Cellar Scribblings

[Jeff Wrangler]

They go out for grocery shopping way too often.

You almost have to do that here, not for entertainment but because you can't depend on what the store will have on any given day. That was the case when I last went: No bread or paper goods, but some eggs and plenty of butter. I didn't check the milk because I don't buy milk in the supermarket. The stock of meat was really low, but there were plenty of cold cuts, hot dogs, and so forth. One day last week I got the last can of tomato soup in the store, but the other day the soups were fairly well stocked. Pasta was a mixed bag, plenty of spaghetti but low on other "shapes" (e.g., rotini). You get the picture.

And the supermarket is the one place I'm around a lot of people. With businesses closed, there are very few people on the streets in my Center City neighborhood.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends.

TGIF to you all.

Hope that you all are keeping your spirits up, and talking with people when you can.

I don't know anybody who has, to my knowledge. If you don't include Amy Klobuchar's husband, who of course I don't know personally.

I haven't seen anybody mention on FB or Twitter having tested positive.

I haven't seen any new people I know saying they've tested positive, but I was very surprised to see those messages in text and on FB.   

There you go:
  one for Chuckie
  ……. for everybody checking in.

Hiya Chrissi!  Here's some kisses back!   

That's good to hear.
My in-laws are both over 80 but apparently not as careful as they should be. They go out for grocery shopping way too often, since this is now their main entertainment.

Thankfully, my parents are only going out to shop when more food is needed.  The grocery stores here seem to be implementing "eldery hours", meaning that for the first 90 minutes of business, you can only come in and shop if you are 65 years old or older.  This ensures that those in need are able to come and get the supplies they need.

You almost have to do that here, not for entertainment but because you can't depend on what the store will have on any given day. That was the case when I last went: No bread or paper goods, but some eggs and plenty of butter. I didn't check the milk because I don't buy milk in the supermarket. The stock of meat was really low, but there were plenty of cold cuts, hot dogs, and so forth. One day last week I got the last can of tomato soup in the store, but the other day the soups were fairly well stocked. Pasta was a mixed bag, plenty of spaghetti but low on other "shapes" (e.g., rotini). You get the picture.

And the supermarket is the one place I'm around a lot of people. With businesses closed, there are very few people on the streets in my Center City neighborhood.

Yeah, some things are still out of stock at stores.  I went to CVS the other day, and on a lark, went passed the cold and flu section, and most of those meds were gone.  I did see that some of the immunity-booster stuff was back in stock, so I picked up two different bottles of that, as the one bottle I had is near empty.

[brianr]

I plan to go to the supermarket next Monday. I have not been since the Wednesday before last. However the only things I think will be close to running out of are milk, bread and wine  . I will however stock up to replace things I have used.  While I understand, I am disappointed the Farmers Market will be closed on Saturday (today). I went last Saturday and, as usual, bought eggs, meat, fruit and vegetables, cakes and pies. I was not able to buy spanakopita as the elderly Lebanese lady was not there, I guess for good reason. I think I have one left in the refrigerator. It will be strange to buy those sort of things in the supermarket. The only fruit I buy in the supermarket are bananas and mandarins, occasionally rock melon(cantaloupe to you) and I rarely buy meat there, never eggs or ham.

[Penthesilea]

You almost have to do that here, not for entertainment but because you can't depend on what the store will have on any given day.

Yes, it's the same here. The most notorious item being toilet paper, lol.
Still, knowing my in-laws, they will always have some food in a pantry, as do most households. They don't have to go hungry just because they're out of eggs, for example. If they're out of eggs, they can decide to be flexible and cook meals that don't require eggs for a couple of days, until it's time for another grocery trip anyway. Or they can decide to run an extra errand, just for this one item. And that's what they do. They go out grocery shopping more often now than they do normally.

[brianr]

Apparently the big shortage now here is flour as people are home baking. I have never baked anything in my life so no problem for me.  I stewed and froze some rhubarb from my garden yesterday, that is testing my culinary abilities.

[serious crayons]

I stewed and froze some rhubarb from my garden yesterday, that is testing my culinary abilities.

I once had rhubarb in my garden and used to make strawberry rhubarb pie and these fantastic rhubarb bars that everybody loved.

But I'm not the one buying up all the flour. I don't bake anymore, mainly because I don't want to eat a bunch of cookies or rhubarb bars or whatever the thing would be.

Every Christmas, I think about, but don't get around to, making these delightful cheese straws I used to make. They're unlike most cheese straws -- for one thing, they're not straw-shaped -- and I've misplaced the recipe I had for them (so old it was typed on a dot-matrix printer). They were like shortbread, except for instead of sweet their flavor was spicy cheddar.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends.

I hope everyone is doing well, or as well as can be expected.

I've been doing small chores during the week while I work, so today I decided to do a full "Spring Cleaning".

I moved all the furniture and dusted and vacuumed behind it, I took the curtains off the windows, I took down the blinds and soaked them in the tub to get the dust off them, and I took all the (insert the word of your choosing) collectibles, knickknacks, tchotchkes off the shelves, cleaned them off, and dusted the shelves.  While I had the curtains and blinds down, I cleaned the inside and outside of the windows.

I ended up giving a total cleaning to the bedroom and living room, and some cleaning to the kitchen.

At one point we also went to my niece's home, and practiced social distancing.  LOL   Shana's son, (my grand nephew, Trenton) had a school fundraiser a while ago, and we (mom & I) bought some of the Gertrude Hawke chocolates they were selling.  They were sent to Shana's home.

Since we won't be seeing them for Easter, we took all the stuff we had planned to give Trenton for Easter to their home today.  We dropped it off on the porch, texted Shana, and she and Trenton came down to pick it up, and to give us our candy.   Of course, we stayed the six-feet away, so there were no hugs or kisses.  That's ok, it was good just to see them.

By the time we got home, Shana had already posted pics of Trenton opening his goodies, so we were able to see them on Facebook.

[Penthesilea]

At one point we also went to my niece's home, and practiced social distancing.  LOL   Shana's son, (my grand nephew, Trenton) had a school fundraiser a while ago, and we (mom & I) bought some of the Gertrude Hawke chocolates they were selling.  They were sent to Shana's home.

Since we won't be seeing them for Easter, we took all the stuff we had planned to give Trenton for Easter to their home today.  We dropped it off on the porch, texted Shana, and she and Trenton came down to pick it up, and to give us our candy.   Of course, we stayed the six-feet away, so there were no hugs or kisses.  That's ok, it was good just to see them.

By the time we got home, Shana had already posted pics of Trenton opening his goodies, so we were able to see them on Facebook.

That is lovely, you found a good way to do this.
I will sure miss our extended families this Easter.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I've been doing small chores during the week while I work, so today I decided to do a full "Spring Cleaning".

I moved all the furniture and dusted and vacuumed behind it, I took the curtains off the windows, I took down the blinds and soaked them in the tub to get the dust off them, and I took all the (insert the word of your choosing) collectibles, knickknacks, tchotchkes off the shelves, cleaned them off, and dusted the shelves.  While I had the curtains and blinds down, I cleaned the inside and outside of the windows.

I ended up giving a total cleaning to the bedroom and living room, and some cleaning to the kitchen.

You would make somebody an awfully good housewife. Or at least housekeeper.

[serious crayons]

I moved all the furniture and dusted and vacuumed behind it, I took the curtains off the windows, I took down the blinds and soaked them in the tub to get the dust off them, and I took all the (insert the word of your choosing) collectibles, knickknacks, tchotchkes off the shelves, cleaned them off, and dusted the shelves.  While I had the curtains and blinds down, I cleaned the inside and outside of the windows.

I ended up giving a total cleaning to the bedroom and living room, and some cleaning to the kitchen.

Wow, very thorough and impressive! I'm going to go through some kitchen drawers and cupboards today, throw out unneeded stuff and clean out the mouse poop. 

Even more excitingly, I got a new vacuum! It replaces the klunky old semi-effective Dyson. It's light, thin, agile, cordless and has really good suction. Easy to store neatly, has two attachments. I have a dog and spring is shedding season, so I really need it. Most of my floors are wood, but this works equally well on any surface.

I already had a handheld one, which is pretty effective for small areas. But the Dyson upright has never been very good. I've had to take it into a vacuum repair shop a few times, during which time it switched owners, and both of them have chastised me for having a Dyson. Of course their shop sells vacuums with four-figure prices, which I would never buy. But they say Dysons are bad compared to similarly priced brands (my new one is a Shark). People think Dysons are good. Apparently they just have really effective commercials.

Partly because of Dyson's British accent. Americans think that signifies integrity of some kind. I have a former editor from England, and I've told him that when applying for jobs I'd use him as a reference because then I'd get the job for sure.