Out and About

I mentioned last week that I needed some things at Bulk Barn but was afraid to go there because it didn't sound very hygienic or safe during this time. Bulk bins of food possibly handled by anyone? No thanks. But Ron decided that the licorice I had been buying just wasn't the same, so I decided to give it a try.

When I arrived at the store, I waited briefly in line. When I got to the door, a staff member instructed me to clean my hands with hand sanitizer then join the line inside. I stood 6 feet away from the next person in line and we slowly moved forward. When I reached the end, there were plastic gloves to put on. I watched as another staff person wiped down the shopping cart handles. I was given a cart by a staff member, who then put his cart, full of clean metal scoops, in front of mine, so that we were at least six feet apart. His instructions to me were that I would tell him what I wanted and he would take me to that item and bag it for me. At no time would I touch anything.

So we progressed through the store, and I was glad I had a list! No browsing this time. I bought bread flour (not available at any grocery), dog biscuits, licorice and two kinds of chocolate-dipped cookies. The staff member was friendly and helpful and it was really quite enjoyable. He used a different metal scoop each time, and put the filled bags in my cart. I would hate to be the one to clean all those scoops! When I was done he took me to the cash, rang up my purchases, put them in a paper bag, and I paid by tapping my credit card. At the door I stopped, took off my gloves (which had not touched anything except the cart) and was free to go. I'll certainly go back again.

In other news, a few weeks ago I noticed a "funny" spot on our front lawn. Although it hadn't rained, the spot was damp and squishy. Ron and I discussed it for a while, then he said I'd better report it to the city. I did, and within an hour a city work crew arrived. They told me it was actually an emergency, a broken water main. They puttered around for a while, then more trucks and more crew arrived, along with some heavy machinery. For the next several hours they dug a massive hole, went down inside it, and did whatever they had to do to repair the leak. It was quite entertaining for all the dog walkers out for a stroll.

By nightfall the hole was gone, covered over with loads of gravel and soil. There were deep ruts where the backhoe had been. The foreman told me that a crew would come back to fix the lawn and reseed it, but not for a few weeks. He said to give it two weeks then phone and inquire where we were on the list. That might get someone back sooner.

So we waited two weeks, with Ron fussing that he couldn't mow the lawn properly with all that rock in the way. I said give it until the beginning of the week and they might put us on the schedule. On the following Monday I called, talked to a friendly man who was actually on a remote teleconference at the time but he put the others on mute and told me that we were on the list, but it would be a month before anyone could get to us. Oh. Ron was not best pleased.

Three hours later Ron called me to the window. "Look. Trucks!" There were indeed no fewer than four trucks of various sizes. Over the next three hours our front yard was transformed from a rocky moonscape to a freshly-seeded lawn. Yesterday for the first time Ron mowed our new grass sprouts.

Social isolation isn't boring at all!