But there have been a few
times in these past weeks that something out of the ordinary has made my day!
Since I refuse to hoard it & I refuse to get up at 6 AM to stand in line
with other seniors to buy toilet paper, our supply was getting a little low. Last week
my sister called sounding somewhat excited. "Guess what I have? Toilet
paper!" she answered her own question. She had been to Costco &
offered to split the huge pack with me if I met her in Galt that afternoon.
Woo Hoo!! A forty mile road
trip outing! Now, that was exciting for sure. It seemed strange being on the
road longer than a few miles for my walk or grocery outings. I arrived first at
our agreed upon location, the McDonald's parking lot. While waiting I observed
a woman waiting in her car a few spaces away. Soon a man appeared, they
hugged & kissed before getting in her car & leaving. Oooh, was it an
illicit rendezvous? Then I watched a couple of old men wolf down their hamburgers in
their trucks before my sister arrived.
We kept our distance as I
handed her the folded up money & we loaded the toilet paper into my trunk.
She said, "We had better be careful we don't get robbed with all this
toilet paper." I was going to offer to buy us each a coffee in the drive
through but was already starting to feel the call of nature. And, you know
what? There is no where to use the bathroom with fast food lobbies &
convenience stores closing their facilities. But I made it home in time AND I
breezed through a section of the Capitol City Freeway that ALWAYS backs up without even
slowing down at 3:30 PM!
A few days later we visited
Lou's dad & ordered IHOP for brunch with free delivery & a discount to
boot. That reminds me of the bad joke - "Where did the one-legged waitress work? Answer: IHOP". Anyway, it took us longer to order the meals (especially with a slow
internet connection) than it did for them to deliver it. There was no human
contact. It was left on the porch, the bell rang & we waved to the delivery
person. The order was all correct & it was kind of hot. But, hey, that's
what microwaves are for. Right?
I was hell bent on using my $10 Kohl's cash before it expired along with my $5 reward but the stores are closed. I ordered two tops
online but they wanted to charge me $9 for shipping. No way! Then I saw that
our Kohl's had an order online & pick up at the store option. I received an
email with instructions - pull up in front of the store, call this number, do
not get out of your car or open your window, pop your trunk & the associate
would put your items in the trunk. It sounded like a real clandestine
operation. It all worked fine & I got my two tops for $2.47...SCORE!
Lou has been making model airplanes
to help pass the time in quarantine. He wanted to try airbrushing someday so I
bought him one for his birthday & gave it to him early. Of course, all his
models & paints had to be ordered online since no hobby stores are open.
Today his acrylic paints arrived & he was ready to begin experimenting with
his airbrush. The first thing he says is, "Do we have any distilled
water?" Apparently, it is needed to thin the paint & we didn't have
any. I grabbed my phone thinking it can't be that hard to make distilled water.
It isn't! After a couple of
tweaks, I figured out how to do it. You put a pan of about an inch of water on
the stove with an empty bowl in the center above the water level. Put the lid
on upside down so the condensed (distilled) water collects on the lid &
rolls to the middle where it drips into the bowl. To increase the steam
condensation put a few ice cubes on top of the lid. Within about 15 minutes I
had a couple tablespoons of distilled water for my sweetie. Ta-dah!
So, there you have it - a
trip to Galt to pick up toilet paper, a delivered IHOP meal, a Kohl's bargain
& learning how to make distilled water - were the most exciting events in
my week. Who knows what next week will bring? More Netflix, more reading, more
FaceTiming, more phone calls, more walks - definitely. And maybe if all that
gets too boring, I'll actually clean some closets & organize some
cupboards. Or maybe not. We'll see.
