It's November already.  Sorry for the late post just been super busy.  People came around trick or treating and were not wearing masks.  I went to vote Llast night and very few were wearing masks.  I'm sure there will be the repercussions in two or three weeks.  I am still continuing to stock up, online Christmas shopping,  etc.

Some of my friends gave out candy, but had a no mask no candy rule people had to follow and one pre-made stickers to give to kids and set up something to give it to them through social distancing.  

As for me, I was able to convince my doctors to convert most of my meds to 3 month supplies. Some weren't authorized by insurance though due to being name brand. I'm on the look out for nutrition shakes like Ensure because I'm in the process of seeing if I have some degree of gastroparesis, so it's a good substitute when I can't stomach food without needing Zofran, which lately is most days 😶. For some reason, Costco had absolutely no Ensure nor Boost, I got the last 16 count box of Ensure original at Walmart, and Target had none of the bulk boxes either. 🙃 Either more people than I expected have some form of gastroparesis, or this is more popular than I was anticipating it being.

Update: I was confirmed to have gastroparesis, so now the hunt is on for more Ensure in the meantime.

I think everyone should ramp up their preps ........

It's going to get much worse than we have seen........

I have no idea how this ends........not good I'm thinking....

Take care all, stay safe......

carbon20 wrote: I think everyone should ramp up their preps ........ It's going to get much worse than we have seen........ I have no idea how this ends........not good I'm thinking.... Take care all, stay safe......

What do you mean Carbon? Explain your reasoning please. Are you talking globally or specifically about America?

I'm working on serious Christmas readiness. There are lots of shortages here in NZ, particularly in Christmas related things. There's a real shortage of Lego which I know isn't essential but I have children at home and we always buy Lego at Christmas. I'm pretty much done with my Christmas shopping and am just waiting for some mail order items to arrive. I have a very comprehensive list which i'm working through. 

My thinking on this is that we can put up all sorts of restrictions and shortages over Christmas (lockdowns etc) but we all need our festive traditions. In our house it isn't extreme, we reuse all our decorations from one year to the next, have a fake tree (because it's hot here and real ones don't last long) and we eat all the same things year on year. I just want to ensure we have some presents under the tree and the normal holiday foods that we love. So that's what i'm working on before the rush begins. One thing's for sure, they'll be a lot of disappointed parents and children who leave gift buying too late and find it's all gone.

I did an Amazon Fresh order in of toilet paper, paper towels, some cleaning supplies and snacks (where I live we have all meals provided). There are rumors of a trucker strike, I don't see it happening and the "rumors" are on some propaganda type forums but...its causing some folks to start to hoard again. 

https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/jh6iWAbk6dyyArDyLA_b6g--~B/YXBwaWQ9eWlzZWFyY2g7Zmk9Zml0O2dlPTAwNjYwMDtncz0wMEEzMDA7aD01MzA7dz00MDA-/https://i.imgflip.com/3takqs.jpg.cf.jpg - https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/jh6iWAbk6dyyArDyLA_b6g--~B/YXBwaWQ9eWlzZWFyY2g7Zmk9Zml0O2dlPTAwNjYwMDtncz0wMEEzMDA7aD01MzA7dz00MDA-/https://i.imgflip.com/3takqs.jpg.cf.jpg Sorry couldn’t help myself

Christmas pudding steamed for 8 hours yesterday.  So well on the way for Christmas goodies.   Still need to post overseas parcels (this is early, but it is over two weeks since the tv news encouraged people to post early for Christmas).

Also new sauna stove arrived this afternoon.   I need to first heat it outside to remove special paint before installing it.   So that is the weekend job.  Feeling doomerish, I ordered one that would also heat water, so we can be clean during a power cut (I is a wood burning stove).  

Well if existing flues work I can install it, otherwise I will need to get a builder in to adjust access to the chimney.

Usk wrote: https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/jh6iWAbk6dyyArDyLA_b6g--~B/YXBwaWQ9eWlzZWFyY2g7Zmk9Zml0O2dlPTAwNjYwMDtncz0wMEEzMDA7aD01MzA7dz00MDA-/https://i.imgflip.com/3takqs.jpg.cf.jpg - https://s.yimg.com/lo/api/res/1.2/jh6iWAbk6dyyArDyLA_b6g--~B/YXBwaWQ9eWlzZWFyY2g7Zmk9Zml0O2dlPTAwNjYwMDtncz0wMEEzMDA7aD01MzA7dz00MDA-/https://i.imgflip.com/3takqs.jpg.cf.jpg  Sorry couldn’t help myself

Merlin protecting the valuables...

Soooooo cute just a smile takes some relief from this stress

Love Merlin!!! Cute!  

Sam's club today had NO toilet paper or paper towels first thing when they opened. 

Walmart had some but barely.

Stock up folks....it's going to be a long winter.

I agree, things will be hard to find. Already there are empty shelves of certain items like toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies. I'm trying to stay out of stores at this point except for groceries. 

Did they remove limits on food? I was shopping for eggs yesterday and this man was essentially blocking the whole egg section filling his basket with all the eggs including the particular one I intended to get. I gave him a look and he left 1 carton for me and continued filling his cart. Probably had 15 cartons full of eggs in his basket. 

 I'm only going to stores for groceries too. I've noticed people buying out Oatmeal at Sprouts and  Whole Foods where I live. More of the stores now included self checkout (Sprouts and Costco) so I think people are using it to cheat the limits if they still do have limits.  

I'm quietly stocking to fill gaps, but we're pretty good on everything. I built huge storage cabinets in the kitchen to accommodate it all, so we have plenty of capacity. With the exponential rise in cases over here (a quarter of all US cases were reported in November), I'm using a worst case scenario as my guide.

I say "quietly stocking" because my son started to react negatively when he saw me buying extra, which shocked me as he's been my prepping buddy for a long time now. It made me realize just how hard it is for kids to deal with all this. I was talking to my boss, and hers literally have to be dragged from the house. It's good to see them taking it seriously when so many aren't, but I wish my son would at least go for a walk now and then. At 19, his pandemic look is big, hairy and pale.

I admit that it's been difficult for me to understand the full effect of the lockdowns as I'm an essential worker, and my work schedule never changed at all. In fact, I was out and about more than usual as we switched to home visits for routine stuff like blood draws and supply drops for many of my patients. I went from maybe 5-10 home visits a month, to almost fifty at times. For me, the lockdown was clear freeways for the first time in forever. I was telling my wife that I don't have a lockdown story, but at least I was still working and my wife was being paid to work from home. So many people didn't have the luxury of two paychecks, so I consider us very fortunate, especially given the head in the sand approach of the Trump administration and the clueless response from people like Mnuchin who really thought a $1200 stimulus check was enough to make ends meet for ten weeks (yep - he did. Google it). We're at 'purple tier' in San Diego right now, with stores limiting the number of customers, and a 10pm-5am curfew in effect statewide, but I full expect us to be locking down again soon. We should be expecting it when so many still view a mask as mind control.

And what's with the paper towel/TP thing again?

Yeah, I'd pay to see Mnuchin try it!  Bet he wouldn't get through one week on $1200.  Stupid @$#%!

This month I have focused on canned goods.  I had recycled through all my old cans and just not done another shopping trip.  Now I have stocked tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.  Green beans, corn, peas.  Canned chicken and tuna.  Vitamin C gummies.  Canned corned beef hash, spam, chile beans.  Kid stuff like ravioli and spaghetti  O's and meatballs.  We made sure we had candles, matches, flashlights and batteries.  First aid kit type stuff.

I just felt like it was time to re-stock everything.  I don't know why but felt the need to do it!

Maybe in the back of your mind it connected that the U.S. has been hacked in a very big way, Roni?  It's got me re-thinking preps too.