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Coronavirus
thoughts:
There’s a bluegrass festival in Marana
today; Kim mentioned it sounded like something he’d enjoy and I’m always up for
something new so we thought about going....head over on the bikes, enjoy some
music, and just hang out together.
However, in my excitement about experiencing another small town event, I
forgot the ‘stay out of large groups’ precaution concerning the spreading of
COVID-19. Will this be a ‘large event’ and
will we be able to practice ‘social distancing’ by staying 6 feet away from
others? These are the questions I never
thought about a week ago when planning how to spend my day out here and now
suddenly it’s necessary. I don’t intend
to give into fear and panic but certainly want to be cautious about
exposure. It’s a fine line to walk for
sure.
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It seems a campground is a good place to
practice social distancing yet not become a hermit. We’re here for another two weeks and while I
don’t think COVID-19 is going away anytime soon, our time out here and then
driving home matches some of the time precautions states are making in regards
to school closings, etc. I’m fairly
spontaneous when it comes to what we do and where we go...now I have to be
smart about it, too. This is going to be
hard.
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This morning Kim says, “I want to go to
Wal-Mart.” What do we need? “Oh,
nothing...I just want to see the toilet paper isle.” Seriously?!
That sounds like an old person thing to do...Hey, honey, let’s go on down to
Wal-Mart and look at bare shelves. “Well,
I just want to see the craziness for myself.”
Oh, boy!
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We did indeed go to Coolidge to do some shopping. I went to Walgreen’s to print pictures; Kim
went to Walmart to buy a new clock and something else. He met a young man coming out of the store
who said, “You really don’t want to go in there. Checkout lines are halfway through the
stores...even the self-check lanes are crazy.
No water and toilet paper, either.
Yeah, I wouldn’t go in there.”
Kim returned to Walgreen’s very quickly...as it turns out he really didn’t
want to see the craziness for himself. J No water or toilet paper in Walgreen’s either...but
they did have my kind of pop on sale 3 for $10.00 with a rewards card. Cha-ching!!
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Picked up a few groceries at Safeway but not
toilet paper or water because the shelves are bare. Toilet paper I don’t
particularly care about as the campground has plenty on hand. I
usually walk up to use the restroom because I get more steps that way. We've been drinking bottled water the
entire time we’ve been out here...maybe we’ll be drinking faucet water when we
run out. And OMGoodness! people were grumbling
about those empty shelves. Not at the
store for not having enough but about the people who are panicking and possibly
hoarding. This is a weird time...
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Yesterday Julie and Ed, our neighbors across
from our site were suddenly making preparations for leaving. They’re from South
Dakota and were planning on staying until the end of March. Ed was the one who was pushing to leave, Julie
wanted to stay...it’s still winter-ish back in SD and she’s digging this nice
Arizona weather. He said he was
concerned about COVID-19 but it’s Julie opinion that he’s homesick. Regardless,
this morning their site was empty.
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Since our time at crowd activities will be
curtailed, I’ve been trying to find other ways to enjoy what Arizona has to
offer. I don’t mind sitting for part of
the day, reading or walking or stalking the birds in the saguaro...but I have
to do something out away from the trailer each day also. It’s just who I am; so we’ll take rides in
the truck or on the bikes, do some more geocaching, or some more hiking. Get out but stay away from crowds.
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 |
| Smaller than a regular roll.... |
We didn’t have a particular destination in
mind when we started out today on the bikes.
My request was to stop at the IGA in Eloy first to buy some piggy cookies. After I grabbed the cookies I wandered over
to the toilet paper aisle just to see. Lo
and behold! there were about 6 packages of the skinniest rolls of toilet paper
I’d ever seen....6 rolls per package...135 sheets of 2-ply tissue per roll. Each
sheet is less than 4” x 4”. It’s enough
for about ½ day with kids in the house. The tiny-ness of the rolls amused me so I
bought a package for the trailer...or maybe just for the novelty of it. 😏
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Tonight my mom is flying into the
Phoenix/Mesa airport. We made the reservations back in January and the
coronavirus wasn’t even on our radar screen at that time. Thought the weather would be the determining
factor of whether she came or not.
Flying today was not a decision she made lightly...she gave it a lot of
thought, we texted/talked over the past couple of days and ultimately she decided
that if the plane was flying then she was going to be on it. I did tell her to bring disinfectant wipes to
wipe down every surface before she touched it.
This a woman who knows how to keep things clean, believe me. I was taking my dirty clothes off at the back
door years before it was suggested as a way to prevent coronavirus from
entering a house.
Anyway, it’s a three hour flight with no lay
overs and the airlines are probably more sanitary at this point than they’ve
ever been in history. And based on
Allegiant recently waiving fees for ticket changes, it’ll be interesting to see
how many people are on her flight.
Showing her around this part of Arizona will
give me something to do besides sit around the trailer. 👍
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Kim is a happy camper because the sky is
supposed to be clear until about 1 a.m.; the moon is also a non-factor these
days. The last few days the nights have
been cloudy so imaging had to be put on the back burner until it cleared
up. Tonight’s the night and Whirlpool
Galaxy is his target.
A couple of years ago Kim bought a used
scope off Craig’s List. The former owner
had used stick-on letters to name the scope; he named it Philotheus, which means
friend of God. Always thought that was pretty clever. Anyway, Kim brought Phil along as an outreach
tool; tonight he set Phil /up so people could see Jupiter. It’s amazing how many people wander back
there to see what Kim is doing. When he’s
imaging he can’t let them look through the scope he’s using but with Phil out
there people have the opportunity to look through a scope and be amazed. 🌟
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Bike miles today: 98
Total miles: 1129
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