COVID 19 #19 UTILITIES STILL OUT FROM ISAIAS, CLEARING OUT KITCHEN PANTRY AND I FOUND MY MISSING BEARS

 First a couple of updates on my last two posts -

In the July 30 post (2 weeks ago) I had mentioned that I was going crazy having lost an assortment of bear figures that I use in my “Teddy Village”.  (Don't think it that crazy that I have this village – it is the only place I can “visit” without a mask right now, and it is cute and fun to do.)  I have put off climbing under the bed in the spare bedroom (aka the Teddies room) both because of the logistics and because I feared not finding the bears there – and since my only thought was that they been tossed out –  I could not take them not being there.  I tend to put things in places that are logical when I put them there, but later do not come to mind when I am looking for them.  Last night on our way to bed I was looking around again as to where the bears might be – and my eye fell on a large, thick white cardboard box (I am guessing that is the inner box that some computer peripheral came in) which I call “the hill”.  It is used for skiing and sledding bears and in the past I would store those bears in it for the rest of the year.  My brain started whirring.  I touched the box – definitely something in it – but hadn't I seen the big skiing bear in the Christmas boxes when I looked there?  I removed the teddy bears riding in a train setup on top of it (not winter – no skiing or sledding) and carefully turned it over, took it to my desk, and opened it.  YES!!  The missing bears.  See – I put them where it made sense – right in the village itself in a safe storage box that I have looked at every day since they were stored!  Today the bears in the box that made sense (and there was room for) and the musician bears for the summer concerts in the part were added to the village and the rest carefully stored in a marked box with the other storage boxes of bears for next time I need to use them.  Oh – and my husband was right about two things (not unusual for him) – I did not throw them out and I would find them.  

In the August 5 post (last week) I was talking about Hurricane Isaias – technically only a tropical storm when it hit this area.  I explained how lucky we had been to get back our electricity that evening.  Around here there are still people (8 days after the store) who still do not have electricity.  Supposedly they are all suppose to have their electricity back by “11:59 pm” tonight, Wednesday.  I am guessing that the tens of thousands still will not have their electricity back.    In addition to electricity people have been without and some still are, without their natural gas.  (Here is in run through underground pipes to areas were it is available and may be used by those using it for heating and/or hot water.  We did not lose same and only use it for hot water.)  Our local cable/Internet provider which also provides a good percent of landline telephone service, as well as our traditional telephone company which also provides all 3 services also do not have all of their customers back online yet.  The stories one hears about people who have special needs and are suppose to have service to be restored quickly – people with medical conditions and are still waiting are especially upsetting.  Also people have live lines down in their yards that as of yesterday (today's news will be out tomorrow of course) which is terribly dangerous.  One man found an electric company employee working on someone else's outage and asked the employee to shut off the live line down in his backyard (dangerous both for someone or an animal touching it and dying or it starting a fire) was told it was a question of flipping a switch, but the employee was not allowed without a work order to do so!  And this company was brought in (and seemed good as they are in a neighboring state) because the last company did such a terrible job during Hurricane Irene and Sandy!   I hope that any of you who were caught in Isaias also, did not lose your utilities for too long a time and did not have the circus we have had here.  

Now, as to actually dealing with clutter and disorder – I think I mentioned that back in March when we went through our pantry closet (actually 3 shelves in our kitchen closet) we found, among other items, a half gallon jar which had been filled with, per the lid) Bisquick.  This is a good item to have as so many items can be baked with it.  Problem was it was dated 2017!  We did not toss it out as back then food was hard to find in supermarkets – but we did not use it either.  In the interim we purchased new (smaller) packages of Bisquick.  My husband suggested yesterday that I should dump it out and put new Bisquick in it and then we can easily use same.  I pulled the jar out tonight and dumped it out, wiped it out and washed it.  While doing so I looked at what else was on that shelf – in the back.  I found out that I had 2 started containers of dried basil – I combined them and they are in the container which was in my spice cabinet.  I found we have more sugar than we thought.  Worcestershire sauce – almost a full bottle (well it is not something we use normally).  Part of a bottle of vinegar.  Interesting items to have and have available for use that we did not realize we had (or had so much of).  I might even get some of the items on the dining room table into the closet where they belong.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is important to remember that we are more resilient than we think we are.  Even those of who think we are weak can deal with and do amazing things when we have to.  Whether as trivial as missing inanimate “friends” or something as major as no utilities, somehow one can get through it.  When one thing after another hits us  - Covid 19, hurricanes, loss of utilities – we can get through it.  We take a deep breath and think about what to do to continue on and deal with the problem.  

I hope none of you were hit hard by Isaias.