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This is Going to be Bad
What I observed doing “apocalypse shopping”
My wife has severely impaired lung function. She is on oxygen 24/7 and limited in what she can do physically. When they talk about how dangerous Coronavirus is for people with “underlying physical conditions” she’s one of those people. So, we have been isolating ourselves as much as possible since early February. Still, no matter how much you stock up, or how much you try to anticipate what you’ll need, it seems like something always gets forgotten, or used up, and you wind up having to go to the store.
Because going to the store has become difficult for her at the best of times, I’m the one who has been venturing out when we need something. It’s nerve wracking because I’m very aware that I could bring the infection home with me, so I take every precaution I can. Since the first cases were reported in our county about 7 days ago this has meant wearing a face mask, latex gloves, and using bleach wipes on every “high use” surface that I must touch. Still, I know, even with my doing all of that, there is a risk of my getting infected. But, you gotta do, what you gotta do and so I went to the store. Which is where things got weird.
I went to my local Safeway in the middle of the afternoon because I was hopeful it would be deserted. My first red flag was that the parking lot was half full. When you’re trying to…
