The music is some solid Jazz. The weather outside is as the old song says, frightful. Oh, and there is a pandemic finishing up it's work somewhere out there. Generally not a real good day for gardening, at least outside. Our sunroom windows are however filled with 'pots' of tiny tomato starts and a few other seasonal early-birds.
I've generally resisted 'teching up' my gardening with grow lights, aquaponics, and the like. There is something peaceful about putting a seed in the ground and being a part of it's growing. Perhaps peaceful isn't the right word, more - straight forward. Use the best soil, sun, and water and step back as the seed does what it's created to do.
Thing is not all seeds want to grow in the natural soil sun and water that Colorado's front range provides. A more natural approach would be to go all hunter gatherer, accept the limits and benefits of what is and enjoy the wild spinach, and I have. At least I have once I learned that the pernicious weed I was going full jihad on removing from my garden and yard was also called wild spinach. Heck, last night we had some dandelion greens in our salad. Yet, the simple truth is I didn't grow up in a hunter gather society and acquire that tribal depth of knowledge required to not starve to death. Mind you I'd love to emulate Euell Gibbons or Adam Haritan but I find my learning style is fairly primitive and involves a lot of failure. I really need someone right there pointing and saying "Yes eat this mushroom not that one!" to avoid ending up in our empty emergency room looking some shade of purple .
The CD decided to skip just now and it being jazz it took me a few minutes to decide if it was simply some 'brilliant' improvisation or something I needed to fix. Les Brown is now killing it with his version of St Louis Blues!
So my slow learning style has forced me to A) rely on Safeway and B) learn to 'espalier' the Denver sun soil and water. Now that leads me to a lot of different points. Before I go down the road about my trip to Safeway yesterday let me ask you to enjoy this link and the reason I bent the word espalier to my purposes here.
I first heard about this particular project back when it was started and thought nothing would come of it. Prior to that I recall reading in either, The Whole Earth Catalog or it's daughter publication Whole Earth Quarterly, of some ancient advancements of this method by I believe monks perhaps in India (it's been a while!). Very cool stuff!
For me the bending of my environment began with composting. I think the year after I put the first seed in the ground I began composting. A natural cheapness made the thought of buying good dirt to replace the clay - verboten. I had the good fortune to have a friend who mowed lawns and rented my garage at the time. Thus access to grass clippings and leaves was a natural. My composting style has continued to be rather laissez-faire not attempting to emulate the "Make compost in 6 weeks!" videos on YouTube but more aiming towards how can I be lazier in doing this. Having just moved a couple of yards of very beautiful 'dirt', into a new bed for some Butternut squash, I can assure you lazy works!
As I've written about before, my initial compost 'system' (scavenged pallets on the unused north-side of the garage - again cheap!) needed extra water to truly work. At the time rain barrels were not legal but nothing in the water law said a homeowner couldn't aim his gutters where he wanted. When our gutters had to be replaced on the garage I had the company simple put the run-off into the compost. My compost yield jumped and I was able to use courser material. That got me thinking about the rest of my gutters which were mostly at the time just focused on making sure the water didn't end up next to the foundation.
Kindly the State Legislature changed the laws on rain barrels and I acquired a big IBC tote to use as one. Then I saw a TEDx talk which spoke of planting rain . The talk not only flipped my view on what could be accomplished in a dry environment but also finally spurred me to get the IBC tote in action and not simple sitting as a 'too be done' project. If you're interested or need to bend Mother nature's natural water supply for your garden, you can find any number of YouTube videos showing you how to build a rain barrel system. I would offer that some of them are brilliant works of engineering. Mine is slowly growing, it's dirt cheap mostly free, and works with little more than gravity and a couple of hoses.
In the soil, sun and water thesis I've really done little with the 'sun' piece. I pretty much accepted that the garden beds needed to be situated in spots that were the least shaded and could take advantage of the 300 days of sunshine that our Chamber of Commerce likes to brag about. As the number of beds have grown over the years and shade trees have grown this has become less an option for new beds. I've had to bend what I plant where. Most veggies want a full day of sun. Some can handle shade and a few can if they get enough sun during the right part of their growth cycle handle either winter cold weather or actually like some shade in the heat of the summer. But that's bending, Denver also gets days like today. Today I'm looking out at 5 or 6 inches of wet snow our 3rd spring storm of April. In between we've had some freezing nights and some years it hail or any number of 'not sun' things.
With the 'interesting times' we're living in, foraging and gardening need to step up their game. Without Safeway as a backstop this could quite literally be a hungry season for Deb and I. Last year's Butternut squash didn't provide enough to last through the winter. The garlic was plentiful but started going bad around January. I'm not a canner and our freezer space is minimal but did hide some treats. We've done well sprouting a variety of seeds but mostly broccoli, and sprouts are a pretty limited meal. The early garden has offered a few odds and ends like the dandelion greens, some pea shoots, and beet greens from some rogue beets that over wintered. If you add it all together without Safeway we wouldn't be starving just thinner. If the new normal means I'm relying on the the garden it's got to step up. Perhaps indoor grow lights to aid in germination, cold frames for an overwinter option or maybe just maybe a hoop hose or green house. Sadly, these all take money, time and effort and I'm lazy and cheap - hmmm!
I'm a 1st world guy. I grew up in America during the latter half of the 20th century a time and place of incredible prosperity. Food was just not a thing it was a choice. Do I want to support Wal-Mart's ethics. Yeah they've got organic produce but is it really ethical organic!? The little local chain Vitamin Cottage is uber ethical perhaps a little too non-libertarian in their politics and geez their prices are kinda high! Sprouts, like it but their kinda scammy with their deals (I mean how small can and avocado be and still be called an avocado!) and I gave the manager grief last time I had to stand in a line at the checkout - imagine!. Krogers/ King Soopers, has it all but with crowds and you have to out think their card membership algorithms and buyers to really get a good deal. Safeway wins on no crowds but that's because it's an old store and except dairy it's prices are high - but double coupons! I mean this is what I grew up with - choice! Big fat no kidding choice. Fresh produce in winter choice! Variety, quality, convenience, price choice!
So yesterday I made the Corona dash to Sprouts and Safeway. Full N-45 mask, eye wear and an overshirt to take off when I got home and wash along with my hands. I realized early on in this that Deb and I aren't in the highest risk categories but we needed to be 'sensible' in the risks we took. (I'm hearing this will end up being around 2% additional deaths mostly in the high risk category) - We're not in the low risk category either so sensible. We do have a fairly 'deep pantry' and thus with some creative cooking grocery stores were a crowd we didn't need to rub elbows with. Now I mentioned the trip to the grocery store because it woke me up to a reality that I had heard but was really mentally detached from - the new normal.
Sprouts seemed fairly well stocked till I looked a little harder. No pears or plums and the tomatoes were virtually non- existent and in rough shape and some other gaps scattered around the store. The seed rack was quite noticeable in that it was empty except for flower seeds. If it had been normal times I would have been unimpressed and made a mental note to skip shopping there or given the manager some grief. But these are interesting times and I knew broccoli, pears and some other things on my list were on sale at Safeway where I was going anyway for the dairy goods. Safeway was a full notch down. We're not talking Soviet Union shopping (they might have even had toilet paper I didn't look!) but brown limp broccoli and browner pears. Signs everywhere telling me that for the common good I need to limit my purchase of this item or that, and no one wanted to touch my brought from home bags that I finally got used to bringing. If this is to be the new normal I'm going to have to bend. This ain't capitalism but I'm hoping it won't become Tanzania in the late 70s.
I mention Tanzania because I visited there. Beautiful country with rich beautiful soil and hungry when I visited. It was a tourist visit so I can't tell you much of depth but I do recall two places we stayed. First was 'The' tourist hotel truly intended to be the best the country could offer in hopes of getting foreign currency. Beyond the absolutely filthy room what I remember is the dining hall. Not restaurant -"may we seat you by the patio" but high school lunch room tables with one mass seating and one meal on the menu. The meal was an ice cream scoop lump of rice, about the same of carrots and a thin little sliver of what looked to be shoe leather. Being a vegetarian I traded my shoe leather for some carrots. I'm not sure who got the better of that deal! But wait there's more - there was desert. A post it note size square of cake which tasted like there was saw dust mixed in the batter and a frosting of perhaps Crisco and white sugar hard to tell. The second, again same country, was a small tourist B&B owned by a fellow who had grown up on his family farm. As the farmland had been slowly taken by the government he was left with a tiny bit of land and a house. The land was a spectacular garden and the house offered nice tidy accommodations. The meal wasn't memorable in any 1st world sense but it was good real food. As we talked with the owner over dinner he said things had gotten better in Tanzania that last year. When pressed for details he said " well now you could get cooking oil and toilet paper was regularly available.". He had bent.
Now, I think, or perhaps it's just hope, that we are ending this virus' visit. I hear there are likely to be meat shortages soon as a number of the slaughter houses are closing due to corona virus deaths and infections among employees. No big whoop to the two vegetarians that live in this house but I mention it as a possible sign. If I recall back to my youth in the 70s the tragedy du jour was a gas shortage which somehow morphed into a toilet paper shortage (what is it with toilet paper?) which somehow caused wage and price controls which of course 'caused' a meat shortage which than got us Jimmy Carter and really crazy inflation. So I think if things follow that track the meat thing might be the harbinger of the next phase of this emergency. Which is as Mr Carville said "it's the economy, stupid." Additionally, we're reach a sure sign of an end to this phase of the emergency. We're beginning to assign blame.
In the blame game my personal favorite is the 5G one . As a Luddite no clue how that would work but sounds like a good thing to blame. Our local press reported quite heavily that our Governor (of Jewish ancestry who lost family in the holocaust) became quite choked up when some (unnamed and I would add rather unprofessional!) reporter asked him how he felt about the comparisons between his administrations stay at home policies and the Nazis. (two idiots griping on an on-line comment section should not be the basis of a serious journalist's question to a Governor!) The assignment of blame that frankly scares me the most is our President's blaming for a lack of transparency and removing US funding to the WHO (World Health Organization). Mind you I'm not scared because they were wrongly accused. They weren't transparent! They are intended to be a fact finder on world medical issues not using a filter of facts through politics and economic fears! Certainly not scared because I like WHO. I've long said we should dramatically reduce if not eliminate all US funding to the United Nations and force it's headquarters to move to Jerusalem till it either gives up it's corrupt ways or creates peace in the Middle East. Heck Blaming WHO was actually quite brilliant as it's head speaks heavily accented English and on television news that always looks suspect.
What scares me about the attack on the WHO is it was a veiled attack on China. Now if I had to bet serious money on what was the cause of the Corona virus I would bet China. Perhaps a military germ lab perhaps a non Kosher deli, don't know don't care - but China. Thing is it's not a far leap from blame to demanding reparations from China. After World War I Germany was forced to pay reparations. Our President when campaigning said Mexico was going to pay for The Wall. China is not Mexico it's also not post WWI Germany. Reparations would likely quickly lead to war. I think our President is a smart negotiator and knows this and jammed the WHO as a substitute. He will get his pound of flesh in a less direct fashion with a whole lot of tit for tats financial actions. Not war but not good and not good for the economy.
That of course has to be followed by a clear recognition that we had a horribly over-leveraged and indebted economy hollowed out from years of shipping manufacturing jobs to yup, China. That was before this bubble economy was blasted to smithereens by the Corona virus shut downs. Perhaps just perhaps our economy could repair itself if it had been allowed to free-fall through a series of corporate bankruptcies. The friends of the FED (which is not a Federal agency but a creation by for and of large banks!) have used this pandemic as an opportunity to bailout a whole lot of multinational corporations, hedgefunds and CEOs that should be going to jail not the Hamptons this summer. Yeah you'll get a little of your tax money back in a tiny stimulus check but look where the big checks are going. Worse still is without the bankruptcies and the clearing of the system you and I will have to repay all that money handed out (yup even your little $1200 check was funded by debt. As in a debt we owe!) We'll either pay it back with much much higher taxes or the more likely debased currency. Which means when you go to Safeway you won't merely be offered wilted brown broccoli but you won't be able to afford broccoli .
I'd like to end this note from my bunker on a less gloomy thought but it's still snowing outside and perhaps that has affected my mood and writing. Let me offer you this. I've been wrong in a thousand different ways. My speculations about the future are at best simple that. But just in case bend a little, grow a garden. What's the downside? The upside, fresh tomatoes are really great! Doug A.
I've generally resisted 'teching up' my gardening with grow lights, aquaponics, and the like. There is something peaceful about putting a seed in the ground and being a part of it's growing. Perhaps peaceful isn't the right word, more - straight forward. Use the best soil, sun, and water and step back as the seed does what it's created to do.
Thing is not all seeds want to grow in the natural soil sun and water that Colorado's front range provides. A more natural approach would be to go all hunter gatherer, accept the limits and benefits of what is and enjoy the wild spinach, and I have. At least I have once I learned that the pernicious weed I was going full jihad on removing from my garden and yard was also called wild spinach. Heck, last night we had some dandelion greens in our salad. Yet, the simple truth is I didn't grow up in a hunter gather society and acquire that tribal depth of knowledge required to not starve to death. Mind you I'd love to emulate Euell Gibbons or Adam Haritan but I find my learning style is fairly primitive and involves a lot of failure. I really need someone right there pointing and saying "Yes eat this mushroom not that one!" to avoid ending up in our empty emergency room looking some shade of purple .
The CD decided to skip just now and it being jazz it took me a few minutes to decide if it was simply some 'brilliant' improvisation or something I needed to fix. Les Brown is now killing it with his version of St Louis Blues!
So my slow learning style has forced me to A) rely on Safeway and B) learn to 'espalier' the Denver sun soil and water. Now that leads me to a lot of different points. Before I go down the road about my trip to Safeway yesterday let me ask you to enjoy this link and the reason I bent the word espalier to my purposes here.
I first heard about this particular project back when it was started and thought nothing would come of it. Prior to that I recall reading in either, The Whole Earth Catalog or it's daughter publication Whole Earth Quarterly, of some ancient advancements of this method by I believe monks perhaps in India (it's been a while!). Very cool stuff!
For me the bending of my environment began with composting. I think the year after I put the first seed in the ground I began composting. A natural cheapness made the thought of buying good dirt to replace the clay - verboten. I had the good fortune to have a friend who mowed lawns and rented my garage at the time. Thus access to grass clippings and leaves was a natural. My composting style has continued to be rather laissez-faire not attempting to emulate the "Make compost in 6 weeks!" videos on YouTube but more aiming towards how can I be lazier in doing this. Having just moved a couple of yards of very beautiful 'dirt', into a new bed for some Butternut squash, I can assure you lazy works!
As I've written about before, my initial compost 'system' (scavenged pallets on the unused north-side of the garage - again cheap!) needed extra water to truly work. At the time rain barrels were not legal but nothing in the water law said a homeowner couldn't aim his gutters where he wanted. When our gutters had to be replaced on the garage I had the company simple put the run-off into the compost. My compost yield jumped and I was able to use courser material. That got me thinking about the rest of my gutters which were mostly at the time just focused on making sure the water didn't end up next to the foundation.
Kindly the State Legislature changed the laws on rain barrels and I acquired a big IBC tote to use as one. Then I saw a TEDx talk which spoke of planting rain . The talk not only flipped my view on what could be accomplished in a dry environment but also finally spurred me to get the IBC tote in action and not simple sitting as a 'too be done' project. If you're interested or need to bend Mother nature's natural water supply for your garden, you can find any number of YouTube videos showing you how to build a rain barrel system. I would offer that some of them are brilliant works of engineering. Mine is slowly growing, it's dirt cheap mostly free, and works with little more than gravity and a couple of hoses.
In the soil, sun and water thesis I've really done little with the 'sun' piece. I pretty much accepted that the garden beds needed to be situated in spots that were the least shaded and could take advantage of the 300 days of sunshine that our Chamber of Commerce likes to brag about. As the number of beds have grown over the years and shade trees have grown this has become less an option for new beds. I've had to bend what I plant where. Most veggies want a full day of sun. Some can handle shade and a few can if they get enough sun during the right part of their growth cycle handle either winter cold weather or actually like some shade in the heat of the summer. But that's bending, Denver also gets days like today. Today I'm looking out at 5 or 6 inches of wet snow our 3rd spring storm of April. In between we've had some freezing nights and some years it hail or any number of 'not sun' things.
With the 'interesting times' we're living in, foraging and gardening need to step up their game. Without Safeway as a backstop this could quite literally be a hungry season for Deb and I. Last year's Butternut squash didn't provide enough to last through the winter. The garlic was plentiful but started going bad around January. I'm not a canner and our freezer space is minimal but did hide some treats. We've done well sprouting a variety of seeds but mostly broccoli, and sprouts are a pretty limited meal. The early garden has offered a few odds and ends like the dandelion greens, some pea shoots, and beet greens from some rogue beets that over wintered. If you add it all together without Safeway we wouldn't be starving just thinner. If the new normal means I'm relying on the the garden it's got to step up. Perhaps indoor grow lights to aid in germination, cold frames for an overwinter option or maybe just maybe a hoop hose or green house. Sadly, these all take money, time and effort and I'm lazy and cheap - hmmm!
I'm a 1st world guy. I grew up in America during the latter half of the 20th century a time and place of incredible prosperity. Food was just not a thing it was a choice. Do I want to support Wal-Mart's ethics. Yeah they've got organic produce but is it really ethical organic!? The little local chain Vitamin Cottage is uber ethical perhaps a little too non-libertarian in their politics and geez their prices are kinda high! Sprouts, like it but their kinda scammy with their deals (I mean how small can and avocado be and still be called an avocado!) and I gave the manager grief last time I had to stand in a line at the checkout - imagine!. Krogers/ King Soopers, has it all but with crowds and you have to out think their card membership algorithms and buyers to really get a good deal. Safeway wins on no crowds but that's because it's an old store and except dairy it's prices are high - but double coupons! I mean this is what I grew up with - choice! Big fat no kidding choice. Fresh produce in winter choice! Variety, quality, convenience, price choice!
So yesterday I made the Corona dash to Sprouts and Safeway. Full N-45 mask, eye wear and an overshirt to take off when I got home and wash along with my hands. I realized early on in this that Deb and I aren't in the highest risk categories but we needed to be 'sensible' in the risks we took. (I'm hearing this will end up being around 2% additional deaths mostly in the high risk category) - We're not in the low risk category either so sensible. We do have a fairly 'deep pantry' and thus with some creative cooking grocery stores were a crowd we didn't need to rub elbows with. Now I mentioned the trip to the grocery store because it woke me up to a reality that I had heard but was really mentally detached from - the new normal.
Sprouts seemed fairly well stocked till I looked a little harder. No pears or plums and the tomatoes were virtually non- existent and in rough shape and some other gaps scattered around the store. The seed rack was quite noticeable in that it was empty except for flower seeds. If it had been normal times I would have been unimpressed and made a mental note to skip shopping there or given the manager some grief. But these are interesting times and I knew broccoli, pears and some other things on my list were on sale at Safeway where I was going anyway for the dairy goods. Safeway was a full notch down. We're not talking Soviet Union shopping (they might have even had toilet paper I didn't look!) but brown limp broccoli and browner pears. Signs everywhere telling me that for the common good I need to limit my purchase of this item or that, and no one wanted to touch my brought from home bags that I finally got used to bringing. If this is to be the new normal I'm going to have to bend. This ain't capitalism but I'm hoping it won't become Tanzania in the late 70s.
I mention Tanzania because I visited there. Beautiful country with rich beautiful soil and hungry when I visited. It was a tourist visit so I can't tell you much of depth but I do recall two places we stayed. First was 'The' tourist hotel truly intended to be the best the country could offer in hopes of getting foreign currency. Beyond the absolutely filthy room what I remember is the dining hall. Not restaurant -"may we seat you by the patio" but high school lunch room tables with one mass seating and one meal on the menu. The meal was an ice cream scoop lump of rice, about the same of carrots and a thin little sliver of what looked to be shoe leather. Being a vegetarian I traded my shoe leather for some carrots. I'm not sure who got the better of that deal! But wait there's more - there was desert. A post it note size square of cake which tasted like there was saw dust mixed in the batter and a frosting of perhaps Crisco and white sugar hard to tell. The second, again same country, was a small tourist B&B owned by a fellow who had grown up on his family farm. As the farmland had been slowly taken by the government he was left with a tiny bit of land and a house. The land was a spectacular garden and the house offered nice tidy accommodations. The meal wasn't memorable in any 1st world sense but it was good real food. As we talked with the owner over dinner he said things had gotten better in Tanzania that last year. When pressed for details he said " well now you could get cooking oil and toilet paper was regularly available.". He had bent.
Now, I think, or perhaps it's just hope, that we are ending this virus' visit. I hear there are likely to be meat shortages soon as a number of the slaughter houses are closing due to corona virus deaths and infections among employees. No big whoop to the two vegetarians that live in this house but I mention it as a possible sign. If I recall back to my youth in the 70s the tragedy du jour was a gas shortage which somehow morphed into a toilet paper shortage (what is it with toilet paper?) which somehow caused wage and price controls which of course 'caused' a meat shortage which than got us Jimmy Carter and really crazy inflation. So I think if things follow that track the meat thing might be the harbinger of the next phase of this emergency. Which is as Mr Carville said "it's the economy, stupid." Additionally, we're reach a sure sign of an end to this phase of the emergency. We're beginning to assign blame.
In the blame game my personal favorite is the 5G one . As a Luddite no clue how that would work but sounds like a good thing to blame. Our local press reported quite heavily that our Governor (of Jewish ancestry who lost family in the holocaust) became quite choked up when some (unnamed and I would add rather unprofessional!) reporter asked him how he felt about the comparisons between his administrations stay at home policies and the Nazis. (two idiots griping on an on-line comment section should not be the basis of a serious journalist's question to a Governor!) The assignment of blame that frankly scares me the most is our President's blaming for a lack of transparency and removing US funding to the WHO (World Health Organization). Mind you I'm not scared because they were wrongly accused. They weren't transparent! They are intended to be a fact finder on world medical issues not using a filter of facts through politics and economic fears! Certainly not scared because I like WHO. I've long said we should dramatically reduce if not eliminate all US funding to the United Nations and force it's headquarters to move to Jerusalem till it either gives up it's corrupt ways or creates peace in the Middle East. Heck Blaming WHO was actually quite brilliant as it's head speaks heavily accented English and on television news that always looks suspect.
What scares me about the attack on the WHO is it was a veiled attack on China. Now if I had to bet serious money on what was the cause of the Corona virus I would bet China. Perhaps a military germ lab perhaps a non Kosher deli, don't know don't care - but China. Thing is it's not a far leap from blame to demanding reparations from China. After World War I Germany was forced to pay reparations. Our President when campaigning said Mexico was going to pay for The Wall. China is not Mexico it's also not post WWI Germany. Reparations would likely quickly lead to war. I think our President is a smart negotiator and knows this and jammed the WHO as a substitute. He will get his pound of flesh in a less direct fashion with a whole lot of tit for tats financial actions. Not war but not good and not good for the economy.
That of course has to be followed by a clear recognition that we had a horribly over-leveraged and indebted economy hollowed out from years of shipping manufacturing jobs to yup, China. That was before this bubble economy was blasted to smithereens by the Corona virus shut downs. Perhaps just perhaps our economy could repair itself if it had been allowed to free-fall through a series of corporate bankruptcies. The friends of the FED (which is not a Federal agency but a creation by for and of large banks!) have used this pandemic as an opportunity to bailout a whole lot of multinational corporations, hedgefunds and CEOs that should be going to jail not the Hamptons this summer. Yeah you'll get a little of your tax money back in a tiny stimulus check but look where the big checks are going. Worse still is without the bankruptcies and the clearing of the system you and I will have to repay all that money handed out (yup even your little $1200 check was funded by debt. As in a debt we owe!) We'll either pay it back with much much higher taxes or the more likely debased currency. Which means when you go to Safeway you won't merely be offered wilted brown broccoli but you won't be able to afford broccoli .
I'd like to end this note from my bunker on a less gloomy thought but it's still snowing outside and perhaps that has affected my mood and writing. Let me offer you this. I've been wrong in a thousand different ways. My speculations about the future are at best simple that. But just in case bend a little, grow a garden. What's the downside? The upside, fresh tomatoes are really great! Doug A.
Deb brought this article to my attention. It is both well written (unlike some silly blogger!) and has quite a few facts worth noting. Doug A.
ReplyDeletehttps://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/thoughts-current-crisis/?utm_campaign=imprimis&%3Butm_source=housefile&%3Butm_medium=email&%3Butm_content=marchapril2020crisis&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_4toyLcpUJIvMI1dan5qdV9X2Q_ELWgL4Uise8M0tFUndtcmm5FPySeGXJrYMshCTBeFBDgBQhqsrQiXprRSsrmmJfnA&_hsmi=86356698
These are interesting times right now. As a grower/supplier to the Lowe's garden centers in Utah, Montana, Idaho and the Western Slope, we have seen YTD increases in bedding plants to the tune of 45% greater this year so far. People at home with time to spare are finding their yards can occupy not only their time, but their mental condition. Today at 1 p.m. I found the parking lot at the Idaho Falls Lowe's completely full. The check-out line was ten deep waiting to purchase their plants.
ReplyDeleteBut, when the "crisis" began, customers were kind, forgiving, and basically just thankful Lowe's was considered an "essential" business; open to serve them. But then six-foot apart tape marks on the floor appeared and the plexiglass shields in front of the cash registers and the PA system announces social distancing requirements and there are marked entrances and exits and even employees counting the number of people coming into the store. Huge signage is everywhere. And customers were no longer kind and forgiving or thankful. They had become rude and profane once they started to be treated like cattle. Employees are also wearing down in their efforts to become the "new entertainment" for the quarantined masses. They joke that Lowe's is the new "mall."