And another thing!

[pameladean]

Among the pleasures I listed as temporarily suspended are things like having tea with my excellent ex Elise, having lunch with my sharer of theatrical interests Cindy, and a number of "we should really get coffee sometime" meetings that haven't happened yet but that I was sure would. My long-running tea group scheduled our next meeting for May, now located in another century in subjective time.

I've lost track of how many entities have emailed me to say they were stalwartly staying open and then (quite reasonably) reversed course and closed after all. My yearly diabetes appointment, originally scheduled for the 26th, has been moved to the end of April. My dentist's office is open for emergencies but not for routine visits. I have a hygiene appointment on April 22nd, but right now both that and the new doctor's appointment might as well be in 2030. Our bank has closed its offices, leaving ATMs and drive-throughs going for the nonce. Bachman's stayed open somewhat defiantly and then suddenly decided they wouldn't.

When I logged into the Instacart website, Cub division, earlier today, it said that the next available delivery slot was next Tuesday. I put together an order and closed it out to secure the delivery slot, but when I actually got to the point where you choose your delivery time, it offered me Today, Within 2 Hours. I took it. I wonder if I will get one more package of toilet paper or any pasta or rice. I think I might get the whole-wheat spaghetti, which seems unpopular. We'll see. The toothpaste both Raphael and I use was on sale, so maybe we can get a couple of extra tubes of that.

At least this means the menu planning for next week is done, though it has a lot of "some kind of veg" and similar temporizing spots in it.

I've talked to my mother on the phone. She is maintaining a cheerful demeanor, and had her "completely unconcerned" cat in her lap. My brother, who lives with her, emailed me about streamlining her garden to be lower-maintenance but still pleasing, so we are brainstormng that. It's much too soon to do any gardening in Minnesota right now, but it's an engaging thought exercise.

David and I had our usual date yesterday, staying in and ordering from Pizza Luce, which has at least apparently demonstrated good practices during this crisis. We wiped down the outsides of the pizza boxes and discarded them afterwards, though I would usually store the leftover pizza in its original box. Then we watched several episodes of the Great British Bakeoff, petting such cats as stopped by.

I'm trying to read more fiction and stop scrolling through Twitter so much. I've been just starting a reread of Nevada Barr's Hunting Season for more than a week. Maybe this evening. I have an essentially infinite number of books to read, especially if I can get my brain to stop erasing the existence of e-books. I don't mean in general; I mean that anything I acquire in e-book form, even if I eagerly anticipated it, falls out of my memory instantly. Several kind friends have patiently explained how they keep track of their e-books, but my failure happens well before any system of any kind can be invoked. I think I need to make myself a note in Evernote as soon as I finish a download and set some kind of alarm to poke me. It is a weird thing for my brain to be doing, forgetting all my delicious e-books, and it well predates any breath of coronavirus.

My doctor has been reminding me periodically to fill out what she calls an End-of-Life Directive, though apparently it's a subset of a living will generally, in Minnesota, called a Health Directive. Having misplaced the one she gave me, I downloaded a new form. It requires two witnesses and a notary to be complete, but putting the information and preferences in is better than nothing. I am still pondering the details, but it's a start. I should have done this when I was thirty and updated it from time to time.

This afternoon I found myself sitting at the computer glowering at my book, suddenly feeling quite hungry, and deciding that I should have lunch, but not getting up because I would have to wash my hands first. Eventually I did get up and did wash my hands, and then ate the leftover pizza. It's definitely better to put off eating than to skip the hand-washing, but I need to be more efficient about the order in which I do things. I come in from taking out the trash or upstairs from doing laundry, immediately wash my hands, and then realize that I need to pee, so after that I have to wash them again. Then, invariably, though I might sneeze once or twice a day at most, within five minutes of these operations I'll sneeze and have to blow my nose; and there I am, back at the sink scrubbing away. There's also the bit where I take a shower and then put on some skin cream for a minor medical condition and then have to wash my hands again as per the directions on the tube. I was using a glove to apply the cream and then discarding it, but disposable gloves are in short supply, so I quit doing that; I had felt guilty about it anyway. I am grateful for the existence of so many moisturizers and for David's habit of giving me strange new ones for my birthday.

I'm sure my hand are not actually going to fall off. I'm not sure of much, but that's probably a safe bet.

And since that is the case, it's time for me to work on my book before making dinner.

Stay safe and well, all of you.

Pamela

P.S. Another thing I forget is to tag my entries; apparently being sure that I tag my Patreon posts has taken up all the brain space allocated for such functions. I did kind of tag this post.

P.P.S. The spell checker used by Dreamwidth has taken to telling me serenely "No spelling errors found," when there are totally spelling errors to BE found. Perhaps it's stressed about groceries too.

Comments

[gwynnega]

I've been having the same problems with not scheduling my hand washing properly.

[pameladean]

I wonder if we are just stressed and distracted. It's not as if I didn't wash my hands before. Although I would not, before, have washed them after handling clean laundry, and now I just wash whenever I've been out of the second floor. It doesn't take many additional handwashings of that nature to mess up a schedule.

P.

[kore]

especially if I can get my brain to stop erasing the existence of e-books. I don't mean in general; I mean that anything I acquire in e-book form, even if I eagerly anticipated it, falls out of my memory instantly. Several kind friends have patiently explained how they keep track of their e-books, but my failure happens well before any system of any kind can be invoked. I think I need to make myself a note in Evernote as soon as I finish a download and set some kind of alarm to poke me. It is a weird thing for my brain to be doing, forgetting all my delicious e-books, and it well predates any breath of coronavirus.

OH, does that happen to me. I even have a somewhat organized e-books folder and Calibre, and still, if the book is not IN FRONT of me, I can't remember it. I have this problem with some regular books too, but I have a good enough visual memory I can roughly remember where a lot of them are. But it's the same thing as trying to remember quotes from ebooks -- there's no pagination, so my brain kind of slips right off.

[pameladean]

Calibre has been recommended to me repeatedly, but I'd have to overcome the essential barrier first, yes.

I hadn't thought of it as an aspect of visual memory, but that is probably my issue as well.

P.

[graydon]

I think Dreamwidth's spell checker has dissociative episodes. (Or at least the advanced one does; that one uses a Google API and I would not be surprised if it can't always get the API to pick up the phone.)

Today's odd thought was about the uncollapsed waveform of tea; I ordered a bunch last month, because, hey, it comes from the Atlas mountains and other places potentially affected by border closures. And then I found out how much half a kilo of loose tea was, and thought I'd been foolish, or at least excessive, and today thought that, hey, could be a year or more. So I don't know if was prudent or panicky.

[pameladean]

Given how quickly it tells me everything is fine, that seems very plausible!

I think it's very hard to tell at the moment what is prudent, what is panicky, or whether some things might be both. Panic might, in the generally happy-go-lucky (probably not including you, I say with great affection) jolt them/us into prudence.

I'm glad you have enough tea for the nonce. That is a good feeling.

P.

[graydon]

The waveform is presently uncollapsed for fair and serious, yeah. And it may do that annoying then where it decides that, no, no, collapse was premature and then collapses again later in some other direction.

My concern for the happy-go-lucky is that this is going to go on and on. It's relatively easy to stay inside during March of uncertain mood; people are going to have a much tougher time staying in during the flowering spring. And we may need to stay in during the next flowering spring.

(and no, I wasn't considered happy-go-lucky even as a small child. :)

[azurelunatic]

It's a terrible spell checker. The plan is to have it pack up its things into a file box, take it to a conference room, explain that modern browsers generally have better spell check features, and hand it a tropospherical red 30% slip.

[sovay]

I am grateful for the existence of so many moisturizers and for David's habit of giving me strange new ones for my birthday.

I think that's a wonderful tradition.

*hugs*

[pameladean]

*hugs back* Currently in rotation:

A really lovely lavender one that the cats don't like until the scent has faded a lot; an orange lavender one that doesn't elicit nearly as much whisker-curling; a floral-scented somewhat overpowering heavy-duty cream that is great for preventing the cracking of the skin around the fingernails but is a bit much even for me as the scent doesn't diminish fast; a Dr. Bronner's peppermint lotion; an unscented cocoa butter concoction.

P.

[athenais]

I have some delightful Cherry Blossom scented hand cream which I adore, but which my little furry clients disliked. So the upside of unemployment is I can wear any hand cream I want! I am also very fond of the Brown Sugar & Fig hand cream I carry in my purse.

[pameladean]

Yes, the feline reaction is important to me too, though I can be slightly more cavalier since I live with the cats in question. I'm glad you get to wear your Cherry Blossom hand cream. It is the season, after all. Who makes the Brown Sugar and Fig?

P.

Rice

[lsanderson]

We just bought a 50# bag of Thai Jasmin rice. Even with one household member who is a riceaholic, we should be able to share some if you need it

Re: Rice

[pameladean]

That is so kind of you it's making me get teary. We are fine for now. I got a 2-pound bag of jasmine rice and I did already have about ten pounds of various kinds of brown rice. I'm glad you are so copiously supplied, though. It is weirdly comforting.

P.

Re: Rice

[lsanderson]

WoW! They sell 2# bags o' rice? You're sure you didn't forget a zero in back of that two? In Asian stores, that usually means it's sticky rice and then you hafta steam it. ;-)

Re: Rice

[lsanderson]

Have you had much black rice? It was reasonably available throughout SE Asian, but I've not seen it much around here. It usually goes for a premium price over white rice.

I don't remember seeing it in Vietnam, but that was a wee bit ago, and I may have been unaware of it. I think the only rice they grow 'down on the farm' is white rice.

Re: Rice

[pameladean]

Not much, no. A friend once gave me a half-pound bag of it as a present, and I found some recipes on the internet and made it. It was really interesting, somewhat less like rice than I expected, but I liked it. A very good present, something that's not cheap and I'd never have picked up for myself.

P.

Re: Rice

[lsanderson]

Someone has informed me that they grow it all over Vietnam. Mostly sticky, and much/some of it gets drunk as rice wine. There's also a black Jasmine rice, which I don't think is sticky (so you don't hafta steam it).

Re: Rice

[pameladean]

I believe mine was labelled "Forbidden Rice," which may or may not actually mean anything. P.

Re: Rice

[lsanderson]

It means it was meant to be served only to the Chinese Emperor, back when China had such things.

Re: Rice

[pameladean]

Thank you! The price still seems to reflect that. P.

Re: Rice

[graydon]

Would you like a link to some nice folks in Winnipeg who sell various rice-based Weird Grain blends? Sprouted lentils, quinoa, and four kinds of rice, sort of thing? They have straight-up wild rice, too, but that does get pricey. I find them pretty reasonable in direct order, though it's still ~2 CAD/pound. (six CAD for 1500 grammes.) They ship through the post office; shipping is a thing, but not so much as it might be.

None of it's white rice; long grain brown is the most usual component, and then it turns into various black and red rices and wild rice. Plus lentils and peas and millet in some of the mixes.

[carbonel]

I had to go to Target yesterday to pick up a couple of prescriptions, and did some grocery shopping as long as I was there. No pasta at all to be had, not even the weird yolkless egg noodles I got last time. No rice at all except brown rice. I bought a bag of that because I want to make something that calls for rice. That means I'll have to start cooking much earlier than usual, because brown rice takes about three times as long to cook.

I also bought an 8-ounce bag of rice flavored with saffron and other stuff. I have no idea what I'll use it for, but it was sitting there and looked appetizing. Total impulse purchase.

Oh, and there were no eggs at all. I still have half a dozen, so not an immediate problem, but I may have to see if Cub has them (or Target restocks).

One of the guys stocking the shelves said that deliveries are coming in okay, they're just being bought off the shelves faster than they can keep up with.

[pameladean]

That's what I keep hearing. I wish they would pause long enough for me to get just a handful more of stuff.

Good luck with the brown rice. I've been cooking it so long that I messed up white rice when I decided that some foods are just better with that and started using it again after a long hiatus.

P.

Eggs

[lsanderson]

Both Cub and Aldi have had lottsa eggs, even though Lunds wuz out. Aldi is much cheaper, err, less expensive. Of course, the nearby Aldi is quite new and not as heavily shopped.

Re: Eggs

[carbonel]

I stopped at Cub (the one at 60th and Nicollet) on the way back from delivering my Minn-stf ballot. No shell eggs at all. There was a goodly supply of pourable eggs in cartons, which put them ahead of Target, which had only had egg whites. I didn't buy any.

Cub also had a small but varied supply of pasta, so I got a box each of spaghetti, fettuccine, and rotini. No old-fashioned soup noodles, but that's very much a specialty item.

And I forgot to check if Cub had rice, but I did remember at the last minute to check on Diet Coke, and came home with two 2-liter bottles. Score!

[bibliofile]

Good to hear that you all are doing well enough.

I haven't done the living will thing yet, either -- though I have a circle of willing people to designate (I'm single, with no local relations).

Yes, visual memory for me is better for books. I mainly read ebooks from the library, and the app uses the covers for icons. That helps, at least while the app is open.

The housemate has brought out the serious moisturizer and left it in the bathroom, on the sink. Not that our hands weren't dry before all the extra washing started.