I woke up today having a minor sore throat. In normal times I wouldn't worry about it in a million years. I didn't see any doctors as far as I remember. The only thing that defeats me is coughing. But still, I just need to force myself to rest for a few days and it will go away.
My spirit has been high. I have been stocking up on respirators because some friends needed them overseas. Somebody got all of it in January but the price online is still manageable. I kept two boxes because nobody wanted them because they are still expensive. I even managed to cancel some orders.
The problem at the time was that people will be alarmed if you wear a mask. They think you are very sick and should go to the hospital or stay at home, not on the streets.
That was January. When the mask shortage shows, I actually drove to a local hospital to donate a box. It was actually not that local. My city has almost the lowest confirmed cases per capita in the county, which in turn is very low in the state. Last week or so we have only a few confirmed cases. And my city wasn't even on the map when I moved here. People still used maps then and my friends couldn't find me, not until the maps were updated and they throw out their old maps, which people don't do.
When the mask order came, I was relieved that if I even need to venture out, the stores will be safer. The problem is, they are still effectively public shaming people for wearing N95 respirators. That's not fair for people who are prepared. I have most of a box left since the SARS days. Never used it. It could be somewhere in the garage. I saved two for each one in the family and donated the rest, in case we are forced to go to dangerous places. Two for rotation in case we need to reuse it.
It was a compromise because at the time no reuse method was researched. Now it seems that an oven at 160F will do the job. And that the virus won't live for more than 3 days.
Anyway, I'm not losing sleep on it. I didn't choose to mail my donations to the worst-hit areas because it's like choosing who lives and who dies. And the recipient will probably keep the whole box for his/her family.
And I have the workplace ones instead of the medical ones. The difference is that my N95 have a valve for easy breathing out. It won't protect the patients from the doctors, who are very likely to carry the virus when PPE are far from enough. Ethically, my N95's are useless in hospitals.
The mask order is still a good thing. I have tried to disguise my N95 with a covering mask! The bonus is that the N95 protects me while the cloth cover protects others. But still, people will stay away from me because I look like an unprepared idiot. The other problem is that I only have 1 N95, the rest are N100's. They are very easy to fit over the face but they are too big to disguise.
I have been using grocery delivery services for years. I tried them all. Amazon fresh was decent when I had money. The others aren't worth it. They mark up the prices. They charge a delivery fee and you have to tip.
I signed up for the Walmart pickup service when they were first available. They don't mark up the prices. And surprisingly, not only that it was a free service, the staff aren't even allowed to receive tips! Eventually, I switched over to the delivery service late last year because the time saved for not driving to the store will pay for itself. It's a pity that they don't give preference to loyal old customers but let everybody sign up. It was working properly till March I think. Then the last order was booked a week in advance. Now it wasn't even possible to book anything. I should have my refund for the one-year subscription.
Walmart has surprisingly enough organic and health food. It's not obvious in the stores but you can search for them online. The other service I use now and then PrimeNow. The food is healthy (Whole Foods) and expensive, but I can imagine that they mark up the price as in other stores like Ralph. So it's not that bad. I can't tell the difference between Amazon Fresh other than that Fresh cost some $300 a year. I still use PrimeNow now and then because I can get anything in stock in two hours. When Walmart failed totally, PrimeNow still has delivery windows available if you check often. But now it is as useless as Walmart.
In my desperation, I tried Ralph, because they have a window a few days ahead. And everything was available (other than TP and IPA). I know they markup the price and you have to pay delivery fee and mandatory tips. It becomes attractive when all else failed. But it was a total failure. I think Ralph closed on Easter without telling Instacart, their delivery partner. Ralph didn't try to even fix it; I called support, the supervisor and the supervisor's supervisor. Basically, they just canceled the order and made another order for me so I have to wait a few more days. I could have done it myself without wasting time on the phone. The wait time is like an hour. I refused to call the Instacart support because Ralph should fix that for me without waiting another hour. And they are probably giving me the runaround when I get through.
Finally, the supervisor's supervisor put me on the Instacart support queue before cutting me off. Honestly, it wasn't a long wait. The support staff did give me a delivery window a few days ahead. I was about to be a broken record complaining about that before Easter I received a message promising the first available shopper. The fact is that they never stopped taking orders since then and now giving me the next available window a few days ahead. She seemed to get that and Ralph may have left a note on my account. A 4-hour delivery window was opened that started a few minutes after I hang up.
Ralph is my favorite store because its own organic label is very affordable and the variety is as good as their non-organic counterparts. Just that I have to go to the store to shop myself. Otherwise, it's not worth the price. Even for delivery in the crisis, most things were in stock or have substitutions available. Not so much for the other stores. My tip is not to order alcohol because they don't waive for the sign off requirement. And don't allow substitutions. It's a waste of time. The shoppers won't know about anything. You have to supervise using messaging if you want to get something decent.
Surprisingly, Target wins. But it's a bit confusing. Pickup is you walking into the store. Drive-up is they taking your goods out to your car. And there is delivery that their own Shipt. I have a same-day delivery window when all else failed. They don't have organic food but who cares if you have food instead of nothing. Drive-up is best when they know to just dump everything into the car and let you leave without doing anything. Lowes give you papers to sign off when you just ordered a tape and the girl wasn't even wearing a mask nor gloves. Walmart failed. Pickup is not too bad when there is at most one or two people in line at odd times. But I think both are excluded for wet groceries, that is exclusive to delivery. Again it's not bad when Amazon makes you wait for a week for non-essential goods. You can get a shower curtain in the Target parking lot in an hour or two.
All in all, I haven't been to the grocery store since Jan. Except that I went into a random Smart and Final when I was adjusting to the fact that I don't get next delivery anymore. It was dinner time and no other customers were at the checkout. There wasn't much left but enough New York steaks and fresh Salmon. Also, I found plenty of spaghetti but I was only allowed one. The other store is the CVS drugstore. I check if their website is correct in saying that that was stock. Websites are usually wrong but I just happened to find 3 small bottles. I could have taken them all in the evenings but I asked if there was a limit per customer. Indeed there was.
The other challenge is the disinfection supply. I didn't think I have a problem because I always have some hydrogen peroxide and isopropyl alcohol at home for cleaning other than wounds. I am so disappointed that people don't read labels. Anything else is careful not to use the word disinfection but sanitization instead. The word air is taken out all product names because you cannot disinfect the air by spraying. Most bleach products are hazardous to humans and pets. And that you have to wet hard surfaces for 10 minutes before allowing for air dry. Basically, they are useless; you are better off washing the hard surface with soap. There is no guarantee for anything soft or porous.
So H2O2 diluted to 0.5% is as good as anything else when you can afford to get things wet. But the problem is you cannot apply it to skin. It's a lot less corrosive to the skin compared with 3% straight from the bottle. But it's a bit dangerous when the wet surface is drying. You can apply IPA on skin without much damage and it's fast drying. The alcohol will go first before water. But even 100% alcohol isn't that damaging.
H2O2 isn't easy to get in the shops but plenty at Amazon the time I ordered, a box of it. IPA is impossible. Finally, I settled on one indoor alcohol fuel. It's over 90% ethanol, the drinkable alcohol that is a lot safer than IPA. A few % of IPA and a few % of undisclosed that is not suitable for use on skin. But that's OK. I still have a big bottle of hand sanitizer and a bottle of IPA to make it if needed. But I have soaps. I have one bottle that hospitals uses for surgery. And my own simple formula allow me to wash my hands 10 times an hour without feeling bad on the skin. The box of fuel will last me a long time, only used when H2O2 is not suitable. I have everything I need for months.
And the TP thing. It's not an issue. I have plenty. I ordered one 24 packs whenever they were available. The last packs were from dollar stores. I still have two packs. There are plenty of commercial paper towels. If the worst comes to the worst, everybody can put their used paper towel into a small trash bag and dump it in the big bin in the yard. I don't see any problem with it. It's a lot worse to lineup in the stores to get some.
I was so relieved when school was closed and shops were closed. It's a lot easier to keep everybody safe. I banned take-outs too. There's only one route into the house, grocery delivery. It has been weeks of effective isolation and everybody is well.
Then all of a sudden I got a very mild sore throat. That makes me wonder is it possible something went wrong undetected? The girl at the Lowes parking lot? The time I went into Target to pickup a bottle of soy sauce? Did I not disinfect the grocery packaging enough with an ozone generator? Did somebody touch things from Amazon that I labeled "do not touch"? Or did I eat too much potent stir fry? Tomorrow is another day.
My spirit has been high. I have been stocking up on respirators because some friends needed them overseas. Somebody got all of it in January but the price online is still manageable. I kept two boxes because nobody wanted them because they are still expensive. I even managed to cancel some orders.
The problem at the time was that people will be alarmed if you wear a mask. They think you are very sick and should go to the hospital or stay at home, not on the streets.
That was January. When the mask shortage shows, I actually drove to a local hospital to donate a box. It was actually not that local. My city has almost the lowest confirmed cases per capita in the county, which in turn is very low in the state. Last week or so we have only a few confirmed cases. And my city wasn't even on the map when I moved here. People still used maps then and my friends couldn't find me, not until the maps were updated and they throw out their old maps, which people don't do.
When the mask order came, I was relieved that if I even need to venture out, the stores will be safer. The problem is, they are still effectively public shaming people for wearing N95 respirators. That's not fair for people who are prepared. I have most of a box left since the SARS days. Never used it. It could be somewhere in the garage. I saved two for each one in the family and donated the rest, in case we are forced to go to dangerous places. Two for rotation in case we need to reuse it.
It was a compromise because at the time no reuse method was researched. Now it seems that an oven at 160F will do the job. And that the virus won't live for more than 3 days.
Anyway, I'm not losing sleep on it. I didn't choose to mail my donations to the worst-hit areas because it's like choosing who lives and who dies. And the recipient will probably keep the whole box for his/her family.
And I have the workplace ones instead of the medical ones. The difference is that my N95 have a valve for easy breathing out. It won't protect the patients from the doctors, who are very likely to carry the virus when PPE are far from enough. Ethically, my N95's are useless in hospitals.
The mask order is still a good thing. I have tried to disguise my N95 with a covering mask! The bonus is that the N95 protects me while the cloth cover protects others. But still, people will stay away from me because I look like an unprepared idiot. The other problem is that I only have 1 N95, the rest are N100's. They are very easy to fit over the face but they are too big to disguise.
I have been using grocery delivery services for years. I tried them all. Amazon fresh was decent when I had money. The others aren't worth it. They mark up the prices. They charge a delivery fee and you have to tip.
I signed up for the Walmart pickup service when they were first available. They don't mark up the prices. And surprisingly, not only that it was a free service, the staff aren't even allowed to receive tips! Eventually, I switched over to the delivery service late last year because the time saved for not driving to the store will pay for itself. It's a pity that they don't give preference to loyal old customers but let everybody sign up. It was working properly till March I think. Then the last order was booked a week in advance. Now it wasn't even possible to book anything. I should have my refund for the one-year subscription.
Walmart has surprisingly enough organic and health food. It's not obvious in the stores but you can search for them online. The other service I use now and then PrimeNow. The food is healthy (Whole Foods) and expensive, but I can imagine that they mark up the price as in other stores like Ralph. So it's not that bad. I can't tell the difference between Amazon Fresh other than that Fresh cost some $300 a year. I still use PrimeNow now and then because I can get anything in stock in two hours. When Walmart failed totally, PrimeNow still has delivery windows available if you check often. But now it is as useless as Walmart.
In my desperation, I tried Ralph, because they have a window a few days ahead. And everything was available (other than TP and IPA). I know they markup the price and you have to pay delivery fee and mandatory tips. It becomes attractive when all else failed. But it was a total failure. I think Ralph closed on Easter without telling Instacart, their delivery partner. Ralph didn't try to even fix it; I called support, the supervisor and the supervisor's supervisor. Basically, they just canceled the order and made another order for me so I have to wait a few more days. I could have done it myself without wasting time on the phone. The wait time is like an hour. I refused to call the Instacart support because Ralph should fix that for me without waiting another hour. And they are probably giving me the runaround when I get through.
Finally, the supervisor's supervisor put me on the Instacart support queue before cutting me off. Honestly, it wasn't a long wait. The support staff did give me a delivery window a few days ahead. I was about to be a broken record complaining about that before Easter I received a message promising the first available shopper. The fact is that they never stopped taking orders since then and now giving me the next available window a few days ahead. She seemed to get that and Ralph may have left a note on my account. A 4-hour delivery window was opened that started a few minutes after I hang up.
Ralph is my favorite store because its own organic label is very affordable and the variety is as good as their non-organic counterparts. Just that I have to go to the store to shop myself. Otherwise, it's not worth the price. Even for delivery in the crisis, most things were in stock or have substitutions available. Not so much for the other stores. My tip is not to order alcohol because they don't waive for the sign off requirement. And don't allow substitutions. It's a waste of time. The shoppers won't know about anything. You have to supervise using messaging if you want to get something decent.
Surprisingly, Target wins. But it's a bit confusing. Pickup is you walking into the store. Drive-up is they taking your goods out to your car. And there is delivery that their own Shipt. I have a same-day delivery window when all else failed. They don't have organic food but who cares if you have food instead of nothing. Drive-up is best when they know to just dump everything into the car and let you leave without doing anything. Lowes give you papers to sign off when you just ordered a tape and the girl wasn't even wearing a mask nor gloves. Walmart failed. Pickup is not too bad when there is at most one or two people in line at odd times. But I think both are excluded for wet groceries, that is exclusive to delivery. Again it's not bad when Amazon makes you wait for a week for non-essential goods. You can get a shower curtain in the Target parking lot in an hour or two.
All in all, I haven't been to the grocery store since Jan. Except that I went into a random Smart and Final when I was adjusting to the fact that I don't get next delivery anymore. It was dinner time and no other customers were at the checkout. There wasn't much left but enough New York steaks and fresh Salmon. Also, I found plenty of spaghetti but I was only allowed one. The other store is the CVS drugstore. I check if their website is correct in saying that that was stock. Websites are usually wrong but I just happened to find 3 small bottles. I could have taken them all in the evenings but I asked if there was a limit per customer. Indeed there was.
The other challenge is the disinfection supply. I didn't think I have a problem because I always have some hydrogen peroxide and isopropyl alcohol at home for cleaning other than wounds. I am so disappointed that people don't read labels. Anything else is careful not to use the word disinfection but sanitization instead. The word air is taken out all product names because you cannot disinfect the air by spraying. Most bleach products are hazardous to humans and pets. And that you have to wet hard surfaces for 10 minutes before allowing for air dry. Basically, they are useless; you are better off washing the hard surface with soap. There is no guarantee for anything soft or porous.
So H2O2 diluted to 0.5% is as good as anything else when you can afford to get things wet. But the problem is you cannot apply it to skin. It's a lot less corrosive to the skin compared with 3% straight from the bottle. But it's a bit dangerous when the wet surface is drying. You can apply IPA on skin without much damage and it's fast drying. The alcohol will go first before water. But even 100% alcohol isn't that damaging.
H2O2 isn't easy to get in the shops but plenty at Amazon the time I ordered, a box of it. IPA is impossible. Finally, I settled on one indoor alcohol fuel. It's over 90% ethanol, the drinkable alcohol that is a lot safer than IPA. A few % of IPA and a few % of undisclosed that is not suitable for use on skin. But that's OK. I still have a big bottle of hand sanitizer and a bottle of IPA to make it if needed. But I have soaps. I have one bottle that hospitals uses for surgery. And my own simple formula allow me to wash my hands 10 times an hour without feeling bad on the skin. The box of fuel will last me a long time, only used when H2O2 is not suitable. I have everything I need for months.
And the TP thing. It's not an issue. I have plenty. I ordered one 24 packs whenever they were available. The last packs were from dollar stores. I still have two packs. There are plenty of commercial paper towels. If the worst comes to the worst, everybody can put their used paper towel into a small trash bag and dump it in the big bin in the yard. I don't see any problem with it. It's a lot worse to lineup in the stores to get some.
I was so relieved when school was closed and shops were closed. It's a lot easier to keep everybody safe. I banned take-outs too. There's only one route into the house, grocery delivery. It has been weeks of effective isolation and everybody is well.
Then all of a sudden I got a very mild sore throat. That makes me wonder is it possible something went wrong undetected? The girl at the Lowes parking lot? The time I went into Target to pickup a bottle of soy sauce? Did I not disinfect the grocery packaging enough with an ozone generator? Did somebody touch things from Amazon that I labeled "do not touch"? Or did I eat too much potent stir fry? Tomorrow is another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment