Yesterday, I got up at 5am, left my house at 6am, and traveled to Morehead, Kentucky, to go to WalMart and Kroger for a long list of the items my wife and I are likely to need in the next month. I suspect that what I came home with will not last for a month but I have never seen the time when I got as much time out of my store purchases as I wanted so this is no surprise. WalMart and Kroger now open at 7am. Kroger advertises that they are devoting the first hour of business to senior citizens only in order to make it easier on them to shop in the crisis which Corona Virus has caused. WalMart does not do the same. But most of the items on my list were intended to be from WalMart so I chose to go there first. I was sitting in the parking lot at WalMart about 15 minutes before the store opened with what became about a dozen other people most of whom appeared to be older than dirt. I listened to reruns from WSGS Radio's "Faron and Scott Show" which they now run all night long and it also appears they have placed the station on some form of autopilot with either a satellite radio service or having an employee come in now and then to load several hours of recordings. As I waited, a few more cars showed up until that dozen or so others were also there when the doors opened.
I had tried to be prepared for the possibility that a Corona Virus carrier might have touched something I was about to touch or even buy. I took several medical grade gloves with me which we have used for quite a few years due to my wife's ongoing medical history. First I went to the store bathroom, used it standing up without touching a single thing in the room, walked to the shopping carts, put on a pair of gloves and grabbed the cart. The usual dispenser for disinfectant wipes was empty at that time of the morning so I could not wipe the cart which I have been doing in stores lately. I realized I had not stuck a pen in pocket with my list and was actually able to borrow a pen from the checker who was manning the only live checkout aisle. I went first to the paper goods aisle since I was aware that there has been an insane run on toilet paper in the age of Corona. I was able to find a few smaller packages of toilet paper and none of the king size packages with 24 or more rolls which I have been buying for years. I also grabbed two large and two small bottles of Clorox since we use it for all cleaning and Candice, with her manual dexterity issues, likes the smaller bottles in the kitchen. For many years, I have used the following expression when buying non-perishable items for the house: "It won't rot and it won't rust." So, I usually buy the largest package of these things which a store sells. Every room in my house has at least one closet with large ones in both the family room and the bathroom, which is a converted bedroom. I also have a large basement. I can store anything if I can afford to buy it. But the catch was that in the age of Corona there was almost nothing to buy. Luckily, I had bought several cases of canned vegetables a couple of weeks ago when the outbreak first started and I was only looking for a few specific food items.
I grabbed toilet paper, the smaller size, and an equally small package of paper towels and headed across the store to the pet food section since we have four cats, three of which are both indoor and outdoor cats. The fourth is thirteen years old and has never been outdoors since she was about six months old. I needed cat food and cat litter which I buy in the large sizes always. I was able to grab two large plastic buckets of cat litter and the cat food shelves were nearly bare. There were no large bags of any kind of cat food. They were also totally out of Purina which I always buy since it is higher quality and, after a lifetime of feeding cats, dogs, and horses, I am an expert on animal feeds. So, as a fail safe if I ran out, I grabbed a three pound bag of an off brand cat food and headed to the pharmacy area to search for baby wipes, rubber gloves, and alcohol which we always use because of Candice's health issues. I actually found rubber gloves, grabbed two boxes, a can of shaving cream, and a large bottle of hand washing solution which I was amazed they had. They were out of alcohol and I asked a female employee who was nearby if it could be anywhere else. We searched and found none. Apparently, there has also been a run on alcohol. Later, after I got home, I called a Dollar General store about three miles from my house and the manager told me he didn't have any alcohol either unless it was on a truck they were unloading. He said, "I will know if I have it tomorrow when we get this truck all stocked."
Then I went back to the grocery aisle to pick up a few things there including Rotel tomatoes, coconut milk, canned nuts, string cheese, and a few other items. The shelves appeared as if a plague of locusts had descended on them just after the plagues of frogs, flies, and wild animals had left. One woman spoke out near me that they were out of canned milk. They were also out of canned fruit, tomato juice, pasta, and flour, all of which I needed. A male employee who was pulling items for the lazy and overly fearful pick up crowd struck up a conversation and actually went to get me a second cart since the toilet, paper, paper towels, and cat litter had nearly filled the one I was using. From there, I went to the produce aisle pulling one cart and pushing the other. Unlike most areas of the store, the produce section was well stocked. I grabbed potatoes, mandarins, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, blueberries, cauliflower, and bananas. Close to me, I saw a young woman grabbing about a half dozen large packages of blueberries and I smiled at her and said, "you must really love blueberries. I love them too but I can't eat that many." She replied, "I'm shopping for a lot of people." I am now afraid that a run is developing on blueberries. I went to the same checkout lane where the checker had loaned me a pen. I offered to return it and, in the age of Corona, she said "just keep it" which came in handy when I got to Kroger. She told me there was one bottle limit on Clorox and gazed askance at the two boxes of medical gloves. I said, "my wife has been in a wheelchair for twenty years and we use those things all the time for her medical issues." She let me keep three of the Clorox and the medical gloves. My ticket came to $303.00. As I started to leave, a manager asked if I needed someone to help me get it to the van. I declined since I am still perfectly capable of driving two shopping carts at the same time. I loaded everything in my van and put the refrigerated items in my large ice chest which I have kept in the van for years since I live thirty miles from all large stores like WalMart and Kroger. I got in, stripped off my gloves, dropped them in the van floor, and headed to Kroger. I was out of WalMart in an hour.
I got to Kroger a bit after 8am and started to put on a new pair of medical gloves and dropped one in the floor. I kicked it over near a trash can but did not pick it up and put it in since I am now in the age of Corona. The produce aisle was well stocked but I no longer needed produce. But I got a half dozen parsnips since Candice and I both love them. When I got the canned fruit aisle, I actually found some and grabbed several cans of peaches and pineapples for snacks, cakes, and cobblers. I thought I recognized a man in the aisle and spoke to him. He turned out to be an ER doctor who had treated me when I had an episode of hypertension a few years ago. We had a nice talk and I told him about my current good health and exercise program, thanked him for having treated me and another occasion when he had treated my wife. I actually found flour and a limited selection of pasta. I grabbed two large boxes of medium shells since they had no elbow macaroni. I was driving my cart past the meat aisle and realized that it appeared as if a pack of timber wolves had spent the night in the store. There was only a bit of packaged meats and literally no fresh cut meat of any kind. I grabbed a small package of sweet Italian sausage which Candice and I both love. We rarely eat beef or pork and keep farm raised chickens and wild caught fish in our freezer so I didn't need meat anyway. I actually found a large sixteen pound bag of cat food in a minor brand and grabbed it. I found the brand of butter we like, grabbed three containers and three dozen eggs which we eat in a limited manner these days. But eggs will keep for at least three weeks in the refrigerator so I am safe with eggs now. Then I traveled to the pharmacy aisles to search for alcohol. They also had none. Then I went to the frozen food aisle to try to find some Birds Eye frozen vegetable which Candice likes. Several employees were stocking a few items in the aisle. I found a meager selection of those vegetables and a few frozen muffins which Candice likes for breakfast and overheard one of the employees make a very favorable statement about Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. So I got into the conversation and we all agreed that we are incredibly lucky in Kentucky to have Governor Beshear in the time of Corona. I made the statement that I think he could make a very good running mate for Joe Biden and the employees agreed. We parted company and I checked out where my ticket came to about $140.00. I loaded up my items in the van and stripped off my medical gloves and dropped them in the van floor on top of the pair from WalMart. I will use a plastic grocery bag tomorrow like a glove and pick the medical gloves off the floor, turn the bag inside out, tie a knot in it, and trash the gloves in the age of Corona.
On the way home, I listened to canned, talking head satellite radio or recorded stuff, whichever it was on WSGS my favorite radio station because they are apparently not running live radio in the age of Corona. I also drove past my favorite country store which a family who are friends of mine operate and found a note on the door which stated "We will be open Saturday from 11am to 6pm." I assume that they cannot get stock and might not have much walk in business in the age of Corona.
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