As Christy mentioned in a previous post, we are on lock down due to the coronavirus, like most of the country. To be honest, I don’t get it. I’m not minimizing the danger of it. I understand it could be a death sentence for the elderly, people with deficient immune systems, and those with underlying health issues (surprisingly, and luckily, it does not seem to be having much of an impact on small children). We go through the same threat every year with the seasonal flu and this is the first time in my 45 years on this earth that I recall spotting toilet paper being on par with a leprechaun.
The week before the coronavirus panic in NJ, my wife was saying she was seeing others online in CA and MI saying they couldn’t find toilet paper. I stopped by our local ShopRite that Tuesday on my way home and the toilet paper aisle looked fine. The only thing I saw missing was our specific brand of toilet paper. I thought “It’s fine. I’ll just come back later this week during our normal grocery shopping and they’ll probably have it in.”. WRONG.
That Friday I decided to head out after dinner to get ShopRite out of the way and do my main shopping at Aldi Saturday so that I wasn’t spending half of my day Saturday buying and putting away groceries, like normal. I really couldn’t believe it. That place was busier than if Super Bowl Sunday fell on the first of the month. The line stretched from the registers all the way to the bakery at the other side of the store. I went straight to the paper aisle. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It was cleaned out.
What is wrong with all of these people? I get that they want to limit interacting in the world so they don’t get sick, but they aren’t even buying enough food to have the output to equal the amount of toilet paper they’re using. I bet most of them were back at the store within 2 weeks to pick up something else. And guess what. There are even more people infected by that point anyway, so you are even more likely to get sick. If everyone would just practice good personal hygiene and be cognizant of what they are touching and take conscious steps to not stick their fingers in an orifice before they was their hands, they should be okay.
(Take a deep breath John. Breathe in…out…in….ooooout)
Okay, I didn’t start this wanting to rant about all the crazy people driving me crazy. My point was, not being able to go out and do our normal routine is boring the hell out of me. Like Christy, I’m a homebody (though she would disagree), but I’m going a little nuts. Not taking the kids to parkour, farm class, and choir is really starting to get to me. The only time I’m not sitting is if we go for a walk after dinner. I would love to take the kids to do those things, but everything is canceled for who knows how long. I wouldn’t say I have depression over it. Just boredom and annoyance.
If you’ve been out in the world lately, you wouldn’t even know there is an issue, with the exception of the face masks and nitrile gloves. I had to ship a package Friday. The roads are still packed with cars and all the parking lots I drove by are filled with cars. If all of these people are so worried, why are they still our running around? And if they are going to go out and live their lives, why are they buying all the damn toilet paper?
I get paid next Tuesday and plan to go out shopping first thing Wednesday morning to buy our biweekly groceries to beat the weekend rush. Hopefully things have calmed down a little and I can actually get what we need. When the panic took hold of our area, I had to go to 2 Walmart’s (never shop there normally), 2 ShopRite’s, Aldi, and Family Dollar (never shop there either). I’ll be very happy if I can get back to going to 2 stores.