Taste Like Chicken Shamrock Tuesday 3/17

Chele, thanks for the start. This is a pretty somber St. Paddy's Day with all the celebrations cancelled. Good luck at the doctor's and the store if you go. I was all ready to go yesterday and decided to try Publix's online shopping and delivery. I'm really not sure how much safer it is since people are still touching everything, but at least I only had to interact with one person. They were out of some things and cancelled some of my order due to being out of stock. They also made some substitutions, but I got to approve most of those. Florida is going ahead with their voting today which I don't think is the wisest thing. I'm glad I voted by mail and don't have to worry about it. I'm guessing turnout might be low, but I think Biden has a big lead here.

Thanks for the start, Chele. I hope the appointment with the primary went well. I heard your governor defied a court order and didn't open the polls. I would be more concerned if it was the general election. Good that you have a drive-thru testing option now but I hope you won't need to use it. I heard something about one in Dallas this morning that you have to have strep and flu tests first and if both are negative, you get referred for coronavirus. Did you go Krogering? How are things going with Iggy working remotely? I don't see a lot of people coming to check out facilities there or his going on any trips for the long term, so you have to be relieved. I don't mind the master gardener drama so much. Remember that was a part of my work life for so many years. The meeting last night got a few things resolved, but we still have nothing in place for our annual plant sale, which is scheduled for April 25th. Our director may have left at a good time for him, but it left us in the lurch. Regarding Dale's job prospects, everything he is applying for will be 100% remote and the interviews for those are as well. In fact, he's on an interview call at the moment. He has options, some part time and some full-time. So we'll see where it goes. Did you watch the new 9-1-1 episode yet? That's on my list for today.

First and foremost, I heard from Liz yesterday evening. Things are through the roof for her, as we can all imagine. They have 24 confirmed cases and more coming in. They are strictly limiting visitation to patients. Still short on supplies. The good thing is, with everything essentially shut down, including restaurants, bars, gyms, and tourist attractions, traffic along her commute is much less than normal. She went to the grocery story at 7:30 on Saturday morning and shelves were already sparse. Her knee is still bothering her and she can't even get a telemedicine appointment until early May.

Becky, I'm glad you found it easy to get into the truck so perhaps you can get out and about, but not in crowds. Did you take the walker with you when you went? It's beyond belief how fast groceries are disappearing from shelves. You have to wonder how long the manufacturing industry will be able to keep up with the demand or if we will at some point be in rationing mode like they were in WW II. Good plan for HEB to only let so many people in at a time, especially since the guideline went from 50 to 10 people yesterday.

How was your primary appointment today, Linda? I hope DSIL and hubby have a relaxing time in Hawaii. I would definitely fly directly home and ship the car. The airlines should be unusually accommodating right now because they are hurting so badly for customers. I hope you have all the supplies you need and can shelter in place for the next few days. Amazing precautions being taken by your vet's office. That's actually pretty smart. I need to get my car serviced in the next few weeks and the service department is taking pretty extraordinary precautions as well. I need a 4-wheel alignment which takes a few hours, so they will be providing me with a "clean" loaner as well. I guess I'll go to grocery stores while I'm waiting because nothing else will be open. Good that so many people voted early there so there will be significant election results. Enjoy gardening. I have zucchini and tomato starts doing quite well but peppers have not yet started to germinate. Kale and chard look good, but so-so on the cukes and eggplant

Kathy, definitely good that you were able to vote by mail so you don't have to take any risks. Good that you are essentially sheltering in place for now, especially since you can have groceries delivered. We can order online but we would need to pick up. I hope DM decides to do stay put now, since she and the sisters are in the high risk age group. Definitely a relief that she decided not to go to NSB. I had a feeling there might be some out of stock stuff. I need to watch ths week's Outander at some point. I should be able to find time.

We had some good news yesterday. Apparently a couple of weeks ago, before all this stock market crap started, our FA converted all our investments to T-bills. So, we aren't making the return we were, but at least our money is safe and we aren't losing anything. We do have one account that is separate and it has lost about 30% and that was before yesterday's continuing disaster. The thought of losing so much was keeping me up at night so that was quite a relief. I passed by our local Food City around 5 pm last night on the way to my meeting and it looked like a mall parking lot the Saturday before Christmas. I was happy I didn't have to stop and can't believe there was anything left on the shelves. I did have to stop for gas on the way home and it was still busy, but not even close to where it had been a couple of hours earlier. I have laundry going but may not do much of anything else today.

Forgot to give you the Kroger report. It was packed-definitely more than 50 people. Paper products limited to two packs per customer. They had TP but only the small 4 roll packs and tiny rolls of paper towels. So you could buy 1 pack of TP and a roll of paper towels or 2 of each. Bread was limited to 2 loaves per family and eggs limited to two cartons. Frozen pizzas and frozen chicken nuggets and tenders were almost gone. The good news was that there was plenty of fresh produce except for garlic and cilantro, but there were plenty of avocados. My GF said her Kroger was out of garlic as well.

Karen, I am watching 911 right now. I like it a lot better than Lonestar. 

Kathy, I heard a story on the radio and I don’t know if it is true, but a mother home schooling her children while they can’t go to school gives them a couple of squares of TP when they get an answer right. 

Thanks for the start Chele.

I haven't had time for personals today but have been thinking of all of you.Thanks for the good wishes.I had a pretty intense PT session today and I was very sore.It's been odd but I have actually enjoyed staying at home more and Kenneth is even surprised.

Our church has decided not to have services for 8 weeks.They are trying to go by the governmental guidelines.It will be a real loss especially for the women since we are all closer but at least we have a FB group.

Liz I know you have been hit hard by all of this mess.Remember to take care of you as much as you can.