Staff of Life

When we last went to the grocery store a week ago were quite restrained, considering we were buying for ourselves for an indeterminate period of time and Dana and Jim for a two week quarantine period (but who knew what that meant?) We were restrained. We bought no toilet paper, no hand sanitizer, no pasta or canned foods. We have eaten well for a week and not felt in the least deprived. Now we're starting to run out of a few essential things like bread and fresh veggies. 

We thought we'd order groceries from Amazon, but when we checked into the website there were no available delivery times today. For now we have three choices:
   1) try again tomorrow
   2) brave the 6am senior shopping hour
   3) start working on some 'creative' meals. We still have plenty of things to keep us from starvation. They just might be a little weird. 

Through inertia and boredom we have let #3 be the choice, so I bestirred myself to make bread. The yeast expired in 2018, so it didn't rise too well but a reasonably tasty, if slightly over browned loaf was eventually produced. It is good enough that I decided to leave my trusty blue mixer out on the counter for the duration. Homemade bread can be quite  a treat if we don't eat the entire loaf in one sitting....with any luck there won't have been a run on yeast before I find a way to get some.

Blipper Barrioboy, who lives in Barcelona,  has suggested that if we want to keep ahead of the Coronavirus curve, we should not even go outside for any but the most essential needs. The New York Times put out a whole special section with answers to questions about the virus (as if there is anything we don't know about it yet by now) and the steps being taken to date. It says that we should by all means get out and get exercise and fresh air as long as we maintain proper social distancing. It seems that in some of the harder hit places, isolation and lockdowns were not instituted until it was too late. Now it is a matter of 'flattening the curve' rather than eradicating it. That won't happen until there is an effective vaccine, which will take at least a year, assuming one of the more promising trials is successful. I'm inclined to agree with Barrioboy, that we must stay home not only for ourselves but for the entire global community. It only took two weeks to spread unchecked across the world. Getting Ozzie out for his very short walk down the driveway and along the street for a few hundred yards is however definitely essential. 

Two turns up the stairs, across the top terrace, down the other stairs and back to the starting point is 1,000 steps....

I was just about to do that when there was an almighty clap of thunder, still rumbling around the hills as I write...a stern warning from Mother Nature that we'd better pay attention....

Here  is something that made me laugh out loud today. Hope nobody is offended...I spent far too much time on Facebook today...it won't happen again