March 25 – “Senior citizen corona-humor”

We made our way to the senior citizens hour over at WalMart yesterday.  Six in the morning.  Well, a little after.  Chris actually got up and was ready to go just a little after.  I was quite proud of her.  And, man, there are a lot of us old coots here on the island.

When we arrived we were handed a special treat at the door.  Surgical gloves.  Didn’t expect that.  I’m not sure, but I think the greeter was also supposed to screen out the youngsters who might try to sneak in.  We didn’t get carded, though.  Guess we looked the part.  I did see one of the older fire fighters.  Great guy.  I gave him a hug.  He looked like he really needed it.  Besides … he’s family.

Out of curiosity more than anything we went back to the toilet paper aisle first.  We weren’t in a TP crisis yet.  Good thing.  The aisle was already empty.  They said more would be delivered around noon.  Here’s a funny TP story for you.  As we scanned the nearly bare canned goods shelves, we heard an old gent (about our age) say to his wife, “You better keep your hand on that cart.  Someone might try to steal that toilet paper.  In a playful mood, Chris acted like she was nabbing the package.  We all laughed.  Senior citizen corona-humor.  As we walked away from them, the guy whispered, “You can find some over in the RV camping section.”  Intrigued, I told Chris I would go check it out while she continued shopping.  I made the long trek to the other side of the store.  It took me a while, but I finally found the new location of the RV stuff.  And sure enough, there was a secret stash of the special, quick-dissolving toilet paper.  Not a whole lot of it, but it was there nonetheless.  I went ahead and grabbed a package in case someone we know runs short, or in case this quarantine lasts longer or gets more severe.  Guess that officially makes us hoarders of one package of RV toilet paper. 

Now on my way to said secret stash, I just happened to walk past the movie section of the store.  Totally by coincidence, I assure you.  And totally beyond my control, not one, but two different movies leapt from the shelf and embedded themselves into my left hand.  Not I have arthritis in that thumb, so it was extremely difficult for me to fend them off.  After great struggle, I finally gave in and allowed them to join me in the TP search.  And when our search was successful, I completely forgot they were still locked in that arthritic grip.  When I returned to our basket and dropped in the toilet paper, the movies miraculously released themselves from my hand and joined the rest of the goods.  And as every child who has ever gone shopping with Mom knows, whatever ends up in the basket at the checkout counter has a better than average chance of joining you on the trip home.  In this case I think quarantine got the better of Chris’ usual judgment.  We made it home with both movies.  Yes.

Psalms 94:19 says, “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.”

Father, thank you for our little excursion.  And be with my fire department friend.  Amen.