Two Sweet Potatoes
I couldn’t sleep this past weekend because Josh was going to run to the store in the morning. We used to run to the grocery store at least two times per week. I’d change my mind about dinner, and he’d run to pick up a missing ingredient. Or I’d have an hour wait near the Whole Foods, and I’d run in and pick up a few things.
But we’ve been sheltering in place and not running out. Suddenly grocery shopping felt like a huge deal. Like something to worry about at 2 am.
He left at 7:15 am so he could be at the store when it switched over from elderly shopping hours to normal hours. He managed to get over half of the things on our list, which felt like a major win. It is weird to feel elated over the idea of getting two sweet potatoes when a few weeks ago, we could purchase dozens without a second thought.
There’s an Icelandic saying, “þetta reddast,” which means, “it will work out in the end” (or something close to that). In looking up the saying, I found an old BBC article that contained two perfect quotes: “We just believe in our abilities to fix things. With the conditions we live under, we’re often forced to make the impossible possible.”
And this: “þetta reddast is less a starry-eyed refusal to deal with problems and more an admission that sometimes you must make the best of the hand you’ve been dealt.”
You adapt. You figure out ways around things. You adjust your expectations. You let yourself feel elated that you have two sweet potatoes instead of zero sweet potatoes.
6 comments
I couldn’t sleep last night because I had to leave at 7am to get to our store when elderly shopping hours ended this morning. We just started sheltering in place at midnight and people are…not handling it well.
Our stores finally started limiting things like meat and eggs (which were still all gone) because people were cleaning them out.
My etiquette is to buy more than normal of the shelf stable stuff, but only if it’s well stocked. My parents asked me to pick up Oreos for them (a staple, clearly) and while I would typically buy them two, I bought one because there were fewer than 10 total. And I don’t want to be the reason someone else leaves without their cookies.
So I can relate to the 2 sweet potatoes because that’s better than nothing and is what I tell myself the entire time I shop. While not touching more than I have to, and holding my breath (because I’m anxious not because I think that will actually help).
As someone who has been in a social distancing area for a few weeks, and in shelter in place for a week, I can say the shelves will get better. We went through this initial panic and everything was empty. It was like Old Mother Hubbard. There was nothing. It wasn’t just the paper products it was things I was shocked by like yeast….I got the literal last bag of Artisanal bread flour. Don’t know what exactly the difference is but it was what they had. LOL But, since then the stores have gotten much better. We went out this weekend and the supplies are back to just about normal except for paper products (those take full semi trucks to to restock I’m told) eggs and meat is restocking but if you hit the time of day when it’s empty that’s it- but stores are limiting how many you can purchase and restocking all day long as they get things. My husband works for a food distributor (normally to restaurants and hospitals so things are scary in our world, but they have really stepped up distribution to retail establishments and it’s showing in the shelves which is one of the reasons he wanted to check specific stores since we needed things- and report back to work since he’s the only person in our area. But, it is getting better and it will there too- it’s that initial panic. Crazy! And I relate to the oreo comment above- our very nice butcher (small town chain) asked what I was looking for as I looked for a specific cut of meat, I told him and he said they were cutting it then. Soon he came out with 4 packages. I took 3 and left one for someone else. That’s my food to cook for my furbaby for the week. It’s her favorite cut but I wanted to make sure someone else got some too.
I tend to keep a lot of certain things (pasta, black beans, chocolate chips) on hand and stock up on normally pricy things that go on sale (good pasta sauce). Plus when I started getting worried a couple weeks ago I ended up going to a store like every day (not hoarding, just getting one or two of certain items). It seems I missed the rush (Although there were some things out of stock/running low) because local people are reporting completely empty shelves. Glad I got a bag of flour while I could. So for now we are good, but running low on fresh produce. I’ve already started rationing how many vegetables we get at dinner and most of the fruit has gone to the kids. A local produce wholesaler that sells to restaurants has started selling to the public so I’ll be ordering from there later this week. Trying to avoid going to stores as much as possible although I had to go to cvs for my husband yesterday…wearing a homemade mask. And I’m being even more careful than normal not to be wasteful…yes that end of a Roma tomato is going in the fridge…and I know how lucky we are to have had the means to have so much food and other supplies on hand.
Yay, sweet potatoes! (We call them kumara – I love them.) Yep, I’m rationing my tomatoes at the moment, so we don’t have to go back to the supermarket too soon.
I notice myself being a lot more aware and grateful for what I have. Small things now bring large pleasure.
þetta reddast.
For a society so used to instant gratification, abundance & convenience, this has been quite a shock to the system, hasn’t it? 🙁
I’ve always liked to keep a fairly well-stocked pantry… dh was always more “buy it when we need it.” I think he’s changed his mind, lol. Although living in a condo, our storage space is a lot more limited than when we had the house.