Back To Kroger's

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Back To Kroger's

     Friday, March 13 - exactly two weeks ago yesterday - feels like a lifetime ago. It feels as if that was the last day of life as we knew it. Maybe it was.
       In any case, that was the day  I did what I presumed would be my last day of grocery shopping at Kroger's for a while, rounding out with a few final items what Tom referred to as our "war stock," those food and household supplies  we figured we'd need to get us through the long period of staying at home that we'd already been warned was coming.
      It was a funny feeling, making that last trip to Kroger's. I suppose that's because I felt that this was going to be the last time I'd be out in a public place for a long time. I'd  been to my last movie theater, my last restaurant,

...my last Wednesday morning get-together with my Panera Posse,

...without knowing at the time that that those last times were to be  my lasts. Two days earlier I'd unknowingly taught my last piano lesson. Now  I was making the last of the lasts, my last trip to Kroger's.
       "You know, we could go back to Kroger's if we need something," Tom reminded me.
        This was true.
       But of course by the day before yesterday when I made my first trip back to Kroger's since my last trip two weeks earlier, it was an altogether different world.
        Up until two weeks ago I used to zip into Kroger's almost every day. Sometimes twice a day. Seems I was always out of something that I'd forgotten to pick up when I was shopping the day before. Going to Kroger's was second nature for me.
         However by this past Thursday the thought of going into Kroger's left me feeling uneasy, edgy, tense, even.     
       But then we needed - well, wanted - some fresh food and a few other items to supplement the war stock.
        Tom and I decided we should go to Kroger's together. I don't know why. Somehow, inexplicably, it felt safer for us to go together even though, of course, two of us going to the store was actually half as safe as one of us going. And yet neither of us wanted to send the other out alone.
        We planned for our shopping trip, double- and triple-checking our grocery list so as to be in and out of the store as quickly as possible. The night before we set the alarm for 6:15 am so as to be up in time to arrive at Kroger's by 7am, at which time the store was open for an hour just for senior citizens. (Turned out there were as many non-senior as senior citizens shopping at Kroger's during that hour).

    We  each grabbed a pair of our disposable latex not-for-medical-use gloves and a couple of disinfectant wipes just in case, 

...and we set out for Kroger's.   

     When we arrived there was a worker at the front of the store holding a bottle of disinfectant spray and a roll of paper toweling who pointed out to us the line of shopping carts which she'd just sanitized. I wiped down my cart handle with my own wipe just in case.
      For all the years I'd been coming to  Kroger's, this day did feel different. I felt hyper-aware, hyper-vigilant. I expect everybody in the store did. We all kept our distance,

...stopping as necessary to give each other space.

      Some of the shelves and bins were well-stocked,

...others less so,

...and still no toilet paper as far as I could see.
      A store employee approached me and said in an apologetic tone that some of the customers were wondering why I was taking pictures. I explained to her that I was snapping shots for my blog.
       Normally I would have offered the employee one of the "Ailantha" cards I carry in my purse.

     This time I didn't.