Creepy day in the East Bay (Vallejo, San Rafael: home, transfer, buying)

[MechAndy]

I am rather an isolationist.
I work and stay home or travel.
I don’t normally do the shopping because my wife has Friday afternoon off so we make a shopping list and she does it then so we don’t have to do weekend traffic stuff and it just makes our time spent better.
Hey it works.

The wife and I normally go out to breakfast once a week.
So we were at the Black Bear Diner in Danville today.
We go there often
Its like our thing.
We like to sit in the back area and always get the same server.
BTW, He is great.

So today there was nothing on the table.
They gave us silverware when we sat down.
We ordered a coffee and a meal.
Coffee came with no creamer, so I had to ask for cream.
When the server brought back the cream I said some sugar would be nice and off he went.
Same thing happened with jam for toast.
Same thing happened several times on this meal (ketchup and stuff like that) and we are not picky bad customers.
We always tip top scale and never ask for anything extra or make odd requests.
This poor guy made numerous trips to make things right.
As I said earlier he is our regular server and does an outstanding job.
So towards the end of the meal he says sorry this new no frills system is killing us.
Holy Cow my server is now working with his hands tied.
Whooda thunk?

We then went to the grocery store (Smart and Final on Diablo road) and their cubbards were bare.
Their meat section normally housed several hundred cuts of meats.
There was only 15 pieces of meat there.
All we wanted was meat for a pot roast.
Non there.

We then went to get some soap.
They had the soap so that was cool but they didn’t have any hand sanitizers ( I actually knew there was a shortage of that so it really didn’t bug me) but on the other side the isle the was no toilet paper or paper towels.
That side of the isle was empty.
Plain ass bare with just dust on the shelves.
Walking through out the store I saw large empty sections of isles everywhere.
I was so shocked I felt like taking pictures.
I have never seen stuff like this.
I mean WTF?
So the wife asked if everything was ok?
They said yes everything is fine all the missing items will be replaced tomorrow and that they get new truckloads every other day.
Who are they fooling.
Nothing seems to be ok.
We just have to do the best we can.
No more no less.

My Mom grew up in Europe during WW2 and told me stories of the great shortages.
Eff me.
I am now my parents.

One of my best friends husband owns a gun store.
He says they have been empty for a few weeks now and have to order anything new.
For your information most of his clients are naturalized citizens.
Maybe they know more than most of us???

This just plain ass sucks.

On the other hand...
I’m mostly completely off the grid at my WA house.
A couple tweaks and I am perfect.

I have an endless supply of water and food there.
Might be hoarding the TP and stuff like that in my barn after this **** settles.

All the best.
Andy.

[Ruth4Truth]

Andy, that's great newest hat there's a Black Bear restaurant in the Bay Area! I've only seen them way up in the north of NorCal & southern OR. What do you usually get there? What are your fave items on the menu? I've never tried a BB, but I'd love to. But why were they on a "no frills" basis?

Well, I was shocked to discover, that hand sanitizer has been out of stock in my town for nearly 2 weeks now! The stores order it 3x/week, but nothing comes on the trucks! I thought, that since my state didn't have any virus cases, no one was panicking. (The people I know weren't doing any buying out of the ordinary, and now seem bemused by it all.). But it turns out, people started going bonkers 3 weeks ago already, hoarding paper goods and cleaning supplies. I couldn't even find any Clorox wipes, when I ventured out for the first time a couple of days ago, to see what I could find.

You're in Jefferson County, in WA, which has no virus cases, so far. Around 75 people have turned in tests, but they're all coming up negative; about 40 have been analyzed so far, all negative. FYI, Island County also has no cases. 3 were found, but they were removed for treatment outside the county. Skagit only has 1 positive case. So you should be fine, when you return to WA. Just avoid King and Snohomish Counties, which wouldn't be on your route, if you're driving, anyway. .

[aslowdodge]

I’m here just outside of Atlanta. No hand Sanitizer anywhere. That includes amazon. Ingredients to make hand sanitizer are gone too. Isopropyl alcohol, aloe gel, etc.
Went to 3 stores and many shelves picked clean and very limited selection. I think it is just temporary as people stock up in case they have to self quarantine. I imagine it should get better.
Guns and ammo, I have enough for a small army but I didn’t realize people were making a run there.
I went out to eat and a place that is usually full was only 10 percent full. First time I’ve seen an eatery drop business so far.
As far as your coffee, I go to Del Taco and it’s the same way. You have to ask for plastic utensils and hot sauce packets.

[davdaven]

I went grocery shopping in San Rafael on Thursday after work. Smart & Final, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's. Lots of bare shelves at S&M and TJ's, less so at Sprouts. Long line to check out at Smart & Final, like a small-scale Costco. Co-workers went out on Friday and Smart & Final was still a crowded mess. Word got out that Sprouts was selling weird TP, like one made out of bamboo and sugar cane, so they were busy too. I popped into Target on Friday after work and it was out of a variety of things, but I was able to get a few things I had forgotten about at Smart & Final. Target had no TP to speak of, of course, but plenty of toilet bowl cleaner to go around...

@Ruth: There are Black Bear Diners in Emeryville and Vallejo too. Better than Denny's. Go hungry since portions are big! And as for hand sanitizer... I work at a government agency that needs to stock hand sanitizer, and we haven't been able to place any orders anywhere. If an essential service can't get it, I wouldn't hold my breath as a member of the general public. At work we are talking about buying alcohol and making our own, like what NY state did.

[Astral_Weeks]

Similar scene at the grocery stores in LA County.

I guess this is like getting a taste of grocery shopping in the Soviet Union in the 70's or 80's. But this won't last.

Just watched a documentary on the U.S. Indianapolis. Those guys went to hell and back....and I am talking about those who were lucky enough to survive. For that perished they were simply taken way too soon.

Thinking about events like that ^ help keep this current situation in perspective.

[MechAndy]

Hi there Ruth and all,
Yeah it kinda shocked me.
My current work situation has changed a bit this last 8 weeks.
I have been transferred to a new job.
I now leave for work at 4:30 am and come back at 5:30 pm.
I am working at a DOE job at Stanford.
It is cool,work but it sucks.
It’s a 62 mile commute each way with traffic and that is why it sucks.
It has really isolated me from what is going on.
I like to listen to the news but lately I have been listening to audio books for my commute.

I am spent by the time I get home so I have not been privy to what has been going on locally.
This new awareness is shocking to say the least.

By the way... I often write, speak and spell a bit different than most.
It is probably because this is my third language, but the truth is I am a lazy “you know what” so I do apologize for that... well not really ‘cause I really don’t give a “you know what”.
Most of my schooling was done at a different spot.
Same with the wife .

The wife and I like to share a meal at the Black Bear Diner.
We get two plates and jut divvy up one meal.
There is just to much food if we order separately and I like not to be a fatty.
I try to keep fit.
We like to split an omelette and maybe a short stack of pancakes sometimes.
Surprisingly this just works great.
As I earlier mentioned we tip rather well.
I worked in a restaurant when I was a youngster and know that tips are appreciated, so I do the proper thing.

BTW a nice person gave me a message correcting my spelling and that was really cool but I really don’t care about my spelling.
It kinda is what it it is.

All the best.
Andy.

[MechAndy]

BTW,
I am in Contra Costa County in CA and am also in Callum County WA .
Not that means anything .
All the best.
Andy.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by davdaven

I went grocery shopping in San Rafael on Thursday after work. Smart & Final, Sprouts, and Trader Joe's. Lots of bare shelves at S&M and TJ's, less so at Sprouts. Long line to check out at Smart & Final, like a small-scale Costco. Co-workers went out on Friday and Smart & Final was still a crowded mess. Word got out that Sprouts was selling weird TP, like one made out of bamboo and sugar cane, so they were busy too. I popped into Target on Friday after work and it was out of a variety of things, but I was able to get a few things I had forgotten about at Smart & Final. Target had no TP to speak of, of course, but plenty of toilet bowl cleaner to go around...

@Ruth: There are Black Bear Diners in Emeryville and Vallejo too. Better than Denny's. Go hungry since portions are big! And as for hand sanitizer... I work at a government agency that needs to stock hand sanitizer, and we haven't been able to place any orders anywhere. If an essential service can't get it, I wouldn't hold my breath as a member of the general public. At work we are talking about buying alcohol and making our own, like what NY state did.

Stores where I live are out of rubbing alcohol, too! When sanitizer ran out, everyone rushed to buy up all the rubbing alcohol, to make their own! All Whole Foods had left was vodka; people are now stockpiling vodka to make hand sanitizer with, no lie!

My gym seems to have plenty of it, though. Maybe the manager was one of the people going from store to store, buying up as much as he could, IDK. It suddenly appeared in various parts of the gym earlier this week.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Astral_Weeks

Similar scene at the grocery stores in LA County.

I guess this is like getting a taste of grocery shopping in the Soviet Union in the 70's or 80's. But this won't last.

Just watched a documentary on the U.S. Indianapolis. Those guys went to hell and back....and I am talking about those who were lucky enough to survive. For that perished they were simply taken way too soon.

Thinking about events like that ^ help keep this current situation in perspective.

As one who served in extended military actions, thank you for mentioning this. Not going to tell stories, but ... there’s really little struggle and suffering for the public in this brief “crisis”, all history considered. I’m not laughing at folks’ worries and concerns to be thoughtful, careful and prepared ... but really, um ... you haven’t lived until you’ve been limited to sleeping in close quarters with dozens of unwashed compadres, using open-pit latrines and burning the waste therein with diesel oil, eating out of bags and boxes with no place to wash the filth off your hands, etc.

When I think of my grandparents fleeing famine, crossing oceans on steam freighters, landing near penniless, crossing prairies in wagons and steam trains to set up farms in frozen upper mid-west with no electricity or running water ... listening to one grandmother tell her first memories of arriving in Minnesota in winter, living in a tent in sub-zero temperatures, watching her mother felled by a flu and carried frozen stiff out of the tent on an old door to be buried when weather permitted ...

Today’s knowledge, communications, precautions, amenities, living quarters, transportation ... wow. What a difference a hundred / hundred fifty years has made.

Easy does it folks. Really. Think about your forefathers/mothers and smile and thank them for their lessons.

[eureka1]

Black Bear is great!