Wednesday, April 08, 2020

PLAGUE REPORT UPDATE FROM STOCKTON, CA

by Bob Walsh

On Monday I went out grocery shopping. Still very little in the way of paper products and essentially no cleaning supplies. Also, for some reason or other dish washing soap is in short supply. Maybe they are converting production to hand sanitizer. Damned if I know. I got meat and eggs and bread and fresh fruit all with no problem. I was, however, disappointed in one thing. I got a brand new T-shirt, special ordered, with a plague flag on it. Not one person asked me what the hell it meant. Also now the formerly great state of California has decided that they do NOT want you to use reusable grocery bags and there is a big sign in front of Raley's saying DO NOT BRING REUSABLE BAGS INTO THE STORE.

You still have to wait in a line to get into Costco. That's OK, I do my grocery shopping at Raley's or Safeway. At the Costco in San Leandro, near where my sister lives, the line of cars got so bad it started to back onto the Nimitz Freeway.

I also had to drop my Saturn off to get a coolant leak fixed. I am too old and creaky to do major mechanical work any more, especially in the driveway in the cold and wet. They called back and said the water pump was leaking, which I sort of figured. Parts and labor will be less than $400, which is not unreasonable. With luck when they pressure test it there will be nothing else wrong. That is a nice little car.

On Tuesday I had to go out to pick up my car. All it needed was the water pump, less than $400 parts and labor. Stopped at the hardware store on the way to pick up some goodies. Noticeably light traffic still. I didn't see any horse-drawn wagons with a guy on board shouting "bring out your dead" so I guess all is well, or at least tolerable.

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