Surviving Walmart.

For the second week in a row I went shopping early on Sunday morning. I have never planned so hard for a mere restocking of supplies, not even when planning a major get-together or holiday event.

Why Walmart? A couple of reasons: 1) You can usually count on them to have the basics, whatever the crisis, and 2) I needed a doorknob. The supermarkets don't carry doorknobs.

Even though I had been successful the week before, the constant drone of the viral news was making me a bit nervous. I mean, anyone who's ever seen the People of Walmart site could be unnerved by making an off-hours jaunt to that fabled retailer anyway. However, I think that those People are usually spotted in the late-night hours, and currently Walmart has no late-night hours. Even they are closing to sanitize the shop.

As for the doorknob, the doorknob on the downstairs can, after years of faithful service, was starting to make a click and thud sound when turned. I did not get to be this age without knowing that something was broken inside, and eventually someone was going to wind up locked in the bathroom. So a new knob was in order. And I did find it, as I found everything I was looking for there, with minor omissions.

TP Report: There was a posted notice of One TP Per Customer, and yet the only package I saw was a Scottissue multipack that had a tear in the plastic. Fortunately we are still living large off the Cottonelle I got at BJ's before all this went down. And I would have been reluctant to go with Scott brand anyway. I grew up with that in the house, and that's why I have a flat behind -- it was sanded down throughout my childhood.

But (ha!) that's TMI. The trip was a success, and was followed by a successful stop at the supermarket for produce and other things that Walmart does not do well. I was very fortunate, or blessed, as I am still in a good deal of back and leg pain since my awful hospital visit in February. I can barely walk a quarter of a mile without burning pain that may or may not go away if I crouch down for a short rest. Well, I was able to do the whole run without much discomfort, and that's a major win.

There were many reminders present of the Coronapocalypse, however.

Mask and glove report: Only about a quarter of the supermarket patrons wore masks; for Walmart, it was closer to half. Maybe half the supermarket shoppers had some kind of gloves on, but Walmart, close to 75%, including me. I had no masks, but I had one pair of latex gloves. I decided to choose which store to use it in, since I didn't want to transfer any germs into my car by wearing them throughout my expedition, and I didn't want to buy any since we had more at home, and you could probably guess why I chose to wear them in Walmart.

Shopping is still a very strange event. Fortunately we seem to be past the bulk of the hoarding craze, even though we don't know when all this will be over.

As I say, to make a trip like this efficiently required much planning. We still live in times of plenty; we just seem to have to overthink everything. And when I say We I mean I.