Saturday, April 4

[Othersharon]

Just afternoon here. Figured I’d put the date up there today since I seem to be having trouble keeping the days straight! One just flows into another! I decided I really needed to go to the grocery store last evening and I was surprised with what was stocked and what wasn’t. I wanted to make sloppy joes and needed catsup but there was none to be found. I could kinda understand the canned dog food but catsup!? But all and all I got what I wanted so won’t need to go again for awhile. Maybe for milk but everything else is stocked for the month. My normal to do a big shopping the first part of the month and pick up small items here and there. So that was my excitement for a few days. How we take some things for granted! It a humbling experience. It’s getting a bit warmer and with the wind we’ve had the last couple of days I think I’ll try to pick up some of the leaves left over from fall. My grass is really starting to green up and grow too. Spring flowers are blooming out front and look so cheerful. I’ll load a few bags of leaves in the car and go dump them and take the boy for a walk. Guess I should stop talking about this and get outside and get busy! Hoping you all and good day and stay safe.

[BarbaraRose]

Things have calmed down out here for now. Luckily, no damage reported from the earthquake last night, and no more aftershocks over night. But the winds picked really strong before I went to bed and were literally shaking the house and so loud! My nerves were already rattled and that sure didn't help any! I don't think I fell asleep until almost 3am. Luckily, I slept good after that until about 9am.

Still breezy out but not so gusty! I like the breeze coming thru the windows, especially when it is very warm out. Nice to get some fresh air thru the house too!

I found a pretty good deal on a wood burner on Amazon so am hoping it works well. I did a lot of research yesterday on them and this one has all the right options and has great reviews and affordable. We use the wood burners to trace shapes and designs onto the gourd and then fill them in with color (paint, dye, etc). The burn lines keep the colors from going into other parts of the design and makes a nice outline for the details. So wood burners are an important tool.

Just got my 3 jars of Not So Sloppy Joe sauce that I ordered from WM, so now I can make those! Am gonna make a big batch so I can freeze some too.

Hope you all have a good day!

[JudyJB]

Talk about losing it! I just spent a few minutes trying to find today's Sunday posting, until I realized that today was Saturday, not Sunday! Sharon, I don't know if you read my posting a couple of weeks, but I was puzzled to find Walmart out of white sugar. They had lots of brown sugar and other types, but no white sugar--none. I could not imagine if everyone suddenly had sweet tooth or what the problem was.

I did not sleep well last night because I was going back and forth with what I want to do for the next month or so. Here are my choices:
1) Stay here in northern Florida at a new campground where there is no pool to attract families and lots of weekenders, who at least here are not taking this virus very seriously. Newer place is only a very few months old and closer to town so I can ride my bike if I need milk or something. Also has several grocery stores restaurants that deliver and a medical clinic.

2) Head north immediately and try to get within a day's drive of my son. Advantage is being closer to family if I get sick. BUT, if I get sick, do I really want to call me son to come and get me???? He also has immune system problems, and I would not want to contaminate him anyway. Even if I were to be hospitalized, he could not come visit me. And moving in with him is a bad idea with 3 kids and 2 adults, even if I stayed in the basement bedroom and bathroom.

So, I think I am going to stay here in northern Florida for two weeks and then head up into Georgia. I am probably going to skip the Blue RIdge Parkway because the visitor centers are likely to be closed anyway. So will just head up I-75 after stopping at Georgia house to do some looking through papers in my uncle's office.

[Bethers]

If I wasn't going to SD, I'd stay here till fall or beyond. But I'm going to get to SD with my only stops gas stations (I have gloves) and side of road or Walmarts, etc for overnight without shopping etc. I know there will be some risk working, but I've come to terms with that. But if not working, I would stay holed up in place. Judy, if you got this virus, your son or any other family wouldn't be able to do much and are better off not in contact.

I took a walk around the park today enjoying so many blooming cactus. So pretty.

We don't have any delivery or even pick up grocery in Benson, but Sierra Vista Walmart has pick up so I placed an order for tomorrow and will take a drive. Then no more leaving until I head north.

[JudyJB]

Thanks for confirming my decision, Beth. My fear is that one of them WOULD try to take care of me and then get exposed. But, you are right that they really could not do anything. If I were to get sick, I will just have to manage on my own, at least assuming I am not one of the people who get horribly sick.

Normally, when you are sick, you would want to go to a hospital, but in this case, that could make you sicker with this disease.

[Bethers]

Judy, it's one reason I dislike leaving my park. We have residents (I'd be one if I was staying) who will help if anyone is ill. No personal contact, but arrangements made to walk pets, get food/meds, etc as long as they are well enough to stay home. It's one think I love about Escapees, and particularly some of the things we do at this park.

I know I'll have some backup in SD... And I'm hoping to stay well, but there is certainly no guarantee of that.

[Acadianmom]

Sharon, it's a good idea to put the day and date. Most days I don't know either. If I get a bill at the Post Office I usually just write a check while I'm there. I have to look at my phone to see what the date is.

Judy,after you had posted about not finding sugar I was worried about putting my hummingbird feeder up but our stores have a lot of sugar. Flour was in short supply when I looked for some. When I went to Walmart the other day there were no eggs and not a lot of butter.. I am kind of getting tired of having to cook everyday. For lunch I just had a hot dog. About the only time I eat a hot dog is at a campout. I'm not sure which restaurants are doing take out besides the fast food places.

I could have gotten by a few more days before I mowed but there was a big area of rain in Texas headed this way. The weather showed rain every day for the next 7 days so I mowed. I went fishing for a while but it was getting windy and cooling off. The fish were just barely bitting anyway. The rain got here about dark and the radar shows rain all over Louisiana.

Barbie, hope you don't have anymore earthquakes.

Martha

[Cudedog]

I know I'll have some backup in SD... And I'm hoping to stay well, but there is certainly no guarantee of that.

Well, never one to mind my own business (!), if I had my druthers I wouldn't be making any trip to SD, especially if I already had a good place to hunker down.

My mind runs wild with what could go wrong. . . A breakdown somewhere (if things continue to go south, would there be anyone left to come out to help?). . . Unforeseen automobile accident that disables one's vehicle (then what?). . . Gas stations closing, due to no drivers available to make gasoline deliveries. . . Scarcity of food - the average age of a farmer in the United States is 58 years old. . . The list goes on. . .

Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.

Corollary to Murphy's Law: When things go wrong, they will go wrong in the worst possible way

And they say that Murphy was an optimist.

[snowball]

Judy you mentioned stopping at your uncle's place and looking at more of his paper's is it possible you can just hunker down there? even if not living in the house but do a drive way camp??? or simply move in for a bit...
Our church has a twice a year general conference one in April one in Oct. this weekend was the April one and of course because of the pandemic it was a lot different than normal only those speaking where there and differently not seated side by side... and the choir was recordings from previous years. so strange... but enjoyed it...
and was able to watch all sessions without turning on the generator... it's on now will see if it fully charges tonight or not...
went and got my shower needed bread so picked up some and a few other items
then went and got a hamburger it was a place I've wanted to try all winter they have only curbside pickup ordered my cheese burger and fries and she brought it out to me. tastes yummy as well
one of the reasons I am headed north is if I was unable to drive home it's a long ways for someone to come get me a relief to them I think even if they can't come in and take care of me..I can also rest easier because they can take care of Shadow.. but we will hope that I don't get sick that is the goal for all of us...
you all have a good night be safe
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Beth, I would imagine the store will be very quiet with everyone staying home and things mostly shut down right now. So you wouldn't have a lot of exposure to people anyways. Is Linda heading back there too?

The wind is so crazy here. It is usually breezy in the mornings, then after noon the wind pretty much stops (of course when it is getting hot out), then picks up a little in the early evening, and as soon as the sun starts setting, the wind gets just nasty for the rest of the night! Seems to be the pattern here lately, anyways.

No shaking today. One of my neighbors stopped by to see if I needed anything from the store. I just asked if she could grab some potato chips for me. Those go good with sloppy joes. Monday I will need to go out and get a few things.

Tomorrow will be a sunny day but Monday we have rain moving in and supposed to rain all week long. Gotta remember to cover my golf cart tomorrow night.

Off to bed...