I didn’t even realize I was on an egg quest until I went shopping for eggs.
Of course, in this time of panic-buying and hoarding, the grocery store had no eggs. Like, none at all, not even the most expensive, free range “the chickens that laid these live better lives than you do” eggs.
I went across the street to Shoppers Drug Mart as they have a few aisles devoted to groceries. I wasn’t expecting them to have any eggs, but lo, they did! I grabbed a dozen (I didn’t see any signs indicating limits but I’m not a panic-filled hoarder) and went to the checkout…where the cashier was standing behind a giant plexiglass partition. It had a cutout in the bottom for me to slide the eggs through so he could scan them. He did so and placed the eggs and the receipt at the end of the till, away from his body.
It was a bit weird.
But now I can have eggs for breakfast for at least six days.
I normally don’t post political cartoons, but I’m making an exception here because I think this one perfectly captures the essence of a person entirely unfit for the position he holds and his real priority–himself.
For future generations (if any): This refers to the COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020
Closures continue, though we’re not in full stay-at-home mode yet like California, where its population of 40 million people (more than all of Canada) are literally being asked to stay home and not go anywhere unless it is for an essential service.
Here’s the latest bunch of things I can’t do:
Go out for dinner (all restaurants are closed except for take out and delivery)
Get a coffee (Starbucks is closed. Technically, I still can go because they are keeping stores close to emergency services open and there is one a few blocks from Royal Columbian hospital that’s open, so if society begins to totally collapse and I want a final oat fudge bar, I’m set. For now.)
Go to a playground in Vancouver (the ones in New West are still open for the time being, with signs basically telling kids not to play together which…uh, good luck with that?)
Go to work (work from home started on Wednesday; staff are only going in on an as-needed basis)
Buy groceries between 7-8 a.m. (reserved for seniors and those at risk, though I’d only shop this early if I was doing it in a dream, anyway)
Go to The Other 11 Months local NaNoWriMo weekly writing group (postponed indefinitely for obvious reasons, though I haven’t gone for quite awhile due to my extended writing slump)
But to not go all Negative Nellie, here are things I can do:
Grab a bunch of free games from services ranging from Apple’s App Store to gog.com
Buy Serif’s line of excellent Affinity software for 50% off
Go outside, provided I practice social distancing (as a bonus, the weather has finally been sunny and mild this week)
Ride the bus for free and enter through the rear doors (to promote social distancing)
Purchase a Nintendo Switch (just kidding, this thing is sold out everywhere)
Buy the new iPad Pro with LIDAR! Why would I want an iPad with LIDAR? I do not know.
The next phase of this pandemic will be interesting. Everyone will adjust to the restrictions and the novelty of it will keep things interesting for a few weeks. But I suspect a lot of people think it will also be over in a few weeks and if it’s not…what next? People lived through years of war, but in our hyper social media-dominated world, will we as a society have what it takes to keep it together if all of this starts stretching past weeks and into months?
Today at noon–the first day of spring (and a glorious early spring day it was)– I went to Save On Foods and found the toilet paper aisle empty, as usual. But at the end of the aisle there was a small pallet with a partly opened cardboard box…filled with Western Family toilet paper!
I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t been working from home and able to check over lunch they would have been out again after dinner, even with the new 1-per customer limit (down from 2-per just yesterday). I consider this acquisition a minor miracle, given the awesome panic and hoarding that is gripping the general public.
I am hoping this is the last time I feel a need to blog about toilet paper.
Also, here’s a quote from someone on Broken Forum:
On another topic, people have been stealing toilet paper out of the hospital bathrooms, because apparently humanity is beyond redemption, and also desperate enough to steal the single-ply industrial sandpaper they use there.
I went out on my TPQ (Toilet Paper Quest) again, since I had time at noon (today is the first day my department is working from home, which I will talk about in some other post). My TPQ ended with me once more empty-handed, left only with sadness. And jam. They had jam and it was on sale, so I bought some jam.
The empty toilet paper shelves have a new sign, though, so there is some small hope I might get some before the last three rolls get used:
Unless the sign means they only had two packages in total, which is also possible.
Those chili-style baked beans I posted about a few days ago were also gone. Desperate times, indeed.
And the meat section was nearly barren. Fittingly, a single, mask-clad woman was picking over what little was left.
Meatless in New West
I’m not really concerned yet, just annoyed and a little depressed at all the needless hoarding going on that is preventing others from getting anything at all. If the zombie apocalypse starts, I’m pointing the brain-eaters to the houses with all the toilet paper.
As of tomorrow, I am working from home until [no date specified]
Things I can’t do because they are closed:
Buy a book at Indigo
Buy an iPad at an Apple store
Buy a Surface Pro at a Microsoft store
See a movie at Landmark Cinemas
Have a stiff drink at any bar to try to forget about the pandemic
Exercise, go for a swim or play a sport at any indoor public facility
Things I can’t do because they are no longer allowed:
Gather with more than 50 people
Things that are still allowed:
Fretting
Worrying
Pacing back and forth
Checking your temperature
Did I mention fretting and worrying?
The whole thing still seems surreal, but the new wrinkle of working from home (which in a way is a relief as it allows me to avoid the long commute on public transit where I could be exposed to the virus or unwittingly expose it to others) has added a more tangible sense of yep, things have changed.
The question now is, for how long? Optimists say weeks, pessimists say months and I haven’t checked with the nihilists yet. I’m expecting that we will at least be edging into summer before anything resembling a sense of normalcy returns, and I consider that leaning toward the optimist side of things.
If the last week’s worth of posts haven’t tipped you off, the coronavirus is officially a big thing. This morning Prime Minster Trudeau announced fairly drastic restrictions on air travel and literally asked Canadians who are abroad to “come home.” He also urged everyone who can stay at home to do.
I write this while on my lunch break at work. 😛
The commute on the Expo Line of late has been less than ideal. With trains getting ever-more crowded I often find I can’t get a seat when I board at Sapperton (there are 15 more stations after Sapperton before I get out). It varies, but I usually get a seat anywhere from one to six stops later.
But not this morning! Instead I was able to get a seat entirely to myself. Luxury! Many other people also had seats to themselves. This not only never happens during the morning rush hour, it never happens on the morning rush hour ever. I mean, I have never seen it happen since I started riding the SkyTrain in 1986.
I finally got someone sitting beside me at Commercial-Broadway. Why I am not sure, as there was an empty seat across from me. This person began rooting around in her purse, digging through the many layers before finally finding what she was looking for: a surgical mask, which she then put on.
I would have facepalmed, but we’re not supposed to touch our faces now.
She switched seats at Main Street and I rode solo again for the rest of the trip.
The Canada Line was different with its itty-bitty under-capacity two-car trains, but even there I had a seat to myself for about half the trip.
I made it clear this morning that getting everyone working from home should be a top priority, as public transit is an excellent vector for spreading COVID-19 far and wide. I neither want to unwittingly spread it, nor catch it from someone who is similarly unaware they have it.
Also, some toilet paper would be nice. (Trudeau also told people to only buy what they need. He was very polite but the subtext was clear: Don’t be a greedy, hoarding a-hole.)
People have long mocked Trump’s use of orange tanning spray on his face–and rightly so, as it’s always looked terrible. It seems, though, that it has been getting even more heavily applied lately and the results are kind of disturbing. How could anyone think this is a good look? Especially with the beady pink eyes poking through like holes in a mask.
I mean, observe this still from a CBC News video:
This is the stuff of nightmares, which is apropos, I suppose, when it comes to Trump and everything he has bungled through his ineptitude, incompetence, lying and general corruption–such as the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.
I went shopping at the local grocer today and sure enough, no toilet paper to be had. This is not a surprise as they have likely not gotten a new shipment in yet, but it is irksome when you want to buy (not hoard) it. I expect there will be plenty of toilet paper for the first day after the shipment, then the shelves will be stripped bare again.
This will probably go on for a few more weeks. By then all the panic-buyers will be well-stocked, though irrational behavior may compel them to buy even more. Who knows.
I noticed that other stuff was disappearing, too. Hand sanitizer, of course, but also an entire section of fresh meat, boxed pasta and a large variety of canned goods.
Admittedly, the baked beans were on sale, so it was a good time to buy, anyway. The whole shelf was picked clean except for this:
In the coming zombie apocalypse no one wants to eat Chili Style beans.
Including me, actually.
There was also a single forlorn can of British Style beans that may have been missed because it was pushed back from the front of the shelf. It is probably gone now, after I moved it forward. Hail Britannia.
I saw one woman buying paper towels and just something about it made me think she was getting it as toilet paper substitute. I guess in desperate times you take desperate choose-your-own-size-sheets measures.
I am hoping this temporary madness ends soon, but it is a flickering sort of hope.
In just a single day since my last post, a lot has happened regarding the pandemic. After saying it has had minimal impact on me, I read tonight that UBC will “transition” to online classes as of Monday, March 16:
Effective Monday March 16, UBC classes will transition to online for the remainder of the term. UBC’s campuses will remain open and all university operations will continue as normal, as we transition. More info: https://t.co/IkwxYEYphdpic.twitter.com/JFl7tExjfR
Hours later, Langara tweeted a message that it was “working on plans to transition to online learning where possible”. Copycats! No date yet, though.
Langara is working on plans to transition to online learning where possible. Campus remains open and college operations continue as usual. More information will be provided as it comes available. We always post the latest on our website. https://t.co/8zYTgyzw14pic.twitter.com/c4hlNGsJMz
I have no idea how my job would be handled during any period where classes are virtual, but agree that if there are to be temporary closures, they should happen now when some mitigation is at least possible.
Today, Apple announced that the annual WWDC in June would be online-only, which was expected. They also announced that all stores outside China will be closed until March 27. I guess I won’t go window shopping for an iPad mini this weekend. Well, not at an Apple store, anyway. Although closing hundreds of stores seems surprising, most Apple stores tend to be jammed full of people, so they are kind of like cruise ships in terms of germ and virus transmission: easy and fast!
This whole situation is getting more and more surreal. But I’ll be brought back to reality tomorrow when I try to purchase toilet paper.
