Monday In The New World Of Coronavirus – March 16, 2020

A dreary morning, but up comes a crocus. Little rabbit statues remind me of Laura’s bunny hunting bassets, and the fun we missed on Saturday.

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Well, I thought shopping was pretty intense on Friday, but today things went to a new level. Harry was up and quite independent, considering he must still hop around on the walker, so I went off to recycling and then in to St. Louis to shop at Whole Foods, and at Schnucks. The panic is beginning to affect me. I called Aqua Systems, the company from which we buy Mountain Valley drinking water, to see if they are still delivering, and they said that they are today, but they can’t predict what will happen. So that meant I felt compelled to travel all the way in to Hanley to pick up water, in case they are no longer delivering on March 26, their next time out this way.

I had lists of things to buy for Jane and Peter. Nothing went smoothly, of course. It’s a Monday during the coronavirus pandemic.

Whole Foods food court area was deserted, though there were plenty of shoppers. The shelves were not bare, but many things were unavailable. In particular, chicken was all gone, as was short grain brown rice (both things on my list).

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Peter needed three Thirty Packs of beer (yes, 90 cans of beer) for which I went to Schnucks. It was pretty embarrassing having a shopping cart full of beer, particularly since I am not drinking at all while a caregiver (the nightly Xanax makes up for that). Most people had staples like pasta, ramen noodles, and other sensible things. Schnucks did have chicken, but was very low on soups, and was incredibly busy, with long lines at checkout. By the time I got there, I was getting very anxious about Harry. He didn’t answer when I called, and texted. I was just about to call Jane to check on him, when he noticed his phone. He had turned it off overnight, and I hadn’t thought to make sure it was on before I left. He called me in the nick of time, and averted the embarrassment of having Jane come over to see if he had fallen and couldn’t get up!

The woman in front of me in line at Schnucks was at her 5th Schnucks of the day. She said some the stores to the south were pretty bare. This one was not so bad, but I expect it was different by the end of the afternoon, judging from what I witnessed. And I heard that in Wentzville the eggs and flour were sold out! Luckily, at Whole Foods they were still available.

The water mission was accomplished without incident, just heavy traffic in the rain, which was no fun. Drop off on the doorstep at Peter’s went smoothly, and Mary Durham called from Texas while I was driving home, which made the return seem shorter.

Poor Harry was half starved by the time I got home. We had lunch before I even finished unloading groceries, and just as we finished, the Collettes came by with onion soup and warm scones, so dessert was easy – Janis’ wonderful scones! Soup for supper on this dreary day, was most welcome, too.

Then, I am sorry to report, the intensity of the shopping experience gave me PTSD and I was horrible to Harry, bitchy and full of anxiety. Luckily, he has had decades of practice with my behavior, and he forgave me (Weedy’s consolation helped).

And speaking of Weedy, he had a long afternoon adventure, and came home muddy and exhausted. Harry loves watching his travels via the GPS tracker collar. His adventures, like everything lately, just makes me anxious.

The horses endured another boring paddock day of rain, and were happy to come in to their stalls. All of the animals are well, so far, despite the craziness in the human world around them. We are so lucky to have their calming presence in our life here. And their animal joy, which is not shadowed by worry at all, and is contagious, helps to distract us from the news, which is all worrisome. Tending to the animals structures the days, too, in a reassuring manner. Of course, Marianne still does the real work in the barn, freeing me to help Harry and to run errands. We are so grateful to her, and she is always pleasant, never intense and fraught like I tend to be. And I get to do the easy and fun parts, bringing them in, feeding, and turning out.

Jane came by with yet another item from Walgreen’s I had to ask her to pick up (I forgot to write it on my list). One thing that was unavailable everywhere was a thermometer. I was looking for one for Jane without success, and she tried six stores herself!

Late this evening, Rebecca dropped off some eggs, the kind that cannot be bought in any store, fresh from beneath her chickens. Her friendship is so genuine and generous it is astounding.

So that’s another day done. The Meyer lemon is blooming with no fear of coronavirus, and filling the air with its beautiful scent, reminding us that life doesn’t really care about much of these worries our species is concerned with these days. It will eventually give us lemons, from which we can make lemonade.