Coronavirus: Sheltering in Place Installment #1 Grocery Stores & The Farmers Market

March 13, 2020- Friday the 13th- was my last day of in-person work. It was also the first day my friend in LA started posting Lockdown Day # updates. I can't say what exactly was happening in LA, but SF and other bay area towns closed restaurants and bars. A Google search indicates that was March 14. Chris Mann posed My Corona on March 15. A Google search seems to indicate that Governor Gavin Newsom's shelter-in-place order was March 19, 2020.

I've been collecting examples of life in my town here in central California during this global pandemic. I had thought that our shelter-in-place order would be a couple of weeks, but 11 weeks in, I'd say, I was wrong. I remember when Chris Mann posted Hello on March 26 and said the shelter-in-place order was going to be until July and I thought it was a tad funny, a bit of exaggeration, but now that July is approaching, it doesn't feel that way at all.

So we made masks.

Here are examples of my first foray into mask making.
I've given some to others, some for ourselves.

Here's me in one of our kitty masks.


















On March 20 my friend sent me this video of a Costco.

My grocery store on March 25, 2020.
No tortillas.

 No bacon, no sausages

 No tofu cuz I live in central California!

 Almost no flour, no yeast, no baking powder.

 No paper towels, no toilet paper, no tissues, no cleaning supplies.

On March 28, my grocery store installed plexiglas shields for the cashiers. So good job them!

On March 28, Safeway had no limit on paper towels but maybe the price seems high....

















That was March; here's June 6 at my local grocery store.
You can see through the shelves because the canned tomatoes on this side and whatever on the other side are gone- sold out.

 Some canned fruits gone.

Rice... not here

Canned chili? Canned beans? Packaged Mac and Cheese? Not certain brands!

Pasta! There's some but...

Flour? Yeast? Not a brand you've ever bought before or even heard of so...

I forgot to take a picture because I didn't go by the dairy department- my husband did. We divide the shopping list up and meet up together later.

You can get paper towels but only in 12 roll packages... so you need storage options.

Some tissues but...

Some cleaning supplies...


















I haven't taken any photos from inside the Co-op in town but I have some pictures of the outside.

 June 13

 June 13

This photo was taken June 13 but the Co-op was doing this from the start!












The Farmer's Market

Farmers Market signage and new spacing

I love shopping at the farmers market during the pandemic. There's so much more spacing and you feel like you're giving your money much more directly to the people growing your food.








All customers must wear a face covering!

This sign is further from the center of the farmers market.

No mask, no service

We've got our masks on! 

 None of the playgrounds are open including, or especially?, the one at the farmers market. (And yeah, surfaces may be hot is on all the playgrounds in town because we regularly have days over 100!)

Gandhi has been at the farmers market for awhile (2016?) but seemed worth reminding people of.


UPDATE!!
So two days after I took this photo (Monday June 8, 2020) the Gandhi statue was vandalized/defaced. Here is part of what the local newspaper, The Enterprise, said:

The vandal or vandals used red and black spray paint to deface the 6-foot-tall bronze statue of the social activist and its concrete base, located near the park’s main playground, with expletives and words such as “rapist.”

And there are reports that on June 4 that a Gandhi statue in DC was also defaced.



UPDATE:!!! June 13 Gandhi has been cleaned up but you can see some of the signs that this happened.