Be Still My Heart… Flour! in Everyday Ramblings

I noticed almost 4 weeks ago that I was low on flour and thought, no problem, I’ll pick up some more next time I at the store. My local store had a good price on sugar and I got that then and that was when I noticed there were no rice and no beans to be had.

Little did I know that we are in the midst of a major bread-making boom. Maybe more like a bread-making epidemic.

It appears there is no yeast either so people are making sour dough starters. Apparently there are not so many gluten-free folks out there as we might have suspected when it really comes down to it.

Anyway there has been no flour available in Portland for weeks, not even mail order, say from our own Bob’s Red Mill.

I didn’t want to make bread. I don’t eat hardly any bread these days, mostly only when I eat out and don’t want to be a bother. I do not have Celiac but I do feel a lot better when I only consume modest amounts of gluten. It turns out I loved bread and pasta a little too much when I was younger.

Since the lock down, I have done a couple of InstaCart grocery delivery orders but just in the last week my grocery, that has a robust pickup program started contracting with InstaCart for delivery so I get a better interface to choose items with, a rundown of everything I have bought recently and the ability to shop at my regular store, get the groceries delivered and get Rewards points.

When I went in person to the store last Tuesday I thought it was a lost cause ordering flour for home delivery because there was none to be found. And when “Nathan” my shopper was shopping I got a text saying he had replaced the requested flour. I was like, hmm, what would he replace it with?

Turns out, much to my surprise, instead of the 5 lbs. bag I ordered he delivered two 2 lbs. bags! It was like Christmas.

And then I got my mail. My small purse that I have used for years shredded and fell apart recently and when I told Kes I didn’t have an appropriate sized bag she said she had one she could send me. This is funny, our other sister (the one no longer with us) had given this lovely little small bag with a dragonfly motif to me years ago and I wasn’t using it then so when Kes said she was looking for a small bag I gave it to her.

Kes braved the post office (properly geared up) and mailed it back to me.

And the locally made paisley handmade mask with the flannel lining I ordered came as well. I wore it out on an hour and a half walk yesterday with no issues other than slightly fogged up glasses. I put a tissue on the bridge of my nose and washed my glasses in soapy water so the fogging wasn’t too bad but it still happened.

I made those yummy chewy oatmeal cookies yesterday morning with dried cranberries and walnuts. The walnuts were an excellent addition.

A regular sized spoon that I had been missing for weeks turned up during that process.

Today the Imperfect Produce box came. There is an abundance of riches in this house even though recently I did break into my emergency stash of cash so I didn’t need to go to the bank. If an unprecedented pandemic doesn’t count as an emergency I don’t know what does.

I feel so much for those who are sick, the families of those who are sick and the people who have had their quarantine locations destroyed by tornadoes in the last few days…

Those that have lost income and are freaking out about money, waiting in lines for food, for unemployment insurance, for the ability to vote!

For those that are separated by no fault of their own from loved ones…

For the teachers, hospital workers, grocery workers, sanitation workers, first responders, plumbers, electricians…

It is only because of you I am able to go for a long walk on Easter morning and marvel at the unfurling leaves of one of my favorite horse chestnut trees…

Thank you from the bottom of my high risk, privileged, currently statin free, heart.

Last updated April 14, 2020