Cabin Fever, Anyone?

I can't honestly say the 'shelter in place' orders have affected me very much.  I am housebound anyway.  My sister called to see how I was doing.  We decided that we didn't mind staying home as much as we minded being told we HAD TO stay home.  We, of course, blamed our Dad, who never liked being told he had to do something, no matter what it was.  :)

Duane and I have ordered Easter dinner from the restaurant where he works.  The biggest reason for doing this is to support local business in these trying times and the second reason being that this way, neither of us have to cook.  We had two choices - individual meals and a meal for four - both with all the trimmings.  We chose the meal for four with the idea of having enough leftovers so that neither of us would need to cook dinner for a few days.  After doing the math, I found it would have cost more to buy the ingredients for dinner than we paid to order.  Win - win!

I have been seeing videos and articles about food shortages.  Some are due to last year's bad weather that had an effect on the harvest as well as meat animals lost to flooding.  Others are due to Covid-19.  Tyson just closed a pork processing plant in Iowa because some workers have the virus.  Other meat processing plants across the country have done the same, giving farmers and ranchers nowhere to ship their meat animals for processing.

Other warnings are being heard from the grocery industry.  It seems now that restaurants are closed with minimal take-out orders still in effect, many are now having to cook their meals at home.  This has resulted in 'panic buying' at the grocery stores, leaving some shelves empty.  Some stores are putting limits on the number of certain items that can be purchased, while others are limiting the number of shoppers in their stores at one time.

So far, aside from the lack of toilet paper after the 'Great TP Stampede' last month, the store where my delivery service buys my groceries has had little if any shortages.  I will find out if that is still true when my order is delivered Thursday this week.

Ham and turkey are on sale and I saw no notice of purchase limits, so I ordered two of each.  The plan is to cook one of each, divide the meat into meal sized portions and freeze those for easy meals.  I haven't decided if I will can the rest or just freeze them whole for later use.  I also have ordered frozen peas and fresh carrots to can together in pint jars for an additional vegetable option.  I like peas and carrots as a vegetable for a meal or in casseroles or cold macaroni salads.
 
Until the canning starts again, I have been spending time doing what I love to do - reading, sewing, crocheting, etc.  I found myself feeling guilty for not being productive, but as a dear friend pointed out, "You are retired.  You don't have to do anything, so do what makes you happy."  Good advice.
 
Although I am sure there are other newsworthy things going on in our world, the news broadcasts are filled with little except the latest dire reports on the virus.  I wish the newscasters would report on the number of recoveries as often they do on the number of deaths.  We desperately need good news.
 
Here in my little corner of the world, I am keeping track of the latest developments, but I am also working really hard to stay positive.  We need to get our people back to work.  I find it astounding that all those years ago we could successfully send men to the moon and get them back home unharmed, but we haven't been able to figure out a way to get our citizens safely back to work.
 
Hang in there.  Do something that makes you happy. Pray.  We might be in a long, dark tunnel, but I have to believe there is a light at the end of it.  And never, ever give up.