Friday, March 27, 2020

Shopping In The Plague Year



“And here I must observe again, that this necessity of going out of our houses to buy provisions was in a great measure the ruin of the whole city; for the people catched the distemper, on these occasions, one of another.” 
Daniel Defoe, History of the Plague in London.

Mindful of Mr. Defoe's admonition, I traveled to Walmart, not so much to shop as reconnoiter. The shelves were mostly full of necessities such as milk, bags of frozen fish, even a small amount of flour, though there was little meat. But there were few enough people to take advantage of the newly provisioned shelves. 

Stuck between the menace of Scylla and Charybdis, of the pest looming North to Dallas and South to Waco, they had stayed at home, such that you could fire a canon down dairy to beyond and not hit a soul. Still, some few had ventured out. 

Several, like myself, on reconnaissance. They stared silently at newly restocked pizzas and looked in vain for dry goods. Others, actual shoppers, pushed carts full of supplies. Some wore face bandannas as impromptu masks and  plastic gloves as protection from the plague. Both, doubtless, made in China.

I left the store with a Four Cheese pizza and a bottle of red wine and the words of Luke's Gospel echoing:

"...as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man: People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all..." (Lk 17: 26-27)



Lest it do, pray with Pope Francis that this pestilence will pass over us and take note of his prayers before the miraculous crucifix of St. Marcellus and the icon of Mary Salus Populi Romani. A friend commented, "Ancient and spectacular and terrifying."

Ave,

LSP

8 comments:

  1. Can't say I'm comfortable going out in public, and since I have some mild symptoms I'm not comfortable subjecting the public to me. Can you pick me up some vodka and red wine? tia.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reverend Kid, I'll get the monkey right on that order.

    Glad you're staying in,be safe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good Lord Kid, yes. Vicious beast notwithstanding.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've gone out several times, beef and eggs in stock.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We stocked up early on so have supplies in depth. Was in our local Winco on Wednesday to replace what we have used on the front end. Got there about 10 a.m.-ish. Parking lot mostly empty, no crowd in store, easy to keep your distance. TP dwindling, but still several cases in stock. Limit one 12-pak per.

    My biggest concern is one of our kids is an officer with Arlington PD. It's the stupid people who are dangerous. Kid responded to an auto wreck. Two male EMT's arrived, one wearing a face mask, the other not and chewing tobacco. Neither wearing gloves, both overweight. Seriously?

    New York and New Orleans are bombs going off. I suspect the Kalifornia homeless as well, just not being reported. I wonder, has the Death Angle sent Charles Darwin a thank you card?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Smart move stocking up, RHT. Same here, and it's not as though we had plenty of warning, lies from China notwithstanding. And then there's stupid.

    NYC, New Orleans and Detroit look ready to go off in short order, let's hope the metroplex doesn't follow suit. So far the numbers are, perhaps, encouraging. Still, if needs be, I'll evac the Dallas side of the family to the country.

    Speaking of Darwin, UK mosques were full until a day or so ago. You see, the ROP's impervious to COVID-19. I pray the UK doesn't go the way of Italy.

    ReplyDelete