There are people in this world that eat to live, and those of us who live to eat. Big surprise that I am in the second catagory of people. I know you are shocked! The horror! Really, what gave me away? My Mom was a eat to live kind of gal-could never understand what all the excitement was about when you tasted something really good or different, going to a new restaurant, tickling the old taste buds. With the exception of chocolate and ice cream, she had few food vices...Me---I signed up for the Freshman 15 Program in College, the Post Pregancy 15-twice, the Menopause pooch 15 and those Holiday/Vacation 5vers. You know those, the 5 pounds that magically appear when you are on vacation or over the holidays, that you work on losing until the next holiday or vaca to remove...then repeat the cycle. I have eaten and lost several thin people in my 65 years. A couple of pause buttons happened in the last 7-8 years, cancer, and Harvey. The Cancer diet is not one I would like to repeat--it worked, scared the weight right off of me. The Harvey diet---20 pounds gone, with no exercise class, daily glasses of wine---a little less orthodox, but when you don't have a working kitchen and have to find a place to put things in an already crowded second floor, second floor steps that you climb 50 times a day, and manual labor to get your house back together, you learn to eat to live...and the weigh magically disappears. Well 2.5 years later, we are back downstairs with storage and a pandemic. Hmmm, guess I will pick up that extra bag of chips, snack food, chocolate and comfort food along with the toilet paper....just in case. So, I guess there will be a Corona Quarantine 15 in my future. I won't be alone. Did I mention that Eddie quit smoking on Feburary 12th? Can I tell you how many times he has attempt this? How many toes do I have? Hmm, need to borrow a couple of feet. But thanks to his cardiologist who was not impressed with Eddie's silver tongue excuses, he was scared straight...keep your fingers crossed that this sticks. Could not have been more timely as the CoVid19 seems to prey on those that smoke and have weak lungs. So, as we hunker down in our home, Eddie is climbing the walls, literally and figuratively. He is climbing the walls of my well stocked pantry...and bring out bowls of Dot's Pretzel. Discovered them while visiting sister Kathy...not your average $1 bag of pretzels-terribly addictive...with a $6 a bag price tag---we do have to ration them out...kinda like TP. Thanks, Kathy. All this brings me to what I did yesterday.
I have always been a little be of a hoarder, I mean, planner...not in the boxes and bags of stuff purchased that you don't use, or build mazes around in a home with kinda of horder, but thinking ahead, taking advantange of specials "planner". I am always on the look out for crafts, games, books to keep the grandkids busy when they visit. I call it "bottom feeding" at the clearance bins and Dollar Stores. I have always got a "bag of tricks” stashed at my house....hidden from plain sight, but ready if needed. Additionally, I always stock all the foods that they like (read: snack food, chocolate and strawberry milk, bag of donuts or two, ingredients to bake) and they were expected to be here over this weekend. So, my pantry was really full....adult and kid treats for weeks. This date was reserved in September when the Camp calendar was made for training in coming Counselors. Drew would be out of pocket from Friday until Sunday, so Lauren and the kids always come these weekends. Pickle World with heated pool, individual bedrooms, two extra set of hands and my "bag of tricks"...what is not to love. Camp is closed for the foreseeable future-so party of 5, yeah, we can accomodate you. Well, long story short...despite the fact that the kids have not been around other people for 14 days, Lauren has, and after consulting with numerous medical people in our wheel house, it was decided that there would be no visit---germs on little feet kind of thing. Kinda like the strep stuff when Lauren and George were small---one could be the carrier and not be sick and your whole house kept getting strep. Yeah, we have a merit badge of that one. I think they test everyone in the house now. What fun is that? So, on Friday, Lauren and I decided that I would gather the "bag of tricks" along with the 2 boxes of snack food to prevent the "spread" of our butts and waistlines and meet at a location halfway between Camp and our house...no kids, vinyl gloves, no touching. Yeah, doing our best to flatten the curve....medically and personally.
Lauren has been getting her food from curbside at HEB in College Station, lately. With lots of the A&M students gone, it is a pretty good place to get a time slot for an every 5-6 day food order....except HEB has adjusted their curbside selection to reflect our times...minimum selections...you can forget about fussing over this brand or that---organic or regular, gluten free, vegan friendly. HEB's own popularity has led to major empty shelves if you go inside, but Scott McClelland keeps explaining that they have gone to core selctions to simply the process...yeah, that is our new reality. However, those of us that "sleep" around-as in shop all the stores specials know that Kroger has been better stocked than HEB at the present time. Their online selection is broader, but you have to commit in a three day window...insider tip...Valley Ranch Kroger (and Walleyworld) has a good selection, and their times open up a little bit more than others. Lauren determined a rather new Kroger's along the 99 corridor, 8:00 AM Saturday morning would be our meeting place. Granted it was gray out, but the roads have never been so wide open. A trip that should have taken 40 minutes, was 24 minutes. When I arrived at the parking lot, with my gloves and ever so cute handmade mask, I waited for Lauren to complete her "in store" grocery run. She was gloved up and out of the store a little after 8:00. Since traffic was light, I was early. I sat in my car and observed. There were more men than women, no older people, no children, small or big, few cell phones for list (old fashion, disposable paper), gloves on everyone and lots of washing down the grocery cart with purcell wipes. As I sat in my car, I could not help feel a tad guilty for being out of my house. Always have been a rule follower, so this seem a little like "not coloring in the lines" for me. Was it my imagination, or was there a glare stare from those going back and forth---obviously my early morning look said "over 60-with pre-existing conditions"? With the road so clear, I came back via 45 and 1960-once again, few cars on the road...The airport runways visible from 1960 were empty. The Amazon warehouse, WalMart and other shipping facilities in that area were humming---The Indian Smoke Shop (yeah, as a former smoker, Eddie knows where that is) had a line around the building for the drive in window that extended on to 1960-Police were there to direct traffic at 8:30 in the morning! Most of the eateries were dark, with a 8x10 sign posted on the door. Could not read from my car, but we all know what they said. There is already lots of empty retail space along that 1960 corridor, when this is all over, I know there will be more.
So, I return home before Eddie was fully up...and ready for breakfast. I know that my trip out will provide hours of activites for the kids---a reminder that we love them...and hopefully, without the kids snacks, we can limit the Quarantine 15 to a 5ver. Will have to put "new bag of tricks" on my to-do list when this is over.
Be safe out there!
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