Random 5 for April 5 – Clorox, necessities, deliveries, masks, flowers

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Times be weird – I went to bed last night with hand lotion on my hands. Even with the lotion they smelled like Clorox. That’s the new eau de perfume at my house. The cats are not happy about that and neither am I.

People have needs – And they are all different. We did our weekly shopping trip this week. The beloved husband’s favorite nut hut closed so he checked out the supply at the grocery store. He walked out with a ginormous bag of peanuts in the shell, a large can of salted cashews and a jar of shelled peanuts. I, on the other hand, got extra cat food and ordered a case of balsamic vinegar on the computer. It’s funny what we think we can’t live without.

Deliveries – We’ve gotten as much on-line as we can. This week in two separate shipments there were items we didn’t order. I had a small order (under $30) that included a $200 coat. Sadly it was not in my size and I sent it back. The beloved husband ordered tee-shirts and they came with a pair of pink ladies underwear (also sadly not my size or style but not worth sending back). Things must be hectic in the warehouses as I can’t remember this happening before.

The masquerade or not? – I live on the east coast (of US) where the pandemic is spiking. Washington has been leaderless but we’ve seen governors step up. After weeks of “should we or shouldn’t we” a call came out to wear face masks in public. It’s not so much to stop you from getting the virus but it helps stop the symptom-less carriers from spreading it. Unfortunately there are no face masks (not even the cheap ones for dust or allergies) to be had. YouTube has a lot of tutorials on how to make them out of any fabric (including men’s handkerchiefs) and rubber bands. Again necessity is the mother of invention.

Different times – Remember this?

This is the flower tent in full bloom

It’s our local Easter flower tent in years past. This is how it looks this year.

So how was your week?

79 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 5 – Clorox, necessities, deliveries, masks, flowers”

  1. Kate, I mentioned on one of your other posts how I will be venturing out tomorrow to a store for the first time in 30 days. I may be missing out on the pink ladies underwear or other unexpected surprises with not ordering supplies. Sad how the Easter flower tent looks this year. Yes, unfortunately times be weird.

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    • The tent is still up. They usually kept it up through May for bedding plants. Our curve has been flattening for several days so we may be on the downside although people get sick on the downside too. I’m trying to be hopeful that we will see a relaxing in May. No full because that would be scary so soon but easier access to some things. We have a local UPS store that refuses entry unless you are mailing food or drugs even if the package is just a drop off. People be nuts.

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  2. I was surprised to see a nursery fully stock their garden center about a week ago. Can’t be an essential business but people were walking round. When the flowers come it will probably be packed.

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    • We have one that is open for curbside and wondering outside only. Not sure how they qualify but they have a hardware section and hardware stores come under essential. Some others that just do plants are not open.

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  3. We are starting with the face masks in public too. Some bigger stores are handing them out for free at the entrance. I also just heard an expert saying a normal bandana folded around a simple paper towel is sufficient to stop 99% of the risk to others.
    About Amazon, I really pity those workers. I never got a wrong order before either. They must be so exhausted!

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  4. I don’t know about this wear a mask thing. I’ve tried to create one using a bandana but to no avail. Thus I’ve decided to order everything online, never interact in any way with other people in the grocery. As an introvert this isn’t as awful as it might sound to an extrovert!

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  5. Well, my human can wear a mask, but I refuse. I think I’ve successfully nursed her back to health! Eleven days and she’s feeling better. We cats are indispensable. I like to bat the peanut shells around. Good choice.

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  7. I came here this morning to comment and I had already liked the post. Don’t remember doing that! I must have gotten distracted which is pretty easy these days. I haven’t been anywhere in days maybe weeks to need a mask. SSNS did order two. I don’t know how that’s going to work. I get all anxious having something cover my nose and mouth. It is funny finding out what is really important to us, that we can’t live without… SSNS can’t live without his croissants from Croissant and Co and for me it is green olives. Sad seeing your flower tent buttoned up. Good Morning, Kate.

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    • I am still doing the grocery shopping for my brother and us. Not often but weekly. We go early morning and it’s not bad. This week many are wearing masks. Still some who aren’t. I do the best I can do.

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  8. My heart is aching for flowers to plant. I don’t even know if anyone has them this year. It is so sad. I have a few bulbs and flowering shrubs, but that doesn’t make up for the lack of annuals. I have a few dust masks from my emergency kit, but it says they are not to be used for virus protection. I can’t imagine that a bandana will help much either. I’m trying to figure out what to use as a filter, vacuum cleaner bags, furnace filters, swifters, coffee filters? It all seems ridiculous and useless.

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    • The purpose of the mask is not to protect you from the virus. They are incredibly small. Smaller than bacteria and they can go through most masks. It’s to stop you from spitting your cooties in the air. I made one with a double fabric and that’s it. We have pansies at some of the grocery stores but not many.

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  9. I did my first masking up yesterday – I had dust masks at home as I am allergic to dust, mold, and have Springtime allergies – I have mowed the lawn in Spring when everything comes out at once – leaves, grass, etc. I did get some looks and it was chilly so my glasses fogged up and I couldn’t tell if I was heading toward a black squirrel or a black store bag that had blown my way. Only one other person had their face covered – a wool scarf like you wear with an overcoat, tied over their nose/mouth. I am a little nervous walking with these latest stats – Metro Detroit is one of the hardest-hit areas of the world – yes world. There was a issue with not thinking our Governor was appreciative enough, so supplies withheld and our state’s disaster emergency was not acknowledged quickly enough. I love nuts – had a bad day one day and polished off the rest of my cashews. 🙂

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  10. I like balsamic vinegar. But a case? My strange need is nutpods creamer. I used to use half-and-half in my coffee. Now I’m cutting out the dairy, and nutpods is the best creamer–even better than half-and-half. I must have it.

    Your Easter flower tent is so sad! I’m feeling the need for more flowers.

    My late husband also had a pink panties experience. About 25 years ago, when China had only limited goods (instead of being the world’s manufacturer), Eugene flew there on a business trip. His suitcase got lost along the way, though. He mentioned not having extra underwear to his Chinese counterpart, who then sent someone out to shop. The only thing available in Beijing for his size was pink women’s panties, and that’s what he brought back.

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  11. I hope you had some good fun teasing your husband about those pink undies… you gotta find laughs anywhere you can these days 🙂 I’ve been making masks according to a few different patterns. I haven’t hit on the perfect combo of fit and fabric, but we have what we need, plus more to share with neighbors. At least I feel like I’m doing something.

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  12. My wife is going to make masks, but the material she wants to use (tea cloth, I believe), she had to order online (there’s a funny story in there somewhere, I suppose). So we opened the package of Lowe’s dust masks that we bought a few weeks ago, and put them on for a trip to the grocery store. She said my glasses were fogged up the entire time we were there. 🙂 I felt awkward the first few minutes, but honestly I forgot about the longer we were in there.

    Agreed: the governors have shown WAY more leadership. – Marty

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  13. The only flowers I’m gonna see will be along our dog walks. Still hunting for TP (need to find some s-o-o-n…I’m beginning to ration my rations) along with some ordinary staples that seem to be proverbially sold out. One thing I’ve noticed, I have no idea what day it is anymore without checking a calendar. They have begun to run together.

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    • The day thing — so true. Being retired we always laughed that we didn’t know what day it is but you knew a weekday from the weekend. Now it’s just continual days. Nothing to differentiate one from the next.

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  14. You might as well just tie a bandana around your face. Less trouble and works just as well.
    The trouble with masks ( we actually have some in the garage bought years ago for painting and mowing the yard when allergies are high ) – the problem is it’s already in the 90F temps here a couple of days each week and the darn things are hot! If I pass out from heat people will think I’m contagious!
    (Although even when it’s 90F you see so many wearing hoodies with the tops up…add a mask..and boy how is anyone to know if they are following guidelines or planning to rob the place…don’t laugh, it’s happening here already.)
    Sigh. I miss going out for plants, potting soil bags – and even mulch EVEN MULCH. how sad is that? HAHA

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  15. The plants! Ugh. I am trying, fairly unsuccessfully to plant seeds. I did order tomato plants a few months ago because I know my luck with seeds. I’m so excited for them to arrive in may. But part of the tradition of spring is walking through nurseries full of flowers. 😑 I think its one of the things that hurts most. No flower shopping.

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    • There are very simple ones involving rubber bands and there are some that involve materials you can’t buy now. I’ve made 3. I had to rework the first one because the dimensions didn’t work for us and what I had on hand. Since they need to be washed every time you use them, I’m all for keeping it simple. We’ll see what I come up with. If I can do something comfortable with handkerchiefs and rubber bands, that’s how I’ll go. The first one cut from a man’s tee-shirt (not undershirt) was too thick (the directions said to use two layers) to be comfortable.

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  17. My week??? Let’s see…I have stepped up my steps. That’s a very good thing. I started cleaning out my house. Getting rid of duplicate kitchen items. Like those spatulas that have the rough and chewed edges….that for who knows why I never parted with. (Even tho the new ones were right there!). Shredding paper…I mean, seriously do I care what my bp was in 2005???? It is my plan to get this house ready to sell. I am no where near ready to do that, but when I am I don’t want to have to even think about anything but moving on.

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  18. Maybe the pink underwear was a free gift? 🤣 my life has been weird even though I work from home and am use to being here all day. Can’t get used to ordering groceries online. My son has informed us we are in the elderly category. Bah Humbug! Stay safe, Kate!

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  19. Like some other readers, we still had face masks in our Emergency Kit (we live in an Earthquake zone). I have seen dust cloth masks (from China) on Amazon and homemade masks on Etsy. I am needle and thread-challenge, so if we run out of masks, it’s Etsy for me!

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  20. It’s surreal. Shame about the coat and underwear. Slots for home delivery are few and fr between, not that we have tried them as we are fortunate enough to be able to get out and do our shopping, for whatever is available, which doesn’t seem to be that much over the past couple of days. Maybe deliveries aren’t getting through as often or a much as they said. We know delivery drivers are exhausted.

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    • The heroes are the people we don’t normally think about. Besides all the medical people, it’s the delivery guys, the grocery workers, the garbage collectors (can you imagine how bad that would get without them especially as it heats up). It’s truly a reset for all of us.

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  21. The county that I work in, but don’t reside was sending out Tweets about supporting the community by coming to the farmer’s market. What the heck? I’m all of our local farmers, but those markets are jammed with people touching and smelling things. I restrained from jumping in on comment thread, but I really didn’t get what they were thinking.

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    • We did our local farmers market early on and there is no way you can distance there. Some of the suppliers (like the nut place) totally closed for the duration. I feel really badly for them all because the produce is perishable. They may have services that will shop for you but I didn’t investigate. We are only two people so we are good. We don’t need to go. I even have some tomatoes left for today’s dinner. There have been mixed messages all over as businesses are reeling from this.

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  22. My crafty friend JM is making masks. But there’s no elastic anywhere, so we’ve donated bungee cords. She’ll take off the casing and tease apart separate strands to use for mask production.

    We actually have a few of the good, surgical masks in our cars. Andy created emergency kits that has masks and water and batteries and I’m not sure what else for earthquakes and fires. I cannot tell you how proud he is of those kits. 🙂 Of course I want to send the unused 95N masks to my sister or some other healthcare workers once we get our made ones.

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    • We used to have the dust masks for woodworking. When my husband got a dust collector, he stopped using those. He has a gas mask for toxic fumes and a full Plexiglas face cover for welding. Nothing in-between. I’ve tinkered around a bit. I’m hoping it’s only for another 2 or 3 weeks and I don’t want to spend a lot of time. Amazingly I have some (not a lot) of elastic from back in the day when I did real sewing. Luckily the elastic was still good. Your husband should be proud. Many of us are wondering why we didn’t have a chocolate survival kit in the back room!

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  23. Are you diluting the bleach enough, Kate?
    Recommended for sanitizing: 5 Tablespooons to a Gallon of water or 4 tsp. to a Quart of water.

    I made a mask yesterday out of one of my grandmother’s hankies. I just folded it in half on the diagonal and fastened the points together with 2 rubber bands. It slips over my head without being clipped around my ears which would bug me. I left it around my neck on my walk, but pulled it up a few times to show people how I put it together.

    Someone suggested I add a coffee filter between the two layers, so I tucked one in there and it stayed in place without pins, glue, tape or staples.

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    • I’ve tried several different types but last night saw how you can connect rubber bands and have it go around the head. Yours may be the winner. My ears are very sensitive. I have trouble sometimes with glasses and have to be careful when I buy them. I think the point is that your spit doesn’t fly out so I don’t know if an extra filter is necessary but it can’t hurt. In general, I hate stuff on my face. I don’t even like wearing hats!
      Also the cleaner I’m using is a Clorox brand so I didn’t mix it. I’m finding it harsh on my hands so I may use gloves.

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  24. I saw a demonstration on my Facebook feed where a woman cut a hole in the middle of a diaper to put her neck through, then wrapped half the diaper around her mouth and nose and the back around her nape and head and fastened them together. My first thought was, “ingenious” (if you have them handy, of course:. My second thought was, “They are waterproof so how does any air get in through it so you can breathe?” I have a variety of pretty scarves that I used to wear around my neck to ‘pretty up’ a dress or blouse, but no longer do so because it makes me too hot. I suspect that I’m going to use them as my ‘masks’ for when I need to go out and about. Meanwhile, I’m continuing to be truly grateful for some outside space so at least I can go out for fresh air these days!

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    • I didn’t see the diaper one but I saw others. I tried the one with hair ties but found that it irritated my ears. I’m not a fan of tight neck and face coverings so this will be uncomfortable to say the least. I’m home except for the weekly grocery trip. I won’t use it for a walk as there aren’t many other walkers in my neighborhood.

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  25. I don’t care for the new normal either but we don’t have a lot of choice…..I do hate to see closed down shops and NO spring flowers and even some of our local restaurants that HAD offered curbside takeout have decided to err on the side of caution and have stopped that. Fine with us as we weren’t “eating out” anyway but a couple of friends who just plain do NOT cook resorted to curbside restaurant cruising and they will be upset. LOL I much prefer the OLD normal and look forward to the day we don’t have to talk about masks other than the Halloween kind!

    Safe Hugs, Pam

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    • Hear, hear! I just hope that new normal has some resemblance to the old normal. I’m sure some things will change permanently but maybe we can go back to the good ones (and hopefully the shops we love won’t go bankrupt).

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  26. My husband was very upset about not getting biscuits the other day. He insists he needs them to take his tablets. I take more than him and manage just fine without. If I had some flour I would make some. Our Prime Minister Boris has been out of action with the virus for the last week so we are not sure who is running the country. We don’t have to wear masks yet. I am not sure my sewing skills are up to it. I was very impressed when I went to the grocery store this morning staff were wiping the baskets. It is the first time I have seen that. The floor is marked out in 6 feet squares which makes shopping feel like a chess game. I keep expecting to meet the white queen.

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    • We have the 6′ marks on the floor too. I saw that in China they used a sprayer much like a garden sprayer to disinfect. I’ve wondered why they don’t do that here on the carts. They have to be germy even if it’s not “THE” virus.

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  27. We found a few old masks (unused) from past painting enterprises in our home, so those will do for now. Right now, we are ordering groceries online and not going anywhere. Just long dog walks daily to get steps in, exercise, and keep the pups happy. Since we can stay away from people on walks, no need for masks yet, but we have three in case we have to go to a store sometime.

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  28. Weird is becoming the new norm. I’m just trying to hide in my happy bubble until same semblance to norm returns.

    It’s funny you mentioned the garden centres because I was thinking about them. I was prepared to do yard work (which I hate), including prepping beds and planting … until I realized there was no point with the garden centres closed.

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    • One of our garden centers is seeking an exemption. Small and family owned. Everything is outside. Another one was doing curbside pick-up. The best part is picking out your own flowers and looking at the ones you don’t have room for. I hope they can sustain through this.

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    • I live near a hardware store which is allowed to be open. It has a range of gardening supplies, included potted plants, The reason for them to be allowed to be open is for people with sudden plumbing or electrical issues, of course, but they are at least making money from people buying everything to do with gardening, including lawn ornaments!

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      • I needed seed starting soil and was able to get it at a small hardware store. I was worried but there was only one other person in it when I was there and no contact. They didn’t have pansies but I saw that the grocery store near me does.

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