Everyday Errands

I made it to the bank today and discovered why the line was so long. It's because they were only letting customers inside one at at time, and they would lock the door behind you and unlock it to let you out. I guess they didn't want the crowd to get out of control if someone flipped out at their bank account situation. There were a couple of national guard dudes outside for security. Is it just because I'm getting old, or do those guys all look really really young to be carrying around such big guns?

I also went to the grocery store. I'm so glad that it's open for business, but it was a little disturbing to see it so sparse. I guess you just get used to visiting a grocery store and expecting every shelf overflowing with abundant choices and tons of every kind of food you can imagine. I'd say they had about half of their normal inventory. In some ways it was quite calming not to have so many choices, and it made me appreciate what was there all the more.

There were plenty of canned goods, milk and meat, and as you can see from the photo, there are also plenty of Ore-Ida frozen potatoes. I didn't buy any of those. But I bought some hamburger to make Sloppy Joes and some stew meat to throw in the crock pot for a beef stew, but there is no way that I'm buying more than one or two days worth of meat ever again. Just call it "freezer-phobia!"

There were only a few people shopping, so maybe they didn't really need much inventory yet. You can see in this picture that there was either a big run on cheese (possibly to top off the MRE's that everyone is eating), or else the new cheese supply hadn't arrived yet. I only took one pack of cheese, and left the rest for someone else. Normally I would buy several and keep them in my freezer (ack!). There was definitely a run on bleach and baking soda. Luckily I stocked up on that stuff before we left Nashville.

Everyone is so busy working on our big Slidellian mess. People are being very nice and everyone is helping each other. I guess it does feel good to be back.