Hurry Up and Wait – Or So We Thought, A Nice Drive and a Nice day

The Ridge

Bill and I were up just after 6:30, on Tuesday, Apr. 28th. Before he got in the shower, I washed and tried to make myself presentable by adding some mascara and shadow to my eyes. Then I came downstairs as Bill had my tea made. I rewrote our long grocery list, splitting the items onto two pieces of paper. One for Bill. One for Patsy. Today, we are going to Costco in Guelph which is an hour and 15 minutes from home.

Small town water towers are cute

 We’ve heard stories from a couple of weeks ago where people have lined up outside a Costco (in London) for an hour and a half in cold weather, waiting to get in to shop. We’ve heard that some stores are only allowing one person per family in at a time and have witnessed that one first hand at Hanover’s Independent store. Not ideal when we have such a long list but manageable. That is why I divided the items. Worse case scenario, we would each take a cart since we each had our own Costco card.

Today was supposed to be a wet day with the forecast of showers and clouds throughout the day. It would be warm though, and that was obvious when I saw it was already 8C/47F when we got up. I think we left just a bit of heat on from our Blue Flame heater overnight. What a nice change. Yesterday, we had the power to electricity shut off all day as well as overnight and our batteries from the panels kept up nicely.

Our destination

So, after our morning drinks, we were leaving the Ridge at 8:15 am. We had a nice drive, through small towns along Hwy. 6 into Guelph. It was 9:35 when we pulled into the already full parking lot. There were people loading groceries into their vehicles and a line-up of about 20 carts with people attached waiting to go in. What?? We had checked online and their hours clearly said 10 am opening. We saw couples with a cart so knew that was acceptable and soon saw a sign that said 2 persons per membership.

As we approached the store, we saw the lineup

Politely, we were handed a spic and span cart and escorted to one of two lines separated by a row of skids/pallets. Clever! Alternately, and quickly I might add, we were guided down and into the store. On the ‘walk’ we saw a sign on the overhead doors that read:

Okay, so now we know but it would have been nice if they updated their web page since at least 'these two' seniors came from a long distance. Nevertheless, the store was quite packed. I saw half of the customers with masks and half of us without. I did keep my wool gloves on the whole time but Bill wasn’t concerned.

In line to go into the store

People were respectable enough and kept a decent distance if they didn’t have a mask and since there were no arrows on the floors, everyone just walked freely back and forth in the wide aisles. I felt no threat at any time. The lineup to check out was crazy, from the front of the store to the back. We envisioned a long wait and when they opened up 4 new checkout stations, we were directed to those. It seriously took no longer than 10 minutes to get checked through and out the door.

Cashing out - we stood back this side of the cart
while the girls unloaded, priced and loaded the cart
Bill stepped forward to pay

We were in the car exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes after entering the lineup and in the store for an hour. Some things we had to wait our turn to reach, until others moved on, but it was no hardship. Very well done, Costco employees! 

A limit on Cashmere t.p. at the other end
but not on Kirkland brand
We thought we'd stock up although we really didn't need to yet
Last time we bought it was last summer

Bill drove across the lot to the fuel pumps and topped Ptooties up with their cheap fuel. Who can grumble at 75¢/litre? We actually saw two stations in Mount Forest where regular gas was 75¢ or less and diesel at the same stations was 77¢/litre! Wish we had B.B. to fill her up too.

We left the store still bustling

The drive back home was uneventful although I felt quite tired, evidence of my being awake at 4:44 am. Yes, exactly! I couldn’t drop off again for some reason. With a stop at Rob and Pat’s to drop off a couple of items they needed; we were home shortly after 12 noon. I’d taken a few of our Nature Valley peanut bars for a snack but we were ready for lunch. I thought of soup but I couldn’t find the tomato, Bill’s favourite, so fried up a pack of mini sausage with eggs. That was AFTER finding room for all of our groceries.

The small town of Mount Forest was bustling too

Bill went upstairs to watch some tv and probably have a snooze and I went down to the mailbox to collect the mailbox. It was worth the trip, Mom got mail. 

The sky was unpredictable

Mother Goose in the west pond seems to be sleeping

Not missing a warm day, this guy faces the sky

It was quite nice out there, especially when the sun popped out, so when I came back I stopped in the Bunky to finish the puzzle before coming inside to start this and read a bit. I hoped I could keep my eyes open! 😊 

It's funny how they all stop eating and look at me

I think this fellow just wanted a profile picture
Look at those eyelashes

At 3:30 I made myself a creamy tea for Happy Hour and I can report that I not only kept my eyes open but I read quite a few chapters!

He looks bigger here in this picture but this little guy
is only about 2" across and he slipped into the water

At 5, I started spicing the 3 chicken legs and 2 thighs to cook in Rosy the air fryer. Last time, I had to keep cooking them, adding on minutes as they didn’t cook like they did the first time I made them. I’ll start with a longer period and go from there. Five pieces fills the basket so there will be more turning and switching positions during the cook time. While that was taking place, I prepared a 1/8^th piece of a pepper squash for baking and some corn for Bill.

I loved this puzzle

Supper was ready around 6:15 and all 5 pieces turned out great. There’s always a wee bit of blood near the bone and I don’t quite understand that but the meat was cooked and the skin was crispy, just the way we like it. My squash was a real treat as I haven’t had it for a long time. For dessert we had some Jell-o pudding with whipped cream and that topped supper off very well. We did the dishes together, as usual, and sat in front of the tv for the evening.

Delicious supper!

I feel we accomplished a lot by going to Guelph today. First time to a Costco, first time to any store in these times is a big deal. We spent a lot of our grocery money but we have stocked up with a lot of things we were getting low of. It was a better day than we expected and didn’t get any of the rain after all. The temperature at 7 pm was a balmy 12C/54F and it is only going down to 5C/42F overnight. Another night where we’ll save on heat.

Another day ends on a good note
Have a good night!

Thank you for stopping in. Your comments are appreciated.