Another quiet day here at Mist Cottage. The sun is shining brightly, and the temperature is above freezing, extra nice day!
Attila has already finished off one of the five jars of Cowboy Candy, I think he would eat a half a jar a day, every day, if left to his own devices. It would take a lot of canning to keep him supplied at that rate. As it is, he will have to ration his consumption to a more reasonable level, perhaps a jar a week. I hope we will be able to get more Jalapeno peppers next month, so we can can another double batch!
I have been enjoying my re-fried beans, eating the last of them for lunch today. Attila prefers his own recipe, which includes salt, which he has cut down on, but still eats more than the recommended amount.
The snow is gone! Wally Ball is enjoying his new found freedom, and is dashing about the yard, inspecting for new shoots of green growth. Wally Ball is no longer round, having spent so much time out of doors, he is quite weathered. But still he manages to move around the yard, sometimes with great speed.
We have been visited by robins frequently over the last few days, i can hear them chirping even though the windows are closed. Soon it will be warm enough to open the windows, I am looking forward to that.
Attila and I are making a list of things we will need if we need to stay in the house for several weeks. I think vegetables might be what I would miss most, so I have frozen vegetables on my list. Attila’s list includes hot sauce, which he adds to a lot of different dishes. Our list isn’t very long, there are only the two of us. Our goal over the coming months is stay healthy enough to stay at home, and keep out of the hospital system.
Love and Good Health,
Maggie
Worldly
Weather
5°C
Date: 1:00 PM EDT Thursday 12 March 2020
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.9 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 4.8°C
Dew point: -2.0°C
Humidity: 62%
Wind: ESE 13 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.”
Sir Winston Churchill
1874 – 1965
Lol! Had to laugh about Wally Ball. And It’s great that Attila has been loving his Cowboy Candy that much.
We are finally seeing some robins around here, too. Even had a day warm enough that we cracked the windows open for a day – but I wish we had your sunshine.
Companies around us are starting to have people work from home for the next 2 weeks. DH is hoping his company will do the same. Last week they out-fitted him with headphones and a new program so he could take calls on his computer.
Our freezer is pretty full already, so there’s not much we need. We’ve been lucky and haven’t seen any empty shelves in our stores, but with so many places doing temporary shut downs that might spur people into some panic- buying. We’ll see.
Teri, I really have fun with Wally Ball. We never found out where he came from, when he arrived in the yard we asked all the neighbours with kids about him, he didn’t belong to anyone, so then he belonged to us.
Windows open, how wonderful! It has clouded over now, just in the last hour or so, I think we get your weather, delayed.
So many people cannot work from home, Attila is one of them. His company will have to shut down completely before he will be at home. Service people, and manufacturing people will have to risk going in, or lose their income.
There have been some empty shelves here, mostly with sanitizing cleaners, but so far they have been filled again. I am hoping we can get some vegetables and hot sauce. So many people do not have a few weeks food in their homes, so to bring themselves in line with common sense they need to go out and stock up. I haven’t been out of the house for a week and a half, and have no plans to go out again until the pandemic has peaked and waned.
Is “Wally Ball” a pet? It sounds like you have a good plan. Our nearby Walmart’s long shelves were completed stripped of toilet paper. If worse comes to worse, we have so much canned fish and canned beans. We’ll not starve.
Wise quote…. (As they say, hope for the best, but plan for the worst….)
Joan, Wally Ball is a big plastic ball that was blown into our yard years ago. The yard is fenced, and Wally Ball stayed with us, free ranging out there, following the wind around. I enjoy looking out the window to see where he is, sometimes I even catch him on the move.
That is a wise quote, I am glad to know you have planned for the worst! It is common sense. I think the toilette paper situation is because people didn’t think about it until just a few weeks ago, and suddenly realized they needed to up their game in that department.
Wally Ball is still with us! Yay! I’ve been experimenting with online grocery ordering and have been mostly pleased. I have an order coming Tuesday that has frozen veggies, chicken, some beef stew meat etc. I can usually last a month with one of these orders. Longer if I make a soup or stew in my Instant Pot. I have canned food too. The other thing on my list is to get another bag of litter and a bag of dry food for Sam the cat. Then I’ll be set.
I must admit to increasing moments of anxiety. The virus will take lives and a high percentage will be the elderly. I’m in that group and want us all to survive this. Then there’s the pathetic mismanagement in the US. It’s still hard to get a simple screening test! It makes me so angry. They’ve know about this virus since the end of 2019. There’s also the plummeting stock market which is going to hurt a lot of people as well. Large companies will be laying employees off. Part-time and gig workers will be hard hit. It just goes on and on. I know that things will eventually get better. But it’s hard to not feel like the world is going through an epic catastrophe that might change lives forever. I wish I still had a therapist. I’d beg for some xanax. [Rant Over]
Sandy, I looked at online ordering yesterday, we aren’t there yet, because Attila is at work every day and he deals with hundreds of people every day, and cannot stay 3 meters away from them, so he still goes to the grocery store, for now. But it is so good hear a good review of it! We can’t forget the kitties!
I am in that group too Sandy, and it is very difficult to watch 30 and 40 year olds watlzing around the globe, spreading this thing around, smugly saying I am not afraid, because they know they will likely survive. Canada is not managing this well either, as far as I can tell. Our Prime Ministers wife was just in England at a great big affair and came back with a fever and is now in self-isolation, and so is the Prime Minister and their kids. She took that risk, but then being who she is, what were the likely consequences for her, not too serious… but what about all the other people at the 12,000 who attended the event, and those she waa in contact with there, on her way home, and then here before she had sumptoms? I am not impressed with the moderate advice our federal government gives, self-isolate if you have symptoms… even a small child can understand the concept that this people are contagious before they have symptoms, but somehow the government of our country can’t understand a simple, elementary, scientific fact. I hope we don’t go the way of Italy here, but I think that it could actually be much worse here, because our leaders are just starting to understand what a pandemic is. Shocking really.
I know what you mean about xanax, I don’t take medications, so I am deciding to stop beating my head against the wall by paying attention while North America walks head on into the pandemic, blithley believing in what, what do these leaders believe in? OK, I’ve been ranting too. It is a mess, and all we can really do is our best. Chances are the thing will mutate and head for the younger smug elements of the population, we already have a child in a daycare with it here in Canada. Yes, I guess this is rant too, the whole thing is pretty disturbing.
But at least we have our wits about us, and will do our very best to carry on. Remember, the majority of elderly people who get it survive (according the BBC based on Chinese data 85% of people over 80 survive COVID-19)!!!!
Wally Ball, indeed! You should make Wally a Wally-Hat!
Bex, a Wally Hat! What a great idea, it might cramp his high rolling style though, thinking. 🙂
A Wally Hat is a great idea! Yes, ordering groceries online is just one more survival tool. I heard a doctor yesterday talk about the issue of younger people not being as badly impacted by COVID-19. He said that’s one thing that researchers are going to look into because it might have some clues that can be used in a vaccination.
Yes, the big problem is that an infected person can be asymptomatic but walking around as a risk to others. What we need is a free and quick test that you can take before you have symptoms. Then, ideally, if you test positive, you would self-quarantine. The problem is that some would not go into quarantine. So the real solution is social distancing, good diets, and hand-washing.
I did see that about your Prime Minister’s wife testing positive. I can only hope she didn’t infect others while she was in England.
Sandy, she was at a youth event, 13,000 people, their motto for that was “transforming communities and changing lives”.
They sure as hell will transform communities and change lives, even end a few lives I think.
Such arrogance and hubris in this event and her trip, the evidence has been there for months, our Prime Minister told us in the last weeks we should avoid “kneejerk reactions”… that sure came home to roost for our citizens. Kneejerk reaction, ha!
She made a lot of other visits while she was there, and more after she got back here.
“The guest list included British celebrities like chef Jamie Oliver, actor Idris Elba, singer Leona Lewis and race car driver Lewis Hamilton. They gathered at the Wembley Arena in London with what the WE Day website says was a collection of “world-renowned speakers, A-list performers” and “thousands of young people” celebrating actions “transforming communities and changing lives.”
Watching my country’s handling of this pandemic, before it bloomed into a pandemic, and even aftewards, has been like standing on a highway watching the headlights bearing down on you. In my opiinion we are led by people with agendas other than the welfare of all. Not a one of them seems to think about anything but their own power agendas, and how to appear caring, when I doubt even one of them is actually concerned about a better world.
On a related note, Attila dropped into the grocery store today, because he went for a Prevnar13 pneumonia shot, and said there were incredible line ups everywhere, and that many shelves were empty, and there were no frozen vegetables to be hand in town, three stores, no frozen vegetables.
I attribute this to the sudden bursting of the hubris bubble, when our Prime Minister’s wife came down with the virus, the young people over 20 suddenly woke up and realized that this is real, and it could affect them personally. Also, our schools are closing for three weeks, which is unprecedented here, and this is a wake up call for parents (again younger people) who suddenly get it that this has to be taken seriously, and that it will affect them, not just “old and sick” people that they don’t really care about.
Sandy, that research looking at why young people are not so impacted will be interesting, hopefully some developments will be made!
Oh my I wonder how many people she might have infected as she socialized!
One leader who’s emerging in the US is Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York. Among other things he has 28 state labs now processing corona tests, is trying to waive the 7 day waiting period before applying for unemployment, and communicating on t.v. almost every day.
My cousin went to the store yesterday. She said there were more empty shelves than she’s ever seen. Not many paper products left except for napkins which people were snatching up. My store (Jewel) has just limited how many units you can buy for things like hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, toilet paper etc. It’s eye opening. A doctor on CNN said that going outdoors for fresh air and exercise is good. Don’t feel you’re imprisoned in your home. But do stay away from large groups of people.
I think the empty shelves are temporary, a “sudden awareness” phenomenon, as people who thought this couldn’t touch them wake up to reality. They will buy and buy, and then eventually that market will be saturated, and shelves will begin to hold their products longer. At least that is what I saw here with hand sanitizers a month ago, those shelves were empty, then at the beginning of this week they were filled again, then reality started to hit the scoffers, and there we have it, empty shelves.
That is refreshing, that decent leaders are emerging! We have some measures here, but not enough yet.
Getting outdoors for fresh air is a great idea, walks are free, and here at least, one can find a time of day when there aren’t many people out and about, this is increasingly so. We are lucky to have a yard, so if all else fails we can putter around out there.
We hadn’t had any problems in grocery stores, but DH’s co-worker says that last night there were tons of people at the grocery store. I attribute some of that to March Break being this week, and more will happen today because the schools have just announced they’ll be closed for 3 weeks.
It doesn’t worry me, stores re-stock and we’ll just go shopping on our usual Saturday to give them a chance – but we’ll go earlier in the morning to miss the people.
DH’s work has decided to go to optional work at home until April 1st. He’s going to work at “home”. Since he can actually work anywhere there’s an internet connection, we’re going to go to the cottage for part of the time. That also puts us 20 minutes away from DH’s dad, so we can check on him and maybe get him some groceries and keep him out of the stores.
DH’s dad is 85.
Sorry, I mean March Break is beginning this weekend.
Maggie that’s a good point about people realizing that the shelves will be restocked, so there’s no need to panic.
Teri, I forgot about Spring break. I’d imagine a lot of college students will be going home. Also, in some areas grade school and high school students will be out of school too. So buying a lot of food makes sense.
Teri, DHs Dad is a lucky man, such a considerate and caring son and daughter-in-law! The cottage might be fun, considering the weather is bit warmer now, although the weekend looks like it might be a bit cold at night.
I think you are right about March break, and the extension. I think too that Sophie Trudeau getting the virus has been a wake-up call for a lot of young parents in Canada, it can happen, to them, they are suddenly aware. So at some point they will have caught up with supplying their households as common sense would dictate, and the initial frenzy will diminish.
That was a really nice thing to say. Thanks!