Feeding the birds
I got up this morning and decided to feed the birds.
I've decided to meet surreal with surreal.
As I opened the Amazon box of bird food that had arrived yesterday it reminded me of my own version of panic food shopping that happened back at the start of March.
I was over visiting my dear Californian friends, who'll I'll call the M&Ms, on leap-year day - February 29 - and even back then all we talked about what the virus. We had all listened to an excellent podcast from the New York Times called 'The Daily' on Feb 27 that discussed 'how threatening is the outbreak, really?' with NYT health reporter Donald McNeil Jr (who has a fantastic reassuring voice even as he says things like:
On hearing the podcast I thought about getting some supplies in and next time I was in the store had added a four pack of chicken noodle soup cans to my shopping cart. Sigh. Ridiculous.
But now I had the M&Ms' list as a starting point, and somehow that made it so much easier. Reading other people's experiences helped too - this is a good article. Richard had a simplistic approach: go to the Indian Cash and Carry and buy the biggest sacks of rice and lentils and we're done. The M&M's list had fun stuff (Oreos, marshmallows, chocolate chips) but also mysterious stuff (3 liters of canola oil?!). Interestingly none of our lists initially had things like toilet paper and cleaning supplies - but that did pop into our heads later on. The best line I read about panic toilet paper shopping was that people weren't thinking about preserving their lives but instead about preserving their lifestyles. [Alas, I can't find the source for I read that but will keep looking.]
I decided to do my pan-ic-demic shopping online through Amazon. For the next few days the kids would get excited as more and more boxes arrived, but on opening they were disappointed to find things like 24 cans of chicken noodle soup (that's better!) and 12 cans of Heinz English-style baked beans. Bit more excited to find Oreos, marshmallows, and choc chips. I did also get modest sacks of rice and lentils.
By the time I did go to the stores to buy things I'd forgotten or hadn't been able to get through Amazon - like hand sanitizer, cold meds, and cleaning products - I was too late:
Trying to find such things online was also interesting. I took these screen shots on the morning of March 4 over the course of about forty minutes on Amazon.
Within a day or so Amazon cracked down on profiteering but it was interesting to see it happening in real time.
So now we have a cupboard and our Emergency Stash box reassuringly full of supplies. I find it rather bizarre that - if you've read my earlier post about preparing for wildfires and earthquakes - in the space of the last six months I've now prepared for us to both flee the house at a moment's notice and stay in the house for a prolonged sojourn.
Looking back through my photos to find some for this post it struck me again just how quickly things are changing - just a few weeks ago I went with our youngest and 25 kids on a school field trip to Santa Cruz, we were seeing friends for walks, hangouts, or dinner regularly, my parents were visiting from the UK and I took them to the airport to say goodbye.
I think this is the point I really want to get across to my family and friends in the UK and Canada. When it all seems silly and over the top - that is a good time to get your supplies in and make plans! Even when we were feeling silly it was a bit too late. Back in February and the start of March you could do an online food order in the morning and have it delivered that evening - e.g. round here Amazon-Prime members can get free same-day delivery from Wholefoods, and Safeway also has pretty low-cost delivery options.
But that is not the case anymore - since Sunday I've been trying to get an Amazon delivery slot and there are none available. Safeway had a slot eight days away that I grabbed - and am glad I did because now there are no available slots.
Shopping in stores has changed as well - apparently long lines are forming outside supermarkets since they are limiting the number of people allowed in at a time e.g. our local Trader Joe's is only allowing 25 people at a time, and everyone has to wash hands before going in.
We are actually running low on staples and need to go to the store. So now the dilemma arrives: do we go to the store with the entailed risks or dip into the Emergency Stash?! We quickly agreed that we were not even close to taking from the Stash. We save that for when... no, I'm going to be hopeful and say if... a time comes that we can't go out at all or there is no food in the stores.
---
Here are the lists in case this helps you jumpstart your shopping - I've since added lots of things that aren't on these lists like cat food and treats, kitty litter, surface cleaner, dishwasher stuff, hand washing stuff, laundry detergent, toilet paper (but a modest amount! Don't go crazy), period supplies, tylenol, kids tylenol, tea, coffee, toothpaste, ramen, more ramen... you will think of more. Someone, somewhere (Martha Stewart or Oprah?) has probably published the definitive lifestyle-preserving pandemic list!
I've decided to meet surreal with surreal.
As I opened the Amazon box of bird food that had arrived yesterday it reminded me of my own version of panic food shopping that happened back at the start of March.
I was over visiting my dear Californian friends, who'll I'll call the M&Ms, on leap-year day - February 29 - and even back then all we talked about what the virus. We had all listened to an excellent podcast from the New York Times called 'The Daily' on Feb 27 that discussed 'how threatening is the outbreak, really?' with NYT health reporter Donald McNeil Jr (who has a fantastic reassuring voice even as he says things like:
"(on being asked 'how many epidemics have you covered?) SARS, MERS, bird flu, 2009 swine flu, Zika. Dengue and chikungunya didn’t really become epidemics. And also I’ve covered H.I.V., although that started long before my time as a health reporter. And seasonal flu. Have I forgotten anything? That’s enough, right?"and
"I’m trying to bring a sense that if things don’t change, a lot of us might die. If you have 300 relatively close friends and acquaintances, six of them would die in a 2.5 percent mortality situation."What really struck us all was when he said,
"I always have about a month’s worth of food in the basement, because that’s the kind of person I am. I’ll probably order some more of my heart — you know, blood pressure medicine, you know, so that I have another 90-day supply."On hearing this, the M&Ms, being sensible people had sat down that night and made a shopping list for a month's supply of food. And then they went out and shopped. At ten'o'clock at night. They also bought a special container and packed it all away. Done.
On hearing the podcast I thought about getting some supplies in and next time I was in the store had added a four pack of chicken noodle soup cans to my shopping cart. Sigh. Ridiculous.
But now I had the M&Ms' list as a starting point, and somehow that made it so much easier. Reading other people's experiences helped too - this is a good article. Richard had a simplistic approach: go to the Indian Cash and Carry and buy the biggest sacks of rice and lentils and we're done. The M&M's list had fun stuff (Oreos, marshmallows, chocolate chips) but also mysterious stuff (3 liters of canola oil?!). Interestingly none of our lists initially had things like toilet paper and cleaning supplies - but that did pop into our heads later on. The best line I read about panic toilet paper shopping was that people weren't thinking about preserving their lives but instead about preserving their lifestyles. [Alas, I can't find the source for I read that but will keep looking.]
I decided to do my pan-ic-demic shopping online through Amazon. For the next few days the kids would get excited as more and more boxes arrived, but on opening they were disappointed to find things like 24 cans of chicken noodle soup (that's better!) and 12 cans of Heinz English-style baked beans. Bit more excited to find Oreos, marshmallows, and choc chips. I did also get modest sacks of rice and lentils.
By the time I did go to the stores to buy things I'd forgotten or hadn't been able to get through Amazon - like hand sanitizer, cold meds, and cleaning products - I was too late:
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Within a day or so Amazon cracked down on profiteering but it was interesting to see it happening in real time.
So now we have a cupboard and our Emergency Stash box reassuringly full of supplies. I find it rather bizarre that - if you've read my earlier post about preparing for wildfires and earthquakes - in the space of the last six months I've now prepared for us to both flee the house at a moment's notice and stay in the house for a prolonged sojourn.
Looking back through my photos to find some for this post it struck me again just how quickly things are changing - just a few weeks ago I went with our youngest and 25 kids on a school field trip to Santa Cruz, we were seeing friends for walks, hangouts, or dinner regularly, my parents were visiting from the UK and I took them to the airport to say goodbye.
I think this is the point I really want to get across to my family and friends in the UK and Canada. When it all seems silly and over the top - that is a good time to get your supplies in and make plans! Even when we were feeling silly it was a bit too late. Back in February and the start of March you could do an online food order in the morning and have it delivered that evening - e.g. round here Amazon-Prime members can get free same-day delivery from Wholefoods, and Safeway also has pretty low-cost delivery options.
But that is not the case anymore - since Sunday I've been trying to get an Amazon delivery slot and there are none available. Safeway had a slot eight days away that I grabbed - and am glad I did because now there are no available slots.
Shopping in stores has changed as well - apparently long lines are forming outside supermarkets since they are limiting the number of people allowed in at a time e.g. our local Trader Joe's is only allowing 25 people at a time, and everyone has to wash hands before going in.
We are actually running low on staples and need to go to the store. So now the dilemma arrives: do we go to the store with the entailed risks or dip into the Emergency Stash?! We quickly agreed that we were not even close to taking from the Stash. We save that for when... no, I'm going to be hopeful and say if... a time comes that we can't go out at all or there is no food in the stores.
Meanwhile, we are very very fortunate in one way. Our garden is full of fruit trees. At the moment we are harvesting oranges and grapefruit. Come the summer, barring some sort dramatic ecological disaster (yikes - what next! Oh wait - we're already having a dramatic ecological disaster!) there will be loquats, plums, peaches, pomegranates, and apples.
Oops - that really does sound like gloating. The point is, my friends, grown your own! From my limited experience growing stuff up in Vancouver things like peas, zukes, parsley, chard, broccoli, lettuce, potatoes were all super easy to grow!
Oops - that really does sound like gloating. The point is, my friends, grown your own! From my limited experience growing stuff up in Vancouver things like peas, zukes, parsley, chard, broccoli, lettuce, potatoes were all super easy to grow!
---
Here are the lists in case this helps you jumpstart your shopping - I've since added lots of things that aren't on these lists like cat food and treats, kitty litter, surface cleaner, dishwasher stuff, hand washing stuff, laundry detergent, toilet paper (but a modest amount! Don't go crazy), period supplies, tylenol, kids tylenol, tea, coffee, toothpaste, ramen, more ramen... you will think of more. Someone, somewhere (Martha Stewart or Oprah?) has probably published the definitive lifestyle-preserving pandemic list!
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| The M&M list |
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