29 March 2020 (Day 10) - Our groceries from Real
Canadian Superstores finally came at 7 o’clock last night. Minus the loo roll.
Our poor neighbour, Christian, was on call most of the day, waiting for us to
tell him the shipment had arrived. Luckily, he and his partner are practicing
self-isolation too – just to be safe – and weren’t wanting to go anywhere
anyway.
Karen and I had seen a video, featuring a
Michigan-based doc explaining and demonstrating how to adapt hospital
sanitation practices to bringing purchased goods into the house in the middle
of a pandemic. They seemed sensible precautions and eminently do-able. It was
brought home to me just how sensible when I read a human-interest story in this
morning’s Toronto Star about the
death from C19 of a Real Canadian Superstores employee in Toronto.
The process was slightly hilarious, while being deadly
serious. In preparation, Karen disinfected two of our kitchen counters with
bleach. One would be the “dirty” space, one the “clean.” She filled one sink
next to the “dirty” counter with a mix of 1/3 cup bleach to five gallons of
water. Then she partially stripped down to save her top being damaged by the
bleach, and put on an apron.
When Christian knocked on our door to let us know he’d
put the groceries outside, I waited until he was safely back in his flat and
went out and got them. They came in five plastic grocery bags tied together at
the tops. (We had to pay for the bags, contrary to one thing we’d read.) I put
all the bags on the “dirty” counter where Karen was waiting, then I went and
washed my hands for two Happy Birthdays.
Karen took each item out and disinfected it. If it was
in a hard plastic, glass or cardboard container, she wiped it with the bleach
solution. If it was fresh produce, which a lot of it was, she took it out of
any packaging and submerged each piece in the bleach solution, then rinsed it again
thoroughly under the cold water tap. I was waiting with a clean tea towel and
dried the fruit or vegetable and put it away in the fridge. Or if I was occupied, she put the item on the clean counter.
One of the RCS bags was used to contain the others and
any discarded packaging. When we were finished, I took it out and put it down
the garbage chute across the hall. Then we both washed our hands for two Happy
Birthdays.
*
Except it didn’t solve the toilet paper problem. After
the grocery washing, Karen got on to the world wide internet and emailed our
two closest London friends. Could either spare us a few rolls until our
quarantine was over and we could get out to find more? One has kindly offered
to try and pick us up some when she next goes out on a shopping run. Thank
you, thank you, Patsy!
Given that toilet paper manufacturers assured the
public early on that they had adequate stocks on hand, it’s enraging that panic
buying and TP hoarding continue. I hope some of these assholes were hoping they’d
be able to sell on their surplus at exorbitant prices, because new anti-gouging
measures in Ontario come with hefty fines and jail time for offenders.
May the bastards rot in jail! Preferably TP-less.
*
Meanwhile, as the old joke goes, I have a drinking
problem...I can’t get enough. My usual evening tipple is a spritzed cider. I
had two left when we got back. They’re long gone. The LCBO no longer delivers
to homes, only to post offices. And their stocks of my favourite cider are so
low, I can’t even order online for delivery at a nearby store or post office.
So I’ll have to wait until Friday when I get out of the coop.
The purchase of two litres of Duty Free single malt on
the way back from England now seems a very prescient decision. Trouble is,
even at the very good price I paid for my Glenmorangie, it’s expensive stuff,
and I’m going through it at an alarming rate.
*
Desert
Island: Not for the faint of heart. Some find Beethoven’s
so-called Late String Quartets, written in 1825 when he was in failing health –
he died in 1827 at 56 – to be heavy going. I don’t. I find them thrilling.
This version, by Quartetto Italiano, a 1995 CD release
from Philips of recordings made before 1980, is the only one I know. There may
be better performances on disc out there, but this one does me fine. When I
first started listening 20 or more years ago, I often listened while I was
doing my morning exercises. It’s not...social
music.
Dirty
Hippy: A staple back in the day for dirty hippies and button-down
college kids alike. The hits were huge, but Peter, Paul & Mary were more
than the hits.
One of my most-played albums in the late 1960s and
1970s was a two-record best-of-PP&M set. It had all the early and
middle-period hits, plus additional material, including some cool concert
tracks. When I went looking for it last year to get music for a video I was
making for my brother Steve’s memorial, it was nowhere to be found. But I did
find this, which originally came out in 1970. The 1990 CD release must have
been completely re-engineered; I was blown away
by the sound quality, and how well the best songs stand up. The selection here also
includes “Stewball,” a great song that wasn’t
on my album.
*
The Cryptic Corner: Sister Pat gets the praise, again. The clue was, ““Cheese
made in this backward place (4)” Pat solved it correctly as Edam, the clue word
“made” spelled backwards.
The most common type of clue is the word-builder. The cryptic part of a clue becomes a recipe for
building an answer from ingredients. The trick is to correctly interpret which
are ingredients, which instructions, and which the non-cryptic clue.
Here’s a simple example: “A tailless dog causes a
commotion (3).” The conventional clue is ‘a commotion,’ which is ‘caused’ by
the cryptic part, ‘a tailless dog.’
Construct the answer by taking the ‘A’ from the first
word in the clue – this is a common trick in word-builders, to use an easily overlooked
element as a necessary ingredient – followed by ‘tailless D-O-G,’ i.e. the word ‘dog’ without its tail or last
letter.
Answer: ADO. Much ado: a big commotion.
Here’s another, “Fish with forthcoming marriage
announcement get away in all the confusion (7)”
*
Photos
of the Week: Official Cooped Portraits
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