for the meeting and it was my turn to bring snack - so yesterday in the (relatively light) snow we went out and spent an hour buying a small cake and a box of small doughnuts for me to bring. 

After the meeting I returned our soda bottles accumulated since the last meeting for their deposits and switched my offsite flash drive at the bank vault.  I tried to visit a couple of stores we don’t go to.  The craft store is now primarily a clothing factory.  The “new” supermarket has already gone out of business.  I did buy some canned tomatoes on sale.

Right now I should be doing the laundry and running my suitcase heater (stuff I brought to the meeting today and mail that has come in from people) but I had two new things tonight to deal with and if I did what I am suppose to do also - my head would explode - and I had to get my post written for tonight.

I use my old cell phone, a Palm, around the house as a PDA as my newer phone, a Blackberry, does not work for the “to dos” with the software I like.  I sync one and then the other with the same program in my computer.  The Palm would not sync.  I tried various things - including using a spare sync cord I have and trying to sync it with this laptop - but the computer does not “see” the Palm.  Too much going on right now.  I will work around this and not sync it until I figure out what is going on.  I may need to use husband’s old Palm which matches mine if mine is broken.  For now - I will not go crazy and get upset - I will use the appointments section of my Blackberry to deal with new items to do and to record what I have done when I am not at my computer until I figure it out. 

I paid some bills due out tomorrow and did some follow up to today’s meeting and made dinner.  During dinner husband says to me “You know that day trip to Pennsylvania I wanted to take a couple of weeks ago - maybe we can go Friday.”  My brain starts whirling - nothing major to do, I will just ignore the Palm problem a little longer. We can buy the printer tomorrow - even if we don’t get it set up, we will have bought it while it was on sale.  Uh, oh, there were other bills due out Friday and over the weekend and I need to transfer money to our business account - went upstairs after dinner and paid the bills and wrote a check to the business account - have to deposit it and another check tomorrow.  Soda on sale - we have to buy by Saturday when the sale ends - either tomorrow or Saturday it is.  So, I got downstairs much later than normal to write to all of you after a week of basically “treading water” to keep from falling behind and basically said to myself - “the laundry and the heating of the stuff can wait”.

I did clean the upstairs bathroom rather extensively last week.  I even got down on my hands and knees and cleaned around the edges where the floor meets the walls.  We have rather small bathrooms.  I have to lie across the (closed) toilet bowl to clean behind it - on an angle to one side and then again on the opposite angle to the other side.  To clean between the sink and the tub  I have to climb into the tub and lean out - but only slightly or I would hit my head on the sink.  Hah!  That’s when I bruised my knee - it was during cleaning the bathroom - I knew I would remember where the bruise came from!

TODAY’S THOUGHT ON ORGANIZING -

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel.  What I mean by this is that if something exists to use to do something or there is a good way to do something - don’t try to come up with something else.

I used to sort my laundry on an old bed sheet on the floor of the basement.  After we had mice husband said that it was too disgusting a place to sort the laundry.  I kept trying to figure out what to use instead.  I brought a tray table over near the washer and was balancing laundry on it for awhile as I tried to figure out what to do. 

Then one day it hit me - something exists to sort laundry into - it is called “a laundry sorter”.  You know, those frames with 3 bags hanging from them that one sorts laundry into.  How could I not have thought of same.  I never used one as I do not sort laundry in the typical way.  I normally sort the laundry by throwing the clothes (except jeans and other heavier items) into the washer, then a pile of towels, a pile of bed linens, then jeans and the heavier items into another pile.  Sometimes for various reasons there is more laundry and more piles. 

So now the clothes go into the washer as before.  The towels go into the front section of the sorter.  The bed linens in the next section.  The final section gets jeans, sweatshirts, etc.  The items in the last section are not necessarily washed every week. I hold them for a fuller load - I will do a load of jeans or I will do a load of heavier clothing such as sweatshirts as needed. 

So the idea is that if there is a way to do something, use it - don’t try to come up with a new way to do it.