Thursday, March 26, 2020

Bored Spitless

I miss shopping, I miss leisurely strolling up and down the grocery store aisles to see if there is anything new or interesting.  Generally there is not, but one can always hope.  Now, we are in and out as if we were shoplifting. I also miss strolling through Williams Sonoma.  Next door to them is a West Elm (furniture) that recently opened.  Quelle domage.

We got up at 6:30 in the morning.  That's way too early for us.  By 7:00 we were at Safeway.  It was pretty much a waste of time.  No eggs, no paper products of any sort, limited produce.  There was meat in the meat counter, but nothing that we would buy.  We got some vegetables and other stuff and then left, and went to Fry's.  Fry's was stocked.  Produce looked good and there was a lot of it.  The had eggs, I got two packs of 18 eggs.  There was kleenex, no toilet paper.  We were able to procure 10 pounds of sugar, and 5 pounds of flour.  Safeway has neither.  So, I guess we're going to be shopping at Fry's.  The store drives us nuts because they play the music too loud, and then too frequently break in with exhortations to buy one thing or another.  They're owned by Kroger's, their warehouses must be better.  As we were self checking out, I looked over to the left and saw five packages of toilet paper sitting on the sill of the big front window.  They're the old fashioned really small rolls.  We got two packages.  We contemplated buying all of it, since no one was watching it, but decided that would be too anti-social.

Here it is, in all of its glory.


Now we will discuss lemons.  I'm giving Covid-19 and the administration a rest for a day.

Look at the size difference between our neighbor's lemons and ours.  Ours is the small one.  The big one is some sort of a Meyer lemon.  We don't know what our tree is.


I have a lot of lemons, they're taking up too much space in the refrigerator.  My eggs need space. I bought an citrus reamer on Amazon.  Allegedly it will catch the seeds and pulp, but it does not.  Pouring the juice through the colander removes most of the seeds.


I have enough room in the freezer for one ice tray, so I'm juicing and freezing for the long famine ahead.  No wait, that's the plague.  I just hate to see the lemons falling on the ground and rotting.  The neighbors left abruptly yesterday for Wisconsin.  We didn't know they were gone until we saw all of the blinds pulled.  So, we're harvesting; waste is bad.

Who knows what borosilicate glass is?  It's what Pyrex used to be made of.  It's not anymore, they went to soda-lime glass in 1998.  It's cheaper, it's also not as resilient to thermal shock as borosilicate glass.  The glass can, and sometimes does, explode.  Gizmodo did a very interesting article about exploding Pyrex.

Also interesting is the fact that Ford is using their seat ventilation fans to make respirators for medical people.  Road and Track did an article about it.  They're using drill battery backs to run the fans.  GM is developing the hoods.  That's pretty cool.

That's it!  That's all I've got.

8 comments:

  1. We like grocery shopping too, I hate seeing all the shelves so empty.

    Usually Meyer lemons are very smooth, thin skinned and fairly small to medium sized and relatively sweet. Those large lemons just might be another type, perhaps Eureka.

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  2. Yup .... Fry's is the name of the game and they are winning!! Congrats on the eggs and TP. LOVE your stock of lemons. What a great idea to freeze the juice. I'm wondering if the taste is the sam between the big and little.
    I did not know that about Pyrex. That's probably why so many are cracking when used in Instant Pots. Also interesting about the car companies making ventilator parts. VERY cool!!

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  3. Exploding Pyrex?! Well that's a new one on me! It's interesting how one store is better able to manage stock and inventory than another. Glad you got your eggs and the TP! I continue to be amused that toilet paper is in shortage all over the planet. It exposes the fundamental insecurities of humankind, doesn't it?

    Meyer lemons are big but there's a lot of skin on 'em, too. I bet your little ones are more pungent.

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  4. You were lucky to grab that tp. I just went to Safeway and found nothing I needed except eggs. I think I'll head to Whole Foods and AJ's in a little while and see if I have any better luck.

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  5. apparently you can tell the difference between the new pyrex and the old pyrex; one is in caps, the other lower case but i don't remember which is which. suppose I could look on one of my old pyrex dishes. that is a big yucca. it must be pretty amazing when it blooms. our HEB here and in fact all the stores in Texas are doing a great job because when the earliest news came out about the coming pandemic, they got busy stocking their warehouses to insure that people would be able to get the food they need.

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  6. Come summer you will have some mighty fine lemonade. ready at hand.
    I'm testing myself and not going grocery shopping until next week. I am most curious what I will find.

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  7. Another idea for your lemons. Wash the skins well, slice and put a slice into each ice cube tray section, fill with water, freeze. Then, you have a lemon slice in your water when you want ice. I cut my slices a bit thick and give each a hard squeeze into the cube section.

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