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A Plowman on his Legs is higher than a Gentleman on his Knees.
Good-Will, like the Wind, bloweth where it listeth.
Usually Friday the 13th is supposed to be a day full of bad luck. I went to the local Lidl grocery store on Friday the 13th last month and I had the good luck to find this lovely sunset that provided all kinds of cool lighting effects on the clouds that were over the Lidl parking lot.
Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a Folly.
If worldly Goods cannot save me from Death, they ought not to hinder me of eternal Life.
As honest Hodge the Farmer sow’d his Field,
Chear’d with the Hope of future gain ‘would yield,
Two upstart Jacks in Office, proud and vain,
Come riding by, and thus insult the Swain:
You drudge and sweat, and labour here, Old Boy,
But we the Fruit of your hard Toil enjoy.
Belike you may, quoth Hodge, and but your Due,
For Gentlemen, ’tis Hemp I’m sowing now.
When I did my last Coronavirus post, I ended it with this song by The Cure called “Grinding Halt.”
Recent events is starting to resemble the lyrics to that song more and more. As of Monday all of the public libraries in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area will be completely closed until March 31, including the return book slots. The good news is that all of the late fees will be completely waived.
Today my church was going to have a pie social because today is March 14, which is also known as Pi Day, where there are usually all kinds of puns relating to Pi and pie. Unfortunately that pie social has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus. After reading various social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, it seems like Pi Day is definitely taking a backseat to the Coronavirus. In fact, I haven’t even come across a single post about Pi Day today. Pi Day does seem to be insignificant compared to something that is literally a life and death issue. Maybe Pi Day will make a comeback next year (assuming that the Coronavirus doesn’t kill us all). In the meantime I can just look at the photos from the only time I ever attended a Pi Day party five years ago.
Tomorrow I was going to have a busy day at church. There was going to be a special early morning Stewardship Breakfast (since this is the annual church canvass) where we would be served waffles before service. I was also supposed to serve as an usher for the service itself. In addition, I was going to speak to the people in charge of the program for teaching immigrants how to speak English because I had originally volunteered to be a teacher but I had to skip out on teaching due to the death of my mother last month.
But then the Stewardship Breakfast was cancelled, the Sunday school classes for kids have been suspended indefinitely and the English classes for immigrants have also been suspended. There was a possibility of still having a Sunday service with an optional Internet streaming for people who are unable to show up in person. But now the in-person Sunday service has been cancelled and the entire service will be only streamed live on the Internet. At least I won’t have to worry serving as an usher since that’s not going to happen.
The local community center in my town is now closed. Today I decided to drop by The Space (a non-profit makerspace and art studio) only to find that it is now closed. While AMC Theaters is still running movies, the locally-owned theater in my town is now closed until further notice. We are now advised to follow these five steps in order to limit our exposure to the Coronavirus.
I noticed that more and more of the store clerks are wearing rubber gloves these days. Every now and then I see someone walking around in public wearing a face mask, even though the World Health Organization says that face masks are only necessary if you are directly taking care of someone with the Coronavirus.
I’ve been doing some shopping over the last two days because I needed to pick up a few things. Especially toilet paper. Even though I still had enough toilet paper to last me another few days, I felt that I should pick up some extra rolls so I’ll have some on hand in case I somehow get stricken with the Coronavirus. I also needed to pick up some food, underpants, and socks. Usually I can achieve this by going to just one or two stores. Except it turned into more of an ordeal than usual.
First I went to Aldi where I was able to pick up some things but I couldn’t find toilet paper. I also wasn’t able to buy any meats, which I needed to do because I planned on making that Beef Stew With Guinness and Prunes for St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday. (Of course I also did the bulk of my shopping on Friday the 13th. LOL!)
I also decided to get some Primatene tablets because I have asthma (which only acts up if I’m either around cats too long or I eat something that I’m allergic to) and I’ve had more than my share of chest colds, bronchitis, and ever borderline pneumonia. I know that pneumonia is one of the symptoms of the Coronavirus. On top of it it’s springtime and I’ve been going through the usual mild cold and pollen allergy where I cough and sneeze. I had to literally educate myself about this Coronavirus in order to make sure that I’m going through the same things that I go through at this time each year and, so far, it looks like I’m just having a slight cold mixed with pollen allergy. (I currently don’t have a fever and I also don’t have a shortness of breath.)
Since Aldi doesn’t have much of a pharmacy section, I went to Walgreens, which had this sign on its front door.
I managed to pick up some Primatene tablets and the generic version of NyQuil. I also picked up some energy vitamins that were heavy on Vitamins B and C (they even had a sale where if you buy one bottle, you can get the second bottle free). Vitamin B is good for strengthening the immune system while Vitamin C is frequently used to battle the common cold. I thought about picking up some toilet paper while I was there only to find that they were sold out as well.
Afterwards I decided to go to Sarku Japan where I treated myself to a bento box that had chicken teriyaki, four dumplings, four California rolls, rice, and a salad with ginger dressing. That place wasn’t very crowded at all (there were three other people eating when I was there) and the employees all wore rubber gloves.
After dinner I decided to head to Lidl. I managed to snag the last of the beef that the store had on sale.
It was the same story at Lidl with empty shelves. I also didn’t find any toilet paper either.
Since I needed to buy socks and underwear I decided to go to Target and see if my luck would change with its grocery section. I saw that there is now Peeps creamer for your coffee.
The good news is that I was able to find socks and underwear. The bad news was that I still couldn’t find toilet paper.
Instead I purchased a bulk set of four boxes of facial tissues. I thought that they would be an adequate toilet paper substitute if I was in a real bind. But I also needed to purchase a few more items for my beef stew (mainly vegetables) but I wasn’t able to find what I needed at any of the stores I visited on Friday the 13th. I was growing tired so I decided to just head home.
The following day I decided to give Giant a try in the hopes that I could find the last of the items that I needed to buy. The good news was that I found the non-beef ingredients for my beef stew. The bad news was that the store had no toilet paper in stock. Giant also had its own bare shelves.
After my trip to Giant I ate a pizza lunch at Three Brothers Pizza. Once again that place wasn’t very crowded and the employees all wore rubber gloves. At this point I was ready to give up on the toilet paper until I had an idea. The same mall where the Giant is located also has a Dollar City & More store, which originated as one of those 99-cent stores but has since included items that cost more than 99 cents but is still lower than $10. After lunch I went to that store where I found a 12-pack of toilet paper for $9.99, which I promptly purchased. Dollar City also had a table with face masks, rubber gloves, and hand sanitizers available. There was also a sign saying that those items were only limited to no more than two per person. It seems fair since there have been stories of people actually loading their cars full of toilet paper, milk, and bread.
There is a lot of panic buying and it’s not a good thing because it penalizes people who legitimately need to buy these things but they can’t because some asshole had decided to buy several jugs of milk, several bottles of hand sanitizers, and other things.
It could be a lot worse. Today Spain has just declared a nationwide lockdown where everything is closed except for grocery stores and pharmacies.
I saw that Peeps is now a breakfast cereal. There is even a free board game on the back of the cereal.
There is also a new brand of cereal known as Llama Loops. They remind me of Fruit Loops, although I haven’t tried this cereal as of this writing.
I also saw some new menswear at the Why Not Fashion store (formerly known as the Why Not Boutique) in Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The Space—a makerspace and art studio located in Beltway Plaza Mall in Greenbelt, Maryland—had a birthday celebration for two of its volunteers who both celebrated their birthdays in February. As part of the festivities, there was a taco-shaped piñata.
I also shot a video of the festivities.
It had been a relatively mild winter this year with no snow at all. In a way it was good because I didn’t have to deal with shoveling the white stuff around. In a way it’s also bad because it indicates the fact that climate change is real and we only have a few short years before it becomes permanent.
In any case it was a relatively warm and mild sunny day with the temperature in the 50’s. I decided to treat myself to a walk along the Indian Creek Trail.
Much of the grasses were still brown and the trees were still bare so I ended up only taking one nature shot during my walk. I’m willing to bet that this same scene will be even lovelier to photograph by April or May.
After my walk I went to Target because I needed to pick up a few things. I also saw this men’s shirt that had tiny embroidered pink flamingoes.
I saw that Funko Pop now have a Peeps version based on the pink bunny.
And speaking of Peeps, there is now such a thing as Peeps cereal. That’s right, Peeps are now part of a “healthy” breakfast. LOL!
But that’s not all. Hershey Kisses is also now a breakfast cereal. LOL!
Sagittarius Dolly 
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