lol, chaser:
āI had no idea we ate so muchā from people who ate out a lot before. That definitely includes me, though it wasnāt too hard to adjust to back when I ate ramen and veggies and the occasional meat meal that looked good in the frozen section. My roomie though went the extra step and pushed a bunch of vegan cooking on me.
There are functional ways of getting through this and there are the unsuccessful modes of: well, go back to eating like weāre broke, and when weāre bored of that and canāt find ramen packets anyway weāll finally learn how to cook. The vegan ingredient aisles have provided that welcome third mode of smugness.
CEO Elon Musk confirmed the news on Twitter on Monday, after photos of the plantās nearly full parking lot started making headlines. He said he was willing to be arrested if necessary. (Bay Area shelter-in-place orders, which multiple counties have imposed, are largely being enforced by warnings or citations.)
Alameda County says it is expecting Tesla to submit its safety plan for approval, and that until that approval the company cannot resume normal production. The county says it hopes Tesla, like other companies that previously violated the local order, will ācomply without further enforcement measures.ā
Hmm. I donāt cook vegan (love my dairy products among other things), but Iāve noticed that itās very difficult to find beans, rice, and flour. If I had a more discerning vegan eye, rigorously trained in the pre pandemic era, I might be able to locate substitutes, but Iām lost. Hopefully the yeast will not run out anytime soon. There was a shortage of baking powder.
I like my spices. My cabinet is kitted out with Indian spices, and in years past, Iāve frequented several sources to stock up on cardamom and coriander-- as buying 12 dollar jars does not suit my wallet.
Those places-- well Iām not sure that Iām being a good quarantinee when travel out that far.
I need to stop reading British cookbooks for inspiration. Took me a hell a long time to find schezuan peppers-- Iām sure the US specific trade restrictions didnāt help.
Asian groceries. H-Mart has been better stocked than anyone else around here. Because of course people canāt tell one landmass from another or that both those landmasses arenāt this one either.
All the ramen and twice the poky.
Journal of the Corona Year
5/11
Yesterday I went grocery shopping. Everyone there was wearing a mask and staying away from everyone else. It all seemed normal.
As I was selecting a few PiƱata apples I heard some coughing and sneezing behind me. It wasnāt subtle or restrained. It was coughing and sneezing with an air of nonchalance. And there was something about the sound. I could tell it was an āold guy.ā
I hoped he wasnāt someone trying to prove a political point. I hoped he wasnāt someone who had become unaware of the current reality.
I turned and looked. He was wearing a mask. It was a nice black cloth mask. So he was a combination of someone who intended to do the right thing, but at the same time was coughing and sneezing up a storm in the produce department.
I got my apples and got away from the area as quickly as possible. But, like so many things in life, he was a fate I could not evade. It seemed like wherever I went I could hear him coming.
Eventually I got in the extended check-out line. He was right in front of me, still coughing and sneezing. Marks on the floor indicated where I should stand to be 6 feet away. I stood 12 feet away. If anyone wanted to go ahead of me they were perfectly welcome to do so. No one took the opportunity.
I felt sorry for whoever had to check him out. Iām glad they had the plastic shields installed.
So if I come down with symptoms a week or so from now, I will know why.
Haircut update:
I must be getting used to it. It doesnāt look quite so horrific as it did on Saturday evening. Perhaps itās grown a millimeter or two. I find myself running my hand through it like Takashi Shimura in The Seven Samurai.
I wonder what lasting effect this quarantine will have on barbershops? People might get used to cutting their hair themselves. I have a feeling, now that I have this clipper, that with a bit of practice I would be able to achieve my normal haircut. Or maybe I will even grow to like this plague hairdo I have given myself.
It would certainly save me some time and money. Although I would miss the experience that is Astor Place Hair. I wonder what the older Italian fellow who regularly cuts my hair is doing? Among other pictures on his cluttered mirror, he has a black and white 8x10 of himself as a younger man in the 1980s giving a customer a spiked mohawk. He was rotund then too. Sometimes I would tip him more or sometimes less depending on how things were going, but he would never look as he slipped the money into his pocket. He has been cutting my hair since 2006. I inherited him from a younger Italian guy who got depressed and eventually disappeared.
Well, I could use a good 6 and half mile hike. And if thereās a promise of a relatively well stocked market at the half way point so much the better.
Work during Pandemic Day Whatever.
It happened.
I rolled out of bed, made coffee and a bowl of oatmeal and went down to my office to work.
Still in my pajama bottoms and the t-shirt I wore yesterday, Should have grabbed slippers as the basement is chilly.
I have managed to wear pants (well, shorts one day) and at least marginally clean up before logging on every other day.
I am trying to care today. But its not coming.
At least I havenāt spiked the coffee.
Iāve been surprised at how much more weāve been spending on groceries ā but I did the math for February vs. April, and overall weāre spending half as much on food now.
Also, I last bought gas on March 15. I drive a Prius, but even so I usually have to throw $15 into the gas tank every couple of weeks or so.
Laundry goes down. Dish washing goes up.
Laundry. And no onsite machines that work ā¦ good. I would be happy with good. I have to hike a few blocks to where the machines are shiny, take debit, and no one is allowed to hang out inside.
Same hereāfood delivery fees and tips add up. Last week I planned a pickup at a small local grocery, but the car battery was dead. I didnāt feel like dealing with that, so I called to change the pickup to a delivery, which added a fee. Guy at the store reassured me it wasnāt the first time heād seen that happen. Weāre also getting restaurant food more often (and adding things like salads for the next day) than we ever did beforeāin big part to keep the places alive. Again delivery fees add up. But Iām feeling like cooking less and less anyway, mainly due to anxiety and depression.
BTW, I did get the battery changed yesterday, about 30 minutes after calling. Amazing!
Yeah, Iāve been seeing an uptick on how often we are having food delivered or running out to pick something up.
Somewhat annoyed by this (as the freezer is FILLED with food) but trying to not let it get stuck in my craw.
I filled up my car in mid-February, and itās still got like half a tank. I started it yesterday, to move it to mow grass, and it almost didnāt start. The other person in the household does all the shopping, because (as he says) I ācatch every damn thingā. Itās not really true but I do tend to get the flu most years, whether I get the shot or not. He catches just as many colds/flus but he works right through them like itās some sort of masculinity test.
This is the same guy who almost didnāt go to the hospital after severing the tendon to his thumb, because he thought it would ājust be fineā. When he did go, he drove past the house, to drive himself 30 minutes to the ER, while bleeding the whole time, because he figured Iād āfreak outā. I am wholly un-surprised that men have a higher covid mortality than women.
We havenāt eaten food prepared outside our house, since late February. I guess if we had local delivery options, I might have, but in the sticks, weāre on our own. And, really, itās fine, I like to cook. But, I would really like to be able to pick my own produce, because he doesnāt have a handle on what looks good. He wants me to make a list, and we have had this conversation so many times. I donāt know what is best to buy, until I see which fruits and vegetables look the best. Iād rather have a fresh and beautiful surprise veg, than to have sad (sad) broccoli again.
Half as much?
or
Half again as much?
Right now I do all our shopping. I already do all the cooking, and 75% of the food prep. I solve the shopping problem by doing a quick movie as soon as I get in the store, just a slow scan across the produce and meat areas and texting it to the others with a message āsee anything you want me to buy?ā and load up the other stuff while they respond. It really cuts the complaining down to zero, because everybody feels like they have an input.
Itās not ideal, because it adds stress. I need to be concentrating on safety and making sure I get everything, not trying to juggle meal plans in my head. But having someone come with me to manage that adds a different set of problems. (Delivery groceries exist, but not really an option for us, because we have a large family and often go over the item limits with a once-weekly shopping trip. Which is legit, and easy in person, but hard with a delivery service.)
It doesnāt help that I have to drive to the store, and I hate driving, and I hate that I have to line some Russian oligarchās pockets by buying fuel so I can drive to the store.
Half as much. Before the pandemic, on workdays I often bought breakfast on the way to work, and almost always lunch at someplace near work, and then weād go out 3/4 of the time for dinner.
Now Iām eating breakfast and lunch at home, and maybe a couple dinners a week from are delivery stuff (and we tend to go for things that will have copious leftovers, like pizza or fried rice or pad thai).
Some habits are going to be different once Iām going back to the office to work againā¦