I had about a day and a half of relief and happiness after the result of the presidential election was called, and now I am back to feeling stressed, as we see a sizeable portion of the U.S. population refusing to believe the results, and some of our elected officials encouraging them in that; and our president building some sort of barrier around the White House and firing officials crucial to our national security and to a peaceful transfer of power, including the official who stood up to him on the topic of whether the president could turn our armed forces against our own citizens. It’s fine! It’s fine. I have two new hives, and it’s fine.
Well. I am trying not to borrow trouble. Sufficient unto the day, maybe stay offline and read a book, etc. But also, I went grocery shopping today to top up our supplies. I did a two-cart trip a few days before the election so that we could stay put for awhile if needed—but things have stretched on a bit, and we have still not reached the point at which, if there is going to be violence, the violence will happen. (Maybe it won’t happen! Maybe all this drama and wall-building and reality-rejecting and protocol-refusing will just…fizzle out! Maybe it’s fine!) Anyway I topped up our supplies.
One happy thing was that they had Diet Mountain Dew! They still didn’t have the 24-packs, but I bought Paul three 12-packs and he is a happy man. They also had Cadbury Caramello bars and Cadbury Fruit & Nut bars, which are my FAVORITES; all they’d had for months and months were the regular Cadbury bars, which I ALSO like and was very grateful to have, but it was lovely to see the ones I like even better. This was too small a thing to be worth mentioning before (they weren’t Emotional Support items), but it was really nice to see them.
Here is another small thing barely worth mentioning (which I say only in the fear that I will come across as picky and whiny and spoiled; if YOU have “small” things to mention, know that I will be RIVETED, and even MORE interested than in the bigger things): they did not have the little boxes of Gatorade Zero powder packets I like. I am not sporty, as you know, but on keto I have found zero-sugar sports drinks to be helpful if I feel icky. I also drink them if I have had any alcohol, to help reduce after-effects. There were still plenty of bottles of liquid Gatorade Zero and Powerade Zero, so it’s not like I have to suffer without—but the bottles take up so much room in the cart, so the little box was just such a satisfying efficiency, and they haven’t had them for my last few grocery-store trips, which is a little odd because they seem to have a good supply of other powdered drink mixes.
They had SNICKERDOODLE SmartFood popcorn. How can that be good? Yes, of course I bought a bag. I like to store up things like this to eat on my next Day Off.
They had NO crushed tomatoes. They had cans of tomato puree where the crushed ones should be. It’s fine, it’s fine. Even in normal times there are these little occasional gaps!
No familiar all-purpose sprays. No Lysol spray. No sanitizing wipes. There was a woman in the cleaning supply aisle talking aloud to her small child, saying “Let’s see, Mommy needs Lysol. Lysol, Lysol, Lysol. Where IS it? Are we in the wrong aisle?” I wondered if this were the first time in 8 months that she’d looked for it. I imagined her tracking down a clerk and asking where she could find it. Clerks probably thought they were long since done explaining the cleaning-supply situation.
Chicken looked normal: three normal pieces in a normal pack. No ground turkey, though. It’s fine! Even in normal times they were sometimes out of ground turkey.
Very low supplies of vegetarian meat substitutes, no fake chicken nuggets at all, but they DID have the Gardein Beefless Ground they usually don’t have.
Regular chicken nuggets seem to be increasing in variety and availability, though not totally up to normal (no chicken strips today, for example), but so much better than when it was down to dino nuggets and nothing else.
Paper towels were low-ish, and seemed to be only store-brand, but no limit.
I got three bricks of cream cheese, so now even if I don’t go shopping again until after Thanksgiving I can still make the chocolate-crusted pumpkin cheesecake, so THAT’S a relief. That was the only thing I wished last time that I’d gotten. Oh, and also a can of whipped cream. And golden raisins for the spice cake (I mince them so small they don’t even seem like raisins, because I do not very much like raisins but I like how they work with this cake)—OH SHOOT I forgot I need another cream cheese for the spice cake frosting! Well, I think I have a cream cheese in the freezer. And if not, that cake is also good with buttercream frosting.
Flour seems back to normal, and they still had yeast.
They had a big display of canned pumpkin, canned cranberry sauce, stuffing mixes, flour, sugars, and baking chocolate. I’d been a little panicky about baking chocolate when I couldn’t find any awhile back, but since then I’d been able to order it from Target; still, good to see it available again.
Do feel free to put your grocery-shopping notes here! My interest has not diminished.
