In for a Penny...
21/04/20 07:04
In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. I'm all bluster when it comes to telling Nancy that it is her turn to take her life into her own hands and get into the store and buy her mother the things that make her mother happy. Mrs G doesn't ask for much so it shouldn't be that difficult. All she asks for is caramel flavored Nips and Scali bread. Truth be told, it's going to be a cold day in hell before Nancy gets the job done. I can get on my high horse day in and day out and it's not going to change a thing.
It's also true that I am hard pressed to go into the store for other items and if I am passing those very same items on the shelves while doing my shopping that I wouldn't think about putting them in my basket. Nancy wouldn't hold it against me if I didn't do just that but knowing what I know about how pleased she would be if I did do it typically results in my not giving it a second thought. I know, I know. This is getting very convoluted. Some of that is a function of the time of day and some of it is caffeine related.
Don't think for a moment that I don't see the smile on Mrs G's face when we tell her over the phone that we're dropping off a care package of Nips and Scali bread. She's not my mother, but it's a powerful motivator nonetheless. I think it gives Nancy pleasure as well to make the announcement so there is a chain of events that starts with the purchase of the goodies and lasts right up to the moment Nancy and I drop them off at the guard station at her facility. I can hear the guard man now. "What are you dropping off today, folks"?
Is more of everything better? How many boxes of Nips is too many boxes and how many loaves of bread is too many loaves? While we want Mrs G to have a sufficient stash of the things she enjoys during these difficult times, there is probably such a thing as too much.
Maybe not so with the boxes of candy, other than the fact that I feel a little self conscious clearing the store shelves of their stock and then stacking the boxes 2 and 3 boxes high on the conveyor belt at the checkout counter while people in line behind me give me a funny look, so I limited my most recent purchase to seven boxes. As for the Scali bread, I suggested to Nancy that she check with her mother to see just how many loaves she might have room for in her freezer. Yes, that should do the trick.
I'm not sure which parable is more appropriate under the circumstances but it's a toss-up between the parable of the loaves and fishes and parable about mana from Heaven. And then there is the wine from water business. We bought Mrs G a couple of bottles of wine maybe a month ago. She explicitly requested a certain kind of wine with a screw-on top at the time. I remember thinking to myself that maybe this isn't the best of the best that money can buy but I'm not the one drinking it so there's that.
Corkscrews might as well be sledgehammers when you reach certain age. You can't wield the damn things worth a hoot so what good are they? It's better to have something more manageable and if that means buying wine that may not be all that pleasing to the palate then so be it. You can get used to a lot of things when push comes to shove. And let's face it, after the requisite number of sips or slugs, you've moved on. Your online chess game is about to begin and your world is about as warm and fuzzy as it's ever been. It's all good.
But there hasn't been any discussion of topping off her wine stock so we're not sure where we're going with that. Has she not asked because she doesn't want us to know how much she's been drinking? I, for one, was surprised to hear from the outset that she was running low on wine and with the pandemic and all she was concerned about not having wine on hand. I've never seen the woman with so much as a glass of wine in her hand in all the time I've known her so something has gone, well in a word, sideways.
Nancy tells me that the pandemic is supposed to reach peak here in New Hampshire this week. She was talking to me yesterday as well about the obituaries in the Boston Globe and the pandemic related fatalities and I was a little curious to have a look at those same obituaries. I was wanting to see for myself that the victims were as reported mostly elderly, mostly infirm, mostly minorities with underlying conditions, and with very few exceptions indeed, very young. Having looked this morning, it was hard to tell one way or another.
There was something going on with testing at Mrs G's facility when we stopped by with our care package yesterday. They are, according to Mrs G, apparently testing all the employees and all the residents for antibodies or other evidence of the virus. It seems to me that they would have to do that day in and day out in order to keep the virus at bay and I think that doesn't work on a lot of different levels. People of every stripe are constantly coming and going from the facility and each and every one of them is potentially a vector of transmission.
We noticed a few children without masks running down the path and through the woods in the perimeter surrounding the facility when we arrived late in the afternoon. How is it that their parents would allow their children to get within pissing distance of the facility not knowing what or whom their potentially diseased but asymptomatic children might be infecting? The masked teenager standing guard at the guard post paid them scant attention but held us at bay with the usual inquiries. Suffice it to say, Nancy was not happy.
But, we've since moved on. Promises made, promises kept. Maybe next time we'll mix it up and get Mrs G a few boxes of chocolate parfait flavored Nips instead of the standard caramel flavored ones she seems to prefer. She mentioned last night during our phone call that the facility was asking if each of the residents might like to have a little something delivered directly to their doorstep. Her boyfriend, and I use that term advisedly, wanted nothing more than a Moes sub from a local sub shop. Another acquaintance asked for a bag of potting soil.
I don't know if Mrs G was bringing it up because she was looking for a few good ideas or maybe she was simply wanting to make the point that the management team at the facility was going out of their way and she wanted to share that with us. She had nothing in particular in mind and we had no suggestions for her so we left it that she would give it a little more thought and that was that. We mentioned that Evan was delighted to receive the card she sent him for Easter and she was pleased to get that feedback. Life goes on.
In Covid-19 related news, we have around 50 deaths thus far here in New Hampshire. Half of those deaths occurred in nursing homes which maybe shouldn't surprise anyone. This virus is not killing healthy people by and large so let's move on. Let's hope Governor Sununu declares the state open for business soon so we can all get back to doing what we were doing before this stay at home nonsense began. Short of a vaccine or miracle therapy, we'll be doing the social distancing thing for a while and we'll probably be wearing masks while out and about.
Lastly, we're keeping an eye out for our "relief" checks promised by the government. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they will probably just disappear into the swill of debits and credits that defines our bank account these days when they finally arrive. There will be no ticker tape parade, no hooting and hollering, and no proposing of toasts to celebrate the arrival of said funds. We should carve out a subsidy for a local food bank at a minimum so someone less fortunate can sit down to a square meal or two in a time of need. No further fanfare is required. No need to ask, what would Jesus do. It's done.
It's also true that I am hard pressed to go into the store for other items and if I am passing those very same items on the shelves while doing my shopping that I wouldn't think about putting them in my basket. Nancy wouldn't hold it against me if I didn't do just that but knowing what I know about how pleased she would be if I did do it typically results in my not giving it a second thought. I know, I know. This is getting very convoluted. Some of that is a function of the time of day and some of it is caffeine related.
Don't think for a moment that I don't see the smile on Mrs G's face when we tell her over the phone that we're dropping off a care package of Nips and Scali bread. She's not my mother, but it's a powerful motivator nonetheless. I think it gives Nancy pleasure as well to make the announcement so there is a chain of events that starts with the purchase of the goodies and lasts right up to the moment Nancy and I drop them off at the guard station at her facility. I can hear the guard man now. "What are you dropping off today, folks"?
Is more of everything better? How many boxes of Nips is too many boxes and how many loaves of bread is too many loaves? While we want Mrs G to have a sufficient stash of the things she enjoys during these difficult times, there is probably such a thing as too much.
Maybe not so with the boxes of candy, other than the fact that I feel a little self conscious clearing the store shelves of their stock and then stacking the boxes 2 and 3 boxes high on the conveyor belt at the checkout counter while people in line behind me give me a funny look, so I limited my most recent purchase to seven boxes. As for the Scali bread, I suggested to Nancy that she check with her mother to see just how many loaves she might have room for in her freezer. Yes, that should do the trick.
I'm not sure which parable is more appropriate under the circumstances but it's a toss-up between the parable of the loaves and fishes and parable about mana from Heaven. And then there is the wine from water business. We bought Mrs G a couple of bottles of wine maybe a month ago. She explicitly requested a certain kind of wine with a screw-on top at the time. I remember thinking to myself that maybe this isn't the best of the best that money can buy but I'm not the one drinking it so there's that.
Corkscrews might as well be sledgehammers when you reach certain age. You can't wield the damn things worth a hoot so what good are they? It's better to have something more manageable and if that means buying wine that may not be all that pleasing to the palate then so be it. You can get used to a lot of things when push comes to shove. And let's face it, after the requisite number of sips or slugs, you've moved on. Your online chess game is about to begin and your world is about as warm and fuzzy as it's ever been. It's all good.
But there hasn't been any discussion of topping off her wine stock so we're not sure where we're going with that. Has she not asked because she doesn't want us to know how much she's been drinking? I, for one, was surprised to hear from the outset that she was running low on wine and with the pandemic and all she was concerned about not having wine on hand. I've never seen the woman with so much as a glass of wine in her hand in all the time I've known her so something has gone, well in a word, sideways.
Nancy tells me that the pandemic is supposed to reach peak here in New Hampshire this week. She was talking to me yesterday as well about the obituaries in the Boston Globe and the pandemic related fatalities and I was a little curious to have a look at those same obituaries. I was wanting to see for myself that the victims were as reported mostly elderly, mostly infirm, mostly minorities with underlying conditions, and with very few exceptions indeed, very young. Having looked this morning, it was hard to tell one way or another.
There was something going on with testing at Mrs G's facility when we stopped by with our care package yesterday. They are, according to Mrs G, apparently testing all the employees and all the residents for antibodies or other evidence of the virus. It seems to me that they would have to do that day in and day out in order to keep the virus at bay and I think that doesn't work on a lot of different levels. People of every stripe are constantly coming and going from the facility and each and every one of them is potentially a vector of transmission.
We noticed a few children without masks running down the path and through the woods in the perimeter surrounding the facility when we arrived late in the afternoon. How is it that their parents would allow their children to get within pissing distance of the facility not knowing what or whom their potentially diseased but asymptomatic children might be infecting? The masked teenager standing guard at the guard post paid them scant attention but held us at bay with the usual inquiries. Suffice it to say, Nancy was not happy.
But, we've since moved on. Promises made, promises kept. Maybe next time we'll mix it up and get Mrs G a few boxes of chocolate parfait flavored Nips instead of the standard caramel flavored ones she seems to prefer. She mentioned last night during our phone call that the facility was asking if each of the residents might like to have a little something delivered directly to their doorstep. Her boyfriend, and I use that term advisedly, wanted nothing more than a Moes sub from a local sub shop. Another acquaintance asked for a bag of potting soil.
I don't know if Mrs G was bringing it up because she was looking for a few good ideas or maybe she was simply wanting to make the point that the management team at the facility was going out of their way and she wanted to share that with us. She had nothing in particular in mind and we had no suggestions for her so we left it that she would give it a little more thought and that was that. We mentioned that Evan was delighted to receive the card she sent him for Easter and she was pleased to get that feedback. Life goes on.
In Covid-19 related news, we have around 50 deaths thus far here in New Hampshire. Half of those deaths occurred in nursing homes which maybe shouldn't surprise anyone. This virus is not killing healthy people by and large so let's move on. Let's hope Governor Sununu declares the state open for business soon so we can all get back to doing what we were doing before this stay at home nonsense began. Short of a vaccine or miracle therapy, we'll be doing the social distancing thing for a while and we'll probably be wearing masks while out and about.
Lastly, we're keeping an eye out for our "relief" checks promised by the government. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they will probably just disappear into the swill of debits and credits that defines our bank account these days when they finally arrive. There will be no ticker tape parade, no hooting and hollering, and no proposing of toasts to celebrate the arrival of said funds. We should carve out a subsidy for a local food bank at a minimum so someone less fortunate can sit down to a square meal or two in a time of need. No further fanfare is required. No need to ask, what would Jesus do. It's done.