Where's the Beef?

"You never hear of people taking a poem already written and putting it to music." - Uncle Ken
Sorry, I forgot to answer this in my last post.  I don't know how common it is, but it is certainly not unheard of.  Two poems by Rudyard Kipling immediately come to mind: "Recessional" and "The Road to Mandalay".

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The toilet paper sale held by Great Lakes Tissue on Wednesday was well attended.  People came from as far as 80 miles away and lined up on the street four hours before the sale was to begin.  Local police reported that the crowd was generally well behaved, in spite of the fact that they ran out of product towards the end and some people left empty handed.  Another sale is scheduled for next Wednesday.

My wife went to Walmart on Friday and was able to find everything on her list in one store, although she had to settle for some brands and sizes that we don't normally buy.  We didn't need any, but she noticed that Walmart was out of toilet paper again, or still.  People didn't seem to be observing the six feet rule, and only one person, a checkout clerk, was seen wearing a mask.  I have yet to see anyone wearing a mask in real life, just on TV.

I made a supplemental run to Save-a-Lot on Saturday, which is one of those discount stores where you have to bring your own bags.  Save-a-Lot is cheaper but smaller than Walmart, and they don't have everything.  I run out there periodically to stock up on meat and a few other odds and ends.  I got some potatoes this time, and noticed in passing that their produce section was well stocked.  The fresh meat section, however was positively emaciated.  I was able to find some chicken and hamburger, but nothing that would make a decent beef roast.  Pork was scarce as well, but we still had some of that in the freezer.  An everyday specialty of theirs is T-bone steak at $3.99 a pound, which also works as a roast, and is usually cheaper, but there was none of that to be found.

They were unloading a truck while I was there, mostly canned goods, and taking the product directly out to the shelves.  Looking back on it, that's probably what was happening with paper products at Walmart last week.  It seems you can find anything in this town if you're lucky enough to be there when a truckload comes in.  I read in the paper the other day that there is no shortage of product anywhere in the region, it's just that they can't keep it on the shelves.  Some stores have taken to shutting down for an hour or two each day just to stock shelves and clean the place up.

I heard on the TV news yesterday that a confirmed case of Coronavirus has been found in neighboring Emmet County.  This guy said that he hadn't done any traveling lately.  There was one reported the other day down by Cadillac, which is almost 200 miles from here.  Our local TV news this evening was pre-empted by Trump, so there may be more cases that I haven't heard about.  Last I heard the statewide death toll was five.  Reported new cases in Michigan have been increasing by over 200 a day, but some of that may be because they are testing more people all the time.