Contraband
If you live in a Muslim state there are multiple dietary restrictions. Well, you don’t find ingredients in the grocery that I once took for granted. Soy sauce! The Filipinos don’t use the type I use. Trust me, it’s very different than what I get in NY. There is no bacon or ham – no pork is eaten in Muslim culture. My departure from Jeddah was more rushed than planned. I gave away a lot of groceries to the Filipino nurses who had befriended me. I hope they like bacon. How do you get it into the country. You put it in your luggage and hope the Saudi inspectors don’t squawk. And I got caught! They triumphantly held up my bottle of soy sauce from my bag. Wine?! Alcohol!? Nope, soy sauce, ha ha, the look of abject failure was obvious as I snatched back the bottle from the Saudi cop. He missed the bacon. It doesn’t show up on x-ray. Yes, my home appliances were given to the nurses too. Ok, I take pictures of everything? My pantry? Ha ha, yes. Imagine that, portrait of a package of bacon.
Travelogue
Why do we travel? To get away from our own everyday routine. See something new and different. And while we are gone we seek out familiar things from home. Dinner in a Chinese restaurant… in Scotland: the food looks familiar; the dinners eat with fork and spoon, or knife; the grocery carries mustard, mayo, and Spam!; a picture to match the post card. Yes, you can go to dinner wearing a genuine Harris tweed vest. Travel is about same and, not. We have not been able to travel in a couple years – Covid. The world will be upside down a bit longer. A couple years back right at this time we were here!? It seems so long ago. So much has changed. Don’t worry, my dear, we will be back.
A year ago
3/11/21 – this year, designated the “one year anniversary”
57 million vaccinated – have had one shot or more
Vaccine – an actual one was developed in less than a year
Speech – a national address by our (real) leader on the 1st anniversary. trump???? who????
Covid relief American rescue package – it passed. Not a single republican voted for it. Traitors.
Eve of 2nd shot – I got mine the next day.
“If somebody said ‘N95’ to you one year ago, you’d think they were a bingo caller.” — JIMMY KIMMEL
They talk about a year ago. 3/11/20. Anniversary of corona. Where were you? Memorable? No, it just came and went as an ordinary day. I can note it/did note it, because I have a photo diary. The news and late night shows were full of the “anniversary.” The “event” (last year) was marked by the shutdown of Delaware by the governor. For us it was the evening/night of 3/16/20. All business was shut. A year later, the library opened for the first time. We did a little victory dance. Anniversary Day +1 is my second shot. I’m old. For most the first shot is months away. For others, they will be foolish, ignore the science, and decline the vaccine. What a world? What a time? The “former guy” is out of office. Sanity, truth, and science have returned. If you commit a crime, you do not get a free pass – see Gov Cuomo. Yeah, it’s been a hell of a f’n year!
What were/where were you? We learned to make Nantucket baskets and ate Thai as they announced all business was closed. The flowers were in bloom. (Not yet this year.) I was in my fake flowers/vases phase. Colleen made a “Giovanni” burger for me. The groceries were suddenly without TP! Toilet paper!?!? Patch was sleeping soundly through it all on our bed. It’s not an anniversary. That would impart more of a celebration. This was more like – “yeah, I was there. Ain’t it amazing when you look back?” Life, as we knew it, changed right afterward.
Over! Done!
Yeah! Right! No!!! But it surely feels different. For the very first time since the TP shortage of 2020! We turned the aisle in our supermarket – the entire aisle was stocked again! Yeah, you could fall down laughing. Normal! There was hand sanitizer in three places! Three choices, all for good money. There’s sanitizer for your fruits and veggies. Ok! Get a grip! It’s good to find that supply has exceeded demand. Never in my wildest nightmares did I ever think I would be celebrating the return of TP to my local market. It could all go south. But, for now, I feel like we turned a corner.
Still hoarding
… after all these months. I liken it to Paul Simon’s – Still Crazy After All These Years… hum it, if you know it. I still buy TP whenever I see it. Who knows when you’ll see it again. The shelves remain empty except when they are not. Bastards! I buy at any price. At some point we’ll learn the scandal behind the shortage. No yeast, either. Get it if you can. Do you read labels? The drink pictured here is flavored water with vitamins. Little Hug Fruit Barrels. Just vitamin water. 8 ounces, artificially flavored. Ah! The power of advertising! Why the empty shelves? Empty makes the demand greater or is it the other way ‘round?
Note: When I composed this post months ago, we seemed in dire straits. The shortages are less now. There is no real normal as every excursion is done with caution. We eat out rarely. We cook. Colleen has become semi-vegetarian once more. I cannot say good or bad. Different.
What’s in your grocery
Are there so few photo ops these days…” Am I food obsessed… do I live to eat? Fascinated? Curious? Nosey? It’s interesting. I don’t/wouldn’t carry my big old DSLR into a grocery. I am above using iPhone for my pics. Camera snob, that would be me. So, it’s a point and shoot. No so much a toy any longer, they are quite sophisticated and damn good. I always thought that big glass (lens) made for a better image. Nope. And so, I pull the camera from my pocket and surreptitiously shoot. I got the shot. Do/did you? No need to be too obvious.
Oh, a shout out to Barber stuffed raw chicken. It’s good. I don’t say that about frozen food. I don’t eat frozen. Why? Snob as much as anything. We have access to fresh. No frozen. Not pizza! Ever! Ha! We buy frozen cauliflower pizza all the time now. My point? You can’t find Barber for love of money since I got this one time shot.
It will be two months before this post is published. I’m wondering out loud how it all evolved. Will there be TP once more? Can I go to the grocery without trepidation and feeling like it’s threatening to my life? I predict not much will have changed. … and what the hell are all the TP manufacturers doing? Supply, demand, and profit? Gas was $1.71 yesterday (two months back).
– gas is now $2.23. Toilet paper came back. And, just now, yeast appeared on the shelves. The great Amazon could not deliver in all that four months.
Panic buying
I don’t want to call it hoarding. We ordinarily have bottled water on hand. It’s not for me. The cats throw up from the chlorine in tap water. And the coffee maker will sludge up from the minerals. So, we use distilled. Hey! It’s not me. I don’t drink coffee. TP? Why has everyone bought it up? The shelves are bare since lockdown began. We’re not out. We are flush. (Sorry.) I buy it anytime I see it. So far, we are a long way from resorting to Plan B. But, why? It’s all a fat hoax! And, I live in a Republican county. Did thy not believe in the “fearless leader,” and they bought anyway. It’s like they put their money on/where their…. I hope it’s over soon. I got no where to put all the extra TP we’ve been buying.
Eating out
I would alternatively title this post – “GLOP!” We can’t eat in restaurants. They are closed. Corona. I say that a lot these days. They ask if we are fatigued, and, I say better fatigue than the alternative. Eating out? Well, we lived out there on the edge. Frozen food, it’s the closest to something you don’t otherwise eat. Something new and different! Dispel the boredom! Eh! My cookin’ is OK but sometimes you want something out of the ordinary. This was a testimony to food photography! Yes, the picture was way better than the awful product inside. Let me give a shout out to Nestle. They made eating a hot pocket into something I shall never do again. Can you say thick crust and no chicken? Awful!!! And the stuffed shells? Can you say rip-off? The package was heavy enough to completely deceive me. See the picture? Well, there were three small shells in the box. The rest was sauce. Bang for you buck? Hardly! If I paid 25 cents like I did in high school for a cafeteria lunch, then this combined glop might have been appreciated. Since we paid $$ for it, it was memorably awful! If you eat out in the frozen food section of your grocer, you might be attracted to the pictures. And, sometimes you are duly rewarded for being stupid enough to drawn in by a pretty picture.
Grocery
It’s not always empty. There are people about. The shelves are not bare. There are. But not every aisle sold out. Things I find are spontaneous purchase. A few things are planned. Mostly it is food association. We associate food to my appetite. I have discovered the frozen food aisle. Who knew you could photograph so much appetizing food to appeal to your imagination? The picture is usually better. But I have to give a shout out to Barber raw stuffed chicken breasts. Get ‘em. They were good. We can’t find them again.
The last time…oops
It looks like I have already published this post a few days ago. We’ve been kind of distracted. I didn’t notice my error till now. Oh well, stuff happens.
The last time… we ate out, we had dinner guests, our house was clean. Well, now might be the time to look back. Ha ha! I compose posts long before published. I am trying to stick to the one/day rule Jules imposed. This is/was being written in early May. Poignant! Literally the day/same evening we ate our last meal out as DE closed all restaurants.
We only clean up when we invite dinner guests. This was the last clean up before Jen and Mike came for St Pat’s corned beef. And the very next day… no toilet paper to be had. It’s been a while. No, no, no, there’s a new normal. Little did I know. Our house will not be tidy again, for a long long time. It’s a good thing. I do so love my life and my wife. Eh? What did I say? … I can’t remember when I last saw TP on the shelves! … and I love my wife.
The last time
The last time… we ate out, we had dinner guests, our house was clean. Well, now might be the time to look back. Ha ha! I compose posts long before published. I am trying to stick to the one/day rule Jules imposed. This is/was being written in early May. Poignant! Literally the day/same evening we ate our last meal out as DE closed all restaurants.
We only clean up when we invite dinner guests. We have not seen uncluttered tables in quite some time. This was the last clean up before Jen and Mike came for St Pat’s corned beef.
And the very next day… no toilet paper to be had. It’s been a while. No, no, no, there’s a new normal. Little did I know. Our house will not be tidy again, for a long long time. It’s a good thing. I do so love my life and my wife. Eh? What did I say? … I can’t remember when I last saw TP on the shelves! … and I love my wife.
Forlorn
After the initial run – on water and toilet paper – it seems that the gods laughed. It couldn’t be the Republicans. It was all a hoax to them… Indeed, it was science fiction of my youth. You know, the disbelieving folks, laughing, till the monster ate their car. Folks were out and about in at least six states completely in denial as I write this about a couple month before posting. By now, I hope there is free access to TP. Come to think of it, maybe the Republicans made this sh*t up? Nah? It was short people. The last rolls were on the top shelf. Water? My cats throw up when they drink tap water. Dunno? So, we had to find bottled water. Crazy. Yup.
(Note: Meat, or, TP. YOU, choose. It ain’t over by a long shot. People are out and about. Armed protesters have been encouraged by our fearless leadership to stand in state capitals. What the f’k are you worried about. Remember when Bush Sr said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” No, it was Clinton’s campaign who coined the phrase against one term President Bush. It ain’t over and it’s not better. At all! Be afraid. Be….)
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