An Unplanned Trip To The Supermarket
Yesterday afternoon, while Sheila was making a cheesecake for today's Thanksgiving Day of overeating (although, I do want some of that cheesecake even if it does over-stuff me later today), she dropped the entire canister of sugar on the floor and it suddenly shattered into pieces with a loud crash and even a few choice words. Now we had no sugar in the house yet we both needed sugar for things that each of us was making for Thanksgiving. This meant we would need to venture out of the house to go to the virus-laden supermarket.
As any sane person would expect, we've been avoiding the market as much as possible in an attempt to stay as healthy as possible so we weren't too happy about having to head into a place that could be referred to as 'viral headquarters'.
Instead of making ourselves vulnerable to this viral pandemic, we always have our groceries delivered to the house. Unfortunately, it was too late in the day at this point to have anything delivered to the house so we would need to make the trip to the supermarket ourselves this time. To make matters worse, it was the evening before Thanksgiving so we knew it would probably not be a pleasant experience.
The first thing we noticed when we pulled into the parking lot was that the store was indeed crowded. The second thing we noticed was a significant number of out-of-state license plates on cars. This meant people were not abiding by the common sense public safety rules especially the rules about the requirement for out-of-state visitors to quarantine for two weeks before they have any contact with Vermonters or to simply opt to stay home. Instead, it seems as though they all drove up here to Vermont and immediately walked through a crowded supermarket exposing as many people as possible to whatever they may have brought with them from more densely infected locales.
In the store, it seemed like every other person was dressed in their Sunday-best clothes which is something we never even see here on Sundays in Vermont. This was a clear indication that people were visiting people in other homes and that they were probably from out-of-state based on the license plates we saw outside and the Sunday-best clothes we never see in Vermont. This was also a clear indication that yet another rule was being broken needlessly risking further spread of this deadly virus.
The supermarkets up here have wisely designated each aisle a one-way aisle to avoid face-to-face passing and to minimize close contact with other shoppers. Half the people were ignoring the big arrows on the floor indicating which way to walk in each one-way aisle (yet this is something any three year old can adeptly navigate) which constantly put them within arm's reach of other shoppers, face-to-face. I kept my mouth shut but what I was saying in my head to myself was "idiots", "morons", "thoughtless ignoramuses", "puny little gnat-like pathetic viral breeders", "narcissistic pea-brained twits" and even more colorful thoughts.
Not only did we have to expose ourselves to all these ignorant, thoughtless out-of-state visitors but, when we walked down the baking aisle (again, maneuvering around morons walking the opposite direction that all the big aisle direction arrows made clear to anyone with a conscious or half a brain) we found ourselves shockingly staring at a long stretch of empty shelves where the sugar was supposed to be located. Uggg. Down on the next set of shelves, Sheila found an expensive small box of sugar instead of the usual 5 lb bag so the trip wasn't in vain. Sheila grabbed everything that was left... two small boxes.
While we were exposing ourselves to this virus-infested wonderland, we figured we might as well throw a few other items in our cart that we knew we would need in the coming week or so. Unfortunately, there were a lot of empty shelves so compromises needed to be made. We did manage to get a few things and the good news is that we managed to get at least some sugar which is what prompted this risky trip to the supermarket in the first place.
When we arrived back home, we washed up, thoroughly, then washed again, and then Sheila continued making her cheesecake.
I'll share a few more photos of the finished cheesecake sometime this weekend. This cheesecake will be topped with fresh lemon-blueberry topping... it should be delicious!
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