MmePerdu

It's striking to me that so many bright, usually law-abiding people can bend definitions to suit themselves. The intent is clear. We need the habit of distance as well as the distance itself. Home is where we can control our circumstances, if anywhere. How can we be sure of that miles from home on a lark?

mlgb

Mayor Garcetti press conference expressed same concerns, people not social distancing outdoors on trails and beaches. Closing parking lots for Venice boardwalk which is in LA City, City golf courses, and recreation facilities.

StuDudley

Yep - going outside is currently "legal", as long as you maintain your distance from others. What I witnessed along the parks & trails was not social distancing. Crowded trails made the front page of the SF Chronicle today. The head of the East Bay Regional Parks Assocation said it was the "most crowded" he has seen in the 45 years he has been with the association. "People in charge" quickly closed many parking lots, roads to trails, parks, etc.

Stu Dudley

tomfuller

Another trainload of people just escaped from California. They arrived in Klamath Falls Oregon about an hour ago. We'll even pump your gas for you in Oregon.

Underhill

I expect the attitudes might shift if and when someone in those crowds loses a family member or friend. Right now it's all just something unreal.

MmePerdu

The phrase "suspending disbelief" comes to mind. Usually referring to the mental mechanism that allows us to go along with a fictional plot such as a movie or book, it seems to now apply to real life. But instead of coming back to reality when the book or movie ends, we must suspend disbelief all day every day, even though there's no visible evidence for most of us.. We are all now in the movie.

jamie99

Jean, and other,
Here is my experience with grocery delivery as of a few minutes ago:

1. Shopped online with Von's (1 of 2 major SoCal supermarket chains, owned by Albertsons): Stuff has been sitting in my online cart since last Wednesday and I am unable to reach a live person via phone, email or chat.since theri system will not let me schedule a delivery. Gave my nephew a few bucks to drive to Von's last Thursday and their bread aisle was totally wiped out, I mean nothing on the aisle. As of today I am still not able to schedule a delivery or contact a live person.
2. Placed on order about noon with Ralph's (2nd major SoCal chain owned by Kroger) and it just arrived an hour early (they use a service called Instacart). I ordered 12 items and received 8, am missing my blueberry muffins and Ben and Jerry ice cream among others. So will ask my nephew to once again get a few things from the store for me.

So my advice is do not count on delivery as a good alternate, it is an OK alternate right now. I will say, as someone who regularly shops online, that I think things will get better but it will take a week or two. Store managers need to order a lot more product than normal since so many people are at home either by choice or not (like restaurant workers) and therefore the demand will be a lot higher than normal.

Jean

jamie99, I didn't get far on the Ralph's/Kroger's site. There were NO dates available for either pickup or delivery in my area. Without a date, you're done.

Thankfully, the two Ralph's stores near me have no shortage of fresh produce and frozen food. Some aisles are well stocked, but others are stripped bare. There has been no pasta or rice for more than two weeks now. Other fresh items like milk, chicken and meat are limited to two per customer.

I think store managers (or whoever) are trying their best, but there is some prioritizing going on and obviously some supply issues. And probably still some hoarding. Today, I realized that cat litter is disappearing and not being restocked, so I ordered from Petco.

One of my cats is diabetic and eats prescription food. I got an email today that my regular shipment of food may be delayed, so I guess supply issues are not affecting just grocery stores. I'm a little panicked but keeping my fingers crossed. Thankfully, I just got a new bottle of insulin and syringes which will last 3-4 months. But I worry about human diabetics and hope they're able to get their supplies.

mlgb

Same all over California including Marin County per today's LA Times. The weather was just too nice, I guess. Lots of people of all ages out and not keeping the prescribed distance.
"Marin County, just north of San Francisco, Sunday ordered the immediate closure of all Marin County parks, including Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument, Mt. Tamalpais State Park and all county, city and town parks. The crowds in Marin County over the weekend surged into local grocery stores and were sometimes bigger than seen typically in summertime.



“It would be best if residents and visitors enjoy the weather and natural beauty in their own yards and neighborhoods,” Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County deputy public health officer, said in a statement."

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...is-yet-to-come

jamie99

Jean, try logging on to Ralph's through Instacart. I have my Instacart setup to default to delivery from Ralph's but they do also deliver from Von's for more money. You do have to play around yesterday I first got the message "Delivery not available" but around after lunch, I got the message that the lead time for delivery was 5 hours (normally you can pick a specific window).

Jean

Tried again today. Still no pickup or delivery dates/times in the next 3 days.

MmePerdu

I have friends who have pets that require special diets, I had a cat myself that did, we make it ourselves in batches & freeze them. You may be able to get the ingredients for your cat's food easier than whatever commercial version you buy. And I suspect fresh is better for them.

Barbara

Jean, do you ever get pet stuff from chewy.com? We get food and flea stuff from there.

Jean

Yes, I get all of my cat stuff from Chewy. However, they are the company telling me that the delivery of my diabetic cat's food may be delayed. They also couldn't promise delivery of cat litter for another month, but Petco is supposedly able to deliver before next week. Fingers crossed on both the food and the litter.

I'm not going to attempt to find the ingredients to make proper diabetic cat food. I can barely put together balanced human meals right now.

I can make cat litter out of shredded newspapers, but I hope it doesn't come to that. I've had to do that when cats have undergone various treatments, and it's disgusting.

Barbara

I hope our next shipment of dog food isn't delayed. Better check! I hope you find what you need.

Jean

I scored a single box of cat litter at Ralph's today. Still no TP for the humans, but I feel quite victorious!

Interestingly, Barbara, other than cat litter the pet aisle at my Ralph's has remained fully stocked.

Barbara

Jean, I almost never go to Ralph's. The busiest Vons in San Diego is near me and I just go there. And TJ's! One might think that because this is the busiest, highest-grossing store in the area that it would, by now, be fully restocked. Today, the meat department's pre-packed case is almost full, but no meat or fish at themeat counter. Absolutely no paper goods. Almost no dairy products like yogurt, sour cream. There was milk. An improvement, but until they get everything stocked, and they keep telling us there's plenty, somewhere, people will keep on buying more than they need because they can see with their own eyesthat there are only two packs of tp left.

Surfergirl

I went to Ralphs late last week for their first day of "senior" time (between 7 and 7:30 a.m.). The downside to going at that hour is the fish and meat "butcher" counter is not yet open. I got there at 6:45 a.m. and was second in line. There was a minimal amount of Kroger brand TP, with a sign that said 2 only limit. I took 1, thinking as time goes on, the craziness will lessen.

Today, before work (yes, I work in an "essential" business), I headed to our larger Ralphs in WLA around 9:45 a.m. Plenty of parking, plenty of baskets, no wait to get in. A person was handing out one sanitizing towlette to each person that entered (not that I needed, I was wearing latex gloves and an N95 mask, but took one anyway to clean the basket handle and my gloves. Now, there was plenty of TP, limited to 1 package per customer. I was able to get about everything I came for, but they were limited on frozen vegetables, no sanitizer or wipes, and missing some dog food products my dogs like. Oh, and no rice chex, but had the Kroger brand, which I hope my husband will find acceptable.

If you can buy the red lentil rotini or penne, aside from it being zero points on the purple weight watcher's plan, you can't tell the difference between that and regular (wheat based) pasta. People tend to not buy it because it's not what they would ordinarily buy and certainly not have tried it, so there is usually some stock.

Jean

I guess different Ralph's are getting different supply trucks... My two Ralph's (Manhattan Beach and El Segundo) have no TP or kleenex, no hand sanitizer or wipes, no pasta of any type, no yogurt and very limited butter, no tortillas, no juice except in cans, very little frozen food except pizza and weird stuff I'd never buy. The meat and fresh fish counters have been closed for the second week, but there are lots of fresh fruit and veggies and plenty of bread, cheese... and flowers!

Along with the cat litter, I also got the last bag of Japanese white rice (one of my husband's essentials of life) and some chicken, meat and pork. We're all set with food for a couple of weeks. I just hope the cat food arrives and that I can find some TP soon.

I've been telling my 97 y.o. mom about my shopping experiences, and she reminds me of the shortages and rationing in England during WWII. We are so spoiled. The little I bought today would be an entire family's rations for several months.

Barbara

The rationing in the UK during WWII has crossed my mind too, but there is really no comparison. We do not have shortages of anything, we have foolish people who bought way more than they would need for a few weeks. Our supply of food has not been disrupted in any way other than good old America greed. And the grocery companies' logistics suck. I had a ration card when I was born, several years after the end of the war.