SPOILER ALERT! If you do the NYT spelling bee and haven’t gotten today’s pangram yet, don’t go down too far ’cause I’m gonna spoil it.

I didn’t need much in the way of grocks today but I figgered that:

1) Today would be the best day to shop because tomorrow the shelves might be a bit sparse.

2) I had to go EARLY because New Year’s Eve is one of those days when the stores are slammed. I remember back in the old days before u-scans and stuff and my main store was the Westgate Kroger and I would go there after work and have to wait in checkout lines that snaked around the store.

3) It’s supposed to SNOW off and on this weekend and I’ll just stay off the roads, thank you very much. I’d be fine with Cygnus but I don’t want some other yay-hoo to hit her. And I can always WALK to the Plum, which I haven’t been doing during COVID because it changed my shopping habits.

So I left for Meijer (Saline Road, which has been better stocked than the Jackson) a little after seven. Man oh man, was it dark. And a bit rainy. And did I say spooky? Yes. There were more cars there than I would have liked but it was pretty empty and I was able to easily stay well away from other people. Most (but not ALL) were wearing masks. I was in and outta there in about 15 minutes, then I headed back to the Plum. I got *there* eight minutes before it opened so I just parked and waited for them to open the doors. Along with several other people. I did get a mini shrimp plate and later kicked myself for not getting a couple lobster tails to freeze but I’ll just order them from Luke’s Lobster.

Then. Home. COVID-era shopping, even the little bits of it that I do in person somehow exhausts me but I had a wee brek and did some chores and dragged myself out to get some gas, etc.

New Year’s Eve used to be kinda fun but I am over it, especially with COVID and the general political climate. I am annoyed today by all of the conflicting advice and COVID news, etc. A couple months ago I stopped keeping track of the case count. For one thing it was too depressing but also I couldn’t make sense of the numbers. There didn’t seem to be any data on how frequently the data was being collected. Also, I well know they are not counting unreported cases.

Today I was struggling with mask information. I have some beautiful cloth masks. With the delta surge, after some close-to-home break-through infections, I upgraded to KN95s. Today a doc on NPR was touting N95s (which I know are the best). I liked that when the reporter asked if the government should just be sending these to every person in the country, he answered, “Yes!” I agree. Why are we messing around letting “the market” determine what supplies are available? (I know I’m ignoring a lot of issues here like what about the rest of the world. But you are probably already bored by my disorganized rant.) For kicks, I started researching N95 masks and quickly and totally went out to sea with the choices and lingo and knowing that there are fancy masks available that are made more for construction activities, NOT COVID. So are my KN95s good enough for my limited early morning grab-and-go in-person shopping? If not, what do I buy? I do not know.

For fun! Today’s spelling bee. It had a word that everyone but me got because it was a “moom” word: umpteen. I did get it but it was one of my last ones, mainly because I wasn’t sure it was a real word. The pangram? Unkempt. It’s a great word and then a commenter in the NYT spelling bee forum went a bit further and made a new definition for it in that she hopes Georgia unkempts governor Kemp in his next election🤣🤣🤣 Oh, when I said “everyone” earlier in this paragraph, there are now FOUR of us doing the spelling bee and the GG was trying to get FlaMan set up with it yesterday. (The GG doesn’t do it.)

Happy New Year! I will NOT last until midnight. I will NOT watch/listen to Umich at the Orange Bowl. If I do they WILL lose. Umich is not my alma mater and I couldn’t care less about football in any case. But Umich is the Home Team for me and I want them to win. If they don’t win, I WILL LIVE. And not have a hissy. Inside family joke. Not a secret, just that I am done done done for tonight. You’re welcome.

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