Report from Costco in Utah today: H told me they were limiting every cart to a maximum of 5 cases bottled water per. Said it was packed, but that location typically is. Asked about any other shortages, but he said they didn’t notice any because they were just there for a few items.
Well thanks, I’ll check it out.
Well you know we have an 18 month old tabby, who actually owns the house and graciously allows us to live here!
As far as I’m concerned, cats are mother nature’s most fabulous creation, an apex predator, beautiful, proud smart and discerning,
one cat only, so I’m not a crazy cat lady…
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Have you been to Dutch? I’ve heard lots of stories from various people. A colleague I worked with lived there 4 years; bro spent a lot of time out there, but I really haven’t heard many from him, other than when they were breaking up ice, so as not to sink. My best friend in town knows some of the Deadliest Catch people well. I’m sure you’ve read The Perfect Storm? Loved that book, and am actually heading to Gloucester in May. We’re going to that bar where many scenes were filmed. Ipswich too, maybe Salem. For me it’s going to be all about the lobster and clams, and any and all seafood I can get my hands on. If I’m still around that is, which I should be if corona doesn’t get me. Not the best news at Doc’s I’m pretty damn compromised right now, I loaded all my medical worries on a container ship earlier today. It’s going to sink over the Marianas Trench I think. The container ship carrying the emotional baggage is docked at Macau, and will sink in a bad typhoon. 
Now hopefully some sleep before my early med appt tomorrow.
Best
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^ Recover well so you can do this!
You can eat clams and lobster to your heart’s delight, and see what remains of Gloucester’s rough-and-tumble seafaring ways. None of the towns you mention are big places and Cape Ann has a quirky charm all its own.
We can start a thread on places to eat if you do have plans to go. ETA: There’s already a short HO thread called “Cape Ann Eats” on this site that I can’t figure out how to link—on my tiny phone. You might want to do a fried clam crawl in Essex and Ipswich!
These towns you mention are among my happy places.
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I have not been to Dutch Harbor - it’s a bucket list entry. I’ve seen the movie Perfect Storm; I don’t think I read the book. I’ve been to Gloucester though. grin
I’m not much of a shellfish guy. The reason for eating lobster seems to be butter, and for mussels garlic. I haven’t figured out clams. There is no good reason for crabs. I think they’re like celery - you burn more calories getting at the food then you gain. I’m making mussels for my wife one night next week - she loves them (or the garlic).
Sorry your health is such a mess. You’re in my thoughts.
I have five trips in the next three months. Four of those are one-way rental cars at one or both ends. One means flying back so I’m a little wound up about that. Partly because I’m not very excited about planes right now, and mostly because I can’t drive home (there’s an ocean in the way) and don’t want to be stuck. Most commercial shipping (not cruise ships - real ships for containers, break bulk, and oil) will take passengers. I’m going to have to catch up on pricing. Time burner.
Circling back to topic - provisioning is going to be interesting. Really big shops in places I don’t live. Most of the trips are two shopping cart trips but the big one is a four or five cart trip. At sea there is no local store for fill-in groceries, so one missing item can completely mess up the meal plan. Feeding four people for a week or three away from the world has lots of unique attributes. This is not terribly different than what rural America a couple of hours from shopping deals with, only with hardly any storage and no long term shopping. I’m going to do more cooking ahead than usual.
My process is a meal plan with options (heavy weather mostly) and reserves and snacks. That turns into a shopping list. Nothing magic here. More attention to common ingredients and very limited buying ahead. The challenge is blowing into a town and going shopping when concerns over COVID-19 have people stocking up (or hoarding) and weird things are not available. I’m planning more than I usually do with substitutions and alternatives.
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Thank you.Why bottled water. Is there an assumption that the local water supply will be tainted?
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I can’t speak for @Lambchop. We keep water (I fill our own jugs) because we are on a well and if we lose power we lose water. I have a generator and gasoline but my run schedule is based on keeping the fridge and freezers cold and the house warm. Were I live is peninsular and we don’t have the power distribution infrastructure to switch around faults so when we lose power its gone until the fault is fixed. That already takes a while and if the utility is short staffed due to illness will take longer. During widespread outages we are dependent on out-of-state utility workers who may not come under current conditions.
20l of ice in our chest freezer at 5F adds a long time to our ability to sustain an outage.
Remember even a generator is no guarantee of power. Gas stations need power to pump gas. I have 15 gallons of fresh gas and we’re topping up cars at 5/8 - they are rolling gas tanks. There are some logistics there I won’t bore you with specific to us (well…me - I’m fussy).
Lambchop may have other motivations - these are mine.
Oh - I avoid single-use plastics so we fill our own large containers, decant, and dispense.
I think people are in panic mode, thinking civilization may collapse and infrastructure will fail. Always good to have extra on hand, especially for natural disasters, which are probably more likely to affect that. We are practically sitting on a huge subduction zone up here, and potential eruption of Mt Rainer, which would cause a deadly lahar. We don’t drink bottled water due to all the waste, and if you do lay in a goodly stock, they have to be managed and rotated.
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How nice of you to bring that up @tomatotomato, and for @LindaWhit to post the link. We may have a lunch or three out, but the group I’ll be with are all amazing cooks. But will add Cape Ann to the list, sounds fun and quaint, and like that it’s one of your “happy” places. We’ll also be in Boston for a day and night, and will possibly not be cooking. Think we might be staying at a Residence Inn and may cook if we have stuff to use before winging it back home.
Thanks again!
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If you ever do manage to make it out to Dutch, be sure to try the king crab there, freshly cooked or even frozen, if you get a chance. I’ve heard there are a couple really fabulous restaurants there, probably lots of pub food too. Huge portions usually, as it is in the far north as they do.
As an aside my dad flew in and out of the Aleutian archipelago all the time. As it suffers from some of the most extreme weather on the planet, he had many landings there, that ranged from hairy to nearly impossible. Although I’ve been around most of the state, including remote fly in places only, I’ve never made it to SW Alaska or the Aleutians. Not first on my bucket list, but would love to experience it.
Well, Gloucester is on Cape Ann so you’ll be there! A trip to look forward to.
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Well @tomatotomato, I should look at a map and find out more about it. I’m determined to go, it’s going to be great!
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This. Doctors in the family, and even they can’t get them even through direct mfg channels.
My biggest goals have been canned and frozen food, but more specifically variety - I remember all too well those college days of eating the same thing for four days in a row because a huge pot of something was cheaper.
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Surgeon General Adams has stated he considers masks to be a net negative as people find them uncomfortable and end up fiddling with them and touching their face. Fitting them properly is not hard but takes some training and practice.
As I think I’ve noted previously I do a lot of home canning which I find fun and is definitely productive. Making a couple of gallons of pasta sauce doesn’t take much longer than a quart.
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Meant to add to end of above post, the kid & SIL, may even be volunteering with clean up instead of a pleasure weekend, at least during the day. Hope this will be the case.
Had the difficult convo with stubborn old dad, he agreed with all my advice, will have advance directives, interlocking POA’s, H’s name added to trust. He knows I may not be able to travel and advocate, so got everything I need in case. It all makes me feel better to be prepared. Also asked him questions about family history, and other questions before it’s potentially too late. Never hurts and should have done it sooner.
Best to all.
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I’ve stocked up lemons, limes, and ginger. My favorite cocktail ingredients (other than the alcohol).
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WORD! I am now (how did THIS happen) the matriarch of my side of the family. The supposed font of family history and lore. And there are more questions I CAN’T answer than I can. Because i was too wrapped up in my own life to ask simple questions. And now there is no one to ask.
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