Pandemic Ramblings
When was the last time I drove the car?
Last Saturday, taking Agatha to the vet - 9:15.
I got ONE tank of gas -- G and I both went to CostCo really early Sunday March 22nd. Tank still 3/4 full.
COFFEE?! eek.
The week of Spring Break, after APS classes had been canceled for April and UNM's break extended 2 weeks (total of 3 weeks!) ... and things started flying off shelves. And genuine worry set in for yours truly, we realized that we didn't have much coffee stashed. Gloria ordered some through CostCo online... we were worried that it wouldn't come at all. She eventually checked her order and realized that she had not finished submitting it?! Then somehow she managed to order it twice? It is whole bean, so the next challenge was hoping we could find our grinder. As it turns out, we have a nice one I don't even remember getting--which lets you hit the button once to grind enough for a pot. And it was right there in the cabinet next to the last of the beans.
TP, Paper towels, Cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer? Forget it!
We were just stupidly lucky about toilet paper. Had run out, and in the normal course of life, gotten a new big pack (which usually lasts us a month or 6 weeks?). And we didn't have tons, but 4 or 5 rolls of paper towels. Very short on rubbing alcohol. Had one container of Clorox wipes that are long gone. Were WAY too late to buy any hand sanitizer, although we did get aloe gel & had enough ingredients to make small quantities.
The next things we started missing were flour and chocolate. (See saga about Smith's below).
So far, ONE Smith's parking lot pickup for ourselves, and a week later, one for Sister & Abuelo.
ORDERING GROCERIES ONLINE
April 5th - Sunday afternoon. G spends 2 hours battling the Smith's shopping app. It was clunky. With odd list of things you could choose from. We had all kinds of issues. Then couldn't figure out how to edit the order. And stressed about whether or not to allow substitutions. It gave us a pickup date of Wed the 8th @7pm.
ABUELO'S FRIDGE DIES
April 7th - Sister called saying their old refrigerator was making terrible noises and no longer cooling anything. G got on the phone to Home Depot, but it was 5:30 and they now close at 6. Any of the smaller models are out of stock. By later that night, Maria remembered that they had gotten one for the travel trailer. So at 7am on Thursday, Chris Sandoval had brought it down from San Ysidro, and he and Sister (wearing masks and gloves) put it somewhere. And plugged it in.
SMITHS PICKUP
April 8th - As our pickup time drew near (finally!), then I stressed about what to actually do at Smiths! Turns out there are designated parking spots. You call the number on the sign when you arrive. We did. Okay--it's going great. Then they can't find our order?! I guess somehow Gloria signed up in such a way that it was under GM. Not Gloria, not Manzanares. Not Webb.
They wheeled out our stuff. I opened the back of the Subaru and they loaded things in. Huge happy things: Dove milk chocolates. Peanut M&Ms. A pound of butter. 4 bags of Kettle chips, various flavors. Half a gallon of 2nd tier vanilla ice cream. 2# of carrots. Some tomatoes. Some almond milk. (What else? What am I forgetting?)
No flour. No tortilla chips. No rotini. No cleaning supplies.
April 19th -- finally desperate for wine. Suited up & went to CostCo at 11:30 Sunday. It wasn't too crazy (until after noon when the booze crowd showed up...) Case of Malbec. 6 other misc. bottles. 50# All Purpose flour. OJ. Ice cream bars. Bag of Cuties. 2# tiny thin asparagus. 2 packages of smoked salmon. Tilamook Sharp and Xtra Sharp. 2# of Mozzarella and a huge chuck of Jarlsberg. Case of diced tomatoes and case of tomato paste. Huge box of dog biscuits. More butter. Huge box of wheat thins. Big bag of Terra chips. Noosa yogurt. 2 kinds of olive oil. More beyond burgers. Olive Garden salad dressing. Walnuts. Salt and Pepper pistachios. Fancy mixed nuts. Smokehouse almonds. PB filled pretzels. No skinny pizzas (other brands). No cleaning supplies. No wipes or alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. Paper towels - 1 per customer (should have gotten one for sister--didn't know).
On the whole, it was exciting to see so many things in stock. We felt very, very rich. Better prepared to keep going at home.
Flour. What to DO with it? No whole wheat flour to be found anywhere... G having trouble with the sourdough starter. And so we are short on leavening. Oh--got the big food-grade bin John Schatzberg gave us and put flour in that. We have a little bit of yeast, but it's old. (At some point, Dot calls Dions. They order us some, and we go get it Sat 25th. Along with slices for everyone. G makes wheat bread the next day. After a lot of head-scratching over equivalences.... ultimately, she thought it was not very nutty. Sweeter? More bland?
Last Saturday, taking Agatha to the vet - 9:15.
I got ONE tank of gas -- G and I both went to CostCo really early Sunday March 22nd. Tank still 3/4 full.
COFFEE?! eek.
The week of Spring Break, after APS classes had been canceled for April and UNM's break extended 2 weeks (total of 3 weeks!) ... and things started flying off shelves. And genuine worry set in for yours truly, we realized that we didn't have much coffee stashed. Gloria ordered some through CostCo online... we were worried that it wouldn't come at all. She eventually checked her order and realized that she had not finished submitting it?! Then somehow she managed to order it twice? It is whole bean, so the next challenge was hoping we could find our grinder. As it turns out, we have a nice one I don't even remember getting--which lets you hit the button once to grind enough for a pot. And it was right there in the cabinet next to the last of the beans.
TP, Paper towels, Cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer? Forget it!
We were just stupidly lucky about toilet paper. Had run out, and in the normal course of life, gotten a new big pack (which usually lasts us a month or 6 weeks?). And we didn't have tons, but 4 or 5 rolls of paper towels. Very short on rubbing alcohol. Had one container of Clorox wipes that are long gone. Were WAY too late to buy any hand sanitizer, although we did get aloe gel & had enough ingredients to make small quantities.
The next things we started missing were flour and chocolate. (See saga about Smith's below).
So far, ONE Smith's parking lot pickup for ourselves, and a week later, one for Sister & Abuelo.
ORDERING GROCERIES ONLINE
April 5th - Sunday afternoon. G spends 2 hours battling the Smith's shopping app. It was clunky. With odd list of things you could choose from. We had all kinds of issues. Then couldn't figure out how to edit the order. And stressed about whether or not to allow substitutions. It gave us a pickup date of Wed the 8th @7pm.
ABUELO'S FRIDGE DIES
April 7th - Sister called saying their old refrigerator was making terrible noises and no longer cooling anything. G got on the phone to Home Depot, but it was 5:30 and they now close at 6. Any of the smaller models are out of stock. By later that night, Maria remembered that they had gotten one for the travel trailer. So at 7am on Thursday, Chris Sandoval had brought it down from San Ysidro, and he and Sister (wearing masks and gloves) put it somewhere. And plugged it in.
SMITHS PICKUP
April 8th - As our pickup time drew near (finally!), then I stressed about what to actually do at Smiths! Turns out there are designated parking spots. You call the number on the sign when you arrive. We did. Okay--it's going great. Then they can't find our order?! I guess somehow Gloria signed up in such a way that it was under GM. Not Gloria, not Manzanares. Not Webb.
They wheeled out our stuff. I opened the back of the Subaru and they loaded things in. Huge happy things: Dove milk chocolates. Peanut M&Ms. A pound of butter. 4 bags of Kettle chips, various flavors. Half a gallon of 2nd tier vanilla ice cream. 2# of carrots. Some tomatoes. Some almond milk. (What else? What am I forgetting?)
No flour. No tortilla chips. No rotini. No cleaning supplies.
April 19th -- finally desperate for wine. Suited up & went to CostCo at 11:30 Sunday. It wasn't too crazy (until after noon when the booze crowd showed up...) Case of Malbec. 6 other misc. bottles. 50# All Purpose flour. OJ. Ice cream bars. Bag of Cuties. 2# tiny thin asparagus. 2 packages of smoked salmon. Tilamook Sharp and Xtra Sharp. 2# of Mozzarella and a huge chuck of Jarlsberg. Case of diced tomatoes and case of tomato paste. Huge box of dog biscuits. More butter. Huge box of wheat thins. Big bag of Terra chips. Noosa yogurt. 2 kinds of olive oil. More beyond burgers. Olive Garden salad dressing. Walnuts. Salt and Pepper pistachios. Fancy mixed nuts. Smokehouse almonds. PB filled pretzels. No skinny pizzas (other brands). No cleaning supplies. No wipes or alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. Paper towels - 1 per customer (should have gotten one for sister--didn't know).
On the whole, it was exciting to see so many things in stock. We felt very, very rich. Better prepared to keep going at home.
Flour. What to DO with it? No whole wheat flour to be found anywhere... G having trouble with the sourdough starter. And so we are short on leavening. Oh--got the big food-grade bin John Schatzberg gave us and put flour in that. We have a little bit of yeast, but it's old. (At some point, Dot calls Dions. They order us some, and we go get it Sat 25th. Along with slices for everyone. G makes wheat bread the next day. After a lot of head-scratching over equivalences.... ultimately, she thought it was not very nutty. Sweeter? More bland?
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