For those of us with an "underlying condition" that causes us to get "real sick real easy," March 2023 will mark three years of wearing masks most of the time and having our pockets bulge with hand sanitizer and anti-septic wipes. A personal note is that these many ounces of prevention has kept your not-so-humble-reviewer Covid-free the entire pandemic.
This also has involved absolutely no human contact since all this began. A horrific 2018 hospital stay and throwing up all over the bathroom floor and sitting on those cold tiles at 4:30 a.m. before recovering enough to clean up that mess in November 2021 were enough to train friends to flash the peace sign as greetings and goodbyes.
A big part of these precautions is winters of comfortable isolation that require spending most time at home and NEVER going in a store from mid-December until at least mid-March. This necessitates relying on the kindness of not-so-strangers to bring us highly perishable items.
YOU ARE THERE
The bigger picture this winter is the principle that it is not safe for anyone to go back into the Whole Foods. A personal experience is knowing two people who recently got Covid for the first time despite being properly boosted and taking other standard precautions. They unknowingly spread the disease before realizing that their condition was more serious than a bad cold.
On a larger level, we have a tridemic and many people are taking barely any precautions. An insidious "insult" that is added to this "injury" is that retailers (especially grocery stores) are cutting their expenses by grossly understaffing checkout lines. This is coercing shoppers to use filthy self-serve checkout lines that are proven health hazards.
Your not-so-humble-reviewer realizes that he is fortunate to have adequate funds to stock up on needs and several wants for a few months and to own a mid-size home with a large basement.
However, many folks with more limited means and smaller homes can adapt by mostly limiting their food supply to pastas, jarred sauces, and other non-perishables. They also can (as they already likely are doing) rely on heavily discounted streaming services, rather than a library of more than (largely used) 10,000 DVD and Blu-ray sets, for entertainment. The ad-free Hulu option is a personal fave.
The final substitute is opting for an e-reader subscription over a large library of (largely used) books. Getting library books and DVDs that may be as badly contaminated as a self-checkout touchscreen is not advised.
For the record, your not-so-humble reviewer is not a glutton. He is 5'8" and 150 pounds. He also consistently rides his Nordictrak bike at a mid-setting for an hour every other day.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
The unknown number of times that people have burned their hands on stoves or electrocuted themselves by sticking something in an outlet proves that we do not truly know something until we personally experience it. The most relevant personal example this time is that once was enough regarding taking out a cookie sheet that was being stored in an oven after that device was preheated.
The hope that the third time will be the charm as to the (hopefully last) third winter of comfortable isolation involves learning from mistakes. A desire to ride out any illness in the winter of 2020-21 resulted in throwing out $60 worth of expired NyQuil in September 2022. Roughly 90 granola bars from last winter got tossed a few weeks later.
The lesson goes behind this guilt-inducing waste. The sound principle is to be prepared but to not go overboard. A related concept is having what will bring you joy at a time that the larger world cannot provide it.
Merely having medicine if needed and every meal being a good one are two of the best experiences ever. Knowing that I have enough Trader Joe's holiday treats, including iced and blinged out shortbread cookies and curiously strong peppermint meringues, to last through March helps make the next few months bearable.
BEST OF TIMES AND WORST OF TIMES
Long experience has taught me that "special" movies and "treat" food are very therapeutic regarding both really bad days and have something to which to really look forward. Having ample supplies of these desired items make a winter of comfortable isolation bearable.
A triple-wrapped frozen portion of loved moist and buttermilky chicken tenders and french fries and rewatching the indie comedy "Such Good People" were needed after an aggravating day of arguing with Macy's overseas reps regarding a package that they refused to acknowledge had been jammed up. (Of course, Macy's sent an inquiry that night and the package got put back in the pipeline two days later.)
Decades of many Friday nights involving eating out and going to a movie is behind pulling Trader Joe's fare and other mid-range prepared foods from the auxiliary freezrer and digging into a stash of physical-media versions of recent releases at the end of every workweek. Knowing that that is coming really helps make it through each week.
This nurturing extends to having a large supply of spa-quality personal care products. Although the good folks at the UK-based ThisWorks sell the really good stuff, discount-chain Marshalls often has excellent stuff for $5 or so. A personal supply of Bliss products is proof of this.
A morning shower with a high-end body wash is the next best thing to an as-needed evening shower with a relaxing body wash and then getting into flannel boxers, thick flannel pajama pants with an animal print., a long-sleeved t-shirt, and a warm ratty robe. Every night ends with ThisWorks pillow spray helping get a sound sleep on quality bedding that is well worth a few extra bucks.
BABY I CAN DRIVE MY CAR
Two related lessons from the early days of the pandemic are that a car that is not regularly driven will get a dead battery and that take-out meals can bring great short- and long-term glee.
Even before our new normal, many mid-range chain restaurants had loyalty programs and family meals as well as decent curbside take-out services.
Ordering ahead provides a good excuse to get fresh air and give your car some exercise ("Speed Buggy" varoom-a-zoom-zoom sound effects are optional) and to bring home fresh food. A roughly $60-dollar family meal will provide a single person roughly one week of nicely anticipated tasty dinners and usually will bring a loyalty account at least 50-percent of the way toward a reward.
Driving other loops without getting out of your car also provides man and machine needed time outside the house.
WRAP UP
The bottom line this time is that we live in unprecedent times in which the greater world seems to be throwing increasing misery at us. This requires a Blitz mentality of keeping calm and carrying on at home as much as feasible while bombs fall all around.
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