Self quarantined March 20

TP Hunting!
I woke up early to be one of the first in line as the local grocery store opened at seven in the morning.  When I arrive at 6:45 there was already about a half of dozen people waiting.  By the time the doors open there were about 25 people waiting to get into the store.  Everybody waited patiently, but you could feel everybody's anticipation, for the moment when the clerk unlocks the door and we step through.  One man said this morning was his fifth time arriving early, all for the quest of toilet paper.  He hoped this time he would strike gold!  I hope to be lucky too.

Once the doors open, everybody, including me, walked briskly to the toilet paper aisle in hopes of finding the heavily soft paper found only in rolls...and there it was.  The top and bottom shelves were stocked with the MEGA pack of 24 rolls of toilet paper.  Even though several signs were in plain sight about rationed paper products to one per customer, a few people ignored the signs and hoarded two or three packages and stacked them in their grocery cart.  I quickly grabbed my one allotted MEGA pack and then swiftly moved down to the pasta aisle.  And again, I scored 3 pounds of pasta and two boxes of Mac and Cheese...The Grocery Gods favor me this morning.

Then, just by chance, I walked by the toilet paper aisle again and saw it was already cleaned out in only a few minutes.  No more toilet paper.  The Grocery Gods smile only upon those who arrive early.

The remainder of the day, we worked in the yard, trimmed the trees, and repaired a fence.  The day was beautiful, blue skies with the temperature in the mid-60s.  The work on the property helps everybody in the family from thinking about the pandemic.

New News

We heard the governor of Illinois order all citizens to stay in their homes.  We think Governor Brown will issue a similar order within three days.  So, I return to the store and stocked up with some last-minute groceries.

Our Trip This Summer

We video chatted with our friends from Australia tonight.  We do this once a month because they are fun people, and we've been working on coordinating a Summer road trip covering the Southeastern part of the US.  But the pandemic has thrown our plans for a loop.  Currently, the Austrian government has banned traveling from Auzzieland.  We hope for the best, thinking by the end of May, the pandemic will have died out or is under control. Then we can travel as planned.  If not, plan B would require us to move all the planned stops to next summer.