Friday, March 27, 2020

To Market To Market. Not So Fast....

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today, and here's how that looks-

Tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to the Five Minute Friday link up hosted by Kate Motaung and add your blog to the list. Don't forget to leave a comment for the writer linking before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do.

Today's prompt-adjust

I went to the grocery store yesterday.
Sounds simple and in simpler times it was, but I think we can agree these are not simple times.

These days our every routine action requires thought, restraint, and self-control. The most mundane tasks needing to be accomplished on an ordinary weekday can't be done without taking into account people and distance and how to get from point a to point b with as little human contact as possible.

So I sat and I thought. I made a two week meal plan as opposed to my normal one week shop. I knew  it would have to be tweaked depending on what's available on this particular Thursday in my local market, but having a plan to work from helps.

We take so much for granted don't we?
Will there be any rice on the shelf? Garlic? Meat? Who knows?

I made a list. I always make a list, but this one was well organized to avoid backtracking once inside the store. Getting in and getting out is the name of the game now. No handling the avocados to find one with the exact degree of ripeness I need, no lingering at the deli trying to make up my mind. In fact bypass the deli and for once buy the prepacked safety sealed lunch meat.

Before leaving home I took my card out of my wallet and zipped it in my jacket pocket. I could leave my purse at home, meaning one less thing to wipe down. Same goes for my rings. I needed to buy gas before I shopped so I rememebered to put some plastic bags in the car to cover my hand when I grab the nozzle.

Wearing a bag on your hand to pump gas doesn't look at all crazy in 2020. I toss the bag and put a dollop of hand sanitizer in my palm. The sanitizer we've always kept in the car for emergency hand 'washing', although I honestly cannot recall ever experiencing a true hand sanitizing emergency.

Pumping gas now qualifies.

I came home and took care with where I laid the bags. One counter only so I could spray it down later. I opened boxes and dumped the contents into my own bags and took the boxes to the garage to be recycled one day.

One day someday when our recycling resumes. They sort by hand so not happening since nobody wants to touch anything, not even a brand new empty cracker box.

I washed every bit of produce and disinfected the counter where the bags sat and it made me tired and a little bit sad. It all feels so extreme.

Small adjustments to slow the curve.

Everyone is being asked to adjust to a new normal these days. For some the adjustment is enormous. Scary sickness. A new way of working or perhaps not working at all. Educating small children. Teachers learning too. College students suddenly home and at loose ends.

We're retired and our children grown so how we'll accomplish work each day or teach modern math to a nine year old isn't an issue. What we're facing is mostly inconvenience, minor irritations, and small disappointments.

Still we miss normal life. We miss meeting friends for dinner out, not thinking twice about getting on an airplane, visiting my mom, sharing a church pew with a stranger.

Most of all we miss making plans. We're wired to look forward to what's next, but in this upside down season I'm learning to adjust my line of sight and see blessings in the now.

To embrace flexibility. Grow my patience. Be grateful.

13 comments:

  1. Well, I learned a lot here today and now I can make some adjustments. Don't take my purse, don't wear jewelry and put the credit card in my pocket...genius. Praying things get back to our normal again soon!

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  2. You've painted a good picture of your daily life in this era, but rest assured it will not continue forever, and I encourage you to still look forward to tomorrow.

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  3. I need to the hubs these tips since he is doing the errands and shopping since I’m pretty much confined to non-public places. One day we will all look back on these days and hopefully remember how they changed us.

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  4. Gosh... I haven't left my purse at home and I haven't repackaged food or sanitized the counters after shopping. I must revisit my actions today! I think we all feel the same about missing our old normal. Sigh.

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  5. The deli and fresh food counters in our supermarkets in the UK are shut so they can utilise the staff on other things. Shopping is a nightmare at the moment. You can't buy two weeks groceries because of the shortage of food. Online deliveries are not available until the middle of April - if you're lucky! Still smiling though. x

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  6. We are all hoping this new normal is not permanent. If people from even 6 months ago could have glimpsed at what we are doing now, they would be totally mystified.

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  7. The times were surely changing
    when the rats brought in the plague,
    but oddly, though, that ushered in
    Europe's Golden Age.
    When the tide of death abated,
    and hope again was sensed,
    dark ages thus were traded
    for a glorious Renaissance.
    Mankind has to place its store
    in what the Lord can do,
    and the nineteen-twenties roared
    beyond the Spanish Flu
    in the way that nature's imperfection
    is answered by faith's resurrection.

    #1 at FMF this week.

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  8. it's hard to make all the adjustments isn't it? visiting from FMF 31 today.

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  9. All the produce I bought recently was pre packaged. More expensive to buy it that way and I didn’t really need 6 green peppers, but safer I think. Stay safe!

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  10. This post was EVERYTHING. I thought life after Hurricane Michael was hard. This is another level of tough, that's for sure!!

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  11. Some good advice to be taken from your post Joyce. We have a supermarket scheduled for delivery next Friday. I'd planned ahead for what we might need until the next one nearly 2 weeks later as we are on lockdown and want to avoid shopping as much as possible. Yesterday I had to edit the order as they have placed a limit on the number of items on your order. I'll now be doing a checklist on what to do when it arrives based on your advice. Thank you. Lots of adjusting to do but we can get through this.

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  12. Yes, not making plans is tough!!! We are set on go to head to OK but just see no clearing to do that anytime soon. We shall perservere! Enjoyed this post!

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  13. It all sounds so familiar to me. We just did a grocery pick up. Mark picked them up. He unloaded them in the garage. He stripped down his clothes and put them in the washing machine. Then he went and took a shower. I went into the garage with a mask and gloves on, sanitized everything before we brought it in and then sanitized his shoes and the table in the garage. Similar to what you did we did with a food delivery. 2020 is definitely a year of history making.

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